Eliminating lawlessness

The news that an island-wide crackdown on illegal firearms is in the offing is most welcome and we hope the effort would be a resounding success. The law and order situation is a number one concern among all civic-conscious sections and an operation to rid the country of illegal arms could prove a very important step in arresting the crime wave.

Crime in this country is a compounded issue. On the one hand, we seem to be having a substantial number of illegal arms which are instrumental in perpetrating numerous criminal acts. On the other hand, we have this ominous phenomenon of the criminalization of politics which is proving a definite spur to the spawning of crime and numerous law and order questions. It is not news that criminals enjoy the protection and patronage of some politicians and this is rendering the process of neutralizing these criminal elements doubly difficult.

Many of these issues were underscored by a number of killings in Kahawatte, for instance, where the involvement of some local level politicians with crime gangs was quite evident. However, this is only one instance where the involvement of politicians with criminals is pronounced.

Roughly from around the mid seventies, the trend of politicians drawing on the services of criminals has been gathering pace, with dire consequences for Sri Lanka.

Accordingly, while efforts are made to round-up unauthorized arms, an endeavour must also be made by the state to break this fatal nexus between the criminal underworld and conniving politicians. Until this latter process takes hold in a major way, no substantial progress could be made in the project of containing crime in this country.

In a way, this is an easy task to perform. All that needs to be done, apparently, is for the leaders of political parties to weed out from their midst all those party men and followers who consort with criminals and lawless elements. They must be shown the door and asked to steer clear of the respective parties. Besides, those politicians who are found to be patronizing the criminal underworld must be taken to task promptly. Forthright and quick action of this kind would help considerably in keeping crime under control but the authorities must show more than ample willingness to go ahead with these initiatives.

The law and order authorities of this country are quite capable of wiping out crime but they must be permitted to do their jobs without being prevailed upon from any quarter to desist from cracking down on wrongdoers. In other words, the law enforcement agencies should be severely left alone by politicians. The law and order approach is one way of curbing crime and it is the bounden duty of all to assist the law enforcers in carrying out their duties.

Besides, it is befuddling as to why some politicians should be permitted to carry authorized firearms in this day and age when terror has been eliminated. We do not see any reason why civilians need to bear arms of any kind when a whole gamut of law and issues was eliminated with the quashing of Tiger terror in May 2009. Of course, not all politicians who are permitted to carry arms engage in lawlessness but the tendency to abuse ones power is great when civilian personnel in authority are authorized to be armed.

Another issue in the law and order sphere which is having people very worried is the widely prevalent practice of some politicians roaring past them in public with security personnel, very often with hardly a care for the safety of civilians.

We do not see why each and every person in authority should be thus escorted much to the discomfiture and even fear of the majority of the public. Except for those wielding foremost authority in this country, there is absolutely no need for special security cover for politicians.

These and many more issues go to the heart of the law and order question in this country. While it goes without saying that illegal arms should be rounded-up, public security, as could be seen, is a vexed issue and has many sides to it which need to be attended to simultaneously.