BTW What is Democracy and how does it help us? he asks.
This is a question that popped up when we where discussing things about India.. Everybody locked-up eyes with the guy who put this question, Jas.
Preet and Mark, soon turned towards Raj. Their eyes had the question.. "what are going to reply for this?"
Raj smiled and said. "Let's go to the canteen and have some coffee?"
They went to the canteen and took their usual corner table, the only one round in the whole canteen of square tables.
They sat down, and Raj sat opposite to Jas. Probably, with that gesture Jas guessed something and said, "So you have a long answer, Raj".
"Yea, we do have another hour for our next class" suggested Preet.
Raj sipped some coffee and started the answer, though he didn't know which things to put first given the wide territory of things democracy means.
Raj: "Yea, We have an hour.. but even if we talk about democracy for an hour we wouldn't have completely understood what it stands for.. sometimes."
"Its the similar... like you understand independence better only when you don't have it.
Democracy means a lot of things starting with, independence, freedom of speech, right to information.. there are many forms of it. To understand it fully, we need to understand the importance of its forms and what it means to us.
Imagine you are being locked up at home by your parent, and not being allowed to go out of the house for many days.. Mano:and that, for no mistake you did, or no reason in regard. How would it be? Raj:Yes, You keep on thinking why should I be locked up, why should not I go out when I have done nothing. You shout at your parents asking them give a reason, asking them open the door, telling them you need to do things.
Here, your right to freedom to go out is being restricted for no reason. And you try to speak out, shout and express your protest in the action to get back your right. This is a situation where you understand what your freedom means.
The most important thing in freedom, and thereby democracy is that you have your rights when you do no harm or when you don't misuse it. When you make a mistake the first thing to punish is your right, and then, you. Mark:Theives are being locked up in jail for misusing their right to be outside the jail.
Raj:When a government cheats you of your tax money with politicians swallowing it, they are misusing public resources for self gains. Its against public interests that they are doing this.. Although its done without our knowledge, this action that affects our interests of expecting the government to do useful things with our tax money.
In another instance, say some politicians in the government have some information that they are hiding from the people, or someone is smuggling weapons into the country.. you seek to know about it, or try to stop it, or report it to some authority to action against it, or report it to public through the media. By all this, you are exercising your right to information, your right to react, and by using some form of media you are using your freedom of expression.
Now all that was about what these rights are and how we already are using it. And all this is democracy.
Preet:And a constitutional code or "LAW" is built around that wider fact of protecting all democratic rights for the people covered by the constitution.
Raj: Suppose, If this be a country, where the press is censored, or interenet use is restricted, or its ruled by a dictator where people are punished for protesting or questioning anything happening in the country... how would your life be? That's what if its not democracy.
Nepal's Press censorship
Raj: Currently, Nepal is being ruled forcefully by a King who has indirectly banned nepal press from publishing any news against his regime. And we are not hearing anything from nepal now, be whatever is happening inside that country.
Preet:
Some newspapers publish protests happening in nepal... and we hear that some journalists are punished or warned of punishment. News is that the nepalese government is very closely watching all news published on all forms of media.
Mark:
There is one weblog 'Radio Free nepal' which keeps posting news on nepal, but this is to a large extent gets disrupted in service, or changes its webaddress, or posts do not detail things but only protest the rule. Its said, all posts are being done anonymously through various technical hacks so that authorities dont get to find the person or possibly stop the blog from existing.
Internet censorship
Raj: In countries like Cuba, Iran, and China, Internet access is restricted.While the Iranian government boasts of a technically advanced system in blocking many websites, Internet access in Cuba is the privilege of a very few and one has to get permission from the ruling communist party. The chinese have a model of allowing anybody use internet but they control online activity to a huge extent.
Mano:Being in a country like India, you very freely blog, write things and post on the web.. but can you imagine all this happening.
Raj:Even for sending an email, people in some countries use a different netcafe to browse each time to avoid being tracked at the same netcafe, or use various anonymity protection softwares to send messages and all.
There's a good downloadable book on blogging whose last few chapters detail various means of blogging with anonymite. Its a good read for the technical know-how.
And compared to all those people who have restrictions even in Internet, look at us, we are here in India posting anything on the internet, sending messages and communicating through emails and sms even when we are just few yards apart.... except for one thing.. but still... we are openly protesting in our college on the restriction of the dress code..."
Jas:"Haan yar.. what do you think our principal is going to do about this dress code.. Will it be taken off. They are ridiculous to force you come in light-colored shirts, keep your hair length, no hair coloring, all nuts."
