The increasing frequency of riots by black Americans in America, among many others, is a source of valuable insights into ethnic conflicts back home. In the wake of the latest of these riots at Baltimore, President Barak Obama came out strongly in a media statement during a joint appearance before the press with visiting Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, which the American intelligentsia has described as the 15 minutes Obama was painfully honest. He was described as being consciously acknowledging his blackness and at the same time speaking from as a non partisan leader of a multi-ethnic nation. In his characteristically articulate manner, he condemned the crime on the streets, but also in no uncertain terms pointed out how America is still inherently racist, without actually mentioning the word. He condemned police brutality but acknowledged it is the circumstances they are thrown into which made them resort to what they have done. In similar manner, he condemned the (black) street rioters, saying that the violence and looting they perpetrated cannot be treated as protest or resistance, but plain stealing, therefore criminal, but also attributed the blame for the community turning lawless to the inequalities that not just the American system allowed, but also the (white) Americans by and large have encouraged by their insensitivity to the issue of inequality and deprivation of opportunity to the community increasingly prone to street rioting. All this was said in 15 minutes of his address to the media. `In those environments, if we think that we`™re just gonna send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there, without as a nation and as a society saying what can we do to change those communities, to help lift up those communities and give those kids opportunity, then we`™re not gonna solve this problem,` he said. `We can`™t just leave this to the police. I think there are police departments that have to do some soul searching. I think there are some communities that have to do some soul searching. But I think we, as a country have to do some soul searching,` he continued. The lecture could very well have been by a Harvard social science professor.
The temptation to quote more from Obama`™s speech is difficult to suppress: `This is not new,` he continued, `It`™s been going on for decades. And without making any excuses for criminal activities that take place in these communities, what we also know is that if you have impoverished communities that have been stripped away of opportunity, where children are born into abject poverty; …` the trouble can only increase he added. `If we are serious about solving this problem, then we`™re going to not only have to help the police, we`™re going to think about what can we do, the rest of us, to make sure that we`™re providing early education to these kids, to make sure that we`™re reforming our criminal justice system so it`™s not just a pipeline from schools to prisons, so that we`™re not rendering men in these communities unemployable because of a felony record for a non-violent drug offense; that we`™re making investments so that they can get the training they need to find jobs.`
Many of us will agree Obama has also practically summed up the dynamics behind much of the conflict we witness in the Northeast. Here too the State`™s resort has been to strong-armed measures, and what more proof of this we need than the continuance of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA. These strong-armed measures, it must be agreed, were also a response to serious breaches of law. What is equally true is, these measures notwithstanding, the core issue of conflict remains unresolved, and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future if attitudes do not change. This is so, because the disease and its symptoms continue to be confused here, as Obama says is the case in America. A soul searching by those throwing these challenges to the State; a soul searching by the instruments of these strong-armed measures; but most importantly a soul searching by the larger national civil society is called for. What Obama has also questioned is the idea of democracy itself. At its core, mere granting of adult franchise to all is not all there is about democracy. Ensuring a fair access to opportunity and preventing excessive disparity in wealth and status, are just some more values that are inevitable in making the idea of democracy complete. Only when this happens, the enviable situation of the citizenry abiding by the law out of respect and not fear can come about.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam