Ranjan s Whirlpool

(Victor Ivan)

The police had taken into custody, 338 CDs containing recordings of telephone conversations, found in the residence of MP Ranjan Ramanayaka.The number of telephone conversations recorded in them is more than 13,000.Ranjan Ramanayaka had followed a tradition of recording telephone conversations originated by him as well as those he received from others. It is not ethical and proper to record a telephone conversation without the knowledge and consent of the other person. I have worked as a newspaper editor for a very long period; yet, I had never recorded any conversation, no matter how important it was, without the approval of the other party. But there are journalists who used to record telephone conversations without obtaining permission from the people they talk to. Ranjan Ramanayaka had maintained a tradition of recording all the telephone conversations. He has collected them passionately and let others listen to them at occasions such as press conferences.

The massive collection of recorded telephone conversations kept by Ranjan Ramanayaka is going to create a big turmoil in Sri Lanka, similar to the confusion created by the WikiLeaks in international arena .Similarly, Ranjan’s recorded telephone conversations will cause to push a lot of people from all walks of life into a big quandary. It is likely to create a situation in which it would be impossible to carry forward all the cases of political nature which were filed during the Yahapalna regime. The public will find sensational and relishing stories to harp on and live in a dream world, forgetting the stark reality of the country until the next general election. At the same time, these stories might lead to make the life of many people of different levels confused and even humiliated while some may be forced to resign from their official positions. There can be the ex president, the ex prime minister and his ministers, judges, legal officials, other government officials and academics among them. It is likely that even the names of the members of the previous opposition may be dragged into the list. Perhaps, the judiciary may be the biggest victim of the damage.

The reign of Mahinda Rajapaksa was not a period when there were no serious offences committed. Lasantha's assassination is not a lie. The incidents of abduction and brutal assault of journalists like Poddala Jayantha and Keith Noir cannot be considered fabricated falsehood. Similarly, the abduction of youths for ransom and later killing them cannot be considered a fabrication. Possibly, there might have been fabricated stories also among them. However, the CDs of Ranjan, taken into police custody will inevitably create a chaotic situation in which none of the above cases would be possible to be pursued.

The extreme acts of this nature cannot be considered to have occurred only during the reign of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Gruesome incidents of this nature had occurred earlier during the reign of Chandrika Kumaratunga as well. The assassinations of Rohana Kumara, editor, Satana tabloid newspaper and Kumar Ponnambalam are two instances that can be cited to prove this. Similar incidents happened during the regimes of Premadasa and JR Jayewardene also. Prior to that, there was no practice of probing into offences committed by previous regimes except that Sirima Bandaranaike and Felix Dias Bandaranayake were punished during the regime of JR Jayewardene. Thereafter, the parliamentary opposition, except for criticising the wrongdoings of the government abstained from taking action against the wrongdoings of the previous government and punish the culprits when it came to power.

It was the Yahapalana regime that initiated the tradition of investigating into the wrongdoings of the previous government and prosecuting and punishing the offenders. It is appropriate to recall a statement that I made during a discussion on a TV channel at the time when this tradition was introduced. I said that, if we were to look into the past offences, the correct approach would be to investigate into offences of all previous regimes, rather than restricting its scope only to the Rajapaksa regime. If the Yahapalna regime resorts to restrict it only to the period of Rajapaksha regime, with the view to revenging from them, ignoring the principle that I highlighted, I stressed that it will invariably create a cycle of revenge so that the next government that succeeds the Yahapalna regime will do the same thing to revenge from the latter. However, in the final analysis, even the cycle of revenge would be of benefit to the country, I said. The Yahapalana government showed one side of the coin to the country. Now the present government has begun to show the other side of it. In this process, the public will be enabled to apprehend the degree of deterioration of all important institutions of the country particularly, the extent of degradation of the judiciary.

Shani Abeysekara can be considered as one of the best detectives produced by Sri Lanka. But, it can be said that he had completely lost his reputation for being a part of the stupid program of Yahapalana government.

The Yahapalna government can be considered a stupid and ineffective government that did not know to do anything properly and methodically. If it wanted to investigate the wrongdoings of the Rajapaksa regime, it should have created a framework that would promote the confidence of everyone and prevent all political interferences. Instead, what it did was to introduce a framework that allowed politicians of the government to interfere with its proceedings. The CD collection of Ranjan's telephone conversations will reveal to the public, the extent of political interfering in the proceedings of criminal investigations, for both good and bad.

The number of people likely to face insult and criticism of this scandal will be many. Not just the ex president, ex prime minister and ministers , judges, law officers, even some civilians who had no official power but were able to interfere with the activities of the Yahapalna government will become the victims of humiliation , disgrace and embarrassment, and perhaps more serious consequences. In this backdrop, the whirlpool created by the recorded telephone conversations of Ranjan will certainly give the public an opportunity to understand the extent of deterioration of the state and its system of institutions and feel the putrid stench emanating from the rot. It will also help understand the extent of irregularity and chaotic situation of the system of independent commissions of Sri Lanka.

In any case, the situation of the country is not normal. It is in a great crisis similar to a situation of being caught in a massive cyclone.However, still there is a possibility to recreate a new country, new state and a new society capable of overcoming the degeneration of the country provided the politicians, bureaucrats, educators and the ordinary people of this country ( being concerned with the whirlpool going to burst out soon consequent to the disclosure of Ranjan’s recorded telephone conversations) will be able to realize the need for adopting a people based program of structural reforms which is not confined to a narrow framework of a political party.