Learning the ropes at the Police Training School

(Continued from last week excerpts from the memoirs or Retired Senior DIG Edward Gunawardena)

When training commenced there was never a dull moment. The routine consisted of early morning parade with rifle exercises or PT, lectures on law and police work from breakfast to lunch, motor cycle riding in the afternoons and games at which all ranks joined from 4 p.m. onwards (this was termed “games with the men”). Twice a week a night patrol was also compulsory – one before midnight and one after. I still remember a trainee Sub-Inspector who often accompanied me was Dhanasiri Weerasinghe, more famous as a cricketer.

The rigid programme that had to be followed by the trainees was certainly made pleasant by the trainers who were police veterans. These Inspectors were not lacking in humour. Ekanayake The Chief Lecturer, James Senaratne, Terry Amarasekera, Rosairo, Petersz, Jaleel and Alex Abeysekera were all hellbent on impressing on the young officers that there was no other sector in the government Service superior to the police. Stanley Senanayake and Fred Brohier had separate informal sessions with the three of us. These discussions were to impress on us the standards expected of gazetted officers in discipline, general behaviour and demeanour and professional ethics.

Sergeant Major Nallawansa had a knack to make us laugh at appropriate moments even on the parade ground. When we saw the Police Band on the parade ground, he turned to Mahendran and in his deep baritone voice said, “Sir, that band will play at your funeral!”

The Communal Riots of 1958

Barely had the three of us completed ninety days of training, an event of historical significance was to take place in which the police had to play the decisive role. Since S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike came into power in 1956 with “Sinhala only in twenty four hours” as the main plank of his election platform, friction between the Sinhala and Tamil people had been simmering.

As early as the post election months of 1956 clashes had erupted in the Amparai District which had been quelled early by the Police. But with radical politicians from both sides of the divide fomenting unrest the bubble burst in May 1958. With the murder of an influential Sinhalese in Batticaloa District and rumours spreading of all types of gruesome harassment such as the cutting off the breasts of Sinhalese women, virulent hatred spread like wildfire. Initial hesitancy on the part of Bandaranaike to deal firmly with the Sinhalese aggressors aggravated the situation; and violence soon spread to all parts of the island.

Kalutara District was one of the worst affected. Incited by radical local, criminally inclined politicians, all the Tamils of the district in both the urban and rural areas in mortal fear, began to seek shelter at police stations. Murder, arson and looting was reported mainly from Panadura, Kalutara and Beruwala. The Police Training School was not an operational institution. The task of maintaining law and order was the responsibility of the Kalutara police division that was under Superintendent Sol Goonetillake. The talk among the officers at the Training School was that the Kalutara Police had failed.

In the meantime large numbers of destitute Tamil men, women and children began to seek protection in the school. The Director, on his own initiative was quick to make arrangements to accommodate the hundreds that were streaming in. They had to be provided with food, shelter and security. The three new ASPS took to these tasks like ducks to water. The three of us began to experience in full measure the humanitarian nature of police responsibilities. Violence had reached a peak when the state of emergency declared by the government began to take effect.

Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, the Governor-General, took charge of the situation and the police was given full emergency powers. Sydney de Zoysa, DIG, the man considered ideal for such a situation was in charge of the entire western coastal belt from Colombo southwards to Galle and beyond. One of his earliest tasks was to give Sol Goonetilleke, SP Kalutara, a respite and entrust Stanley Senanayake, Director of Police Training, with the task of restoring law and order in the Kalutara District.

The Police Training School had two distinct tasks. The first was to provide the necessary direction and leadership to the police of the district to prevent mob violence, arson and looting. The second was to provide sustenance and protection to over 2,000 refugees who had been accommodated in the vast premises. In both these tasks I had to play a leadership role. I revelled in leading armed mobile patrol units and making arrests. I also gladly took on tasks that provided succour to the refugees. One was to aggressively assist the Director in the requisitioning of food stocks from dealers in Kalutara to feed the refugees. In this task A.M.S. Perera, the Govt. Agent of Kalutara and Francis Pietersz, the AGA who was a civil service cadet, were extremely co-operative. It was an irony of fate that Indrani Gomesz, the fiancee of Francis Pietersz, and her parents who were respected teachers of Holy Cross College had to be accommodated in the Training School as refugees. They were comfortably lodged at the Magul Maduwa, the assembly hall.

