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SCI-TECH
Guarding our liberties
By Dr Tariq Rahman
Thursday, 23 Jul, 2009
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is reported to have said that the order to arrest people indulging in anti-government jokes via SMS and emails would not be implemented.
The whole episode of the ban on cyber jokes indicates two things about Pakistans democracy. One, that it is so fragile that any dictator can put an end to the liberties we take for granted. Secondly, there is an articulate civil society in the country which guards our liberties.
We had this experience earlier when Gen Musharraf closed down TV channels threatening his dictatorship. It was generally assumed that the media had become too powerful for there to be a clampdown on it, but this turned out to be only partially true. Brute force was used in clamping down on the media.
However, the other side of the story is that there are people willing to take risks to keep the freedom of the media intact. These are the ones who triumphed in the end. It is a battle which is going on even when we have a civilian government.
Nevertheless, Pakistan is a country where a strong anti-democratic lobby exists as well. It is there because people are so disillusioned with bad governance that they do not have any faith in democracy itself.
Some members of this lobby are members of the state or the armed forces or intelligence agencies who find authoritarian rule in their personal or professional interest. Many others are merely ordinary people who hanker after good governance and assume that their governments cannot provide them that. They want a messiah or a superman. This is dangerous since fascism is supported by people who want a strong leader and who do not value democratic restraints on the leader.
It is often very distressing to talk to the anti-democratic lobby consisting mostly of educated, middle-class people whose level of political discourse does not rise beyond monetary corruption, misuse of power and other such matters. Their source of evidence never goes beyond hearsay and their analysis if one can call it that is based on conspiracy theories.
Many Pakistanis settled abroad, especially in the US, also belong to the anti-democracy category. These people are enthusiastic supporters of military rule but everything a civilian government does is ridiculed or censured. However, if the civilian government or its important functionaries issue anti-democratic orders such as those to arrest people sending SMS messages making fun of high government figures then it must be taken to task. It cannot be spared simply because it is civilian and elected, and not military.
Therefore, it is with relief that one turns to the proactive guardians of our liberties. They came out on the streets when Gen Musharraf had the audacity to throw out a sitting chief justice. The same kind of people forced President Asif Zardari to keep his word. They took to the streets when the PML-N government in Punjab was summarily removed. And now, true to form, they have taken up the cudgels on behalf of civil liberties when the SMS scandal surfaced.
This kind of activism by human rights groups, prominent columnists, letter writers and television personalities are our main protection against dictatorship. But for this we would have been some Middle Eastern or Latin American dictatorship. However, we talk in our drawing rooms, offices, seminars and discussions with a frankness one normally associates with established democracies. Indeed, foreigners are often surprised that even under military rule we have the courage to express our views openly on most issues.
Amartya Sen once wrote about the argumentative Indian giving the hypothesis that the habit of talking about everything under the sun ensures the continuity of a tradition of pluralism and tolerance in South Asia. I believe he is right and that, despite military rule and religious fanaticism, much of our basic culture of pluralism and tolerance remains. This culture was sustained in our tea houses and roadside cafes. Intellectuals met and discussed everything ranging from Marx to Maudoodi during the 1960s. Now that is no more, but blogs and SMS have taken their place. The anonymity of the blog allows people to unburden themselves.
Since ours is a religious and traditional society where orthodoxy and the suppression of sex are the norm, most bloggers write to question these societal orthodoxies. It is a safe way to allow people to unburden themselves, find answers to questions which cause them anguish and to discover that there are others like them.
The SMS enables a community of congenial companions to share jokes, concerns, interests and answers to questions. If it is banned it would be a serious setback to our culture. It would be a step towards the kind of retrogressive change which would take us away from our tolerant and pluralistic as well as fun-loving culture.
All authoritarian cultures kill humour and promote fascism and cruelty. It is only with humour than we can puncture our own inflated egos and those of others who may have power over us but are as fallible as ourselves.]
Moreover, suppressing the freedom to talk, joke, write and make speeches takes away our courage. And without courage a nation is like sheep that can be herded to an Orwellian animal farm where they toil endlessly as the upper classes enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Let us hope our leaders realise that a liberal democracy is for their survival too. If they march towards authoritarianism there are those in the wings who are better at marching than them. So, three cheers for democracy; for the guardians of our liberties; for our freedom to keep sending whatever kind of texts we like.
DAWN.COM | Sci-Tech | Guarding our liberties
Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group
----------------------------------------------------------
Issues that can be discussed:
a. Freedom of speech
b. Tolerance of military rule versus democracy
c. How our mode of communication, to express dissent or pleasure or simply have a political discourse, have changed
d. The need to have a sense of humour
Guarding our liberties
By Dr Tariq Rahman
Thursday, 23 Jul, 2009
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is reported to have said that the order to arrest people indulging in anti-government jokes via SMS and emails would not be implemented.
