The Jackboot

They came, they saw, and they baton-charged. Or, they were already in position and saw, and baton-charged. Under successive previous political dispensations this kind of behaviour by our Police force was a familiar occurrence. In fact, during the immediate past regime, a mere baton charge began to be regarded as 'light' treatment in the face of the increasing deployment of Police Special Task Force (police commando) units and even of the Army to quell such outbreaks of civilian public protests. Sri Lankans have long been familiar with the jackboot of repression.

Such deployment of para-military and military units to quell civilian protest campaigns has, over the years, resulted in many deaths and injury due to shooting by the deployed units, often decried as disproportionate actions. Deaths or severe injuries and even sudden abductions have often been the outcome of such anti-social military deployments. The tragedies in Rathupasvela and in the Free Trade Zone protest in Katunayake were but the best known among many similar incidents of anti-civilian violence meted out by State security agencies at the behest of the political authorities of the day.

The accumulated experience of such repression and violent coercion during the past regime partly contributed to its electoral defeat. Opposition political parties and civil society bodies at that time raised their voices in condemnation and made promises of investigation of past repression and commitments to avoid such repressive behaviour.

Last week's incidents of 'police brutality' during student protests in Colombo, therefore, while familiar, are highly objectionable given the promises made and electoral mandates given for increased democratisation and greater governmental sensitivity to public thinking.

In recent years the intolerance of dissent and independent thought has created such a social environment that there were - and, perhaps, still are - sections of society, especially of the social elite, who are remote from the stresses and aspirations of the middle and low-income classes and, fail to empathise with their predicaments. If the politicians of the day were intolerant of, and insensitive to the issues of the lower and less-powerful social rungs, the upper social class was, perhaps, equally intolerant if not quite unaware of these issues.

Hence, the social endorsement the previous government received when it announced the compulsory course for so-called 'leadership building' for all new entrants to State universities. Since many, if not, most, of the country's political leadership never entered university nor benefited from higher education, these politicians were unable to empathise at all with the aspirations or, even actual experiences, of those young people entering universities and technical education colleges today.

Such estrangement from the mass of the people and the intelligentsia has not helped in the formulation of policy and protocol that governs - or, should govern - the usually cash-strapped higher education sector. Some sections of both the political establishment and the social elite may continue to view higher education sector students as unruly and anarchistic and deserving of a 'disciplining' by the military - classic jackboot culture. Indeed, the handing over the conduct of such pre-higher education exercises to the armed forces itself signals the militarisation of Sri Lankan society.

As it is, Sri Lanka has an unenviable reputation as a country with decades of 'dirty war' both North and South in which torture, police brutality, and massacres of civilians have been common. Successive regimes and, especially the last one, have notoriously tolerated, if not actively directed such repression. Hence, the 'blame' cannot stop at the police and military command levels but must be taken to the higher level of the political establishment.

A political leadership that recently swept to power at both presidential and parliamentary levels of governance cannot afford to be clumsy or ineffectual with such things as the repressive behaviour State security agencies and personnel. It is the political leadership that must efficiently ensure that new policy and governmental style is inculcated right down to the grassroots levels of administration, bureaucracy and national security. It is only then the security services and personnel will move away from past brutish practices.

When the Prime Minister calls for a report on the incidents at Ward Place, Colombo, this may imply that the Premier does not consider the Minister in charge of law and order to be sufficiently competent to deal with the mini-crisis. On the other hand, the Premier's personal attention to the matter can signal the Government's serious intent to deal with this crisis in a more decisive way.

The fact that both the Human Rights Commission as well as the National Police Commission has announced investigations into the incident also augurs well for the commitment of these two bodies to reversing the previous condition of impunity and unaccountability.

At stake here is not solely the behaviour of the agencies of law and order. Respect for and engagement with the student community is also crucial if the freer society and rapid economic growth now being touted is to be achieved. Previous tinpot dictators and their bombastic kin may have the capacity only to envisage docile, unimaginative and un-intellectual youth as 'students'.

Sri Lankan civilisation is far more than that and should have no place for the Jackboot. Young people need the maximum freedom for the growth of intellect, imagination and constructive energy. Our future hinges on it.

The people are watching to see how far good governance will go.