THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-January 14, 2017- Topic 2
Pakistan’s vanishing voices
Over the
past few days, five Pakistani activists including the poet Salman Haider have
gone missing. The incidents have left the rights groups, already under pressure
from the military and extremist outfits, alarmed. Nobody has claimed
responsibility, and the family members haven’t got any ransom calls. The
government says it will find them, but the investigation that started after
Haider’s disappearance on January 6 seems to have reached nowhere; since then
four more have gone missing. Although the full facts are not available, the perception that the disappearances are somehow linked has gained credence.
This is
not the first time activists and writers critical of the military-terror
complex have come under attack in Pakistan. For years both the security
apparatus and militant groups have used force to silence critics. Liberal activist and
author Raza Rumi, who had criticised state support
for militants, was attacked by an extremist outfit in March 2014. A year later,
activist Sabeen Mahmud was shot dead in Karachi after she hosted a debate on
Balochistan. This time the victims are social media activists, and it is not
hard to see the pattern. In Pakistan where television faces censorship and the
print media is under pressure, social media platforms are a thriving space
where people express views without fear. Whoever is behind the disappearances
is targeting such free debates. This should be a wake-up call to the Pakistani
state. Some commentators have already implicated the state, citing the pattern
in the disappearances and the military’s track record in dealing with dissent. The
Interior Minister has said the government “is not in the business of
disappearing people”, but he has the responsibility to find out what happened
to the activists. For decades Pakistan tolerated a culture of violence within
its society for political and strategic benefits, but this has backfired.
Liberal space is shrinking in the wake of challenges from the extremists that
benefited from the state’s tolerance of violence. The government has to take
bold measures to check these groups and promote free and fearless thinking if
it wants the already vulnerable democratic dynamics to survive.
Vocabulary
Extremist: a person who holds
extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts
to or advocates extreme action.
Example: Political extremists
Synonyms: fanatic, radical, zealot, fundamentalist, hard-liner
Ransom: a sum of money or
other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner.
Example: All but one have
now been released, but only after millions of dollars in ransoms were paid.
Synonyms: payoff, payment, sum, price
Perception: the ability to
see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
Example: The normal limits
to human perception
Credence: belief in or
acceptance of something as true.
Example: Psychoanalysis finds
little credence among laymen
Synonyms: belief, faith, trust, confidence, reliance
Propagate: breed specimens of
a plant, animal, etc. By natural processes from the parent stock.
Example: Try propagating
your own houseplants from cuttings
Synonyms: breed, grow, cultivate
Apparatus: a complex
structure within an organization or system.
Example: The apparatus of
government
Synonyms: structure, system, framework, organization, network
Censorship: the practice of
officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts.
Example: Details of the
visit were subject to military censorship
Tolerate: allow the
existence, occurrence, or practice of something that one does not necessarily
like or agree with without interference.
Example: A regime unwilling
to tolerate dissent
Synonyms: allow, permit, condone, accept, swallow, countenance, brook, suffer
Backfired: rebound adversely
on the originator; have the opposite effect to what was intended.
Example: Overzealous publicity
backfired on her
Synonyms: rebound, boomerang, come
back, fail, miscarry, go wrong
Shrink: become or make
smaller in size or amount; contract or cause to contract.
Example: The workforce has
shrunk to less than a thousand
Synonyms: get
smaller, become/grow smaller, contract, diminish
Vulnerable: susceptible to
physical or emotional attack or harm.
Example: We were in a
vulnerable position
Synonyms: helpless, defenseless, powerless, impotent, weak, susceptible
Survive: continue to live
or exist, especially in spite of danger or hardship.
Example: Against all odds
the child survived
Synonyms: remain
alive, live, sustain oneself, pull through, get through