Newly found friends and their role on Lanka

By Kumbakarana

On October 24, 1947, Lord Mountbatten warned the emergent Muslim fundamentalist in Pakistan not to use terrorism in Kashmir. Lord Mountbatten, Nehru, Patel and Lady Mountbatten had been accused by the Pakistanis of conspiracy to hand over Kashmir to India. Kashmir was close to Nehru's heart as it was his birth place. Pakistan which had for a number of years been the favourite of the US administration, is now being accused of favouring India due to Clinton's visit. The same accusation that Mountbatten faced in 1947.

The new found friendship between the US and India has ramifications to the Sri Lankan civil war, which is in need of careful examination. Despite the resurgence of Hindutva with its anti-western rhetoric, the detonation of Nuclear devices and the possibility of a war with Pakistan, the US seems to have drawn closer to India.

This surprises many interested observers, including the now remnant Soviet state, who had a special relationship with India over a long period. Nationalists in India were worried as to whether, the west was planning an intervention in Kashmir, similar to their interventions in Indonesia and the planned Norwegian spearheaded intervention in Sri Lanka. However with all these factors and fears preying in the minds of many, Clinton extended his unqualified hand of friendship to India.

There are three alternative explanations to this. The first is economic, it is argued that lndia is a large market to capture, however in reality the Indian GDP accounts for only one percent of the world's total, and is not a significant share yet. The economic factor is still not an urgent factor.

The other reason is argued as being for direct cultural hegemony, since India was under Anglo-Saxon influence it may be argued that such cultural influences may be revived without difficulty.

Although East-Timor, Sri Lanka are relatively insignificant, cultural influences can be diffused without difficulty.

The third reason is Political and Militaristic. India's neighbours has problems with both the Muslim fundamentalist wave and with the Bludgeoning super power status of China. India and the US therefore have a common interest, that is common political protagonists. This would remain so for the foreseeable future.

The Sri Lankan conflict is not purely an internal problem, but rather have many influences from the geopolitics of the region and beyond. Earlier, India was afraid that US interests could create another Taiwan out of Sri Lanka in the days they were aligned to the Soviet Union.

It was not due to a perceived discrimination of Tamils in Sri Lanka that India conducted a virtual proxy war against Sri Lanka by aiding Tamil terrorism. By attempting such a proxy war, the Indian state itself was destabilised.

The Kautilian strategy in Sri Lanka seriously backfired.

At present, from the secular Congress Party to the Hindu Nationalist, BJP remains afraid of the Tamil Tigers because the territorial integrity of India is threatened.

The US and other western powers either mollycoddled or tolerated the LTTE growth on their soil. However, the globalisation of terrorism has become a threat even to the western countries.

During Clinton's visit to India, the most serious security threat was from the LTTE. Although the stated position of the US and India is that of an ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, they are now afraid of the growing geo-political dangers of LTTE terrorism, which attempts to construct a Dravidastan in South Asia.

Earlier it was difficult to crush the LTTE, due to the support given by the external powers. With the changed reality of the present political situation, the suppression of the LTTE would not be resisted.

Our politicians (PA-UNP) who cannot understand this, prefer to embark on an embassy pilgrimage, searching for a mythical political solution to a non-existent problem.

Is the police service disintegrating fast?

The absence of law and order in this country is obvious to anyone. One does not have to ask questions to hear people exclaim this fact.

The reasons for the breakdown of law and order are numerous and well-known. The remedies for this situation are known as well. The reason no remedial action is taken by the authorities is also known and has been discussed in this column earlier.

Today, there is no semblance of leadership in the police service. Those at the top are only concerned with their own positions and perks and are not interested in their colleagues and subordinates or in serving the public. They, including the IGP, are blaming each other for the deteriorating standards in the police and are levelling allegations of corruption against one another in public. The lack of esprit de corps in the top brass is seeping through rank and file, and the police service is fast disintegrating.

The rot really set in 1995 after certain opportunist officers, who ran away when things got too hot in the police, returned to the service. These officers left it to others to face the music during the JVP onslaught in the 1988-89 period and the escalating LTTE attacks thereafter, saying that fighting a war was not in the conditions of service under which they joined the police.

Since 1995 the police service became top heavy with such officers who no longer had to serve in operational areas but who sat in ac comfort in Colombo. They sent others to operational areas, paying no consideration to the age and health problems of those men they sent out, whose only contribution was to go and die for the sake of the country!

One of these senior officers who came back broadcast that he would re-organize the police administration. He did away with the procedures of everything that was in order but went no further. The police administration is now in shambles:

Up to about 1995, the families of police officers posted in operational areas were permitted to continue to reside in police quarters in Colombo. Since 1995, the hitherto existing practice was ignored, and house rent was deducted from officers whose families continued to reside in these quarters while they were posted in operational areas. This rent added to the hardships and anxieties these policemen and their families faced.

According to the earlier procedure, every retiring police officer received his commuted pension on the day of retirement. That procedure was scrapped under the new re-organisation program. Today many retired officers are languishing for long periods, in many cases over one year, without their pensions.

Unfair disciplinary procedure is another aspect giving rise to the number of disgruntled officers in the service. There are many cases of arbitrary action, equally arbitrary decisions on appeals and inordinate delays in inquiries. The Public Service Commission (PSC) is no solace to grieving officers but remains a mere rubber-stamp on decisions already taken. Justice and fairplay in departmental inquiries is a thing of the past. The only hope is the Supreme Court. But how many can afford to seek redress from the S.C.?

A case in point is that of chief inspector Neil Hettiarachchi. Having served creditably as OIC Potuvil Police in 1986 and thereafter as OIC Seeduwa Police, he was put in charge of the Wattala Police in June 1989. At Wattala he solved serious crime cases and detected well-organized smuggling rackets and an illicit arrack bottling plant. These detections became his undoing since some of his senior officers allegedly had vested interests in these rackets.

The CI did not pay heed to signals to 'leave well enough alone'. He was harassed and hounded from place to place on frivolous allegations until he was dismissed from the service in September 1996 by the IGP. He was dismissed on falsehoods supplied by the senior officers who had vested interests in the rackets and not on evidence disclosed at any formal inquiry. The PSC as usual, rubber-stamped the decision of the IGP without going into the facts of the case even when he appealed.

The CI had to go to the Supreme Courts to obtain redress. Unable to sustain justification of the dismissal order in the S.C., and to avoid exposure of this heinous oppression, the C.I. was recalled to service with all back wages and the court case was sanctimoniously settled. But his promotion to rank of ASP is still overdue by about 10 years as a result of the harassment for doing his duty without fear or favour.

While all this and more maladministration is going on in the police service, the public is getting more and more despondent over the law and order situation in the country. The much-repeated assertions by the minister concerned, that improvements have been effected in regard to the law and order situation, only arouses the ire of the public before whose very eyes the stark truth is glaring