Our loyal services of law and order are being tested to their limit these days. We have already failed on one level; our society is sick and now is the time to demonstrate that we are still able to pick up the pieces and get on with our existence. We hope the police will be up to standard. Unlike the prime minister, we don’t have a blind confidence in their ability to shine; not because our police force is incompetent, far from it. Rather because the force is riddled with petty back stabbings, hidden agendas and corrupt practices.

We do not have a choice; we have to rise above the pettiness. What we have at stake is far too important to keep on playing our silly games. The relevant authorities have to understand one fundamental thing; for our own survival, we need to have our faith restored, we need to believe in something. When everything around us is falling apart, we need to hold on to something as fundamental as protection because we need a life line, because our spirits will get crushed if we can no longer hope and have faith.

A society, any society, needs to look up to something. We can no longer look up to the government because it has failed us, because it no longer has our trust, because we are no longer its priority. When our society falls ill, we need to trust in it getting better, we need to feel protected, we need to feel that someone out there is looking out for us.

As a member of this society, I was ill at ease last Friday. Over and above the fact that ten people had died in mysterious circumstances, it was the fact that I didn’t know if we would ever see the light in this particularly harrowing case that gave me a jolt. I do not trust in the police. Rightly or wrongly so. And I am not proud of this feeling. Maybe I am being irrational but I often wonder at the sense of priorities of the authorities in this country.

One example: when the FSL confirmed its interim report on the Grand Bay explosion, the impression was that the PMO was doing what it could to discredit the said report because it went against what the all-knowing man at the top said was the cause of the explosion. One institution that had dared to go against the wishes of the government and based itself on facts and evidence, today has nothing but disdain from the Prime minister. This cannot be a comfortable situation. The FSL people, I’m sure, are no longer at ease. How many of us are willing to be in this situation? How many of us still have the courage of our convictions?

When you keep being discriminated against because of your principles, because you refuse to dance to the tune of your rulers, you only have one of two choices; you compromise or you don’t. Most of us do. It requires so much energy not to conform; I’m not sure our police officers have that kind of energy. After all, they probably have mouths to feed at home. Can you blame them? I’m not so sure…

The point is, we are no longer at ease. When Chinua Achebe wrote the book about his native Nigeria, he followed with another one called “Things fall apart.” How I hope we don’t get to that stage…