A Swing Vote to Hang Convicted Drug Wholesalers

by Jolly Somasundram-March 10, 2019, 12:00 pm 

"To dance to lutes, to dance to flutes, is delicate and rare.
But, it is not so sweet with nimble feet, to dance,
Legs dangling in mid-air".
Oscar Wilde "Ballad of Reading Goal"

A spectre is haunting Sri Lanka, the spectre of a drug menace, growing in geometric progression, possibly leading her to becoming a narco-state. Government, as part of its raft of measures of increasing severity, wishes to re-introduce a judicially determined death penalty for drug traffickers but Catholic Bishops oppose it. Government’s intention is to permanently remove drug traffickers from the trafficking loop by introducing the hanging loop, the Catholic Bishops wish to re-introduce them into the trafficking loop, by preventing the operation of the hanging loop. Supporters of drug traffickers are found in the most curious of locations! The commuted life sentences of drug traffickers, will be served in the safest of havens- a highly bribable prison system. Commutation will be an incentive to becoming a drug trafficker, for prison will be an eyrie, safe from the attentions of rival death squads of drug traffickers, fed and clothed by the tax payer, other creature comforts facilitated on demand by underpaid prison officials.

The dimensions of the drug problem are seen in the inflation of the weight of the smuggled drug. Earlier, an average wrap of heroin discovered from mules, ranged from one milligram to a couple of grams. Recently, a mind boggling three tonnes were discovered in a car park, the street value being equivalent to the budget of Sri Lanka. A rule of police thumb is that only 10% of illicit drugs are caught. Yet, there is indifference to the burgeoning danger. At seminars convened to discuss the subject, civil society comes and goes, speaking of human rights and Michelangelo, like when a beard is on fire a smoker asking for a light for his cigarette.

Drugs, unlike other substances like alcohol and cigarettes, have life threatening health consequences. These drugs have no therapeutic value, only of giving hedonistic pleasure. They are addictive because they offer irresistible compulsions seeking further delirious, dopamine induced highs, feelings of euphoria and bliss, all working at the brains’ pleasure centre. Consumers, once hooked, are unable to resist the further lure of an incessant craving for these drugs. Because of their exorbitant cost, drug addicts- not capable of resisting a fix or the demand of a rush and unable to cope with wracking withdrawal pains- resort to robbery, contract killing and direct murder to finance their kick. In Sri Lanka, a drug addict murdered his entire family, including his mother and father. The highly lucrative illegal drug trade is engaged in by wholesalers through extensive corruption of cabinet ministers, politicians, and public servants. Drugs and corruption are life partners, Siamese twins joined at the hip.

Drugs, like any agricultural product- synthetic drugs like Ecstasy, Methamphetamines have recently invaded the market- have their own life product cycle- growth (by small time farmers), harvesting, drying and transformation into heroin and cocaine, transport overseas (consumer markets are not in producing centers). Wholesalers and retailers serve as intermediaries.

Drugs, are the third highest traded commodity in world markets, next to oil and arms. Market development is by wholesalers, kick-starting the consumption chain, primarily by enticing school children through drug daubed loss leaders -sweets, icy chocs and lozenges. These young children, with their full life ahead of them, get hooked by their reward centre in the brain. Unable to kick the addiction, they become lifetime consumers, financing their habit through crime. Even parents’ person, personal property or homes become vulnerable.

Drug traffickers deal with the demand side, the interdiction of supply is covered by the police.

Dealing with the supply of drugs is a secular responsibility, for which Government has a repertoire of judicially processed, law-based coercive punishments. A state is lubricated through the application of law-based violence which includes the death sentence. Violence is a legitimate part of Governance. The state need not be skittish in applying legitimate violence. Drug wholesalers cannot be contained by throwing flowers at them, preaching sermons or an invitation for them to savour love and fresh air as an alternative.

Religion has intruded into Sri Lanka’s secular drug decision-making sphere. The Catholic Bishop’s Conference in Sri Lanka issued a statement on 16th Feb 2018, published in the Island of that date, that "in the light of the Gospel, the death penalty is inadmissible, because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person". Death sentence which can be imposed only by the State under the law, is not Gospel compliant, they complain. The Bishops’ statement does not indicate in which Gospel this admonishment was alleged to have been made.

The Bishops statement has opened a Pandora’s box. If Catholics with 7% of the population could have a Gospel rule of law applying to non-Christians, why should not Muslims- having 10% of the population- not have Sharia rule of law applying to a non-islamic population? The Gospels, like all religious texts, have prohibited the taking of life by an individual but not the taking of life by the state, following due process. The state exercises violence, as part of its governance responsibilities. The Gospels were written about three hundred years after Jesus’ crucifixion. States had existed millennia of years before the Gospels.

Implementing the death sentence in a secular state is not a religious responsibility: it has to be carried out only by a sovereign state or its constitutionally empowered institutions. Excommunication- being a spiritual matter- is issued only by the Catholic Church. As much as it is unacceptable for a lay authority to question excommunication on grounds of a breach of secular fundamental rights or freedom of thought, it is unacceptable for the Catholic Church to question the death sentence carried out by the state. Excommunication for a catholic makes him a zombie, living a life of make-believe with no discernible future spiritual purpose ahead for him, his deepest yearning of being buried on consecrated ground having got vapourised. Post-excommunication is a lingering of life, of social exclusion worse than death. The Bishops’ statement, offered no quote from the Gospel that prevents the state from carrying out its legitimate, secular responsibilities.

