{"id":91049,"date":"2019-07-03T17:14:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T00:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91049"},"modified":"2019-07-03T17:14:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T00:14:02","slug":"can-capital-punishment-justify-in-a-democratic-society-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/03\/can-capital-punishment-justify-in-a-democratic-society-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT JUSTIFY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY? PART 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Narcotic\nhas become a serious problem in the modern world as they are badly affected to\nthe human body as the adherent substance in the one hand and the consumers and\ndealers of the illicit drug do massive harm to the young generation and to the\nsociety in other hands. Many countries have passed legal provisions against the\nuse of illicit drugs considering harmfulness to the human body as well as they\nhave become a burden to society.&nbsp; The\nexample of Sri Lanka and many other countries demonstrate that consuming and\ndealing with narcotics would support creating a lawless society.&nbsp; It seems that Sri Lanka has become a centre\nof distribution of various narcotics to other countries and international\nnarcotics dealers have turned Sri Lanka to promote illicit drug business and\ncrimes against the democratic rights of people.&nbsp;\nMany countries have criminalized all activities associated with narcotic\nsubstances, some responsible members of Sri Lanka&#8217;s parliament (Mr. Rajitha\nSenaratne) launched a campaign to decriminalize narcotics in the country\nwithout knowing the harmfulness of them not only to Sri Lanka but also to other\ncountries in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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\nuncontrollable illicit drug problem has imposed capital punishment for\nconsuming as well as association with the distribution. Middle Eastern and\nAsian countries have severe punishments for consuming and dealing with narcotics.&nbsp;&nbsp; The president of Philippines insisted\ncapital punishment to people associated with illicit drugs in absence of a\ntrial and as a result of this decision, it has recorded that more than 3000\npeople who associated with illicit drugs were subject to capital punishment or\non the spot death.&nbsp; 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 the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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) and the paper described that the term capital\npunishment is derived from caput, meaning head.&nbsp;\nIt originally referred to death by decapitation, but now applies\ngenerally to state-sanctioned execution. Recently, the President of Sri Lanka\nhas publicly stated that he will sanction the execution of drug dealers who\nwere punished by the court of justice after a fair trial. The intention of the\npresident of Sri Lanka cannot be compared to the public execution of drug\noffenders by the president of Philippines because the statement of Sri Lanka\u2019s\npresident is a punishment within the legal framework. Therefore, the intention\nof the president of Sri Lanka and the practice of the president of Philippines\nhas a vast difference and the practice of the Philippines cannot be implemented\nin Sri Lanka, which is a Buddhist country, and all religions in Sri Lanka\ncogitate killing a person for any reason is a sin, and there might be a\nconvincing opposition to killing drug dealers on roads or public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However,\nthe statement of the president of Sri Lanka to sanction state execution for\ndrug dealers has composed a sharp debate from a different point of views and\nsome religious leaders have expressed their opinion, but such opinion may not\nbe an authentic decision of the religious organizations. Why the president of\nSri Lanka openly expresses his intention to introduce capital punishment, to\nattract popularity or any other purpose is a question to the public, and it\nmight be a dubious decision or an intention. Another vital point is that did\nthe president consult his own cabinet or the parliament before taking the\ndecision and what was the response of them.&nbsp;\nThe president is a democratic institution, and before making decisions\nhe should consult or get approval from the relevant institutions, and it is the\ngood governance.&nbsp; His predecessor, Mr.\nMahinda Rajapaksa consulted the cabinet and other relevant authorities and neighbouring\ncountries before making decisions in many instances.&nbsp; Why the current president has departed from\nthe practice of the previous president?&nbsp;\nIn a moralize society, making a statement on sanctioning state execution\nshould not be the behaviour of a leader, is my opinion.&nbsp; It is not a cause for attracting personal\npopularity.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nterms of criminal law, the purpose of punishment is to prevent a person from\nfurther engage in wrongdoing.&nbsp; A\npunishment may achieve or may not be achieved the purpose. According to the\ncommon experience, it has seen that many wrongdoers were given punishments but\nafter the period of punishment they reengage in committing crimes, many feel\nthat punishments have not prevented wrongdoings. Practically in Sri Lanka,\nillicit drug offenders were punished by the court, nevertheless, these\ncriminals recommenced criminal behaviour while staying in jail using a secret\nnetwork. How and why they are happening if there are an efficient and effective\njail administration in the country. For this situation, administrators\nincluding the president of Sri Lanka are responsible.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ndeterrence theory further aims at punishing to drug offenders with jail\nsentence to off the opportunity to commit crimes.&nbsp; 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 wrongdoing same as the way or more vigorously killing\nthe judge or personnel in law enforcement authority.&nbsp; It is a real concerned experience in Sri\nLanka compared to other countries. The minister responsible for jail administration\nhas publicly expressed that officers in jail, as well as personnel in law\nenforcement authority, are associated with the narcotic business dealers. The\npresident of Sri Lanka also made a statement that the barbaric attacks on\nchurches and tourist hotels in the Easter Sunday has a relationship with\ninternational drug dealers.&nbsp; These\nstatements prove that Sri Lanka has a weak law enforcement authority and jail\nadministration, which are not supported to control illicit drugs in the\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nillicit drug problem in Sri Lanka is a management related problem in the\ncountry, which needs effective controls and management methods.&nbsp; Many expressed views that government\npoliticians, henchmen of them, the top brass of the government and civil\nsociety activists sophisticatedly linked to drug business and obviously, it\nseems that current weakness in political administration is responsible for the\nproblem.&nbsp; In order to get out of owned\nweakness for formulating right strategies to control drug problem, president\ntalks on imposing capital punishment, which is rejected by the democratic\nworld, is not a competent administration and the behaviour of responsible\npresident elected by the votes of people. <strong>(Continuing)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Narcotic has become a serious problem in the modern world as they are badly affected to the human body as the adherent substance in the one hand and the consumers and dealers of the illicit drug do massive harm to the young generation and to the society in other hands. Many countries [&hellip;]<\/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-91049","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\/91049","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=91049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}