The Island Editorial

God calls IGP?

03 December 2016

 

There has been a real hullabaloo over a video footage of IGP Pujith Jayasundara telling someone over his mobile phone recently in Ratnapura that he had ordered the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) not to arrest a certain Nilame or the lay custodian of a holy shrine. President Maithripala Sirisena, in answer to a curve ball from an Opposition MP in Parliament the other day on the issue, promised to look into the matter.

The police chief can rest assured that no action will be taken against him. For, he has obviously followed an order from a government leader.

President Sirisena drew a great deal of flak from the UNP and the so-called civil society outfits loyal thereto for making a public statement a few months ago that the FCID worked according to a political agenda. His statement warmed the cockles of many a heart in the Opposition circles. He, however, made no revelation; the entire country is aware that the FCID is the yahapalana version of Gestapo.

President Sirisena stands vindicated. No less a person than the IGP has been caught on camera giving an assurance to a superior that he had ordered that the FCID steer clear of someone. What will those who tore into the President for criticising the FCID say now?

The National Police Commission (NPC) is in a slumber. It wakes up from time to time to make statements. It will be interesting to see what the NPC has got to say about the IGP’s telephone conversation which is irrefutable evidence that he has interfered in a police investigation at the behest of a politician.

The country was in a state of euphoria when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted following last year’s regime change. Many thought the appointment of the so-called independent commissions would put an end to political interference, which is the bane of all state institutions. We pointed out in this space that ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’ and it was too early for celebrations.

The local government elections have been postponed indefinitely for political reasons and the National Election Commission is helpless. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption pursues Opposition activists, but takes no action against ministers who contemptuously refuse to answer its summons. Some courts remain open till midnight and on Poya Days to remand Opposition politicians and bail out government members and their backers.

The police hush up investigations and keep making arrests to please their political masters. The FCID has not investigated the biggest ever financial fraud in the country—the Central Bank bond scam. Thanks to the IGP’s telephone conversation now we know the FCID has also become putty in the hands of the powers that be.

Politicians still call the shots and the ‘independent commissions’ have become mere appendages of the government. The Constitutional Council has failed to live up to public expectations. It is controlled by a group of politicians bound by a common political agenda. A fish rots from the head down.

One may argue that the President does not have to call for explanation or conduct a probe to find out who spoke to the IGP over the phone about the ‘Nilame’ in the soup. For, the government knows how to obtain call details. It is even au fait with what judges discuss in telephone conversations and via email thanks to the police who specialise in wiretapping and accessing others’ email accounts on the sly.

But, one need not be surprised if all call details as regards the IGP’s telephone conversation at issue have got mysteriously deleted and the Cabinet Spokesmen claim that since it was a matter concerning a Nilame of a devale the IGP received a call from the god concerned!