Dear Editor,
The minister of national security and the police commissioner are the personifications of the fight against crime in this country. That is the context in which to analyse the implications of the minister's recent second public appeal for "divine intervention" in the fight against crime. Despite public outcry against his first appeal, he issued this second appeal, "without apology".
The minister has the ability, by his public conduct and utterances, to convey an image and message that inspires either hope or hopelessness in the fight against crime. The victims of crime — man, woman and child — and all citizens. They deserve from the minister an image and message of hope.
On the one hand, a private and personal prayer by the minister for divine intervention is understandable given the magnitude of his task. Indeed, a minister can inspire hope if he is and appears to be divinely inspired. But the divine works through man. It was not a divine intervener who investigated and prosecuted when the minster himself was recently a victim of crime; it was man.
On the other hand, a public appeal for divine intervention conveys an image and message of a minister at his wits' end in the fight against crime, hence the public outcry the first time the minister publicly appealed for this. To do so again "without apology" is to rub salt in the wounds of victims of crime, and dishonours his mandate to them to inspire hope.
I too pray for divine intervention. I pray for the minister to lead or appear to lead the fight against crime. That prayer begins with an image and message of hope. I pray for this, "without apology".
Norman Davis
normanadavis@yahoo.com
Did the divine help when you were the victim of crime, Minister?
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The minister of national security and the police commissioner are the personifications of the fight against crime in this country. That is the context in which to analyse the implications of the minister's recent second public appeal for "divine intervention" in the fight against crime. Despite public outcry against his first appeal, he issued this second appeal, "without apology".
The minister has the ability, by his public conduct and utterances, to convey an image and message that inspires either hope or hopelessness in the fight against crime. The victims of crime — man, woman and child — and all citizens. They deserve from the minister an image and message of hope.
On the one hand, a private and personal prayer by the minister for divine intervention is understandable given the magnitude of his task. Indeed, a minister can inspire hope if he is and appears to be divinely inspired. But the divine works through man. It was not a divine intervener who investigated and prosecuted when the minster himself was recently a victim of crime; it was man.
On the other hand, a public appeal for divine intervention conveys an image and message of a minister at his wits' end in the fight against crime, hence the public outcry the first time the minister publicly appealed for this. To do so again "without apology" is to rub salt in the wounds of victims of crime, and dishonours his mandate to them to inspire hope.
I too pray for divine intervention. I pray for the minister to lead or appear to lead the fight against crime. That prayer begins with an image and message of hope. I pray for this, "without apology".
Norman Davis
normanadavis@yahoo.com
Did the divine help when you were the victim of crime, Minister?
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