Freedom Of Expression Only For The Few?

MAN is born free and he/she would die so.

This is the lesson learned since time immemorial. The recent anti-democratic and anti-freedom-of-speech tendencies in our country are the beginning of doom days for our democratic nation.For the past 16 years we have been working on what we were assured, and strongly believed, are our God-given and eternal rights and freedoms as enshrined and entrenched in chapter 3 of our national Constitution.Today the exercise of the freedom of speech, or even the enjoyment of the right to life, is facing a choppy future.And this is neither caused by intrusive foreign elements nor by circumstances beyond our control, but rather by the orchestration and engineering of our own kith and kin.But the fact of the matter is that freedom and the right to live life to the fullest are the natural gifts of every man and woman and no one has any right whatsoever to violate them, let alone those who assured our citizens, in writing, of the protection of such entitlements.I am not here advocating the abuse of freedom of speech or baseless attacks against individuals, but what I advocate is the free expression of one’s honest opinions and views regarding the ways and means of enhancing the values and virtues of an democratic and independent nation, thus securing for all of us justice, peace and equality.Further, what I advocate is rational and well-informed criticism, free of the deliberate fallacies of reasoning, of the actions of fellow countrymen and women which are not always in the best interests of all of us, especially those people in positions of public power.This is why, in this article, I would like to register my strong criticism of the attempts to stifle the freedom of speech by some of the leaders of the Government and the ruling party.This is simply not the way it is supposed to be: constitutionally, rationally or morally.In the propagation of our opinions, views, promises, actions and deeds; we should always remember that one day we will be critically and rigorously tested against them.We should therefore be prepared to either hold our heads high on the day of testing or be satisfied with our dismal failures of non-commitment.What goes around comes around.In February 1990, the founding National Assembly adopted a constitution in which the entitlement to the fundamental freedoms and rights are the core of the document; today the commitment, and honesty, of those who drafted and adopted that Constitution is being put to test.Some of the drafters and adopters of our Constitution would definitely not pass the test.They must be reminded that they took an oath to protect and uphold it.D Uuyuni wa Kamati MarientalThe recent anti-democratic and anti-freedom-of-speech tendencies in our country are the beginning of doom days for our democratic nation.For the past 16 years we have been working on what we were assured, and strongly believed, are our God-given and eternal rights and freedoms as enshrined and entrenched in chapter 3 of our national Constitution.Today the exercise of the freedom of speech, or even the enjoyment of the right to life, is facing a choppy future.And this is neither caused by intrusive foreign elements nor by circumstances beyond our control, but rather by the orchestration and engineering of our own kith and kin.But the fact of the matter is that freedom and the right to live life to the fullest are the natural gifts of every man and woman and no one has any right whatsoever to violate them, let alone those who assured our citizens, in writing, of the protection of such entitlements.I am not here advocating the abuse of freedom of speech or baseless attacks against individuals, but what I advocate is the free expression of one’s honest opinions and views regarding the ways and means of enhancing the values and virtues of an democratic and independent nation, thus securing for all of us justice, peace and equality.Further, what I advocate is rational and well-informed criticism, free of the deliberate fallacies of reasoning, of the actions of fellow countrymen and women which are not always in the best interests of all of us, especially those people in positions of public power.This is why, in this article, I would like to register my strong criticism of the attempts to stifle the freedom of speech by some of the leaders of the Government and the ruling party.This is simply not the way it is supposed to be: constitutionally, rationally or morally.In the propagation of our opinions, views, promises, actions and deeds; we should always remember that one day we will be critically and rigorously tested against them.We should therefore be prepared to either hold our heads high on the day of testing or be satisfied with our dismal failures of non-commitment.What goes around comes around.In February 1990, the founding National Assembly adopted a constitution in which the entitlement to the fundamental freedoms and rights are the core of the document; today the commitment, and honesty, of those who drafted and adopted that Constitution is being put to test.Some of the drafters and adopters of our Constitution would definitely not pass the test.They must be reminded that they took an oath to protect and uphold it.D Uuyuni wa Kamati Mariental