Portrait of Kandy's Gentlemen - In Khaki

Winds of politeness blowing in the hills

By Carl Muller

Recently, letters in the newspapers have been most glowing. The Kandy police had performed magnificently in the conduct of the Esala Perahera. Again, compliments were in order over the way the Test match was conducted at Asgiriya. There seems to be a fresh breeze blowing in the hills. Kandy is seeing a courteous, polite, humane police force in action.

It was not long ago that a television station examined the problems of the Police Force - the bad PR, surly officers and men, the general bad impression the Police seem to convey in their approach to their tasks. The picture was negative. But Kandy seems to have risen above it all.

It wasn't long before I was ushered yes, ushered into the small and practical office of Senior Superintendent of Police. He is Gamini Navaratne, and he is the man who tells his policemen: "Have you looked in the mirror today and seen how many teeth you have in your mouth?" The idea is that the policemen must not be averse to showing their teeth. Show them, he says, in a polite smile-the smile that takes you a long way up the road.

Navaratne himself is given to smile a lot. His manner is warm, outgoing and oozing with confidence. "PR is important," he says, "and I am aware that there is this unfortunate breach between the police and the public. We need to have the confidence of the public in the way we fulfil ourselves.

I sat back, let him talk, believe me, it was wholly refreshing to listen. This was a gentleman, a gentleman in khaki, an educated, keen minded, quite scholarly sort of man. He could make quicksilver stabs into any subject - philosophy, information technology, rural upliftment, social ills..... very polished indeed, and able to bring his own rural background to meet and tackle problems that meet and beset urban society.

Navaratne is not a "big school" product. He is an old boy of Veyangoda Central who made it to Peradeniya, graduated BSc. Honours ("Second Class Lower Division", he reminded, "I'm no genius") in 1979, then filled in as an Assistant Lecturer. Firmly believing in "mens sana" he got his campus colours in athletics, did weight training and, on many an evening, would go to Kanduboda for meditation and mental exercises.

"I believe in the efficacy of mental power," he said. "Mental development and patience go together. Also you must be prepared to listen," he chuckled. "I like to let people talk. By listening, I think I can assess their own mental attitudes. Also it helps me to see through people. The more they talk, the more they reveal."

What Navaratne has done best of all is to bring about a positive change in the ranks. Sometimes, he says, the uniform tends to make a man quite robotic. "I want my men to go about their duties with a normal attitude. They must not allow their uniforms make them bully and bluster. First, I bring them to a sort of ground level, show them what is lacking in their attitude. The problem is we have this "uniform mentality" where people think of rank, of corridors of command, of problems within the ranks. It's a funny thing. In their homes, out of uniform, they are good husbands and loving fathers and nice neighbours, but when they are in uniform they look on every man as a criminal. This is something that has been with us for a long time. I keep briefing my men regularly. I have quite a session with them at every half-yearly inspection, and I think I have got somewhere in changing their attitudes. We now have a better class of policemen, a police people can trust and have faith in, whom people can call their friends."

It took some doing - to understand the heartbeat of both the public and the police, but in Kandy today, a more positive image has surfaced and the people are proud of their custodians. Navaratne came to Kandy in February. He has 17 years in the Force - eight years with the STF and made Senior Superintendent in 1991 at the Kelaniya Police Division. He was in charge of the IT Division, Police Headquarters too (he has his Masters in Computer Science) and, naturally, I had to ask why he plumped for the Force. The sides of his eyes wrinkled as he grinned. "Yes, I suppose I could have made a career in hi-tech, but you know, science training can be an invaluable part of being a policeman. Also, I believe I have the correct attitude. A good policeman must know to manage pressure. There is always pressure - both popular and political. It is not easy to conduct oneself, given the pressures that one faces day after day. The senses of emergency, of tragedy of the unexpected, beat on us from all sides.

A good policeman must be able to apply the correct pressure management at all times. You must remember that in practically all situations of law and order, the policeman is in the frontline. He must investigate, confront, arrest and prosecute. He is both frontline and bottomline. Don't you see what this means? If he is not one with the public, he is virtually an outcast. He gets no help, no sympathy, no thanks. This is why mental attitude is so important. It's like being a man with no friends. It makes him frustrated, lonely and he begins to despise himself and all around him."

