By Basil Fernando –
Basil Fernando
The video footage is fairly clear. First we see a tall policeman wearing a helmet standing with his arm stretched towards the other side of the road. Then we see a scooter stopped just next to him. There is one man sat on the scooter. Looking closer, we see that the policeman is carrying a pistol in his outstretched hand. The pistol is directed towards somebody on the other side of the road. Then we see the rider of the motorbike stretching his hand out towards the policeman, in an obvious gesture telling the policeman not to shoot.
Later, we get to know the story. The policeman shot somebody who was on the other side of the road. The person had been taken to a nearby hospital and there he died.
Then there comes a story that the man who was shot had a sharp instrument in his hand with which he was trying to hurt another policeman. Then there is a picture of a policeman being taken on a stretcher to a hospital. Then the story is that the man was shot not at the time when the video footage shows but eight minutes later.
Now we look at a different incident. Two young men are stopped by a policeman and soon thereafter another group of policemen. One of those policemen shoot one of the two men on the motorbike at point blank range, aiming at their chest. The man dies on the spot.
Immediately thereafter, the police put up a barricade about 120 away from the place where the shooting happened. For the purposes of further inquiries, the place where the shooting happened is supposed to be at this new place where the barricade is. There is a new story: the two people were travelling on a motorbike and, when a policeman signaled them to stop, they did not. Instead, they tried to run over the policeman and so the policeman shot, and that is how the death is supposed to have happened.
The above two scenes are not from a movie or a novel. Actual people are involved. Actual wounding takes place. Actual people die.
The policemen are allowed to erase all that is actual and factual. They are also allowed to create fictions and make up whatever story they like.
This did not just happen in these two incidents but thousands of times day in and day out. Such falsehoods are written as case reports and produced in courts. And of course there is a sacred rule that no one should lie to the court. Yes, but it’s not a rule for everyone. The police are treated as an exception. They can produce false reports. They can produce affidavits with false statements. They can lie from the witness box. How many policemen have been punished by courts for perjury? None.
Yet the law is that the policemen should keep their pocket notebooks with them and faithfully write down every detail on everything they do and on every observation they make. They are supposed to be involved in creating the actual narrative of crimes and these narratives are supposed to be brought to court by way of indictments. The bases for trials are these indictments. How is one to reconcile these two different roles? One role allows any kind of lie; in the other, their substantive role, they are suppose to be guardians of law. Recently a monk was charged for making false statements to the police. Now he has been remanded. Here our interest is not in the truth of that case. Our interest is merely to make a contrast. The policemen throughout the country are making up stories in cases that would otherwise be murders or other serious crimes. They file false affidavits to courts. They lie from the witness box. But none of them are brought to trial in the way that this monk has been brought to trial.
This is the reality that every Sri Lankan is confronted with, including the President of Sri Lanka. Recently, the Minister of Justice cried out that the way the law enforcement agencies ignored the law in the recent attacks on Muslims made him feel ashamed to be a member of the government. Surely the Minister of Justice knows that it is not only during race riots that the police and the STF flout the law. However, he has not shown any shame to call himself the Minister of Justice in those circumstances.
Perhaps shame or any other emotion do not have any place in a country where the law enforcement officers are allowed to lie and are in fact lying almost all the time.
Maramandai / June 27, 2014
Sir
An old proverb says, the way of the king is the way of the citizen. If King Mara and his goons lie of course that’s what you expect. Who else is following the Kings way:
(1) Monks – aluthgama problem started with a lying monk.
(2) PhD holders – DJ and friends lying in UNHRc to protect the king. Remember 4%
(3) Doctors and Judges – JMO giving false reason for the murders in Aluthgama
(4) Armed forces – zero casualty
What else can a policemen do.
Miracle of Asia.
/
Marwan / June 27, 2014
The police force in Sri Lanka is corrupt to the core, so much so that they have become a law unto themselves. They operate as a separate mafia in the country. Subservient fools to political machinations. Taking bribes to let off criminals, staging set-ups, just listen to that police spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana saying that ‘No provocative remarks were made by Gnanasara Thera in Aluthgama, and therefore no reason to arrest him’, despite the prevailing evidence proving to the contrary. There is so much evidence out there for the entire world to see. This itself proves him to be a dam liar. There are so many similar such cases. Telling lies is like second nature to therm, just like the bigot monk Gnaanasara. They have lost all respect and regard from the public now, except for their display of brutal force on occasions. They are not the guardians of the law anymore, but more like trouble makers. What more is there to say. They ideally suit the government in power, and in turn, the people deserve the government they vote to power.
/
Amarasiri / June 27, 2014
Dear Basil Fernando –
RE: Why Are The Police Allowed And Encouraged To Lie?
In Lanka, the Land of Native Veddah, the lying started with the Lies and Imaginations of Para-Monk Mahanama.
Now we have a situation wherein:
1. The so-called His Excellency, the president lies.
2. Most of the Ministers lie
3. Most of the MP and elected representatives lie
4. Most of the The so-called Rev, Buddhist Monks lie.
5. Most of the state controlled media lie
6. Most of the Police lie
7. Most of the militant lie
8. Most of the shills lie
9. Most of the State Employees lie
Add yours to the list.
All for their self-interest.
There is no law and order and no punishment for lying.
/
Javi / June 27, 2014
“Why Are The Police Allowed And Encouraged To Lie?”
From the time of the takeover of socialist parties of `lokuolu` the police and armed forces (99% sihala buddhist at present) were brought into their elements-
“The Lying Race”
If western democracy (majority rule)changed anything in Ceylon from 1948
it made the minorities illegal and killed them.
Iraq of today under Malik is an eyeopener for the US/UK to think in terms of Bahrain not Saudi.
