Font size: 
Today proper criminal investigations require "skilled labor." The investigators require adequate general education as well as competence in various fields. They need developed communication skills and the ability to understand complex problems. They must be able to develop strategies to find the information needed to detect crimes and gather evidence that can be presented in court.
However, in most Asian countries the main investigation methodology is torture. The use of torture is the result of handing over investigations to persons who do not have adequate competence for the job. Unskilled in their profession, they try to respond to their obligations by the use of force in order to satisfy their superiors as well as the political leaders who want results.
The need to resort to such unskilled labor is mainly due to inadequate financial allocations in national budgets for the proper education and training of police staff. Poor pay cannot attract talent; as the saying goes, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. However, it is difficult to understand why law enforcement officials do not raise the issue of their inability to do their job properly with such unskilled labor. Civil society and the media are in general silent on this issue.
Perhaps one reason higher-ranking police officers do not raise the issue of their subordinates' incompetence is that this issue is linked to corruption. Competent individuals would want to do their jobs without interference and could resist attempts to absorb them into a network of corruption. Incompetent staff at lower levels, while taking some advantages for themselves through corruption, will not challenge the position of their seniors.
Political leaders who profit from corrupt systems also do not want significant changes toward a more competent criminal justice system -- especially as it might probe into their own corruption. As long as the justice system has its own internal contradictions it will not be a threat to the inadequacies of the political system. Ironically, unskilled police officers protect such political systems.
The contradiction lies in the system's efforts to protect the rights of the people on one hand and "protect" the corrupt political system on the other. If citizens' rights are to be protected by competent officers, political leaders must agree to reform the political system. However, what actually takes place is a reversal of this situation. The politicians protect themselves by ensuring that those who deal with public security do not have the competence required to carry out the necessary inquiries, which is the primary requirement of security.
An unskilled police officer, when left to his own devices, naturally tries to solve problems in the way in which he is capable. Unable to rely on his brain he relies instead on his muscles. The unfortunate victims are the citizens.
This situation affects the entire system for the administration of justice. Unskilled investigators are unable to provide credible evidence for proper prosecutions. Prosecutors claim that due to lack of evidence they are unable to prosecute even cases of massacres and other grave crimes. Even when cases are brought to court due to a public outcry the accused may not be the person who actually committed the crime, but one who has been forced to confess to having committed it.
In some countries, such as Sri Lanka, the successful prosecution rate is only 4 percent. However, in countries where it is not possible for the accused to withdraw a confession, the rate of convictions may be higher. In these countries human rights activists and observers complain that there are large numbers of people in prisons who are in fact innocent. The state is often unwilling to probe allegations of torture as well as allegations that there are many innocent people in prison. A genuine probe into these matters may expose the whole system and create unforeseen problems.
One such problem is the threat by police to not work at all if higher standards of accountability are imposed on them. This situation has surfaced in several countries. Police officers have virtually threatened their higher-ranking officers that unless they are willing to turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings they will withdraw their cooperation. When the system depends on unskilled labor it is not possible to expect a high level of discipline.
When states are criticized for violations of rights such as the use of torture, custodial deaths and even forced disappearances by police officers and the security apparatus, the political leaders of the country are faced with a dilemma: if they improve human rights they face a revolt by the police; if they do not improve human rights they face criticism locally and internationally.
Often political leaders try to resolve this dilemma by aggressively attacking the critics of the country's human rights record. These political leaders believe they can better succeed in silencing critics than in reforming a defective criminal investigations system. Thus political leaders become apologists for unskilled labor within the policing system.
--
(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
