‘Let us pick-up our books and pens….They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher; one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution’, Malala was reported telling what was described as the ‘Malala Day’ Assembly at the UN headquarters, New York on July 12. She was addressing a forum of some 1,000 students from around the world.
As a string of bomb blasts claimed the lives of scores of people in Iraq, which blood-letting was described by sections of the Western media as ‘sectarian strife’, the world was re-alerted to the power and crucial importance of education and literacy, across divides, by none other than Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who courageously took up the cause of education for girls, in the face of murderous opposition.

As is known, Malala was brutally attacked by extremists last October as she walked back home from school. Since then, Malala has not only recovered from her injuries but is back in the forefront of the campaign for education for girls worldwide. Hopefully, this Pakistani teen’s endeavours would prove infectious in particularly our part of the world. Today, the condition of women even in Sri Lanka leaves very much to be desired. Sexual violence against women has taken on disconcerting proportions in this country but not many local sections seem to be perturbed by it, which is, of course, most unfortunate.

‘Let us pick-up our books and pens….They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher; one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution’, Malala was reported telling what was described as the ‘Malala Day’ Assembly at the UN headquarters, New York on July 12. She was addressing a forum of some 1,000 students from around the world.

At first blush, there does not seem to be any connection between the kind of violence which is convulsing countries such as Iraq today and the blind fury which nearly claimed Malala’s life, but the brutality unleashed in the two situations is of the same kind, if looked at closely. Extremist violence of different kinds is none other than the political and social forces opposed to democratic development, exploding in inhuman antagonism against those persons, groups and institutions which are seen as working against undemocratic, unfair systems which are sought to be perpetuated.

If persons such as Malala are mindlessly opposed, it is because they challenge those sections which are grimly persisting in keeping women and girl children in particular in a state of subjugation. And it should be plain that the forces opposed to the education of women and girls are defenders of unfair systems, strongly resisting democratic change which presages social and economic equality. These same forces opposed to positive social change are usually also up against equal treatment of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other minority social segments. Such forces are very much alive the world over and those championing democratic development would need to strategize as to how these anti-democratic forces could be neutralized.

These are considerations which, apparently, the major Western powers have not taken cognizance of in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. While their plans to get their troops out of the countries mentioned should be welcomed, these internally divided states are being left to their own devises because no institutional basis has been laid in them for smooth and consistent democratic development. For example, although Western troops have almost vacated Iraq, the latter is being convulsed violently by implosive strife among religious and cultural groups vying for power. It is relevant to point out that Britain too would need to focus on these concerns as it currently engages the Myanmarese state, in what seems to be an effort to get it out of its hitherto international isolation. It is steady democratic development in countries such as Myanmar too which would help in managing the bogey of ethnic strife. And democratic development, in its essence, is the equal empowerment of all within a country, across the many divides which are generally manifest, including those relating to gender.

In fact, these considerations should weigh very heavily with even those ‘democratic forces’ which are believed to be behind the ‘Arab Spring’ phenomenon. Their resistance, thus far, has been to what the ‘specialists’ describe as ‘authoritarian structures’, but what is of equal importance is social equity, including women’s empowerment, which spells liberation and democratic development, understood correctly. Right now, it is regime change, as seen currently in Egypt, which is mainly on the minds of these ‘democratic forces’ and their foreign backers, but those propelling the ‘Arab Spring’ need to remember that youth unemployment is one of the chief factors behind their revolts. Accordingly, plans need to be in place for steady democratic development in these countries, which alone could bring about equal empowerment, including that of women. In the absence of these arrangements, we would be witnessing in these countries prolonged and spiraling violence.

It is to Frantz Fanon’s epochal treatise, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’, that we need to repeatedly go to map our way out of the compounded crisis affecting many of the states of the developing world. Essentially and generally, the political and social elites of the Third World have sought their aggrandizement at the expense of their publics over the years since ‘political independence’ and such parasitism is continuing unabated, spelling dire consequences for the countries concerned. Phenomena such as the ‘Arab Spring’ should be expected in these conditions, but ‘democratic forces’ offering resistance should strongly stress enlightened, far-seeing governance, besides shunning repression.