Cry for Freedom

By:- R.K. Birjit Singh *

The Word "Freedom" can be defined as the rights of an individual to act as they choose. In this sense, it is frequently called individual liberty. The term is also employed in connection with the achievement of sovereignty by people; when so used, it is called national liberty.

Although in these traditional senses liberty may be specifically civil or political, the modern concept further connotes a generalized body of rights, such as the right to economic opportunity and education. The real wealth of a nation is its people.

And the purpose of living in a free independent and democratic country is to create an enabling environment for the people to enjoy long healthy and creative lives and to exercise their rights of being a citizen of the country. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of power, material and financial wealth by the politicians and sons of the soil. Those who are in power in any forms cut the nerve and veins of the people of Manipur in the name of the movement for freedom or development.

In the modern trend of global development, information is knowledge; Information is money; Information is power; information is intelligence. The fusion of computing and telecommunication has cut the space, distance and time. The ability to identify and move genetic material across species type has broken bounds of nature.

Writing computer programs and deciphering, revealing genetic codes have replaced the search for gold, conquest of land and the command of machinery as the path to economic power. But in this land of jewel, the gun is power; the gun is money and it is the supreme law of the land.

The people of Manipur learn to live in between the barrels of the guns. What ever may be the forms of organization, constitution of a land or country and so called acts or law, the rules of conduct must be for the better cause of the people of the land and nation. If the rule or the law does not eradicate inequalities and human sufferings and operates without reference to social goal, it becomes a meaningless exercise in protection of the vested interest.

The glorious 2000 years old history and civilization of Manipur failed to bring a complete Manipuri nationalization. The exotic religion, culture and ill-policies of the subsequent central and state Govt. led to the uneven development thereby bringing fragmentation-dividing communities, religion, caste and creed in Manipur.

Social tensions and conflicts are ignited when there is extremes of inequality between marginal and powerful that set–off latent social tension between groups whether ethnic religion or social are the major cause of the current waves of civil conflicts in Manipur.

Civil conflicts have been flaring for decades, what is new today is the complex interaction of interest, the blurred line between conflicts and business. Now the people of Manipur, the civil societies, student organizations, arm and unarm organizations are swallowing its own tail, incapable of ideology and renewal, unable to break with its past crisis and failures. It's so amazing that now it turns out to be the land of extortionist, revolutions, rebellions and mutinies.

There will be a little meaning to talk about 'Human Rights' in this land of total anarchy ,where there is no peace and love among the brothers; where there is no right to live alive. How we can talk about Human Rights when we don't have the right to live alive. Right to live has got higher status in the hierarchy of Human Rights norms.

Completely unrestricted freedom of action by a number of mushrooming underground, students and civil organizations would make peaceful human existence impossible, some restraints on freedom of action are necessary and inevitable. All the so called organizations are founded with laudable intentions for the betterment of the people of Manipur but at last they comes out to be the bond of contentions between people.

Rhetorically, our organizations claim to be the true sons of the soil and whatever their action and activities are infallible and repository of truth. And we have adopted 'shooting', 'killing' and 'threatening' as a key device for extortion and instrument for social change whereas knowledge based education is a ticket for reformation for any kind of social problems and conflicts.

Virtually all codes of action recognize that basic limitation. Liberty is defined in such codes as the right of individuals to act without restraint as long as their actions do not interfere with the equivalent rights of others; acts that do violate the rights of others are rejected as license.

The nature and extent of the restraints to be imposed and the selection of the means of enforcing them have been important problems for philosophers and lawmakers throughout history. Almost all the solutions finally arrived at have recognized the fundamental need for a government, meaning an individual or group of individuals empowered to impose and enforce whatever restraints are deemed necessary.

In modern times, great emphasis has also been placed on the need for laws to define the nature and extent of these restraints. The philosophy of anarchism is an exception; it objects to all governments as evil in themselves and substitutes an idealized society in which social restraint is achieved through individual observance of high ethical principles.

Governance does not mean a mere Government. It means the framework of rules, institutions and established practices that sets limit and give incentives for the behaviour of individuals, organizations.

Unfortunately, we have the Government of the blood sucking politicians who are very busy in collecting and caring their ill-gotten money and bank accounts. Without strong governance the danger of conflicts could be a reality and that reality is what we are facing today. It is very hard to define who rule this land, the Govt., the Torch bearers, Student's organization, Civil Societies or the Underground outfits. Everybody takes law in their land.

A perfect balance between the right of an individual to act without undue interference and the need of the community to restrain freedom of action has often been projected in theory but has never been achieved. The restraints imposed throughout most of history have been oppressive.

History has been described as society's progress from a state of anarchy, through periods of despotism during which liberty was nonexistent or restricted to one privileged group, to a state of liberty for every individual under democratic governments; history has thus been shaped by the natural desire of all people to be free.

The need of the hour is to redefine our freedom movement in tune with the needs of time and in congruent with the modern era of development and change. We should not further ignore the economic rights of the people without which political rights are hollow, otherwise we will remain as a primitive society fighting each other with an illogical and never ending conflicts.