4th January,  2004  Volume 10, Issue 25

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Does Bar Association think
SC judges are not accountable?

The Bar Association seems to think that parliament should not hold Supreme Court judges accountable, if we go by their protest at the decision by parliament to impeach the Chief Justice. Doesn't the constitution provide for such impeachment after due inquiry? Isn't this the procedure in all democratic countries? Or is it that the Bar Association thinks that the Supreme Court judges in Sri Lanka are not accountable to anybody.

Judicial independence applies only to the judicial process and judicial decisions and surely not to aspects of the conduct of the judges.  No one in the legislature or the executive should attempt to interfere or influence a judge whether in the Supreme Court or in the minor judiciary while he is engaged in adjudication. He is expected to go strictly on the evidence and not listen to extraneous information But does this mean that only the other two branches of the government - the legislature and the executive alone are debarred from influencing or interfering with the judges?

What if a Supreme Court judge  were to influence or interfere in the judicial decisions of the minor judiciary? Is it acceptable? Surely not. Even judges in the minor judiciary are engaged in a judicial process and no one should be permitted to interfere with their judicial decisions. Our judges seem to be under the impression that they are not accountable to anyone, not even to parliament. The Bar Association seems to share this view. But we should look at other countries and our constitution which lays down that parliament can remove judges after impeaching them.

 There have been several scandals involving the superior court judges in India. There was the Mysore High Court judge's sex scandal where the Indian Supreme Court refused to release the report of the inquiry. But the Indian parliament asserted its right to hold the judges accountable for their conduct. Another Supreme Court judge involved in the Delhi development scandal was even arrested. Supreme Court judges have been impeached in India by the Indian parliament.

In Argentina lawyers demonstrated against corrupt Supreme Court judges and parliament appointed a commission to inquire into allegations before impeachment. The judges in question resigned. Some were dismissed. It is odd that the lawyers association should ignore the allegations against judges made by civil rights organisations. Judicial independence is for the benefit of the public, not for the judges per se.

Another important principle is that of the independence of the lawyers before the judges. Lawyers cannot be threatened with contempt of court or otherwise be browbeaten. The public expects lawyers to present their cases without being intimidated by judges. So the independence of the lawyers before court is also an important principle to be safeguarded by the people.

The UNF government should have acted on representations made by civil rights organisations and by the UN Rapporteur on Judicial Independence. He was here again recently to award a medal to Anthony Michael Fernando who had been sentenced to one year's jail for contempt of court. The Asian Human Rights Organisation honoured him as a defender of human rights.

R.M.B. Senanayake
Colombo

•  Plea to restore Metha Sutta chant

Angili Salakunu program
fosters a criminal society

Rupavahini is showing a highly provocative program titled Angili Salakunu of late. At the start it is advised that sensitive adults and children should not view this program. This warning itself is a signal, especially for the inquisitive minds of children to watch this and see what it is all about.

This program was introduced after scrapping a very benevolent program watched by over 75% of viewers' in Sri Lanka - the Karaneeya Metta Sutta recital which has in its words and syllables metrical value, cadence and mellifluence as preached by the Buddha himself.

Angili Salakunu is not a live program. It shows murder, mayhem, rape, robbery, setting fire to property etc.

This is like setting fire to a haystack in a paddy field whose flames will spread fast and envelope the whole field with its crop and possibly the adjourning ones too, like a firestorm.

It was reported that the IGP has protested at the telecasting of this program as all the confidential data about criminals and criminal acts are revealed and it would be difficult to nab the culprits. This program, if continued, is likely to create a criminal society. Therefore, the majority of viewers, I am sure, will be grateful if the Karaneeya Metta Sutta broadcast is re-introduced without delay.

V.K.B. Ramanayake
Maharagama

Doctor complains she
was humiliated in CWE shop

I understand that the CWE retail shops are to be taken over by a consortium of traders. It is also known that the shelves of the CWE stores are virtually empty. Filling them with a variety of goods to attract customers alone will not do. What is essentially important is to give the staff of the CWE a training in manners to enhance the customer - staff relationship.

