That’s the stuff to give the troops
THOUGHTS FROM LONDON BY NEVILLE DE SILVA
Rounds of applause emanated from a school in Polonnaruwa that bears the same name as another in Colombo 7. But let’s leave names out of this lest those with more brittle backbones or none at all, go crying to mummy or the closest primary dealer in Treasury bonds.
President Sirisena had told some of the inner circle of SLFP faithfuls (that is those who are on the more lucrative side of the current split) that he was sorry to disappoint certain sceptics who thought he had no backbone. He damned well had one and is evidence of it too.
As proof President Sirisena, stiffening his backbone as he would have done his upper lip had he belonged to that class of so-called elitists from the other school, said his peremptory dismissal of UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Al-Hussein’s call for a hybrid court to hold accountability trials should teach those who doubted the presence of vertebra, including some in his own party, a lesson in anatomy.
What Prince Al Hussein had to say about President Sirisena’s anatomical structures and condition is not known. But if a few expletives in choice Arabic spat out of his Royal (there we go again with that word) lips known to the physiologically inclined as orbicularis oris muscles or some such thing, it would come as no surprise to some of us who have had to associate with high flying international civil servants in our professional life.
I recall, with much amusement even now, Ambassador Shirley Ameresinghe’s remarks to some Egyptian diplomats in Cairo when a sandstorm grounded our flight and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry did not know whether it could provide us with 1st class seats until the night train that was to bring us back to Cairo arrived at Luxor Station.
But that is another story and to continue with some of Shirley Ameresinghe’s other escapades would only distract attention from the most important story of this year, nay for the last two years -- the one about the condition of presidential vertebrae.
As soon as I read the headline making the crucial announcement, involuntarily I broke into merriment and said to myself “atta boy that’s the stuff to tell the cannon fodder behind you, and then go charging into the valley with sabre in hand and the Sirisena Chintanaya in the other. That was really telling Ranil and his loyalists and that Mangala chap to stop blowing his trumpet and try tuning up Trump.
President Sirisena’s umbrage at the heavy fire from front and the sniping from behind seems understandable enough. After he had successfully steered the 19th Amendment no doubt to the great joy of the fellow coalition partner who was eager to see power flowing from president to prime minister, Sirisena appeared to lose control of his party (except for those who had done what has come to be known as the largesse jump) and the Government some of whose ministers were behaving as though this was part of their boodelay. That was particularly true of those from the You En Pee which had partly converted itself to the Buzzing Cousins (of two or more genders) Party with foreign postings available as necessary in this age of globalisation.
It must have dawned -- at last some would say -- on those Socratic thinkers in what is called the presidential secretariat that their boss seemed to be receiving invitations for state and other visits from numerous countries which no other president of Sri Lanka ever received in such a short time.
Perhaps under the mistaken notion that President Sirisena had won the international award for the World’s Most Popular Leader or perhaps to show his progeny the global village outside Polonnaruwa -- travel, after all, broadens the mind among other things -- the president started to travel the planet.
But little did he and his minders suspect, though some were puzzled at the cascade of invitations, that there were Cascas and Cassiuses and even a Brutus or two who promoted foreign travel so that those left back home could be up to all the devilry, particularly of the financial kind, so to say.
It seems that finally the truth appears to have dawned and so the president rounded up his faithful flock and read the riot act to those clever bozos in Colombo who are trying to take him for a right royal ride.
I must admit I was misled when I first read the news stories about President Sirisena’s tough warning to his detractors. Almost every one of them had the same or similar headline about Sirisena’s insistence about his spinal column.
Most readers would have concluded that it had to do with an anatomical certificate about the state of his spine. My only concern was that if his assess- ment was based on medical opinion offered by some of those doctors who are constantly on strike demanding one thing or another to feather their own nests, then it is best not to place too much faith in the opinions of such medical mudalalis.
They don’t seem to have any qualms about spending the time they should be attending to the public at state institutions and spending those hours at private institutions raking in money while condemning others who did not attain medical qualifications at state expense like the striking stethoscope carriers do.
Anyway, thank heaven, the situation became clearer when reading further. Fortunately, for Sirisena that is, not for the vast majority of the people who must seek medical treatment at state institutions which suddenly become empty of these so-called medical men who have at least a moral obligation to the public, the president was spared of consulting them.
It became clear enough that Sirisena was speaking of his backbone in a political rather than a medical sense. So when he literally reacted to the UN Human Rights chief, he was telling Al-Hussein’s recommendation for a “hybrid” court which is really the UN official’s coinage, what he could do with his court and its implied accoutrement.
Later, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told a law conference in Colombo a “hybrid court” which was to include foreign judges was not “politically feasible” probably meaning that it might not pass muster if it was raised before the Supreme Court.
All that might be true and Sirisena’s backbone might be intact and toughened and Wickremesinghe wants a way out of the contretemps they jointly created along with Sri Lanka’s chief diplomatic juggler.
But what sticks in the craw of those who have followed this sad saga with some attention to the chronological unfolding of this episode in our recent history is why these Three Wise Men got together and co-sponsored a resolution that called for the foreign presence in the mechanism that was to provide transitional justice.
This is what operative paragraph 6 of the Resolution of October 1st 2015 said.
“Welcomes the government’s recognition that accountability is essential to uphold the rule of law and build confidence in the people of all communities of Sri Lanka in the justice system, takes note with appreciation of the Government of Sri Lanka’s proposal to establish a Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable; and affirms that a credible justice process should include independent judicial and prosecutorial institutions led by individuals known for integrity and impartiality; and further affirms in this regard the importance of participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the Special Counsel’s office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, and authorized prosecutors and investigators."
It should be clear enough except to those who wish to prevaricate and practise obfuscation, the intention of those who supported that resolution. It was to indicate that a purely Sri Lankan mechanism will not suffice in providing justice for the victims of the conflict whichever side they belonged to and that accountability demands the mechanism should be fair.
It is not to denigrate the Sri Lankan judiciary though its fairness and the whole judicial process had at times being called in to question and at the time the resolution was debated it was not considered impartial enough with regard to criminal investigations involving both local and foreign persons who had become victims.
So if that was clear enough and the involvement of foreign judges and others was mentioned in the resolution and Sri Lanka would have no part in such a system of accountability hearings why did Sri Lanka co-sponsor this resolution which some Sri Lankan diplomats and some of our foreign friends had serious concerns about?
Did Sri Lankan leaders consider this carefully enough and scrutinise its implications before it threw its hat into the ring. Was the resolution carefully explained to the president or did he go along with what he was told?
Therein lies the rub. Was he a willing party to it or was he simply going along with the advice given to him? This is the crucial question. If he endorsed it too, then this backbone business is a belated attempt to free himself from a serious diplomatic faux pas.