Not so, Mr Manning

FOR THE most obvious reasons, politics and policing make a dangerous mixture. The terror, torture, persecution, oppression and unjust prosecution inflicted on innocent citizens of a country when its enforcement arm has been controlled or influenced by politicians is one of the sad lessons of history. One of the benefits of modern democracies such as ours is the principle of the separation of powers which requires the Police Service to operate totally independent of the state or political directorate, indeed without any foreign or external influence whatsoever.

As with the independence of the Judiciary, it is vital that the independence of the Police Service must not only be real in practice but must also be seen and accepted by the citizenry to be so. In recognising the importance of this principle, the Government must be scrupulous in its actions not to do anything that would influence or appear to influence, that would compromise or appear to compromise, the independent operations of the Police Service. It pains us to have to make a point that history has already taught us so forcefully, but we feel impelled to do so for the benefit of Prime Minister Patrick Manning who apparently has not been able to grasp it. The fact that Mr Manning could ask for the letter appointing Mr Everald Snggs as Commissioner of Police so that he, the Prime Minister, could present it personally to Mr Snaggs is not only unprecedented and a breach of the established procedure, but it also betrays a surprising lack of understanding and sensitivity on the PM’s part. What really is the ordinary citizen to think about this? Having regard to the growing public concern over the delay in confirming Mr Snaggs as Commissioner, was Mr Manning’s action designed to send a message to the Commissisoner that he, the Prime Minister, was expecting some kind of personal loyalty from the country’s top cop?

The excuse given later by Mr Manning, that it was “a symbolic gesture” made in his capacity as Chairman of the National Security is a silly and unacceptable one. In whatever capacity, the Prime Minister has absolutely no business getting personally involved in the procedure of making such a critical appointment. That is the exclusive province of the Police Service Commission who have now had the good sense to revoke the customary method of presenting letters of appointment to senior police officers and so effectively rule out any possible intervention by the Prime Minister or any other minister of government. Where in the past such letters were handled by the Director of Personnel Administration who would pass them on to the Minister of National Security, they will now be signed by the Chairman of the Police Service Commission who will also present them personally to the officers at any regular meeting of the Commission. We commend this decision by the PSC and we are encouraged and reassured by the fact that it was taken following a meeting with members of the First and Second Division Police Associations who must have been quite concerned about the way Mr Snaggs’ appointment was carried out and the obvious political implications of Mr Manning’s personal intervention. It seems important to us to remind the Prime Minister that he and his government have been elected by the people to conduct their affairs in accordance with the principles of our democracy and that, contrary to what he may believe, he has not been imbued with any divine right to change these principles as he may see fit.