Following the arrest of Mr Sithanen, is it time for more politicians to be arrested unnecessarily to highlight a disfunctional judiciary and a government submissive police force. The case of Sithanen provoked a sudden awakening that the legislation regarding arrestable offences is in need of reform. Hence, the law reform commission will conduct a study about the future of the said legislation. If only some of us were called Sithanen, then we would have been a messiah for law reforms. A knee jerk reaction towards law reforms should be avoided by the government. Bringing more or new legislations will not miraculously provide a remedy to the problem.
We need plain common sense not some complex expensive solution. In 1951, Sir Hartley Shawcross said in a House of Commons debate that suspected criminal offences must not automatically be subject to prosecution. He further adds that prosecution is necessary if “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”. Consequently, this formed the basis of the public interest test.It is a practice which has been adopted by the Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K over half a century. The incompetent State Law Office and ineffective police force should embark on a thorough thinking process to deal with any similar circumstances in the future.
Without leaping enthusiastically to Sithanen’s defence , it does not serve the public interest to prosecute him otherwise my father would have probably being in jail for shouting at me down the phone. May be my mother too, I think she would have had a lengthier sentence than my father.
