Development despite terror

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka's assertion that the country's development programmes would continue unhindered despite the costly war to defeat terrorism is a salutary stand that would be endorsed by a vast majority of Sri Lankans.

Addressing a function to hand over a deed to recipients of a Housing scheme for Government Servants in Homagama on Monday the Premier said "Ports, an international airport, hydropower projects, highways and many other development projects and infrastructure facilities are underway while we are going all out to wipe out terrorism".

The conflict is now nearing three decades and if all Governments during that time had only concentrated on battling terrorism at the cost of development the country would have been stagnating economically and socially which would have given way to unrest and rebellion in the South.

To begin with one of the strategies of the terrorists is to weaken the economy through unbridled violence and thus thwart the forward march of the development drive of the Government. The terrorists are only too aware that a strong economy would work against its long term plans to destabilise society and direct public wrath against the administration.

It is to the credit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that while fighting terrorism he has committed himself towards the development effort knowing well that this is exactly what the terrorists want to prevent.

The terrorists on their part would do everything in their power to stifle this development effort by attacking economic targets. This has happened in the past as in the case of the attacks on the Central Bank and Petroleum Refinery and also the failed bid to attack the Twin Towers in Fort.

Yet the economy proved resilient and the bid to scare off investors too proved futile. The country has always come out unbowed to terrorism even after major attacks by the LTTE in the past to destabilise the economy.

Tourist arrivals too have not diminished significantly as recent statistics show and even those Western countries which issued travel advisories warning their countrymen against visiting Sri Lanka have subsequently withdrawn such warnings.

The latest decision by Cathay Pacific to resume flights to Sri Lanka after the Airline's withdrawal following the LTTE attack on the Katunayake Airforce base stands testimony to the country's ability to bounce back from adversity.

Sri Lanka is certainly not the only country that is battling terrorism and none of these countries has placed a moratorium on development activities caving into terror tactics. Sri Lanka as a developing country cannot afford to be a nation under seige by terrorism but move forward with the rest of the world while fighting to eradicate the cancer of terrorism from its soil.

Proceeding with the development projects unhampered would also send the right message to the international community and prospective investors that Sri Lanka means business in every sense.

Fighting crime

The Kandy police plan to computerise the records of all Island Reconvicted Criminals (IRCs) in the area in a bid to facilitate their detection.

According to a front page news item in our sister paper Dinamina it is being revealed that there are 595 IRCs in the Kandy electoral division and of them 480 have left the area. A majority of these thugs are under 35.

The police have taken steps to feed all their details into the computer by which means it is hoped to identify culprits arrested even in other police divisions.

This novel method if not already operational in other police stations should be introduced to all police divisions which would help a great deal in keeping tabs on undesirable elements and in return help reduce crime.

International crime busting agencies such as Interpol have computerised details of all notorious international terrorists for easy reference.

Similar to DNA testing available with the breakthroughs in scientific methods of crime detection there are many other methods employed in developed countries that facilitate the prompt detection of crime and the apprehension of criminals.

We too should attempt to make use of these advanced methods employed by developing countries in a bid to stem the surging crime rate in the country while also providing more teeth to the law to deal severely to the criminals and murderers who are a menace to society.