How to lose a country gracefully (part III)

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Brutal Khmer Dictators, Your Days are Numbered Series

This New York Times article by its executive editor Bill Keller, in several parts, is dedicated to the leaders of this autocratic regime with the hope that they are smart enough to see a better path into their future:

Part III

How to Lose a Country Gracefully

Bill Keller

The New York Times, March 1, 2011

A little glasnost is a dangerous thing.

The regimes that have sent their thugs against the press and tried to unplug the Internet are right to fear the media. I’ve cringed under the truncheons of Iran’s official vigilantes, and I worry every day for the safety of the journalists we’ve deployed in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and elsewhere. But I understand why journalists are targets.

Watching how the seep of information stirred ordinary Russians from a paralyzing fear was one of the true joys of covering Moscow’s spring. The Cold War voice of Radio Liberty, the underground copies of Solzhenitsyn and especially Gorbachev’s own attempts to deputize the Russian press by letting it expose corruption and incompetence — they all chipped away at the invincibility of the Soviet Union. Today it is Al Jazeera; WikiLeaked cables about the extravagant lifestyles of the ruling elites; and social media that are the fuel of popular insurgency. This is how the unhappy learn that their complaints are justified and that they have company. And with their vast reach and immediacy, Facebook and Twitter are not only sources of information but also organizing tools — samizdat on steroids.

[ cont'd ]

How to lose a country gracefully (part I)

How to lose a country gracefully (part II)