New opening for Jaffna youth

Over 6,000 youth in the Jaffna peninsula have applied to join the Police Department. According to a news report in the inside pages of our edition yesterday interviews were conducted at the Duraiappa Stadium in Jaffna last week with youth from Jaffna, Kytes, Chavakachcheri and Point Pedro presenting themselves for interviews conducted by senior Police officers. The IGP too was in Jaffna over the weekend to oversee the event.

With the intensification of the war, though not a total freeze, there were restrictions on the intake of Tamils to the Three Forces and the Police. This was more to do with the safety of such recruits than any other reason.

The spate of killings of many Police officers in Jaffna by the LTTE during the early days of terrorism, when they were labelled as traitors, too would have influenced this decision. The demise of the LTTE has now obviated the need for this reticence and this could well be the first step in a steady recruitment to the Police and Armed Forces from among the minorities. Of course the proper screening would have to be carried out and no doubt this is being done rigorously.

This could also be described as yet another instance of the ongoing normalization process following the end to the war. We are gradually witnessing how the once isolated North is being integrated into the national polity with a host of avenues being opened to its people particulary the youth to enter the mainstream of activity.

Time was when the Police Department had its fair quota of Police officers from the North. Some of them even went on to don the mantle of IGP rising through the ranks on sheer merit. Like their fellow colleagues from the majority community, most of them went on to serve the Force with distinction, some even laying down their lives in the line of duty.

That was an era when the Police Department as with all other State institutions transcended all racial and ethnic barriers where all and sundry worked with a single objective. Like many Tamil doctors who were household names with the Sinhala public due to their special skills, there were Police officers of the minority community too who went on to earn public kudos for their special aptitudes. Ideally we should return to that era where skill and aptitudes were not measured on the basis of race and ethnicity but on ability alone.

The recruitment to the Police Force from the North also assumes significance in the context of the transformation of the Department from its militaristic role to that of a civilian law enforcement agency with the ending of the war.

Thus it would help these recruits fit into their role with more ease and remove whatever tensions that may remain within them. No doubt they would take time to adapt to the new milieu. We must not forget that these were youth who had no avenues for employment and were exposed to a militaristic environment. Therefore they need to be guided into their new vocation with care and understanding.

The people of the North who all these years were being policed by a force who comprised men solely from the majority would welcome the decision to recruit policemen from their own community who would relate more easily to their needs and aspirations. They could also form the bridge to build understanding between the Armed Forces stationed in the North and the civilians. All this could only lead to better understanding and fostering goodwill.

With elections to the Jaffna Provincial Council and other local bodies on the cards the presence of Tamil Police officers will also go a long way in easing tensions. They could play the role of arbiters to bring warring factions together.

The move should also serve to negate all charges of discrimination against the minority communities levelled by certain vested interests abroad in the area of employment. With the President having already pulled down all ethnic barriers during in his victory speech, the stage is now set for a return to the status quo guaranteeing all minorities equal treatment in all spheres of endeavour.