Our police in disarray

Former IGP and secretary Mr Nurul Huda wrote quite an illuminating article entitled What afflicts our police? in the DS of 20 Dec last. He has focused on, inter alia, the defective and biased recruitment process of the subordinate ranks of the police, fund constraint for training, inadequacies and flawed spirit of the Police Act of 1861 etc. He has proposed what may be called an innovative design for experimentation by taking one small district where all affairs of the police will be conducted by the police administration itself free from all extra-departmental interferences. "There is no dearth of men of character, honesty and integrity even now. There is a desire amongst young officers to bring out a change," he has asserted. The force of the words, coming as it does from the mouth of as high and experienced an officer as former IGP and secretary, does not let our faith in the police flag down.

The Prothom Alo dated 23 Dec 2003 ran a front page story on the present day setup of our police. It is as pitiable as no body can probably think of. Some of them are jotted down below:

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"Bangladesh has employed 01 policeman for 1350 people as against 625 in India and 728 in Pakistan.

"Of 100 constables interviewed by the UNDP 96 answered that they received only basic training (mainly physical) ranging 3-6 months in their service career of 20 years.

In the 2002-03 fiscal budget the police department got an allocation of 1058 crore taka which is too meagre to meet the minimum of the unavoidable expenditures.

"Following creation of the police force in 1861 five high-profile commissions were set up in 1902, 1960, 1988 and 1989. There were enough roars for reformations in the polity of the police. But they faded in whimper."

If we turn over the pages of history of this subcontinent we would hardly be able to discover occasions when the police could come close to being hailed as people's friends. One splendid exception was the Liberation War of 1971 when the police (at least an overwhelming majority) fought standing shoulder to shoulder with the people against the Pakistani occupation forces.

Many of the sterling qualities of head and heart that we displayed in finest blaze in the Liberation War began to drop out steeply leaving us astray and forlorn in the war-ravaged Bangladesh. Of such losses two main were unity and spirit of sacrifice. This was probably largely due to failure of our national leadership to lead the nation to stay strong and upright in the face of composite fallouts of a sanguinary war. In the process of what may be called a dissolution of virtues the police community that rather suddenly and probably quite accidentally got galvanised with rare jems of human qualities like self-denial and patriotism swiftly returned to their former repressive self dejecting the hope of the people that the police would turn out to be their friends wholetogether different from the species of the colonial times. And in all fairness the police alone were not to blame for all that damaging backslide.

In the newly free Bangladesh the undemocratic and fascist character of our politicians began to be exposed. They turned the police to be almost a battalion of their political party in place of a force of the Republic. Deadly intolerant of others' views, criticisms and protests they laid hands on silencing their opponents by force. The police were indiscriminately used in this gestapo sort of exercise.

The police were no fools to shy away from obliging the ruling masters because it nicely fitted into their design of self-aggrandisement. They considered it an immunity from accountability for their acts and deeds. This provided the police with somewhat of a licence for free-wheeling activities that played havoc with public and tranquillity.

Soon a belief got entrenched in the mind of the police that no government could survive without their active and arbitrary support in the face of street agitations of the opposition. And it was within the police's easy calculation that Bangladesh was a country where political pandemonium was bound to occur as a joint product of perverse political culture of street movements by the opposition and monstrous plundering habit of the ruling class.

This consciousness of power coupled with inordinate greed for money led the police to turn violent, unruly, arbitrary, self-seeking and corrupt. Understandably, the seething resentment of the police at vast deficiences they had to suffer in their numerical strength, pay and benefits, training, arms, transport, service rules and promotion guidelines had already imprisoned qualms of conscience if they had any.

Ours was a job-shy economy where crimes and anti-social activities were bound to gallop. The criminals, anti-social elements found it easy to peddle their nefarious trade if the police could be gained over on their side. Our police were readily gullible.

Interestingly, instead of being combatants the police acted as collaborators. The more is the criminilisation in society the more are the kickbacks of the police.

Mr Huda pointed out how the police force was made weak and inefficient. To it was added greed resulting in corruption. Inefficiency and corruption are happy bed-fellows to breed insolent monsters.

Understandably the people have learnt to withdraw dependence on the police. Some kidnapped businessmen have purchased their lives negotiating ransoms with the abductors. Their elementary wisdom did not permit them to risk their lives relying on the unreliable police. Amusingly, in some cases it was the police personnel that worked as middlemen in the finalisation of the ransom deal with the kidnappers.

The business community of Natore set up a stick and whistle blowing association against the terrorists, toll-collectors crushing hard resistances put on their way by vested quarters. This example is worth emulating by business communities of other areas of the country.

Still the truth is that whereas every sect of the professionals has run amuck to capture money and pleasure by fair means or foul, the police being more favourably placed to achieve them because of having arms at their command, arbitary powers on hand, political indulgences at back, immense immunity from accountability and punishment due to hackneyed, overburdened, politically manoeuvred police administrative machinery, can hardly be expected to serve law and order in a better fashion.

So it is no use lambasting the police for their poor and in some cases negative performances. They should at first be provided with sizeable manpower, satisfactory pay and perks, improved service rules and manuals, regular training, updated arms, speedy transport and above all protection from political exploitation and an affectionate beacon from the society to absorb them (police) in its bosom. To quote the proverb that we cannot starve a goose and ask it to lay golden eggs may be too much here but an ill-treated police can seldom be better servicing.

A R Shamsul Islam is retired Principal, Govt Mohila College, Pabna.