What happens after 107 days of Emergency Powers and Curfew: Emerging from the Emergency
The State of Emergency is over, for now. As it was in the beginning,
so it is at the end. For 107 days the engines revved at high speed, with
little forward movement. No new law; no new magistrate or court; and no
additional prosecutors brought in to work on the new cases. One hundred
and seven days later, it is the DPP who needs four Senior Counsel from
the Criminal Bar working with him. Instead the Government has that
facility, ending 107 days when the police service and Government became
indistinguishable. If the prosecutions fall apart; crime persists and
the scandals in Government come in daily doses, the country will face a
major question. What next?
For now the way forward requires a reconsideration of the party politics as the centre of gravity in the country. The anti-gang arrests exposed the decay of communities, peace shattered by drug dealing and the attractions of crime. Instead of strong communities and leadership within those communities, centralised governments firmed up their tentacles through the range of social projects, easy money and political friends with benefits.
It is a largely irreversible cycle of birth, drugs, guns, crime,
political handouts and death. The political problem is the duplication
of the same party rivalries across parliamentary and Local Government
elections, voiding genuine community activism and sidelining issues
relevant to each community. Community politics, incorporating local
school boards, facilities and infrastructure and the provision of
services by community NGOs must be the new foundation stone towards the
forward movement.
The Emergency days also demonstrated that basic needs of the country have been surrendered to expensive and ineffective centralised government, inefficient for two reasons. First it is impossible for politicians to manage long-term planning, policy making, service delivery and popularity at the same time.
Second, very few politicians actually possess the skill and experience to manage a large workload and multitask through the demands of the Government.
For now the way forward requires a reconsideration of the party politics as the centre of gravity in the country. The anti-gang arrests exposed the decay of communities, peace shattered by drug dealing and the attractions of crime. Instead of strong communities and leadership within those communities, centralised governments firmed up their tentacles through the range of social projects, easy money and political friends with benefits.
The Emergency days also demonstrated that basic needs of the country have been surrendered to expensive and ineffective centralised government, inefficient for two reasons. First it is impossible for politicians to manage long-term planning, policy making, service delivery and popularity at the same time.
Second, very few politicians actually possess the skill and experience to manage a large workload and multitask through the demands of the Government.
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