Almost two years after then State Minister of Prisons Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation and of Gem and Jewellery and incumbent Plantation Industries State Minister Lohan Ratwatte, allegedly committed some of the most controversial acts by a minister in Sri Lanka’s political history, where he allegedly have forcibly entered the Welikada and Anuradhapura Prisons and intimidated several inmates at gunpoint, Sri Lanka sees a proper evaluation of the nature of his alleged acts and recommendations on the appropriate legal actions that should be taken against him.

These were issued by the one-member committee which comprised of former High Court Judge Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena which was appointed to investigate the said incidents and submit appropriate recommendations and observations. As The Daily Morning reported yesterday (12), after the relevant probes, the committee has recommended that charges, including those of attempted murder, be filed against Ratwatte. The committee mentions several crimes allegedly committed by Ratwatte, including but not limited to, the use of a firearm in an illegal manner, attempted murder, and criminal intimidation by threatening to cause death. Recommending that the necessary legal actions against Ratwatte should be initiated promptly, the committee has recommended that charges be filed against Ratwatte under Sections 118 and 120 of the Penal Code, among other legal provisions including those pertaining to firearms.

While these observations and recommendations are most likely to be welcomed by the public, what happens next is the most crucial question that any citizen would ask. That is primarily because in Sri Lanka’s history, the efforts of countless committees and commissions, including their observations and recommendations, have proven to be a damp squib, because many such recommendations have gone unimplemented and often ignored by the same political authorities that initiated those mechanisms. In Ratwatte’s case, those concerns are more relevant, due to the manner in which the former and current governments dealt with Ratwatte. On the one hand, the former Government allowed Ratwatte to remain the State Minister of Gem and Jewellery following the said incident, while on the other hand, the present Government, which came into power thanks to the people’s struggle for a better governing system and better politicians, did not take into account Ratwatte’s track record and instead appointed him as a State Minister.

Although one might argue that Ratwatte has a right to be treated as innocent until the alleged criminal activities are proven in a court of law, allowing him to remain in such powerful positions despite the gravity of the allegations against him, which were at that time supported by prison officials, is concerning. Now that a properly-established committee led by an ex-Judge has, after a proper investigation, corroborated the gravity of Ratwatte’s acts, the Government should have no issue taking legal actions against him under the Penal Code. The first step should however be stripping Ratwatte of his Ministerial portfolio. He deserves such stern disciplinary and legal actions, because one observation presented by the aforesaid committee was that Ratwatte had lied and hidden certain facts from it, which is a serious allegation for a Minister.

One offence that the committee found Ratwatte to have allegedly committed was causing disaffection against the Government among its people. As per Section 120 of the Penal Code, one of the legal provisions recommended by the said committee to take legal actions against Ratwatte under, “whoever, by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite feelings of disaffection to the State, or excites or attempts to excite hatred to or contempt of the administration of justice, or excites or attempts to excite the people of Sri Lanka to procure, otherwise than by lawful means, the alteration of any matter by law established, or attempts to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the people of Sri Lanka, or to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of such people” commits an criminal offence. 

Those allegations sound very familiar, as attempting to incite disharmony among people, or between different communities, is the main allegation that the Government keeps citing as the reason for the need for strict legal actions against stand-up comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya, Pastor Jerome Fernando, and Ven. Rajangane Saddharathana Thera under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act. Ironically, the offences related to disharmony described in Section 120 of the Penal Code resembles the offences listed under Section 3 (1) of the ICCPR Act, which pertain to “propagating war or advocating national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”

It is this situation that raises the most serious question stemming from the similarities between Ratwatte’s alleged acts and those of the three aforementioned public figures. That is, if both acts are of a criminal nature and pertains to attempting to cause disharmony among the people, why is the Government demonstrating double standards when dealing with the two parties? 

Edirisooriya and Saddharathana Thera were arrested promptly, while legal actions including a travel ban were initiated against Fernando promptly, but the Government has not at the very least issued a statement regarding Ratwatte’s case. In fact, if proven, the criminal activities that Ratwatte is said to have committed are more serious, because they allegedly involved physically threatening to take a Tamil person’s life, the irresponsible use of a weapon and ministerial powers, whereas the three said parties merely made statements that were purportedly disrespectful and could be interpreted as insulting.

In that sense, this is a perfect time for the Government to show that the law is equal to everyone, and that it is capable of fulfilling its duty of protecting the people.