The Rule Of Law – Are Our People Interested?

By R.M.B Senanayake -June 10, 2014

R.M.B. Senanayake

Aristotle said more than two thousand years ago, “The rule of law is better than that of any individual.”

The Organization of Professional Associations is discussing the principle of the Rule of Law and bemoaning the loss of the principle in our system of government today. But when some say that law and order has eroded others say- no  and point out to the ending of the war and remind us that the situation was worse during the period of the war. But this is to confuse the principle of the Rule of law and the prevalence of order in society.

No Rule of Law is required to ensure order and peace in society. The government knows how to do so. So the government politicians will hire mobs to intimidate attack and suppress protests by the people. The latest episode is the attack on the Ruhunu University students. This method has the distinct advantage that the blame cannot be directly attributed to the Government. This method of maintaining order and peace in society began with the attacks on journalists during the time of the previous President Chandrika Bandaranaike. Now it is a well established tradition. Journalists and others who criticize the ruling regime just disappear. They are picked up by a white van. Those who are members of the criminal under-world disappear and are never heard of again. Our peasants who are of the same mentality as the rulers would even justify such actions. Aren’t our people known to be fools according to traditional folk lore? So we will proceed in this path and allow our policemen to arrest anybody they like, torture them while in custody, produce them before spineless judges and then convict them on forced confessions. The method is guaranteed not to fail. We as a people in our history, never seem to have valued personal freedom. We were serfs during the rule of our ancient kings and our kings could act arbitrarily. The last king of Kandy showed what was the justice that Ehalepola’s family could face in his Kingdom.                                                          Read More