A Game Of Musical Chairs At The RTI Commission, One Leaves, Who Will Come Next?
Sri Lankan civil society activists were scrambling on Thursday (December 16th) to nominate a replacement for Dr Athulasiri Samarakoon who resigned from the country’s Right to Information Commission just two days after sending his letter of acceptance to the Presidential Secretariat.
Dr Samarakoon had been nominated by the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) and was one of four independent Commissioners who had provided the balance to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s appointment on Saturday (December 11th) of politically tainted judge Upali Abeyratne as the Chair.
“We are looking for a nominee with guts to stand up to the Government with the other Commissioners and who is also knowledgeable about RTI,” said a media activist. “this is not an easy search” he said. “But if everyone resigns, the whole point of having nominees on the Commission will be lost,” he added. “We might as well hand over the job of making the appointments to the politicians without any need for nominations,” he said
The other nominees appointed by the President are senior attorney and bluntly critical columnist on the Rule of Law, Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena (nominee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka), former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Rohini Walgama (nominee of the editors and publishers forming the Sri Lanka Press Institute) and attorney at law cum long time trainer on right to information, Jagath Liyana Arachchi of the Young Journalists Association).
