AFTER THE BATTING SIDE RAN …

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has written a dirge of an article in a local weekly, about the President being a prisoner of Laitmer House principles, and another national weekly screams about the possibility of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting in London snatching away the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) out of Sri Lanka’s reach, as host nation in 2013.

Obviously, political machinations are very much at work. It’s not the impeachment or the LLRC recommendations that count any more, it is the degree of political gain that can be eked out by maneuvering these events to maximum political advantage. It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who stated, himself, quite clearly and for the record, that the Select Committee of Parliament is the proper procedure to investigate a Chief Justice.

But in his new dirge of a newspaper contribution he states that the Chief Justice has not been given a fair hearing and the Latimer House principles of the commonwealth have thereby been violated. It is clear therefore that what’s meant by ‘no fair hearing’ is entirely based on what the former Chief Justice and her legal team claimed were the instances of abuse, and the withholding of an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, at which point she walked out of the proceedings.

To walk out and claim ‘unfair procedure’ is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s old school has sometimes been adept at these kinds of tactics; in one of the earlier encounters of the big match played against S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia, the Royal College cricket team was shot out for nine runs.

The team ran away to some hill station after that, and never appeared, despite the fact that the record shows clearly that the conditions were fit for play. To this day Royal College claims that the match was abandoned, while S. Thomas' records the nine run match as a win for S.T.C.

A comparison may sound facetious at first, but no, it is not. The fact is that it is very difficult for anybody to say that Sri Lanka has violated Latimer House principles, as it is clear that the procedure to impeach a judge, for instance in Australia also, is the same as in Sri Lanka.

This was asserted by Dr. Mark Cooray – who incidentally -- is one of the most respected academics in the field of law in the University system in Australia, having been a professor of law in Macquire University.

So the conditions for play have been perfect. It is just that the other side didn’t turn up for play, and basically ran off. Now, interested parties and unsurprisingly, the loser in all of this, the former Chief Justice, are claiming a draw. (“There are two Chief Justices’’ is the lame call for instance, in the aftermath of the impeachment.)

The former Chief Justice no doubt will have her own narrow reasons of saving face, and of course salvaging some part of her reputation, if that is indeed possible. But for the others it is a pure and simple game of politics.

Wickremesinghe’s letter, his having earlier taken the stand that the Select Committee is the only procedure that was available to investigate malpractice charges against a Chief Justice, is clear enough on that. Perhaps Wickremesinghe thinks he is being clever. Having goaded on the government, more or less, to rely on the Select Committee, now he sounds out the international community on the alleged breach of Latimer House principles. He must be thinking he gave the regime enough rope with which to hang itself, and now he wants to be a part of that ‘hanging.’

No, the House rules are clear. The government had no option but to go the way it did under the provisions of the constitution, and no option but to remove the Chief Justice once the Legislature had decided on the matter.

No amount of crying that the match is a draw will help under these circumstances, when the regime clearly comes off cleanly in all of this, and is the winner as far as good governance is concerned. The rest of it is petty and political -- and is bound to come a cropper.