Saturday, August 18, 2012

Assange and Pussy Riot - am I missing something here?

The way in which some individuals or groups become heroes often seems random to me. Why this activist over that one, why that cause and not another, is a bit of a mystery. And I find myself a bit bemused about both of this week's cause celebres in particular.

Let's start with Julian Assange. I am minded to favour transparency over secrecy, and I don't want my government to break international law, so the notion of a group dedicated to uncovering covert acts is a worthy one. However, the way in which WikiLeaks operated, releasing information in such a way as to make individuals vulnerable to arrest and persecution without seemingly any concern for them, and leaking private communications expressing the true thoughts of diplomats and the like for no useful purpose other than embarrassment did not impress this civil servant. Occasionally, people have to deal with those they would rather not have to, rather unpleasant regimes for example, and diplomacy is often about being courteous to people you just can't like.

I can understand why the Americans would like to get hold of him, whether I believe that they should have a chance to try him or not. However, Assange is accused of serious sexual misconduct, offences which, had anyone else been accused of, we would be insisting be dealt with in a court of law. The Swedish authorities have sought to extradite him, he has sought to have the extradition refused using every legal weapon at his disposal, and at every stage, it has found that he should be sent to Sweden to stand trial.

And yet protests continue against his extradition. I don't see too many people speaking up for the rights of the women who claim that he abused them, or is the great Assange far too noble to ever do such a thing? Well, for someone of noble spirit, jumping bail and leaving your supporters to suffer significant financial hardship is hardly a demonstration of integrity. Clearly, their loss is of no importance compared to his freedom.

I would suggest that Julian Assange has, by his behaviour, indicated that he lacks morals sufficiently to raise legitimate doubts as to his honesty and integrity, thus making him a rather dubious poster child for freedom and transparency.

Pussy Riot are more complicated. Their behaviour in violating the sanctity of a holy place for the purpose of an anti-government protest was extremely stupid, and is worthy of contempt rather than applause. The freedom to practice one's religion without hindrance is a basic one, and the members of Pussy Riot weren't exactly respecting the freedom of those attempting to worship. The fact that they were videoed does not suggest a spontaneous act, either.

They probably deserve a slap on the wrist for stupidity and, perhaps, a public order offence. Two years in a penal colony is a quite deliberate, possibly provocative, response to their act.

Traditionally, the Soviet regime used the charge of hooliganism to take anti-Soviet elements off the streets, dissident poets and the like, discouraging opposition and potential opposition voices. In the current political atmosphere, where opposition voices are repressed by bureaucratic means, and occasionally arrest and police brutality, such a sentence as that handed down to Pussy Riot is a reminder of fears that Vladimir Putin wants to lead Russia back down the path towards a totalitarian state, a future which worries its neighbours and its potential rivals.

That said, Russia does have laws, some of which appear to have been broken. The fact that we don't like them much, and wouldn't have them here is somewhat irrelevant, compared to the question of whether or not they have been applied in a punitive manner in this case, the answer to which I do not know. If Pussy Riot have broken such laws, and their punishment is consistent with the usual range of sentences in such cases, we would be better off attempting to persuade the Russian authorities to change their laws. And if their punishment is disproportionate, then some diplomatic pressure might be appropriate.

But, fundamentally, the members of Pussy Riot have sought to provoke a reaction from the Russian authorities and have now succeeded in doing so. They didn't need to use a cathedral as the setting for their protest, but they did, thus providing the opportunity for the authorities to punish them. I'm not sure that they are that worthy a cause under those circumstances...







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