The efficacy of their systems, progress and occasional hiccups reflect in a fundamental way the culture, the intelligence and even the sensibilities of a people. One simply cannot for instance have an evolved parliamentary system among a group of barbarians. Neither can we have a credible public /judicial service in a corrupt culture. The former would have no use for the niceties of democratic principles while the latter will invariably subvert the public/judicial service with corruption. On the other hand, we have the example of Great Britain functioning as a stable and prosperous democracy without even a document which could be referred to as the Constitution. Acts of Parliament, case law, precedents, traditions etc give sufficient cohesion to that society and system, still looked up to as a leading nation on many indicators, noticeably on constitutional and legal aspects. Even our infamous hedging case has now ended up in a British court for adjudication.

A people are a sum of their ideas, attitudes and sensibilities. Whatever happens in a given society will ultimately progress along lines set by that particular people. The on-going impeachment motion against theChief Justice is no different. Its definition, evolution and the final act can in a larger sense only reflect the quality of a people.

Of course in a large society there is not just one opinion, attitude or sensibility, although we can often discern general directions therein. Events that happen around us, including the impeachment motion happen in a certain context. As writers we can only report what we see and hear. It is for the reader to interpret their meaning. We recount here some of the opinions expressed by different persons in recent days. They were not recorded and are reproduced only to the best of our recollection. Due to space limitations we have condensed the conversations considerably. Some of the opinions expressed may not be directly referable to the impeachment motion but we think are representative of general attitudes and categories of thinking common in Sri Lanka