EDITORIAL

Where Angels Fear To Tread

And suddenly, the phones were once again abuzz. A suicide bomber had done her deadly work and plunged the country once more into uncertainty, and Sri Lanka asked with one voice whether peace was at an end. There has been much argument these past two years as to whether or not we indeed were in a state of peace with the LTTE. There were the pedants who pointed out that the absence of war was not tantamount to peace. Well, regardless of the school of thought to which you found yourself subscribing since Ranil Wickremesinghe and Velupillai Pirapaharan signed on the dotted line in March 2002, last Wednesday's bomb proved to everyone's satisfaction that there has indeed been a peace, and that it very nearly came to an untimely end.

It is impossible to know with certainty whether or not it was the LTTE that mobilised the suicide bomber. Seeing, however, that no one else ever has been able to mobilise these lethal weapons, it is widely accepted that it was indeed the Tigers who did it. Given the tenuous relationships between the various parties however, not the government, nor the opposition, nor the Norwegians, can say so openly, even though everyone seems agreed off the record. Heads are being shaken, shoulders shrugged, and lips pursed in exasperation. But it has now become clear that there are indeed suicide bombers in Colombo - and perhaps much else.

The JVP's cheap knee-jerk reaction to the bomb mentioned no sympathy for the four innocents - including the policemen - who died in the blast, or concern for the more than dozen people injured. It sought only to score a cheap political point by saying that the suicide bomber had been insinuated into Colombo one and a half years ago, thanks to the lax security measures adopted by the then UNF government. What the JVP failed to mention was that prior to that UNF government, in 2001, Colombo saw the tightest security blanket in its history, supervised personally by Defence Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga and her Deputy, Anuruddha Ratwatte of Udathalawinna-and-Rs-50-million-in-CDs-stashed-in-the-bank fame. And despite all this, the Tigers took out the Sapugaskanda refinery, the Central Bank, Hilton and Galadari hotels and the Katunayake Airport, with many of the perpetrators actually walking away from the scene with impunity. So much for national security a la the Alliance.

The government's reaction to the blast was little short of pathetic, a case of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare. Trying desperately to appease the LTTE by not pointing a finger at it, it found fault instead with the opposition UNF. However, it is the government itself that jeopardised peace and brought itself into ridicule by its clear attempts to split the Tiger ranks by surreptitiously supporting the Karuna faction. Last week, when a stash of automatic weapons was found in a temple at Hingurakgoda, the state media first tried pointing a finger at the JHU. Then, when it dawned on the government that the possessors of these arms were members of the Karuna faction, the government went cold. When the arrested men were presented before the magistrate, the police declined to object to bail, which then necessarily had to be granted. Ironically, while the state allowed bombs and gun-toting terrorists to walk, it desperately sought to remand former minister Ravi Karunanayake on the basis that he had allegedly interfered in the lease of an office building.

The Alliance's rank hypocrisy in claiming that the UNF gave free rein to terrorists while itself allowing terrorists caught in the act to be enlarged on bail just last week, cannot but fail to register, if on no one else, the LTTE. The lethally armed militants who were bailed out were of the Karuna faction - hence the government's decision to release them, in the hope of dividing and thereby ruling the Tigers. That the government could be naive enough to expect Pirapaharan not to notice its perfidy is only a symptom of how drunk with power the SLFP and JVP have become. They expect everyone to believe their version as printed in the state media. Well chums, it ain't gonna work, and that is precisely why the peace process has come to a standstill. To mix a metaphor, you cannot talk peace with one hand while stabbing backs with the other. Kumaratunga's attempts at donning the cloak and wielding the dagger have come badly unstuck, and with it the peace process.

Meanwhile, as if the government's woes were not enough, Chief Justice Sarath Silva too, has become embroiled in a painful scandal. According to a statement issued by him last week, there has been a concerted effort by some quarters to bring him into disgrace, presumably so as to affect cases awaiting judgement in his court. The rumours that came to the Chief Justice's ears must indeed have been sordid for him to issue so detailed and explicit a denial, accounting hour by hour for his late-evening movements. Sarath Silva, it is well known, is not one to blow his own trumpet, and his sense of frustration must have been great indeed, to have led him to resort to such extreme measures.

The questions that Sarath Silva's detractors must suck on include the fact that the Chief Justice has an official residence and has no need to loiter in cars. They must give head to the fact that he is a family man who could be gravely embarrassed by scandal. Be that as it may, it is laudable that Silva lost no time in giving the public the low-down on the issue, and calling for a CID investigation. One hopes the Alliance government will indeed yield to this request without vacillating, blowing hot and cold, as it is usually wont to do. The issue must be disposed of swiftly, without risking damage to the stature of the Supreme Court by a Parliamentary Select Committee if necessary.

Into this fray last week stepped the UNF, stating that the police had indeed made a formal record that a person resembling the Chief Justice and responding to the same name had been found in flagrante delicto in a vehicle in the parliament grounds at an advanced hour of the evening. Following on Silva's credible public denial, explanations for the bizarre incident have been sparse, except that it was a deliberate plot by the police to embarrass the Chief Justice, followed by a concerted rumour campaign. If this turns out to be the case, it is serious indeed. If the police could manufacture such allegations against the nation's highest judicial officer, what chance of fair play does an ordinary citizen have? Silva himself has linked the rumour to an attempt by persons with interests in cases before his court to embarrass him. It is vital that the dignity of the courts be upheld, especially given the aspersions cast last week in a speech by none less than President Kumaratunga, lamenting corruption in the judiciary.

Whatever the sensitivities involved, the case must be thoroughly and transparently investigated, and the public given an assurance that justice has been done. It would not do for the Chief Justice to continue performing his duties with his morality under a cloud. And if indeed the allegations against him were fabricated by the police, the Police Commission must subject the policemen concerned to swift and severe discipline. Cases of policemen running amok are not rare: just a fortnight ago, Srinath Wedisinghe made headlines and earned a strong rebuke from the bench for lying on camera that he had a warrant for the arrest of Ravi Karunanayake. Attempting to frame and embarrass the Chief Justice is arguably even more reprehensible, and should not be condoned. The need of the hour is the facts, and all the facts, and right quickly, too. And that only an independent and impartial investigation can unearth.