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North-East needs and police
recruitments
The state, we are given to understand, would be going
ahead unhurriedly with systematically implementing the
practicable LLRC recommendations and this is a most welcome
policy position. While the state should not yield to external
pressures on this issue, there is no getting away from the need
to implement the more important LLRC recommendations because the
process of bringing normalcy to this land must be persisted
with. There is no better way in which Sri Lanka could rebuff its
critics into silence than by providing ample evidence that it is
prepared to do what is beneficial for the totality of this
country.
As we have indicated before, one of the worst things that
could befall this country currently is for extremist opinion,
whether it be of the Southern or Northern variety, to hold sway
over local opinion.
There is no getting away from the policy perspective that
peace and unity must hold in this country and the government has
decided, very wisely, to give utmost priority to the general
good and the further development of the country. This is indeed
the way to go and no compromises should be made with those
political forces for whom these objectives are anathema.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been
quoted as telling the Japanese authorities that moves are
underway to recruit 1,600 Tamil personnel to the Police force
and this measure too could prove highly timely and commendable
in view of the need to clear-up some outstanding issues stemming
from our conflict. In fact, the Defence Secretary has gone on to
detail the numerous measures undertaken by the state by way of
bringing normalcy to the North-East and not least of these is
the gradual reduction of the military presence in the areas
concerned.
However, the recruitment of Tamil police officers is a
substantive measure that too needs to be dwelt on in
consideration of the bearing it has on resolving some of the
more pressing needs of the North-East populace. Thus far,
�police powers� for the North-East have been proving a
contentious issue in this country. We do not claim to have any
comprehensive, quick answers to this thorny question but we
wonder whether the steady recruitment of Tamil personnel to the
Police and law and order machinery in the North-East does not
constitute at least part of the answer to the worries of the
citizens of the relevant provinces on the �police powers�
question.
No doubt, this has been a storm centre in this country�s
conflict. Ever since the explosive emergence of the conflict and
the issues stemming from it, the North-East populace has been
voicing the advisability of having in the provinces concerned,
police personnel who could converse with them in their mother
tongue. The inability of the state to provide this need, tended
to exacerbate the conflict over the decades. The fundamental
lacuna in the law enforcement sphere in the North-East was that
the majority of law enforcers could not comprehend the people
and vice versa. Thus was born misunderstandings and doubt
between the state and sections of the people of the two
provinces. This situation had the effect of heightening the
sense of grievance of the citizenry concerned.
Over the years, a more enlightened attitude has been brought
to bear by the state on these issues. Fortunately, Tamil was
made an official language of this country and some efforts are
being made to put this decision into practice in particularly
the North-East. But more has to be done to translate this policy
into practicable benefits for the population group concerned.
However, it is heartening to note that we now have a Ministry to
oversee the resolving of issues pertaining to the official
languages and national integration.
Meanwhile, it is in the fitness of things for us to have more
and more Tamil police personnel or those who are conversant in
Tamil, serving in the North-East. For, by this means a
fundamental right of the citizenry concerned is met and it is by
realizing such rights that peace and stability are made to
flourish.
We urge that the state continues to proceed on this
progressive path.
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