(February 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) "Checkpoint checks are one of the many methods that are essential in any society such as ours which faces an internal security threat – and the very fact that human bombers have been able occasionally to slip through the net should make us even more tolerant of the need to co-operate with those responsible for our safety when they are conducting these security checks."_________________________________
- "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell (1903-1950)
There is a colleague of mine who gets most offended if, while driving his car, he is stopped at a military checkpoint.
He makes it a point to show his irritation to the poor soldier or airman who has had the cheek to stop Him. I get the impression that He feels on such occasions that He has so many important things to do instead of wasting His time proving His identity to a mere soldier. After He has ill-temperedly received His Identity card back from the man at the checkpoint and started driving away, His usual tirade of criticism begins: "Why can’t these fellows catch Prabhakaran I say, instead of harassing people like us? Don’t they know who I am?"
I have tried if ever I am with him at the time to tell him that the soldier stationed at the checkpoint is only doing his duty - and it is an important duty in times like these, because the very act of randomly checking passing motorists acts as a deterrent to terrorists. Admittedly, it is not a 100% foolproof deterrent – after all, identity cards can be forged and explosive devices can be hidden in perfectly innocent looking vehicles driven by well dressed Colombo Seven people who appear to be pillars of the establishment. Suicide bombers, after all, don’t drive around in military vehicles dressed in striped camouflage uniforms with nametags identifying themselves as enemy combatants. In fact, an extra smart terrorist will endeavour to find a way of surreptitiously planting his bomb in the vehicle of someone really important who is too big to stop at checkpoints!
Checkpoint checks are one of the many methods that are essential in any society such as ours which faces an internal security threat – and the very fact that human bombers have been able occasionally to slip through the net should make us even more tolerant of the need to co-operate with those responsible for our safety when they are conducting these security checks.
Having been myself subject to checkpoint checks in this country for the past several decades, my own observation is that the personnel who now perform these duties are better trained than in the past. They are polite and, at least in my case, I have noted them to undertake their unenviable task with minimum offence. I have tried to tell my colleague that it would help him to be more tolerant if he could only put himself for a change into their shoes. These soldiers have to be on guard duty for several hours, often at times when normal people are fast asleep in their beds. They have to check innumerable motorists who may or may not be terrorists, who may not (or may) blow themselves and all around them up in the very act of pulling out their identity card. Imagine having to walk up to a darkened car of unknown people, not knowing whether the car you stop may be your last because someone inside that car has a weapon trained on you!
Undergoing security checks, I am afraid, will be a necessarily evil in times like these (and for the foreseeable future) on this island in the sun. Would that we were back in the good old carefree days when there were no barricades around, when we could cycle or drive all over Colombo without having to carry our identity cards and be wary of inadvertently driving past a checkpoint without stopping!a
He makes it a point to show his irritation to the poor soldier or airman who has had the cheek to stop Him. I get the impression that He feels on such occasions that He has so many important things to do instead of wasting His time proving His identity to a mere soldier. After He has ill-temperedly received His Identity card back from the man at the checkpoint and started driving away, His usual tirade of criticism begins: "Why can’t these fellows catch Prabhakaran I say, instead of harassing people like us? Don’t they know who I am?"
I have tried if ever I am with him at the time to tell him that the soldier stationed at the checkpoint is only doing his duty - and it is an important duty in times like these, because the very act of randomly checking passing motorists acts as a deterrent to terrorists. Admittedly, it is not a 100% foolproof deterrent – after all, identity cards can be forged and explosive devices can be hidden in perfectly innocent looking vehicles driven by well dressed Colombo Seven people who appear to be pillars of the establishment. Suicide bombers, after all, don’t drive around in military vehicles dressed in striped camouflage uniforms with nametags identifying themselves as enemy combatants. In fact, an extra smart terrorist will endeavour to find a way of surreptitiously planting his bomb in the vehicle of someone really important who is too big to stop at checkpoints!
Checkpoint checks are one of the many methods that are essential in any society such as ours which faces an internal security threat – and the very fact that human bombers have been able occasionally to slip through the net should make us even more tolerant of the need to co-operate with those responsible for our safety when they are conducting these security checks.
Having been myself subject to checkpoint checks in this country for the past several decades, my own observation is that the personnel who now perform these duties are better trained than in the past. They are polite and, at least in my case, I have noted them to undertake their unenviable task with minimum offence. I have tried to tell my colleague that it would help him to be more tolerant if he could only put himself for a change into their shoes. These soldiers have to be on guard duty for several hours, often at times when normal people are fast asleep in their beds. They have to check innumerable motorists who may or may not be terrorists, who may not (or may) blow themselves and all around them up in the very act of pulling out their identity card. Imagine having to walk up to a darkened car of unknown people, not knowing whether the car you stop may be your last because someone inside that car has a weapon trained on you!
Undergoing security checks, I am afraid, will be a necessarily evil in times like these (and for the foreseeable future) on this island in the sun. Would that we were back in the good old carefree days when there were no barricades around, when we could cycle or drive all over Colombo without having to carry our identity cards and be wary of inadvertently driving past a checkpoint without stopping!a
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