| by Mahendra De Silva
( December 30, 2012, London,
Sri Lanka Guardian) Dictators and their supporters throughout the world
always complain of the double standards of Western Countries when it comes to
human rights violations. Was it correct
for Americans and Western Countries to tolerate human rights violations of
dictators who were supporting them such as Pervez Musharraf, Hosni Mubarak, Marcos
and many others and also encouraging overthrowing of regimes that opposed them
even though these regimes have been elected by people? It is no secret that
Americans helped the coup against Salvador Allende who was elected by Chilean
people and they supported the ruthless military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who
took power after Allende. Was it correct for America and allies to invade Iraq,
by making false charges of holding the weapons of mass destructions? Is it correct for America to try 9/11
terrorists in, Guantanamo Bay detection camp, subjecting them to an inferior
standard of justice than what is in America. Is it correct for America and Western
Countries to support Israel, irrespective of its track record of violating
human rights of Palestinian people? The
record of America and Western Countries with regard to most of the above issues
has been condemned by Human rights Activist and Amnesty international
regularly. It is no secret that self-interest of these countries comes first
than the interest of other countries. However criticism by their own media and
the unpopularity within these countries is compelling them to take more realistic
and just approaches recently. They were
compelled withdraw support for their own
man former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which brought in to power
Mohamed Morse, whose policies are not in the good books of Western Countries. In
future they would have to continue support popular uprisings, irrespective of
the regime taking over is favourable to them. Question remains whether some bad
acts of Western Countries would take away their right to preach human rights to
third world countries or dictatorial regimes in the world.
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| Cartoon Courtesy: religiopoliticaltalk.com |
The main difference of Western
World and Dictatorial regimes in the world is comparatively higher standards in
Rule of Law and good governance and free media in the Western World. No one in
America or in Western democracies will question the validity of their elections.
Misuse of power by Politicians or their attempt to interfere with public
service or judiciary, is minimum. Even if it happens due to high media scrutiny
they get exposed in a short time. In the
Western World, media will not dare to condemn or expose any wrong acts or
scandal of any politician irrespective of the position a person holds. Infamous
Watergate scandal made President Nixon to resign in 1974. This was first
exposed by New York Times. Bill
Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal resulted in impeachment of President Clinton.
Executive power vested with American or French Presidents are comparatively
high compared to other democracies. But there are Senate and Congress in
American system which could apply brakes on whatever the President wants to do.
President Obama, who was elected by popular vote last year, is struggling hard
to get through his Fiscal policies and other progressive proposals go through
the Congress led by opposition Republicans. But he will never dream of amending
the constitution or doing something drastic that will be against the
constitution or accepted traditions. Every day President is being bombarded
with very vicious campaigns by Fox news agency and other conservative media institutions. Even if President wants to supress media who
attacks him, he knows Americans will not tolerate him in the position even for
a day if he resorts to anti-democratic moves. The democratic standards in
Australia, Canada and European countries are even higher. Main Radio and TV
stations like BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Australian Broadcasting Corp are
funded by government.. But that does not bother them in exposing corruption in
the government or having an independent line of reporting. Former Tory cabinet
minister Jonathan Aitken in UK was investigated by the Guardian and World in
Action for corrupt deals with leading Saudi Arabians. In 1999 he was jailed for
perjury and perverting the course of justice. Then there is the scandal of MPs'
expenses. The Daily Telegraph exposed a massive culture of claim abuse that
ripped off the taxpayer’s .Former British Defence Secretary Liam Fox was forced
to resign due to the exposure of his links to his friend who posed as a
government adviser while foreign donors funded his trips with the minister.
Right minded Sinhalese should think whether the real traitors of the nation are the Sri Lankans who demand more reforms in Human Rights, Rule of Law and Good Governance in the country or those who blindly endorse and support the rulers to misuse power and do all the undemocratic acts and human right violations in the country.
All of this is proof that we
need free media to investigate and keep the public well informed. This is
vital for the continuation of democracy in any country. In a dictatorship which
controls the media, people would be compelled to read news, current affairs and
everything which is only favourable to the government. This is what is
happening in most of the totalitarian states in the world like North Korea,
China, Iran etc. In Sri Lanka we can see the news which favors only the ruling
party in the government owned newspapers published by Lake House. With regard
to privately owned newspapers, government controls the publication of news
which is adverse to them by using its influence through the owners of the
newspapers and also by threatening to reduce the government advertisements. The
media is scared to expose large scale corruptions or scandals of the
politicians and as a result corruption could continue to grow. In North Korea government
propaganda are very similar to the messages portrayed by other communist
countries. North Korean propaganda focus on military might, Utopian society and
devotion to the state, and the leader’s personality. They are used to depict
the opposite of what is really happening in the country to the outside world. Kim Jung IL is credited with using propaganda
art and posters to make the Kim family’s identity inseparable from the state.