Something significant that I was able to observe early in my police life was the spontaneous manner in which women could rise to the occasion for the fulfillment of tasks that required understanding, sympathy and care. Overcome by fear of death or physical hurt this mass of refugees were a pathetic sight. They were not political propagandists or terrorists. They were innocent beings that belonged to humankind. I saw how they sincerely worshiped Mrs. Maya Senanayake, who by her looks and behaviour stood out as the leader of the men and women that catered to their needs.

This inner expression of gratitude was seen as many women and children turned hysterical when they had to be taken to a camp at the Colombo race course to be sent to Jaffna. To them Maya Senanayake had provided a safe and comfortable home, Jaffna was only a dream against all the care and safety they were enjoying. They were apprehensive of what was happening outside the Police Training School.

The order to take the majority of these refugees (or Internally Displaced Persons — IDPs) to the Colombo Race Course had to be meticulously planned. Twenty buses of the Ceylon Transport Board arranged by the G.A. Kalutara reported to the Aluvihare Grounds of the PTS (Police Training School). Once all the evacuees had boarded the buses, boxes containing food parcels (bread and seeni sambol) and bottles of water were handed over to the bus crews. Security was of prime importance. Once the motorcade was formed the rear was brought up by a ‘riot truck’ with armed policemen. Inspector James Senaratne was in charge of this riot truck. Several Jeeps with armed policemen led the way. I was in the first Jeep armed with a Sterling sub machine gun. The fear was that the convoy would be attacked by organized Sinhala criminal activists particularly when passing Wadduwa, Waskaduwa and Panadura areas. However the journey to the race course was smooth and uneventful.

Of my stay at the PTS what I remember most is the humanitarian operation referred to above. The image that existed in my mind of the police as a crime busting entity full of risks and adventure changed dramatically when I witnessed the role that the police played in the alleviation of human suffering. The leadership role played by Stanley Senanayake and his wife, Maya, most certainly impacted on me to a great extent. They, by their exemplary conduct convinced me that the police as a profession can do much to make ordinary people comfortable and happy. As I progressed along in the police I realized that the opportunities for such consolation were indeed plentiful in day to day police work.

By the time I left the PTS for field training in the Criminal Investigation Department and the Colombo Police Div. I had learnt criminal law adequate for police work and covered a lot of ground on the theoretical aspects of this work. However, I would like to emphatically maintain that the first hand experience I had of the communal riots equipped me with the confidence so vital in decision making under critical conditions. It certainly exceeded what could have been acquired in years of training. This is what experience is all about. Surprisingly we still come across people in high places who try to equate experience to length of service on the job!

The stint at the PTS, apart from basic policing and police administration taught me many more things including the importance of physical fitness, riding of heavy motorcycles, to aggressively play soccer and rugger and above all the riding of horses. It was with the greatest of ease that I took to horse riding. I was the first out of the three of us to pass the riding test. I remember this test was conducted by Sydney de Zoyza and Cecil Wambeek. The test consisted of trotting, cantering and galloping. The acid test was when the horse had to jump over a bar. With the police stables getting ex racers from the Turf Club I had the opportunity of riding even Christmas Stocking and Devilment two thoroughbreds that had won the Governor’s Cup, the blue riband of the local turf.

An impression strongly etched in my mind of the Police Training School of the fifties was its cleanliness and the orderly manner in which all the activities were conducted. It did not take time for me to realize that the Director and the entire staff were strictly following a tradition that had taken root at PTS when it commenced in the forties under the pioneering leadership of Sydney de Zoyza. The roads, the buildings, the open areas, the parade grounds and the artificial lakes were spotlessly clean. They stood testimony to the discipline of the institution, the hallmark of the PTS. Without being told or reminded I began to discard my cigarette butts and empty packets to the bins. I learnt not even to throw away a used match stick; and I began to pick up little bits of paper if they did appear on my path. The Japanese 5 S concept was not even heard of then!