Rescind useless laws

THE recent devastating bushfires in the southern peninsula have once again highlighted the immense good feeling we have in this country, parallelling the gross incompetence of the government which runs it.

There is no doubt that there is immense public support for the efforts of the firefighters in whatever role they played, and they are to be commended for their courage and commitment. I have been involved in fighting veld fires in the Eastern Cape and Kenya, and am aware of that feeling of total wipeout when one can finally relax.

However, in the last few days, one small comment struck me as significant. Someone commented on the fact that cars no longer have ashtrays and that, consequently, many people throw their stompies out of the window. The general reaction seems to be that such offenders must be fined in a draconian manner. But is that going to work, or will it irritate the public more?

Probably not many have noticed how much our individual liberties are being gradually eroded. The government in its wisdom has decided that we must not smoke in cars containing children, so the ashtrays have been removed, the end result being that, in some cases, we have a major conflagration.

We seem to pass laws because statistics suggest or prove the need. I think it is true to say that most of our legislators have lost the ability to think deeply on any subject, if they ever had it. (By the way, neither myself nor my family smoke.)

Rather than passing new legislation, we would be better served if Parliament rescinded all the useless laws and started considering how to change the public’s attitude. A good place to start would be to return to a situation where everyone was equal under the law.