Creating a State of Vigilantes

Having bade goodbye to the JVP, a party synonymous in its democratic avatar, with his own vitriolic tongue lashings, Wimal Weerawansa is attempting to carve niche for himself and his fellow rebels, both within the Parliament and within the broader Sri Lankan political spectrum.  In the process of demanding separate time for questions and speeches within the House, to set them apart from the JVP, Weerawansa has also called for the setting up of an All Party Defence Council.

This country has no more illusions about All Party Councils. With the continuous position-shifting, crossovers and general inter-party conflicts that afflict Sri Lankan politics, expecting representatives of different political parties to sit down and agree on something as important as Defence or Devolution is flatly ludicrous. But, Weerawansa’s delusional confidence in ‘All Party’ Councils is not the only problem with the proposal he is mooting to ensure the security of civilian life.

Weerawansa’s proposal to set up the council, is to negate the need for battlefield troops from the north to be sent to protect the south from terror attacks. The new JNP Leader proposes setting up sub committees to ‘defend’ schools, public and private institutions and transport services. The party also proposed to set up Civil Defence Committees and town/village committees at grassroots levels. The most noteworthy of his suggestions, however, is, undoubtedly, the call to set up a ‘people-based intelligence wing, which he proposes to call ‘civil jana esa’. The suggestion is ominously reminiscent of the Bush administration’s Patriot Act, which called on US citizens to spy on their neighbours and report behavior that may prove a threat to national security.

Since the spate of LTTE attacks on ‘soft’ targets began, aimed largely at the civilian population in the south of the island, the government has launched a civilian defence drive that is disturbing on many levels.

After much debate about a lack of training and handling of weapons, a Home-guard division was finally set up to streamline the paramilitary unit. But now, this new civilian defence drive has given birth to a new set of vigilantes; paranoid, overenthusiastic laymen with the mandate to inspect cars and demand identification of passerby and motorist in the cities, and armed 80-year-olds in the villages, with no qualms about using weapons provided by the State to ‘settle’ personal feuds with both man and beast. It is a worrying phenomenon that random parents are permitted to block main roads for other motorists during the morning rush hour, simply because their children attend school down the same road. It is also worrying that during these parental ‘blockades’ there’s not a police officer in sight.

Weerawansa’s proposal, therefore, will further militarise and divide a country and society already severely fissured and polarised. He raises a valid point about putting an end to the spate of bombings targeting innocent civilians on the way to or from work, but keeping the peace is not the mandate of civilians. That job is reserved for armies and defence establishments. Creating civilian armies and intelligence units is a shortsighted and ill-advised move and one that will saddle us with more problems than we started with in the long term. In a country where the people are increasingly taking the law into their own hands, resulting in an almost entire collapse of law and order, the last thing we need is for every Tom, Dick and Harry to wield a weapon and mete out justice with the blessings of the Sri Lankan State.

BACK TO HOME