Crackpots and crackers

August 30, 2013, 8:40 pm 

A minister has taken umbrage at police dogs being made to ‘tie the nuptial knot’ like humans at ‘weddings’. He has faulted the Police Department for having made a mockery of the traditional poruwa. But, neither he nor any other government worthy seems to be worried about the fact that the ruling party politicians in the election fray are behaving like feral dogs. The country is now free from ferocious Tigers but, sadly, it is troubled by mad dogs in politicians’ clothing.

UPFA candidates continue to unleash violence against one another in what has come to be dubbed the manape poray (the battle for preferential votes). The situation is expected to take a turn for the worse within the next two weeks or so as the campaign hots up further.

Election violence has spread as far as the northern peninsula. Jaffna had remained relatively trouble free until on Tuesday when a bloody clash erupted leaving several government supporters injured.

The ruling party bigwigs, instead of keeping the violent elements among them on a tight leash and adopting remedial measures to curb the internecine violence, are boasting that the UPFA’s intraparty clashes are due to the absence of competition from the Opposition which is too weak to challenge the government. They have apparently begun to believe in their own lies. They are only fooling themselves.

One would not make an issue of UPFA’s internal battles where the perpetrators and victims are all thugs, if they did not disturb the peace and pose a threat to the ordinary people. But, the problem is that they are clashing in public places. Unless they are made to fall in line, the forthcoming polls are likely to be marred by violence.

Meanwhile, politicians belonging to all parties, mainly the UPFA, contesting elections make a nuisance of themselves much to the consternation of the public. They do not consider any propaganda rally complete unless it causes mayhem on roads. They make a point of putting up huge stages to block traffic and lighting all the firecrackers in the world to boost their egos. They love to see huge traffic jams and apparently derive some perverse pleasure from commuters’ suffering. This is the price people have to pay for tolerating such elements.

Two women suffered burn injuries on Thursday when some firecrackers set off by a group of UPFA supporters in Nawalapitiya got thrown into the bus they were travelling in. They have been hospitalised. The police are said to have launched an investigation. Exposing people to danger and causing injuries to them are punishable offences and the culprits need to be severely dealt with. The organisers of that event must be held responsible for the incident. Certainly, crackers couldn’t have been lit without their knowledge. Why they have not already been taken in is the question.

The situation is equally bad or even worse in other areas. During elections, thousands of firecrackers are set off on pavements and median strips of urban roads posing a grave danger to pedestrians and motorists alike. Explosions they produce must be loud and scary enough to cause a heart patient to die of shock. The police just look on. This nuisance must be stopped forthwith.

The police must ensure that those responsible for the Nawalapitiya incident are traced and hauled up before courts. After all, this is a country where even schoolchildren are arrested and produced in court in record time for minor offences such as stealing coconuts or small coins.

It is time the government stopped worrying about canine weddings and reined in the feral dogs in the election fray.