வரலாறு மிக முக்கியம்
அமைச்சரே ! ~ I do not see political debates in TV – mostly because
some favourites of channels would use clichés
‘fascism’; worker’s unity, human rights and more – perhaps not knowing or knowing yet choosing to
ignore (they knew their audience would never know) that the party to which they
are affiliated is the biggest killer of liberty and voice of common man.
Fascism is a
form of far-right, authoritarianism, characterized by dictatorial power,
forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society Zindabad is a
suffix in Odia, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali of Persian origin which is
used as a shout of encouragement or as a cheer, and literally means "Long
live [idea or person]". Sad to observe that ‘workers unity zindabad’
reverberated in many small scale industries in TN industrial estates – now after
3 or 4 decades, the units have turned sick, the employers could not sustain,
employees lost the job and the industry itself would present a pale shadow of
what it was – some self-inflicted by those protesters !! - Here is some history of what happened to ‘uprisings
by students’ and those protesting for human rights in the land of communism – China,
from where Corona spread everywhere.
The
Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), is a monumental gate in the centre of
Beijing, widely used as a national symbol of China. First built during the Ming
dynasty in 1420, Tiananmen was the entrance to the Imperial City, within which
the Forbidden City was located. Tiananmen is located to the north of Tiananmen
Square, separated from the plaza by Chang'an Avenue.
The Treaty
of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World
War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the
Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles, exactly five years
after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which had directly led to
the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate
treaties. Although the armistice, signed
on 11 Nov 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations
at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was
registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 Oct 1919.
Hong Kong has prohibited a
planned annual march to mourn the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown and effectively banned a candlelit annual vigil that has taken place
without interruption for 30 years, the organizer said Thursday. The Hong Kong
police banned a march and two rallies that were to take place on May 31, citing
the risk of COVID-19 infection, said Richard Tsoi, spokesman for the Hong Kong
Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The government
has also effectively banned the vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre, which
has taken place annually since 1990 and been attended by tens of thousands,
sometimes more than 100,000, people.
Tsoi said while police have yet to formally respond to an application
for the annual vigil, to be held in Victoria Park, they were not optimistic. Tsoi
expressed his group’s dissatisfaction with the government’s decision.
The Tiananmen Square
protests or the Tiananmen Square Incident, commonly known as the June Fourth
Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing
during 1989. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is
sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests started on April 15 and were
forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent
the military to occupy central parts of Beijing. In
what became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles
and tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's
advance into Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll vary from several
hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. Ever heard an Indian Communist talk on human
rights of those students ?
Set off by the death of
pro-reform Communist general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989, amid the
backdrop of rapid economic development and social changes in post-Mao China,
the protests reflected anxieties about the country's future in the popular
consciousness and among the political elite. The reforms of the 1980s had led
to a nascent market economy which benefited some people but seriously affected
others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge of
legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption,
limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on
political participation. The students called for greater accountability,
constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of
speech, although they were highly disorganized and their goals varied. At the height of the protests, about 1 million
people assembled in the Square.
Just in case
you thought the iron-hand bloodshed and killing of political leaders of 1989 is
what Tiananmen is all about – you are suddenly mistaken, there is more – for 1989
is not alone. The May Fourth Movement
was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of
student protests in Beijing on 4 May 1919.
Students protested against
the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, they
especially protested against its decision to allow Japan to retain territories
in Shandong that had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao in
1914. The demonstrations sparked nation-wide protests and spurred an upsurge in
Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization, a shift away from
cultural activities, a move towards a mass base and a move away from
traditional intellectual and political elites. Many radical, political, and
social leaders of the next five decades emerged at this time. In a broader
sense, the term "May Fourth Movement" is often used to refer to the
period during 1915–1921 more often called the New Culture Movement.
The Western Allies dominated
the meeting at Versailles, and paid little heed to Chinese demands. Britain and
France were primarily interested in punishing Germany. Although the United
States promoted Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the ideals of
self-determination, they were unable to advance these ideals in the face of
stubborn resistance by David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and the U.S.
Congress. American advocacy of self-determination at the League of Nations was
attractive to Chinese intellectuals, but their failure to follow through was
seen as a betrayal.
Learning history is
important ~ more important is to present only the side that suits and call
others Fascists !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
23.5.2020.
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