Impunity In The Broader Sri Lankan Sense

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –October 28, 2015

Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Denial of Impunity a Must

Our everyday conversation focuses on impunity for the soldiers who are responsible for massacres. I am absolutely convinced that for proven crimes, punishment is a must. It is a deterrent and gives safety and assurance to victims and others that there will be no recurrence. It makes victims’ families feel they are equal citizens and promotes reconciliation. However, to be sure, that principle that crime requires punishment needs wide application and not just to errant soldiers.

In Sri Lanka – Impunity for all in Authority

If we look around, we will see that offering impunity to our bigwigs is our style of operation and it must change. In the church, at the Deaf and Blind School in Jaffna, when the Principal was caught abusing girls, a few priests are said to have hired a van and gone to Colombo to plead with the Bishop to spare the man. Thankfully, the police moved and he ended up in Jail. In Batticaloa, a senior priest used funds for refugees and orphans to build his empire and take a different orphan girl to Colombo on each trip to Colombo. Even after the police took him into custody, the elders of the church including many so-called progressives wanted him as the next bishop of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. It only mattered that he had status. Thankfully, there is God above the princes and royal families of the church.

At the University of Jaffna, a senior lecturer in music and Department Head was harassing girls. He was protected by the VC for well over 4 years despite numerous complaints and a preliminary report by the Council wanting formal charges framed. The VC finally moved to charge him only when students tended to violence. And yet, at last week’s Saraswati Pooja festivities at a dance and music school on Navalar Road, this interdicted man was the Chief Guest. Status is all that counts. Your status guarantees immunity from prosecution.

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