International Perspectives Speak Out, Never Sorry forward and three steps back in political and social reforms, people began to doubt not only the ruling party’s ability and sincerity, but its legitimacy as a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Not all things are dark. by Nima Congratulations to China’s Source: Creative Commons unprecedented success in Twitter China Must Remember: improving massive numbers of lives since its 1978 reform-andThe Conscience of opening policy! (Really improved? China The answer may be “yes” while measured by average income, and Wearing the hats of a “no” while measured by Catholic, an activist, and distribution inequality.) But the an NGO practitioner at the economic success deemed same time makes me the minority of the unsustainable could in no way offset and justify minority among Chinese, both in the U.S. and human mistreatment. This is not a zero-sum China. However risky and marginalized as game: gain of one thing means loss of seen by the silent majority, I feel strongest from another. China’s unwillingness and/or inability within. The synergy to be created by the three to shift its attention from making money for the hats such as a Christian social movement for vested interests, to making life meaningful for human rights, like the Buddhist monks its people, reflect the authority’s devaluation of organizing Burma’s pro-democracy protests, is an individual life and fundamental humanity. In what the regime fears most. addition, the pervasive culture of shortWhen Communist China chose to act against sightedness and quick results in the Chinese the whole world in universal human values, and system is crippling the emergence of this jailed Liu Xiaobo (listed with Aung San hollow superpower. In my opinion, the above SuuKyi, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, devaluation, and culture, shouldn’t have been as Martin Luther King, etc. as top 10 political devastating as they are today if China was prisoners by TIME), China’s first Nobel Peace deeply influenced by Christianity (or any major Prize winner, 2010, Liu said in court, not with anger but grace, “I have no enemies.” Now let me ask you: shouldn’t you learn not to hate the regime, and do your own part to by Fernando Bolles help make change happen? Did you speak for the voiceless in your own country, let Living as a reasonable citizen in republican alone for the persecuted in the distant democracy, one of the most vexing frustrations land? For an individual, being part of the is being forced to exist side-by-side with living silent majority is immoral; for a unending, visceral hypocrisy. To watch the news nation, doing business with a regime that or to read the newspaper is to be battered by treats its people inhumanely without at least instances of those in government reneging on pointing out the evil is immoral, too. “No promises, violating principles, and holding longer weeping for others’ sufferings is the themselves to a lower standard than what we greatest tragedy of our time,” said Ai. He might imagine this nation—or any like it—was was not a Christian, yet testified to this founded upon. Whether it involves invading biblical prophecy which is happening today sovereign nations or forcing them to prostrate for many in China and some in America. themselves to our will through economic means, What’s dangerous is dictatorship; what’s living in America too often means abetting more dangerous is no one speaking. As the breaches of common-sense morality. statesman Edmund Burke thought, “the only In nations founded upon equality, concern for thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the well-being of their citizens, and the good men to do nothing.” Bringing China (I encouraging of upward-mobility, there is no mean the mastermind, Chinese Communist greater slap in the face to those principles than Party), a regime fearful of nobody and no the maintenance of a pervasive intelligence divine power, to the right moral track is in apparatus, operating against perceived enemies, the best interest of the international both foreign and domestic. In nation after community. Like it or not, America has long nation, the presence of such an apparatus been trusted and counted on by the world’s presents an immense temptation to suppress repressed to support their cause, press for political opposition and enforce a culture of their release, and combat evil. America, a subservience and ideological homogeneity. nation under God and the de facto human There are few clearer case studies of this than in rights defender, has been fulfilling this the Kingdom of Jordan. noble duty. It should be honored, and Jordan prides itself on being a bastion of deserves to be the envy of the world. moderation and modernity in the Middle East, America, along with other major consistently doing its level best to demonstrate democracies, has no choice but to share this commitment to democratic ideals and rising responsibility to defend justice, at a time above the tribal conflict saturating its neighbors. when China mistreats its own people and In reality, however, these resolutions are harbors other extreme dictatorships, such as undermined by Jordan’s reliance on its North Korea, to commit greater evil. intelligence agency in running its affairs, Comparatively, America, although ensuring that no ideological minority grows too struggling with its own democracy, has a powerful and that the country stays in lock-step system well designed to avoid dictatorship with the wishes of the Western world on whom and correct human errors. When the it is dependent. Chinese regime failed historic turning In Jordan, much ado is made regarding the points, 1949 founding, 1978 reform-andopenness of their democracy and their tolerance opening, 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and for public protest, but, in truth, opposition 1997 Hong Kong’s return to stride toward leaders and even the occasional bystander are democratization, and when it moved a step
This is Part III of a series that ran in the January, and February editions of The New People. This is the third and final installment of the story.
religion), which, more or less, teaches altruism, faith, compassion, abstinence, and eternal afterlife over tangible worldly pleasures. My last advice: China’s national image ads in Times Square should not, at least not exclusively, feature good people faking smiles to the West as part of its propaganda. It should also showcase (or lambaste as it wants) bad guys: Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaobo, GaoZhisheng, Hu Jia, Tan Zuoren, Li Wangyang, Cheng Guangcheng and see how the rest of the world reacts (or does not react). Admirably, these faithful pioneers are pushing the dictatorship in a direction that may not be politically impeccable, but most importantly, morally justified to assure each human being’s dignity. (Hey, boss, also inform us where these expensive ads appear on the government budget, and where to find this budget? Don’t tell us this is another state secret.) Every drop of blood shed and every minute in prison are not in vain; they are for you and for me. Perpetrators judgment is near; justice must be done. The conscience of China living and dead, inside and outside of the regime’s seemingly robust walls, awaits the big day to come. Amen. Nima now lives in the United States and can be contacted at usacnm@gmail.com.
Jordan-Domestic Intelligence vs. Democracy
6 - NEWPEOPLE
March 2013
www.bbc.co.uk
targeted by the shadowy intelligence agency that has eyes in every government office and on every street corner. The General Intelligence Directorate, or mukhabarat, is an agency spoken of in whispered tones and barely concealed bitterness. When religious extremists disrupt protests, it is generally understood in Jordan that the mukhabarat has organized the disturbance. When government ministers go missing or suddenly withdraw from office, everyone knows who is responsible. This author interviewed a male schoolteacher, a young man living with his parents, who breached Islamic taboo by getting an arm tattoo of the band Slayer. When the man went to get his passport renewed he was referred to the mukhabarat, who accused him of being a Satanist and beat him viciously before letting him go. There can be no true democratic equity when state-sanctioned policing of thought and deed is pervasive and endemic in the character of a nation. Jordan and other nations like it have come to rely on their respective intelligence services as a crutch to keep order, when in the long term they do something far worse: undermine whatever cherished principles nations wish to be steered by. Fernando Bolles is a writer and activist living in New York.