BAD DISCOUNT PUTS EGG ON
WELIAMUNA'S FACE TOO
It transpires, there is an official belonging to a
private concern that had appeared before the Parliamentary
Select Committee investigating the conduct of the Chief Justice,
who in sworn testimony, said that a 1.5 million discount was
offered on a purchase of a house by the CJ, because the company
felt that she was hearing cases that it was involved in.
This impeachment stink gets more revolting by the minute.
Here is the Chief Justice of the country, and she casually gets
herself a whopping percentage cut on a purchase of a piece of
real estate, and her civil society backers including Weliamuna
the Transparency International corruption czar, is convinced
that there is no impropriety on the part of the supreme judicial
officer of this country.
So, we the rest of the not so proper, not so prim and not so
vocally corruption-busting-minded have to bring the entrails of
the issue out in the open, and dissect their substance to see if
Weliamuna, the Chief Justice and the entire civil society good
governance brigade in this country understands what is meant by
the word C-O-R-R-U-P-T.
Getting a discount on a purchase that involves a company that
is being subject to a lawsuit in your court, is akin to
blackmail extortion of a person who harbours deathly secrets
about your sex life, or a murder you have been involved in. The
company Management knows that there is a sword hanging over
their collective heads, in the form of a very adverse judgment
that could be handed down, if they do not, for instance, comply
with certain shall it be said, ex-expectations? However, once a
discount is given, won't they insinuate that the CJ give a
judgment favourable to them - after all, if not, the discount
details will be out in the open, blackmail pure and simple?
If this legal blackmail, and the active countenancing of it
and the active profiting from it in the form of willingly
receiving a substantial cut on a property bought from the said
company -- now if that does not constitute of wrongdoing which
of course is C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N, Mr. Weliamuna, then what is
corruption?
Is it taking a ride to the Supreme Court to appear alongside
the same Chief justice to scream --- 'independence of the
judiciary?'
It is almost painful to see that those who cry probity, good
governance and no-corruption at the drop of a hat, trap
themselves in a campaign that really offers them no way out.
Moreover, Weliamuna and his anti-corruption brigade will now
be seen as hypocrites for life. It is not too late for them
however, to get rid of this label by accepting that their
heroine is dead in the water. Look at the facts in their stark
realistic concrete and unassailable form.
A company officer in sworn testimony says that the sitting
Chief Justice was given an excess of one million discount on a
purchase of a piece of real estate, as it was felt that 'she has
power over cases that she is hearing that concern the company.'
She did not stand down from the bench, and of course she knew
very well that the discount was offered -- no company offers
discounts in secret as the nature of any discount is to purchase
an excess of goodwill from the recipient party!
This million and a half discount given to chief justice
Shirani Bandaranayake was not a component part of the
investigation, though it's a detail that comes under the rubric
of one of the charges proffered.
If the Chief Justice was present at the hearings and did not
decide to turn her back on the proceedings, she could have
verily met these charges if she was innocent, but by offering no
defense, she has by default accepted the charges, and her single
point of concern that she feels the tribunal was not fair, could
have been made after she had proffered a defence on these very
substantial charges which seemed to be confirmed during the
cross-examinations process.
Having passed up this chance, and considering the depth and
the substance of the charges against her as referenced above,
she has cast on herself a very reasonable suspicion that she, to
say the least, is a guilty party with regard to the impeachment
charges made. Weliamuna standing on rooftops saying otherwise,
only makes the case against her look more glaringly proved, as
Weliamuna has by his endorsing this charade, exposed himself as
a hypocrite. |