New yardstick to gauge MPs’ corruptibility factor

Wimal Weerawansa stands today condemned by every syllable he uttered when, in the presence of the former President Rajapaksa no less on stage and brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the audience with a whole host of Buddhist monks in attendance, he devilishly declared that Parliament must be bombed from above and swiped out of existence if it dared to pass a new constitution as proposed by the present government.

A parliament that lacked 76 members to veto a new constitution was not worth maintaining and should be finished off without much ado with an air strike, was his message to the nation.

The verbal attack came after he presented his literary work titled ‘Yadamin Bendi Akshara’ or ‘Words Bound by Chains’ to his mentor and master and chief guest former president Mahinda Rajapaksa last Sunday at a gala book launch ceremony held at the Sambuddha Jayanthi Mandiraya at Havelock Road.

It was a hashed up collection of essays about his imprisonment and political victimisation -- supposedly writ during his brief lease at Welikada jail early this year before his hunger strike turned him patient and a pathetic sight at the Welikada Prison Hospital, no mean feat when you consider he had only two months to turn out his Magnus Opus compounded with a crying daughter and a wailing wife who missed his presence at their newly built millions worth mansion at Hokandara.

But little would he have realised that his public address to his applauding audience thereafter may well chain him further to the iron bars of Welikada due to the choice of words he thought fit to employ in oratorical flight to express his utmost contempt to Lanka’s Temple of Democracy, wherein lie enshrined the sovereign rights of the Lankan people; and deliver an ultimatum to its 225 members -Lanka’s most exclusive privileged club of which he, too, happens to be a member -that it should be bombed from above if seventy six of its members dare to raise their hands and say aye to the new constitution the government proposed to present for its approval.

At first hearing it may appear to be the idle rant of a mad hatter, prone to stoop to catch public attention and keep him in the public ear and eye. But it appears to be more serious than it first suggests. It may even be held to tantamount to a full frontal attack on the political state of Lanka.

But first let’s read what the man said ranting and raving last Sunday

He said: “When a dangerous constitution is being presented to Parliament, if there are no 76 members who refuse to raise their hands and say no to it, deny it the two third majority to ratify it, if there are no 76 members present thereat, what’s use is there of a parliament.” And borrowing a famous Sinhala idiom ‘what is the sword for if not for war,’ he went on to state “Is Parliament there to chop jakfruit? If the constitutional bill is approved in the House then, on the following day, a bomb must be dropped on parliament from above and destroy it once and for all?”

Pause for breath; and let what he said sink in. We do not have in our midst the Oracle of Delphi to read a man’s mind nor the advantage Roman Emperors had to call upon the services of the Vestal Virgins to discern the purpose and intent of mens’ speech but have to make do with and depend, instead, on the import of their message, and take it at its face value to decipher its meaning. And Wimal Weerawansa’s speech last Sunday at the Rajapaksa patronised Buddhist institute where he advocated violence against Parliament, was crystal clear that it did not need a Vestal Virgin to make it any

A new yardstick was introduced last week by the Minister of Highways Laksman Kiriella to measure a politician’s corruptibility factor. Apparently, it all depends how much money a politician has in his reserve bank. And, according to this theory, the more one has, the less likely he is to be corrupt and susceptible to temptation.

By the use of this yardstick, Kirielle is beyond corruption, as he said so himself. By his own estimates, he told Parliament last Wednesday, he has over Rs 400 million in his bank account which puts him in the ivy league of incorruptibility.

In reply to a query raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who alleged that mega frauds had taken place in the construction of the Central Expressway, Minister Kiriella proudly said: "We do not need others’ money. We have been rich since the days of ancient plainer.

Treason is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government or the action of betraying someone or something.

In English law it deals with the politics of betrayal. It was codified in the Treason Act 1351 during the reign of King Edward the III and encompasses the situation where ‘a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir” or “even if you kill the king’s chancellor, your crime is punishable by death.”

This 666-year-old law is still in force in England; and, if anyone outside the perimeters of Soap Box Corner in London’s Hyde Park where ‘ anything goes’, were to advocate the murder of the Queen or the bombing of Britain’s Parliament of Westminster, he or she will not be spared the Treason Act’s sharp lash.

