The parlous politicisation of police

Postures and mentality
A clear understanding of the dividing line between state and government/party interests is one of the fundamental requirements of a democracy. Such realisation assumes heightened significance in polities that have been subjected to colonial rule for a long time. A People's Republic ought to be different from the governance culture of dictatorship or the colonial administration and the same must be a manifest reality to emulate and to draw lesson from. Unfortunately, however, our feudal mindset has not changed although feudalism is a relic of the past. It is such mindset that demands personalised and partisan attention from the services of the republic and would not let institutions grow to support and sustain our not-very-adult and mature democracy.

Political behaviour and aberrations
Our politicians betray a pathetic lack of appreciation of the imperative that the foundation of a civilised society depends upon the effective and impartial working of some corrective institutions, prominent among which is the public service. They appear to be perilously oblivious to the reality that the regulatory outfit of police must be demonstrably impartial to ensure public confidence in the governance ability of the ruling class. The ruling parties in their misplaced exuberance forget that the police was the dominant visible symbol of repressive imperial alien power and that de-colonisation requires large-scale behavioural and attitudinal changes of the political masters and the public servants belonging to this vital organ of the state. Thus while admonitions from the pulpit come in plenty for rational behaviour on the part of enforcement officials, in reality, unhealthy pressures are regularly exerted to carry out the wishes of the ruling coterie in the most expeditious manner. It is the continuance of such regressive mentality that has brought us to the present lamentable scenario wherein the police outfit has been described a lackey of the political government. Nothing could be more sad and frustrating than that.

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The legal position and imperatives
If we want to get out of the aforementioned undesirable situation, we have to take quick action to repair our badly bruised democratic credentials. First of all, the police needs to be insulated from political executive and other interferences in promotions, postings and security of tenure. The people must not get an impression that the investigation agencies are very efficient while taking the required action against those not in power and that as against those in power, their edge is blunted. If police act impartially, credibility would be restored to the investigative authorities. This is very important because as long as the impression persists that a policeman is not an unbiased friend of people, the concept of an orderly society would not be achieved.

Since our police system conceived and grew in a colonial ecology and is now planted in a developmental, democratic and prismatic environment where a new ruling class is passing through numerous stresses and strains, it becomes difficult for the police to obtain and secure a close cooperation of the people and thereby discharge its functions and fulfil its role efficaciously. There is, therefore, a need to appreciate the role perception of the police system in our changing environment so that we can understand and identify the challenges emanating from the systemic stresses and strains and be able to formulate viable responses.

Our police is the most significant sub-system of the criminal justice system. It is also a limb of the executive system and the judiciary which takes its energy from the legislative system. Our constitutional value depicts general spirit of service to weaker sections, women and children, serving the people and functioning as per rule of law and due process of law. Therefore, if due to large-scale politicisation the police start acting at the behest of extralegal persons which is a genuine suspicion, then mostly they will round up innocent persons and permit the guilty to escape.

The police continue to be the principal investigating agency for the state under the criminal procedure code in addition to being the primary outfit responsible for prevention of crime. They should, therefore, strive hard for upholding the constitutional objective of protection of an individual's dignity and civic rights. Since justice is the ensuring of civil liberties it is only proper that the police truly become its protector and defender. A politicised police force will not be able to ensure a sense of security in the community and will not succeed in enlisting the cooperation and participation of people in crime prevention programmes. Similarly, the political appointees may not appreciate that their job is not to encroach upon the rights and liberty of the individual and the premonition is that they may look upon themselves as mere pawns in the hands of governing elite. They cannot be expected to be accountable to the real sovereign, the people. Such policemen will inevitably compromise the dignity of the individual citizen. In such a scenario, democracy will gather deficits at our peril.

The service ethos and elan
Few things in the world of police service can damage the police image as much as police involvement in politics. Police in their professional capacity have to be apolitical and impartial in their application of law. Interference with the statutory duties of the police contrary to the provisions of law has to be deprecated at all times and more so when it impedes the performance of their duties in the maintenance of public order and investigation of cases. Issuing orders only after obtaining the approval of the political executive are to be viewed as illegal orders.

There are credible fears that the police image in Bangladesh will suffer a grave damage if politicisation continues unabated. We already have the unfortunate spectacle of a police service in whose investigative fairness the major opposition political parties and a sizable section of the civil society entertain grave doubt. Criminal cases relating to victims of diabolical and dismal murders that are considered as acts of political vendetta, are not investigated properly, according to the versions of complainants and relations. There are persistently vociferous demands to arrange for proper investigation of sensational cases by external agencies including international organisation. Without doubt, such appeals and petitioning indicate the deep distrust of the impartiality of the state's investigative apparatus. No sensible Bangladeshi would feel at ease in such an unsettling environment.

It must be appreciated very clearly that the regulatory functions of the state like maintenance and preservation of public order and investigation of criminal cases cannot be arrogated to private bodies. These functions can not be performed through contractual arrangements either. Only persons with solemnly sworn loyalty to the state who have been examined, selected and verified in a constitutional process are expected to conscientiously perform the onerous responsibilities without profit motive. If this is accepted as an article of faith and conviction then a serious and sincere attempt should be made to recruit the best type of young persons at grassroots and intermediary levels of the police organisation and train them appropriately. Police officials at these levels come into contact with the common man. Recruitments at this layer, therefore, may be entrusted to a very broad-based committee as against the existing departmental arrangements.

It is the considered view of many that as long as the policing function comprising detection of crime and prosecution of criminals remains under the control of the executive it may not be easy to bring about a reduction in unjust political interference in police functions. The well grounded fear is that the undesirable subordination of the investigative police to the executive breeds a cynicism that corrodes all positive cultural values. The investigating organ needs autonomy and constitutional protection made possible through radical conceptual and structural changes. Tinkering with the issue will not help.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP.