Rajitha and devolution

Is the government more obliged to India over and above the interest of its own people? That was not the way the govt. conducted itself when prosecuting the war to eliminate the LTTE. It resolutely withstood the pressure brought both by the entire Western World and India. Besides, how would India have acted if she was placed in such a situation?
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By Gamini Gunawardane Rtd. Snr. DIG

(July 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In an interview given to C. A. Premachandra of The Island of 17th June, this is what Minister Rajitha Senaratne had to say on the question of devolution of police powers: “Minor crimes will be dealt with by provincial police and major crimes and security will be dealt with by the national police. So this is a very practical solution”. This is all that it means to him! And, solution to what?

Even that little he does not know well enough. He does not seem to know that not only minor crime, major crime too is already being investigated by the local police stations under the unitary set up for over the last hundred years. So, his concept of devolution is already in place and more. Also, no security could be effectively done without the co-operation of the local police, by the centre alone. A good example of failure to realize this is the recent security disaster at Godagama in Akuressa Police area. Security is primarily the responsibility of the local police. The Security Divisions are only providing the expertise and continuity. The lack of this continuity was amply demonstrated in Lahore when the Sri Lanka nearly lost some of its greatest jewels and also the police response at the Mumbai hostage crisis, under devolved policing. So Mr. Senaratne and his colleague Dilan Perera are either kade yanawa for somebody else or they do not know what they are talking about. A case of fools rushing where angels fear to tread.

My concern is not devolving police powers to the Northern and Eastern provinces as such but the disaster it could bring about on the whole country and the crisis of governance that it will lead to. My fear is that, by trying to slay one monster in this manner we may be creating nine worse monsters. And who will suffer? The common man who never asked that police powers be devolved to the Chief Ministers. In fact, they were never asked if they would like the idea and whether they thought it would solve whatever political problem they had. The Supreme Court decided that they need not be consulted, in this republic.

This is the danger in leaving such complicated policy issues to politicians only. Elsewhere in his interview, the Minister says that “we are not living in the Elara-Dutugamunu era” which is a politically mischievous red herring to cloud the issues. Yet, conceding that, neither are we living today in the JRJ-Rajiv Gandhi-Prabhakaran era where we were trying to appease the monster that was Prabhakaran, created by the Indian factor. Yes, times have changed. Today, there is a benign and wise Man Mohan Singh in Delhi and a broadminded, courageous Rajapakse in Colombo while there is no Prbhakaran in the Wanni. Today, since we are not under tension of tiger breathing down our neck, there is space for more sober and reasoned thinking.

So there is no reason why we should not take a fresh look at this issue. We know, this piece of legislation was a hastily conceived idea by India and forced down the throat of the then Sri Lanka government. The Govt. MPs of the day had no choice of opposing it because their undated resignation letters were in JRJ’s pocket at that time. The only courageous man to disagree and resign his Parliamentary seat was late Mr. Gamini Jayasuriya. If only majority of his colleagues had the courage of conviction to follow suite, the history of this country would have been different. Many thousands of lives could have been saved. Evidently, gallantry by way of sacrifice of life, limb, and career is meant only for Service Personnel in this country and not for politicians!

Nevertheless, it is a well established legal principle that consent obtained under duress is no consent. It may be a unique feature in constitutional law that our constitution contains provisions that are introduced into it against the wishes of the people/people’s representatives, though it is claimed that the constitution enshrines the sovereignty of the people! It is still more curious that we are now bending sideways to implement, after 22 years, such provisions forced on us, passed in parliament under duress and okayed by Supreme Court on a split decision, while we are avoiding implementation, under various excuses, the other amendment passed in parliament unanimously!

It is well known that JRJ himself did not like this amendment. That is probably why provisions of land powers and police powers remained undevolved todate. Illegality of the continuation of the joining of the Northern and Eastern provinces as a single unit, again under Indian pressure, was undone by the Supreme Court some time ago. Therefore, perhaps it is now the appropriate time to reconsider this whole issue though technically it is already law, in the constitution. For, if it is poison today, are we still going to take it merely because it is on the constitution? Does it make sense? Even if we had made a pledge to India under different circumstances is there no room to seek to explain to India that it is not in the interest of our country today and that it will create more problems than what it would solve? Does not the government owe it to its people whose elected representatives they are? Do they have the right to do something that is not in the interest of the country merely because they made a promise to India? In fact, president Rajapakse declared on his inauguration that he was only holding office on Trust, for the people.

