The Jackboot
Sunday 01st November 2015
They came,
they saw, and they baton-charged. Or, they were already in position and saw,
and baton-charged. Under successive previous political dispensations this kind
of behaviour by our Police force was a familiar occurrence. In fact, during the
immediate past regime, a mere baton charge began to be regarded as 'light'
treatment in the face of the increasing deployment of Police Special Task Force
(police commando) units and even of the Army to quell such outbreaks of
civilian public protests. Sri Lankans have long been familiar with the jackboot
of repression.
Such deployment of para-military and military
units to quell civilian protest campaigns has, over the years, resulted in many
deaths and injury due to shooting by the deployed units, often decried as
disproportionate actions. Deaths or severe injuries and even sudden abductions
have often been the outcome of such anti-social military deployments. The
tragedies in Rathupasvela and in the Free Trade Zone protest in Katunayake were
but the best known among many similar incidents of anti-civilian violence meted
out by State security agencies at the behest of the political authorities of
the day.
The accumulated experience of such repression and
violent coercion during the past regime partly contributed to its electoral
defeat. Opposition political parties and civil society bodies at that time
raised their voices in condemnation and made promises of investigation of past
repression and commitments to avoid such repressive behaviour.
Last week's incidents of 'police brutality'
during student protests in Colombo, therefore, while familiar, are highly
objectionable given the promises made and electoral mandates given for
increased democratisation and greater governmental sensitivity to public
thinking.
In recent years the intolerance of dissent and
independent thought has created such a social environment that there were -
and, perhaps, still are - sections of society, especially of the social elite,
who are remote from the stresses and aspirations of the middle and low-income
classes and, fail to empathise with their predicaments. If the politicians of
the day were intolerant of, and insensitive to the issues of the lower and
less-powerful social rungs, the upper social class was, perhaps, equally
intolerant if not quite unaware of these issues.
Hence, the social endorsement the previous
government received when it announced the compulsory course for so-called
'leadership building' for all new entrants to State universities. Since many,
if not, most, of the country's political leadership never entered university
nor benefited from higher education, these politicians were unable to empathise
at all with the aspirations or, even actual experiences, of those young people
entering universities and technical education colleges today.
Such estrangement from the mass of the people and
the intelligentsia has not helped in the formulation of policy and protocol
that governs - or, should govern - the usually cash-strapped higher education
sector. Some sections of both the political establishment and the social elite
may continue to view higher education sector students as unruly and anarchistic
and deserving of a 'disciplining' by the military - classic jackboot culture.
Indeed, the handing over the conduct of such pre-higher education exercises to
the armed forces itself signals the militarisation of Sri Lankan society.
As it is, Sri Lanka has an unenviable reputation
as a country with decades of 'dirty war' both North and South in which torture,
police brutality, and massacres of civilians have been common. Successive
regimes and, especially the last one, have notoriously tolerated, if not
actively directed such repression. Hence, the 'blame' cannot stop at the police
and military command levels but must be taken to the higher level of the
political establishment.
A political leadership that recently swept to
power at both presidential and parliamentary levels of governance cannot afford
to be clumsy or ineffectual with such things as the repressive behaviour State
security agencies and personnel. It is the political leadership that must
efficiently ensure that new policy and governmental style is inculcated right
down to the grassroots levels of administration, bureaucracy and national
security. It is only then the security services and personnel will move away
from past brutish practices.
When the Prime Minister calls for a report on the
incidents at Ward Place, Colombo, this may imply that the Premier does not
consider the Minister in charge of law and order to be sufficiently competent
to deal with the mini-crisis. On the other hand, the Premier's personal
attention to the matter can signal the Government's serious intent to deal with
this crisis in a more decisive way.
The fact that both the Human Rights Commission as
well as the National Police Commission has announced investigations into the
incident also augurs well for the commitment of these two bodies to reversing
the previous condition of impunity and unaccountability.
At stake here is not solely the behaviour of the
agencies of law and order. Respect for and engagement with the student
community is also crucial if the freer society and rapid economic growth now
being touted is to be achieved. Previous tinpot dictators and their bombastic
kin may have the capacity only to envisage docile, unimaginative and
un-intellectual youth as 'students'.
Sri Lankan civilisation is far more than that and
should have no place for the Jackboot. Young people need the maximum freedom
for the growth of intellect, imagination and constructive energy. Our future
hinges on it.
The people are watching to see how far good
governance will go.
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