Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

yeah I will get it organized with Zaharan and Ramz..yes..Lion is our champion from the last league..i do see him in the forum at times..keep it touch on the main forum..I will let you know

Recently the Police Spokesman in an interview telecast over a private TV channel very explicitly announced the criteria adopted in the selection of police personnel in our country. He was to establish among other things that high standards are observed in the selection of police personnel.

Basic academic qualifications, height requirement, chest measurements and inquiries about parental and family background and other specific requirements were announced to emphasise the manner police officers are selected, reflecting the view that officers selected in that manner and trained ought to maintain high standards and behave in a dignified manner.

However he failed to qualify that after recruitment some officers by their derogatory conduct have let down the image of the entire service.

The same TV channel recently portrayed the demeaning conduct of some police officers in a related incident and rightly re-telecast the Police Spokesman s public announcement to emphasise that such situations had arisen in spite of the manner and efforts made to recruit personnel to the service.

On Sunday, September 21 during the mass registration of Tamil persons in Colombo, the same TV channel attempted to interview him, but his reaction refusing to be interviewed by this channel was a bad example of a senior police officer.

While the registration was at the request of the citizens committees as stated in an English daily on September 23, the Police Spokesman had said that the registration was done with the approval of the Attorney General. The recent incidents of police wrong doing and indisciplined conduct cannot be concealed with statements of the Police Spokesman.

The highest court in Sri Lanka had remarked as reported in The Morning Leader of September 24, that the present Police Spokesman 'was a man who blabbers and should not be taken seriously.' But blabbering amounts to be a qualification to receive political protection to continue as the Police Spokesman.

His conduct is much more grave as he has not been misquoted. When the biggest political hooligan attempted to snatch the TV camera of the Sirasa cameraman, seen on TV by the public, his statement as Police Spokesman surprised the general public, for it is only a blind person who would say such a thing.

A recent newspaper item revealed that he is the son of a respected former minister, who disposed some of his wealth to enter parliament. The former minister was characteristically humble, so much so that when he was not a minister he used to walk from Galle Fort to the bus halt, to the market place and political authority was never hanging on his shoulder.

The Police Spokesman should observe the disciplined and worthy comments made by the Armed Forces Spokesman over TV.

Police Quo Vadis

become eligible for asylum in us

keep looking at the main thread or Zaharan thread

Politicians and the Bribery Comm.

News has emerged of an investigation on the assets of Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena. This particular investigation by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has already made big news as two police officers attached to the commission have been faulted by a commissioner and the director of investigations for pursuing their investigation as this minister, in their opinion, has a good future. What about the future of the country? Let me come to this later.

But what is of serious concern to me is that I am afraid that this investigation will go the same way as the investigations of two so called powerful ministers of the Chandrika regime.

I have preserved a letter from a reader published in July 2005, which had the caption 'SB s acquittal - The shame of the Bribery Commission.' The minister had to explain an income of Rs.54 million amassed between March 31, 1995 and September 30, 2001. His simple explanation was that it was gifts from friends and relatives. It turned out to be a perfect defence. We are Third World only because there is no fourth world!

When the next heavyweight, also from the hills, was prosecuted for being unable to account for Rs.46 million amassed in the period March 31, l997 to August 31, 2002, he too was acquitted on a mere technicality. On that occasion I wrote to the editors of two newspapers under the caption 'Bribery Commission - Shame Again.' I did not see them published.

As far as I know these are the only two high profile cases filed by the commission. I believe that these prosecutions are done because the commission is driven to do so by public pressure, hence the less than halfhearted effort and enthusiasm. It of course pursues with much vigour cases against grama niladharis and office peons.

On the other hand, ever since the enactment of the law establishing the Bribery Commission there has been a total lack of political will to see that the commission gets all the support it needs to play an effective role in the public affairs of this country.

The sudden transfer of the Director General by the Executive early this year demonstrates that the Bribery Commission is indeed not independent. Very much like the fate that has befallen the Constitutional Council. At the end of the day, it is the collective inaction of our society and our dumb electorate that needs to be blamed.

To come back to the plight of the two police officers who inquired into the case of Minister Abeygunawardena one has been sent to a bunker in Mannar-Vavuniya, and the other to cold storage at Police HQ. So much for answering their call to duty.

And pray who are allegedly gunning for them? It has been reported that one is the commissioner who fills the requirement that as the person with wide experience relating to investigation of crime and law enforcement and the other being the Director of Investigations.

The first comes as no surprise, but the director was doing such good work that I am constrained to think that he was acting on orders from the top in this instance.

So much for good governance.

Pro Bono Publico

Kandy

Is kilinochchi caured yet?