Editorial

It was crystal clear for some time that the JVP-NPP Government was clearing the decks to frame charges on former President Ranil Wickremesinghe under the Public Property Act, alleging misuse of public funds.

The people have long been having conflicting allegiances with the former president, but not even his most strident critic would deny that he yanked this country out of an acute food, fuel and medicine crisis and a chronic foreign exchange shortage and eventually stabilised the economy to near-normalcy, galvanising the IMF, donor nations and bondholders abroad, allowing free elections that paved the way eventually for the JVP-NPP to take office.

An early warning came as early as in March, but more recently his successor said that a ‘private secretary had been questioned, then the secretary and therefore the next in line knows what is coming’. Waving his finger in Parliament just the other day, he was warning the Opposition not to even think of destabilising his Government. Within the hierarchy of the ruling party, there were concerns that the former president was the real danger man who could destabilise the government, given the Machiavellian reputation he has acquired in politics, and taught by his uncle, President J.R. Jayewardene, that politics requires staying power and is for the long run—a test match.

While the former president was giving a statement to the CID on Friday, a minister was saying this Government would ensure that all are equal before the law. It was a broad hint of what was inevitable. The writing was on the wall.

Meanwhile, last week’s front-page story in our newspaper breaking the news that the Bribery and Corruption Commission (CIABOC) was about to slap charges on the Energy Minister for an alleged corrupt act during his days in a previous avatar as procurement manager of the Fertiliser Corporation raised eyebrows.

It is rare that a sitting Cabinet Minister gets entangled in the bribery net, the last being a former Health Minister. The incumbents in office have been at pains to say that they are not interfering with the work of the CIABOC; that they are only dusting off old files stacked up in cupboards and actioning them now. An Opposition MP had to ask about a pending file on the minister, and the CIABOC seems to have located it and found sufficient evidence for an indictment.

While the legal principle of ‘all are innocent until proven guilty’ rings true, a legitimate question arises whether a minister ought to be arrested, remanded or stand down until his name is cleared of the allegations against him, once charged before a court. That stage has not yet arrived, but for the ruling party that has been at pains to portray itself as squeaky clean and indeed received the nation’s plaudits for it, vote-wise and otherwise, this must be a dilemma. They had already had an early brush with a similar, though milder, incident when their first nominee for Speaker was unable to provide proof of a doctorate he said he possessed.

That justice must not only be done but manifestly appear to be done is also a well-known legal principle.

Steadfastness, Resilience and Perseverance

Citizens of the world with a conscience have taken the initiative to take matters into their own hands to ‘do something’ about the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Enough of the incapacitated United Nations and its tribunals and Security Councils, and governments still weighing the pros and cons of intervening meaningfully to stop the carnage there.

Following demonstrations in several world capitals, Malaysia yesterday flagged off a flotilla of aid-carrying vessels as part of a 40-nation global civil society effort to break the wicked, cold-blooded siege in Gaza. Code-named ‘Sumud’—the Arabic word for steadfastness, resilience and perseverance—well-known international activists are among those participating from Malaysia, Brazil, the USA, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Columbia and Sri Lanka, with some joining in from Spain and Tunisia. It is arguably the biggest civilian maritime mission since World War II.

How the Israeli military will react to this humanitarian armada is to be seen. Going by the June attempt by a single yacht attempting to breach the food and medicine blockade into Gaza, where they intercepted the boat, sprayed chemicals and arrested those on board, anything is possible for a much larger mission. It resulted in pro-Israeli governments, especially the USA and Argentina, condemning the token food aid boat as a publicity stunt. The matter is now the subject of a case before the Spanish High Court against Israeli military commanders for illegally seizing a vessel in international waters, among other charges.

Referring to publicity stunts, however, it was unfortunate that last Friday’s march in Colombo in support of Gaza’s suffering citizens was hijacked by NGO infiltration that tried to divert attention from Gaza to the UNHRC sessions next month against Sri Lanka. There were people dressed in burkas to hide their gender and identity, carrying placards comparing the war in Gaza with Sri Lanka’s northern separatist insurgency. A woman speaker accused the Sri Lankan government of genocide at the rally meant to focus on Gaza.

Those side shows did no favours for the Palestinian cause and were clearly part of the anti-Lanka campaign in Geneva. No doubt Sri Lanka will once again be under the pump, while Gaza will hardly get into AOB (Any Other Business) on the agenda.

The Palestinians in Gaza have been given an October 7 deadline (the second anniversary of the cross border raid by the Iranian-sponsored Hamas) to vacate their homes. This is the Netanyahu Declaration. It is an exercise patently aimed at frustrating the two-state solution of a sovereign Palestine alongside the state of Israel.

One might compare the demand for a change of a historical wrong to the upending of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was propped up by the Western nations for decades until the weight of mass popular mobilisation in their own countries forced the hands of their leaders to change course and rectify a historical anomaly. Then, there were international pressure groups like the Non-Aligned Movement and the Commonwealth to give leadership to those great events. There are none now. But ‘time and tide waits for no man’; the passage of time, nor the movement of the tides, will not wait for human events and concerns.

The inexorable currents of history in the making are seemingly in motion.