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We need other means to fight insecurity
By
Our Reporter - 25-10-2002 |
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The issue about our MPs’ security which was raised in Parliament yesterday borders on acceptance by our honourable members that there is insecurity in this country.
The fact that almost every other day we hear about loss of property, worse still life, underscores the extent by which the Malawian society is degenerating. If this is the price we are paying for the new political dispensation then it is too expensive to be accepted. But we know it is all because some people have not yet accepted that meaningful democracy is a mixture of freedoms, duties and responsibilities.
That aside, we believe insecurity is threatening every section of our society. As such we do not find it helpful to think about arresting the situation through the acquisition of guns. This is the sad indication that we get from the discussions in Parliament.
It is wrong for our MPs to be encouraged to own guns—no matter how lawfully they acquire them. Already we know that parliamentarians can more easily get the guns than their constituents, who are equally insecure. Villagers are denied easy access to groceries, grinding mills and other essential facilities simply because it’s not safe for one to appear industrious out there.
It will be selfish for our MPs to treat themselves as the only citizens whose job is sensitive to warrant ownership of a gun for security. Journalists too have a sensitive job, and may need a gun as well. How about the vendors on the street who often play a game of hide and seek with city assembly rangers? After all, don’t we have enough examples of MPs whose tempers are as dangerous as guns themselves?
We believe the solution to our problem of insecurity lies in joining hands, as insecure citizens, to deal with those who terrorise us. The idea of community policing, in our view, is the right way forward to curbing insecurity. This must be the agenda for our parliamentarians’ public rallies. They need to go out into their homes and talk about fighting crime as equals. A poor villager’s life is as valuable as that of an MP, so too his little property.
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