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Monday, 28 September 2009

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Commending the Police

The Police Department has been at the receiving end of many a brickbat in recent times and for good reasons. Never before in its history has the department sullied its good name due to the conduct of a few miscreants. This has even served to camouflage the good work done by the Police Department in recent times against trying odds.

There have been instances when police officers had laid their lives on the line in pursuing dangerous criminals. Sadly these acts of gallantry hardly register with the public. Police officers also have had to flirt with danger in their missions. The recent commando style operation to apprehend a notorious criminal in Maligawatte where some police personnel were even shot at is a case in point.

It is in this backdrop that one should commiserate with IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne who the other day lamented the lack of public appreciation and acknowledgement of the role played by his men to ensure the safety of the public. The thrust of his argument was that the public viewed the entire Police Department with a jaundiced eye in the wake of a few infringements on the part of certain errant officers of the law and failed to give credit to the Department for acts of gallantry.

The IGP cannot be faulted for taking up cudgels on behalf of his men who had been pilloried by the public. His job will be to present a cleaner image of the police before the end of his tenure in a couple of months. Thus he could be excused for highlighting some of the achievements of his department which had failed to strike a chord with the public.

Addressing a Police Awards ceremony on Friday the IGP spoke of the large number murders and robberies that were solved during the past few years. He also commended his men for busting the largest ever bank robbery in Sri Lanka of Rs. 98 million stolen from several Banks in Divulapitiya and where the bulk of the loot was recovered.

“The public expects the police to play a major role and the Police Department has improved its commitment to protect civilians and prevent crime,” the Police Chief said. One hopes that police would now devote its energies full time in fighting crime in earnest with the war brought to an end and build up rapport with the public which was lost along the way with its role having undergone a transformation during the years of war.

True, the police force over the years was virtually turned into a combat unit alongside the regular forces in the context of the terrorist threat. Thus it lost its traditional outlook as essentially a law enforcement agency. This military mentality may also have served in hardening some of the officers which manifested itself in certain acts in recent times which earned for the Department the wrath of the public.

Now that the war is over the police which played a not inconsiderable part in the defeat of terrorism will have the opportunity to revert to its traditional role of a civilian force where greater interaction with the public would help erase all misunderstandings, earning for itself once again the awe and respect it once enjoyed among the public in the not too distant past.


A sporting gesture

At a time when sports like all other things have fallen prey to mammon it was gratifying to note that there are still good sportsmen in our midst who stand by the lofty principles enunciated in the sporting tradition.

We are of course referring to the gesture of England Captain Andrew Strauss in recalling Sri Lankan batsman Angelo Mathews after the latter was deemed run out after colliding with a bowler while attempting to take a second run in the on going Championship series in South Africa.

This was a time that Sri Lanka was developing a threatening partnership in which Mathews was a key figure. Had they succeeded, Sri Lanka would have won the match which would have eventually have even meant elimination of England from the tournament.

What was at stake was US dollar 2 million prize money for the ultimate winner. But for once sportsmanship took precedence above anything else at a time when winning at all cost is the present day credo with mega bucks on offer.

Hopefully such gestures on the playing field will help revive all those lost values attached to sportsmanship where winning is not all but how you play the game.
 

Forging global consensus to combat terrorism

In May this year, Sri Lanka was successful in defeating the scourge of brutal terrorism after almost three decades of conflict inflicted on us by the LTTE, one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations known to the international community. Our recent anti-terrorist operations cost us only 2.8 billion dollars in all, compared with other anti-terrorist operations elsewhere.

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On the ‘reasonable use of Tamil’

I am all for identity assertion. I do not think that submerging culture associated with language, custom, faith etc in an overall mishmash that is even more amorphous is necessarily good or better. Make no mistake, I am not against anyone wanting to be Sri Lankan and feeling that his/her overall national identity (Sri Lankan) overrides other identities (Sinhala, Tamil, Moor or Burgher; Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Catholic); but I sense that if we are not Sinhala or Tamil in the first instance, for example, our being Sri Lankan becomes less meaningful.

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