De-politicize the Police Force
If there is one aspect of public administration in this country about which
opinion is unanimous, it is that the Police Force is degenerate, indisciplined,
corrupt and deviant. It is felt that the Police have over the past 50 years
developed into a monstrous and unwieldy body of uniformed gentry to serve
purposes completely alien to what its very name and concept imply.
Its proclaimed purpose and mission is the preservation of public peace
and prevention of crime. Police protection is the right of all sections
of society. Alas, the servants of the people are no longer seen in that
role. Indeed the average citizen views the establishment with awe and fear.
Gone is the respect in which law enforcement officers were held. The reasons
are not far to seek. They have been politicized to such an extent that
the Police Force is riddled with sycophants and stooges; obedient not to
the proclaimed law of the land or service codes, but the bidding of their
chosen political masters.
The last 50 years have seen a steady decline in the morale of the Force.
Successive administrations have employed the Police as a political instrument
to enhance their personal or party prestige. Politicians both in and out
of power, have been permitted to manipulate the Police to serve their own
political or personal ends. Patronage is the name of this game. Human values
count for nothing.
The higher positions in the Force have been filled with party loyalists
rather than competent officers selected by published criteria and independent
bodies. These are some of the reasons for the outcry in recent times for
an independent Police Commission and a "hands-off" policy on recruitment,
promotions, transfers etc.
Among the reforms that are needed is a balance between experience, achievement
and academic performance. Fifty years ago there may have been a justification
for the infusion of graduates into the middle ranks of the Police Force.
Since then that need has disappeared and the Force has grown bigger with
the corresponding demand for recognition of service as against pure and
simple academic qualifications. To permit graduates of all description
(particularly those with exotic linguistic or religio-cultural disciplines)
to leap-frog over tried and tested service men who have risen from the
ranks is to de-motivate 95% of the Force.
With the advent of a new administration, one can expect a fundamental
change in the management of the law enforcement organs of the state....
not excluding the Judiciary. It is time to ask what is to be done about
cleaning up this sorry state of affairs. The Police must be foremost in
the prevention of crime and the detection and punishment of offenders.
Will the culture of favouritism and political manipulation continue even
after the entry of ardent reformers onto the political stage? Is the security
of politicians and their henchmen of more concern to the state than that
of the general public? Must the greater part of the Police establishment
be deployed in quasi-military operations and so -called ' security' functions
when the country is in the grip of a crime wave unprecedented in the history
of the Police?
It is time that the Police Force is trimmed to manageable levels and
improved qualitatively. How can the morale of the Police Force be improved
when the order of the day is one of irregular interventions? If the 'defence'
cadre is inadequate to combat terrorism, let the Armed Forces be upgraded
to the required levels. To deploy policemen in combat areas at the expense
of the civilian population is a denial of the very basics of democracy.
Crime is on the march. It is seen in a more sinister and organized form
than ever before .
Prompt action must be taken to revive the fundamentals on which the
Police Force is built. There is a large percentage of responsible officers
and lower ranks who wish to reclaim their prestige and the respect of the
public. They are there by choice and with a sense of public service. What
is needed is de-politicization of the Force. More training, better living
conditions, uniforms that are in keeping with modern trends, better equipment
and good career prospects are also needed.
Krishantha Cooray
Colombo
Peace parleys and the role of the TNA
The UNF has launched out in earnest and with all sincerity to hammer out
some form of peace and to restore normalcy to this country ravaged by terrorist
savagery for almost 20 years. It is mostly the humble Tamil people in the
North and the simple, ingenuous Sinhalese and Muslim people residing along
the border areas who have been severely affected. It is they who are poignantly
and genuinely pleading for peace. Most of the other apparent peace-mongers
are surreptitiously manoeuvring to possibly carve out some political advantage
from this convoluted situation.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is only a haphazard combination of
disparate Tamil political parties put together as a matter of expediency
before the last general election. They received votes from the people in
the North not for their political acumen, but with hopes that they will
actively assist a peace process. This is further borne out by the fact
that the largest segment of Sri Lankan Tamil people, who incidentally reside
outside the North, hardly voted for the TNA but opted for the UNF.
Although the TNA coterie has jettisoned their independent stance and
are now paying lip service to the LTTE as being the sole representatives
of the Tamil interest, the ground reality is manifestly opposite. It is
only those in the North who have been cajoled and conscripted, often under
duress, who serve in Prabhakaran's fighting cadres. Not a single Tamil
living outside this area has ever volunteered to join this so called liberation
movement.
The LTTE's avowed claim that they are fighting to restore the rights
of the Tamil people, now endorsed by the TNA, is highly contentious and
suspicious. For this is at variance with their acts of of murder. The murder
of a large number of illustrious Tamils who were genuinely espousing the
the rights of the Tamil people. In fact the present leaders of the TNA
live in Sinhala areas, move about under armed security not as a protection
from the Sinhalese but from their own kinsmen. What are these Tamil rights
they are expecting to restore? No one has ever explicitly stated them.
The LTTE who had earlier stated that they are willing to come to the
negotiating table with no pre-conditions, have now started playing games.
They are now trying to push the UNF into a tight corner by urging that
the ban be lifted, etc. This is no different from the ploys employed earlier,
namely to create an impasse and then to strike, accusing the government
of being inflexible and non-compliant.
It must be emphasized that it was the international community who had
categorized the LTTE as a fully fledged terrorist outfit and imposed a
ban on it. Sri Lanka put a ban on it long after. Hence the TNA's vociferous
cries that the local ban be lifted so that the LTTE can come as equal partners
to the talks will still not take away the international label of a terrorist
group. Thus there can never be equal partners at the talks unless the government
also becomes terrorists, or the LTTE drops its terrorism.
