We take freedom for granted. It was not always like that and in many countries freedom is still a luxury beyond the reach of most people.
Freedom is priceless but it is also tenuous. It cannot be taken for granted. We have to be vigilant. The struggle to preserve it is ever going. Freedom is always a work in progress. It is not a constant. Whenever its frontiers expand we immediately notice new swatches of the socio-political environment which can be enhanced by still more freedom.
These are my thoughts while this week the world remembers the twenty fifth anniversary of the quashing of freedom in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Those my age and also those who are younger cherish the moments, nay days, of the pro-freedom manifestation spearheaded by Chinese students demonstrating in that vast Beijing square. The fresh breath air of freedom replaced the traffic fumes at Tiananmen.
Alas, it was not to last for long. The Communist regime, cruel then as it is now, ordered the inappropriately called People's Liberation Army to slaughter hundreds, possibly thousands, of unarmed civilians while cracking down on the student-led protest movement in Beijing. The Communist regime was afraid that the student demonstrations would turn into a full blown revolution by the working classes who gave massive support for the students’ efforts. The regime felt that its own self-interest and survival mandated quick and draconian measures. Besides the students the main victims were the workers and the common people who were massacred on the approach roads in western Beijing.
The Chinese communist regime celebrated the anniversary by launching an intensive censorship campaign. Scores of suspected dissidents were arrested or called in for questioning in the run-up to the anniversary. Its officials did its best to delete any reference to the anniversary from the Internet. Repression is the order of the day.
The media in the rest of the world commemorated what had happened in Tiananmen. This is not the only suppression of freedom in the world during these last twenty five years. All such suppressions should be commemorated.
Freedom cannot be taken for granted.