Thursday, 9 December 2004  
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Rule of Law wins

Most law-abiding citizens of this country would agree that the highest standards of justice have been met in the conviction and jailing of UNP politician S. B. Dissanayake over contempt of court charges. The point at issue was whether the highest court of the land cold be subjected to Dissanayake's slanderous insults.

Since such a situation cannot be condoned, given the pivotal role the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka plays in the local justice system, it was only right that the violator was punished. Disrespect for the courts is one of the surest ways to lawlessness and anarchy.

Crime soars, indiscipline at all levels of society mounts and the more volatile among citizens tend to take the law into their own hands when the institutions of justice are maliciously discredited by slanderers and those bent on undermining the country's legal system.

Dissanayake was found guilty and convicted by due process of law and meted out a matching sentence. We hope the punishment handed out to him would serve as a reminder that no-one is above the law and that the integrity of judicial institutions should in no way be compromised. It could be said, therefore, that the Rule of Law has emerged victorious in the conviction and sentencing of S. B. Dissanayake.

Meanwhile, the UNP which has begun to pose as a champion of law and order gave a pathetic display of its proficiency in this respect when its members ran amok in Parliament yesterday. Callously disregarding all norms of propriety and decorum, UNP members violated the inherent dignity of Parliament by reacting violently to the Supreme Court ruling in the S. B. Dissanayake case.

This behaviour in itself is contemptuous of the superior courts. It is a repulsive sequel to UNP MP T. Maheswaran's conduct. What moral right has the UNP, then, to call the Supreme Court ruling in question? Such conduct, rather than resolve any issue, would be a strong fillip to greater lawlessness and anarchy. Thus the UNP stands exposed as a party which foments violence and lawlessness.

However, this is another exercise in UNP brinkmanship. It is futile behaviour which would backfire on the party and expose its incompetence. For, it is well-known that President Kumaratunga has left no stone unturned to return this country to internal stability and law and order.

The President has lost no time in re-imposing the death penalty. Following the killing of High Court judge Ambepitiya, the law enforcement authorities are cracking down more rigorously on crime. The police presence has intensified in public places and we are witnessing stepped-up patrolling.

We call on the UNP to call off these antics and play a more responsible role.

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Poverty - unemployment link

The latest World Employment Report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has some alarming statistics. It has highlighted the sobering fact that some 1.4 billion people in work around the world earn less than two US Dollars a day, leaving them entrapped in grinding poverty with little hope of escape.

Of that number, itself half the global work force, 550 million or nearly 40 percent of the total take home less than US$ 1 a day, while nearly 200 million more have no job at all. And that is probably without counting the millions of children engaged in work.

As the ILO report stresses, generating more and better jobs must become the central plank of the global drive to reduce poverty. Unemployment is a serious problem worldwide, in both developed and developing countries. The problem is acute in the latter, which usually do not have the economic capacity to cushion the impact of unemployment through doles and subsidies.

In countries such as Sri Lanka, daily wage earners and the unemployed have been hit hard by the escalating cost of living. It is no secret that wages are abysmally low in some sectors.

With the Government granting a salary hike to the public sector, we can only hope that the formal private sector would follow suit. However, things may not be the same in the informal sector, say, a group of labourers working at a building site. Women in such sectors are generally paid less than their male counterparts. These factors have a cascading effect that lead to very low standards of living for millions of families.

The good news for Asia is that there is a chance of meeting the UN target of halving by 2015 the percentage of the global work force earning less than US$ 1 a day, given current rapid growth rates in China, South East and South Asia, including Sri Lanka. The authorities must accelerate economic development to create more employment opportunities. Sri Lanka is implementing a programme to provide employment to nearly 70,000 youth.

To achieve any advance in tackling the problem of the working poor, the report argues, increased productivity has to be a prime target for governments. Only then can employers think seriously about raising wages.

That brings us to the question of employee rights. Today, it has become a fashion to launch strikes at the drop of a hat. There is nothing wrong with workers agitating for their rights, but they must be thankful for having a job in the first place. They should spare a thought for the unemployed while seeking better working conditions and higher salaries.

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