Spare a thought for our police and security forces
Last week I mentioned an incident at a restaurant where a policeman asked diners to move their cars, as part of the security preparations for the advent of the Prime Minister, who was making an appearance in the area.
Diners defiantly refused. They told the officer that if the PM wanted the cars shifted, he should come and ask them himself. They were all extremely keen to meet him and have a chat.
I think the PM declined this invitation.
But I did feel a pang of compassion for the policeman. It was he, not the PM who had to deliver this request to the public. It was he, not the PM who had to directly face their wrath and frustration.
Last Sunday the Leader of the Opposition defied the curfew and led a group of Parliamentarians to exercise their constitutional right to protest peacefully against the government.
They were of course obstructed by the police and security forces. The police were warned by MP Ranawaka that obstructing the movement of a Member of Parliament could result in a five-year prison sentence for the officers. This was fighting talk that was well past its ‘sell-by’ date.
The compassion that needs to be exercised here is for our men and woman in the police force and those in the armed forces. This cannot be easy for them.
When they change out of their uniforms and go home, they too return to houses shrouded in darkness. They too have families who run out of gas and have to endure fuel shortages. And yes, I have no doubt that some may wield their power to curry a few favours and cut a few queues, but when I looked at the young officers conducting traffic and manning checkpoints as I wended my way home yesterday I was subdued into thinking that at a time like this you will use whatever influences you have to help those you love. These young men and women look about 12 years of age to an old man like me. The young eyes that sit on top of black face masks have a wide-eyed look of fear. They are clearly dreading having to quell public outbursts. These aren’t elite forces trained in tactical riot strategies or former army personnel, battle-weary with conflict experience from our 30-year war.
These are young policemen and women with their feet on the first rung of their career in the police force. Worse still the ‘disruptive elements’ they have been tasked to deal with are not violent gangs of hooligans or criminals or extremists. The ‘elements’ they are being asked to arrest and detain are ordinary Sri Lankan ‘Aunties, Uncles, Akkis, Aiyas, Mallis and Nangis’.
They are ordinary Sri Lankans just like the police themselves. Sri Lankans who have been forced by their government’s flippant incompetence to endure hardships. Sri Lankans who have been pushed beyond the limit of public decency and civility, but who still want to do nothing more than exercise their constitutional right to peacefully protest.
If I was one of these young police officers, I would feel like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita: A young warrior mentally and emotionally torn as he is forced to do his duty and fight for the kingdom against opponents who are his loved ones – friends and relatives that he grew up with. These young men and women are our Arjunas. They dutifully follow their commanding officers’ orders whilst their hearts must be weeping for the plight of the people to which they too belong. I can see it in the softness of their eyes as they sadly direct us through the cordons. I respectfully asked one of them how he feels about all this,
“Yes of course it is tough for us. We have families going through the same thing. My wife has to queue for gas. My father suffers in the heat with the power cuts. It is the same for all of us.”
Touched by the officer’s candour, I tell him a story about Gandhi:
Before Gandhi became the Mahatma we all know, he led his Satyagraha movement of civil disobedience to establish equal rights for Indian people in South Africa. The arch nemesis against whom he battled was the Minister for Defence and Native Affairs, General Jan Smuts. When Gandhi left South Africa, he presented the General with a gift – a pair of sandals that he had made during the numerous times that Smuts had Gandhi arrested and thrown in jail. It was Gandhi’s way of showing that he bore no animosity towards Smuts even though they were fighting on opposite sides of a violent campaign. Smuts was deeply moved by the gift and wore the sandals every summer at his farm in Pretoria. He eventually re-gifted the sandals to Gandhi on his 70th birthday saying,
“I have worn these sandals for many a summer, even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man. It was my fate to be the antagonist for a man for whom even then, I had the highest respect.”
In these trying times we must remember to “Hate the sin, not the sinner.” It is easier said than done – especially when we are bent heavy under the burden of our politicians’ ill deeds. But we must try, especially out of respect to our ‘Young Arjunas’ – the reluctant heroes embroiled in all this only because they are doing their duty.
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