/
Vibhushana / June 27, 2014
The police were forced to wear the side arm when they were being killed by gangsters.
Now its the other way around. The Police are abusing the power to kill for whimsical reasons.
/
ken robert / June 27, 2014
Vibushana
Is it your observation or opinion?
I observed you seemed to have an answer/explanation for all the ills of the country.
/
Thiru / June 27, 2014
There is a proverb in Tamil, when translated reads: Whatever path the King takes, the subjects will follow the same path:
Rajapakse and his government are a pack of liars and deception artists. The Sri Lankan state follows their path. The security forces, police, the judiciary and the state bureaucracy do the same.
Didn’t they tell ‘Humanitarian operation’ for a racist war against Tamils’?
Didn’t they deliberately direct shelling and bombing the ‘No Fire Zones’ killing more than 70,000 innocent Tamils?
Didn’t they say zero tolerance to civilian casualty during the war and later accept thousands of deaths?
They lied, lied again and again: They keep lying all the same:
Don’t you know that to cover up one big lie, you have to keep saying more and more lies! That’s the language spoken by the MaRa junta and its agencies.
/
Manel / June 27, 2014
When those who are supposed to uphold the law, become the lawless, and the public loses all faith in these scumbags, then there is no hope for Sri Lanka.
Again, the fault and blame lies on the mega crook at the top, who is supposed to make sure there is law and order in our country – the notorious Secretary of Defense. How can we expect those down the ranks to be honest and obeying the rule of law, when those who hold the highest positions in this country are worse than thugs and crooks? They lie, tamper with evidence, threaten, murder, and support terrorism.
They will do anything to hold on to their control.
/
Web / June 27, 2014
After the war ended the income to MR &co slightly gone down unlike the big deals like Russian planes. They need 50 projects to earn reasonable money. Creating fear and terrorism would give fantastic outcome in terms of financially and politically. Carry on. Bullet to regime is from inside
/
Amarasiri / June 27, 2014
Why Are The Police Allowed And Encouraged To Lie?
Please add more to this in the Land of Paras. The Paras, especially, the Para-Sinhala should go to south India and keep lying there.
Why Are The Politicians, Monks, President, ministers, shills etc…. Allowed And Encouraged To Lie?
The land of the Para-liars, as taught by the lies of Monk Mahanama?
/
Gamarala / June 27, 2014
So, what’s new? The Police have been known all along to lie and to fabricate the evidence they so often present in the courts. So, have our politicians. Let’s not be naive as to look surprised at what has been happening all the time.
As for Minister Hakeem, it is interesting he has felt ashamed to be a minister of the Rajapakse government only after members of the Muslim community were allegedly attacked by the BBS. What was the man doing all the time before? Did he not feel even a little embarrassed with the other attacks against innocent protesters and so on before Aluthgama? As the Minister of Justice, did he not feel uncomfortable when justice was so obviously being trampled underfoot?
It may interest him to know that many people, a great many, indeed, are not very proud of having him as the Minister of Justice, either.
/
Spark / June 27, 2014
No body would dare say this, but all these liars are Sinhalese. The police, army, the GOSL, the politicians, religious leaders consisting of these cowards all are Sinhalese. Look at Mervyn, Mahinda, Gota, Mahanayake Theras, GLPieris, CJ Mohan, AG Palitha, UN front man Ravinatha Ariyasinghe, Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe, Dayan Jayatilake, Mahinda Samarsinghe and even Cardinal Malcom Ranjit etc… aren’t they all utter liars and fellows without a morsel of conscience fit for dustbins belonging to the Sinhalese race? When we listen or hear about a liar, we tend to call them bastards. Then why have Sinhalese become such bastards? Is it because they are still uncivilized? Is it that their conversion to Buddhism by Sanghamitta Thera 2500 years ago has not been a success (religion is a show piece for the purpose of ulterior motives)? Is it that they are a race with poor ingrained values?
/
Ramasamy / June 27, 2014
Please add the following names too: Palitha Kohona, Manisha Gunasekera, Rajpal Abenayake, Champika Ranawaka and Wimal Weerawansa.
/
Park / June 27, 2014
The mediocre guys who cannot get a decent jobs are the guys who join police force, what can we expect from them. They can be bought for “Thuttu Deketa”.
/
Thondamannar / June 27, 2014
All human beings are BORN LIARS………….This is nothing new unless Basil fernando has never lied in his life. Exceptional indeed??
Also BF relied on his own assumptions at the begining of the article.
SO HUMAN RIGHTS IS ALL ABOUT SPECULATION and NOT LIES. cORRECT?
/
Mallaiyuran / June 28, 2014
“Why Are The Police Allowed And Encouraged To Lie?”
This question has been placed selectively. The real is question what the majority race like to hear? If it is something the majority like to hear, then there won’t be any vetting process to isolate the false from the truth.
The third resolution was about to be passed in UNHCR in last March(2014). The western countries has to be issued a threat that even if they pass the resolution, within Lanka, whatever King telling will be the order. So suddenly LTTE returned back to Vanni. A poor, forced, previous rebel, who has been working for army as a cook, an informant and in other menial jobs became the leader of this mirage LTTE. He became the sacrificial goat. His pregnant wife was the witness of this. She was even forced to miscarry in the prison inquiries. Another woman who lost her three children was other target. Her only left, alive female child had just attained. There is not mercy at all in this type of drama staging. They both were separated and put in the prison. They are separated and held under different conditions so the they both in the hijacked status of the the others safety. These happening while the Royal Children conducting illegal races in MahaNuwara. These are written in the new chapters of the Old lie “the Mahavamsa” as bravery of the Nava-Gamunu. If somebody reading prose from this books, that ecstasy for the majority race. Blissful. If something is souring that may have to be analyzed.
“So the pivot question is what the majority race like to hear?
/