On Saturday, Sep. 07, hundreds of people gathered for a protest in front of the Iranian consulate in Herat City. They were basically protesting against the alleged corruption of the consulate officials. They accused that the officials took bribe and did not issue them visas on time. Unfortunately, the agitation did not remain peaceful and turned violent. To control the situation the police guards at the Consulate opened fire at the protesters that, according to the news reports, resulted in the death of one person and injury to four others.
Ill-fatedly, it is not the first time that an agitation has turned violent in Afghanistan; there have been many such occasions when Afghan people have changed their peaceful protests into violent clashes with security forces and as a result have lost the true meaning and purpose of their protest.
Political agitation is right of all the citizens of a state in a democratic system. If certain political groups or even the ordinary people start feeling that their rights are being violated or certain policies of the government are influencing them in a negative manner they have the right to come out on the streets and let their voices be heard. However, there is no consensus on how these agitations must be carried out and what sorts of actions should be performed in them. Mostly in political agitations the involved groups chant slogans, display placards and banners and even deliver speech. There are some other sorts of agitations as well but in short they can be divided into two main categories; peaceful and non-peaceful.
Peaceful agitations mostly do not involve any action of violence and do not harm anyone. They remain related to slogans, banners, placards, sit-ins or even hunger strikes. On the other hand, a non-peaceful agitation turns into violent acts. The stones are thrown, the public and private properties are damaged, the policemen are beaten and in some cases, there are gunshots. Such agitations mostly result in the injury to many of the participants and even their death.
There are some of the agitations that, though, are not violent, but show extreme hatred and disgust for the one against whom they have been arranged. In such agitations, puppets of the target personality or the flag of the targeted country may be burnt. Or there may be severest criticism and even abusive language in the slogans or the on the placards.
Though all the protests have their impacts, the peaceful protests are considered to have positive impacts the most. In fact, the true spirit of agitation lies in such types of protests. The democratic system, at least in theory, supports such protests and considers them the outcome of the maturity and awareness of the public. Therefore, it is necessary that the agitators who by organizing the agitations show their love for democracy must also make sure that their agitations do not turn violent as they may harm many others or their properties. In that manner their rights would be violated and the agitators themselves become the violator of justice.
In some of the cases the agitations are willfully turned violent. Some of the political groups or even the criminal and the terrorist groups in order to avail their own interests try to make the protests violent. In the countries where people do not have a long history of democratic agitations and there are not many educated people, there are great chances that the agitations become violent. As people are not democratically mature, therefore, they do not have any idea when they go out of control. And when they come to their senses they have already done great damage to themselves and to the society.
The example of Afghan society can be considered in this regard. As mentioned above, there have been many occasions when Afghan people have started with peaceful protests but have ultimately turned them into very violent ones. They turn so much violent that they start harming their own policemen. In so many other cases they have attacked the bases and offices of the foreign countries and have tried to bring loss to them. Saturday’s incident mentioned above is one of the clearest examples.
Moreover, it is also important to take into consideration that the agitations that are carried out against other countries, they should be arranged very much carefully. It is demand of prudent diplomacy to keep our relations strong with other countries, especially the neighboring countries. Definitely it is our right to protest against the policies of the other countries that may bring harm to us or against such policies that are not carried out formally and influence us in some way or the other; nonetheless, it is also important that in what manner we carry out our protest.
Policies designed by a government in a country are not permanent. They keep on changing and with the changing nature of the political circumstances the governments keep on changing their considerations and their concerns. Therefore, the relevant policies of the relevant countries should be protested against, and that should not disrespect the state as whole. It may be quite possible that the people of that country may be very close to us regarding their culture, tradition and ideology. Moreover, it is also possible that the policies of the country may change for better and then we would not have the courage to face them as we had used abusive language against them during our protest.
It is really imperative for all the active and vigilant citizens of the society to have a positive role in the society. However, in order to guarantee such a role it is important that they should be educated and aware. Awareness regarding the social and political developments in society would definitely assist them to a great extent and they would be a catalyst in bringing about vital changes.
Within a political system, the citizens can bring about changes both by political awareness and political agitation. Political awareness supports them in understanding the nature, functions and influences of the political system and the political agitation assist them in practically pressuring the government or other political institutions and groups to change their policies or their actions.
It is really important that Afghans must learn the true spirit of democratic and peaceful protest, as was practiced few months earlier by the students of the Kabul University. Such agitations will not only bring the desired result but would also set a valuable example for the coming generations to follow.