{"id":56056,"date":"2012-10-08T07:30:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T07:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=56056"},"modified":"2012-10-13T00:28:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T00:28:35","slug":"no-easy-takes-on-manjula-tilakaratne-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-easy-takes-on-manjula-tilakaratne-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"No &#8216;Easy&#8217; Takes On Manjula Tilakaratne Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne+&amp;x=7&amp;y=3\">Malinda Seneviratne\u00a0<\/a>&#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44732\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/expatriate-tamils-and-the-dimensions-of-culpability\/malinda\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-44732\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-44732\" title=\"Malinda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It is easy to condemn an attack on anyone.\u00a0\u00a0It is typical for there to be widespread condemnation the more public visibility that a victim has.\u00a0\u00a0It is easy for relevant ministers (and politicians in the opposition too) to visit the victim.\u00a0\u00a0It is easy for the executive to add to condemnation a directive to investigate.\u00a0\u00a0It is easy to say \u2018innocent until found guilty\u2019.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>There are lots of easy things in this world.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Secretary of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Judicial+Services+Commissio&amp;x=9&amp;y=2\">Judicial Services Commissio<\/a><\/span>n (JSC), <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Manjula+Tilakaratne&amp;x=10&amp;y=4\">Manjula Tilakaratne<\/a><\/span> was assaulted by four unidentified men in Mount Lavinia this morning.\u00a0\u00a0It is easy to say that it is too early to ascertain the \u2018why\u2019 and \u2018who\u2019 of the attack and of course the \u2018who was behind it\u2019.\u00a0It is also easy to point out that rivers have sources and trees have roots, as Himani Banerjee once said. It is easy to trace statements made by Tilakaratne over the past few weeks and to lay out patters pertaining to the relationship between executive and judiciary.\u00a0Let\u2019s do that now.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Over the past few weeks, many allegations have been leveled in the media against Tilakaratne and the JSC.\u00a0\u00a0Tilakaratne has insisted that these were \u2018malicious and baseless\u2019 and opined that they may have been prompted by a media statement issued by him on the directive of the JSC criticizing alleged intervention in the judiciary by the executive.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The allegation followed a meeting between the President and the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shirani+Bandaranayake&amp;x=11&amp;y=7\">Chief Justice<\/a><\/span> and two judges of the Supreme Court.\u00a0\u00a0The word \u2018summoned\u2019 has been used.\u00a0\u00a0The President at meeting with media heads recently denied this and in fact stated that he has not and does not intend to interfere with the work of the judiciary.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The speculation follows a Supreme Court determination that the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=DiviNeguma&amp;x=7&amp;y=5\">\u2018Divi Neguma\u2019 bill<\/a><\/span> presented in Parliament needed approval by the Provincial Councils.\u00a0\u00a0Detractors of the Government have claimed that this may have irked both the Minister of Economic Affairs and the President\u2019s brother, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Basil+Rajapaksa&amp;x=10&amp;y=3\">Basil Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, and perhaps the President himself.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>All this is pretty vague.\u00a0\u00a0What is not vague is that friction between executive and judiciary is not new.\u00a0\u00a0\u2018This is My Nation\u2019, the regular Sunday editorial page column outlined that history on September 30, 2012\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nation.lk\/edition\/columns\/this-is-my-nation\/item\/10982-wisdom-of-judiciary-should-be-respected.html\">(\u2018Wisdom of the judiciary should be respected\u2019)<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Thus the long history and the short of executive-judiciary relations cast an inevitable shadow on Sunday\u2019s attack.\u00a0\u00a0Other shadows too, for example countless examples of assault on known critics of the Government with law enforcement agencies failing to bring perpetrators to justice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is easy to order investigations, but we must take into account that consequent to the abrogation of the 17<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment (or rather its replacement by the 18<sup>th<\/sup>), effectively compromised the independence of the Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0On numerous occasions, political hands have moved to tie Police hands or else the Police, recognizing possible and unhappy repercussions of carrying out its duty, has foot-dragged and looked askance.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is easy to say a lot of things. It is difficult to do. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=J.R.+Jayewardene&amp;x=9&amp;y=2\">J.R. Jayewardene<\/a><\/span> did not throw stones or hoot judges. Someone else did.\u00a0\u00a0Where did those hooligans obtain the guts to take on the courts?\u00a0\u00a0The same questions can be asked right now.\u00a0\u00a0If, as alleged, Tilakaratne is guilty of wrongdoing, there\u2019s an established way of investigation and punishment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Those who support the Government and the President must hope that this attack had nothing to do with the histories outlined above.\u00a0Given the manifest absence of checks and balances in the overall structure of governance, including the lack of transparency and accountability, the truth is that over the past several years trust in law enforcement has been severely compromised.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tomorrow the Mt. Lavinia Police might arrest a suspect or two or all the assailants.\u00a0\u00a0That would not erase what is most likely to be the general response to such an eventuality: \u2018framed\u2019.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There\u2019s a culture that\u2019s been nurtured for quite a while now.\u00a0\u00a0It is malignant.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s easy to say.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes, though, truth is the easiest thing to say.\u00a0\u00a0And truth is what makes and breaks structures of power.\u00a0\u00a0That too is easy to conclude.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><em>*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nation.lk\/\">The Nation<\/a>\u2018 and his articles can be found at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.malindawords.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938],"tags":[3167,5362,5361,5363],"class_list":["post-56056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular","tag-attacks-on-judiciary-sri-lanka","tag-judicial-services-commission-jsc","tag-manjula-tilakaratne-attack","tag-manjula-tilakaratne-was-assaulted"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>No &#039;Easy&#039; 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