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.