President himself laments!
In his address at a special event shown on TV (5.9.2018), the President deviated to comment on the law’s delays taking into consideration the magnitude if not the seriousness of the crime. Leave alone the President, the public at large can pinpoint the culprits but not so our legal system supposed to be the best in the east of Suez and a perfect copy of the Old Bailey system. We even invite legal luminaries from this institution for some of our stumbling cases!
Frankly, this situation is not surprising with what has happened so far. With the bad debt and other misdeeds of the previous regime thrust on the Yahapalanaya Govt and eternally commented on like a broken CD and publicized for the past three years, misdeeds by some current leading personalities paved the way for large scale corruption to creep into the current administration. those responsible were fired and/or asked to resign after high command deliberations but worse they were given alternative appointments within the Yahapalanaya evoking a malaise-faire approach to criminal cases brought before Courts with the public gasping for breath.
The President did not mince his words but laid bare how convictions are swiftly carried out in the shortest possible time by some countries within their legal system and surprisingly these crimes are similar to those before our Courts and no new criminal institutions were created or new courts constructed to hear these cases. Some were shot within hours of the verdict while others faced the comfortable electric chair or hangman’s noose at the shortest possible date in the name of swift justice! Shortcomings in our legal system which is woefully outdated are never addressed but our legal luminaries are ever ready to use them much to their delight as an escape route for their clients.
Brings to mind how a village woman was swiftly sentenced for robbing three mangoes from her neighbour’s garden but a cacophony delaying procedure is resorted to when high command culprits are involved in large scale scams involving the country’s wealth and some of these culprits are even sitting in judgement at various probes. Many call it a convenient autocratic arrogant self-made justice system in the name of democracy.
One consoling, if not comforting words in conclusion were the President’s determination to see at least two death sentences being carried out before he retires from office. Painful it may sound to many but there is no other way to rid the country of the menace of corruption for the greater advantage of the population at large