Meditation gone wrong?

Heads of powerful institutions that serve the public need to possess discipline and humility as otherwise they run the risk of abusing their powers. Police are arguably at the top of this list since they uphold the law and in many instances enforce it. Therefore, their top officials have to maintain the highest possible levels of discipline and professionalism, but a recent leaked video shows the contrary and the circumstances are made worse by attempts to downplay the incident.

A video posted by a popular ‘gossip’ website Lanka eNews (LEN) is circulating on social media showing Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara manhandling two minor staffers of the Police Headquarters, who it is claimed disobeyed departmental rules of performing the morning meditation.

The video which seemed to have been captured from the Police Headquarters’ CCTV cameras fixed inside and outside the main elevator of the lobby shows Jayasundara manhandling a person in civvies by his shirt collar and threateningly gestures to slap another man in plain clothing who acts as the lift operator.

In the second frame, it shows the IGP pointing his finger at someone beyond the camera’s point of view. The short clip is stunning in its casual brutality and the implicit confidence of impunity. When media reached out to the police spokesman he in predicable style downplayed the incident as “trivial”. 

The IGP, as the highest ranking police official in this country, has to set an example of professional conduct for his subordinates to follow. This is especially crucial in a country that has been roundly criticised by the international community for promoting routine torture on suspects in custody and even custodial deaths. In fact, during a visit to Sri Lanka in June, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson heavily criticised the Government saying, “the use of torture has been, and remains today, endemic and routine.” 

He also pointed out that despite numerous cases alleging torture and mistreatment, only 71 police officers had been proceeded against for torturing suspects since available records began, clearly suggesting that numbers would be far higher if proper prosecution took place. The result has been normalisation of violence in the Police force to the extent that the public avoid going to police stations as much as possible and generally have scant respect for the uniform. Each Police chief in his turn has had to put in place special measures to try and make the Police more people-friendly but this has had limited success.

It is truly ironic that the IGP, who introduced the concept of meditating at the start of each day to improve peace of mind and discipline, sees fit to react with no compassion towards his own staff. Perhaps the IGP could not find time to do his own meditation or perhaps he did not meditate long enough to deal with the situation in a calm, collected, and professional manner. If the IGP does not set an example to his own staff and does not command trust and respect from the public, then how can the police as an institution do its duty by the people? Wouldn’t an explanation or even an apology be the best way forward in this instance? The best leaders lead by example and the public is waiting for IGP Jayasundara to do the same.