The indiscipline that developed in our society during the last administration continues to plague our nation and like a bad habit it has filtered down even to the level of primary school children. Every day, crime dominates our media reports and the detention of perpetrators seem to be a low priority. Crime prevention is minimal and citizens now have to protect themselves whilst the authorities in whom that responsibility is vested rest in their air-conditioned vehicles and stations.
Crime detection is a science and anyone looking at the various crime scenes on the news reports would realise that the individuals in white coveralls do not have a clue what to look for and one cannot help but wonder whether these individuals have a background in any of the sci-ences. The authorities therefore have to rely on witnesses to come forward to detain a criminal and understandably people are reluctant because they are vulnerable.
More and more innocent people are finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and are becoming "collateral damage." Similarly, intelligence gathering requires intelligent people with the ability to assimilate information in a logical manner, but unfortunately this seems to be a scarce commodity amongst our protective services and despite the vast sums of money spent on "sophisticated monitoring equipment," criminal activity has increased.
The existing political situation does not lend itself to any improvement as the philosophies of the various parties of the People's Partnership differ in many ways and came together just to get rid of the last administration. There are too many instances of double speak, which reflect a lack of consensus on varying issues. The various stumbling blocks which present themselves daily are engineered by patrons of the past administration who have remained in office and are determined to scuttle the best laid plans of the Government.
No one sees beyond their own selfish motives and many are prepared to sacrifice their own country, because they can probably afford to migrate to other shores. All the demands that are being made now are due to mismanagement during the reign of the "emperor" but now that they are in opposition they seem to expect that all their past sins could be wiped out in one fell swoop. Is there any hope for a better society? It is time to stop the blame game and focus on getting it right.
E Weston
Via e-mail