Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

10 May 2021

 

COMMUNITY POLICING & THE LAW

“The relationship between the police force and the public has been in a questionable state for a long time, and the public perception about police officers is a rather negative one and varies depending on their experience with the Police.” – Mr Phillip Dissanayake, Executive Director of the Right to Life Human Rights Centre – a civil society organisation striving to promote and strengthen fundamental human rights and which works extensively on the proper enforcement of police powers with a focus on combating police torture, through the Morning article ‘Introduction of community policing to Sri Lanka: Extending the long arm of the law to a friendly hand for the public. As per listed Members of this organisation they would require knowledge of global laws to know right from wrong. If a member of this organization were to come to Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka, which has been seriously affected by the ethnic war and also has its own cultural law known as Thesawalamai law, would such a global minded member uphold justice at the community level? As per my belief based observations – the answer is NO.

Each one of us has a conscience. As per my discovery, our personal judgments as per that conscience would naturally merge with every sovereign unit that the person feels part of. This eventually merges with global and Universal conscience. As per my discovery, the system of Democracy is based on the principle that the mind of the individual without portfolio connects to the mind of the person at the top who officially represents the whole. The merger is gradual and often the ‘gaps’ are filled by knowledge based consciousness. As for Universal consciousness, Wikipedia presents the following:

[Universal mind or universal consciousness is a metaphysical concept suggesting an underlying essence of all being and becoming in the universe. It includes the being and becoming that occurred in the universe prior to the arising of the concept of "Mind", a term that more appropriately refers to the organic, human, aspect of universal consciousness …….A research team in Australia conducted more than 20,000 experiments of universal mind and concluded: "Overwhelming evidence is pointing to the existence of 'supernatural' reality and a universal subconscious mind ( aka 'God' ): Many religious concepts are essentially a science of mind."]

The above confirms that at the primary level, the mind of a person of one culture would not naturally connect to the mind of a person of a different culture. Hence the ‘freedom’ to practice one’s culture is essential to realise one’s own truth in the privacy of one’s own conscience. The law – be it cultural, national or global – facilitates such realization at group level. If there are conflicts in the mind of the person who has official power – enforcements through abuse of power take place.

In Vaddukoddai  (Northern Sri Lanka) for example, a junior Sinhalese Police officer who was my student learning English – said to the rest of the class – who were Hindus – that Vishnu was a demigod. I got upset because as per my culture based belief Vishnu is Supreme. Hence the need for separation of powers where secular knowledge is weak.

Given the importance afforded to Buddhism in the Sri Lankan constitution, Buddhist officials who are weak in secular knowledge are likely to empower themselves to ‘show’ power that they actually do not feel. This amounts to enforcement which in terms of sexual power is recognized as ‘rape’. Identical exchange of pleasures – one regulated through a lawful relationship and the other ‘free’ would affect minds differently.

Recently, NRL superstar Jarryd Hayne was found guilty of sexual assault . As per reported evidence, stated about the young woman with whom Jarryd Hayne accepted to have had sex with stated:

[the presence of the taxi made her feel “like absolute crap” and “sad and stupid for flirting with him to start”.]

Any person who is respectful of the relevant law would naturally be protected by another who also respects that law. Hence they have a relationship through that law.  In the above case ‘consent’ was needed as the ‘enjoyment’ was outside marriage. It had to be ‘right’ as per the conscience of the weaker side – the young woman concerned.

During the 2009 war in Sri Lanka, evidence as produced of brutal rape of Tamil women by some soldiers. Given that the government has failed to even inquire into these, Tamil women would naturally be at the risk of being raped by armed officers to whom effectively such enjoyment is part of the ‘remuneration’ they get for undertaking such responsibilities. Likewise, now Muslim women. This is a graver risk than underage marriages which are approved as per Muslim law.

As per the above report:

[Early this week, State Minister of Vehicle Regulation, Bus Transport Services, and Train Compartments and Motor Car Industry Dilum Amunugama was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the State Minister for Community Police Services, with the aim of further strengthening the country’s police force in dealing with the public.

According to Amunugama, who spoke with The Morning on 3 May, this new appointment had been made by the President taking into consideration the problematic situations that arose in the country in the recent past between the Police and the public. Amunugama further said that the President seeks to rectify this situation through the creation and promotion of a healthy environment between the law enforcement agencies and the public.]

If the above problems happened due to ethnic divisions, then given that Mr
Amunugama is Buddhist and is part of this government carrying the war karma – is bound to fail in Muslim and Tamil areas.