So it's a "hearts and minds" operation? In a way, yes. And above all is the problem of today's youth. The police, he says, must be close to the youth.

We strayed to the problems of drug abuse and illicit liquor and he said that DIG Sirisena Herat was moving heaven and earth to correct this situation. The DIG has given the business of eradicating drugs and illicit liquor a whole new impetus.

"The problem is that youthful offenders are labelled criminals by society. Even after these young people have paid their debts to society, they continue to be harassed. How can the police help them to re-establish themselves if they cannot get over the stigma placed on them? Now, all OICs are asked to meet released prisoners and habitual offenders and discuss how they can fit back into society and go straight. By constantly "criminalising" them, we drive them back into crime. Right now, we have no probation officers for the lesser but more frequent criminals. You see what this leads to? More crime. And as for our drug addicts, they need not be damned but, rather, sympathised with. Right now, we are operating a pilot project under a Presidential Task Force to fight drug abuse. This goes hand in hand with HIV and Aids and combating it is of extreme urgency."

I learnt that right now, 120 addicts are under medical care and rehabilitation, and camps will soon be opened to effect total rehabilitation. "What we are doing, and with success, is to raise the voices of the addicts against the drug dealers and drug pushers. Now, the victims blame the suppliers for their destruction and a healthy hatred is being sown."

Since he moved in, Navaratne's idea to rehabilitate addicts was enthusiastically supported by DIG Herat. Even when in Kelaniya, Navaratne had organised anti-drug drives. Here, a Citizens' Committee was formed and Kandy City's five divisions put in charge of senior police officers. The Committee comprises psychiatrist Dr. E.K. Rodrigo, the Mayor of Kandy, Dr. Beligaswatte of Kandy General Hospital, members of the Dangerous Drugs Control Board, Gamini Navaratne as Secretary, the Lions and Rotary Clubs of Kandy and many leading citizens.

"This is not simply the responsibility of the police," Navaratne said. Drugs are used today as a weapon for the destablisation of youth. It is a huge social evil and can destroy a country in five years if allowed to run unchecked." He said that, fortunately, the big drug dealers were not in Kandy. The pattern of entrapment is so simple. At first, young people are given 10-milligramme packets free. The habit takes hold. "It is spreading insidiously in schools," he said.

The main aim of the project is to help addicts back into the social stream. I asked if there was any LTTE connection in the spread of drugs in the Central Province but he said he could not say with any surety. "The possibility is there, of course, but the information we now have is that most of the drugs come from Colombo and places south."

But it does raise a question. Would not the LTTE, notoriously involved in drugs as a money-earner, find it so easy to push drugs into the cities, causing massive social disintegration? This certainly deserves investigation.

Navaratne is also involved in the Anti-Illicit Liquor Campaign which is now gathering force in the entire Kandy District. Under the Central Crimes Division, Kandy, the police have got everyone involved - Divisional Secretaries, the Chief Priests of temples, Samurdhi personnel, the NYSC, the Lions and Rotary Clubs of the District, businessmen and leading citizens. This mass action, under police guidance, is open to all who want Kandy to be a better place to live in. "We are going into the rural areas and the outlying areas too, because it is in these places where the kasippu mudalalis influence the poor. We are educating the people - the wives and children who are the sufferers. The concerted outcry we have generated has been very effective. So many wives and children have come to thank us because the breadwinners in their families have kicked the kasippu habit."

In fact, so effective has been the campaign, that some kasippu mudalalis in Talatuoya and Menikhinna have actually called it quits and even handed over their illicit distilling equipment to the police!

"We ask all concerned citizens to join us," Navaratne said. "We must find quick and effective solutions to all this and one way is that the police go beyond - go out of the way to render community service. In this way, we are not only helping society rid itself of these evils but we are also becoming one with the people. That, I suppose, is the difference you now see."

Yes, and what a difference! Lots of gentlemen in khaki, to be sure, and DIG Herat is extremely satisfied with the progress. It is DIG Herat who looks into all aspects of the several campaigns personally, and gives Navaratne his encouragement. And so, the letters appear, spontaneous, appreciative. Thank you for a job well done. May this wind of change keep blowing and may Kandy find a new pride in its guardians of the law and keepers of the peace. The gentlemen in khaki are making of Kandy's Police Force, a proud institution indeed!

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