I am provoked to say this because of a nasty, humiliating incident which happened sometime ago in which I was the shamed victim. Stepping out of the Wellawatte Sathosa store after buying a loaf of bread, my handbag was snatched by a female packer, a dark, small made emaciated woman. She pummelled my handbag and tossed it upside down and boldly accused me of having stolen an article!

This humiliation was watched by several other staffers who did not intervene or apologise when I showed my ID, indicating I was a senior medical officer and a long-standing, respectable resident of Dehiwala. I walked into the manager's room to complain, though the staffers lied to me, saying the manager was out.

The packer was summoned only to be given a gentle rebuke by the manager. Once again in the presence of the manager, this woman repeated her accusations. Taken aback, I gave a mild prod on her back with my parasol. She then literally jumped on me.

The staff also never helps customers in easing their burdens when carrying heavy parcels. I always tell them to follow the rules of their heart, not the rigid rules of their job.

Even if a hundred consortiums were to take over the CWE, like the shelves in the retail shops remaining almost empty, the retail outlets also will always remain empty because the frigid, unsympathetic attitude of the staffers is bound to repel all customers.

Dr. Theodora Munasinghe,
Ex-president, Saukyadana Movement
Dehiwala

Congratulations

This is to congratulate you and thank you for your courageous and forthright editorial, "Defending the Faith" in The Sunday Leader of December 20. I go along with everything you said and endorse every word you have written. Religion is a purely private and personal concern of an individual.

Every right-thinking person will applaud you for saying. "We speak for a secular Sri Lanka in which each one is free to practise a religion of their choice, a Sri Lanka which is free of bigotry and a Sri Lanka which is progressive and not poised to move into a dark age in which religion is dangerously mixed with government."

Stanley Jayaweera

Avadhi Lanka activist

False documents for school admissions can be stopped

The submission of falsified documents for school admission continues purely because there is no genuine desire on the part of the authorities concerned to end this. All what is required is to publish the details of the selected students in a booklet and make it available to the public. The parents of the rejected children will do the needful. In the event a parent is able to prove that another parent has submitted falsified documents, then the former should be eligible to have his child admitted. The qualifying criteria for admission should be dispensed with as long as the documents submitted by this parent are authentic.

Under the scheme a parent from Mahiyangana submitting an application to Royal College, Colombo supported by genuine documents can have his child admitted by exposing another parent who has submitted falsified documents. Call it admission under Rewarding Honesty Scheme. This entitlement should be valid throughout the period during which a child with falsified documents is schooling. It might take a year or two for someone to prove falsification of documents.

Every grade 1 application form, at least to government schools should carry a declaration "in the event my child is selected and subsequently proved that any of the documents submitted and herewith are falsified I am aware that my child can be sacked from school at anytime and furthermore, my child will be disqualified from admission to a university." Inclusion of this clause in itself will be a deterrent for submission of falsified documents. The university clause may take a couple of decades to be approved but the rest of the scheme could probably be implemented by the school administration with the approval of the Ministry of Education.

There will be a cost involved in printing a booklet containing information on the annual intake of grade 1 students, for which the parents can be asked to contribute in common when submitting applications. A nominal fee can be charged for issuing photocopies of documents requested by another parent for verification of validity. Within five years of implementation of this scheme, falsification of documents for school admission will be a thing of the past. We Sri Lankans are very good at whistle blowing. Living at Hendala I often wonder how my neighbour got his child admitted to Royal College. Of course, he is stinking rich. Anyway I am not complaining as my daughters are not eligible for admission to Royal.

All in all, the fact of the matter is no school administration wants to put a complete stop to this crime.

C.B. Gallage
Hendala

Radalas are Lanka's quislings 

You deserve our heartfelt gratitude for your paper's expose of our country's quislings. In other countries, a quisling is reviled and his progeny ostracized. In Sri Lanka, we are unique in that we venerate our quislings and iconize their generations. It is right and proper that our people should be made aware of the real nature of these quislings who call themselves "radalas." Their radaladom began when Don Francis Dias Wijetunge Bandaranaike accepted office as Mudaliyar of the four Pattus under the Dutch when all the other mudaliyars working for the Dutch decided to vacate their posts and join the king in Kandy to fight the Dutch. The radala line began with this first act of betrayal.

