independence vs freedom
2019-06-29
A state can be independent or dependent. But the freedom of the people living in that state does not depend on the state's independence. It sounds easy to grasp, yet propaganda under any regime tries to pull independence and freedom close together, or present them as one and the same.
A state's independence should, first of all, bring freedom to its people. That doesn't always happen. I hesitate to call the peoples of North Korea or Iran free. As independent states they have their own emblem, flag, anthem, ideology, internet domain, seat at the UN, and so on. But the freedom of their people is thoroughly restricted, on various grounds.
Once a state becomes independent, every practice of the despotic regime that was used against people and their freedom should be abolished. Otherwise the great benefit of the state's independence never shows. After all, even a region, a city, or a district can have its own emblem and flag...
Whether a state is fully independent comes down to how its people feel. For example, these practices existed (in part) under the former Soviet regime:
- a number of laws produced by the state get used against the people;
- people have no right to move around freely, or to leave and enter the country;
- forced labor: even schoolchildren used as a workforce;
- restrictions on freedom of speech;
- no real choice for the people: no open election of the president, the parliament, the regional and local governors, and so on;
- special services granted unlimited rights, able to sentence anyone without a trial;
- the state invents an external enemy and uses it to justify measures against its own people;
- a cult of personality: the authors of the ideology or the people at the top of the state praised by nearly everyone (the media, artists, state employees);
- falsified data;
- the people occupying the highest posts treating the state and their seat as "their own," running it with their relatives;
- and so on.
Most of these practices continued in independent Uzbekistan too. Some of them continue today.
That's why freedom matters more than independence.
P.S. Quite a lot of articles in the constitution of Uzbekistan are actually written right. All that's left is to follow them :)