“The malady of the system is that it has completely lost its organizational coherence. A policing system is a public service which is devoted to law enforcement. The policing system therefore, where it properly functions, engages in activities which facilitate the proper enforcement of the law.”____________
By Basil Fernando
(September 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Will the fall of Sri Lanka’s premier law enforcement system, the police service, into the abyss be resolved by appointment of an IGP from military ranks? Reading all the analysis into the police problem, beginning with the Soertsz Commission report in 1946, followed by the Basnayake Commission of 1970 and the police service report of 1995, demonstrate that the central problem of the policing system in Sri Lanka from its very inception has been that it is very much a militarized system rather than a civilian policing system. Insurgencies since 1971 have further militarized this system. The appointment of an IGP from military ranks will only add to the present collapse of the system, rather than solving it.
In an excellent article written by Snr. DIG (Rtd) Gamini Gunawardene on what happened to the policing system, he makes the following observation:
‘It is now rumoured that the government is considering the feasibility of bringing an outsider as IGP as a remedy. The remedy could be worse than the malady. …There seems to be a line of thinking these days that since the military officers who did well under a capable leader, appointing an Army officer will be the panacea to all problems. The naiveté in this thinking is indeed astounding. Because each field is so specialized these days. The thinking seems to be that “you appoint the ‘right ‘man and the rest will fall into place.” One shudders to imagine the consequences.’
The collapse of the system to state its in today relates to two major factors:
1) Virtual domination of the actual operation of the police by the politicians of the ruling regime, due to which the OIC of a police station has virtually become a direct servant of these politicians.
2) The virtual loss of the exercise of command responsibility by the higher ranking police officers, beginning from the Assistant Superintendent of Police up to the Inspector General of Police.
Due to these factors, the policing system does not function as a system anymore. Any and everything is possible within that system, however illegal the actions of the officers are. Whether they engage in drug dealing and protecting the drug dealers; whether they use their powers of arrest and detention to obtain bribes for themselves; or help politicians by putting their opponents behind bars under false charges, using anti-terrorism laws and anti-drug laws; or engage in any other type of illegality, there is hardly anything the system can do to stop it. The merely cosmetic measures, such as arresting a few low-ranking officers do not making any difference to the way the system functions.
How can such a problem be resolved by a military officer being appointed as an IGP? Can a military officer establish the command responsibility for officers from the rank of ASP to the DIG? Will not the introduction of a military officer only help the errant superior officers even more, because they can easily mislead and even cheat their new leader, who is totally unfamiliar with the area of work that they are engaged in? The similar experiments tried elsewhere by bringing to top posts people who are from completely different fields provides enough examples of terrible distortions that can happen under such circumstances.
The malady of the system is that it has completely lost its organizational coherence. A policing system is a public service which is devoted to law enforcement. The policing system therefore, where it properly functions, engages in activities which facilitate the proper enforcement of the law. Thus, the public relationship that is required of a policing system is of a completely different nature than the type of action required from the military.
The political leaders who propose such a move, to introduce an IGP from military ranks, are not unaware of the completely different functions that the police are required to do and the military is trained to do. Why, then, do they want to introduce a person from a military rank into the already-collapsed system of policing? That cannot be for the purpose of restructuring the system of law enforcement, and thus creating a proper policing service. However, these political leaders may have other ambitions. A more militarized police may be what is needed to subject the population to greater controls and to displace the rule of law altogether.
As this matter, brought to the notice of the public by a retired senior police officer, is of such great importance, a public debate on the issue is urgently needed.
-Sri Lanka Guardian
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