The government has in a very overt and honest manner attempted to put
in place a large number of concessions in order to ensure that the peace
process can be pushed on. But there has been no such manifestations from
the LTTE, except for some cosmetic gestures, which they had offered even
earlier, and then retracted. This has naturally given rise to reservations
about the intentions of the LTTE.
The TNA has very conveniently and deceitfully avoided playing the mediation
role, one would have expected from such an alleged moderate group. They
are certainly in a legitimate position to do so. It seems that they are
merely playing the role of the proverbial fox lying on the fringe of the
jungle watching the lion and tiger fighting it out so as to get some carrion
for itself. The time has now arrived not to dillydally but to come directly
to grips with the real problem at its core level.
This can be successfully resolved only if the main contenders in this
case, the President, the Prime Minister and Prabhakaran sit together at
the same table and accept a lasting compromise. This meeting must be held
on Sri Lankan soil as a measure of confidence building.
T. Devendra
Maharagama
Can we afford this comedy of errors?
At a time when the airline industry has shown a dramatic decline, when
it is all important that customer service and care should be enhanced,
it is sad to say that SriLankan Airlines fails dismally overall.
This is the experience of a seasoned traveller and British citizen,
with family ties in Sri Lanka.At Heathrow in London, the Britisher is informed
that his baggage allowance is 30 kg and he has no problem checking in a
total weight of 34 kg. The staff are helpful and courteous. He spends an
enjoyable time in Sri Lanka but the nightmare begins at his departure from
Colombo.
He approaches a check-in counter at 12 midnight since his flight is
due to leave at 2.30 a.m. Is a friendly smile and welcoming manner too
much to expect from the counter clerk? The disgruntled clerk snatches the
passport from the traveller's hand and after a cursory glance declares
that it is a forged/false document.
The traveller informs the clerk that if there is a problem he is quite
happy to deal with the proper authorities. This is ignored by the clerk
as she continues to flick the pages of the passport.A few moments later
the traveller is rudely advised to transfer his luggage to be checked in.
His first piece of luggage weighs 27 kg, below the allocated allowance.
The traveller tells the clerk that he has another suitcase, just purchased,
which is empty. This is also weighed. The total weight amounts to 34.5
kg.
The clerk curtly informs the traveller that his allowance is 20 kg and
he will only be able to take the bag weighing 27 kg. An officious looking
gentleman arrives beside the clerk, declares he is the manager and tells
the traveller he is required to pay excess baggage on 4.5 kg as his allowance
is 30 kg.
The check-in clerk and the manager seem to have differing views on the
baggage allowance. The traveller is compelled to leave the empty suitcase
behind. At the next check-in counter, shortly afterwards, an acquaintance
has checked in 10 kg of excess baggage onto the same flight bound for London.
The acquaintance admits that excess baggage can be checked in with no extra
charge if he name-dropped and informed the clerk that he is a friend of
so and so at Sri- Lankan Airlines. The irony is that the flight from Colombo
to London is only half full and an extra 4.5 kg would not have made much
of a difference.
It is obvious that the national carrier seems to disregard the basic
principles of customer service, has front-end staff who are untrained ,
completely inflexible and apply rules arbitrarily. Certainly a comedy of
errors, which in such an economic climate, cannot be justified.
T. Shakespeare
United Kingdom
Bartering our health system
I was perturbed to read a report about a group of doctors being taken abroad
for a holiday cum seminar by a pharmaceutical company. Let me congratulate
the stand taken by the newspaper to protect the interests of the people.
It is tragic to see what is happening to the health system which has
been built over the years through the sacrifice and toil of some doctors.
Our health system is being bartered for a song to foreigners, by a few
for material gain.
When doctors whom we respect fall prey, is there a future for the people
of our country? Have we failed the doctors to whom we owe so much? My mind
goes back to doctors of the calibre of Blaze Bartholomeus, Attygalle and
Bibile whose dedication brought life and hope to thousands.
At the other end of the spectrum are the powerful drug firms who have
tarnished medical history by their greed for profits and market control.
Apart from the scandals that have characterised their record from the
days of the thalidomide disaster, their activities have clearly demonstrated
how they have opposed and wrecked national health and drug policies in
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and Thailand.
In Sri Lanka they refused to co-operate with the government in taking
measures to counter a cholera epidemic in the seventies.
How can we save our people from the machinations of these transnational
corporations and our doctors from falling victim to their strategies?
Allenson de Silva
Colombo 6
Blame the people, not the bags
It is true that sili sili bags are an environmental hazard when carelessly
discarded in the wrong places( The Sunday Times, January 27.) But did the
bags find their way into drains and open places on their own? Why blame
sili sili bags for the carelessness of irresponsible people?
An average household in Singapore uses many more bags than we do here.
If anyone tries to throw a bag, a bus ticket or a cigarette butt on the
pavement, a police official will immediately fine you.
As suggested by LB, have you ever tried to bring home some ripe tomatoes,
a couple of eggs, other vegetables and a few coconuts in a cloth bag and
see what happens?
There was a very interesting lecture by an environmentalist at the SLAAS
auditorium a couple of years ago, on how the underprivileged collect sili
sili bags from garbage dumps and sell them to the recycling agent who converts
them to pellets (samples of which were shown to the audience) and then
recycles them.
The collectors make a living and at the same time help recycle polythene.
Let's face it. The fault lies with those who discard the bags in the
wrong places and not with sili sili bags.
S. Sivalingam
Colombo 6 |
