MPs’ security | Daily News

MPs’ security

A big stir was a kicked up in Parliament on Wednesday by sections of the Samagi Balavegaya (SJB) Opposition calling for the restoration of the full police security of all MPs which had been slashed by the Government to meet other exigencies.

Leading the charge was the lone SJB member elected from the Matara District Buddhika Pathrana.The MP complained that policemen assigned to each MP had been reduced, demanding that their full security be restored. The Parliamentarian said he was making this plea since there could be a very real threat posed by the drugs underworld to some MPs who had been raising their voices against drug kingpins. Added to this is the death threats made against the President and the Defence Secretary by a drug baron in prison.”Such is the power of the drug lords. So the policemen assigned to MPs should be increased,”he wailed.

Chamal Rajapaksa, the minister in charge of the Police service responded by saying that the police were there for the protection of the people and not carry files and bags of MPs. Of the 85,000 policemen in the country some 38,000 were assigned to protects MPs and others.He said presently there was a shortage of policemen for more urgent policing tasks. Hence, a decision had been taken to reduce the number of policemen assigned to MPs to two (from four).

The police service, as everybody is aware, is overworked these days, hunting down drug runners, big time narcotic traffickers and taking the fight to the underworld as can be seen by the almost daily arrested of drug king pins and leaders of crime rings.In other words, the police are striving to ensure a peaceful climate for the citizens to live in and ensure law and order is maintained in society ,which, needless to say, is the primary duty and function of the police service.There can be no deviation from this principal role by the police by other distractions and less important functions such as providing protection to politicians. MPs ,after all, are representatives,nay, servants of the people and it is the people’s well being and security that should be foremost in their minds over and above that of their own .Why, politicians even go to the extent of claiming that they are even ready to die for their people.What better way to demonstrate this than exposing themselves to danger - if indeed there is a danger - as feared by MP Pathirana.

At any rate, the fight against the underworld and narcotics business is being led by the President and the Defence Secretary, and, as the MP rightly opined, are the prime targets of the drug lords as the chief source of their nemesis just like High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya was the nemesis of the notorious drug baron who engineered his assassination from prison. An MP, especially an Opposition MP, who is merely a bystander in the fight against drugs mafia surely cannot be in the cross-hairs of any would be or imagined assassin of the underworld. Hence, for MP Pathirana to say that his life, or that of his fellow MPs, could be in jeopardy by the reduction of their police security is indeed stretching one’s imagination.

A more likely explanation is that pruning down the security of MPs could be taken as a diminution of their status and an attack on their ego, particularly by Opposition Parliamentarians, who, not long ago,were used to having policemen at their beck and call and attending to chores outside their assigned duties, as portrayed by Minister Chamal Rajapaksa.

Let this be a start for doing away with all unnecessary security of all MPs and Ministers.The President,no less, has shown the way by having only the minimum amount of security, as was seen during his twin journeys to Parliament for their inaugurations. Not only slashing the security of MPs, the days when politicians lorded it over on the highways with their retinues of security personnel, stopping traffic, dashing through signal lights and putting road users into unnecessary inconvenience should also be brought to an end once and for all. It is such conduct on the part of the people’s representatives in the past that,no doubt,generated public hostility towards Parliamentarians and all politicians in general.

Besides, money voted for the Police service in the national budget is strictly for the maintainance of law and order and the creation of a peaceful environment for the citizens to live in.Utilizing the police ,therefore, for other purposes outside these parameters such as to guard and provide protection to MPs tantamount to a misuse of public funds. Like Minister Rajapaksa said,the Government is more than capable of providing security not only to MPs but to all the people of the country.Therefore, security for MPs should only be based on a threat assessment. Besides, MPs need not fear for their security if they have not committed any offence or engaged in criminal activity to draw reprisals.In any event, the magnitude of the current anti-crime operations will need all the resources and manpower the Police could muster. And its undivided attention.