Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

20 July   2021

 

Presidential Pardon for Arjun Mahendran?

 

Recently I quoted British Journalist C P Scott’s discovery “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” As per my discovery – ‘fact’ is the parallel of an individual human being. The soul in that body is the parallel of Truth in fact. The mind is the parallel of comments. Hence one could say that the parallel of the above is ‘Mind is free but soul is sacred.

On that basis I seek to find the ‘facts’ in the following part of  Daily Mirror article headed ‘First Bond Scam Case to be heard in the absence of Arjun Mahendran: AG’:

[The Attorney General today told the court that the prosecution is expecting to hear the first Central Bank bond scam that took place in February 2015 in the absentia of former Central Bank Governor Arjun Mahendran, if he cannot be brought here under the extradition laws. Additional Solicitor General Priyantha Nawana appearing for the Attorney General informed Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar that Attorney General's department has already been sent documents to the Singapore Attorney General’s Department regarding  Arjun Mahendran’s extradition.

 

…… The Permanent Trial-at-Bar bench has already issued a warrant written in English through Interpol for the arrest of former Central Bank Governor Arjun Mahendran who is currently evading courts by residing overseas in connection with the Central Bank bond scam case.

 The indictments have been filed in this case against former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, former Bank Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL), the PTL beneficiary owner Arjun Joseph Aloysius, PTL Chief dealer Kasun Palisena, Chairman of Perpetual Treasuries Limited Jeffrey Joseph Aloysius, PTL directors Pushya Mithra Gunawardena, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle, Muthuraja Surendran and Ajahn Gardiya Punchihewa.

  According to the indictments, all ten accused have been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal misappropriation in respect of treasury bonds to the face value of Rs.10.058 billion and Mahendran and Samarasiri have been charged with criminal breach of trust in respect of Treasury Bonds to the face value of Rs. 10.058 billion resulting in a loss to the government of Rs. 688.76 million.]

 

The main ‘fact’ that I identify with is:

 

Singapore government has been ‘informed’ that the Sri Lankan government seeks the extradition of Arjun Mahendran

 

The above is heavy on ‘what happened’. Given that the Singapore government’s response is silence, I conclude and publish on the basis of my belief in Singaporeans that they seek to stay out of this. The reason that comes to mind first is that Arjun Mahendran is a Tamil and the Sri Lankan government has not earned the respect of the Singapore government to deserve such a deportation. If deported and Arjun Mahendran is seen by Singapore Tamils to be treated like a Terrorist – that is bound to affect Singapore’s multicultural harmony.

 

These are reasons why reliability in governance is of utmost importance. The decision to go ahead without Arjun Mahendran is effectively a Presidential Pardon. As per the system of Dharma – which to my mind is to act as per one’s own conscience, others in the list also cannot be prosecuted on the same basis that soldiers can be disciplined but not prosecuted individually, where they followed orders of the leaders.

 

 This government effectively pardoned LTTE leader Karuna Amman and as per Dharma the whole of LTTE below Karuna in position was pardoned. Recently Mr Duminda Silva was Pardoned by this President who represents the Conscience of Nation. On Singapore’s part Mr Silva was allowed treatment in Singapore when the murder trial was being heard. To balance the National governance power the laws need to be lowered to cultural norms. Otherwise, we risk more and more takeovers by money-rich ‘foreigners’