Ireland: Speech from Member of European Parliament Patricia McKenna
(Clearwisdom.net, September 1, 2003)
This speech was given at Irish practitioners' activities to commemorate four
years of persecution on July 20th 2003.
It's a great pleasure to be here today and I think one of the
things, just listening to Jim Loughlin from Amnesty, that I feel is very
important in any kind of democracy is freedom of expression. Freedom of
expression in relation to what way you want to live your life. And what is
really frightening about the persecution of Falun Gong is how clever the Chinese
have been in actually encouraging people in other countries to be wary of Falun
Gong. This has been raised in the European Parliament on many occasions in
relation to Falun Gong. There seems to be a very clever tactic by the Chinese to
more or less label Falun Gong as a cult, to try and frighten people away, to
think yes, there must be something there, there has to be something to be wary
of. But clearly, and everyone that is involved in Falun Gong knows this, there
is nothing to be wary of, there is nothing to be afraid of. But one of the most
clever ways of actually ensuring that you don't get international support is to
try and demonize people who you don't trust, are afraid of or who you don't
agree with and the Chinese have been extremely successful in relation to Falun
Gong in doing that. If you look at the number of countries and international
governments, there is a lot of accountability in relation to international
governments including our own. Why are they not speaking out at every single
opportunity at the oppression that is taking place in China, and even outside
China in relation to people who are practicing Falun Gong?
There is a really worrying aspect to this whole issue in that
many governments have basically remained silent and have said nothing. Even our
own government here at the time that the Chinese Premier came could have been a
lot more outspoken and should have actually raised the issue at the highest
level. So should the European Union. I think that more needs to be done within
the European Union to raise this issue, to be able to allow people to practice
what they wish, to be able to live their life as they wish, and to be able to
have the freedom that we enjoy in this country. I think it is up to all
governments and all political leaders, both within the European Union,
internationally and in China to realize that this must be the way forward.
I would also like to say that in relation to the numbers,
just looking at the placards that are up here today, all of these issues are
very important and every single one of the points from the first crime to the
last. What strikes me most is the amount of resources that the Chinese are
actually putting in to combating and to trying to stop Falun Gong. To think that
a country, which should be using its money for much more important things, is
putting a quarter of its resources into persecuting Falun Gong. This is
unacceptable. This is not only a crime in relation to the repression of people,
but also a crime in relation to resources of those very same people being used
against them. I think it is also up to the international community to raise at
every opportunity the issue of human rights in China. We shouldn't be afraid to
do it. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be bullied or blackmailed with the issue
of trade, money or financial resources or anything else to stay silent. Any
democratic government in any democratic country must fight for the people of all
countries regardless of where that country is and regardless of what they say;
it is important for every government to speak out, that includes our own. I hope
that in the future, our government at every opportunity, considering the amount
of trade that this country does in connection with China, I think that at every
opportunity the issue of Falun Gong and the issue of human rights in general
should be brought up. We should not stay silent.
China is an extremely powerful country and if we are to move
forward, we need to ensure that people's rights are protected and that includes
those Falun Gong practitioners. And it's clear that the persecution of Falun
Gong is attempting to try to repress and oppress people who are trying to live
their lives in the way they wish and also to be able to be free. I think this is
very important, so in the interest of freedom, I hope that the end of the
persecution of Falun Gong will happen very soon. I think it will with
everybody's support. We all need to ensure that politicians and governments
speak out loud and clear at every opportunity.
Thank you.
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