Threatening the CID

First it was the Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thera. Now it is an Attorney-at-Law by the name of Manoj Gamage, a lawyer representing the Sinhala mothers alleged to have been illegally sterilized by Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen. They have one thing in common - their almost pathological antipathy towards the CID conducting investigations into the Shafi affair. Both have deigned not to accept the CID report clearing Dr. Shafi of any wrongdoing. They both accuse the CID of a cover up and it appears that nothing would make them accept any report, either the CID or medical, that will give Dr. Shafi a clean bill of health.

The Ven. Rathana Thera, though, stopped short of threatening the CID officers conducting investigations. Not so attorney Gamage. He has issued a dire warning to CID Director Shani Abeysekera that he would be thrown behind bars at a future date - perhaps at a date and time under a future Rajapaksa government. “Mr. Abeysekera may have to wear a jumper one day,” he told a press conference. He accused the CID of suppressing investigations to absolve Dr. Shafi.

When the Ven. Athureliya Thera made his comment challenging the CID investigation into the complaints made by the women allegedly sterilized by Dr. Shafi, we commented in these spaces that this amounted to a bucking of the system. The CID, after all, is part of the country’s official law enforcement mechanism. What if others too follow suit and cast aspersions on all the investigations carried out by the CID if the outcome falls short of their expectations?

Such a scenario could easily lead to a breakdown in the whole law enforcement apparatus and make society look askance at the police. This could also result in the breakdown of the law and order, leading to anarchy. This is because, in Lankan society, a member of the Sangha community is held in reverence and people tend to take their views and comments seriously.

Worse, Ven. Thera also called into question the competence of local doctors to arrive at a proper finding and wanted doctors from either the USA or Singapore to conduct the tests. At this rate President Sirisena’s much lamented brain drain could only get exacerbated, with doctors taking flight in their numbers for fear of losing their livelihood, what with a member of the Maha Sangha scaring off people from seeking treatment from local doctors.

The CID director has rightly lodged a complaint against lawyer Gamage. Police media spokesman and Attorney-at-Law Ruwan Gunasekera told a media briefing that SSP Abeysekera was the leading investigating officer in the case against Dr. Shafi and according to the Victims and Witness Protection Act he could not be threatened.

If that is the case then the lawyer concerned should be immediately hauled up and the law enforced to the letter to have him punished. If not, every two bit lawyer will, henceforth, be giving voice cuts to television channels casting aspersions on police investigations and threatening investigating officers. As it is, even judgements given by the Courts have come under heavy criticism and not long ago a Magistrate’s order was condemned in open court by a raucous Buddhist monk. If the authorities are to stem the rot prompt action is called for. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Sri Lanka Bar Association towards this whole episode. It is doubtful though if anything will result, given the politics involved in the Shafi affair.

Not just the likes of Ven. Athureliya and lawyer Gamage, all the Pohottuwites have climbed on the Shafi hobby horse giving the whole affair a racist flavour. It will be interesting to see if Ven. Rathana Thera would resume his ‘hunger strike’ now that Rishard Bathiudeen is back in the saddle. Bathiudeen together with all other Muslim Ministers who relinquished their portfolios to provide space for proper investigations to be carried out on the Easter Sunday bombings, were sworn in again by President Sirisena on Monday. UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila has already threatened to re-activate the same No Confidence Motion brought against Bathiudeen which was rendered redundant upon his resignation.

It will also be equally interesting to see if Catholic MPs of the Government who vowed to vote for the motion are still of the same mindset. These MPs were spared the blushes by the JVP which brought in a No Confidence Motion against the Government itself for its failure to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks, which the JO charged was a ruse to bail out the Government. The Catholic MPs had no compunction on voting against the motion to keep the Government intact.

The acid test would be if and when the No Confidence Motion against Bathiudeen is re-presented to the House. Of course, the process will have to be gone over again and it is not clear if this will take precedence over other Parliament business. Any delay would see the matter being dragged into the Presidential Election campaign and bound to be a hot topic. So will the Dr. Shafi affair and its fallout.