Hats off to the Rajapakse regime, the Machiavelli of Medamulane has pulled it off. Sacking a Chief Justice and getting away with it is no easy task and few governments succeed.  The Fijian generals who periodically overthrow that tortured nation’s democratic governments usually follow up by sacking the chief justice, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe has found it necessary to curb an independent judiciary, the list is not long. Now Sri Lanka joins this group, where the government has successfully got rid of a Chief Justice who became in a very limited manner, an inconvenient obstacle to the executive’s wishes.

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Earlier this week the Rajapakse Administration added yet another dubious distinction to its governance records by braking decades of parliamentary tradition and forcing on the order paper of Parliament the debate and vote on the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike. Traditionally and historically the agenda of parliament, is agreed upon by consensus at the Party leaders meetings. However on this historic first occasion all the opposition party representatives walked out of the party leaders meeting after vehemently protesting that a report and process held null and void by the Supreme Court should not be proceeded with by Parliament. The constitutionally required procedure of enabling legislation and ensuring due process must be complied with. A UPFA government that wrapped up an inquiry in four weeks would have none of it.

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