My dear IGP Priyantha,

I am writing to you for several reasons. You are doing a difficult job under challenging circumstances and being in the position that you are, you cannot avoid being in the spotlight. We just want to ensure that, having got to where you are after decades of hard work, you are still on the right track. 

It was an unprecedented time for the Police before your appointment. Never have we had the Police hunting its own fugitive IGP. The Police force was reduced such a state under Deshabandu. That, and other incidents like the ‘Siddhalepa’ verdict told us that Deshabandu was clearly not suited for the job.  

Deshabandu made history in his own way. He was the first ‘acting’ IGP to be found guilty of violating fundamental rights by the highest court in the land. Still, he was confirmed in the job by the Council that oversees such appointments after Mahinda Yapa decided that absent votes were also ‘no’ votes.

Deshabandu was also the first IGP to be booted out of office. To do that, the government had to use a decades old legislation for the first time. So, he had many ‘firsts’ to his name. It made us feel that anyone would be an improvement on him. Nevertheless, your story in the Police was also impressive.

You had already been ‘acting’ while Deshabandu was suspended, so you were the favourite for the job anyway. We were told that the Council which oversees your appointment had no issues with you and approved you unanimously, unlike with Deshabandu when they were divided and some were ‘absent’.

You had your share of ‘firsts’. You were the first to rise from the lowest rank of the Police, that of a constable, to the highest rank, IGP. Policing must be a passion for you because you joined the force as a constable even before you sat your ‘A’ Levels which you must have done while being a constable!

Being in the Police didn’t stop you from trying to learn more. That is why you earned degrees in Law and Business Administration and also enrolled as a lawyer. Very few people will have such credentials but as some in the ‘maalimaawa’ government have shown us, it is not all about paper qualifications.

We saw the first hint of that when you jokingly told an audience of law students while discussing a child abuse complaint that there was no harm in physically punishing a child. You said your mother had done so too, when you were a child. It made us seriously question your judgment, IGP Priyantha.

We thought you were doing a good job despite that gaffe when those with alleged underworld links were deported, first from Indonesia and then from Nepal. You had allowed your officers to function independently though the government can also claim some credit for not interfering with them.  

What puzzled us though was the media circus around those arrests. I suppose Minister Wije visiting the airport, ostensibly to thank the Indonesian Police, may have been beyond your control but the hype that was generated when Sewwandi and several others arrived from Nepal was a bit baffling.

At first, her every move was paraded before the cameras and somehow, her every word appeared to have been leaked to the media. Then we see her, covered from head to toe, being taken to identify places and suspects. The thinking behind that was not quite logical, don’t you think, IGP Priyantha?

That even led to legal experts commenting that exposing her to the media could cost dearly in future legal proceedings. Now, you would have known that, being a lawyer yourself. So, the other obvious question was, who was ‘leaking’ all this to the media and was that done without your knowledge?

Of course, holding the position that you do, it must be difficult for you stay away from the limelight. That is why you had to field questions about threats to a parliamentarian from Kalutara as well as the slain Chairman of the Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha, both being of them from the ‘telephone’ party.   

However, the latest revelation about you is that you have complained against one of your own senior deputies. It is about a leaked phone conversation between this deputy and a media personality which is not complimentary about you and another senior officer. That is your right and you can do so.

This deputy was also in the running for the top job, so he has a grievance. The other senior officer mentioned was at the centre of the controversy about Dr. Shafie which was nothing but a malicious campaign against the doctor. Remember, IGP Priyantha, you can be judged by the company you keep.   

What we don’t want is for the public to lose confidence in the Police due to infighting. We also don’t want the kind of Police we had under Deshabandu which was to say ‘Yes, Sir’ to everything his political masters wanted. You still have time to create a clean, impartial Police, IGP Priyantha.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- Anura sahodaraya launched a campaign against drugs and made a stirring speech the other day. We sincerely wish him well. If he succeeds, it will do a lot of good to this country. The Police you lead has a big role to play. Still, there is a sense of déjà vu about this. Remember ‘Clean Sri Lanka’?