It will not be for the good of the very people for whose benefit it was originally intended either. There cannot be any difference between the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces and those in the rest of the provinces. I am thinking of the recent case of the abduction and the killing of little girl Warsha of Trinco, apparently by the cadres of the TMVP. The TMVP Chief Minister of the Eastern Province denied this. But the local police were soon able to establish that they were in fact TMVP cadres. There was similar case of abduction and murder of another little girl from Batticaloa area where again the culprits were traced to be TMVP operatives. After the criminals in both these cases were summarily disposed of by the local police, there were no further cases of that nature in that province. Thus, fear stricken people of the Eastern province were relieved. Could that have been possible under the 13th Amendment where the DIG Eastern Province was reporting to and was ‘under the control of’ the Chief Minister, Eastern Province whose operatives, were the culprits? Note, these were the very people who elected this provincial councilor, leader of the TMVP who eventually became their Chief Minister. In such an event, to whom can the people of the Eastern province turn to for relief? “Wetath niyrarath goyam kaa nam, kaata kiyamuda e amaruwa?” ( if the fence and the ridge together eat up the paddy crop, to whom do we complain?)

This brings us to an interesting question. Is the government more obliged to India over and above the interest of its own people? That was not the way the govt. conducted itself when prosecuting the war to eliminate the LTTE. It resolutely withstood the pressure brought both by the entire Western World and India. Besides, how would India have acted if she was placed in such a situation?

The dangers and the problems that the devolution of police powers to the provinces and the complicated problems of governance that it will entail was explained in detail in an article that I wrote to The Island in September 2008. These were further elaborated on in greater dimension at the WAPS national seminar held at the BMICH on 4th May 2009. In order to educate the politicians and the professionals and intellectuals, in early June 2009, the Association of Retired Chiefs of Police presented a seminar at the OPA Auditorium where several Police experts led by a retired Inspector General went into great detail highlighting in dimension the problems of governance and policing that this provision of will give rise to, Of course, none of the promoters of this ‘project’ were present, to be educated or to educate the experts. Therefore, it behoves the politicians of both the government and the opposition at least now to study this issue at greater depth and with responsibility before embarking on this foolish project of committing ‘hara-kiri’. Perhaps, even the president himself may realize the danger that he is leading this country and the future generations to, if he is properly briefed that this provision defeats the wellbeing of the very people he is intent on securing. Having been pre-occupied with the war effort, he may not have had the occasion to address his mind to study this matter at depth consulting the expertise available.

In India, such crucial policy issues are referred to by the Indian government, to a set of experts at the Institute of Policy Research at Chankya Puri in New Delhi to seek their views. They serve as a sounding board for the government. The head of that institution can reach the Prime Minister of India direct on the ‘phone and obtain an interview with him within a half an hour, while Union Ministers have to remain on a waiting list for weeks to see him. I am personally aware of this as I had the good fortune of being attached to this institute for a few months. This is the way other countries deal with matters of complicated public policy before they present it to the country, unlike our ‘know all’ politicians who speak with great authority on any subject under the sun.

Lastly, the Armed forces and the Police fought with great sacrifice of life and limb, to preserve the Territorial Integrity of this country. How could that Territorial Integrity they won back be preserved when the central government looses control over territorial policing? How does the central government exercise its authority over the provinces? Whom do the people of this country hold accountable for the preservation of law and order in whole country?

Are we then back to square one after 30 years of fighting? Were the great sacrifices of life by the Forces an exercise in vain? Are we all not led up the garden path?

About the writer: Gamini Gunawardane ,Took a MPA degree from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, U.S.A. in 1989. He spent another year at the Center for Criminal Justice of the Harvard University, on a Fulbright Research Fellowship, researching on policing, and produced, in 1990, a research thesis titled: A SEARCH FOR A NEW CONCEPT OF POLICING, FOR SRI LANKA.

He has addressed several audiences in different parts of U.S.A. on policing problems in Sri Lanka and, has met & exchanged views with several contemporary American experts, on policing. He has visited several State and City Police establishments in the U.S.A., including New York Police Department and in Hong Kong & Singapore . He was engaged on further research on policing, in India, at the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 1992, and produced a research thesis titled: THE PROBLEM OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT BEING AN INSTRUMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

He served Police Department for 35 years and retired prematurely, on a matter of principle, in Nov. 1998, as Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (Crimes, Criminal intelligence and Organized Crime).

The writer can be reached at gunawardanegamini@gmail.com

-Sri Lanka Guardian