A reputed Italian tyre maker exactly a quarter century ago coined the now world-famous advertising tag line ‘power is nothing without control’. This advertisement not only conveyed a powerful message through the sporting icon Carl Lewis, but also highlighted a simple home truth that is often taken for granted.

In a country like Sri Lanka where political power is everything and the craze for it knows no bounds, the sad fact is that once power is acquired – often by hook or by crook – those vested with it have little or no control over it. The end result is that the holders of such power are either consumed by it or fall victim to it.

It is often the case that politicians not only create issues to gain power but are equally adept at peddling resolution of the gravest of issues in order to acquire power. But once elected it is an altogether different story, with promises falling by the wayside and new issues being manufactured to divert attention. It has so far proved to be a foolproof recipe given the fact that Sri Lankans by nature are rather forgetful, with the standard joke being that the average memory span of a typical Sri Lankan is two weeks.

However, maybe through divine intervention, all that appears to be dramatically changing, particularly with regard to the tragic Easter Sunday events that took place four years ago. Rather than the issue being buried with time as is often the case and despite the brazen attempts by the political authorities past and present to sweep the issue under the carpet, year after year the cry for justice has only grown louder.

The massive protest that took place on Friday (21) to commemorate the innocent victims of the attacks and to remind the authorities about the need for justice even at this late hour, despite the Government doing all it could to scuttle the protest, is the clearest indication that non-resolution of this festering wound could in fact turn out to be the Achilles heel of the current political dispensation, just as it was for the last one.

It is no longer mere speculation that a grand conspiracy was afoot that paved the way for the attacks. The now-retired Director of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police made the startling revelation on Friday via a social media interview that the forced removal of the then Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division, DIG Nalaka de Silva, based on a yet unverified revelation by an individual by the name of Namal Kumara, that de Silva was planning to assassinate the then President Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was in fact a ruse to dislodge the TID boss who was on the verge of arresting Zahran Hashim and dismantling his suicidal terror outfit months before the attacks. With de Silva taken out of the picture, Hashim was handed an open visa to plan and carry out the attacks.

Now four years later, DIG de Silva, who was reinstated in his job one month ago, is currently in charge of the North Western Province while the man who made the sensational claim is also living as if nothing happened, with not even an inquiry about the claim he made. It is these events that took place months before the attacks and disregard for multiple intelligence warnings from not only local intelligence but also from India through official channels that led to the likes of former Attorney General Dappula de Livera stating that the coordinated attacks at multiple locations was the result of a grand conspiracy.

There is no doubt that the masterminds of that conspiracy must surely be quivering in their shoes given the determination of the people to see justice being served with the same vigour as four years ago. It is clear that they have underestimated the will of the Catholic Church that has led from the front in continuing the quest for justice, which is quite contrary to the two-week memory loss phenomenon that the conspirators may well have banked on for redemption, with it being invalidated in this instance. The political dispensation that is busy drafting laws to prevent people from coming on to the streets will do well to understand that this crusade for justice is not just yet another pointless protest but a beacon of hope for the nation that justice must not only be done but also seen to be done no matter how long it takes.

One must remember that the 30-year war was triggered by the killing of 13 soldiers. It may well have been the intention of the conspirators to trigger yet another clash among ethnic groups in the hope of capitalising on it. Had the Catholics fallen for the bait and reacted in a similar manner to the targeted killing of 270 of their brethren, the country would have turned into yet another bloodbath. Instead they placed their trust in the legal system to identify and prosecute the masterminds, but four years down the line all they have got are cover-ups and excuses. Given this state of affairs, what else are they to do than protest?

It is due to the fact that the masterminds who seemingly had every intention of turning this country into a bloodbath are still roaming free and are free to plot the next despicable act and are, in every sense of the word, potent threats to national security that political considerations must be set aside and the investigation be handed over to a neutral authority like Scotland Yard as promised by none other than the incumbent President nearly eight months ago.

The hopeless and pathetic state of affairs is underlined by the fact that even the little action that has been initiated so far to prosecute those who held office at the time for criminal negligence that led to the conviction of the former President and three other individuals in the defence set-up came as a result of legal action initiated by the Catholic Church while the Police and Attorney General’s Department seem afflicted with rigor mortis.

The fact that the Judiciary continues to offer a beacon of hope despite the efforts of law enforcement to stifle the people’s legitimate right to protest is indeed reassuring. The authorities must realise that people have better things to do in this crippling economic environment than to spend hours on roads participating in protests. But they do so in the hope that their cries and pleas will be heard by those in power.

It is rather intriguing that three Executive Presidents from three very different political camps have held office in the four years since the attacks, but none has had the will to heal this festering wound. Continuing to attempt to cover up the mess, as in the case of key witnesses suddenly being pronounced dead four years after the event and continuing to ignore the pleas of the people and clergy of all faiths and instead attempting to gag the people through draconian legislation and threaten them into submission all point to one thing – a continuing grand conspiracy.

At the end of the day, Executive power must necessarily be used exclusively for the benefit of the people. While two have failed in that respect since the terror attacks, let’s hope the third uses and controls that power for the benefit of the people. After all, justice is the greatest benefit that people have in a democracy.