Police powers for Provincial Councils

The Hizbullah threat would pass off. None who know his past take Hizbullah seriously. Now, the challenge before President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the new chief minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan is to make the provincial administration work.

For that to happen, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has to keep his promise to implement in full the 13th Amendment and Chief Minister Chandrakanthan (let’s forget the Pillaiyan phase of his life) his post - swearing in vow to turn himself into a democrat. Unless these happen, the entire exercise in the east will fail; if we borrow S.L. Gunasekara’s phrase, it ‘will be history.’

President Rajapaksa’s part, as we have repeatedly pointed out, is the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, especially the three appendixes - Law and Order, Land and Land Settlement and Education. Land and Land Settlement, as pointed out last week, is a sensitive issue in the Eastern Province. A lot of harm that had been done to the Tamils and the Muslims has to be rectified. The genuineness and the success of the ‘democratic experiment’ depend on that. Equally important to the Tamils and the Muslims are the questions of Law and Order and Education. I reported the tedious negotiations that took place between President Jayewardene and his main advisors Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake and the TULF leaders A. Amirthalingam, M. Sivasithamparam and R. Sampanthan, with Indian mediation. TULF leaders were not satisfied with the outcome which was included in the 13th Amendment as Appendix but they accepted it because India felt that that would provide a base for the creation of an autonomous arrangement for the Tamils.

The bedrock of autonomy is the feeling among the people concerned that they are governing themselves. Police being the visible instrument of state power convey to the people who the ruler is. People of the north and east refer to the Sri Lankan police as Sinhala Police, indicating that the rulers are Sinhalese.

Devolution of police power and the establishment of a police service consisting of Tamil and Muslim personnel is the only way to instill into the people of the east that they are being governed by their own representatives. Chandrakanthan going about with ‘Sinhala Police’ is not going to give the people of the east the feeling of autonomy.

Appendix I was constructed with the objective of giving the Tamils and Muslims - the Tamil speaking people - that the police force - the Law and Order enforcement arm of the state - is theirs.

Police and Public Order is the first in the list of subjects assigned to the provincial councils and the extent of the police powers to be devolved is set out in Appendix I. It has 14 Articles and a Schedule. Article 1 specifies that national defence and national security would be central government subjects. It adds that the use of armed forces and any other forces in aid of civil power would continue to be with the Sri Lankan government.

The scheme for the sharing of the police power between the centre and the provinces is set out in Article 2. It lays down that the IGP would be the head of the Sri Lanka Police Force and the Police Force would be divided into National Division and a Provincial Division for each province.The Provincial Division would be headed by a DIG appointed by the IGP and seconded from the National Service. In making that appointment, the IGP would get the concurrence of the chief minister of the province concerned. If there is no agreement the President would make the appointment.

The rest of the articles deal with matters concerning recruitment, promotion, transfers and disciplinary control of police officers. The National Police Commission would be responsible for those in the national service and Provincial Police Commissions of the provinces for the officers in the provincial service. The Provincial Police Commission would comprise the DIG of the province, a nominee of the Public Service Commission in consultation with the president and a nominee of the chief minister of the province.

The police officers of the province will reflect the ethnic composition of the population of that province and all police officers should be proficient in Sinhala and Tamil. The schedule enumerates the offences the provincial police would investigate.

Police powers were not devolved till now, though the Chief Ministers Forum had passed resolutions requesting its devolution. The chief ministers’ forum that is scheduled to meet on the 29th of this month at Pelvehera would take up that matter again. Uva Province Chief Minister Vijith Vijayamuni is taking up the matter. “We have discussed the matter with the President. It is now up to him,” he said.

This is a welcome development. President Jayewardene expected such a development when he insisted that the devolution process should be countrywide and not confined to the North and East. The reason he gave was: it would be easier to sell to the Sinhalese the concept of power sharing if they get used to enjoying power at provincial level.

Fulfillment of Chandrakanthan’s pledge is equally important. He should demonstrate that he has actually chosen the democratic path. To do that, he has to shed his past completely. He has to give up his anti-Muslim and anti-Jaffna Tamil policy. He has to drop his abduction, extortion and intimidation. His cadres must stop brandishing their arms.

We accept that his path will be as rugged as the Batticaloa roads. LTTE’s threat is likely to increase. The fierce Jayanthan Brigade which he once headed with Karuna celebrated its 16th anniversary on May 4. Its new commander Keerthy, announced that it is waiting to resume its operations.

The fear that the LTTE might turn the East into Iraq or Afghanistan, is rising among the people. LTTE’s theoretician, V. Balakumar, who is taking the place of Balasingham, hinted about it at a meeting in Kilinochchi on Saturday.