A chara, - During a rather rowdy RTE TV programme, misconducted by politicians the other night, I got the impression that they were seeking to identify the people with the State. Or did they mean with the politicians?
I would hope that neither identification is accurate. Elected politicians are law-makers, usually representing political parties which, allegedly, represent sections of the people in some way. The State, like the people, is obliged by law to obey those laws but all too often the State, or its representatives, breaks those laws.
It is terrifyingly silly to suggest that the State - any State anywhere - represents consistently anything other than its own narrow interests.
That the State is far from representing accurately the people has been illustrated only too clearly in recent years in Ireland by the blood scandal, the closure of small hospitals, the undue delay in tackling drug abuse, the health "services", the utter neglect of the homeless, the treatment of refugees, and State torture of alleged enemies of the people: the Heavy Gang does not seem to have gone away, you know.
Vincent Browne in your columns recently courageously pointed to abuses of the law as revealed in court. Even though Amnesty International and other reputable human rights bodies have appealed to the Government for independent, public investigation of such alleged abuses, no tribunal has been set up for this purpose.
The Special Criminal Court continues to function. From beginning to end, the policy of the State appears to be that the end - rounding up the usual suspects, etc. - justifies the means; and that those means may include physical and mental torture, fabricated "evidence", lying under oath, and the destruction of families.
When the State has been forced to yield to the rule of law through the appeal process, some form of compensation, to a few of those affected, is paid. But the evildoers in State pay remain in employment and often are rewarded by promotion.
To suggest that the people should be identified with the State is a monstrous lie. - Is mise, Deasun Breatnach,
Pairc Leaca na Sceiche, Dun Laoghaire, Co Atha Cliath.