Ban on smoking now dysfunctional

by Afreeha Jawad

The ban on smoking is no more. If not in theory at least in practice. The short lived imposition was no doubt effective. Even though for a brief period we all saw how the law's effective implementation could impact the smoking community if not in private (that's asking for too much) at least in public.

A retrospective glance of past systemic layout reveals how what once was custom later became law under nation state functioning. Tradition based custom bound man of earlier times was receptive to the thoughts and feelings of fellow men.

As respect for one another waned what with a traditional subsistence economy finding neat replacement with a mercantilist one supportive of fierce competition, custom receded giving way to ordinances, rules, regulations and laws that governed the community. Yet, the inconsistency with which these controls are imposed sees man reducing himself to below bestial state.

Countless have been instances of rude replies to women despite all the courtesy extended in requesting some other into a smoke free state. If a shortfall in personality is anything to go by, then here's it when up bringing is highly questionable.

To live in the thought that it is only "I" and "I" alone that exists and no other itself is not only selfish but also is far removed from whatever religious ideals one may vehemently lay claim to.

Part of the educational process itself ideally should be to be receptive to other's thoughts and feelings which sadly today's education falls short of for its emphasis on skills and skills alone bereft of values.

The hermeneutical experience itself is all about being mindful of others. This refined and elegant, thoughtful utterance comes from Hermeneuse who said, 'think that the one you are speaking to would like to be spoken to in the same way as you would'.

Be it in the exercise of smoking, walking talking whatever, the need to impose control on one's self in respecting some other is the hallmark of an elegant mind. I wonder whether control is necessary, for, such characteristics must necessarily be part of genes.

Why it doesn't become so is altogether another story to be taken on in due course. The damage done in smoking does not begin and end with the smoker. In fact he is better off, for his safeguard reportedly-a filtering process which the non-smoker is deprived of thus reducing the latter to a state of what is called passive smoking.

If one's right to smoking infringes upon some other's right to a healthy life where do we draw the line. What then is the benchmark. One's right they say ends at the tip of one's nose from where another's begins. Smoking or otherwise that's as far as rights go.

Therefore it is the state's bounden duty to safeguard all its citizens particularly the helpless who have no other to present their grievances.

We saw how effective the state mechanism could be in the law's implementation when the ban on smoking was launched. We also see how the uniflow traffic system operative in some parts of Colombo enables greater disciplined vehicle movement.

People are also acquainting themselves to the laws on parking that has mitigated at least in some areas the parked vehicle exodus particularly in Fort.

Laws alone will not suffice unless effectively implemented. The polarisation therefore of legislation and executive functioning does not augur well in the objective of social development. Unimplemented laws reflect poorly on whatever government in power for it could reflect a 'defunct establishment'.

A state's effective functioning be it violence against women, unauthorised structures, bribery or smoking among so many others leads to greater faith in the state. Sri Lanka could well take a leaf from Singapore or Malaysia where stringent laws operational is indicative of a stern yet caring government.

Adherence to any legal imposition is State responsibility. Significantly, not to be overlooked is the close collaboration of the legislature and executive in the law's forceful implementation. An unostentatious legislature comprising of simple membership devoid of fan fare and frilled living, leading austere lives would certainly go a long way as role models to those in the executive arm.

A dedicated and committed legislature would certainly be a morale booster to those that churn the wheels in the executive. A corrupt legislature's deposit in an equally corrupt executive needless to say holds no good for the country.

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