The news today that the Secretary to the
Police Commission, Ariyadasa Cooray had been made ineligible to hold his post, because
he is over 60 see link below, is simply beyond the pale, and no one is making
an issue of it.
As one who is over that age myself and
at the peak of my reasoning and deductive power at this age, able to pull 12
hour days in the office without as much as a drop of water during the whole time,
and as alert at the end of this 12 hours as I am at the beginning, can see how
people half my age are simply unfit to work as they need fuel throughout the
day, compromising their productivity alarmingly. It is not age stupid! It is
simply being functional, some 20s are not!
Unless this is used as an excuse to
relieve him of his duties, and in typical Sri Lankan way you remove a person
and give a crass reason for so doing, instead of the real reason, then I am
able to believe that there may be a behind the scenes rationale but are
throwing the book of age for a legitimate way around.
However if we have to resort to
underhand means to achieve these objectives, it calls into the question the
very institution we MUST have faith in if we are able to get some semblance of
governance out of a systemically corrupt institution such as the Police Force.
We know how some of the recruiting was
done, and the political meddling that took place to put many people into the
Police Force in order to have one’s own political carder to defend one within
the Police Force for years. The Police Commission was set up as just one arm of
the Good Governance Motto, to show that there must be some independent
adjudicator to do what is right.
It could be argued that the Police
Commission made the recommendation of who should be the IGP, but I cannot
remember the facts, of whether their recommendation was accepted or if the
President was able to override that, but on reflection the present IGP on all
counts is acting more like a person who likes to be in the limelight, spot
light, but not in the light of the people, who expect more from him. Trust this
was an aberration of low probability!
In this age of Social Media, where a
mockery is made out of madness, this news today is also fodder for cartoonists
taking the mickey out of the Police Force now, when ageism has become the order
of the day. All of you will reach this age and do not want to suffer injustice.
We must fight this reasoning, as absurd.
POST SCRIPT - extracted from Ada Derana News
POST SCRIPT - extracted from Ada Derana News
Secretary of National Police Commission removed
Secretary to the National Police Commission N. Ariyadasa Cooray says that he has been removed from the position.
Speaking to Ada Derana, Mr. Cooray said that the commission informed him today that he has been removed from the post due to him being overage.
He said that he was informed in writing following a special discussion held at the commission today (20).
According to the 09/2008 circular, public sector employees reaching the retirement age of 60 can be allowed to continue their service until the age of 67.
Therefore, Mr. Cooray says that he could rightly continue to serve until September this year.
However, he says that he has been removed citing the 03/2018 circular regarding the retirement of public servants and other public sector employees on reaching the age of 60.
2 comments:
Sri Lanka is a country that uses age, and in the Private Sector 55 as an age, where they can choose to let go an employee, without having to pay compensation, or facing an unfair termination clause. This is similar to that, but is used as an excuse to get rid of people who the higher ups consider are NOT performing to expectation.
This is all because the labor laws are very stringent in this country to protect workers rights, that often, companies do not hire people because they are difficult to fire.
It is time labor laws are changed so people can be given legitimate reasons to fire and we can have a more productive labor force WITHOUT reference to age, only competence.
The following is my understanding of what actually happened
In any civilized country, as part of their governance, there are independent commissions appointed to oversea the various arms of the State, which include, Judicial, Elections, Police, Public Service, to name a few.
Technically this Yahapalanaya Government re-established these independent commissions, that had been done away with during the Dictatorship of Mahinda Rajapakse, where there was no governance whatsoever and the law of the jungle prevailed, where self appointed PS chairman felt they could rule their fiefdoms at will, as they had the confidence of the strong man, as long as they were loyal to that man.
What happened here was that the Independent Police Commission, by way of its Secretary requested a full report on the recent violence in Digama and Teldeniya from the Police, as is their right, in order to oversea the integrity of the Police Force, on behalf of the Citizens of Sri Lanka. We understand that this report is extremely sensitive, and points the finger at the Police both in assisting with the rioting and firebombing, and in doing nothing to uphold the law which is their duty.
The IGP, who will look bad in this whole scenario, who is simply incompetent in performing his duties as is expected, fearing he will be held accountable, used his considerable political influence to prevent the Secretary from getting this report.
I am not sure who it was who ordered the removal of the Sec of the Commission, but his AGE was the usual excuse given, in order to get out of having to give a reason, as is the Sri Lankan way of slipping out of a problem.
Further it is clear that other members of the Commission are very unhappy with the state of affairs in the Police, how it is governed the rampant corruption within and the political influence wielded by the previous administration, still, and it is also rumored that the previous strong man Ghotabaya had something to do with getting bus loads of people from elsewhere, to come to Digana/Teldeniya to cause mayhem, and Dilum Amunugama and Lohan Ratwatte are also implicated in this.
No doubt after the arrests of the suspects some of this information would be available to the Police Commission, and there is an attempt from the top to prevent this information coming into the hands of the General Public as it is quite defamatory if proved beyond reasonable doubt.
As you can see, our checks and balances have failed again due to the interference by politicians ON BOTH sides of the fence, all protecting each other, while they don't care two hoots about the security of the Country or the welfare of the people who live in it. They are merely trying to ensure their survival in the long term, while the Country is being led into an abyss!
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