MAKING BLACK WHITE - A
LEGAL COUP
Is there a legal coup
brewing in Hulftsdorp? The inspired may say it's a judicial
coup, but since that could be mistaken falsely as effrontery of
certain upstanding sections of the judiciary, the educated
description would be a 'legal coup d'etat.'
There are constitutional coups, and then there are
constitutional coups that are launched through the legal
apparatus, and these become quasi-constitutional coups, or what
can be termed 'legal coups', at least to coin the apt phrase.
There are sections within the greener than green legal
community in Hulftsdorp (no, the reference is not to the active
anti global-warming' lobby...) who are seen to be carrying out a
not so subtle campaign to derail the elected Executive and
Legislature by staging what can be termed for want of better
description -- a legal coup. When all attempts to undermine the
elected legislature by other means fail, it's not uncommon to
see the agit-prop as it were, resorting to all other methods --
some of which can be rather unorthodox, and unavailable in the
rule book.
There have been attempts to say within the last few days on
Hulftsdorp Hill, that the unelected judiciary is somehow the
fountainhead of sovereignty, though this should be absurd and
rather risible considering that sovereignty, as per
constitutional guarantees, lies ultimately with the people. But
none of what seems to be obvious and incontrovertible has
deterred the gold-fingered black coats of Hulsftsdorp, from
furthering their own mercenary-minded political agendas by
advocating a line that is tantamount to staging a legal coup
d'etat.
First, there were the moves, allied closely to NGO
money-backed research papers, to subvert the constitution by
painting the Divineguma Bill as unconstitutional. Already,
writers have made it clear that this is not the case, and that
the Bill point by point, in no way undercuts the provisions of
the 13th Amendment.
But all that notwithstanding, and notwithstanding the fact
that there were clear affronts to the elected legislature, such
as dispatching a determination on a Bill to the Secretary
General of Parliament and not the Speaker, there was then an
impeachment motion arising from the elected legislature that
sought to restore integrity to the judiciary by removing from
office a Chief Justice who had been (prima facie) compromised by
the fact that she presides over the promotions of the
magistrate, to take one example -- who is hearing corruption
cases her husband happens to be embroiled in.
The Parliamentary Select Committee on that issue is now in
session and this newspaper doesn't under the circumstances
desire to comment on those matters, as any individual under law
is deemed innocent until proven guilty.
But what's curious is that when there is an entirely legal
constitutional move underway to course-correct what may be an
erring judiciary, there are moves in parallel to make out that
the judiciary is in any event supreme -- which then it is said,
makes it an affront for the legislature to engage the judiciary
in any way, least of all constructively and for the public good!
That is almost by definition, a legal coup d'etat. It is an
attempt to derail constitutional process and bring down an
elected government by resorting to specious legalese and
law-book skullduggery.
The least that can be said of such an attempt is that the
people of this country will not stand for it. In simple terms,
they would never allow a coterie of millionaire legal sharks to
manipulate the system to serve their own petty parochial ends,
primarily dictated through long-term mercenary considerations.
Why so? Everybody knows that the essential political
allegiances in Hulftsdorp Hill are not progressive, because most
of the lawyers, in plain terms are traditionally anti-SLFP if
they are not in fact card carrying members of the lawyer-loving
party, the UNP.
The slightest chance to bring scepter and crown tumbling down
--- speaking in the imperial context in which the law we use was
bequeathed to us of course -- and they will use it. To
contextualize, the scepter and crown in this instance belongs to
the people, they elected their government. To attempt to bring
down that government by subverting the first principles of
statehood by attempting to transfer power from the elected
legislature and elected executive to the appointed judiciary, is
nothing short of an attempt to engineer a legal, constitutional
coup.
At these levels of legal-wrangling, the bedrock principles of
statehood can be purloined, and black be made to look white. Let
not the sharks in Hulftsdorp rob us of our birthright to
universal adult franchise, and the power of one person one vote
- WE the people! |