Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Can India and Turkey Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't
Tolerated?
________________________________________
Can India and Turkey Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't Tolerated?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 23, 2016
Modern society despises three sins: laziness, theft and disobedience.
Time has been so carefully carved up in our day that not one second is to be
wasted. Work has spilled beyond formal hours, carried in our smart phones
and our computers.
Even leisure feels like work as people pay hard cash to exercise and to
relax. To thieve is acceptable if you are a banker, but it is a cardinal sin
if you are poor.
And disobedience? Well, that is the worst sin of them all.
It is unforgiveable to speak out against what the state does, even treason
to do so. Those who are disobedient are not like the lazy and the thieves.
They do not merely interrupt the system; they turn their backs on it. These
are the real sinners the disobedient.
No wonder then that modern states, across the board, have no room for the
disobedient, the person who will not accept the social order, the one who
has other ideas. It is for them that the deepest prisons are built, for
unlike other criminals, the disobedient would like to proselytise their
views.
They believe that they have an alternative to offer, so they are unrelenting
in offering their criticisms and their utopias. They cannot stomach being
silent. It is a compulsion. For this reason, they are buried underground,
their mouths sealed.
Old medieval provisions sneak into modern societies: prohibitions against
the insult of a monarch become an injunction not to speak ill of the
democratic leader or of the judiciary.
Forms of early modern anxiety about criticism morphs into a deep-rooted
condemnation of treason. It is left to the powerful to define the gap
between criticism and abuse, between dissent and treason. They close the gap
when it suits them, throwing into prison people who are far from treasonous
but who are nonetheless critical.
Apprehensive regimes are often the most hasty to define any dissent as
treason. Their insecurity leads to the gun before the argument. Their
leaders take to the stage to declare that they are being threatened
personally or that this or that person is a problem.
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest, asked Henry II? His minions
killed Thomas Becket. He winked and they acted. He set in motion events that
led to this death and then that. Terror of the state is unleashed in the
name of fighting terrorism.
In India, the party in power has winked. Its far-flung supporters are
alleged to have assassinated progressive and communist intellectuals such as
Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.
Calculated doses of violence against minorities set the dial to fear. Prison
doors creak open. Threats are made. Intimidation is the order of the day.
Academics who sign petitions are told to back down. Artists are harassed.
Young students from oppressed backgrounds are told to stay in their place.
One student, Rohit Vemula, was expelled for his activism. He committed
suicide, writing: "My birth is my fatal accident."
Was this suicide or indirect political murder? India's streets flood with
students, angry at this death. They refuse to back down.
The party in power meanwhile is led by a man Narendra Modi who speaks of
development and against disorder. He speaks of power stations and space
stations, hydroelectric dams and high-speed trains. He does not like
dissent. It is anathema to him. He would like the trains to run on time,
lips to be sealed. He tells all campaign groups that they do not want to
promote development. Greenpeace earns his special ire.
Environmentalism is a foreign plot. It cannot be tolerated.
India is not alone. Turkey is in the queue for this descent into order.
Academics sign a petition that asks for peace an end to the war against
the Kurds and they are accused of terrorism.
Provincial universities that sit along the road from Istanbul to Ankara are
the primary targets. Professors at Kocaeli Univeristy and Abant Izzet Baysal
University are the first to get arrested.
More high-profile colleges will not feel the clammy fingers of the police.
Their suppression will be subtler. The Turkish Council of Higher Education
(YÖK) will come after them. Individual faculty members will be fired through
internal channels.
This is the kind of intellectual cleansing that the extreme right has long
longed for to excise intellectuals, whose dissent is constant and
clarifying. Green lights flashed from the West. The United States said it
was concerned about the arrests, but then in the same breath said it did
"not agree with the opinions expressed by those academics."
It does not, in other words, agree that negotiations are a good pathway to
peace. War is Washington's tonic. Intellectuals who disagree should not be
arrested, but they should certainly be ignored.
Other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand are not on this list.
They are monarchies with their own, deeper problems. In such countries there
is no pretense to democracy. One man rules them. It is his prerogative to
decide what is True and what is False, whether the Earth goes around the Sun
or the Sun goes around the Earth.
To speak against them is to lie. Dissent is not possible. Those who open
their mouths are flogged. Between Raif Badawi and Thanakorn Siripaiboon
there is no gap. These are young men who had the temerity to speak out
against a system that has no space for speech.
Siripaiboon made fun of the Thai monarch's dog. This is lèse majesté, a
crime against the king. It is unspeakable.
But India and Turkey are democracies. Dissent in a democracy is meant to be
the doorway to justice. Petitions are meant to be a letter to the people,
explaining points of view that are absent in the public domain.
To write a petition is an act of democracy. It is the opposite of terrorism.
To accuse those who write a petition of treason is to close the door to
democracy. It is to say that there is no gap between the gun and the word,
between those who take up arms against a state and those who speak against
the state.
It is to silence dissent. It is to return us to the time of kings.
Both India and Turkey linger at the edge of democracy. It is not enough to
hold elections more is needed. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression,
freedom for dissent these are the minimal elements of a democratic
society.
If a state quashes dissent and uses war as a weapon of fear against the
public, then it might remain a political democracy but it will no longer be
socially democratic.
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Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't Tolerated?
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Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Can India and Turkey Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't
Tolerated?
