The Daily News-Editorial

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.