Policing, army patrolling, troops buildup and the entire burden associated with security takes up a lot of the State’s resources. Imagine if everyone was a law abiding citizen or conflicts did not exist we would not have to spend so much on our security apparatus. However we know that this is far from reality. In fact if we are to look at the State structure itself, the most important place or prominence is given to the so called Home or Interior Ministry. More than development issues, the focus of our governments have been on maintaining law and order. If only the reverse was happening, then development could have got the due attention that it deserves. Unfortunately this is not the case. But it does not mean that we should not strive to educate our citizens on the merits of obedience and discipline. If we want to become a better society and nation, we also need to have good citizens. For harnessing a better future and a peaceful society, we must begin to educate our children. And that process must start from home and thereafter our school system. Having said that we should be able to answer as to the state of our families and schools. There is no doubt that family and school will have to respond to the need of building a better society. If these two institutions fail, God save us. We will have to pay a heavy price. And this is evident in the world that we are living—the endless problems of crime, violence, wars, conflicts etc. Only if we had more peace our society would have been more prosperous and its people enjoying greater happiness.
While we focus our attention on the family and school system, the State cannot also remain a silent spectator. The State should not just be satisfied in maintaining the status quo. It needs to listen to grievances and aspiration of people and work on peaceful resolution of issues. Governments must demonstrate the political will to change for the better. A peaceful order of things will benefit everyone. Just take one instance of the huge outlays for defence and security related spending. India's defence expenditure is roughly 2.5 per cent of GDP and Pakistan's is roughly 4 per cent of GDP. Further according to figures, the worldwide military expenditure in 2009 totaled an estimated $1531 billion. This represents an increase of 5.9% in real terms compared to 2008 and an increase of 49% since 2000. Interestingly, the far-reaching effects of the global financial crisis and economic recession appear to have had little impact on world military expenditure. Why such a huge military spending? The answer is obvious; to ensure security (force) and help maintain a country’s global and regional power status. This is the sad truth. If only we could have put development as our priority. But this is easier said than done. We will have to build a world order that promotes good citizens, enduring peace, justice and harmonious existence. Once we are able to work on this, the burden of our security will hopefully come down.
