This photo is from today’s Dawn. It shows protesting lawyers damaging public property in Multan.
The ability to protest against that which they consider unjust is everybody’s right. But there is a fine line between peaceful protest and anarchy. Damaging property is definitely wrong and serves no one’s interest. It certainly does not serve the interest of the lawyers movement for democracy.
Violence is clearly wrong. It becomes no less or no more wrong when it is committed by protesting lawyers than when it is done by government against the same protesting lawyers. Just as we have called out against violence committed against protesters by government agencies, we must also call out aginst violence committed by them.
Anger is neither a strategy nor an excuse. The principle is a clear one: Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it and no matter why.
Well said AK. I have previously seen Owais Mughal’s posts . He is an excellent writer and an observer. Every one is entitled to his opinion, but here I don’t agree with him. As I said earlier, Violence is violence, but the guilty parties are different. An entire repressive regime versus some individual acts of violence. They are not equal in their effect and magnitude. Therefore, this post is not balanced. It distorts the reality.
I am disappointed that you have only taken one picture from the events in Multan and posted it along with very one-sided comments. On other political websites, you will also find photos of lawyers’ blood-soaked clothes and open scalp wounds. The picture you have displayed reflects the anger and reaction of those who were in the crowd. Let me assure you Owais, if you were part of the demonstration, you would have reacted the same way to the police brutality as the lawyer has. It is human nature, emotions and passions run very high in such situations. Please stop taking the so called moral high ground and looking down upon other people whose struggle is just.
You see what I am trying to say! Not all violence is equal. Some people may argue it is not violence at all, it is resistance. I would not go to that extent, but I strongly believe that a few individual violent acts are no equal to a systematic government oppression. Therefore, please do not give them equal weight. It is not a balancing act.
LET A THOUSAND CHE GUEVARAS BLOOM
By Alex Hash
‘Shoot, coward, you’re only going to kill a man’- Fearless last words of Che Guevara to his executioner before he was shot.
To Musharraf /Than Shwe:
In this quagmire
My hatred is justified
For my heart aches hopelessly
For freedom.
So is my guilt
That scatters screaming visions
And flutters desperately
Like a dying bird.
I love you all
In my naked being
But these wings that
Have grown out
Have a passion to fly.
I wish I could
Cut blind these eyes
That spy across horizons
And breach your walls
And your rules.
Hear the prayers of a dying man:
“Let a thousand Che bloom.”
Written By Alex Hash: Nov 6, 2007 3:29 AM
One should understand the basic difference between what Musharraf and his intelligence services are doing to human rights activists, judges, artists, and the rest of the civil society, and what we see in this picture, the smashing of a police car by few individuals happened to be lawyers or some one else wearing black coats. On the one hand we are seeing the entire government machinery committing systematic brutality and that brutality is endorsed by the government. One the other hand we are seeing some individual acts. Then shouldn’t we criticize these individuals, not the whole lawyers community. This sort of individual acts- no mater what you call them- do not represent the lawyers movement. The problem with this kind of post is that it makes certain individual acts look so huge and present them out of proportion, as the whole lawyers community is behind these acts.Violence is violence, but the guilty parties are different. An entire repressive regime versus some individual acts of violence. They are not equal in their effect and magnitude. Therefore, this post is not balanced. It distorts the reality.
Excellent post and thanks for the picture
this is unacceptable ..
I am not surprised at this. I mean what you think of lawyers? Angels ? No way. You have to compare it with what they are getting from government. A brutal act of barbarism.
So what you expect in return ? Not that its justified but you need to understand that when your (nation’s) father holds a rally in ISLAMABAD and proudly boasts that POWER HAS BEEN SHOWN in KARACHI (refering to MAY 12 ) what message he actually is conveying ?
He is conveying that MIGHT IS RIGHT, that he only understands and talks in power terms. The society has been intoxicated by the president into believe that he who has stick will prevail. And therefore these incidents , i am actually amazed that they are not common.
Folks, we are back to our basic selves. I do not recall any civic lesson being taught in the schools…… Throughout my life I have only witness spontaneous eruption of violence at individual level and national level. When we say we are a product of feudal system then that is exactly what we are - good at feuding.
After every decade we as a nation deconstruct whatever blood went into constructing. It is a pity!