5th Column

My dear Ranga,

I thought of writing to you because you seem to have suddenly become the focus of attention, especially among opposition politicians, even though you are a mere public servant who is only trying to do his job. It is a reflection of what you are doing, and how worried some people are about that.

I hope you are not surprised by that, Ranga. When you wanted this job, you must have known what is in store for the person who holds this office. You are not the first person to be hounded in this manner. One of your predecessors, Dilrukshi, was publicly criticised by Aiyo Sirisena when she had your job.

There were many allegations made against Dilrukshi, including absurd claims that she was promoted to that job because she was related to Uncle Ranil, because they shared the same surname. I hope the same claim is not made about you because you too share the same surname with Anura sahodaraya!

Eventually, Dilrukshi did go to the highest court in the land to get her name cleared, but by then the damage had been done. The job she set out to do, in the post that you now hold, wasn’t done. Many are those who got off scot-free as a result. So, there is a sense of history repeating itself in all this.

In your case, you seem to be the target from the outset. Some went to the highest court in the land, challenging your appointment, saying you were only second best among the applicants. Strangely, however, several months later they themselves sought to withdraw their fundamental rights petition.

Then there was a complaint that you admitted your son to Royal College in an irregular manner. You then stepped aside and asked the Bribery Commission to investigate the complaint. They found it was done in accordance with a provision under which many other judges were given the same privilege.

That was not the end of the complaints. We then heard from Nandana, the comrade who was once the presidential candidate for the rathu sahodarayas. He appeared from nowhere to claim you were once in their party and must therefore be disqualified from holding your job. So, you decided to speak out.

You have said that anyone with a complaint should follow the correct processes and challenge your appointment the proper way, in a court of law. After all, that is what some public-spirited people did with Deshabandu, and they were able to get his appointment suspended. So far, no one has done so.

Instead, social media is flooded with various attacks on you. You have said you will not respond to them because it is up to the accuser to prove their claims, not for you to prove your innocence. Also, you would then have to spend all your time defending allegations, not prosecuting people for bribery.

Even after all that, the attacks haven’t stopped. People like Dayasiri and Chamara Sampath keep sniping at you from the safe haven of parliamentary privileges. Chamara was of course detained by the Commission, so we can understand that. That makes us wonder why Dayasiri is perturbed.

Still, these attacks are not surprising. You have an impressive track record of presiding as a magistrate in many important cases. Let us not forget, it was you who called for contempt of court charges on Gnanasara hamuduruwo that led to him being jailed, until Aiyo Sirisena granted him a pardon.

As Colombo’s chief magistrate, you presided several years ago over the recently resurrected Thajudeen case. You also gave orders in cases involving Gota maama and Avant Garde as well as the case of 11 youths disappearing in Trincomalee. So, many people may not like you.

Recently, the list of people who have been detained because of the work of your commission is growing. One of the SM brothers, Mahindananda and Nalin are behind bars already. Another SM, Rajitha, Chamara Sampath, Shashindra and Keheliya have some serious questions to answer.

What many don’t seem to realise is that most of these cases were not initiated by you but by your predecessors. At that time, the wheels of justice didn’t turn fast enough or if they did, they were reversed when the next regime took over. Now, those opposing sides are uniting to attack you!

The other fact that most people are ignorant of – or choose to ignore – is that you are merely the officer carrying out the Commission’s orders. It is the Commission – and its commissioners – who are responsible for decisions about prosecutions. And guess what, they were appointed by Uncle Ranil!

It would silence many people, however, if the Commission can demonstrate its impartiality. It can do so easily because a minister in the ‘maalimaawa’ camp is also facing some charges. If those charges are acted on with the same speed instead of dilly dallying, it should silence many of your critics.

In the meantime, you must be careful. Remember how a leaked telephone call was used to destroy Dilrukshi’s career? One small mis-step is all it takes. With so many gunning for you, we hope you can prove that with a man of integrity, dogs bark but the caravan still moves on. The nation needs that.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: Over the past one year or so, with a regular supply of jokers, embarrassing comments and blunders, this regime has come to be known as a ‘one man show’, that one man being Anura sahodaraya. Now it is fast becoming a ‘two men show’ – the two men both being Dissanayakes!