By Jay Deshabandu

We hear or read ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ on many daily newspapers, time to time, that how police officers accept bribes while they get caught in the act.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Based on the frequency of bribe takingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  and other related criminal activities by the police, some times, one could wonder,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  if there are mor criminals in the police thanƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ any other places of work in the country. When a police officer chooses to break the law rather than to uphold it, it would be a more than criminal activity because it negatively affects the society at large. When a person is recurited to an important service such as police, the most important qualificationƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ should beƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the goodƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ moralƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and family backgroundƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and hence his or her background in the society should be throughly checked along with his or her criminal record.

The recent story regarding an eyewitness to a HR case, who died or got killed while detained at the Wadduwa police station is worth highlighting here. Whether the murderers are the police officers or not, this case should be thoroughly investigated for the crime against humanity, in a country that is supposed to be full of Buddhists! We in fact had many cases where indeed police officers killed their detainees who were under their custody.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In this case the person is a key witness to HR violation law suit and should have therefore been protected.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  But our country is yet to realize how important it is to have a witness protection program. This is clearly a human right!

In another story on the same newspaper, there was an incident in which a politician hit a women as he was riding a motor bike causing injuries to the women.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The news story further indicated that somehow police failed to make proper investigations into the incident and that the three officers involved in mishandling the investigation fortunately got fired(sacked).

I also admit that there are good officers in addition to bad cops, but their jobs are hampered by the influence of the corrupted politicians. In fact police is under the purview of the politicians and not the laws of the country.

Further, some laws in Sri Lanka are ridiculous. In a recent news item, it was said that a Chinese women was produced before the court as she was loitering in the streets of Colombo at night. The court fined her ten rupees!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Our law makers should wake up and save our country from becoming a joke in the eyes of foreigners. What is wrong with loitering on the street?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Does this mean that if we cannot sleep for some reason at night,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ we must be confined toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ our room for the whole night?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Are all those loitering on streets possible criminals? Do we have Islamic laws in Colombo? In many muslim countries women are not allowed to walk on streets at night without an accomadating male. Further, in some muslim countries, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the women loitering on the street alone may be found guilty of walking alone even if sheƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ gets raped. The rapists can be free if they rape a lotering women on the street in a muslim country! ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka is not primarily a muslime country and therefoe women should have freedom and protection to move any where at any timeƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in the country!

Until recently, we had the funniest seat belt law in the country. One may simply forget to wear a seat belt and could end up in the court as if judges have nothing else to do with real criminals. It should be considered as a simple offense and should be dealt with accordingly. Besides the same law is not applicable to other vehicles as if their lives are next to nothing Our law makers should concentrate on the balance of crime and punishment!

We cannot expect any positive social development in the country until we know that our leaders respect laws in the land, consider the law as superior to them, and make the police function without the influence of the politicians. Unfortunately, for example, our laws are in fact inferior to the powers of the president vested in him.

No one would deny that we have many criminals entered into the main stream politics in the country. And these criminal politicians influence the police. No wonder we then have a police that has many criminals! ShouldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t we insist on a clean criminal record from a person who wishes to be a politician in the country? Can weƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  at least ask that qualification from a politician?

For a democracy to work, the people of the country should be intelligent enough to choose the right person for the right job. The final blame should fall onto the people who voted for criminals and these people are as at much fault as the criminal or corrupted politician.

The country needs a few good politicians who are genuinely interested in making the country a better place to live. Unfortunately we have many corrupted politicians who only think of their stomach before anything else. We have a tinted glass law as some criminals use tinted glass vehicles to do the crimes. Why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t we have a white van law as so called abductions occur in white vans? Sri Lanka is a hot country, and travelling on cars with tinted glass is a necessary rather than a luxury which is allowed to enjoy only for the politicians.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