BASL: Where Art Thou?

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, representing the legal professionals in the country has a pivotal role in the administration of justice. It has had its fair share of controversy through the years and faced accusations of politicisation and political bias. But at critical moments, the legal fraternity, either as part of the BASL or outside, have stood up to defend democracy and civil liberties in the country.

Memorably, the lawyers were at the forefront of the battle against the first-ever impeachment of a Chief Justice in Sri Lanka. Though they lost that battle in 2013, it marked the beginning of the end of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration which was ousted a little over a year later. 

In 2018, during the constitutional coup precipitated by then-President Maithripala Sirisena by sacking Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, it was the legal battle fought and won inside the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal that saved the day for democracy.

Several lawyers at the forefront of that battle, including Hejaaz Hizbullah, paid a heavy price for that victory. Hizbullah was incarcerated for nearly two years under fabricated terrorism charges for his role in defeating the 2018 coup, while others had to flee the country in fear of their lives.

One of the most important turning points in the short-lived Gotabaya Rajapaksa Presidency was the election of Saliya Peiris as BASL President in a landslide in 2021. This was significant since his opponent was seen as the establishment candidate backed by the Rajapaksa administration. Peiris, a former member of the Human Rights Commission and first Chairman of the Office on Missing Persons, reinvigorated the Bar Association and ensured that the legal community took a stand for democratic norms and rule of law.

Under Peiris’ leadership, the Bar Association played a pivotal role during the four months of the Aragalaya, standing between peaceful protestors calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster and the regime’s attempts to clampdown on the demonstrations. 

An iconic moment of the struggle was when over 300 lawyers appeared on behalf of 53 people who were arrested near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Mirihana private residence in March. That show of force ensured that except for six, all others were granted bail. The BASL was also vocal after the 9 May violence and the protests that culminated on 9 July with the resignation of President Rajapaksa.

It is precisely that recent activism by the BASL that makes its silence in the face of a vicious crackdown on leaders of the protest movement by the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration so damning. In the past 24 hours, Sasindu Sahan Tharaka and Piyath Nikeshala – two youth activists involved in the public mobilisations were arrested. Sparking widespread outrage, IUSF national organiser Mangala Maddumage was abducted near the public library Colombo by a group of persons travelling in a three-wheeler. 

The Colombo Crimes Division subsequently admitted to arresting Maddumage, but the manner of his arrest was a gross violation of due process. More than 40 activists, union leaders and protestors have been victimised by Wickremesinghe’s witch-hunt since he took over as Acting President on 15 July. The arrests are blatantly arbitrary. The state of emergency has been used to suppress dissent and dissuade public demonstrations. Dead bodies, limbs bound are washing ashore in the heart of the capital, evoking sinister memories from a campaign of State terror decades ago, when corpses floated in the Kelani and other major rivers across the country. There is no denying the chilling effect corpses washing ashore will have on freedom of assembly and the future of protest in the island. And through all this still, a deafening silence from the Bar Association.   

In its absence, a group of senior lawyers signed a declaration pledging to represent protestors against the Government’s witch-hunt. While the critical intervention by the senior counsel provides heart and hope, it is mysterious that a similar intervention has not emanated from the BASL, raising questions about whether the association has been cowed or coerced into silence. If ever the legal fraternity needed to rise up and speak in unison, that moment is now.