Sanath Jayasuriya was voted the Man of the Year by readers of MidweekMirror. He was supposed to have got nearly 75% of the total votes cast. He hasbeen elected the Man of the Year by another Magazine. Last year the ConservativeIndian newspaper Hindu nominated the person who was supposed to have solved theenergy crisis in the world, as the greatest hoax perpetrated on the people ofIndia. A youth from Tamil Nadu was supposed to have discovered a wild plant, thejuice extracted from it mixed with water, would produce fuel that would run anyinternal combustion engine. Mr. Karunanidhi the Chief Minister, Tamil Nadusporting dark glasses was the chief guest at the ceremony attended by Ministersof the Tamil Nadu Government with hordes of scientists. The papers wereprophesying the possibility of exporting fuel to the rest of the world andcompeting with the Arabs. The village lad, the inventor, put the liquid into aBajaj scooter and off he went with the Chief Minister. Everyone applauded. InDecember this lad was named the greatest hoaxer of the year 1996. It would be then interesting to find out whether there was a Sri Lankan who would earn thisdubious distinction.
The most unfortunate thing is that the person who earns this dubiousdistinction is a person who perpetrated this hoax on the gullible public ofthis country, as a witness before a Commission. She is none other than RohiniHathurusinghe. The Special Presidential Commission appointed by the President toinquire into the death of General Kobbekaduwa permitted Rohini Hathurusinghe togive evidence before the Commission and permitted the evidence to be televisedand shown over the national television.
After the preliminary investigation carried out by the CID, a confidentialreport was submitted to the Commissioners alluding to the fact that RohniHathurusinghe’s evidence could be true or could not be corroborated.
One of the most important features of the evidence of Rohini Hathurusinghewas that she saw her husband watching a video recording of the murder of DenzilKobbekaduwa. She gave a vivid description of the manner in which the bomb wasfixed to the jeep and how her husband shot at the General killing him. Theinvestigators of the CID found that this was a figment of her imagination andthat she could not have seen any video as there was no electricity available atthe place where she is alleged to have seen the video. Though there wasoverwhelming evidence that she was lying, and the story she told theinvestigators was later found to be an absolute fable, yet the Commissionpermitted the evidence of Rohini Hathurusinghe to be led. At that time twoother commissioners, highly respected judges, resigned presumably for allowingthe evidence to be led in public.
As expected, those who expected political mileage from Rohini Hathurusinghe’sevidence found that the evidence had a devastating effect on the people. DenzilKobbekaduwa was their hero. Immediately after the evidence, the President saidthat she knew about what had transpired at the Commission long before it wasrevealed before the Commission. Brigadier Wimalarantna’s statue wasdestroyed. There was anger and disillusion amongst the people when they heardthat the UNP was responsible for the death of the most beloved General.
Brigadier Ananda Weerasekera, who had supposedly conspired to kill GeneralKobbekaduwa challenged the Commission to prove any one of those allegations madeby Rohini Hathurusinghe to be true. He said if proved he would commit suicidein public. Rohini Hathurusinghe became pregnant. Defence showed that she was aninveterate liar. She filed an affidavit in Court and accused even the Chairmanof the Commission, and said that the officials under the guidance of theChairman Tissa Bandaranaike got her to falsely implicate the members of the UNPand some Senior Army Officers with the murder of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. Then she appeared at a Press Conference and made various innuendoes about thefather of her unborn baby. This was the second hoax she perpetrated on thepeople of this country.
Rohini Hathurusinghe was only one example of the number of witnesses whogave evidence or who were made to give evidence before the Commissions with theprime motive of implicating the political opponents of the Government. Thepromises and other pledges made to the people could not be fulfilled by thegovernment and voters became increasingly vocal.The electronic media wereallowed to record the proceedings of commissions and telecast over the nationalTV. A gullible public watched these proceedings with gaping mouths and believedevery single word that was said. But after the revelations of RohiniHathurusinghe, it soon turned out to be an anti climax. Most people totally andincontrovertibly rejected the evidence led before Commissions as RohiniHathurusinghe personified to what depths the officials of the Commission couldstoop in order to falsely accuse the political opponents of the Government. Theappointment of the Special Presidential Commission to inquire into theassassination of General Kobbekaduwa and Lalith Athulathmudali eventually becamea nadir of the proud and long history of the Judiciary of this country
The Lalith Athulathmudali Commission started its proceedings on the basisthat the LTTE or Ragunathan was not the killer of Lalith Athulathmudali. Instead of probing to find out the truth or otherwise of the overwhelmingevidence that was available to them that Ragunathan was the killer, theycompletely debunked this theory. It was in the interest of the Government toshow that Ragunathan was killed and his body dumped at the scene of theoffence, to show that the real killer escaped. It was a pet theory that wasavailable at that time that Lalith Athulathmudali was killed by R. Premadasabecause Premadasa found that Lalith would be a formidable political opponent. But later with the advent of various witnesses the Commission seems to haveshifted the theory from Premadasa to Sirisena Cooray. They called many witnesses, one amongst them was one, Subash Udayakumar Abeysekera. It has beensuggested at the commission that Subash Udayakumar Abeysekera was procured forthe Commission by opponents of Mr. Sirisena Cooray, namely, Mr. HudsonSamarasinghe, former Member of Parliament who succeeded Athulathmudali toParliament, and Mr. Ratnasiri Rajapaksa, former Mayor of Colombo and one RohanaChandra, an active supporter of the DUNF. It was also revealed in evidence thatSubash Udayakumar Abeysekera had worked under Mrs. Hema Premadasa as a coconutplucker.
