When the Chief Justice spoke two weeks ago, he warned us not to expect justice if the executive does not do its job of arraigning and vigorously prosecuting criminals for due judgement. For him to come so far, it must have been agonising. No branch of the government can flourish on any lack of confidence in the institutions of the state. Least of all the judiciary that must always be so circumspect in its pronunciations.
I would not have wanted to be a hair on the Chief Justice’s head as the Prime Minister brushed him off in that smug, you can’t touch this, tone he uses to dismiss anyone who “criticises him harshly”.
The Chief Justice expressed deep concern at the environment of impunity and corruption that is suffocating the working of our republic. He is genuinely worried. Judges want to fight crime. They want to punish illegality. But faced by corrupt, complicit and conveniently complacent policing they are helpless.
I turn to you Mr Chief Justice and your colleagues. I do not belong to the legal profession and I know you with the dread and deference of laymen. The executive arm of our government is manifestly complicit in crime. The legislative arm is disabled by design, controlled by the executive and barely tickled by a splintered opposition in existential crisis.
We only have you left. And we can only hope that as the international press walk among us after the terrible events of this week, you can help us prove not all is lost. That this mafia state has not reached you whether by adopting you in its greedy pockets or by intimidating you with the sort of retribution and terrorism our best journalist has suffered.
You have a duty to make known to the world your commitment to good governance, to due process, to the rule of law, which is truly blind and indifferent to the power, influence, resources and weaponry of crime.
I implore you, as a citizen of a country left only with hope to temper my anger, to walk out and protest your commitment to justice and fairness as the press corps did today. You should down your tools and while the world looks upon us insist you will not legitimise the possession of our state by corruption and organised crime by presiding on banana courts that pass judgement on the few and the petty while the truly evil get away with murder.
Walk out of the courts and give the people your wisdom and your judgement. It is time for the protections and the tenure that you enjoy are used as shields to protect the law-abiding citizens of a country that has been taken away from them and given to criminals who hold you in contempt.
Walk out of the courts and demand change. The prime minister can’t laugh you off for ever.