{"id":87284,"date":"2019-04-18T16:26:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T23:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87284"},"modified":"2019-04-18T16:26:57","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T23:26:57","slug":"can-the-capital-punishment-justify-in-a-democratic-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/18\/can-the-capital-punishment-justify-in-a-democratic-society\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN THE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT JUSTIFY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Narcotic\nhas become a serious problem in the modern world as they are badly affected to\nhuman body as adherent substance in the one hand and the consumers and dealers\nof illicit drug do massive harmful to young generation and to the society in\nother hand. Many countries have passed legal provisions against the use of\nillicit drugs considering harmfulness to the human body as well as they have\nbecome a burden to the society.  The\nexample of Sri Lanka and many other countries demonstrate that consuming and\ndealing with narcotic would support to creating a lawless society.  It seems that Sri Lanka has become a centre\nof distribution of various narcotic to other countries and international\nnarcotic dealers have turned Sri Lanka to promote illicit drug business and\ncrimes against the democratic rights of people.  Many countries have criminalized all\nactivities associated with narcotic substances, some responsible members of Sri\nLanka\u2019s parliament (Mr Rajitha Senaratne) launched a campaign to decriminalize\nnarcotic in the country without knowing the harmfulness of them not only to Sri\nLanka but also to other countries in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndealing with all kind of narcotic substances such as consuming and using as a\nbusiness device have been banned by the world and some countries wherein an uncontrollable\nillicit drug problem has imposed capital punishment for consuming as well as\nassociation with distribution. Middle Eastern and Asian countries have severe\npunishments for consuming and dealing with narcotic.   The president of Philippines insisted capital\npunishment to people associated with illicit drugs in absence of a trial and as\na result of this decision, it has recorded that more than 3000 people who\nassociated with illicit drugs were subject to capital punishment or on the spot\ndeath.  It is a topic that\ninternationally debating, we can express views on the decision of the president\nof Philippines, but have no ability to revert the decision of the president as\nit specifically related to a serious problem of the country. I spoke to several\ncitizens of Philippines in different countries, they agree with the decision of\nthe president as the narcotic is an austere problem affecting to day to day\nlife of ordinary people in Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian\nInstitute of Criminology has published an excellent paper, Polas and Walker\n(1987), Capital Punishment: Trends and Issues, Crime and Criminal Justice No 3,\nCanberra (www.aic.gov.au<\/a>)\nand the paper described that the term capital punishment is derived from caput,\nmeaning head.  It originally referred to\ndeath by decapitation, but now applies generally to state sanctioned execution.\nRecently, the President of Sri Lanka has publicly stated that he will sanction\nthe execution of drug dealers who were punished by the court of justice after a\nfair trial. The intention of president of Sri Lanka cannot be compared to\npublic execution of drug offenders by the president of Philippines because the statement\nof Sri Lanka\u2019s president is a punishment within the legal framework. Therefore,\nthe intention of the president of Sri Lanka and the practice of the president\nof Philippines has a vast difference and the practice of the Philippines cannot\nbe implemented in Sri Lanka, which is a Buddhist country, and all religions in Sri\nLanka cogitate killing a person is a sin for any reason, and there might be a\nconvincing opposition to killing drug dealers on roads or public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nthe statement of the president of Sri Lanka to sanction state execution for\ndrug dealers has composed a sharp debate from different point of views and some\nreligious leaders have expressed their opinion, but such opinion may not be an\nauthentic decision of the religious organizations. Why the president of Sri\nLanka openly expresses his intention to introduce capital punishment, to\nattract popularity or any other purpose is a question to public, and it might\nbe a dubious decision or an intention. Another vital point is that did the\npresident consult his own cabinet or the parliament before take the decision\nand what were the response of them.  The\npresident is a democratic institution, and before make decisions he should\nconsult or get approval from the relevant institutions, and it is the good\ngovernance.  His predecessor, Mr Mahinda\nRajapaksa consulted the cabinet and other relevant authorities and neighbouring\ncountries before making decisions in many instances.  Why the current president has departed from\nthe practice of previous president?  In a\nmoralize society, making a statement on sanctioning state execution should not\nbe a behaviour of a leader, is my opinion. \nIt is not a cause for attracting personal popularity.       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nterms of criminal law, the purpose of punishment is to prevent a person further\nengage in wrong doing.  A punishment may\nachieve or may not be achieved the purpose. According to the common experience,\nit has seen that many wrong doers were given punishments but after the period\nof punishment they reengage in committing crimes, many feels that punishments\nhave not prevented wrong doings. Practically in Sri Lanka, illicit drug\noffenders were punished by the court, nevertheless, these criminals recommenced\ncriminal behaviour while staying in the jail. How and why they are happening if\nthere are an efficient and effective administration is in jail administration\nthe country. For this situation, administrators including the president of Sri\nLanka are responsible.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndeterrence theory further aims at punishing to drug offenders with jail\nsentence to off the opportunity to committing crimes.  According to the theory of deterrence in\ncriminal law, people generally believe that when drug offenders deter, drug\nbusiness will stop but the reality in Sri Lanka is that after the punishment,\ndrug criminals reiterate wrong doing same as the way or more vigorously killing\nthe judge or personnel in law enforcement authority.  