The whole episode of the ban on cyber jokes indicates two things about Pakistans democracy. One, that it is so fragile that any dictator can put an end to the liberties we take for granted. Secondly, there is an articulate civil society in the country which guards our liberties.
We had this experience earlier when Gen Musharraf closed down TV channels threatening his dictatorship. It was generally assumed that the media had become too powerful for there to be a clampdown on it, but this turned out to be only partially true. Brute force was used in clamping down on the media.
However, the other side of the story is that there are people willing to take risks to keep the freedom of the media intact. These are the ones who triumphed in the end. It is a battle which is going on even when we have a civilian government.
Nevertheless, Pakistan is a country where a strong anti-democratic lobby exists as well. It is there because people are so disillusioned with bad governance that they do not have any faith in democracy itself.
Some members of this lobby are members of the state or the armed forces or intelligence agencies who find authoritarian rule in their personal or professional interest. Many others are merely ordinary people who hanker after good governance and assume that their governments cannot provide them that. They want a messiah or a superman. This is dangerous since fascism is supported by people who want a strong leader and who do not value democratic restraints on the leader.
It is often very distressing to talk to the anti-democratic lobby consisting mostly of educated, middle-class people whose level of political discourse does not rise beyond monetary corruption, misuse of power and other such matters. Their source of evidence never goes beyond hearsay and their analysis if one can call it that is based on conspiracy theories.
Many Pakistanis settled abroad, especially in the US, also belong to the anti-democracy category. These people are enthusiastic supporters of military rule but everything a civilian government does is ridiculed or censured. However, if the civilian government or its important functionaries issue anti-democratic orders such as those to arrest people sending SMS messages making fun of high government figures then it must be taken to task. It cannot be spared simply because it is civilian and elected, and not military.
Therefore, it is with relief that one turns to the proactive guardians of our liberties. They came out on the streets when Gen Musharraf had the audacity to throw out a sitting chief justice. The same kind of people forced President Asif Zardari to keep his word. They took to the streets when the PML-N government in Punjab was summarily removed. And now, true to form, they have taken up the cudgels on behalf of civil liberties when the SMS scandal surfaced.
This kind of activism by human rights groups, prominent columnists, letter writers and television personalities are our main protection against dictatorship. But for this we would have been some Middle Eastern or Latin American dictatorship. However, we talk in our drawing rooms, offices, seminars and discussions with a frankness one normally associates with established democracies. Indeed, foreigners are often surprised that even under military rule we have the courage to express our views openly on most issues.
Amartya Sen once wrote about the argumentative Indian giving the hypothesis that the habit of talking about everything under the sun ensures the continuity of a tradition of pluralism and tolerance in South Asia. I believe he is right and that, despite military rule and religious fanaticism, much of our basic culture of pluralism and tolerance remains. This culture was sustained in our tea houses and roadside cafes. Intellectuals met and discussed everything ranging from Marx to Maudoodi during the 1960s. Now that is no more, but blogs and SMS have taken their place. The anonymity of the blog allows people to unburden themselves.
Since ours is a religious and traditional society where orthodoxy and the suppression of sex are the norm, most bloggers write to question these societal orthodoxies. It is a safe way to allow people to unburden themselves, find answers to questions which cause them anguish and to discover that there are others like them.
The SMS enables a community of congenial companions to share jokes, concerns, interests and answers to questions. If it is banned it would be a serious setback to our culture. It would be a step towards the kind of retrogressive change which would take us away from our tolerant and pluralistic as well as fun-loving culture.
All authoritarian cultures kill humour and promote fascism and cruelty. It is only with humour than we can puncture our own inflated egos and those of others who may have power over us but are as fallible as ourselves.]
Moreover, suppressing the freedom to talk, joke, write and make speeches takes away our courage. And without courage a nation is like sheep that can be herded to an Orwellian animal farm where they toil endlessly as the upper classes enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Let us hope our leaders realise that a liberal democracy is for their survival too. If they march towards authoritarianism there are those in the wings who are better at marching than them. So, three cheers for democracy; for the guardians of our liberties; for our freedom to keep sending whatever kind of texts we like.
DAWN.COM | Sci-Tech | Guarding our liberties
Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group
----------------------------------------------------------
Issues that can be discussed:
a. Freedom of speech
b. Tolerance of military rule versus democracy
c. How our mode of communication, to express dissent or pleasure or simply have a political discourse, have changed
d. The need to have a sense of humour
