Policing and Our Democratic Values

Editorial

At several times in the past we have here stood for law and order and recognised the sometimes difficult task of many well-meaning officers of the Mauritius Police Force (MPF), so long as they go about their duties and apply the law with equity and fairly across the board. In difficult areas they may be forced to use proportional force to avoid drug proliferation or other cases of abusive behaviour and must be able to exercise their better judgement to that effect and maintain law and order, despite the odds sometimes deliberately stacked against them.

This being said and whatever the management of the Covid pandemic may have left in higher authorities minds and approaches to policing, the MPF should at all costs refrain from giving the impression that there is one law for those in power and another for ordinary citizens or even for those who are intent on exercising peacefully their democratic rights, including the vital one of freedom of expression on our streets or on social media within established legal parameters.

Such principles are fundamental to any civilized democracy. In an age of instant communication, deviations from these principles can quickly lead to public resentment. The considerable powers granted to police officers in their line of duty must be accompanied by a sense of restraint and responsibility towards all Mauritians, irrespective of race, colour, creed or political affiliation and sympathies.

Occurrences of physical brutality of suspects at Terre-Rouge have in the past shocked the national conscience and the Police Commissioner had to take corrective action, lest the damaging images and video clips spread an undesirable colouration to their nobler pursuits. We cannot sympathise either when officers on the beat are harassed or get transferred for simply doing their job without fear or favour. If the MPF hierarchy allows some members of the force to become a tool to protect the high and mighty of the day, then a sense of collective insecurity may become pervasive and erode the respect which thousands earn and deserve through their actions.

There was a time a few years back when a senior Minister, called to court to answer charges, was provided such protection that half of the capital was blocked to through traffic, while para-military units and snipers on roof-tops, aided by political goons, guarded the then Minister’s entry and exit from the court rooms. Whether they were acting on confidential information or simply wishes from higher quarters, no untoward event marred that fugitive appearance in courts and no explanation was provided.

In the cases of suspicious deaths of MSM chief agent Kistnen and some others in public procurement posts, after the 2019 general elections, we cannot say that the MPF hierarchs covered themselves in some glory. Even under prodding by the judicial enquiry or the Office of the DPP, the investigations into the murder of agent Kistnen have remained elusive to our sleuths, the case an unsolved mystery. Do they need the help of New Scotland Yard to unravel the mystery?

It is on this backdrop of popular discontent with the hierarchs of the force, that the recent muscular exercise by the SSU of the Police Force and the arrests of a small group of activists intending to protest peacefully against authorities’ treatment of a land allocation issue relating to a Tamil Cultural Centre near a Prime Ministerial function have irritated all Opposition political forces and legal minds. This disproportionate response, which quickly went viral on social media, reflects poorly on our democratic values and those entrusted with their protection.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 30 August 2024