innocent victims harsh ways never seen

Pursuing the hare

February 26, 2015, 8:00 pm 

National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa’s wife Sashi has been further remanded over an allegedly forged birth certificate. Wimal has also been summoned to the CID and questioned over an alleged incident of unlawful assembly.

If the Weerawansas have been on the wrong side of the law, let them face the consequences of their action. But, the law must apply equally to everyone if the government is not to be accused of having it enforced selectively to achieve its political objectives the way its predecessor did.

The high octane performance on the part of the police and the prisons authorities as regards Weerawansa’s wife was amazing. The CID swung into action on Feb. 19 and made a beeline to a private hospital where she was receiving treatment and took her into custody. She was then carted off to the prison hospital after being remanded and the police objected to bail for her. The police have said her arrest had nothing to do with the Feb. 18 Nugegoda rally her husband organised with the help of some others in support of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Police Spokesman ought to stop making such claims for his own sake; he should not allow his once well-proportioned nose to elongate further and ruin his handsome face!

Lalith Kotalawala’s wife, Sicille, is living freely overseas. No serious attempt has been made to have her extradited over a fraud amounting to billions of rupees. The leaders of the new government, especially the JHU big guns, before the Jan. 08 election vowed to have former LTTE arms procurer KP arrested and tried for his involvement in terrorism. He was directly responsible for the LTTE’s mindless terrorism, we were told. But, he is still a free man! Notorious drug dealer Wele Suda has revealed the names of several persons who allegedly took money from him to facilitate his narcotics trade. So far no one has been arrested.

No arrests were made over a letter former Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne issued to the Colombo Port officials seeking priority clearance for a container which was later found to have a huge stock of heroin. The yahapalana government has not cared to bring the culprits to book. Is it that the police and their new political masters consider forging birth certificates a far more serious crime than heroin smuggling!

Minister Champika Ranawaka, in the run-up to the Jan. 08 presidential election, released to the media a picture claiming that it showed former President giving KP a bear hug. But, it turned out to be a digitally altered picture of Rajapaksa embracing the doyen of Sri Lankan cinema, Dr. Lester James Peries with the latter’s head replaced with KP’s. Forgery is so serious a crime that the CID goes so far as to arrest suspects in hospital. But, no action has been taken in respect of the aforesaid photograph. The Police Spokesman may tell us there has been no complaint against the minister. If so, will the police act in case of a complaint being lodged?

Lofty ideals such as good governance are being bandied about by all and sundry these days, but nobody seems to know what they really mean. Selective enforcement of the law and the manipulation of the legal and judicial processes to achieve political ends only make a mockery of good governance.

The onus is on the new government to make good its much-advertised election promise to catch each and every politician of the previous government who allegedly plundered public wealth and committed various other offences and have him or her tried and punished in such a way that he or she will rue the day he or she was born. Unfortunately, looking for forged birth certificates seems to figure higher on the government’s list of priorities than the alleged theft of public wealth etc. It is said that he who pursues the stag regards not the hare. But, it looks as if the government worthies, apparently unable to chase the stag, were pursuing the hare instead.