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Zaterdag, 7 Juni, 2008

Door Cath Elliott | Het schijnt nu ongelooflijk, maar op 3 Mei 1997 vierde ik eigenlijk de verkiezingsoverwinning van de Arbeid. Na 18 jaar van een Conservatieve overheid die had cosied tot dictators en moordende regimes rond de bol; dat had op de vernietiging van de productie van het land en de mijnbouw toezicht gehouden; dat had 3 miljoen mensen werkloos en op de werkloosheidsuitkering gedreven, en dat had minzaam gezien Groen Dixon van Dok omgezet in brutaal en wreed agent van de staat, Geloofde I, zoals veel andere mensen tegelijkertijd, echt dat met Nieuwe Arbeid in macht, de dingen slechts konden beter worden.

Een paar later dagen, toen Robin Cook van hem leverde toespraak schetsend de verplichting van het nieuwe beleid aan een ethisch buitenlands beleid, ontspande ik, ademde sigh van hulp, en lette op met vreugde aangezien de oude wacht terugging, likkend hun wonden na zulk een het grondige en welverdiende trouncing.

In die toespraak, zeiden Cook:

De overheid van de Arbeid aanvaardt niet dat de politieke waarden kunnen erachter worden verlaten wanneer wij in onze paspoorten om op diplomatieke zaken controleren te reizen. Ons buitenlands beleid moet een ethische afmeting hebben en moet de eisen van andere volkeren voor de democratische rechten steunen waarop wij voor ons aandringen. De overheid van de Arbeid zal rechten van de mens centraal bij ons buitenlands beleid zetten.

Zo hoe precies wij van dat werden, aan dit Orwellian Newspeak van Gordon Brown deze week:

De uitdaging voor elke overheid is aan de veranderende eisen van nationale veiligheid te antwoorden, terwijl het bevestigen van iets die centraal bij de Britse constitutionele nederzetting is: het behoud van burgerlijke vrijheden. En als de nationale rente nieuwe maatregelen vereist om onze veiligheid te beschermen, is het, naar mijn mening, de Britse manier om die veranderingen in een manier aan te brengen die de bescherming van individuen tegen willekeurige behandeling maximaliseert.

Of om lichtjes te parafraseren: „om burgerlijke vrijheden te bewaren, moeten wij burgerlijke vrijheden offeren.“

In cahoots met een even onaangenaam Amerikaans regime, heeft de Nieuwe overheid van de Arbeid masterminded en toezicht gehouden op een erosie aan individuele vrijheden en vrijheden zowel Thatcher als Reagan, zelfs in de donkerste tijd van hun regel, slechts waarkonden gedroomd hebben van. Not content with removing all ethics from our foreign policy, they are doing their damnedest to make sure that before we know it, civil liberties and human rights at home will soon be nothing more than a distant memory. ID cards, “Sus” laws, 42-days detention, extraordinary rendition, waterboarding, torture, juryless trials, secret prison ships, a hidden network of “black sites” where suspects are interrogated and who-knows-what-else away from prying eyes and ears: these are all the stuff of fiction, of spy novels and sci-fi. They’re the stuff of nightmares, the grimmest of fairy tales brought to life, with our government firmly in the role of bogeyman.

When the left marched in the 1980s against Pinochet, and when we stood in solidarity with the mothers and sisters of the disappeared, little did we know that our government would one day be capable of the same; that 20 years down the line the British and the Americans would be snatching people away in the dead of night, surveilling their own citizens around the clock, and intercepting both their phone calls and their correspondence. Little did we know that the excesses of which we accused the old Soviet regime would soon be employed against us.

When the iron curtain fell we looked on in fascination as the Stasi and the KGB opened up their files to public scrutiny, stunned that states would keep such meticulous records on their own people. We’re now trying to work out how big a vault will be needed when the government gets its way and starts logging our every key stroke, collecting details about every second we spend on the internet. We’re left wondering how many years it will be before these secret records are opened up for scrutiny, if indeed they ever are. Perhaps the so-called war on terror will never end, and we’ve finally arrived at Orwell’s perpetual war.

For 18 long years I campaigned to help get a Labour government back into power, but I never signed up for any of this; the loss of our civil liberties was never a part of the game plan. And if Brown’s now wondering why his ratings are so low, why his party’s nearly bankrupt and his defeat at the next election is all but assured, then he needs to think carefully about those of us who have been sold so short by 11 years of New Labour mismanagement. He needs to think about those who helped this government into power, and who can now only look on in horror as slowly but surely, brick by brick, they dismantle everything we hold precious.

Liam Byrne can wax lyrical about Britishness all he likes; his government lost sight of what that means many years ago. Whether it happens on St George’s Day or on the August bank holiday, when they finally start enforcing their mass celebrations and dictating to the populace how best to commemorate our illusory freedom, I’ll be staying inside my house with my doors and windows firmly locked and I’d advise everyone else to do the same. As Alan Paton said:

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 1:09 am and is filed under Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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