Rich men who steal hand sanitizer! - EDITORIAL

These are days where a theft inside an ATM machine in Sri Lanka is going viral on social media. The visuals show how a customer using an ATM machine to withdraw cash takes off with a bottle of hand sanitizer fixed inside the ATM chamber after completing his transaction. 

This petty crime makes us social media users sad. It shows how selfish this man is. It shows how irresponsible this customer is because he has failed to fathom that hand sanitizer bottles are made available at banks because people must take great precaution to protect themselves from the pandemic. Just visit the Department of National Archives, browse through newspapers published over the past decade and see how many thefts have taken place at banks and ATM centres.  

When we look beyond this theft we see that this nation has a history of crimes and even lawmakers and state officials have got away with stealing government funds. The alleged Central Bank bond scam was one major theft and it was labeled as a ‘white collar crime’. When most people in power make stealing a habit what can one expect from the ordinary citizen? 

Before we go further we must underscore the fact that the law is the same for everyone and that one cannot gain any advantage in a court of law by trying to prove that one was ignorant of the law. 
This is a nation where even from the times of kings offenses were clearly specified along with the punishments. 
The ‘law’ is there to define what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. ‘Order’ is a state in which everyone is following acceptable laws. 

About one and half centuries ago we had a bandit named Saradiel who stole from the rich and shared his spoils with the less affluent. This was accepted to some extent by villagers, but the right thinking individuals at that time affirmed that what Saradiel did breached the law and was unacceptable. 

Despite being a Buddhist country our ancestors taught us that the act of plucking flowers to place in front of a Buddha Statue would be impure if permission isn’t obtained to pluck flowers from the person who owns the property on which the flowers grow. 

Sri Lankans had in the past begun with subtle lessons that underscored acts bordering on theft and went on to specify punishments for small and major crimes. 
A study of the Roman Law underscores a few vital points which are; everyone is under the law, the law should be publicly known, new laws should be rationally worked out, the law must be seen to be carried out and people must have the right to be fairly treated by the law. 

In ancient Rome the laws were made public; law points were put into words and placed at public gathering places. The Romans talk about their law being presented in 12 tables. Even schoolchildren were made to read these law points aloud and then copy them onto books. The result was an nation full of law-abiding citizens!

When citizens of some of the European countries were running to the woods to perform their ablutions records on ancient Ceylon show that the kings used toilets. During these Ceylonese times there was also a system of law where justice was brought to the plaintiff. How has this breakdown of law and order set root in Sri Lanka despite such a rich history which can make us proud? 

The educated law-abiding citizens of this nation affirm that fines must be increased for offenses termed as petty thefts. Those who steal must be also be subject to stern punishment by the law; even a term spanning a few months in jail. But before anything else all citizens of the country must receive a sound education of the basics of the law before they step into the society as grown-ups.