Web of Life

Plea for a programme of Social Engineering in Sri Lanka

The Zen master rose from deep meditation, turned slowly around, looked benevolently upon his disciple seated by his side, concentrating, in meditative mood, upon the flicker of light of the oil lamp burning away at the altar and asked, "What would you do, O my disciple, if the cuckoo does not cry? Would you wait until it starts to cry? Would you plead it to cry? or, would you beat it til it starts to cry?"

After a moment of contemplation the disciple answered but calmly: "O my reverend master, I would wait until the cuckoo starts to cry". Whereupon the master not impressed with the answer advised the disciple to return to his meditation retreat in the thick of the forest and contemplate further on the conundrum and come back with a genuine and befitting response.

As a matter of fact, this is the very question the people of Sri Lanka seem to be asking of their representatives to the legislative assembly, today. "What are you going to do, O Minister Sahib, about the accelerating levels of corruption and criminality in the land of Sri Lanka, today? Are you hoping that corruption and criminality will eventually ebb away? Or are you beseeching the corrupt and criminally inclined people to stop committing evil acts? Or, are you going to beat up the corrupt and criminally inclined until they vouch to give up their evil activities?

This, indeed, is a pertinent question to ask considering the rapid ascent in corruption, crime and criminality and various other nefarious activities in Sri Lanka of today. There are some 50,000 army deserters and some ex-soldiers who, according to the media, have turned to criminality in true Chicago mafia style. They rob, they burgle, they loot and they mug and in the process of these activities they kidnap innocent victims and harm them and on occasions they even kill them. They concoct hooch and hawk it amongst the young and gullible. They push drugs and recruit new clientele from amongst the school children. Then, for general pastime, they rape young girls and boys. There are also others who have become professional hit men providing their services to individuals without scruples in exchange for money. According to some reports that I browsed recently, there are those who would not hesitate to kill a person for just a couple of thousand rupees. There are some amongst these people who have become bullies and have started, of course for payoffs, to terrorise their neighbourhood communities.

Then there are those who kidnap and rape girls and other their female victims and/or terrorise and/or torture male victims for ransom or for other forms of "gifts". Some amongst these individuals have, it is alleged, even managed to enter into politics.

Then there are acts of criminality committed by people other than army deserters and ex-soldiers. Drunks and drug addicts constitute one part of this category of evildoers. According to the media, again, those who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol and cause serious road accidents constitute one category of these criminals.

Then there are other acts of criminality perpetrated in this land of ours. The official figures that denote the rate of child abuse, I would suppose, is highly under estimated. At best they give just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of cases that go unreported. According to the data presented at a social psychology workshop at a school in Jaela, in 2002, about 20% of the children (primarily girls) in their early teens had, in one way or another, been molested by adults. Most often the molesters are family members like uncles, grandfathers, stepbrothers, stepfathers or older cousins. The figure includes both rape victims as well as others who have been "sexually approached" (however, this is always a painful affair for the children) by adults.

The catalogue is long and this may not be the place to go through it in its entirety. One may ask why this unprecedented upsurge of nefarious activity is happening at the present point of time in Sri Lanka. Well, I suppose there are several reasons for it. In attempting to remedy the problem, one must seek, first, to establish the causes thereof. It should be pertinent to discuss, therefore, some of the factors that have contributed to the growth of these activities.

First, no society is a mere agglomeration of different individuals (as opposed to the infamous Thatcherite dictum of the late 1987s: "there is no such thing as society") but a fabric of social and economic networks. These networks are constructed of trusts, loyalties, relationship-bonds, values, etc, on the one hand and, of multi level, market-based, economic relations, on the other. Further, it is this trust, loyalty etc that the economists call "social capital" and which constitutes one of the foundation stones of the economy.

Further yet, it is this trust, loyalty etc that sociologists call "social institutions" and which constitute another one of the foundation stones of society. But when these networks are ruptured, societies start to break up and dismantle themselves. It is in that process that acts of violence and criminality start to appear and emerge. Despite our attempts to sweep under the carpet the damage that has been caused to society and, the economy by social insurrections in the early 1970s and late 1980s and ethnic insurgence that has continued through the 1980s and 1990s, they have contributed to partially dismantling Sri Lanka's "social capital" and "social institutions" that constitute the foundations of Sri Lankan society and economy.

Second, since the family structure became nuclearised about a generation or so ago, new social realities and circumstances have surfaced in Sri Lanka. During the period prior to this nuclearisation, that is to say when the families lived in reasonably large extended family circumstances, there were automatic barriers that prevented the individuals from straying from family values and norms and becoming attracted to criminal gangs. Adults of these families were able to advise the young as appropriate, against straying from their family values and norms. The young often heeded their elders. Further, the members of the family were united in so-called family-love, which too prevented possible straying of some family members to criminality. But today all these ties and bonds are gone. When a young man strays from his family, perhaps one who travels to a new town in search of employment, he loses most of his anchoring in his family- and friendship-network. These youth are the most culpable and susceptible to nefarious influence.

Third, one may also mention the lack of remunerative opportunities for the semi skilled youth, as a contributing factor in the growth of criminality. In this case, it is not only the lack of job opportunities that are at issue but, also the lack of institutions to promote self employment.

Fourth, the disparity between wages and the cost of living also has been introduced as a cause for corruption. When the "reproduction costs" (income necessary to allow minimum decent standard of living) are greater than what the wages allow, the outcome could be the growth of corruption, criminality and other nefarious activities.

Thus, there are four major factors that contribute to the growth and proliferation of corruption, crime and criminality in Sri Lanka. What may be the formula, then, for mitigating these nefarious activities inSri Lanka, today, one might ask.

For want of space I shall refrain from discussing the relevance and significance of social development policies that Sri Lanka has thus far persued but underline the need for Sri Lanka to institute a Social Welfare Authority with a clear mandate for social works.

Sri Lanka needs urgently to work with the vulnerable families in preventing their members from becoming gullible and falling pray to crime and criminality.

The Social Welfare Authority must be able to trace families (1) where incest takes place, (2) where alcohol or drugs cause problems, (3) where spouse and/or child beatings are frequent, (4) where families are subjected to discrimination by bullies, (5) where long-term illness of family members is a problem and hence they need assistance, (6) where indebtedness is a problem and hence assistance is needed (7) where unemployment (or under-employment) is a problem and hence need assistance, and such .

The social welfare officers could work as the Gramasevaka Officers or as rural midwives work today, by visiting vulnerable/affected families that request help to discuss matters and, advise them on ways to address their problems. Social welfare officers shall indeed not take over the problems of the individual households and try to solve them on behalf of those families. That, I am certain, will be disastrous.

What is required instead, is an authority that can help and advise people who require such advice. The idea is not to visit each and every household and collect statistics on private/personal matters that concern these households. It is the poor and vulnerable/affected families that need to be focused upon and assisted by the welfare officers.

The time for political inaction has passéd. It is time that Sri Lanka undertakes active measures in her efforts to tackle crime and criminality. It is through social works and social engineering that Sri Lanka could successfully manage this conundrum. The long-term outcome, if the prevailing situation continues, may be disastrous for Sri Lanka. Crime and criminality and ethnic strife may lead to social and economic meltdown: Yugoslavisation of Sri Lanka.

…. as the Zen disciple, on his return from the forest retreat said, "O reverend master, one must think outside the box".