The country's supreme leaders have had hymns dedicated to them that served as
their signature tune and were repetitively broadcast by the state media: The
Korean government also runs a film industry that promotes movie depicting the
glory of North Korean life, and the atrocities of Western Imperialism. The
people in such totalitarian states become prisoners of their own government.
In Western World, media is
mostly owned by private companies which may be having their own interests and agendas.
However there is competition to inform the correct news responsibly. People
have the choice of getting the news from various sources legally allowed to
operate in the country. In most of the Western Countries, even Al Jazeera and
other news agencies which are generally against western foreign policies and Israel
are also allowed to operate.. The chances of anyone carrying distorted news is
less under this environment. That does not mean this environment is in anyway perfect.
There were allegations against conduct of BBC itself. There were allegations
that BBC and most of the Western media highlighted the human right violations
of Sri Lankan forces more than the human right violations of Tamil Tigers.
There were allegations that Tamil Diaspora was active in influencing the
Western media.
Too much of freedom in the
western countries have its own problems. People have too many choices to think
and in the process very often people get selfish, not caring for other beings.
Chasing after more and more pleasure could end up with unrest and depression.
It has led to more violence and drug and alcohol addiction. There are hidden
racial discriminations in some sections of the society. Bringing up children in
such a society which has different cultural values is a challenge for a parents
coming from an Asian cultural background. Despite all the short comings l people from third world countries, who have lived in the past with
fear of arbitrary arrests or unfair treatment, would consider it as a privilege to live in this part of the world, where
there is higher standard in freedom of
expression, rule of law, good governance and respect of human rights.
Any right thinking man would
agree that despite all the bad things, Western countries have a much
more superior track record of democracy than rough States like Burma, Iran, North Korea or
any other third world country including Sri Lanka. Therefore they still could
speak of improving the standards of human rights in other countries. The other
reason is that they provide most of the aid to third world countries and it is
quite correct in linking aid with improvements in human right standards. The
people under the suppression of dictators in many third world countries have
only hope that UN and Western countries would apply pressure on dictators to do
more to improve human rights and good governance and fairness. The pressure
applied by Western governments has worked marvelously in Burma and even in
China. These countries are opening up more and more to improve their horrible
human rights record over the years. Even
in Sri Lanka, if Western countries had ignored all the violations of human
rights and misuse of power and did not apply pressure on rulers, our country
would have been a totally dictatorial regime a long time ago.
Another tactic used by
Dictators and their supporters to deviate the public anger against them on
human right violations, is to make allegations that that those who speak up for
human rights and media freedom are funded by Western countries or organizations
who want to destroy the achievements of the country. Often NGOs and human right
activists are branded as traitors to the nation. Iran, North Korea and many
dictators of third world countries including Sri Lanka do this regularly. It is
a fact that most of the NGOs are funded by Western countries and they sometimes
have their own agendas in addition to protection of human rights. But that does not mean that all human right activists
and NGOs are working for an unholy purpose. Most of the people involved do this
with genuine desire to see the standard of human rights and rule of law
improvements in the country in addition to improvements in living standards of
the poorest people.
Sri Lankan government and state sponsored
media often claim that Tamil diaspora is behind all bad publicity received by
Sri Lanka internationally. There is no doubt that Tamil Tigers are the greatest
benefactor of the present bad publicity Sri Lanka is receiving worldwide.
However much a government tries to hide in what is happening in the country, in
an era where globalization is the order of the day; news will pass through
internet easily and quickly throughout the world. Tamil Tigers who have not given up their goal
of Tamil Elam would be very happy that Sri Lanka is going in to chaos and more
and more misuse of power and deterioration of democracy, law and order are coming
to light. This will help them to justify their claim and prove to the world
that expecting fairness within the country for their people is impossible. Right minded Sinhalese should think whether
the real traitors of the nation are the Sri Lankans who demand more reforms in
Human Rights, Rule of Law and Good Governance in the country or those who blindly endorse
and support the rulers to misuse power and do all the undemocratic acts and
human right violations in the country.
Conclusion:
There are no perfect
democracies in the world. Western countries have their flaws and setbacks in their
human rights performances. But the
standard of democracy practiced within their countries is far more superiors to
that of third world countries or regimes run by dictators. There is strong
media and public opinion together with the alertness of the public with regard
to their rights which makes it difficult for corrupt politicians to deceive and
exploit the country for a long time. On the other hand in dictatorial regimes,
dictators suppress the media and public opinion effectively so that they could
exploit the country continuously without any obstacles. The argument that
western countries do not have any right to criticize or interfere with regard
to human rights violations of the dictators is baseless and made by dictators
themselves or their supporters. The civilians of a country suppressed by unjust
rule of dictators will have no escape unless International Community cooperate
to rescue them by applying pressure on
such regimes by way of isolation or
trade embargos. Basic human rights are universal and do not differentiate
between countries. It is the duty of all intelligent citizens to demand
improvements in Human Rights and Rule of Law in the country.
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