Freedom of speech and Irish MP Clare Daly

Nowmy Tahrin :

We live in a time where democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech have become a farce.

Double standards have become a common practice, those who constantly preach about human rights and their importance also give a pass to their own country for atrociously violating human rights else where.

Influential international leaders never speak out against it, and media outlets of those countries are incredibly biased.

And in a desperate time like this, a brave exception has emerged to the surface: She is Ireland’s Leftist politician and a member of the European Parliament, Clare Daly.

The language Daly uses to criticize the Western activity surrounding the Israeli genocide in Palestine and mass destruction in Libya created by the Western alliance is quite revolutionary.

Recently, she has come into the limelight again by speaking about how NATO’s attempt at expansion was the main reason for the Ukraine-Russia war.

In today’s world, many Western leaders have Islamophobic views.

Daly is vocal about this too, but her actions also reflect her words.

In seems that Daly is a leftist sympathetic to Muslims, like some other politicians in Europe.

But in reality, Daly’s mindset is mostly from a humanistic standpoint.

She stood against America when it came to Venezuela and Nicaragua, as she did with Syria and Iraq.

She strongly criticized America’s economic ban on Venezuelan president Nikolas Maduro.

She said these bans in the name of democracyare an attempt at taking control of the biggest Oil depot in the world and America’s next target may be Cuba or Nicaragua.

In 2022, a resolution against Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega was brought up in the European parliament for human rights violations.

Daly, along with 16 other MPs voted against this.

Now, Daly has come to the limelight again by speaking about Europe’s contribution to the Russia-Ukraine war.

America and its European supporters see the war as Russia’s attempt at taking over Ukraine and want everyone else to see it that way too.

But Daly and many others aren’t willing to simplify the war by this much.

The Cold War ended a long time ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union, so it cannot be claimed any longer that Eastern European countries are still at risk from it.

NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union’s alleged aggression; since the Soviet Union does not exist there is no need for NATO or any military alliance in the name of safety.

Despite this, the countries surrounding Russia are being recruited into NATO to put Russia in a compromising position and to make sure they can’t speak out against American influence all over the world. Russia’s safety is being compromised now.

From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed, Western alliances have been trying their utmost to bring the previous Soviet Countries into NATO.

In 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia Joined NATO.

The situation was dangerous for Russia. Alongside, there were attempts at European influence in Russia’s neighbor Ukraine.

In 2014, there was a major movement in Ukraine against Ukraine’s pro-Russian government.

After the government fall, the pro-European government came into power.

Russia decided to take over Crimea guessing its future safety threat and started helping two Russia-speaking populations separatist movement in East Ukraine.

The Russian president from that point has been speaking about how NATO’s unnecessary expansion is creating a security threat for Russia.

After this, the news of Ukraine joining NATO was like an explosion.

Daly thinks this is the main reason for the Russia-Ukraine war.

The aggression from the Western alliance from all sides on Russia resulted in this war.

Daly said there is no particular benefit for Europe in this war, and Europe is being used by America as a pawn.

As a member of the EU parliament, Daly invited Europe to stop adhering to America always, and instead implement independent foreign policy and go from there.

Daly’s words about this matter are bold.

When the Western alliance accused Russia of state terrorism, Daly reminded them in her EU parliament speech that the definition of State-sponsored terrorism was created by the Western countries.

She said, “If you want to start naming state-sponsored terrorism, let’s do it.”

When almost all the countries in the world are in control of the Western alliance when the politicians of said countries say nothing against it, and when freedom of speech has become next to non-existent, Clare Daly articulated the truth in the face of power and created a notable example.

Even if we were to forget about the State and talk about the person, those who consider themselves conscious but are afraid to speak the truth, can take inspiration from this woman named Clare Daly.

(Nowmy is a student of Department of English,
BRAC University).