| by Muheed Jeeran
( January 30, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) During the past two months one of the hotly debated topics in Sri Lankan politics was about the impeachment process of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake. The ruling Rajapaksa regime’s major motive is to remove her from the post because she was not dancing to Rajapaksa's political tune but he pretended that he had no involvement in that process. Instead of openly acknowledging of being the driving force behind the impeachment Regime’s chief enlisted the support of two of his ministers - Rajitha Senarathne and Wimal Weerawansa - to act on his behalf.
It was very clear that Dr. Shirani was not given a fair trial at all but the regime tried to justify itself vis-à-vis the international community that the proceedings were carried out in line with the constitution. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had ruled that the parliamentary select committee should ask the government to withdraw the impeachment order. However the regime entirely ignored what the Supreme Court had ruled and proceeded with the impeachment order anyways.
Very recently, External Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peries at a meeting with a group of foreign diplomats explained the current situation by reiterating that according to his government’s view the impeachment against the Chief Justice proceeded constitutionally. For me it looks most definitely as if he was trying to throw dust into the eyes of the assembled diplomats by means of what according to my opinion could best be described as ‘kindergarten’ - type of lesson. At this moment it is not easy to control the damage done to Sri Lanka’s reputation abroad related to human right’s issues and democracy. What’s more, there had been many previous and similarly controversial issues in the past which led to a serious questioning of the credibility of Sri Lanka’s democracy and human rights records. Sri Lanka’s name already appears in a United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office report featuring 27 countries with poor human rights records. Many are afraid that impeachment procedures like the one involving the Chief Justice eventually lead to Sri Lanka turning into another Myanmar.
On this subject matter I recently had an informal talk with a Singaporean friend of mine - a political analyst about the success of his own state. He insisted that many are talking about the rise of Singapore because of the first Prime Minister and the founding father of modern Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's strategy, but he said that the main reason for Singapore’s development was due to political instability in Myanmar. According to this friend it was Myanmar that had the best chance to become an investor’s darling right after colonial independence. It is a country rich in precious stones, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources and also the second largest nation in Southeast Asia. But unfortunately and if evaluated from a supporter of democracy in Myanmar - position and since 1962, due to domestic mismanagement on the political front and the legacy of a military coup foreign investors looked towards Singapore.
Singapore was far from the levels of welfare and development it enjoys today at the time of its separation from Malaysia; even water was supplied for that neighboring country. But today Singapore is one of the most developed nations of Asia. At least the government of Sri Lanka should learn a lesson from what had happened in Myanmar before. Although Myanmar’s rulers behaved similarly to how our current regime acts at the moment Myanmar benefits from a fresh approach towards allowing more transparency and democracy which in turn opens the doors to more foreign direct investment and international recognition.
What many others including the author of this contribution consider as being an illegal impeachment of our Chief Justice paired with the verbally attacking and openly threatening of the lawyers who fought for democracy put our country’s future development into jeopardy indeed. The current government failed to set the stage for a fair trial for the Chief Justice. If the regime conducted an independent inquiry about her case the government would have more chances to improve their image internationally. As we know, Sri Lanka will see two important international developments staged during 2013: the first one is about to be confronted by a possible resolution at the UNHRC session in March whilst later this year and on a theoretically much more positive note, hosting the Head of Commonwealth Summit Meeting. In my view, influencing both events is in any case no longer an option due to the non-democratic approach to policy making of our current regime.
It seems as if the ruling politicians are running amok like wild elephants having no idea about what diplomacy actually means. The United States Embassy recently said the impeachment process against the Chief Justice was not in order, too. However, by counter-attacking that statement Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa stated that ‘we don't need you (the United States), we got China.’
First of all, a Defense Secretary should refrain from issuing political statements of this nature which are irrelevant to his position and above all else childish to say the least. We are a country which heavily depends on foreign remittances being a vital part of and for our economic survival. We know that Europe, the US, the UK and India are important partners with regards to our exports whilst we do not receive a single economic benefit from China; as a matter of fact most of our foreign remittances are lost in turn as we pay China for imports! In this context it has to be stressed that whatever funds we did obtain from China in the past and present must be repaid according to commercial borrowing interest rates which will negatively impact the future generations of our country.
In the past, Myanmar was also behaving like Sri Lanka by depending heavily on Chinese ‘back-up.’ When the international community started to isolate Myanmar due to its poor record on human rights and undemocratic governance they nevertheless continued to enjoy Beijing’s support. Eventually though Myanmar realized that their foreign policy has not been productive and has put their country into a miserable position. So they began to change course towards good governance. Albeit that the process is very slow it nevertheless already bears considerable fruit both at home and internationally.
Secretary of State James Moore and comprising Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jane Zimmerman arrived in Sri Lanka on last Sunday, held serious discussions with the Government and Opposition groups regarding the progress on implementing measures recommended by the country's own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). It may not be a good sign for the future of Sri Lanka’s relations with the international community but a recent statement from the Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Karunatilaka Amunugama, denies that these visits would have anything to do with the recent legal and political troubles faced by Sri Lanka but are carried out according to an annual meetings calendar devised well in advance. However US State department confirmed it after completing their tour that they are bringing a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in March. So it is clear that the statement made by Amunugama is contradicted. Also US delegates have stressed that the government’s impeachment of the country’s chief justice, despite two court rulings that the process was illegal and against the constitution, also contributed to the US decision for a fresh resolution.
The regime is trying to please the local electorate by ridiculing the international community. The consequences are very clear in so far as they will face serious complaints from that very side. Figuratively speaking it is obvious that the regime has no queen, bishops or knights on the chessboard and will simply have to wait for ‘checkmate’ if they continue to play against, instead of with the international community.
I strongly urge the government of Sri Lanka to reverse its impeachment decision against the Chief Justice and conduct a new, legitimate and independent inquiry to make sure she will have a fair trial and in turn prevent international interference in this and perhaps even other matters in the very near future. I strongly believe the current regime is still having time to make its move and opt for ‘fair play.’
The writer is an International Political Lobbyist and a Campaign Strategist.
Article was originally appeared at http://www.theasians.co.uk/
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