Sunday Times 2
Law must be in order
View(s):In general terms, ‘law and order’ is taken to mean that law and order prevails when the law is adhered to. Another aspect I would draw attention to is that the law must be just and fair for it to be in order. Heartless and excessive laws are not in order.
In Sri Lanka, the first COVID-19 case was reported on January 27 this year, when a Chinese woman tested positive after she was admitted to the Infectious Decease Hospital (IDH).
On October 3, cases started to be reported from the Brandix Garment Factory in Minuangoda. By October 7, the reported cases from the Brandix cluster exceeded 1000.
Had ‘Community Policing’ been adopted as it should be, things would not have got into this quagmire. Instead, the health problem took a political angle, as invariably happens, thereby the ground-level officials and volunteers were barely mobilised for this.
On October 12, Public Health officials pointed out the Government’s failure to gazette a single law to arrest the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On October 13, a Government gazette was issued to impose “severe punishments” on those who violated laws pertaining to wearing facemasks in public spaces and maintaining a minimum physical distance of one meter in crowded places.’ Severe punishments, some of which are not practicable, on the already traumatised people, are heartless and excessive.
Although these punishments published in the gazette are harsh with a view to deterrence, it is heartening to note that it is the spirit of the law, by and large, that is enforced rather than the letter of the law. The letter of the law is at the top. The spirit of the law is at the bottom. The task is generally being performed in a people-friendly manner under the directions of the Army Commander Shavendra de Silva.
An area that needs attention of Government authorities is public access to food and other essentials such as medicine, during prolonged curfews. Daily wage earners, especially labourers, are hard-put for mere survival. Keeping good health being essential to build up resistance to the pandemic, it is the duty of the Government to make suitable arrangements for nourishing food and medicine, not in mere talk but in action as well.
COVID-19 being a pandemic the world over, there is yet no sure way out of it. In the circumstances, the task of enforcing these laws on the Sri Lankan people who are used to their wayward behaviour, is no easy task. Much better cooperation from the public is called for.
(The writer is a Retired Senior Superintendent of Police.
He can be contacted at
seneviratnetz@gmail.com ;
Phone – 077 44 751 44)