The Mannar incident has incensed me to blog four posts in 12 hours

It is not the particular incident itself that has got me riled up, it’s the level to which impunity and not taking responsibility for one’s actions, that has got my goat! First Rishad says he was never at the scene. Sure you do not have to be face to face to threaten. We know what Gotabaya R is capable of doing on the phone! Words you will not normally utter to your worst enemy.

Further the Govt. claims to know nothing about the incident as they have not been informed. Oh really so if the police have been informed, we must inform the Commander in Chief that his minions are behaving badly do we?

This goes to show the sense of impunity with which people in power today act. It is worthy to note that after a long delay the Ceylinco Celestial Hyatt Regency has started construction again. The Govt. put a compulsory purchase on the property and I understand that only Rs 4.2B was paid for it by the consortium led by Sri Lanka Insurance, while refusing a higher offer of US$60M or Rs7.2B. I understand that Rs 9.8B was the asking. Thereby the Govt. takeover has cheated the depositors of the Ceylinco Subsidiary in whose books it was and the banks in whose books the Mortgage was, out of a few billion rupees. That is daylight robbery and unethical. Who cares?

The depositors will find a hard trawl through the courts to obtain redress, which a Govt. appointed and govt. biased court will throw out as the Independence of the Judiciary mentioned in one of the articles today is in doubt. How much abuse of power can we take?

Everyday there are incidents reported of the abuse of power. Just think of the daily incidents that do not get reported. It all amounts to a mammoth problem the scale of which can only be imagined, and that too by just a few people. Most people cannot comprehend the veracity and the extent of the problem and so raise their hands in horror but are unable to react with disgust in a show of moral support for what is right and just.

It is time, before we have more continuing acts of aggression by the administration, knowing that no one is strong enough to go against them, to spontaneously protest. Only a mass protest that is not instigated by anyone, just the people rise up to say enough is enough. Let us show there is support out there to clean up the act, chase away the wrong doers, and take back the lost space and re-impose the rule of law with justice and fair play.

What is worse is that the President at an event says he is shocked that there are suspicions of the Independence of the Judiciary. Of course, he is the cause of the suspicions, when he appoints a clearly one sided Chief Justice. At that time her husband was a Chairman of a Bank and appointed by the State. He did not even resign when the wife became Chief Justice. 

It is time we straighten things up in Sri Lanka before it gets too late. What kind of example are we showing our future? there will come a time when we will not have the power to protest at injustice as the system will overpower us, so it is time to put a halt to this unbridled feeling of omnipotence on the part of the Commander in Chief and call a spade a spade to the face and not try to be waffling or woolley