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Power-drunk sons and indulgent fathers

Rampaging, lawless sons of Ministers are once again in the news and this time around too the public is filled with tremendous anxiety and worry about their own security and steadily crumbling law and order.

Having a taste for night life and high society excesses is a personal matter but when these kinks violate the law of the land and impinge on the liberties of the rest of the citizenry, we, as the guardians of the public interest consider it incumbent on us to raise these issues with the concerned authorities.

To begin with, we do not subscribe to the notion that "boys will be boys". One of the reasons for the steady civilizational decline witnessed in our times is parents' and elders' unquestioning, blind adherence to popular but misleading ideas of this kind.

Permitting the excesses of the young and impressionable is a sure way to indiscipline, violence and thuggery among the young.

Thus socialized into the ways of the brute, these youngsters carry this violent culture into adult life and since they are part of the political elite, violence is further solidified in the political life of the country.

This is the prime reason why violence of this kind cannot be condoned as mere school boy pranks.

Besides, it is the heady self-assurance which comes from the power which backs them that encourages these sons of top politicos to run amok. In other words, they are power-drunk to the extreme and cannot sift right from wrong. How, then, could their depredations be winked at?

Getting discipline into public life is part and parcel of the process of putting Sri Lanka on the rejuvenation trail.

The decision-makers and top politicians need to take the initiative in this direction, but how could they do so if their "houses", literally and otherwise, are not in order? We believe that it is high time the politicians concerned took their sons in hand and taught them the norms of decent living.

We urge the Government to take a serious view of this matter. Politicians and their offspring need to be reminded that utter disregard for the law could only boomerang on the entirety of society besides themselves, blighting in the process, our collective future. Violence begets violence - there is no escaping this truth.

We are also of the view that this problem of power-drunk offspring of politicians running wild, should be resolved, once and for all.

Although some of these very same sons ran amok in the past, almost nothing was done about it. This time around, however, the legal process should be allowed to take its course and the concerned wrong doers brought to justice.

A forum for peace and equality

Anti-globalisation protests have been taking place frequently around the globe, especially at various summits of world leaders. In a way, these protests reflect public frustration with the total domination of the West in trade and world politics.

Now, the governments and peoples of developing countries are collectively rising to challenge this status quo. For example, developing countries have stressed that World Trade Organisation talks could be nudged back on track if developed countries changed their stance on farm subsidies.

They have pointed out that agricultural subsidies and trade barriers in the United States and Europe prevent developing countries from trading out of poverty.

The focus will again be on Asia's developing economies as the World Social Forum, an annual convention of anti-globalisation forces, starts on Friday in Mumbai, India.

The convention, held for the past three years in Brazil, will shift to Asia for the first time in a bid to highlight gaping inequalities in the continent that is home to half the world's population. More than 75,000 activists representing diverse causes will attend the January 16-21 forum.

The 'diverse causes' include world peace (Iraq and other conflicts), militarism of the West, trade issues, women's rights and human rights.

The forum will also focus on the thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations, with up to 3,000 Pakistani peace activists heading to Mumbai. Along with Indians, they will campaign for a nuclear-free South Asia.

This is a welcome development, in the light of South Asia's show of unity at last week's SAARC Summit. The Islamabad Summit, one of the most successful SAARC gatherings in recent times, was buttressed by Indo-Pakistan peace moves.

The Mumbai Social Forum will give the people of South Asia an opportunity to urge their leaders to ensure permanent peace in the region.

Anti-globalisation movements attending the forum also hope to form a regional and global network to coordinate their activities.

Such a linkage will be essential to publicise their campaigns around the world and to exert pressure on governments to take urgent action on key issues before existing inequalities widen the divisions between rich and poor nations.

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