You don't like the rules? Then don't play the game
Thursday August 23 2007
Not too happy, to be honest.
I prefer to know nothing about a garda's political, sporting or sexual affiliations.
And I don't want to be made aware of which god he or she prays to either. This neutrality is central to the impartial nature of the force.
I don't expect to encounter a guard in a Sikh turban, any more than I'm open to one driving a garda car with a Jesus Saves bumper sticker or a pair of rosary beads swinging from the rear view mirror. No crucifixes dangling over a guard's tie, no miraculous medals or Pioneer Total Abstinence Association insignia on their lapels. And no turbans.
It hinges on separation of Church and State. An Garda Siochana is an arm of the State and when its members are on duty it is inappropriate for them to display any memberships or predilections. The State is secular and its servants must be secular too -- at least during those times when they button on their uniforms and represent the State.
Guards can support which-ever team they like, vote for whichever party they like, sleep with whichever sex they like and pray to whichever god they like. Off duty.
But don't bring it to work.
We've only just managed (more or less) to call a halt to the Catholic Church meddling in areas of government where it has no business interfering. And now we're debating letting another religion get stuck in?
Stop. Don't go there.
Separation of Church and State is crucial in a modern society, especially one becoming multicultural and pluralist overnight such as ours.
Integration Minister Conor Lenihan is absolutely right to back the Garda Commissioner's refusal to make a special case for Sikhs in the reserve force.
Agree to one special case and you open a Pandora's Box. Next up: police issue burkas for female Muslim reserves. Powder blue uniforms for those with an aesthetic reaction against navy. And high heels for anyone who says the standard brogues make their ankles look fat.
It is courageous of Minister Lenihan to take this stand, and disappointing the Greens are diving head first into the gloopy, warm custard of the touchy-feely, right-on option. Come on guys, you're in government now. Time to learn 'political correctness' is sometimes interchangeable with 'just plain silly'.
I always thought the London Metropolitan Police made a grave mistake -- and has stored up trouble for itself -- in excusing a Muslim officer from duty outside the Israeli Embassy.
Yet the Met Police is being waved at us by Sikh community spokespeople as an example of a force we should emulate.
The argument that Britain allows Sikhs to wear turbans as part of their police uniform is irrelevant. That's akin to contending we should have a royal family because Britain has one. And this "Britain does it" line of reasoning highlights something rather worrying.
It shows a certain assimilation failure among the Irish-based Sikh leaders calling for us to follow Britain's lead. It's no secret the one sure way to get an Irish person's hackles up is to tell them they should do something because Britain does it.
Haven't they worked that out yet? We should welcome people from around the world to our country. They have much to contribute and we have much to learn from them.
But we can't have them laying down the rules in the host nation -- they must assimilate. By all means maintain their indigenous cultures, but adapt to ours too.
Surely it's no more than common sense that people immigrating to a country accept its laws or else canvass to amend them. As a democracy we ought to be open to change and no doubt some of our laws are flawed or antiquated.
But accusing us of racism, intolerance and being aligned with the Middle East isn't a helpful way to campaign for change.
That's just mud-slinging, and it's deeply insulting.
Personally I don't like uniforms -- that's why I don't work in a profession requiring me to wear one. But if I became an Aer Lingus flight attendant I would expect to wear the green.
I wouldn't imagine I could turn up to work in Ryanair blue.
And I'd be foolish to think I might be allowed to ditch aspects of the Aer Lingus uniform for which I didn't care, such as those daft cravats. It's a standardised outfit, a homogenised look -- not an a la carte menu.
What this free-for-all about turbans on the beat does illustrate is our lack of a coherent policy. The question should have been addressed back at the start, before the reserve was selected and trained, instead of turning him into a test case now. Our society is in a state of flux and we need to draw up policies in a coherent fashion -- not on an individual basis.
Let's have sensible rules, let's make everyone aware of them and let's stick to them. But start bending rules here and there and they won't count any more -- they'll become guidelines. Regulations so watered down they have no teeth.
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