Enam Lone
Think of human rights in general and democratic rights in particular, freedom of expression is among the foremost things that come to mind. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Throughout history this basic right of an individual has been a painful eyesore for governments all over the world. History has it that Socrates was made to consume poison for “inciting” youth against the establishment. Copernicus was barred from promulgating his stand against the Church over the latter’s flawed concept of earth’s shape.
Whereas Galileo was imprisoned for endorsing Copernican’s view of planetary motion.
People of authority, in nutshell, have always felt threatened by the very concept of freedom of expression. They feel their authority and their power being challenged and diluted by it. As such, they make every possible effort aimed at curbing it. And that includes efforts like censorship of media, bans on peaceful gatherings and expression of thoughts that are vaguely interpreted as hateful towards the “nation”.
Democracy, as defined by the western “champions of human rights”, was conceived on principles that were to benefit, uplift and free the common man of any pseudo-national shackles. And one of the basic principles they incorporated into it was the freedom of expression. Under democracy, people were supposedly “free to speak and express themselves without any interference from the State”.
But as we get to witness every now and then, nations who always boast of democracy and liberty turn out to be the most hypocritical.
Let us not go too far looking for such violations. We have a great example just in our neighbourhood. A state that never misses a shot at ranting the proverbial phrase “largest democracy” without a hiccup, made a yet another embarrassing show of its hypocrisy only recently. Whereas freedom of expression was to span as far as accommodating opinions, information, ideas, thoughts and expressions “without interference”, here scores of students were thrown out of a university and charged for ‘treason and sedition’ for cheering for another country’s cricket team. Talk of tolerance and freedom, this incident shall be referenced to for ages to come!
This act, however, is not an occasional dent on the surface of the “largest democracy”. That body is riddled with cracks emanating from within the core itself. One can paint and decorate the surface of his house from the outside but what actually defines the strength of the walls is the quality of material used within. That determines the magnitude of tremors that it can withstand. Same applies to a nation. If the basic principles that a nation is built upon are sound and intact, it can man relatively complicated issues rather easily. If however, they are corrupt and only superficial, the nation is bound to face dissent and discord. Freedom of expression, thus, turns out to have been a national lie of the largest democracy.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” (Anonymous)
An engineer by profession, the author interests in literature and can be contacted at: www.facebook.com/the.lonely.sojourn
