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| Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 Crime and punishment The brutal slaying of High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya has shocked the nation. Though accustomed to the spiraling crime in the recent years most did not expect an attack on the judiciary at such high level. This shows that today criminals are confident of acting with impunity. Such confidence could come only in close association with high profile politicos or the super rich who have no scruples in eliminating those that cross their way. The whole system seems to have awakened from deep slumber. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has decreed that the death penalty should be made effective for rape, murder and drug related offences. The police got cracking and imposed security nets and roadblocks so that the culprits could not flee. Media and the public poured their rage on the villains and demanded maximum punishment. The opposition could not help blaming the government. The Cabinet is reported to be meeting in emergency session to consider urgent legal reforms to arrest the crime wave. Though not arguing against legal remedies we would like to ask, "will they be enough?" In our opinion it is necessary to probe into the socio-economic factors that have engendered the proliferation of crime. While this is a task for sociologists we would like to share our mundane wisdom on certain factors that breed crime and impunity of criminals. It is commonly said that poverty breeds crime. But poverty by itself has not engendered crime. It breeds crime when the affluent make use of the poverty of the underdogs in society to achieve their nefarious goals. Contract killing could not have grown if the anti-social elements from the affluent and the poor did not join hands. The concurrence of wealth and crime has produced powerful mafia in several countries. More often they are linked to drug trafficking, human smuggling and money-laundering operations. One of the most dangerous developments of recent times is the nexus between politicos, the underworld and law enforcing officials. Unless this nexus is broken no amount of legislation would be able to reduce the incidence of crime. We were privy to several recent media reports that exposed the nexus between certain law enforcement officials and the underworld. We hope that authorities would not succumb to pressure and let them escape punishment. The nexus between politicos and the criminal mafia is yet to be exposed in public though it is common knowledge in certain quarters. We urge the government and especially the duty conscious law enforcement officials to expose this nexus too. It would be interesting, for example, to see which politician/s had close contacts with the killers of Justice Ambepitiya and which political campaigns they had funded. Another factor that has given rise to the crime wave is the criminalisation of politics that we are witnessing since the early '80s. This is a direct result of the dictatorial policies of the authoritarian regime that came to power in 1977. Though political violence has abated considerably the dark forces of the underworld unleashed then continue to operate with impunity. Needless to say that the fratricidal war, which engulfed our society for nearly two decades, created conditions conducive to the mass proliferation of modern weapons and produced a new type of criminal in the deserters from the armed services. This is a more ruthless, more agile and more sophisticated criminal. The soldier is trained to kill. Unless restrained by military discipline, given a chance, he would tend to use his military prowess for criminal activity. Stop blackmail The developed countries seem to be blackmailing developing countries in proceeding with programs to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. On various pretexts, sometimes even on hypothetical and fictitious grounds they harass the developing countries. First, it was Iraq. Even after the country was invaded no evidence was found to prove Iraq's development of nuclear weapon systems. The latest to be blackmailed is Iran. Threats continue even after the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) cleared Iran of charges that it is developing nuclear weapons. The matter is to be taken up by the IAEA this week. The European Union and Iran have reached an Agreement on the issue and Iran has temporarily suspended its nuclear program voluntarily as a confidence building measure to facilitate a settlement. The Non-Aligned countries have agreed to propose amendments to a EU resolution. Hopefully the issue would be settled. Yet it is questionable whether the US would abide by the decision of the IAEA or act unilaterally as in the case of Iraq. It is time to tell the US and its allies to put a halt to this blackmail and abide by decisions of international UN bodies. |
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