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| Opinion |
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by
Editor, 09 February 2006
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07:28:08
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Decision on vendors sending dangerous signal
By backtracking on its decision to get vendors off the country’s streets once and for all, government is sending a dangerous signal that the law is powerless to certain segments of our society.
Not too long ago, government came out fuming and, using some high voltage bombast, warned vendors that the end of their stay on the streets was nigh. In the same breath, government told the nation that woe betide those who choose to defy the order because the force of the law would descend on them.
With all this in mind, it is a big and deflating anti-climax to those who expected the law to finally prevail that government has decided to extend the deadline for vendors’ departure from the streets. But more than anything else, the decision hugely erodes government’s credibility as an impartial authority in enforcing its own orders and the law.
We do not need to have towering intellect to know that government has been influenced by partisan politics to change its tune on the issue. But it is baffling that those who have made this decision failed to realise that no sober person would take seriously a government that promotes a culture of impunity by allowing some sectors of the society to flout the law at will and get away with it.
Our sympathy goes to those city assemblies that were set to effect the order but have been caught up in this regrettable crossfire. They spent their meagre resources in flighting adverts in the media on the issue and on other aspects of preparations for the same.
Government and all of us should be worried that we are creating a society where political imperatives subsume and trample the law underfoot. This becomes even more poignant when one considers the fact that even the previous government pampered vendors by chickening out on shepherding them into the expensive flea markets constructed by Press Trust.
With both government and the law losing credibility and authority, it will not be surprising if some people take advantage and look the law in the face with arrogance and defiance.
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