The Suppression of Democracy

Posted on by Arundhati Oommen

There are 7.4 billion people who walk this earth. Each and every one of them a mental mosaic of individual perspectives, life experiences, instinct, intellect, and power. Every sentence that has ever spilled off your lips was conceived by you, delivered by you. The transmission and collaboration of our world celebrates both the power of personal belief and the collage of opinions that can be created in a supportive environment. An environment nurtured through democracy.

Right to expression is a fundamental human right. As Thomas Jefferson wisely put it: “The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution.”

The very document that signifies the birth of America, the constitution, begins with “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” We the people. Not we the government. We the people. Our ideas come together to evolve and gain new insight and further propel our nation forward. Creating a more perfect union as a whole.

The press is the sole institution with the ability to converse with the people and the organized government, providing the transfer of knowledge, opinions, and facts from one end of America to the other. The press are protectors of the people, though exposure can be a dangerous game… “Two Reuter’s journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained and jailed in Myanmar on Dec.12, 2017. At the time of their arrests, they had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.”(Reuters Sept.3, 2018) These journalists had exposed this massacre of men and children, and in turn were immediately arrested and thrown in jail for seven years. This comes just as the U.N. announced the government of Myanmar should be tried for genocide against Rohingya Muslims. Although they had been arrested, these journalists sparked a conversation. Without any knowledge of this horrific massacre nobody would have been aware of what horrors had befallen these men and children. This is one of the stories with a less gruesome ending. All around the world, journalists are being gunned down. Shot in the head. Assassinated. And why?   Because the press is a monumental obstacle to untethered rogue dictators.

Attempting to silence the press is equivalent to a blatant disregard of the United States Constitution. Press represents people, and to silence the press is to close the people of America off of knowledge, new ideas, and the facts of the government they themselves elected. A ruthless subversion of democracy.

Realize that the press is not our adversary, government officials who believe in a totalitarian utopia are the enemy of the press. These are the people who consistently issue death threats, order assassinations, and aggressively turn a blind eye to the facts. Many simply believing that every single supplier of their information about the world around them is indeed out to get them. As the great George Orwell put it: “In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy any writer or journalist has to face.” Ramifications of this notion cause us to segregate what we believe is the truth versus genuine facts and information provided by our press. We become uninformed and believe fact less erroneous assumptions due to our closemindedness about the world around us, effectively leading a fictitious life.

We say history repeats itself, round and round again. Someone too greedy and power hungry, Taking advantage of the people. Silencing one by one those who speak. We say silence is submission, condemn those who stand up and call us out. Call them outspoken, treasonous, lying. Labeled with the worst we can think of. And yet, every single one of us has the means to be unyielding. A platform to speak the truth. From social media to the world stage, someone will always be watching. You will be heard. We are all journalists; you have a voice. Use it.

 

Khashoggi: America’s Loss

Posted on by Arundhati Oommen

This piece on Jamal Khashoggi seeks to reflect the ideas portrayed in Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. Though Thoreau’s ideas were published in 1849, his central claims maintain a key role in the American narrative today. In a modern perspective, Jamal Khashoggi is the martyr for the Civil Disobedience movement. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi dissident who dedicated his life to political reform for the people, by the people. Khashoggi was a columnist for the Washington Post and was outspoken against the Saudi crown and it’s repeated egregious human rights infringements, continuing to expose and persuade his audience to create a presence and make change. However, this very quality of exposure led to his assassination as he was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate of Istanbul.

Khashoggi embodies Thoreau’s ideals as he seeks to inform every American and every person whom he can reach of his own experiences and hopes. Khashoggi becomes the modern day messenger of Thoreau’s principles as Thoreau says, “Let every man make it known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” (Civil Disobedience) Khashoggi spent his life’s work dedicated to informing and highlighting the injustices he and others suffered from. Khashoggi has made clear what kind of government will demand his respect. The only lingering question is whether we will listen.

Khashoggi’s death lead to subsequent articles and calls against the Saudi Government, but few came from the people themselves. It is simply indolent to claim that we as Americans “recognize [our] right to revolution”, for in the own words of Thoreau, “almost all [of us] say such is not the case now.” If the Washington Post and Jamal Khashoggi live by the words “democracy dies in darkness” then we as spectators must live the line of Thoreau: “[for] a man has not everything to do, but something.”

This art piece illustrates Jamal Khashoggi in his traditional checkered Keffiyeh, but in the colors of the American flag: red, white, and blue. The colors serve as the reminder for what Khashoggi fought and died for, the proliferation of American values. Khashoggi received a haven writing for the Washington post, and we as Americans must continue to defend those ideals that give America her maternal characteristics. Free speech and the right to peaceably protest are the government granted intrinsic qualities of Americans, but in Khashoggi’s own words, “it isn’t just the Middle East where freedom of expression is in jeopardy” (Washington Post, Khashoggi’s final column). Despite the rising denunciation from news organizations, Khashoggi’s assassination failed to bring the condemnation of the most paramount power on this planet, The United States Federal Government. In the weeks following Khashoggi’s death, his life was a story unwritten and unread.

The American people seem to have grown accustomed to solely absorbing horrific narratives that end with an oddly optimistic note. Jamal Khashoggi’s life will not follow this pattern. We as Americans must force ourselves to listen to the jarring minor discord that is now part of all our lives. Jamal Khashoggi was the modern-day flag bearer for the first amendment, but for now, it seems as though that flag is now a tattered, ripped piece of cloth that whips through the sky. If anyone is to ever carry that flag above their shoulders again, they will be forced to think twice.