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This lawlessness is manifested in ongoing abductions and forced disappearances, the spate of crime in all areas of life, the increase of violence in civil society where entire families have been wiped out, and the use of violence against alleged criminals by citizens who take the law into their own hands and kill them by such methods as stoning.
Meanwhile, in public life, corruption has reached levels never witnessed before. The insecurity that is experienced by everyone, including those who hold powerful positions and even high-ranking police officers, has reached colossal heights.
The picture is even bleaker, as even limited attempts at corrective measures, such as the enactment of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, have been abandoned. The government has virtually abandoned responsibility for the maintenance of law and order.
A spokesman for the Civil Monitoring Commission, speaking to the BBC recently, mentioned three abduction cases. When asked about the commission's role in trying to prevent abductions, the spokesman said: "All we can do is to report the complaints we receive to the authorities and also get the victims' families to make similar complaints to the police. This has been done. However, there is a failure in investigations by the police."
For almost 10 years I have consistently pointed out the fundamental failure of policing in Sri Lanka. After many years of study, our organization has also characterized the policing system as dysfunctional. This affects investigations into abductions and disappearances and also impacts civilian police supervision over minor domestic disputes, resulting in disaster for families.
This violence was glaringly demonstrated last week when an entire family was killed by a prisoner who returned home from jail. Neighbors had heard the family disputes immediately before these killings, and complained to the police and other authorities. However, no action was taken, leading to the gruesome destruction of the whole family.
In addition, in recent weeks there were two incidents where alleged criminals were killed by mobs. There are reports of theft and robbery everywhere, including a theft from the house of the chief justice himself. Close to the chief justice's neighborhood, on a property belonging to the local government, even rare and valuable trees have been stolen -- a crime that could not have taken place without serious planning and organisation.
In these cases and others, hardly anyone is arrested. If there is an arrest, often the person is not guilty but is a substitute for the actual perpetrator, arrested to create the impression that action has been taken by the police.
The inspector general of police and other high-ranking police officers, such as deputy inspector generals of police and members of the National Police Commission, no longer hold themselves responsible for maintaining the policing system in a functional state. Even these authorities accept the dysfunctionalism of the policing system as a fait accompli. There is no one to whom the people can complain.
The knowledge of the system's breakdown encourages criminal elements to act with impunity. Even worse, criminal elements today rely heavily on police officers, including some high-ranking officers, as their partners in crime. The police crime syndicate has become entrenched within the system.
The problem has reached catastrophic levels -- continuing to ignore this will harm Sri Lankan society in ways beyond imagination.
The government seems neither willing nor capable of dealing with crime. For example, in failing to implement the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, the present government has demonstrated that the use of the police in illegal ways and outside their ambit of authority is necessary for the government for political purposes, such as elections and dealing illegally with political opponents. Political killings have occurred in Colombo itself, such as the killing of Tamil Member of Parliament Nadarajah Raviraj, and the abuse of the Criminal Investigation Division to harass dissident politicians and journalists. Capable officers have allegedly been transferred out of the CID so that government officers can abuse their authority. Moreover, the government is unwilling to deal with any crime attributed to the military or paramilitary forces, which can create political problems.
The government is incapable of dealing with the present lawlessness because it has removed the limited constitutional means it once had by obstructing the proper operation of the institutions created by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. When a government proves unwilling and incapable of upholding law and order, it loses its legitimacy to rule and fundamentally destroys the sovereignty of the people.
A popular debate is now taking place among opposition parties and civil society organizations on how to respond to Sri Lanka's problems. The issue of lawlessness, which has reached epidemic levels, should be of prime concern. Dealing with epidemics requires drastic strategies. If these fail, the whole society can suffer in unimaginable ways.
The minimum solution is the appointment of a Constitutional Council and a plan to correct the dysfunctional policing system. This is not to suggest that this recommendation alone is the solution, but that the appointment of the Constitutional Council can create the authority that is needed to take responsibility for dealing with the present lack of law and order. The international community, which has shown some keenness to discuss Sri Lankan issues in recent times, must deal with the issue of the Constitutional Council and the lawlessness as high priorities if Sri Lanka's people are to enjoy a degree of non-violence and normalcy in their lives.
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(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
