Stamping out criminality, a top priority

We are assured by the authorities that the killing of a Western tourist down South recently, by a trigger-happy gang of hoodlums, would have no destabilizing consequences for the local tourist and leisure industries and this should be the case all right but there is no denying that the disquieting and gruesome crime need not have occurred. The state has lost not no time in rounding-up the suspects and in ensuring that the law and order process is being fully activated, but the crime is bound to be profoundly regretted by all those who have the best interests of this country at heart.

The crime could not have occurred at a more inopportune moment. The tourist inflow to this country is at an all-time high. This is particularly true of Western tourist arrivals. These visitors to our country are really drawn by the fabled beauty and splendour of this country, not to speak of all its unique and exotic attractions.

However, they are also acting under the presumption that their lives are absolutely safe here, now that terror is no more. No less magnetic than the natural 'pulls' of Sri Lanka, is the normalcy factor.

Tourists' confidence in this regard is likely to have been shaken after the incident and this should only be expected.

It is up to the state and its agencies to ensure that there are no repetitions of incidents of this kind, which have the potential of gravely harming the leisure and allied industries and of tarnishing the image of this country. While putting in motion all the law and order measures that could have the effect of curbing criminality and ensuring the absolute security of visitors to this country, the government and all relevant sections should take a close, penetrating look at lingering criminality in this land.

We are compelled at this juncture to revisit a host of issues which have been remaining unresolved over the years. In fact, stepped-up criminality and lawlessness cannot be studied in isolation from the conflict which ravaged this land for decades. Incidentally, although sections within the Opposition are making heavy weather over the illegal arms issue, it should not be forgotten that it was under some UNP administrations in the mid eighties that some arms were distributed among sections of the polity for the purpose of, reportedly, securing their protection. Those were the origins of the illegal arms question in this country.

Nevertheless, lingering criminality is closely bound-up with the militarization of this country over the 30 years of conflict and the question of criminality should be seen as an outgrowth of the prolonged violence of those times. If some of those enjoying even a semblance of power today are proving to be brutal and murderous when justifiably opposed, it is because criminality and violence are deeply rooted in their personalities. And the years of conflict account for these distortions of the human personality.

These issues, if not the larger one of finding an equitable solution to the problems of our communities, should compel the government, its agencies and other concerned sections, to take up the challenge of containing criminality to the extent possible. It is all too plain that criminality is continuing to characterize the behaviour of some wielding power in our midst and this is not something the larger society and the state could be complacent about.

All, irrespective of position and status, should be compelled to observe the Rule of Law and this is something that needs to be enforced forthwith.

The law should be enforced in perpetuity and it needs to be seen that the persons who pulled the trigger in Tangalle are brought to justice without further delay.

That said, there is no denying that the lingering demon of violence and brute force should be exorcised from the minds and hearts of those who believe that they could indulge in bouts of lawlessness with impunity. It is the human heart which is 'desperately wicked' and which needs to be healed. That is, residual violence from the past must be wiped out.

The incident at Tangalle should drive home that nothing could be left to chance on this score. The streaks of criminality among those sections that are prone to lawlessness must be treated clinically too because law and order measures alone would not suffice. Above all, violence should be seen as out of place by all in present day Sri Lanka which is on the mend.