The cur­rent state of emer­gency has seen mixed re­spons­es from cit­i­zens, with some for and some against. Those against the SoE point to what they see as the de­nial of ba­sic hu­man rights. I keep hear­ing cit­i­zens say that the Gov­ern­ment is in­fring­ing up­on their rights by con­trol­ling what times they are al­lowed out of their homes. Where were these peo­ple when our ba­sic rights were tak­en away when we were im­pris­oned in our homes at night for fear of be­ing robbed, raped or killed? We were even afraid in­side our homes, for we knew that no crim­i­nal was afraid to in­vite them­selves in and take what they want­ed. We bar­ri­cad­ed our­selves in­side con­crete walls, bur­glar-proofed win­dows and steel doors. Not on­ly par­ents were wor­ried for their chil­dren but chil­dren wor­ried about their par­ents. The calls by the pop­u­la­tion to do some­thing about this sit­u­a­tion were end­less.

Failed at­tempts at al­le­vi­at­ing the crime prob­lem are noth­ing new to us; we are used to them by now. Noth­ing was able to keep the law­less­ness from hap­pen­ing. There­fore, a ma­jor at­tempt is now be­ing made by the Gov­ern­ment to fi­nal­ly give us peace, and al­low us to even­tu­al­ly be able to wan­der our streets at night and go to the gro­cery store with­out wor­ry­ing about be­ing killed. The peo­ple who are claim­ing that they now have no rights, please know this: as long as crim­i­nals con­tin­ue to roam our streets and we al­low them to do so, we will nev­er have rights. A few weeks of go­ing home in ear­ly at night will give us years of free­dom, and give our chil­dren life­times. We must help our­selves first be­fore any­one else can help us. So let us help this Gov­ern­ment rid our land of the ver­min that plagues it. A few weeks can save lives.

Fer­oze Ben­ny

Char­lieville, Ch­agua­nas