"Yes, its ridiculous.. Time for class. Lets move", says Raj and everybody leaves for class.
Preet and Mark, soon turned towards Raj. Their eyes had the question.. "what are going to reply for this?"
Raj smiled and said. "Let's go to the canteen and have some coffee?"
They went to the canteen and took their usual corner table, the only one round in the whole canteen of square tables.
They sat down, and Raj sat opposite to Jas. Probably, with that gesture Jas guessed something and said, "So you have a long answer, Raj".
"Yea, we do have another hour for our next class" suggested Preet.
Raj sipped some coffee and started the answer, though he didn't know which things to put first given the wide territory of things democracy means.
Raj: "Yea, We have an hour.. but even if we talk about democracy for an hour we wouldn't have completely understood what it stands for.. sometimes."
"Its the similar... like you understand independence better only when you don't have it.
Democracy means a lot of things starting with, independence, freedom of speech, right to information.. there are many forms of it. To understand it fully, we need to understand the importance of its forms and what it means to us.
Imagine you are being locked up at home by your parent, and not being allowed to go out of the house for many days.. Mano:and that, for no mistake you did, or no reason in regard. How would it be? Raj:Yes, You keep on thinking why should I be locked up, why should not I go out when I have done nothing. You shout at your parents asking them give a reason, asking them open the door, telling them you need to do things.
Here, your right to freedom to go out is being restricted for no reason. And you try to speak out, shout and express your protest in the action to get back your right. This is a situation where you understand what your freedom means.
The most important thing in freedom, and thereby democracy is that you have your rights when you do no harm or when you don't misuse it. When you make a mistake the first thing to punish is your right, and then, you. Mark:Theives are being locked up in jail for misusing their right to be outside the jail.
Raj:When a government cheats you of your tax money with politicians swallowing it, they are misusing public resources for self gains. Its against public interests that they are doing this.. Although its done without our knowledge, this action that affects our interests of expecting the government to do useful things with our tax money.
In another instance, say some politicians in the government have some information that they are hiding from the people, or someone is smuggling weapons into the country.. you seek to know about it, or try to stop it, or report it to some authority to action against it, or report it to public through the media. By all this, you are exercising your right to information, your right to react, and by using some form of media you are using your freedom of expression.
Now all that was about what these rights are and how we already are using it. And all this is democracy.
Preet:And a constitutional code or "LAW" is built around that wider fact of protecting all democratic rights for the people covered by the constitution.
Raj: Suppose, If this be a country, where the press is censored, or interenet use is restricted, or its ruled by a dictator where people are punished for protesting or questioning anything happening in the country... how would your life be? That's what if its not democracy.
Nepal's Press censorship
Raj: Currently, Nepal is being ruled forcefully by a King who has indirectly banned nepal press from publishing any news against his regime. And we are not hearing anything from nepal now, be whatever is happening inside that country.
Preet:
Some newspapers publish protests happening in nepal... and we hear that some journalists are punished or warned of punishment. News is that the nepalese government is very closely watching all news published on all forms of media.
Mark:
There is one weblog 'Radio Free nepal' which keeps posting news on nepal, but this is to a large extent gets disrupted in service, or changes its webaddress, or posts do not detail things but only protest the rule. Its said, all posts are being done anonymously through various technical hacks so that authorities dont get to find the person or possibly stop the blog from existing.
Internet censorship
Raj: In countries like Cuba, Iran, and China, Internet access is restricted.While the Iranian government boasts of a technically advanced system in blocking many websites, Internet access in Cuba is the privilege of a very few and one has to get permission from the ruling communist party. The chinese have a model of allowing anybody use internet but they control online activity to a huge extent.
Mano:Being in a country like India, you very freely blog, write things and post on the web.. but can you imagine all this happening.
Raj:Even for sending an email, people in some countries use a different netcafe to browse each time to avoid being tracked at the same netcafe, or use various anonymity protection softwares to send messages and all.
There's a good downloadable book on blogging whose last few chapters detail various means of blogging with anonymite. Its a good read for the technical know-how.
And compared to all those people who have restrictions even in Internet, look at us, we are here in India posting anything on the internet, sending messages and communicating through emails and sms even when we are just few yards apart.... except for one thing.. but still... we are openly protesting in our college on the restriction of the dress code..."
Jas:"Haan yar.. what do you think our principal is going to do about this dress code.. Will it be taken off. They are ridiculous to force you come in light-colored shirts, keep your hair length, no hair coloring, all nuts."
"Yes, its ridiculous.. Time for class. Lets move", says Raj and everybody leaves for class.
posted by Harish Palaniappan at 7:51 PM
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