Information, indeed, does wonders. It feeds the thought process like music does to the soul
ISLAMABAD: “A fish can’t see the water it swims in” is an evocative phrase used by the proponents of the social constructivism theory. The basic agenda is that the reality around us is built by the influential forces that handle the circulation of facts and information in a society. This is exactly why restrictions upon media have become a priority of a controlling regime. Least diversified information with limited, or perhaps no, opinions alleviate the basic curiosity, which also happens to be the psychological need of humans.
Wayne C McWilliams writes in The World Since 1945, that other than the issues of political representation and proximity, the ultimate reason for the debacle of East Pakistan was a natural disaster when a powerful cyclone hit the area leaving 200,000 lifeless and one million displaced. Nonetheless, the next man-made disaster was the subjugation of the political leaders by the army.
Despite going through various versions of history, never have I encountered this incident, which proved the height of government inefficiency, depriving its aggrieved countrymen of disaster relief and further aggravating the situation by paying no heed to their injuries. It opens entirely new percepts of justifying the rebellion that followed later. India used the 1,000 miles territory to block all the links in between.
Information, indeed, does wonders. It feeds the thought process like music does to the soul. Confining media and limiting the sources hinder formation of opinions and keep the public believing exactly what the external forces want them to. They use language and technological barriers to maintain the dark, one-sided perspective. Denying them their ability to criticise qualifies as rights abuse.
Sobia Mansoor
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2017.
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