By Dr. Kingsley Wickremasuriya Senior Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Retired) (kingsley.wickremasuriya@gmail.com) Prologue “I am not bound to carry out your illegal orders..!” – SSP says to Police Minister and leaves the meeting..! (Lanka enews defense correspondent. The Lanka-e News of Nov. 18, 2022 reported a rare incident where a Senior Superintendent of Police said to […]
by Senior Retired DIG Edward Gunawardene
In the year 1957 I sat two public examinations conducted by the Public Service Commission, the constitutionally created independent body for recruitment to the Public Service. My father gladly gave me the examination fee of Rs. 250/= to apply for the Ceylon Civil Service examination. But it was with reluctance that he gave me Rs. 150/= to sit the examination for the selection of Assistant Superintendents of Police.
Finding a job then did not appear to be a problem. By the time the results of the Police examination were announced I had received several letters of appointment to various jobs at staff level. The three that I remember are: Assistant Assessor of Income Tax, Assistant Superintendent of Surveys (Geological Survey) and Assistant Superintendent Government Stores.
by Senior DIG (Rtd.) Edward Gunawardene
In recent weeks many interesting articles have appeared in the Sunday Island on the Burghers of Ceylon. The contributions by Godwin Perera, Laksman Ratnapala, A. J. Perera, Sumith de Silva and Manel Fonseka have rekindled in me memories of the many public figures of the Burgher community, particularly police officers at the time I joined the police in the late fifties of the last century. The mix-up in photos of Col. F. C. de Saram and Canon R. S. de Saram and the references to Burgher bits were indeed amusing.
When I joined the police, the induction process of new entrants to gazetted rank, required probationary ASPs to be introduced by appointment to senior public officers including the Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Attorney General etc. As such, with my batchmates before long I was able to meet several amiable public servants of the Burgher community.