Sunday Times 2
When police officers walked tall
The evolution of Sri Lanka Police: From loyalty to the law of the land to loyalty to politicians
Dr. R.M. Heen Nilame, an octogenarian General Physician (GP), was among the many who responded by email having read my article in the Sunday Times of February 16. His reflections on his childhood memories of the Police and the Rule of Law, and comparing them to current trends, are worthy of sharing with other readers. His email read as follows:
“O tempora, O mores – Just finished reading your article re the Police Commission. During my childhood, villagers got upset if an ordinary PC was seen. Political interference with the Police started, if I remember right, during Madam Sirimavo’s time by her nephew Felix. Correct me if I am wrong.”
The period this GP talks of nostalgically is over 80 years ago. A Police constable (PC) then represented the law. Lawbreakers shuddered at the mere presence of a PC in the village.
Even as late as 1958 when I joined the Police Force as a sub-inspector, the insight I had into the Police was this: At an interview with the applicants, the Assistant Director of Training (ADT), Fred Brohier, an ex-Royal Air Force pilot with an impressive personality, asked a question from the applicants assembled as to whom a Police officer’s loyalty is due. Various answers such as: to the Prime Minister; to the Inspector General of Police, were given. Having listened to these answers, the ADT stated in very categorical terms that a Policeman owed his loyalty to no mother’s son, but to the law of the land, and elaborated on it. It is then and there I decided that the Police was the place for me.
Police duties were good and fulfilling for about 14 years. But alas, the Republican Constitution of 1972 brought the Police under a minister, in whom all powers of the Police were vested. This is the start of political interference in the Police that the GP refers to. The 1978 Constitution strengthened the political control over the Police even further.
In 2002, there was much euphoria about setting up an Independent Police Commission. What was envisaged was a commission to insulate the Police from political interference and ensure its independence. But alas again, what came out was a transfer of all powers of enlistment, promotions, transfers and punishment to the National Police Commission (NPC). The result was the debacle which was dealt with in my previous article that prompted the octogenarian GP to hark back to the good old days.
I have since read the Annual Report 2017 of the NPC. It is 30 pages of jargon, only with a view to expanding its horizons. There is not a word on insulating the Police from political interference. There have been no Annual Reports since 2017.
I have also read the NPC website (https://www.npc.gov.lk/). Under History and its sub-heading 17th Amendment, it is written: “The main objective in establishing an oversight body on policing, by the 17th Amendment was to ensure the independence of the Police Service from interference or undue influence and to instil respect for Rule of Law in the minds of all ranks of the Police Service in order for them to perform their duties impartially and fearlessly. All powers for managing police personnel and investigation of public complaints against police were entrusted to NPC, a major step towards the oversight function to ensure accountability of the substantive work expected of the police.”
This takes my mind to a line from John Milton’s famous poem, In His Blindness: “Doth God exact day-labour, light deny’d, I fondly ask.” In the parallel case under review, one has to ask, ‘Does the NPC exact accountability from the Police, having stripped the IGP of all his powers and arrogating them to itself?’
In the good old days that the octogenarian GP harks back to, a policeman’s forthright assertion was “I am the law”. Today it is the NPC asserting “We know the law; you do what we tell you and be accountable for it and be damned if you do and damned if you don’t”!
(The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police. Seneviratnetz@gmail.com)