 a suitable moment for striking a final blow against the judiciary and thus complete the process started by J.R. Jayewardene when he filed his impeachment against Neville Samarakoon.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was a determined attempt for the full realisation of the aim of the 1978 Constitution, which was to give absolute power to the executive president. In 1978 this was still a difficult task as there were the habits formed over a long period to trust the local institutions and still a belief in the possibility of justice and fairness was quite alive. Perhaps the executive thinks that the opportune moment has arrived to realise the full potential of the 18th Amendment.
Already there are public rumours about who the executive is aiming to put in place of the incumbent Chief Justice once the impeachment process is speeded up by the utilisation of the toothless majority that the government has in parliament. If those rumours are correct then the last days of even the limited independence of the judiciary are close at hand.
However, it may not all go that way. The people may use this occasion not only to critique the absolute power of the executive but also as a critique of the weaknesses of the judiciary itself. They may use this occasion to demand a stronger judiciary. That, of course, implies that the people will have to deal with the displacement of the absolute power notion which was created through the tyranny of a four-fifth majority in parliament that J.R. Jayewardene had in 1978.
Whichever way, for better or for worse, the present impeachment motion will prove decisive.