Can India and Turkey Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't Tolerated?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 23, 2016
Modern society despises three sins: laziness, theft and disobedience.
Time has been so carefully carved up in our day that not one second is to be
wasted. Work has spilled beyond formal hours, carried in our smart phones
and our computers.
Even leisure feels like work as people pay hard cash to exercise and to
relax. To thieve is acceptable if you are a banker, but it is a cardinal sin
if you are poor.
And disobedience? Well, that is the worst sin of them all.
It is unforgiveable to speak out against what the state does, even treason
to do so. Those who are disobedient are not like the lazy and the thieves.
They do not merely interrupt the system; they turn their backs on it. These
are the real sinners the disobedient.
No wonder then that modern states, across the board, have no room for the
disobedient, the person who will not accept the social order, the one who
has other ideas. It is for them that the deepest prisons are built, for
unlike other criminals, the disobedient would like to proselytise their
views.
They believe that they have an alternative to offer, so they are unrelenting
in offering their criticisms and their utopias. They cannot stomach being
silent. It is a compulsion. For this reason, they are buried underground,
their mouths sealed.
Old medieval provisions sneak into modern societies: prohibitions against
the insult of a monarch become an injunction not to speak ill of the
democratic leader or of the judiciary.
Forms of early modern anxiety about criticism morphs into a deep-rooted
condemnation of treason. It is left to the powerful to define the gap
between criticism and abuse, between dissent and treason. They close the gap
when it suits them, throwing into prison people who are far from treasonous
but who are nonetheless critical.
Apprehensive regimes are often the most hasty to define any dissent as
treason. Their insecurity leads to the gun before the argument. Their
leaders take to the stage to declare that they are being threatened
personally or that this or that person is a problem.
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest, asked Henry II? His minions
killed Thomas Becket. He winked and they acted. He set in motion events that
led to this death and then that. Terror of the state is unleashed in the
name of fighting terrorism.
In India, the party in power has winked. Its far-flung supporters are
alleged to have assassinated progressive and communist intellectuals such as
Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.
Calculated doses of violence against minorities set the dial to fear. Prison
doors creak open. Threats are made. Intimidation is the order of the day.
Academics who sign petitions are told to back down. Artists are harassed.
Young students from oppressed backgrounds are told to stay in their place.
One student, Rohit Vemula, was expelled for his activism. He committed
suicide, writing: "My birth is my fatal accident."
Was this suicide or indirect political murder? India's streets flood with
students, angry at this death. They refuse to back down.
The party in power meanwhile is led by a man Narendra Modi who speaks of
development and against disorder. He speaks of power stations and space
stations, hydroelectric dams and high-speed trains. He does not like
dissent. It is anathema to him. He would like the trains to run on time,
lips to be sealed. He tells all campaign groups that they do not want to
promote development. Greenpeace earns his special ire.
Environmentalism is a foreign plot. It cannot be tolerated.
India is not alone. Turkey is in the queue for this descent into order.
Academics sign a petition that asks for peace an end to the war against
the Kurds and they are accused of terrorism.
Provincial universities that sit along the road from Istanbul to Ankara are
the primary targets. Professors at Kocaeli Univeristy and Abant Izzet Baysal
University are the first to get arrested.
More high-profile colleges will not feel the clammy fingers of the police.
Their suppression will be subtler. The Turkish Council of Higher Education
(YÖK) will come after them. Individual faculty members will be fired through
internal channels.
This is the kind of intellectual cleansing that the extreme right has long
longed for to excise intellectuals, whose dissent is constant and
clarifying. Green lights flashed from the West. The United States said it
was concerned about the arrests, but then in the same breath said it did
"not agree with the opinions expressed by those academics."
It does not, in other words, agree that negotiations are a good pathway to
peace. War is Washington's tonic. Intellectuals who disagree should not be
arrested, but they should certainly be ignored.
Other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand are not on this list.
They are monarchies with their own, deeper problems. In such countries there
is no pretense to democracy. One man rules them. It is his prerogative to
decide what is True and what is False, whether the Earth goes around the Sun
or the Sun goes around the Earth.
To speak against them is to lie. Dissent is not possible. Those who open
their mouths are flogged. Between Raif Badawi and Thanakorn Siripaiboon
there is no gap. These are young men who had the temerity to speak out
against a system that has no space for speech.
Siripaiboon made fun of the Thai monarch's dog. This is lèse majesté, a
crime against the king. It is unspeakable.
But India and Turkey are democracies. Dissent in a democracy is meant to be
the doorway to justice. Petitions are meant to be a letter to the people,
explaining points of view that are absent in the public domain.
To write a petition is an act of democracy. It is the opposite of terrorism.
To accuse those who write a petition of treason is to close the door to
democracy. It is to say that there is no gap between the gun and the word,
between those who take up arms against a state and those who speak against
the state.
It is to silence dissent. It is to return us to the time of kings.
Both India and Turkey linger at the edge of democracy. It is not enough to
hold elections more is needed. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression,
freedom for dissent these are the minimal elements of a democratic
society.
If a state quashes dissent and uses war as a weapon of fear against the
public, then it might remain a political democracy but it will no longer be
socially democratic.
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Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/can-india-and-turkey-truly-be-called-democraci
es-if-dissent-isnt-tolerated
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Can India and Turkey
Truly Be Called Democracies If Dissent Isn't Tolerated?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