An unacceptable consequence, if the death sentence imposed by law were commuted to imprisonment, would be that drug lords would now be blessed with the safest possible haven- a secure, very bribable prison- to continue their trade. One drug lord planned and ordered from his remand cell, a successful hit-job on a senior judge hearing his case. He is awaiting the carrying out of the death sentence imposed on him. Commutation is an incentive in the life cycle for becoming a drug lord.

The immediate spur for the Bishops’ counter-death penalty statement was an expectation that implementing of the death sentence on convicted drug vendors is imminent in Sri Lanka. The death penalty is imposed under Sri Lankan law approved by the legislature, meticulously following judicial due process. It was a supreme act of secularism and rule of law. All judges are aware of the onerous responsibility placed on their shoulders. No judge has ever been accused of impunity, sadism, seeking revenge or partiality in taking this decision.

The reference to the Gospel in the Bishops’ statement is an ex cathedra imperial statement, lacking in substance, full only of unsupported assertion. It is fake information and an alternate fact, as Trump would complain, the only time Trump has ever been correct. The Gospel said, "if you shall know the truth, the Truth shall set you free" John 8. Bishops, being tied to heritage, the untruth keeps them captive.

The state is binary, there being two realms in it, the spiritual and the secular. The relationship between the two was raised with Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. His reply, a marvel of precision and clarity, was, "render unto God the things that are of God’s and to Caesar, the things that are of Caesar" (Mark 12.17 and Luke 20.15). The goal posts were set by Him. Priests deal with spiritual matters, the leaders of the laity with the seccular. Over time, a consensus has emerged that these boundaries will be honoured. The Bishops statement shifts the goal posts. "They need forgiveness for they do know what they are saying", Luke 23.24.

Jesus Christ’s daily life and His inspirational, gentle preaching are recorded in the Gospels. For concepts, the Gospels borrowed from the thinking of Aristotle, particularly the role of man and his position in the Universe. Aristotle said the Sun swirls round the Earth, the geocentric formulation. The Gospels raised geocentrism to Divine law. In the 16th century AD, geocentrism began to fray, supplanted by the heliocentric view. Copernicus set the theory in motion but the cap was provided by Galileo- the father of observational astronomy- who, through observation, using his invented telescope, proved the reverse, the earth moves round the sun. The Roman Inquisition decided that heliocentrism "is foolish and absurd in philosophy and it goes against the Gospel". The Inquisition under Cardinal Bellarmine ordered Galileo to recant. Galileo, to retain his head by not losing it, reluctantly agreed, muttering under his breath, E pur si muove, - yet it moves. The Gospels or its interpreters are not authority on any lay issue: a secular law, approved by a sovereign people and interpreted by the judiciary, is the final authority.

The burning at the stake, ordered by the Inquisition, of a Dominican Jesuist priest- Geodarmo Bruno- questions the Bishops’ claim that it is "committed to the inviolability and dignity of the person". Bruno was a priest living before Galileo, who, without the benefit of the telescope, recited the highlights of the heliocentric theory, all proven true in the light of 20th century discoveries and Einstein’s theories. He said there were many solar systems not one, they circled round millions of suns (Hubble Telescope), the universe is unimaginably large (Einstein) and the smallest element in it, is unimaginably small (Max Planck). There was alien life. He also dabbled with artificial memory. All this was too much for the Church which considered his theories to be opposed to the Holy Spirit. Bruno was hauled before the Roman Inquisition, ordered to recant- Bruno refused- unlike the later Galileo. Bruno was sentenced to be burnt at the stake of slow burning charcoal, kindling and faggots. The carbonisation was carried out on the 17th of February 1600, the merciful, less painful alternative of strangulation, was denied him. If Einstein were living at that time, he too would have the same warm reception. There were a number of efforts made to get Bruno to recant before his immolation but he was obstinate. His last words were, "You may be more afraid to bring that sentence against me than I to accept it" Prior to Bruno’s immolation, Bruno’s mouth and lips were ironed together and an iron stake driven through his tongue. The maitre d’ of these proceedings was Cardinal Bellamine.

While the obdurate Bruno was being converted to charcoal, he may have reflected that both Cardinal Bellarmine and he, were Christians divided by the same Gospel, both having eyes, both having hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions, both being fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means. If they were pricked both would bleed, if they were tickled both would laugh, if both were poisoned both would die.

The aftermath for both Bellarmine and Bruno was educative. Bruno is commemorated as the leading free thinker of the world. The Mayor of Rome places an anniversary wreath every year, at the foot of his statue on the day and spot of his execution (17 February 1600), at Campo de Fiori, Rome. The plaque at the bottom of the statue reads, "From those whom you liberated". Bruno has achieved immortality. Bellarmine, after 330 years, was canonised in 1932, as a saint. Presumably, he will be given the subject and function of saint of murderers and torturers. Since murderers and torturers will always be around, Bellarmine too has gained eternal life time employment.