Whew!
So I breathe a sigh of relief that today’s protest against police brutality passed off without incident. All right, the turn out was small but the fact that not a single arrest was made is worth celebrating about. For those couple of hours, people in the Maldives who were there at the protest were able to express their views freely and most importantly hear what they wanted to listen to.
Freedom of expression is the keystone of every democracy. In the first session of the UNGA resolution 59(I) was adopted which states "Freedom of information is a fundamental human right and ... the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated."
We cannot make informed decisions if there is no freedom of expression. We would be living in the Dark Ages like we were before in the Maldives. We would be whispering in hushed tones and give scared glances around in case someone was listening and someone reported us; took us to into custody and tortured us. That is sadly what happens most of the time. But not today. Not for those few hours.
Why is the government so scared of giving us something that is guaranteed by the virtue of us being born humans? Answer? simple!
I believe Golhabo is frightened because it gives us Maldivians dignity. It makes us human. And he cannot afford that. If he allows all those in the opposition to be “human” then he cannot get his Golhaa Force to beat them up and torture them. So he has to dehumanize the opposition. So that his Golhaa Force will not hesitate to act on his behalf. They will not stop and think “wait! These guys are human beings like us”.
So he cannot afford to give them the freedom to think. Because freedom means choice.
And they just might choose someone else.
They just might.
Just might.
Might.
