“The law of the jungle” is an expression that means “every man for himself”, “anything goes”, “survival of the strongest”, “survival of the fittest”, “kill or be killed”, “dog eat dog” and “eat or be eaten”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Law of the Jungle as “the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival.” It is also known as jungle law or frontier justice. The phrase was used in a poem by Rudyard Kipling to describe the obligations and behaviour of a wolf in a pack. “NOW this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, and the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; for the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. In Sri Lanka the Law of the Jungle that prevailed not long ago is on the rise again and it is time for the rulers to re-establish Judicial Independence.
An unidentified man seized the pistol of an advance motorcycle police officer, who was patrolling the route taken by the Jaffna High Court Judge and opened fire in day light at the vehicle carrying the judge is the latest crime report from city of Jaffna in the North. In which one of his security man – a police sergeant, sustained injuries from the shooting and died in hospital on admission. Incidentally the shooting comes just days after the Criminal Investigations Department arrested Senior DIG for allegedly helping a Swiss diaspora, a key suspect to escape, who was later arrested in Colombo. The case is about adopting an innocent school girl, who was 18 years old at the time and subsequently raped and murdered by a gang in May 2015; crime planned and committed for money on a real victim of circumstances, by a wicked diaspora beast of a man from Switzerland. The rape and murder trial began on June 28, 2017, before a three member bench at the Jaffna High Court; that included this Jaffna High Court Judge, with a reputation of passing good judgements in the recent past was the target. The motives of the shooting are not known as there are many possibilities.
This incident has taken place at a critical period in the life of the present coalition government formed by the two largest parties in the country and few minor parties; whose opponents are accusing the rulers on lack of performance in their two years of rule. Mostly, these accusations are coming from aspirants from south and north regions of the country, who were dethroned by the people in 2015; who are now opening the country up for more foreign interventions and themselves betraying the very communities they claim to represent and are in the process continuing to destroy the lives of poor communities to the present day.
As such the possibility of political motivation cannot be ruled out on this shooting incident; perhaps it is only a simple case of diaspora big money behind it all. For anything is possible in this land that was once a paradise, where today all the communities moulded by their extreme political leaders to hate and kill each other just came out in 2009 from a long protracted crude civil war; than to live in peace and harmony as per their religious teachings; perhaps only exception to the rule are the millions of Christians who are fortunate not to have political leaders to misguide them. At least the nation is blessed on that account, for many people escaped death during the war, because of the compassionate love of these Christians; not well appreciated by the political big wigs, yet people are still grateful.
All citizens of Mother Lanka, including who are living overseas have the moral responsibility to think twice before extending their support to petty minded politicians and others in positions of responsibility in the country be it the religious leaders or the trade unions or professionals, who for reasons known only to them are encouraging the activities of these dethroned aspirants. For checking and controlling the activities of these frogs in the well minded politicos, will go a long way to help the government to safeguard not only the judiciary, but the whole country. If such activities are not curbed, it will only take the country back to war years, where violence activities off the battle fields were normal occurrence; will only result in inviting foreign intervention. While the whole world is following the events in Sri Lanka on judicial independence in the country; a new turn of events in Jaffna, north of the country took place when a judge hearing the case at the Jaffna High Court came under gun fire on the street by an unidentified man. At a time when there was lot of infighting among the legislators of all shades for petty political reasons accusing the government of inaction to control crime and corruption on one hand; on the other hand accusing that the security forces including the police are being victimised by accusing them of crimes committed in particular during the later stages of the war and beyond during negative years. The President and others responsible must demonstrate to the world if not at least to the Sri Lankan people, that they have courage to execute their duties by doing what is right and safeguard the judiciary by protecting the judges to ensure a free and fair trial in one of the most dangerous cases that includes two senior police officers accused of not performing their duties properly. Trust our leaders at the top will react positively and act fast.
Northern Breeze 