Police Commission: Sri Lankan Experience Shows Checks And Balances Vital

By Meena Lakshana -July 24, 2013

The establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) cannot exist without checks and balances, especially feedback from the public, said a Sri Lankan human rights lawyer.

Relating the establishment of the National Police Commission in Sri Lanka and applying it in the Malaysian context, senior advocate Kishali Esther Pinto Jayawardena told fz.com the IPCMC cannot exist without a framework that would constantly place pressure on the government for its importance.

“Legal abstracts are well enough in their own place but they are not sufficient to get the message across. Public opinion on why the IPCMC is necessary and essential for the people is extremely relevant,” she said.

“So keeping at it, highlighting individual cases are important,” said Kishali, who was part of the Forum-Asia fact-finding mission on restriction of freedom of expression and public assembly post-13th general election.

Kishali said Malaysia could learn a few lessons about the establishment of the IPCMC from Sri Lanka, as both countries have similar legal structures inherited from the colonial British rule.

According to Kishali, police torture is seriously endemic in Sri Lanka, not only to categories of people but across the board, and it is not limited to a group of people based on ethnicity.

“In the southern majority villages, if a boy is caught stealing bananas, the immediate recourse is torture. We have instances where 14-year-old boys are being mercilessly tortured,” she related.

Despite the huge constraints Sri Lanka is facing now, “a very oppressive government with two-thirds majority in Parliament, entire judiciary on the government side, the torture cases have really brought the pro-government media together because the cases have been intolerable”, she added.