No police protection needed for politicians

As per the news item titled ’Police short of manpower’ in The Island of September 24, 2020, responding to a request made by SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana, Minister Chamal Rajapaksa revealed that 38,000 policemen have been assigned for close protection duties of MPs and ‘others’. Minister Rajapaksa stated that there are about 85,000 policemen and currently each MP has been given four policemen for their protection. In other words, out of the total police force, 44.7% are assigned to look after the security of the MPs and ‘others’. Although the Minister has not specified the ‘others’, who have been given protection, we can imagine what he meant, to some extent.

Apart from the four policemen protection given to MPs, additional police security staff , vehicles etc are provided to State Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, PM, Speaker, President, Provincial Governors, PC Chief Ministers, PC Ministers, former Presidents etc.

Fortunately, Provincial Councils are under the Governors at the moment, and PC elections have not been held up to now. It is not known whether the policemen assigned for the protection of PC Chief Ministers, PC Ministers etc have been included in the above declared 38,000 policemen.

When PCs were in full operation under elected members, ‘Yahapalana’ government had 9 PC Chief Ministers, 34 PC Ministers and 410 PC Members in addition to nine PC Governors, 48 Cabinet Ministers, 34 Deputy Ministers and 30 State Ministers. Although, it is stated that there are four policemen assigned to each MP, we are not aware of the numbers assigned to the various grades of government Ministers, PC Ministers and PC Members.

There is no argument about the needs of high-level security for the country’s President, PM and the like (including government officials, considering the level of risk), due to their kind of service to the public, similar to other democratic countries in the world.

As quite correctly pointed out by Minister Rajapaksa, if the MPs have no confidence to go among people without police protection that is something the MPs should be ashamed of.

The Minister has said; “We are not increasing the number of policemen assigned to MPs so that the MPs could make use of them for other purposes such as carrying their bags and files. Do not worry about security. We give security not only to the MPs but also to the people.”

As per the news item, MP Pathirana and his SJB colleagues have asked the government to increase their security because some MPs have raised voice against drug kingpins and other criminals. Although we are not aware of what these SJB MPs have spoken against drug kingpins and criminals, the general public is fully aware of how the drug menace developed during the last few years, specially under their ‘yahapalana’ government, and how the politicians, specially under the JRJ and Premadasa governments, reinforced the activities of well known underworld criminals like Gonawala Sunil and Soththi Upali. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sri_Lankan_mobsters

It is said that providing policemen to MPs started in 1989 due to the LTTE threats and as a result of ‘Bheesana Samaya’ created by the JVP- UNP combination. We haven’t heard of any police security given to MPs until the 1980s. Most of the MPs, including Ministers, used public transport and travelled alone when attending Parliament. MPs elected prior to the 1980s had the confidence to go among the people without any protection.

The LTTE threats disappeared 11 years ago as a result of successful operation against terrorism under the right leadership. The current government, under the leadership of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has taken drastic measures to eradicate the drug menace and the underworld. Hence we do not see any reason as to why public money is spent to provide policemen to MPs and to other politicians to carry their bags and files.

S. AKURUGODA