"Life finds its way"

I don’t normally identify myself as a communist hater. In fact, I’m fascinated by the original idea of communism put forth by Karl Marx and the egalitarian society as depicted in The Republic by Plato, both of who described a utopia where good people can live happily ever after, ignoring all the innate personality flaws that are bound to exist in the human race. But then, casting a glance at the existing communist regimes will never fail to provoke anger and disappointment as it has become an excuse for totalitarianism and dictatorship.

I’ve been hinging the hope of breaking the political status quo in Orwellian regimes like China on Web 2.0 which facilitates internet activism and demonstrates the power of lay bloggers, citizen journalists, amateur photographers and twitters during Saffron Revolution in Burma in 2007. In the past, all the authoritarian regimes need to do to control information flow and perpetuate their propaganda was to control mass media outlets – easy. However, the proliferation of the Internet has cracked open a window through which the world can peek into the once mysterious communist countries and at the same time allowed insiders to tell their stories from a citizen’s perspective. It makes hiding the truth and suppressing political opposition or religious freedom much harder for the authoritarian governments.

While the Burmese military junta did disable all international mobile phone connections and black out Internet access to curb the information flow during the Saffron Revolution (though there’re people who could find ways to circumvent these restrictions), a total information blockade does not sound like an easy option for a rising superpower like China which growing economy is partly fuelled by ever-advancing communication technologies.

Further to Google’s previous bow to China’s Internet surveillance and the launch of Golden Shield Project, China has stepped up its effort to control the information that can be accessed online by requiring an Internet filtering software to be installed in every computer sold in the country. Although the government justified the policy by claiming that it comes as a result of demands from parents and experts to filter the violence and pornography, call me a conspiracist, that software filters more than that (a newspaper report says it blocks Garfield the Cat - surely he must be a very violent cat considering the way he bullies Odie). How can you trust a government who doesn’t ban public smoking or underage drinking or KFC fried chicken which put our next generation’s physical health in jeopardy but filters violence and pornography online because it affects their psychological well-being?

But then, like gLite programme which allows users to access websites blocked by the Burmese junta, life will find a way in China. It always does.