A Policeman who attempted a Systems Change

by Dhammike Amarasinghe
former Adviser to the President &
former Chairman, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation

That ( I mean the title of this piece), is in short, the story of Dr. Kingsley Wickremasuriya, Retired Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (Snr. DIG). Dr. Wickremasuriya, perhaps one of only two or three PhD s (earned and not ‘pinata lebunu’) in the Sri Lanka Police, has just published his memoirs. ‘A Challenge for the Police’ is the short title of the book, an Author publication.

Dr.Wickramasuriya, Kingsley for short, nearly made it to the top, but that is another story, of which the reader will get a glimpse at the end. Kingsley had his early education at several provincial schools and thereafter entered the then University of Ceylon at Peradeniya, from Royal College. That was in Peradeniya’s heyday and Kingsley associated closely with the likes of Dr.Ediriweera Sarathchandra, an association which perhaps inspired the future Policeman, to the somewhat unlikely feat of bringing out a volume of Sinhala poetry – Netha Lovai un Rasanduna-, perhaps an early indication of his creativity.

First, the Author takes us through his rookie days in the Police Training School, that menlightens the reader on the rigors of and the all-round training that a Police Probationer (as the trainee ASPs are called) must undergo, ranging from law and police procedures to horse-\ riding, motor cycle riding, swimming/life-saving and weapons training, It is a training at the commencement of ones adult life that any healthy young man would envy.

It is also interesting that men who would one day end up perhaps even as Inspectors General of Police are made to do the hard slog and go on foot, on long night patrols. Another aspect of this training was the discipline instilled on the trainees to keep faithful records of ones activities through an official diary one had to maintain and which diary was regularly checked and commented on by superiors.

At this point a cynical reader is apt to question whether all these rigorous and wholesome procedures dinned into a trainee, in any grade, at the point of his entry into the service are complied with them faithfully throughout his career. Human nature being what it is, it would be idle to expect such an ideal outcome. That is where the need for supervision comes in. And the author in his subsequent story amply demonstrates this need, when he as a young ASP in charge of a District or even as a SP or SSP would, for example, go on unannounced night inspections, at all odd hours, some times through wild animal infested jungle roads, to keep his men on the alert.

This is the story of a man who took his job seriously and who was devoted to his public duty. No reader should expect not to find in the memoirs of a Sri Lankan public officer, any mention of political interference. The reader of this work would not be disappointed. Sometimes the reference is direct but at most times it is oblique and between the lines. Anyway, most times the author seems to have got out of such situations smartly but without compromising correctness of conduct.

The glory days begin in Jaffna. It was in the days preceding the outbreak of the 30 year war. Jaffna was in turmoil. Emergency had been declared. Crime was rampant – all foisted on ‘terrorists’, who incidentally were bivouacked in India in the face of ‘Bull’ Weeratunga’s Don Quixote-like mission, to ‘stamp out terrorism in three months’ (or 72 hours as stated by the author) in obedience to Presidential (JR) diktat – Weeratunga certainly stamped out some onion fields by bulldozer, it was reported at that time.

The author says “Fear, mistrust and suspicion were the order of the day” in Jaffna. He had been specially selected and sent to Jaffna as SP, much to the consternation of his family, to tackle this extremely volatile situation. To his credit he deviated from the beaten track of the security establishment. He instead treated the Jaffna civilians, as human beings and his compatriots at that. He initiated what he called the Police-Community Relations Programme bringing the Police and Community leaders together at Police Station area level, to combat crime and to maintain law and order. The results were immediate.

In one Police area area the residents apprehended some robbers and handed them over to the Police. The crowning achievement of the newly established Police-Community collaboration came, when on the eve of the Author’s eventual transfer out of Jaffna, the Velvettiturai Police-Community Relations Committee offered to apprehend Kuttimani ( the well known militant leader) and hand him over to the Police. For reasons not stated this did not eventually happen and it was fated that Kuttimani was later to be apprehended by the security forces and to meet with his violent death in the 1983 Welikada prison riot.

However the important point is that at the relevant time Tamil civilians were prepared to hand over to Sri Lankan Authorities a man who was claiming to be fighting for their rights. Not only had the Police-Community Relations drive paid dividends, but implicitly Jaffna people had apparently come to identify themselves unmistakably with Sri Lanka.

It is apposite to mention at this point that the author had in his previous stint at the Intelligence Services Division had reported to the authorities (this was before the LTTE and other militant parties became active) as follows: ” …..we would soon have a dangerous situation where we will have a fully trained guerilla organization on our hands to deal with, if no meaningful steps are taken to handle their problems realistically. The problem is bound to assume alarming proportions with increasing unemployment amongst the ranks of the Tamil youth and the widening communication gap between Sinhalese and Tamils and the receding chances of redress abroad owing to language difficulties…”

It is significant that the author had very sensibly pointed out the necessity of redressing felt grievances of the Tamil youth, rather than a bombastic, yet stupid intent to “wipe out terrorism “- through bulldozer or otherwise. What a difference it may have made to Sri Lankan history if his wise words had been given some heed.

To come back to the Police- Community Relations programme, it is noteworthy that the author had built up cordial relations through this programme with all sections of the community including the politicians, the Church and the media. No less a person than the then Leader of the Opposition the late Mr Amirthalingam had participated in his activities and had commended him in Parliament.

Nowadays one hears from time to time various public relations exercises by the Police, particularly around New Year. One is not certain whether this is merely a fad indulged in ‘for show’ or whether serious and continuing Police-Community collaboration in the combat of crime and maintenance of law and order is engaged in, as was the author’s objective, in Jaffna and elsewhere. If it is latter, it is a most welcome practice.

When the author found himself at a later stage as DIG, Eastern Range, he again succeeded in diffusing a volatile situation that might have progressed to a communal conflagration, through his, by now tested, technique of Police-Community collaboration. Those pages also make for interesting reading. A former MP, the late Mr Prince Casinader has been profuse in his praise.

The author’s posting in the penultimate stages of his career as DIG/Logistics enabled him to use his experience, enhanced by the professional knowledge he had acquired through two Master’s degree courses (one in a US university) and his research for the PhD he earned at Sri Jayawardenapura university, in addition to other training in the UK etc , to introduce modern management practices to the logistical functions of the Police Department.

His manner of tackling these matters is an example to the entire public service.Although the author does not expressly say so, he had to leave the Service he loved, a disappointed man. As a citizen’s tribute to a public servant who always tried to live up to the oath he had taken on entering the Service ( reproduced at the beginning of the book), but who apparently had not been given a fair deal in the end, those melancholy pages also deserve to be read by everyone.