The centrality of discipline

It is inevitable that the current crime wave in the country should spread some gloom among the more sensitive sections of our citizenry but these discouraging developments should also be seen as re-emphasizing the need for stringent discipline at all levels of local society. Since discipline, at the level of the person and the collectivity, is a consequence of enlightened and value-based living, we are left to conclude that the present law and order issues are also, at bottom, a moral crisis.

Whither discipline, then, is the question. President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing this issue squarely, pointed to the potential in the newspaper cartoon to be an inspirer of discipline, while breakfasting with newspaper cartoonists of this country a couple of days back. This is an interesting idea which must be increasingly tried out by our cartoonists because even a caricature or a jest could be put to very serious purposes.

However, there is no denying that moral decline has emerged as a prime concern for those observing the affairs of this country. Some of the cartoonists who conversed with the President, in fact, drew attention to some forms of the media which could be instrumental in promoting immorality among the more impressionable sections of society.

It should be clarified that these impressionable elements cut across age barriers because some very old members of local society are being accused of sexual offences of the most disquieting kind. For instance, more than a few old men in their sixties and beyond have been found guilty of sexually molesting underage females.

It would not be advisable to jump to conclusions on these matters, but some sound research needs to be done on how the easily accessible, newer forms of the mass media are impacting moral standards and values. It stands to reason that if a person could access pornographic sites at the push of a button on a computer, one cannot expect much from impressionable minds in terms of self control and personal discipline. Likewise, if video games featuring garish violence are easily purchasable and are pervasive, one cannot expect society to be even relatively free of brute force and savagery.

Therefore, these and many more issues need to be probed and studied by our state media authorities and other concerned sections if something is to be done about moral degeneration and decline. To be sure, the question of violence is complex and not amenable to simplistic analyses, but this country cannot delay these projects in the belief that the ‘residual violence’ from the 30 year conflict would take considerable time to diminish substantially. What is referred to as ‘residual violence’ is certainly a factor in the violence afflicting Lankan society currently but from what could be observed, the phenomenon is multi-dimensional and needs to be handled at a number of levels.

While it is up to the authorities to act fast on these problems, we cannot close our eyes to the reality that something is certainly amiss in Sri Lankan society at present. While it goes without saying that moral perfection is an impossible ideal for any society or culture, it is also starkly strange and disturbing in the extreme that young lives, for instance, should be savaged and snuffed out by sexually perverted men and lecherous elders. Such bizarre happenings did not occur at the frequency at which they are occurring now, in the past.

Local society needs to see these trends in a broad perspective. True, some politicians linked to the ruling alliance have been found to be perpetrators of sexual crime, but all such persons are being brought to justice and by virtue of this fact, the state cannot be pilloried over these deleterious tendencies. For, the law and order machinery is effectively at work. Rather, current crime needs to be seen as systemic in nature. It is the current socio-economic and moral environment that needs to probed, assessed and remedied to the extent possible.

Morally rejuvenating society is a great undertaking that requires the support of all well meaning sections. It should not be looked at in narrow, politically- partisan terms. For, the problems in question have deep systemic roots and the moral foundations of society need to be freshly assessed and changed if necessary.