LET US DECLARE 9 JANUARY AS ANTI-CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DAY!

 LET US DECLARE 9 JANUARY AS ANTI-CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DAY!

From time immemorial, we humans have been killing each other and justifying it on religious, political and moral grounds.

Now the State has usurped that ‘right’ and therefore it becomes ‘legal’ and ‘alright’!

So modern States armed with legislative jargon, their courts, lawyers and funnily dressed judges backed up at times by religious zealots have become the juggernaut that kills their own and other’s citizens quite legally. This is true of ‘communist ‘China and Oh-so-religious America!

Rizana’s beheading (which appears to have been filmed – such sick savages) apart from everything else lacking in natural justice has consolidated International opinion regarding the Death Penalty. In other words the argument about Capital Punishment has now come of age. It is no longer in the realm of logical thinking – similar to the bygone arguments as to whether the Earth is flat or round. People are now convinced that it is a bestial expression of the wrath of ‘The Few ’ intoxicated with power, privilege and pelf against ‘The Many’ – the dispossessed, exploited and ignorant masses.

Long ago during a discussion on Capital Punishment, wasn’t it Bernard Shaw who is reported to have said, “Vengeance is mine, said the Lord. So it cannot be a function of the Lord Chief Justice”! There rests the case for the so-called ‘religious’ argument, notwithstanding the edict “Thou shall not kill” which is observed more in the breach.

Recently, Babu Gogineni, International Director of IHEU (International Humanist and Ethical Union) writing on the same subject stated succintly “ Hang the Death Penalty - Not the Humans” !

Nowhere has the crime rate being reduced due to Capital Punishment (unless one is the gullible type ready to swallow ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ cooked up by corrupt regimes). And it matters not whether the correct perpetrator is killed. All that such sick people need is a symbol- ‘there was that crime and this person was killed QED. Now I can rest in peace’.

In the final analysis the entire case in favour of Capital Punishment rests in the psyche of those who, devoid of reason and compassion, reeking with vengeance wish to seek revenge - it matters not from who, as long as it is not one of their loved ones! The atavistic blood-lust of the demented mind. They are beyond redemption!

In a healthy and a welcome development the Muslim community in Sri Lanka has organized protests and in Rizana’s rural home town Muslims are signing a petition to the President demanding that women should be stopped from being sent to Saudi Arabia.

Yet, contrarywise, the Sri Lankan State appears to be keen on reintroducing the Death Penalty which is in abeyance since 1970’s. The scaffolding, the rope, the executor are all in place we are told. In Government sponsored exhibitions throughout the country a replica of the state-of –the- art Gallows appear to take pride of place!

Therefore, in this day and age , we aught not to regard any person who supports the Death Penalty for whatever reason to be a sane human being, let alone a free-thinker/humanist/ rationalist.

Let not the death of Rizana and countless others be in vain.

Let us therefore declare 9 January, the day Rizana was beheaded as the Anti-Death Penalty Day.

A song was composed by R. Fernando in memory of Rizana. You can see it in the Sinhala section.

R. Fernando

January 2013