Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Freedom is an illusion, says Zachariah

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Malayali is today living under an illusion of freedom whereas the reality is that behind a veneer of democracy and freedom, political parties, political and cultural leaders exhibit feudal and fascist tendencies, writer Zachariah has said.

He was speaking after releasing the Malayalam translation of the book `Matin Brun (Brown Morning) written by French author Franck Pavloff at a programme organised by the Alliance Francaise at the Institute of English here on Tuesday.

Political parties and the media are clever in creating the illusion that the people have a lot of freedom. The truth is that the freedom enjoyed by the people is slowly ebbing away. Behind the veil of democracy, there are hundreds of vested interests in the State that are ready to turn into dictators and totalitarians in an instant. If the people do not watch out, fascism can become that big tree that smothers them.

Mr. Zachariah termed corruption as the worst manifestation of fascism in a democracy - the situation where public officials must be bribed so that they perform their bounden duty.

"In the offices of the Secretariat, not a piece of paper moves unless it is accompanied by a bribe. In the university, no paper moves without money. Such people are protected by trade unions whose main job seems to be to protect the corrupt. In other countries, say in the Gulf, no policemen will abuse a citizen. Here can we go confidently to a police station, or a government hospital?" he asked. There is fascism in the media too.The Malayali seems to have accepted fascism in a light manner thinking of it as a fact of life, he said and added that works such as `Brown Morning' evoke hope in the minds of those who feel strongly against fascism.

In his address Mr. Pavloff said he wrote his "smallest book" as a metaphor, as a warning of what would happen if people were not vigilant against forces of exclusion and fascism. "When I wrote this book five years ago, I heard speeches from right wing politicians in France that implied that one section of the population was superior to the other. I never thought I would hear such speeches after the World War. In the book, cats and dogs are snatched away because they do not conform to the colour prescribed by the State," he said. The loss of freedom does not happen as a big blast but by the confiscation of small freedoms here and there. "The book asks `what are you doing so that such things do not happen," he added.

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