There is a man in Colombo today who cannot hide. His name is Sajith Premadasa. He was a member of the Constitutional Council that reviewed and approved Preethi Padman Surasena for the position of Chief Justice. He placed his hand on the table, cast his vote, and helped create the very crisis that now threatens to swallow twenty two million Sri Lankans. Every questionable judgment, every loyalist appointment, every rumour of occult influence and political pact carries the fingerprint of that vote. Premadasa built this house. He does not get to claim innocence when the roof collapses.
Now Surasena has done the unthinkable. He has personally requested a two year extension from the President, a demand without any precedent in the long history of our judiciary. And the opposition leader, the man who helped put Surasena in power, sits numb. He issues no statement. He calls no press conference. He does not move Parliament, does not summon the Constitutional Council, does not threaten impeachment. He watches. He waits. He calculates.
Let me be unmistakably clear. Premadasa, your silence is not neutrality. Your silence is endorsement. Every day you refuse to condemn this unconstitutional extension, you give Surasena and the President permission to proceed. Every hour you spend in political calculation, you betray the people who voted for you as a check on authoritarian power. You were supposed to be the alternative. Instead you have become the accomplice.
The opposition leader must announce his position today. Will he move an immediate motion in Parliament rejecting any extension of the Chief Justice’s term? Will he demand a special sitting of the Constitutional Council to declare that no mechanism for such an extension exists under the Constitution? Will he publicly call upon the President to refuse Surasena’s request and upon the Chief Justice to withdraw it in shame? Or will he continue to sit on his hands while the judiciary is captured, while capital flees, while cronies feast, and while the poor pay the price?
If Premadasa chooses silence, he becomes an enemy of twenty two million people. There is no middle ground. There is no third option. There is only the ballot of history, and history will record that he had the power to stop this catastrophe and refused to use it. The country is watching. The youth are watching. The creditors are watching.
Sajith Premadasa, speak now or be forever remembered as the man who held the match and pretended not to see the fire.
(Author Unknown)
