“Vindictiveness” and “Vendetta” the operative words of the day

When one behaves in a vindictive manner, it is done without recourse to the rule of law or moral ethics. However the perpetrators cloak themselves with a shield that removes them from the actual incident by claiming that the law of the land has to be equal to all rich or poor, powerful or powerless and that they cannot interfere with the due process.
In the current situation this is exactly what has happened with the Government maintaining that the opposition should not interfere in a case that is of a person who has broken Military Law, and that the Law to which that person is bound is what is being followed to the letter and that there have been no personal involvements in this decision.
So washing one’s hands off a decision to arrest the most prominent opposition candidate at a time he was meeting with other members of the opposition, in planning a strategy to contest the forthcoming General Election is not an option. The reasoning given in the paragraph above in this situation does not wash as it is clearly seen, whatever the merits of the action, as vindictive in suppressing of the opposition in a democracy that is tantamount to suppression of the freedom of expression that is far more subversive than a crime that befits a court martial.
While sedition, and traitorous actions require due process to be followed, before a verdict is given and a sentence pronounced, the persons so empowered are now tainted with political affiliation, that deny the independence of such a court, in this case a Military Court. Therefore in the current situation of lack of governance in Sri Lanka, no verdict that is issued by a court so appointed can have any credence and therefore any teeth in the eyes of the independent observer.
It is therefore imperative that the Government take responsibility for its actions, and be held fully accountable for such and justify, with proof rather than by making uncorroborated statements to support their actions. If this is not forthcoming all charges should be dropped, so that the person so accused, in this case General Fonseka and all those who have been detained using the same innuendo, are released forthwith. If after the elections, it is felt that there is enough evidence that can be presented in a court of law, then new charges can be made and the law of the land be applied, outside of the Military Court procedure. The Judges in a Military Court in Sri Lanka don’t have any credibility subsequent to the purge of the Defense forces recently carried out which have put Government loyalists in charge. Transparency must be seen to be at work not just assumed.