The lead story on BBC news this week has been the visit of President Xi Jinping of China to the United Kingdom, and the way he has been received there.
Xi and his wife were driven in procession in a golden carriage with the Queen and attended a banquet with her. Both chambers of the Westminster Parliament assembled to hear him speak; a golden age of trade between China and the UK is projected.
The BBC, funded by British tax payers, repeated one businessman’s description of Britain’s welcome of Xi as like that of a “panting puppy.” Diplomatically, the BBC left it to viewers to figure out what that means. For me, a panting puppy is a picture of blind obedience and loyalty: the UK wants to be petted and given tasty titbits by China.
The BBC reminded viewers that David Cameron, the prime minister of the UK, was for some years persona non grata to the Chinese government because he had met approvingly with the Dalai Lama of Tibet, a person whom the Chinese government considers a danger to China.
The BBC reminded viewers that Tata, an Indian company, is shutting down steel mills in the UK with the loss of thousands of jobs, because of dumping of steel by state-subsidized steel mills in China. Steel mills are shutting down all over the world because of cheap steel from China.
The core of the UK’s ideology is secular democracy, though the queen is the head of the Church of England – which has fewer members each year and the chief priest of the Church of England is a member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament.
The UK has Hindu and Muslim elected representatives, even “lords.”
The core of China’s ideology is not democracy. China has no goal to implement democracy. Those who order their lives around a belief in God – and therefore exercise the right to criticize government policy – are enemies of the state. To prosper in China, you must be a member of the Communist Party or be sympathetic to it.
Yet, it is still correct to say the outcome of Xi’s visit will be a golden age, because the common focus of the rulers of the UK and of China is money, gold. It is clearly money that creates unity of purpose and alignment of plans between nations.
I’ve been watching the BBC in India, a nation whose population of 1.2 billion people puts it on par with China. I’ve also been reading Indian newspapers.
India is, at least constitutionally, a secular democracy, with freedom of belief. I’ve often marvelled that India, 80% of whose population is Hindu, has had Abdul Kalam, a Muslim as President and Manmohan Singh, a Sikh as Prime Minister.
Sadly, this week I’ve discovered that the government privileges Hinduism, which treats cattle as holy. I’ve discovered that in a majority of states in India it is illegal to slaughter cattle and to eat beef.
I’ve not been able to discover what happens to cattle when they outlive their useful lives, when cows can no longer produce milk and bulls can no longer produce sperm, pull carts or plough fields.
I’ve discovered that this month, in Bisara, about 45km from New Delhi, a mob of about 100 Hindu villagers dragged 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq and one of his sons from their home and severely beat them because they were alleged to have eaten beef.
Akhlaq died.
When the police arrested and charged six people over the incident, there were riots. The police restored peace and order – but not before about 500 rioters damaged property.
The Akhlaq incident is not an isolated one. Such incidents have increased since Narendra Modi’s party, the BJP, formed the government.
According to news reports, one of the BJP’s election promises was a commitment to protect and promote the cow. Since the BJP came to power, states like Maharashtra have introduced laws to ban the slaughter and sale of beef. In states where it was already banned, punishments laws were amended to increase the penalties.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mahesh Sharma, India’s culture minister, “had called the death of Mr Akhlaq an ‘accident,’ and dismissed reports that described the incident as a ‘premeditated attack.’”
According to the BBC, the meat served at the banquet for Mr Xi, hosted by David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth, was venison. I suppose the guests included Muslims who don’t eat pork and Hindus who don’t eat beef. I suppose the banquet wasn’t about food or friendship. It was about money.
It should’ve been about human rights and equality before the law. – October 22, 2015.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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