By Tenam
In spite of huge criticism against the Beijing bid for the right to host the 2008 Olympics, the International Olympics Committee decided to forge ahead regardless. On 13 July 2001, they took the controversial decision to award the Games to Beijing. With this single act, the IOC rewarded the most repressive regime in the world today.
The defenders of this sad decision by the IOC have churned out the much trumped-up response to those of us who are appalled, that this decision will increase our “understanding” of China and hasten “democratisation of China”. My question is – what is it about China that we don’t understand? Have we been misinformed about the repression in Tibet? Is it a misunderstanding that China has systematically destroyed Tibet and is hell-bent on wiping out the very identity of Tibetans?
Many a times I have been asked this question and no doubt so have you:
How can by denying China the right to host the Olympics help bring China in the global family? How can China be positively influenced by isolating them? My answers to all these questions: ask the Tibetans why? Ask Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, the 12-year old Panchen Lama why China doesn’t deserve to hold Olympics. Ask Trulku Tenzin Delek. This is not a question of petty racism but a statement as to whether China has earned the right to be regarded in moral terms as a mature member of a hopefully ethical human race. And what Communist government, terrified of losing even an iota of its own power, is going to even entertain the concept of democracy, let alone assisting in hastening it?
I have no doubt that Beijing will organise a stunning showpiece to the world, which will run like clockwork. Well before the Olympics in 2008, all visible and anticipated forms of dissent have been stifled, and systems and techniques set in place for any last minute attempts from every potential quarter.
Conditions in Tibet have deteriorated dramatically over just the past few months. Even journalists are not immune to this. According to a new survey released this week by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, rather than open China up, as promised, there is ample evidence Chinese authorities continue to tail foreign correspondents, intimidate their sources, and even reprimand reporters after their stories are published.
The most repressive of regime on this Earth now has a podium to showcase to the world its fake, up-close-and-personal biographies of normal Chinese and Tibetans and so-called minorities, who are genuinely happy and contented in the “Great Motherland”. They won’t let such a chance like this go to waste, they have had so many years of preparing and implementing fictional displays that I am sure that even many of them, who well know otherwise, have started to believe it themselves.
Will the Olympics be changed forever by China or will it be a catalyst in changing China? Lhadon from SFT recently pointed to me that for the first time the Beijing rulers have invited us into their backyard and we have to crack open that door with all we have. Talking to a friend in Tibet recently I detected optimism about huge Tibetan movement around the world against the Beijing Olympics. This is making many Chinese inside Tibet feel uncomfortable.
At the moment Tibetan Youth Congress has launched People’s Movement in India and as a part of it 14 brave Tibetans are on hunger strike for almost a month now.
Four major NGOs are similarly launching related campaigns in the Indian subcontinent. Team Tibet and Tibet Support Groups are marking 8 August as the International Day of Action.
So where will you be? Will we be able to crash in and spoil the ‘coming-out party’ of China? Or will this be a missed opportunity?
Perhaps these are the questions each of us needs to ask. And who knows, maybe in the end, but in a way far from how the IOC envisaged, granting the Olympic Games may yet have an impact on China.
Tenam is a freelance journalist based in Paris. He can be contacted at tenam@tibetwrites.org
