Cardinal’s message; a strong reminder to the rulers - EDITORIAL

Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has opened a Pandora’s Box on Sunday by saying that he did not have faith in any of the investigations carried out into the terrorist attacks on Christians on their holiest day, the Easter Sunday which fell on April 21.   

He expressed this sentiment while delivering his sermon at the re-consecration (re-opening) of Katuwapitiya St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo which was damaged in the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attack by a member of the National Thawheed Jama’ath terror outfit. Giving a political colouring to his sermon the Cardinal said at the event that the time has come to tell the leaders to go home and hand over the nation to able people.  

Criticising a particular investigation among the several of them he also observed that political leaders are getting one committee probing the Easter Sunday carnage to submit a report according to their whims and fancies.   

This was not the first time Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith had criticized the investigations into the April 21 terrorist attacks and called on the government to relinquish power and hand it over to somebody who can duly deliver the goods. However, this time it seems to have drawn flak from an infuriated President Maithripala Sirisena who denied allegations implied generally on the government and said appropriate action had been taken after the Easter Sunday attacks and within weeks all the suspects had been arrested by the security forces and the police.   

Despite the political colouring of Cardinal’s comments on the investigations in his sermon and in spite of some investigations having revealed startling fact in respect of national security, needless to say the investigations on the issue have been controversial from their beginning. President Sirisena appointed a three member committee on the very next day of the attacks (April 22) under the chairmanship of Supreme Court Judge Justice Vijith Malalgoda which had handed over its report to the President on June 10. However, President’s partner in governance, the United National Party (UNP) which seems to have not been interested in that probe or no faith in it initiated a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the same issue, with the proceedings of it unprecedentedly being open to the media.   

The President promised the country that the report of the Malalgoda committee would be made public but he is yet to keep his promise, despite the fact that it had been handed over to him six weeks ago. The PSC seems to be more interested in identifying the ideology that had led to the terrorist attacks targeting Christians, rather than finding out those who were directly responsible for the crime and those who let it happen due to their negligence of duty. Hence, we were informed that the witnesses were questioned over date palm trees and Arabic sign boards in Batticaloa, seeming irregularities in setting up of a private university in the same area, dress code in public offices and whether Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country.   

One has to admit the divisive approach of the groups in the government toward the investigation into one of the worst crimes in the country’s history. And this matter has somewhat diluted the seriousness of investigations in the eyes of the people. The IGP Pujith Jayasundera who has been suspended after the Easter Sunday attacks and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando who resigned over the same issue seemed to have a field day when they testified before the PSC. But were they similarly expressive when they testified before the Malalgoda committee appointed by the President? Yet, one cannot come to a conclusion before studying the reports of these committees.   

People have a right to know not only who is really behind the attacks and how they executed the crime; rather they also have the right to know who let the terrorists kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children in spite of them having prior knowledge on the terrorist plan. The whole world is watching the progress of these investigations as they are being carried out in respect of a crime committed against the 2.2 billion strong Christian community which is by far the world’s largest religious group, on their holiest day. Besides, the credibility of the Sri Lankan judiciary has already been questioned by the UNHRC. Therefore the political and religious leaders must put their heads together to streamline the investigations, without pointing finger at each other or politicizing the issue.