Simmering Kansat

The tension in Kansat, which has as its root the failure of the government to be able to provide an adequate supply of electricity to the area and then the shocking violence with which the ensuing protests were met by the authorities, still needs to be faced squarely.

In the first place, the question as to why the area was being so starved of power that the locals were forced to demonstrate must be addressed. The government must come up with some explanation for its inability to provide this basic service and corrective action must be taken.

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The next question raises the issue of the administration's brutal response that left 10 dead and the continuing violence attributed to ruling alliance affiliated activists which has killed four more in the past few days.

As many as 14 people killed in a small place like Kansat demonstrates the absurdity of how a grossly mishandled simple grievance-related issue could snowball into such tragic eruptions.

The High Court verdict is a good start. In its rule, these questions have been put to the government: why no electricity, why no compensation, explain the firings. This is as it should be. The administration must be held accountable both for its initial failure and also for its provocative response that ignored the roots of the problem.

There remains a suspicion that the local authorities are planning to use the restrictive laws as cover to continue to target the leaders of the protests. This is regrettable.

It smacks of the same high-handed official approach that ended up leaving 14 people dead in the first place. The government must not compound its initial error by continuing to respond to the crisis with denial and oppression in any form or shape.

The court process represents the best way to sort out this mess. The government will be well-advised not use any heavy-handed police or extra-judicial means to deal with the situation, which will only make things worse. Rather than going for witch-hunting, they should do the much-awaited damage control exercise and provide the people with the power supply they can't do without.