It is a really concern experience in Sri\nLanka compared to other countries. The minister responsible for jail\nadministration has publicly expressed that officers in jail as well as\npersonnel in law enforcement authority are associated with the narcotic\nbusiness dealers. This statement proves that Sri Lanka has a weak law enforcement\nauthority and jail administration, which are not supported to control illicit\ndrugs in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nillicit drug problem in Sri Lanka is a management related problem in the\ncountry, which needs effective controls and management methods.  Many expressed views that government\npoliticians, henchmen of them, top brass of the government and civil society\nactivists sophisticatedly linked to drug business and obviously, it seems that\ncurrent weakness in political administration is responsible for the problem.  In order to get out of owned weakness for\nformulating right strategies to control drug problem, president talks on\nimposing capital punishment, which is rejected by democratic world, is not a\ncompetent administration and a behaviour of responsible president elected by\nthe votes of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In Sri Lanka a wide spread talking point or a\ngossip was, that originally abolished capital punishment was re-established\nafter the assassination of Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, and the\ncapital punishment was given to the assassinator, Rev. Talduwe Somarama was not\nthe real assassinator, but some other person did it, and the exterminator\ndisguised with the support of the law enforcement authority. This means that it\nis a quite difficult task to detect the real criminals to give capital\npunishment and the best option is to consider other method of punishment for\ndrug criminals.  It does not mean that\nthe system of justice should ignore the offence, but to use alternative\nstrategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\ncountries have controlled illicit drug problems using effective strategies and\ntechniques. Local drug problem in Sri Lanka is basically related to consuming\nor use of drug, which can be controlled by using multiple methods such as\neducating about drugs and harmful effects of drugs to individuals and the\nsociety.  Sri Lanka has a history of\nsmall-scale drug business in villages. Opium and cannabis business had been\noperated in Sri Lanka since beginning of human being in the country. Opium\nbusiness had been operated in villages by small scale Indian businessmen, who\nillegally migrated to Sri Lanka and used opium as a business device to quickly achieving\nenrichment.  Sri Lanka is not growing the\nplants which use to produce opium (Popi plant) or cocaine (Koki Plant).  Sri Lanka Politics and education in in the\ncountry did not focus to control such business in the past.  Therefore, Sri Lanka has an ideal environment\nfor illicit drug and alcohol business and consumption.     In\nmany countries, drug education is a part of school curriculum and lots of\nresources are spent for this purpose. \nSri Lanka needs vigorous campaign on drug education not only in schools\nbut also to young generation who are out of schools. The government needs\nfunding for advertisements against drug in newspapers, radio and TVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nvital aspect of narcotic and illicit alcohol in Sri Lanka is that traditional\npeople treated cannabis as a medicinal plant and many Ayurveda doctor use\ncannabis and opium for production of medicines in various forms. History\nrecoded that illicit alcohol used in the war between King Dutugemunu and Elara.\nMany traditional employees such as toddy tappers, coconut husk removers,\ncoconut pickers and many hard labour workers used opium as a pain killer and\nsleeping chemical. In the recent past, many Ayurveda doctors got caught using\ncannabis and opium for making medicines for Asma and other common deceases.  In villages, women use cannabis to soften\nvillage rooster\u2019s meat. Religions did not address the issue.  Catholic priests appreciated with illicit\nalcohol producers and dealers who contributed funds for church festivals.  Cannabis dealers associated with Buddhist\ntemples and religious leaders reluctant to openly talk about narcotic and\nalcohol business, the stand of religion now has radically changed and openly\ntalk against illicit drugs and all religions in the country have commence drug\neducation programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People\nshould be vigilant on drug traffickers. \nDuring the LTTE war people were highly concerned on explosive and\nsimilar way, people need concern on drug traffickers and inform about the\nsuspicious people to law enforcement authority.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capital\npunishment from the point of views of religion may not be justified due to\nvarious points. According to Christianity humans are creation of God and human\nhave no right to make judgment to destroy a creature of God.  This is a complex argument because human make\ndecisions to destroy animal, plants, which are also creatures of God.  Because of some people do wrong things, it\ndoesn\u2019t warrant to kill them.  For\nexample, Adam and Eva believed to be the first human were created by God and\nwhen they committed the original sin, God could have given a punishment to kill\nthem and end human being in this world, but God never done it. Instead of\ndestroying creation God sent his own son (Jesus Christ) to this world to save\nhuman being sacrificing his life and to educate people to get away from bad\nhabits and sins. Therefore, Christianity doesn\u2019t agree with the capital\npunishment for drug or any other kind of offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhism\nalso does not agree with capital punishment as a killing of a person regards as\na Karma, which is sorrow in metempsychosis transmigrating one life to other and\nBuddhism would not agree with the capital punishment. In Hinduism, it is a\ncontroversy, in terms of Bagawarh Geetha, if God has not sanctioned, a killing\na person is regarded as Karma. Islam also against killing people.  In this religious background, capital\npunishment is not approved by religions in Sri Lanka and the president\u2019s\ndecision for the capital punishment for drug offenders would not be justified\nby any religion operating in Sri Lanka.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Narcotic has become a serious problem in the modern world as they are badly affected to human body as adherent substance in the one hand and the consumers and dealers of illicit drug do massive harmful to young generation and to the society in other hand. Many countries have passed legal provisions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}