Is Lawlessness the New National Attraction?

AFTER viewing an episode of Untold Stories referring to the 2017 murders that had reached about sixty for that year, what was most alarming was how few of those murders had led to conviction of the criminal killers.

It seems that it is OK now to kill, because in most circumstances the killers are never found, or there is always insufficient evidence to jail suspects. Which means that the justice system is probably not effective, or lacks the know-how to perform its tasks effectively?

So, whether things go wrong from the police investigations, or from bad decisions made at the courts, or our laws are too lenient, the fact remains that crime is now apparently being done for pleasure or self-gratification and it has now today become ‘no big thing’ to kill – or even to die.

Granted, we all must die at some time or another. But it should not be at the will and fancies of other people.

Now it seems that death is just another statistic — and regardless how it happened, just bury the dead and move on to the next case.

In my mind, if there are no serious measures to curtail criminality, then all the development plans that we are making to develop this country will be in vain.

We have acknowledged that statistically we have highest numbers in certain areas such as diabetes, imbibing uncontrollably, delinquent youths and people bordering on nudity in carnival. Must we add murders to this list? Will that make us proud? Will it rank us high in countries to visit, or invest in?

Is ‘lawlessness’ now ‘attraction’? Is this a new world trend? Are we modeling this country by the happenings in other countries?

These big questions still remain: Are we satisfied with the present state of affairs? Can anything be done? Are we to retire our efforts? Is it always and only governments to be blamed? Are the people too complainant, or complacent? Or, are we just not concerned or convinced that this situation is not healthy?

If there is generally no group of citizens that cares to create change, then I do worriedly wonder what the future holds for all of us…

At some stage or time, things must change. Can we afford not to? Can we allow ourselves to sit down and do nothing and pretend that everything is ok? Do we continue to elect governments to do nothing? Will we ever hold them accountable? Can we demand better governance? Can we vote for change that puts our needs first? Can we put country before money or party colours? Can we choose a better crop of politicians? Can we find honourable statesmen and women who will put up their hands in the interest of arresting this criminal scourge?

Or, do we simply believe, as one popular writer wrote, that ‘It will be alright in the morning’? Yeah?

Let’s ask ourselves all these questions — and answer them honestly, not only to ourselves, but also let us show our answers in what we say and what we do from now.