Hakeem points to sinister side in govt’s Rehabilitation Bill

By Saman Indrajith

SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem said yesterday that the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill had been drafted in such a manner as to enable the government to detain those who went against its political agenda.

Participating in the second reading stage debate on the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill, Hakim said the government had indicated its intentions to abuse this law meant for rehabilitation against the people who would not toe the government’s line.

“The cat jumped out of the bag when some government MPs spoke of their intention to pass this law. This bill has been determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In the recent history of this country, the Supreme Court has not determined a bill was unconstitutional in its entirety, other than this. When the bill was drafted some defence ministry persons had inserted certain sections to the bill to enable vague interpretation of the law to take in and detain persons in the name of rehabilitation whether these persons are drug addicts or not.

“Globally, including in Sri Lanka, it has been identified that the compulsory rehabilitation is counterproductive when it comes to drug rehabilitation. The rehabilitation of drug addicts should be done by the medical personnel, but here the new law provides for the military to rehabilitate them. Where in the world are drug addicts rehabilitated by the military? We pointed out these factors at the consultative committee stage and asked the committee not to rush into passing this without rectifying these discrepancies. There seems to be some haste by the government to pass this law.

“Substance abuse is a rampant problem in this country. This has to be addressed by a curative process not through a punitive process. This cannot be done by compulsory rehabilitation. How many times people who had been sent to Kandakadu and Senapura centres for rehabilitation, broke away and ran out. It is because the torture that takes place there and the hard labour that they are subjected to. The military personnel who run these centres are sometimes so insensitive and apply various punitive measures. That has to be regulated.”