Rule of law should prevail

Your editorial titled “How did we get to this point?” published on January 16 does make a robust point in defence of the rule of law. While one cannot but totally agree with the editorial’s thesis, one feels this to be a desperate cry for a way out for people in anguish and agony, as the laws continuously fail to deliver justice. It may not perhaps be possible to provide 100 percent protection to citizens, especially women, but the rule of law should prevail in the pursuit of justice and within a reasonable time frame. And that is sadly NOT the case with regard to many of the victims of crime, excepting those that get a backing from people in power. This situation makes demands such as the one made by lawmakers’ for the “crossfire” of rapists gain sympathy, and society gets increasingly vengeful and cruel, almost to match the horrendous acts and beastly behaviour against the weak and the defenceless.

Unless we urgently make our relevant laws effective and sharp in their impact, and bolster the trust in the legal system for judicial dispensation, crimes will abound with impunity. We are all accomplices, willing or not, to this continuing dehumanising process.

Syed Muhammad Hussain

Ambassador (retd.), Uttara, Dhaka