An Educated Guess (December, 1983)
It is interesting that the ongoing campaign of ‘cleaning up’ Tibetan began soon after the visit there of 40 foreign correspondent from Peking. These journalists were given almost unprecedented amount of freedom to go about their business unescorted. Thus they received secret messages for onward transmission to the outside world; they were able to meet political activists in person, and were privileged to hear about the lynching of a group of Chinese by Tibetans just outside Lhasa.
What did the Peking hope to achieve by permitting all this? Surely the outcome would be a setback for their plan of persuading the Dalai Lama to return. We can e certain that there has not been a change of mind in Peking. They still want the Dalai Lama back, for this how they hope to solve the Tibetan problem. But they discovered a short term objective—that of checking the details of the true condition in Tibet from finding their way out of the country. As long as this continues, their chances of being able to entice the Dalai Lama back would remain very slim. So they had to find a way of putting an end to this undesirable flow of information. Which is where the journalist came in. The apparent freedom of access given to them was seen by the relatively guileless Tibetans as sign of carelessness on the part of their rulers. The result was a general loosening up of tongues; a number of bold actions in open; and the surfacing of a hitherto largely underground resistance movement. During all these, the Chinese of course would have had their men posted stragetically, though not as visibly as used to be the case. So once the scribes left the country, the authorities began their real work—that of rounding up all those who emerged as unresponsive to the goodness of the Motherland. Contacts in other parts of the country would be of course be revealed in the course of interrogation of those arrested in the capital. Having rid the country of all these ‘criminals’ Peking would be able to tell Dharamsala that Tibet is now ready to receive its former ruler, with a great deal less chance than previously of his receiving contradictory information from his own people.
A fertile and nasty imagination? Well, if you have been dealing with the kind of people that we have, and for this long, then you simply can’t help having such nightmares in broad daylight. Quite appropriate too, seeing that the dreaded 1984 is already upon us.
It is interesting that the ongoing campaign of ‘cleaning up’ Tibetan began soon after the visit there of 40 foreign correspondent from Peking. These journalists were given almost unprecedented amount of freedom to go about their business unescorted. Thus they received secret messages for onward transmission to the outside world; they were able to meet political activists in person, and were privileged to hear about the lynching of a group of Chinese by Tibetans just outside Lhasa.
What did the Peking hope to achieve by permitting all this? Surely the outcome would be a setback for their plan of persuading the Dalai Lama to return. We can e certain that there has not been a change of mind in Peking. They still want the Dalai Lama back, for this how they hope to solve the Tibetan problem. But they discovered a short term objective—that of checking the details of the true condition in Tibet from finding their way out of the country. As long as this continues, their chances of being able to entice the Dalai Lama back would remain very slim. So they had to find a way of putting an end to this undesirable flow of information. Which is where the journalist came in. The apparent freedom of access given to them was seen by the relatively guileless Tibetans as sign of carelessness on the part of their rulers. The result was a general loosening up of tongues; a number of bold actions in open; and the surfacing of a hitherto largely underground resistance movement. During all these, the Chinese of course would have had their men posted stragetically, though not as visibly as used to be the case. So once the scribes left the country, the authorities began their real work—that of rounding up all those who emerged as unresponsive to the goodness of the Motherland. Contacts in other parts of the country would be of course be revealed in the course of interrogation of those arrested in the capital. Having rid the country of all these ‘criminals’ Peking would be able to tell Dharamsala that Tibet is now ready to receive its former ruler, with a great deal less chance than previously of his receiving contradictory information from his own people.
A fertile and nasty imagination? Well, if you have been dealing with the kind of people that we have, and for this long, then you simply can’t help having such nightmares in broad daylight. Quite appropriate too, seeing that the dreaded 1984 is already upon us.
posted by editorla at
9:00 PM
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