The crime of treason is no longer specified and defined as such in the Sri Lankan Penal Code. But, even though the terminology is no longer used, the crime of treason is reflected in Section 119 of the Penal Code which reads:

119. Whoever, with the intention of inducing or compelling the President, or a Member of Parliament, to exercise or refrain from exercising in any manner any of the lawful powers of such President, or Member of Parliament, assaults or wrongfully restrains, or attempts wrongfully to restrain, or overawes, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, or attempts so to overawe such President, or Member of Parliament, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

And reflected again in Section 120 which states:

120. Whoever by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite feelings of disaffection to the State, or excites or attempts to excite hatred to or contempt of the administration of justice, or excites or attempts to excite the People of Sri Lanka to procure, otherwise than by lawful means, the alteration of any matter by law established, or attempts to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the People of Sri belonging to the country, or the public by joining hands with the Rajapaksa regime. Therefore I choose a different path,” he said.

Slowly but surely, this new yardstick, which depends on what the politicians already possess will come in handy to a great many and will soon be the rage of town to those who wish to demonstrate their incorruptibility by reference to what they already possess. And shout aloud the new slogan in town:”Hey, I am filthy rich, and that proves I am scrupulously not corrupt.”

Except for one thing. As the Buddha’s philosophy holds ‘life feasts on life and death on death’ and greed has no end and remains insatiable. Which is why it is held that the richest man is the one who is content.

But good to know that we have amongst us two ministers whose riches have made them transcend thanha. Perhaps it will not be far off when many more MPs rush to declare their assets and use the Kiriella yardstick to measure and to prove their moral rectitude. Lanka, or to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different classes of such People, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.

These two sections will serve to make anyone calling for the President to be assassinated or Parliament to be bombed, an act against the State: in layman’s parlance, an act of high treason.

If one were to declare in public that the Executive President, directly elected by the people, should be killed if he or she does or does not act according to one’s own wishes, is such a statement not an assault on the state? A direct hit on the people’s sovereignty? By the same token, if anyone were to publicly declare that Parliament, also directly elected by the people, must be bombed out of existence and finished off for good if its members vote for or vote against one’s own predilections, would it not be an assault on the State? In lay lingo, an act of high treason? One need not do it personally; merely declaring it is enough to make him or her agent provocateur.

Furthermore is it not a betrayal of trust the people have reposed in a member of Parliament to call for the destruction of Parliament whose members have been elected by the people to represent their sovereign rights in that august shrine? And thus prevent them from carrying out their lawful duties by issuing threats that if 76 of them raise their hands to vote for a bill presented for their consideration, the whole House should be bombed and finished off ?

It is not the first time in history the disgruntled, the frustrated, the rabid, the very scum of society had thought of blowing up Parliament to kingdom come if it did not do what they wanted Parliament to do or did what they didn’t want it to do; and it certainly will not be the last.

On November 5, 1605, a British ex-mercenary Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords in Parliament but was discovered before he could execute his evil deed and the ’Gunpowder Plot’ was thus revealed.

Three hundred and twenty eight years later, on February 27, 1933, the German Parliament the Reichstag was set ablaze. Adolf Hitler who had just been named head of a government that was legally formed after the democratic elections of the previous November, used the opportunity to change the system and grab absolute power. Though no evidence exists to conclusively prove whether it was a lone anarchist who was captured, made a scapegoat and conveniently executed by the Nazis or the Nazi’s themselves who set fire to the building, Hitler’s benefit from its ashen debris has put his name on the top of the usual suspects list. Especially when he gloated: “There will be no mercy now,” “Anyone standing in our way will be cut down.”

The next day, at Hitler’s advice and urging, the German President Hindenburg issued a decree “for the protection of the people and the state.” It deprived all German citizens of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly and made them subject to “preventative detention” by the police. It was a classic example of how acts of terror whether they are real, false, or even accidental can result in giving aspiring tyrants the hell sent excuse they need to arrogate to themselves supreme power, in the name that such powers are necessary to protect the safety of its citizens.

Wimal Weerawansa has moved not only in JVP political circles but also in personal family circles where bombing parliament to achieve political ends was not an alien, unthinkable notion. Thirty years ago, on August 18, 1987, Wimal’s brother in law – wife’s Sashi’s brother – Ajith Kumara, a minor parliamentary employee, walked into the committee room in parliament where a meeting attended by President J. R. Jayewardene, Prime Minister Premadasa and senior ministers and MPs was in progress.

He hurled two grenades which bounced