Freedom Has No Price

President Obama presented his State of the Union address on Jan. 25, and the media noticed that he referred to China four times — but in fact, there was an apparent “fifth time” that Obama insinuated China in his words:

“We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficit — none of this will be easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because we will argue about everything. The costs. The details. The letter of every law.

“Of course, some countries don’t have this problem. If the central government wants a railroad, they build a railroad, no matter how many homes get bulldozed. If they don’t want a bad story in the newspaper, it doesn’t get written.

“And yet, as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.”

Obama’s words above are of great significance. The relationship between the logic of development and its procedure during modernization has long been messed up. According to general public opinions and common sense, judging by the experience from history and the course of development, we can see that the liberalization of a country’s economy will certainly boost the democracy in its politics. But when some newly emerging countries, including China, have achieved great development by improving the market, enlarging foreign capital, strengthening order and stability and focusing on global trade, quite a few democratic nations start to have self-doubts: Can the pursuit of liberation of spirit and freedom be purchased or deliberately avoided by taking detours?

Facing such a big question, I’m afraid that the right answer can hardly be decided by the minority or a few interest groups. It can only be decided by the tide of the history and will of the people.

And this is now being proven by reality: People from the Arab world — with Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen as examples — are fighting for their freedom and democracy with unprecedented efforts, and they will succeed and gain their victory.

What’s worth noticing is that in this revolution in the Arab world, all the cliché of those who fear and oppose freedom has failed. In the past, every time there was someone who would like to pursue freedom and democracy, the usual countermeasure of the government was to resort to notions such as “Western instigations,” “support from the CIA” and “a few evil persons stirring up the good people who do not know the truth,” and so on. In other words, there’s nobody desiring the so-called freedom and democracy — all is just the provocation from the Western enemy.

Is it really?!

Take Egypt as an example: The Western countries (including Israel) are not acting very encouragingly toward the revolution because they fear that the collapse of the Mubarak government, which has kept on good terms with the West, would create a situation where the power might be snatched by the Islamic fundamentalists.

And someone also tries to argue, with the help of the popular cynic ideas, that the so-called freedom and democracy is just a pretense, and the real problem is the long-term high unemployment rate and the large gap between the rich and poor in Egypt. But when I was reporting on location at the demonstration in Egypt, I heard more than once the protesters yell that unemployment and poverty come second; [their] first demand is that the dictatorship ends and free elections begin!

What’s satirical is that for many people, under the influence of many factors, the demand for freedom and democracy sounds banal and absurd, and contrarily, “better food, better housing and better life” sounds a lot better.

Then why are the Egyptians demanding freedom and democracy specifically? There are two sides. First, under huge pressure from his people, President Mubarak has announced the dissolution and reorganization of the government and has appointed a new vice president and prime minister. When our reporter was conducting interviews on the streets regarding the response of this action of the government, the Egyptians, however, showed a common attitude: “We do not accept the leader that is appointed by Mubarak; we want to elect our own national leader!”

Second, to appease the demonstration, the Egyptian government took a very wrong move — that is, shutting down the Internet and cell phone communication network. Freedom of speech and information is always the touchstone for distinguishing between democracy and dictatorship. And Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou just opened a personal webpage on which he can communicate with the people. A real democratic government should not fear freedom of speech and information.

Freedom is the normal pursuit of mankind, and no one can distort or deny such a pursuit; freedom has no enemy by itself, unless someone chooses to be that enemy. Freedom cannot be purchased, for it has no price!