Academic excellence needs democratic principle

For Thailand, topics related to democracy, which many see as being under attack, have been in the news a lot these past few months. Indeed, the nature and needs of Thai democracy have been increasingly discussed for the past ten years or more. Thailand is not alone in this.

In "Dutch lap up Wilders' hardline message," Anna Holligan says that comments by political party leader Geert Wilders against immigration by Moroccans to the Netherlands, whilst deeply offensive even to some members of the Freedom Party, who have resigned, and to 5,000 people who want Wilders "charged with inciting racial hatred" (2014, para. 4) have nonetheless proved so very popular with a large percentage of the Dutch people that the Freedom Party is likely to win the coming European elections on May 22.

First, I think that Wilders must be allowed to make his deeply offensive comments. They are racist. They are ugly. They are narrow minded. They also seem to me immoral, ignorant, and false. But these are not good enough reasons to stop people from peacefully stating an honestly held opinion. If the law could be used to ban people saying things because the comments upset some other people then everything would have to be banned: Buddhists in Burma want Islamic ideas suppressed by law, Moslems in many countries want Buddhist ideas suppressed, some people want the idea that gay men and women be able to marry suppressed, some want the idea that gays and lesbians are hated by god suppressed. For most ideas that are important to people and society, some people will have one opinion and others the opposite opinion.

Democracy is based on the belief that all members of a society have an equal right to a voice, to a say, in deciding what that society is like and how it is governed, and this basic principle of democracy requires that every opinion, even the most hateful, must be allowed expression. Indeed, a strong and healthy democracy must protect speech that many citizens, even a large majority, find extremely offensive and hateful. This means that when people like Geert Wilders make their ugly, immoral racist comments, their right to do so must be protected by law, even though they are themselves contradicting the basic democratic principle of equal respect for all.

Sadly, the majority is often wrong about both facts and morals. And this is another reason free speech is so important: the only way to correct mistakes, both factual and moral, is by allowing and encouraging opposing ideas stated and supported.

For the same reason, academic freedom is vitally important to all academic work that aims to make progress towards better understanding in every area of study. If the law of the nation or social sanction make it impossible for some opinions to be stated and discussed, then the law guarantees ignorance of all lawful opinion, and academics prefer knowledge to legally enforced ignorance, which must make opinion worthless. I hope that those who currently like Wilders' false and immoral opinions will listen to the opposing ideas and learn to think better about the question of immigration. It is good for nations to invite new immigrants to settle and become citizens.

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Reference

Holligan, A. (2014, April 26). Dutch lap up Wilders' hardline message. BBC News Inside Europe Blog. Retrieved April 26, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-eu-27133977