An incongruity of pictures
telescoping into a kaleidoscope of news; two
euphoric
Presidents, all smiles and glass in hand, during the visit of Nicolas
Sarkozy to Pekin in November 2007 to meet Hu Jintao; the two same
Presidents, tense, stiff arms, during a (traditional?) shaking of
hands in London in the fringe of the G-20 at the beginning of April
2009. A funereal look, that moreover suited the circumstances, since
the two men had just officially (for how long?) buried the noisy
quarrel, opportunely made much of by one reproaching the other to
have dared to meet the Dalai Lama, this spoilsport idea of lying
going round in circles. There had to be a lot of bowing and scraping,
several embassies and a number of missions of contrition to soothe
the wrath of the dignified heirs of the imperial arrogance of the
Forbidden City – on the whole, an act of allegiance to
dictatorship, hardly conforming to the Republican ideal nor to the
untiring reiteration of the defence of human rights. Hey Presto! It
is time for compromise and for the necessity to stay in Realpolitik.
Autonomy or independence, the territorial integrity of the empire is
considered sacrosanct, and Tibet is not on the Agenda – nor
Sino-French relations, nor United Nations authority, and be careful
if you dare meddle in the internal affairs of Beijing.
And during
this time, up there on the roof of the world, in a country that
exists, nevertheless without its existence being duly recognized, the
Chinese forces of law and order arrest, harass, torture, rape, beat
to death the recalcitrants – monks, nuns, nomads, farmers,
students, old or young – these crazy people stubbornly against
colonial happiness imposed under the pretext of modernization,
liberation of imperialism, and quite recently, the emancipation of
serfs, without forgetting democratic reform. One asks what do these
Tibetans want, who persist in pretending to want to govern themselves
and, in their fashion, build their future by saving their culture,
their traditions, their otherness. Nothing more or less than is
written in the United Nations Chart…
Literally
cut off from the rest of the world, transformed into an open air
prison, under unacknowledged martial law, forbidden to look towards
the outside, a muzzled Tibet lived through the weeks marking the 50th
anniversary of the Lhassa revolt, the Chinese coup de force against
its legitimate government and the beginning of exile. Inside Tibet,
a few foolhardy people took the risk to demonstrate, either on their
on or in mini-groups, and were quickly imprisoned without any kind of
trial. Monks, nuns, young people, nomads, farmers, were arrested –
under cover of “troubling the public order”, if not “endangering
the security of the State”. Nothing, or very little, filtered
through to give an idea of the situation, and it was not the
announcement of the re-opening of Tibet to tourists on 5 April that
will change much, since journalists and diplomats remain strictly
banned. And interested tourist companies are less affirmative, even
giving the date of 28 April for the promised opening. As for the
people responsible for world affairs, they have too much to do
elsewhere to ask for explanations from the torturers, once again
blind to the foreseeable consequences of their inconsequence: despots
and petty tyrants are quick to take advantage.
The ill-fated
recent Conference Against Racism at UN Headquarters in Geneva did not
include Tibet on its Agenda. Well of course, whomsoever ventures in
these august confines to pronounce its name will rapidly bring on the
thunder of the honourable delegates brought out in force so that
there should be no attempt against the image of China. In other
words, the European Union, Amnesty International or any other NGO, or
even country, who” interferes” will immediately be put in their
place, on the pretext that “these allegations are based on
ignorance and prejudice”, and those who mention them are firmly
invited to “get back into the right path and proceed to
self-criticism”. The authentic language of the Cultural Revolution,
not even reinterpreted, simply taken for the needs of a cause
difficult to defend faced with accumulated proofs and testimonies
contradicting the soothing official words.
Could it be
that the present Chinese leaders are so unsure of their facts as to
believe, according to the words of Mao, that “a lie repeated a
hundred times becomes the truth”? Truth, perhaps, but completely
relative to circumstances, and destined like everything to change
because the wheel turns inexorably.
A propaganda
offensive without precedent against the Dalai Lama was recently
launched, not burdening itself with either scruples or diplomacy, or
even the reality of recognized historical facts. One has only to
follow the new websites that are springing up with revealing titles
such as “Human Rights in Tibet” (and elsewhere? China, for
example) or “the Real Tibet” that is obligingly spread out in an
exhibition organized with great pomp and ceremony in Beijing for the
edification of a carefully chosen public, without forgetting the
“reactions of visitors”, even if it means taking the right choice
amongst the commentaries or to simply deform what has been said; the
classic tricks of the trade of a propaganda bureau, last year
rebaptized “publicity”, well run in.
Adding insult
to injury, the big shots of the Chinese Communist Party pretend to
believe that it is only necessary to wield a truncheon to muzzle the
opposition.
Once again,
perhaps - but only for a time: it is impossible to dupe the whole
word all the time. The Chinese are no longer willing to be taken for
fools, like the signatories of Chart 08, still numerous despite the
continual harassment to which they are submitted, and which questions
the established system of the gun. Links are developed between
persecuted democrats and oppressed people, inside as well as outside.
A long, so long, patience expresses in its way a form of resistance;
liberty takes refuge in the hearts of those who resist, whilst
dictatorships disappear. History teaches us that the latter have
limited time, that consciences end up by awakening, to shake of the
yoke of the tyrant. Without forgetting that the liberty of Tibet is
also a metaphor for ours…
