Those of us who believe that the high and mighty fall from pedestals only in this free, sovereign, democratic socialist republic of ours are grievously wrong. It happens elsewhere too as history, both contemporary and ancient, shows us time and again. The Australian media has been recently full of stories about a man called Marcus Richard Einfeld, Q.C., a former superior court judge in that country, who has scored the doubtful distinction of being the first person who had held eminent judicial office in Australia to be sentenced to jail. His offence was perjury, or attempting to pervert the course of justice by making a false statement under oath, in a bid to avoid an AUD 77 speeding fine and a single de-merit fine on his driving license. A bulldog media and a meticulous investigation showed him up, one lie leading to another, and he is now serving a three-year jail sentence on his own guilty plea.

Shades of Golden Key, you might say. The fact is that most human beings, rich or poor, famous or unknown, have some skeleton somewhere in their cupboards, be it as commonplace as making a less than truthful declaration in their tax returns. Those who pretend they don’t and have always trod the straight and narrow throughout their lives are either knaves or liars, or both. As the Biblical exhortation has it, ``Let him that is without sin among you first cast the stone’’ (John 8:7) when a woman accused of misconduct was to be stoned to death. In fact, the publication of a list of Golden Key depositors, including one who bore the name of a former Governor of the Central Bank and another the name of a highly respected former public servant (not forgetting a couple of bishops) led to a lot of malicious calumny in gossipy conversations countrywide. We have on the authority of no less than a very senior officer of the central bank that the person believed to have been a former governor was born in 1980 (according to his National ID Card number) and would now be all of 29 years of age! It is therefore incumbent on all of us to check our facts and not jump to hasty conclusions on anything. In any case, investing on Golden Key for high interest is no crime unless illgotten loot was the source of the capital.

Having said that, we would like to comment on the award of dubious national honours in our own country. A highly respected public servant was once conferred a Desamanya (or was it Deshabandu?) title alongside a well known bookmaker found himself in bad company. We need go no further than that person called Mervin Silva, also adorned with a doctorate from wherever, who is an incumbent National List MP and a highly visible electoral organizer of the ruling party. He’s come into parliament from both the UNP and the SLFP and that is a sad commentary on how these pensionable politicians, paid from public funds, are foisted on the country by both the government party and that of the alternative government. Time was when respected lawyers, particularly practicing in the provinces, considered it an honour to be made a JP or JP UPM (Justice of the Peace, Unofficial Police Magistrate). That, of course, led to snide remarks like ``Junior Passed, Unable to Pass Matric.’’ Look at those adorned with JPships today. Many of them will not pass muster. But who is to pass judgment given that those who have left senior jobs under a cloud, including at least one senior ambassadorial appointee, and other kith and kin are annointed in the country’s diplomatic service. It might be a useful exercise to conduct a census of living JPs – who are they and do we need them in such numbers?

Poor Einfeld in Australia has been stripped of his silk and runs the risk of being disbarred. Though his disgrace is total, he’s put a brave face on his scandalous misconduct saying "I don’t think I’m the slightest bit dishonest. I just made a mistake." Few will buy that argument and human nature being what it is, will take salacious pleasure about the fall of an icon in society. That is as true of us here in Sri Lanka as it is in Australia. This has been amply demonstrated by the ongoing Golden Key saga. Staring us right in the face is the case of a serving minister’s wife, convicted and jailed for conspiracy and murder of the minister’s mistress and a domestic employee. She has been freed following a presidential pardon after a very short time in jail. While our high courts continue to sentence convicted murderers to death, no death sentence has been carried out in this country from the time of President J.R. Jayewardene. They have all been commuted to life imprisonment. Along with other opponents of the death sentence, we go along with such clemency in this Buddhist country while admitting that the issue is open to debate. We do not think that Einfeld will get any pardon in Australia, although he will be entitled to parole after serving two years in jail.