According to reports from the Sri Lankan press:
Twenty four policemen including 4 Sergeants attached to Kollupitiya police station were interdicted with effect from yesterday after an inquiry conducted by Colombo Central SSP Sisil Perera on the instructions of DIG Pujitha Jayasundera…These officers who were attached to Security points around Temple Trees were warned earlier on complaints received from the President’s Security Division on their indiscipline and unpunctuality. The policemen have allegedly also been found sleeping while on night duty. (Daily Mirror, September 4, 2006).
The immediate question that arises is as to why only the officers working around the area of Temple Trees were interdicted and why not officers engaged in similar behaviour throughout the country? It is an indication that only the security forces immediately surrounding the president is all that matters and that the security of the rest of the people in the country is a matter of no concern. That the Sri Lankan police officers neglect their duties, sleep during working hours and observe no decent conduct of any sort is a matter known to all citizens of the country. No special inquiry needs to be conducted to highlight this. The fact that an inquiry is conducted into the Temple Trees area only means that the security divisions of the president are taking some extra steps to keep their officers awake and alert as a special security measure. The report also mentioned that the action had been taken after many warnings had failed to have any positive effect.
However, the report does not mention that any senior officer has been taken to task for the dereliction of duty of these 24 rank and file officers. If their immediate superiors in the rank just above them had not been negligent of their duties this would not have happened in the first place. However, a similar type of thing is happening throughout the country demonstrating that in all places the higher ranking officers are failing in their duty to at least keep their subordinates awake, let alone ensuring that they do their duties in a diligent manner. The complete failure of the Sri Lankan police is very much a failure of the high ranking officers. However, there seems to be no one capable of taking action against them.
There are much more serious complaints about police officers than merely sleeping during working hours. Some are accused of serious involvement in drug related offences and there is hardly anyone willing to investigate these matters. An officer who was reported to have been committed to his duties, Douglas Nimal, was assassinated along with his wife, allegedly with the knowledge of some higher ranking police officers. This was allegedly done in order to silence him about his complaints regarding drug related crimes that included police links that enabled such crimes to take place. The complete failure on the part of the police service to find the culprits of this crime shows that the slumber of the officers is spread into far wider sections of the police and that there are deeper causes for such slumber than mere neglect of duty.
There has been some talk in the country about victims of crime. If there is one problem that affects all victims of crime in the country it is the nature of the policing system itself. While crime takes place and claims more and more victims, the policing system goes into deeper and deeper slumber. Thus, it is the criminals that benefit from this ugly slumber of the country’s law enforcement agency.
There are some times in fact when many of these officers do remain awake, this is when they beat up innocent citizens to the point where they develop severe kidney problems and suffer even more injuries at the hands of these law enforcement officers. Torture is perhaps the most common form of recreation enjoyed by the Sri Lankan police. When victims complain the higher officers go to sleep and do not respond to these complaints. When some attempts were made to correct this situation, for example, by the former National Police Commission, there were threats of strikes to stop the interdiction of policemen who were charged for crimes in the High Courts, which are the highest criminal courts in the country. Only the crime of failing to stay awake to provide security for the president seems to warrant interdiction. It is easy to get away with much worse offences.
One of the main duties of the National Police Commission, according to the 17th Amendment, was to ensure disciplinary control of the police. The incumbent president destroyed this 17th Amendment based institution by his failure to appoint the Constitutional Council. Now the country lacks a legitimate authority to deal with the discipline of the country’s premier law enforcement agency. The result is that the law enforcement officers even sleep around Temple Trees. The president cannot blame this on anybody but himself. Those who tamper with constitutional provisions and destroy even the most rudimentary attempts that are made to revitalize the dying institutions like the Sri Lankan police have now to live with the consequences of their own deadly neglect. While the president himself is threatened by sleeping policemen around his residence, any rational person may ask, ‘who will safeguard and protect the citizens of the country.’
