Fighting For FOI: Have We Realized What An Ugly Being A Dictator Is?

By Shyamon Jayasinghe -March 10, 2014

Shyamon Jayasinghe

There’s Nothing Like Free Flow Of Information; Let’s Fight For It

Yes, unhindered free flow of information is an absolute necessity for good governance and peaceful living.  I realize we must be aware of the dangers of media dominance itself. We are in a world of relativities. Our hopes must work out within the limitations of this wider reality.

By definition information has to be carried. Carriers of information constitute the media. This is why the civilized world demands media freedom and unrestricted access to information. Those who attack this right to freedom of information do so simply because they have a lot to hide. Those who have come to believe that they have the right to decide on behalf of a whole population of people are known as ‘dictators.’

Have we realized what an ugly being a dictator is? Whoever, he or she may be? Wherever they may reign? A guy who has grown megalomaniac, egocentric, greedy and wants to control everyone around him?  Who imagines he knows the answers and that others are less intelligent beings who must simply follow him; who derives personal pleasure when others fall at his feet, worship him or praise him; who thrives on an immediate comfort zone of sycophants around him; who is protected by a ring of heavies-both official and unofficial? Isn’t such a monster simply ugly?

In lesser or bigger degrees we come across such control freaks even in ordinary non-political life. In a family setting, a husband or a wife or even a grown- up sibling may show these control-centric qualities. Outside the family, we observe such gone-wrong personalities in open society. Observe a common social discussion at a common neighborhood gathering and one can spot such characters. They hardly realize that they are loathsome and that they are let to survive as a result of the civility of others.                                     Read More