The Island.lk: Sri Lanka: Tuesday,
October 11, 2016.
Among the
systems of good governance put into place after the watershed elections of
January 2015, the 19th Amendment to the constitution takes pride of place. Over
the past one and a half years there have been other path breaking legal
enactments also, such as the Office of Missing Persons Act (OMP) and the Right
to Information Act (RTI) which have the potential to transform the way
governance takes place in the country. If implemented in a positive spirit, the
OMP can bring closure to the grief of families of the disappeared and serve as
a deterrent to future resorts to enforced disappearances. The RTI can pave the
way for more transparent governance so that what the government says and does
is not out of sync. However, these are still in the future, as they need to be
implemented.
At the
present time it is the 19th Amendment that has set the tone, spirit and created
the enabling environment for the present period. It brings into focus the two
key principles of limits to power (through the reduction of presidential power)
and checks and balances (through independent commissions). The independent
commissions established under the 19th Amendment are the Commission to
Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, the Public Service
Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the National Police Commission, the
Election Commission, the Delimitation Commission, the Finance Commission and
the Public Service Commission. Some of these commissions are better known to
the general public than others.
The Elections
Commission, Bribery and Corruption Commission and Human Rights Commission
engage in matters that have political relevance and are controversial.
Therefore they receive more public attention than the other commissions. The
Election Commission has come in for brickbats recently due to the continuous
postponement of local government elections. The Election Commissioner, Mahinda
Deshapriya, earned high praise for his conduct of the last presidential and
general elections with much less independence than afforded under the present
legislation. The Election Commissioner has pointed out that he can hold
elections if the government provides him with the electorates and number of
seats. The government has so far failed to provide these prerequisites with
regard to local government elections on the grounds that the proper
delimitation of electorates has yet to be completed. Each of the independent
commissions can only work successfully if the rest of the government system
cooperates with them.
QUALITY
APPOINTMENTS
On the other
hand, the Bribery and Corruption Commission and the Human Rights Commission
have been acting with independence on their own steam with regard to tasks
entrusted to them. The former has commenced taking action against leading
members of the former government, even those once thought to be untouchable,
and is now proceeding to take action against those from the former government
who are in the present government. The latter has on occasion, and as needed,
been forthright in providing major critiques of government actions, the most
recent being the proposed amendment to the criminal procedure code, where it
was intended that suspects should be denied access to a lawyer until they make
their first statement (confession) to the police.
Even the best
laws and mechanisms can be undermined by the appointment of those unsuited to
head them. It is to the credit of the government and to the Constitutional
Council which is vested with the powers of selecting appropriate persons that
the appointments to the independent commissions have been of a high caliber.
Those appointed are in general of a liberal and universalist disposition in
relation to governance issues. In particular the appointment of Dr Deepika
Udagama to head the Human Rights Commission and Prof Siri Hettige to head the
National Police Commission are especially noteworthy as both of them have shown
long years of commitment to liberal and universal values and been associated
with civil society while also being eminent teachers at the national
universities. What is promising is the willingness on the part of the
independent commissions to work with the resources available in civil society
to promote the good governance mandate of the government. The government does
not view civil society as an enemy to be opposed and defeated as did its
predecessor. This enables those institutions, and the sectors served by them,
to benefit from the latest advances in technology, thinking and mechanisms to
serve the Sri Lankan people better.
A recent
example would be the international conference on "Future Policing for
South Asia" which was held in Colombo last week and organized jointly by
the National Police Commission, the Police Department, the Regional Centre for
Strategic Studies, the Asia Foundation and the UN system in Sri Lanka. This
conference brought in fresh thinking into issues of policing, both in the South
Asian region and Sri Lanka in particular. It was attended by the heads of
police from several Asian countries, as well as international scholars and
experts in the field. The final day saw a discussion take place between the
police and experts on issues of governance, democracy and accountability,
community policing, new technology and environmental policing. The discussion
on governance, democracy and accountability in particular showed the
willingness of the police to be self critical and open minded in seeking the
best solutions to enable them to better serve the people.
FUTURE
STEPS
Prof. Hettige
as chairman of the National Police Commission explained how it had embarked on
policy formulation and programme development in collaboration with other state,
civil society and international organizations to facilitate the process of
transition. Taking steps to ensure better ethnic balance in the police and to
rectify the present imbalances, keeping in mind that the three decade long war
was caused by ethnic grievances which were increased during the years of war,
has to be an important part of this transition. There is a need for a shift in
mindset in the entire society away from a militarized approach to security to a
civilian approach. The importance of the police in securing law and order needs
to obtain greater priority and accordingly a larger quantum of resources
commensurate to its importance.
There was a
discussion on the issues of democratization of police. The first is
accountability to the democratically elected government and its decisionmakers
which is upward accountability. Second is accountability to the community. This
is part of the police ethos of being a police service rather than a police
force. As accountability requires a system of checks and balances, the need to
strengthen investigative function of National Police Commission was proposed as
well as to strengthen the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the police. In
addition, it was proposed to improve the performance appraisal system and make
it more transparent and systematic at the station, district and provincial
levels. Having a system of social audit of police stations at the community
level to make the police personnel more accountable to the community was
another of the innovations proposed.
There is an
untapped reservoir of liberalism within Sri Lankan society especially at its
higher levels, which includes the public service. It must be remembered that
the public service voted for a change at the last elections, as the postal
votes of public servants indicated. At higher levels of society, the
educational opportunities are greater and so are the possibilities for mixing
with those of other backgrounds. After the bitter experience of three decades
of conflict there is little or no resistance to the need for greater ethnic
inclusivity in state institutions or in the decision making bodies. There is a
willingness to practice pluralism as opposed to remain separate. But targets
need to be set and checks lists of what needs to be done have to be formulated.
Or else inertia will dictate that the practices of the past continue. There
continues to remain a need for more Tamil speaking police personnel in those
parts of the country where Tamil speaking people live in significant numbers,
especially the North, East, central hills and Colombo. The 19th Amendment
provides the enabling environment for this type of positive change to take
place through the policy directions of the independent commissions.
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