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Scrutiny by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

A truly virtuous person will not proclaim his own morality in the public domain. One's virtue and morality are for others to judge and comment upon. When a society becomes amoral and dishonest, history has shown that it would decay. Our society is receding swiftly towards decadence.

It is regretted that our leaders of institutions not leaving aside our political leaders conceal their abysmal failure in leadership qualities in making such pronouncements. The beholder is amazed at the stupidity of such assertions. However in the midst of such travesty there stands not in our midst persons, who would given the chance, make pronouncements other than on the subject of morality, and such pronouncements are indeed worthy of reflection. When these pronouncements emanate from a person with unimpeachable and implacable credentials it is most certainly worthy of taking note. Mr. K.C. Kamalasabeyson, P.C., the present Attorney General stands out as in that mould.

He is the Chief Law Officer of the State. Officers under his command defend many a government officer, police officer and a State official both in the Supreme Courts and in the District Courts. It has been provided by legislation that the Police will consult him and accept his advice in investigations of crimes and other offences. The extent of his interaction with the Police is such that no one will be in a better position to make pronouncements on the State of the Police. His pronouncements are likely to be accepted without much contradiction.

Reluctant

Recently he had been invited to speak at 'The Esto Perpetua Forum' organised by the Old Boys' Union of St. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, where he confessed that his earlier decision taken by him to refrain from speaking publicly on current controversial topics was revoked by the call made by his alma mater. At this speech he made many pronouncements that were well-known to citizens conscious of the erosion of the Rule of the Law. Of the many matters referred to by him, one of the most important was when he said quite candidly and forthrightly "the policeman is no longer a friend of the public. A complainant is reluctant to enter the police station and make his complaint. A victim of crime is further victimized. Corruption is rampant".

The public from the meekest villager to the man living in a manor for years has complained about corruption rampant in the police force. We daresay there are dedicated and competent officers in the service but to locate them is like finding a needle in a haystack. It is a well-known fact that if one were not corrupt that one would refrain from heeding the instructions of superiors known to have a track record of corrupt activities. How many officers of stations have complained to us privately that they have no alternative but to send constables to transport the children of superiors to school and back, do the marketing chores for the family and provide them with weekly quotas of vegetables, fish and meat?

Proliferation

You may wonder how illegal betting clubs, gambling dens, liquor shops, drug peddlers and brothels proliferate within close proximity to police stations. It is only too well known that most of these vice dens send envelopes containing wads of currency notes to be given to the HQI of the area and collected by his agents. If there is a delay, a raid will ensue immediately. When picking pockets was a thriving business in the city the Anti-Pick Pocket Squad was given a percentage of the loot by the Pick Pocket's Association or by individual pick-pockets, that is known as 'es-kuliya'.

Before heroin became the most expensive drug, illicit liquor and ganja were the main business undertakings of the underworld. Transport of ganja from the jungles of distant Thanamalwila to Colombo as well as the transport of Kasippu from Wennappuwa to the city was done with the help and protection of the Police. There were raids and suspects arrested and produced in courts, but the ready availability of ganja and Kasippu in the city tends to remain unabated.

Activities stalled

With ganja and opium giving into heroin, the latter became the principal drug of the addict. The power of addiction became so great that millions of rupees were at stake. Special legislation was enacted. Existing legislation was amended, but heroin came to stay. Collections of the agents increased in geometrical proportion. The corrupt police officers began to be extremely happy as their income increased by leaps and bounds. It is said that the Narcotics Bureau and other investigating units established with a view to curbing the proliferation of heroin had in no way hampered business. With the multifariousness of special units, if in fact at least one unit did perform their duty without any compunction it would result in a great scarcity of heroin. Narcotics Bureau accuses the other units of hampering their investigations. It is a known fact that to stifle the other, one unit would arrest the informant and remand him resulting in the activities of the other unit being stalled.

Unaware

The filthy lucre may very well tempt any honest officer to become corrupt. If an officer refuses to be a party, to organised racketeering he would earn the wrath of some corrupt superior. He would be a marked man. Others would give him hell. Most men yield to the pressures and fall in line . Others resign or accept whatever punishment is in store. Puny peddlers with a few grains of heroin are produced in court for purposes of statistics. Large heroin dealers are untouched.

The tragic episode concerning the former IGP Anandarajah shows the abysmal depth in the knowledge of the Police of one whom they called the biggest heroin baron in Sri Lanka. If Anandarajah's extension was not granted because he attended a birthday party at the behest of a close friend of his, not knowing that he was being hosted by the biggest heroin dealer, then the Narcotics Bureau should be questioned as to why they did not know the antecedents of the man who presented himself as a jeweller with a chain of jewellery shops in the country as a front to his nefarious activities. How did he for the past number of years continue as No. 1 drug dealer in Sri Lanka without the Police being cognizant of the fact? It seemed that other than the Narcotics Bureau and other multifarious crime-busting units, ordinary citizens of the country were only too aware that beneath the veneer of the much - respected jeweller loomed a drug baron.

This is why the Chief Law Officer of the country says, "the Rule of Law as entrenched in our constitution has become a dead letter. The Sri Lankan citizens no longer enjoy the luxury of the Rule of Law". The corruption of the Police has been accepted as the rule and the enforcing of the Rule of Law through the Police has become the exception.

Clamour

When political parties in the opposition suffer at the high handedness of the ruling party, the latter uses the Police as a tool. As a direct result of the cry emanating from the opposition in consequence upon the imposition of the Rule of Law orchestrated by the subservient slavish police officers, the establishment of a Police Commission is implemented. When bribery and corruption reached its zenith, the politicians cried for the establishment of the Commission to investigate this phenomenon. Its establishment was therefore eagerly anticipated.

Kamalasabayson said, "Last week he, Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya, the Chairman, said that the transfers in the Police Department are being influenced by politicians. This was given wide publicity in the local press". He went on further to say.," earlier the fate of a police officer was in the hands of the Cabinet of Ministers through delegation of the Public Service Commission. Today we have a National Police Commission which is a totally independent body dealing exclusively with the members of the Police Department. They are not subject to anyone's control. Not even the Cabinet of Ministers could dictate policies to them. The Commission could delegate their authority to a Committee. What is significant is that any person who interferes with the National Police Commission is guilty of an offence which carries with it a seven-year term of imprisonment and fine".

It was the hope of the Attorney-General that the Commission would not in anyway make that provision a dead letter. Chairman Abeysuriya himself had confessed that there are interferences from politicians when police officers are transferred pending inquiries. Whereas a member of the public complains against an errant police officer the latter remains without being moved even following inquiry. We know that there are 75,000 police officers in the Sri Lanka Police. We concur with the Attorney-General that corruption is rife among police officers. It may well be a Herculean task to inquire into the hordes of complaints made by the public. It is quite evident that one of our national pastimes is sending petitions against honest police officers.

Duty

Ranjith Abeysuriya, P.C. as the Chairman of the National Police Commission and a former Crown Counsel, Director of Public Prosecutions and a leading criminal lawyer is aware of the multidimensional problems he would face in trying to instill discipline and re-establish the Rule of Law in the Police Service. But it is a duty he owes to the poor people of this country who have been oppressed by the bureaucracy and the Police who have now become the instrument of corruption and the tool to breach the Rule of Law. According to Mr. Kamalasabayson, this serves as a great divide between barbarism and civilisation. The discerning public and hawk-eyed civil organisations will not accept any excuse if the Commission fails to deliver the goods. It was the mandate given by the public of the country to establish an Independent Police Commission. The anger and the wrath will equally fall upon the members of the Commission.

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