SWRD was one of the more intelligent and educated of the Bandaranaikes. But to our eternal shame he (brainwashed in the course of his upbringing in his father's house), firmly believed that the white man, and especially the Englishman, was superior to any member of what he (SWRD) called "the dark-skinned races." He readily conceded that a nation of "dark-skinned" people was not fit to govern itself till it attained a standard of civilisation laid down by British statesmen. In March 1945, addressing the State Council, SWRD said this:

"If there is any country in the British Commonwealth of Nations, any country of dark-skinned race or races, that deserves and can claim dominion status, it is this country. The ingredients which British statesmen have considered necessary for such status, we alone among the dark-skinned races of the British Commonwealth of nations possess."

SWRD Bandaranaike: SC Hansard of 22 March 1945 column 2061.

The man who spoke those servile words is regarded by many Sinhala people as a national hero. His son, the unspeakable Anura, on TV recently, bragged about "the magic of the Bandaranaike name."

Our countrymen need to be educated on the real nature of this tribe of arrogant, self-serving quislings.

More power to your elbow.
Piyal Gamage
Colombo 4

CEB failed in its obligations 

I expect no favour but expect the CEB to fulfil its obligations to a customer. I wrote a letter to the Chairman/ General Manager/ Chief Accountant by registered post regarding an unusually high electricity bill for October 2003 but there was no response.

So, I sent a registered letter to the electrical engineer, Colombo East Electricity Board, Ward Place next to Dasa Building Colombo 8 - the address given by the public relations officer at CEB, Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawatha, but the letter was returned with a minute 'left.' I did not send a personal letter. So the officer next in charge could have attended to my official letter, if he was duty conscious.

The CEB sells units and I buy them - doing business. Therefore, I kindly requested that an amended correct bill for October 2003, indicating the address where rectification of mistakes can be attended to, be displayed on the notice board at the head office where customers pay cash and a helpful public relations officer be posted at the inquiry desk.

The keys of the cabin where electricity meters are housed should only be in the hands of the CEB staff and not in the hands of outsiders.

Thunnalai S.A. Masilamany
Colombo 10

The death of J.A.D. Bandulatha Wijayaratne (nee Jayanetthi) of Elvitigala Flats, Colombo on September 16 at the age of 61, after a brief illness, is a great loss to her relatives, neighbours, friends and to everyone who knew her and were closely associated with her.

She was born to a Buddhist family in Wadduwa and was married to W.A.C.P. Wijayaratne, JP, author and journalist and member of the film censor board who was the retired senior assistant secretary (information) and press officer of the ministries of power and energy and fisheries and officer in-charge of art galleries of the Ceylon Tourist Board respectively, and at present a consultant to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.

She leaves a brother, Sarath Jayanetthi and daughters, Yoshinee and Chamila, and a son, Dinusha.

Panadura Balika Vidyalaya was her alma mater. Later she joined the Wadduwa Central College where she studied up to the HSC. In 1962 she entered the Peradeniya University and obtained the B.A. degree in 1965. She also gave private tuition on several subjects to weak students in Colombo and to similar students in her area just before she joined the National Housing Department as Secretary, Rent Control Board. Her first posting was Kalutara. Later she served in Kotikawatta and Dehiwala.

After her retirement from government service she joined the Lanka Electric Company (Pvt) Ltd. (LECO) as an official to advise the company on legal matters and served for nearly two years.

Unfortunately, she was forced to stay at home from 1994 due to ill health. In 1998 she suffered a stroke and underwent treatment in a Colombo nursing home for nearly one and half months.

No social, cultural or religious events in the area, be it a pinkama, bana-preaching, salpila, poojas, almsgiving, farewell, get-together, etc. escaped her benevolence. She took special interest in all ceremonies at Sariputra Vihare and Rajayathana Vihare, Elvitigala Mawatha, Colombo and Abayasinha-ramaya, Panchikawatta, Colombo.

Although, she led a quiet and simple life, she associated herself in the work  of the Elvitigala Flats Welfare Society where she was one of the founder members and at one time an assistant secretary.

The pansakula ceremony was performed by Ven. Wahumuwe Wijayawansa Nayake Thera, Chief Sanghanayake of Colombo Navakoralaya and chief incumbent of Rajayathana Vihare, Colombo.

May she attain Nibbana.
Durand Jayasuriya
Thalawatugoda