Everything was therefore, designed to hook in Mr. Cooray with the murder ofAthulathmudali and exonerate R. Premadasa who was supposed to be the originalmotivator. The Commission after sitting for nearly two years could not find asingle shred of evidence to prove this theory. But the opponents of Mr. Cooraywere quite happy with the daily reporting of the Commission which appeared inthe daily papers. The witnesses made various insinuations against Mr. Cooray,but those insinuations had nothing to do with the murder of LalithAthulathmudali.
The Government was happy that Mr. Cooray was not in the country. Thoughmost of the UNPers did not think that Cooray was a force to be reckoned with theGovernment thought otherwise. The Government knew quite correctly the immenseability and organizational ability of Sirisena Cooray.
In the meantime Mrs, Sirimani Athulathmudali, who had requested thisCommission and had provided the office premises from her Ministry, was firmlyconvinced that her husband was not killed by the LTTE.
One of her personal secretaries, called Sharmila Perera produced a fax theyhad received from London stating that the LTTE was not involved. A few dayslater there were two bombs that devastated passengers in a train and the LTTEdutifully announced to the world that they had nothing to do with the killing ofinnocent passengers.
Every one has forgotten that when Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali was the Ministerof National Security, the LTTE killed the innocent Sinhalese peasants at theDollar and Kent farms and videographed the killings and showed it to the worldas atrocities committed by the Sinhala Army against the innocent Tamil civilianswhilst denying officially their involvement with the killings.
In the meantime Sirimani Athulathmudali and the DUNF were said to besecretly negotiating with the UNP to join forces. Therefore, it would bedifficult for her to join hands with the killers of her husband. The UNPtherefore had to keep Sirisena Cooray away.
Then Mrs. Srimani Athulathmudali was removed from the Cabinet, and to theamazement and shock of all supporters of DUNF, the Commission found that it wasR. Premadasa who was involved in the killing of Lalith Athulathmudali andGeneral Kobbekaduwa. This would have indeed shocked not only Mrs.Athulathmudali, but Hudson Samarasinghe, Ratnasiri Rajapaksa and others who werewaiting for the Commission to bring home a verdict of guilt on Sirisena Cooray and exonerate R. Premadasa.
Now if the report of the Commission is to accepted, Mrs Athulathmudali wouldhave to join the UNP where Mr. Sajith Premadasa , the son of the killer of herlate husband has become a very important member of the UNP. Mrs. Hema Premadasastill very popular with most members of the UNP and even members of thegovernment like Mr. Mangala Samaraweera. Mrs. Athulathmudali immediatelyrejected the finding of the Commission that Lalith was killed by R. Premadasa.The government had achieved what it needed. With the findings Mrs.Athluathmudali was left in no woman’s land. Sirisena Cooray, was foundguilty of contempt of the Commission for not attending the Commissions sittingsaccording to the extracts published in the Daily News which were released by thePresidential Secretariat.
It is very from the Special Presidential Commissions Act that a Commissioncan only recommend to the Supreme Court, that Mr. Cooray has committed contemptof the Commission. The Supreme Court will then have to decide whether to issuea rule against Mr. Cooray for the alleged contempt he committed by not attendingthe Commission or not. The Commissioners did not report the findings againstMr. Cooray to the Supreme Court, but took the most unprecedented step offinding Mr. Cooray guilty of contempt.
I have advocated through this column that any Government who sincerelywishes to uphold the rule of law should abolish the Special PresidentialCommissions Act, the brainchild of the late J.R. Jayewardene. But before theydo so, it would be necessary to use the same Act to probe into the manner inwhich these two Commissions probed into the death of General Kobbekaduwa andLalith Athulathmudali.
This is the only way I believe the people could repose their confidence inthe Judiciary and any institution, which conducts inquiries based on the rule ofLaw.
“The general public have come to repose absolute faith in thejudiciary. They see in it, justifiably, an institution that can rein in, if noteliminate, the rapacity, nepotism and corruption, especially at high placeswhich have come to be associated with governance. The judiciary should continueto merit the exalted position it occupies in the minds and hearts of the peopleas the ‘saviours of democracy.’
“It cannot be gainsaid that the one necessary condition for this is itsindependence. Independent in the sense free from the executive, meaningbureaucracy and politicians, interference and influence of every type. With theproliferation of commissions and tribunals, the Government finds it easy to findplum posts for judges. The judiciary’s reputation is at stake here. Only byself-denial can the judges save their dignity”
– R. K. Prasad-The Hindu
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