The government's view that the UK riots are the result of the circulation of fake news is without insight.
It is without insight because the rioters in the UK are not rioting because they are misinformed. The rioters in the UK know that the tragic stabbing of the children in Southport was not conducted by an asylum seeker or immigrants. They are rioting anyway because they are under a lot of stress, and they have lost trust and respect in their government and institutions.
Rather than see the events in the UK as a case of what could happen if fake news is allowed to propagate unchecked, the government should take the riots in England as a sign of what happens when the people continue to lose trust and respect in their government and institutions.
Trust and respect are something that is earned. It is not something that you are entitled to just because you have a high position in the government.
As we can see from the events that have unfolded in Sri Lanka previously, and Bangladesh as well as the UK currently, the government should not be smug in the belief that it is its due that people believe it. It must earn the trust and respect of the people through its own merit.
Government officials must subscribe to universally approved standards and ideally, apply these standards in stricter fashion upon themselves than then do on the people, so that it will be self-evident to the people that they are being ruled by their betters.
An ideal government is one that will be patient with their citizens even when their citizens have done wrong twice but be strict on its own officials and ministers for even doing wrong once. When a government displays such a characteristic, it will universally be seen by its citizenry as a government with integrity, and be naturally trusted and treated with the highest level of respect by its people.
If the government cannot be stricter on itself than it is on the people, then it should at least be as strict on itself as it is on the people.
It is when the government is seen as being manned by people of low integrity, who are quick to punish the citizens but are very lax on themselves, that chances of senseless rioting, as the one that is happening in the UK today, is at great risk of happening.
In life, we all need someone or something that we can respect. It is only if we have someone or something that we can respect that we will be able to calm ourselves down when we are faced with a lot of stress. A person who respects nothing or no one will certainly run berserk when the stress they are facing goes beyond the point that they are able to bear.
In a nation, it is incumbent upon the government and national leaders to make sure that they always behave in a manner that makes them worthy of respect.
It is not the nature of people to get angry easily. People have a great capacity to bear with the injustice, unfairness, corruption and humiliation that they face in their regular life, just to take care of themselves and their family and continue on with their life.
If people are rioting, it means that they have been pushed to their limits.
If the government knows what it is doing, has integrity and is desirous of serving the people, the people would not have reached a point where they feel that they have been pushed to a limit.
If the people have been pushed to their limits, it is most likely because the government they have either does not know what it is doing, has low integrity and is desirous of serving itself more than it serves the people.
Just because people silently bore with the excesses of their leaders and government yesterday, the government and the leadership should not conveniently assume that they will forever bear with their excesses.
Like the proverbial camel, you never know when the people have reached their last straw.
When people have reached their last straw, as we can see today in the UK, people will just senselessly riot until they tire themselves out, simply because they do not trust or respect their government enough to calm themselves down when they are faced with a grief that is beyond their ability to control.
Rather than blame fake news for the phenomenon, it will be better for the government to reflect on itself and concentrate on its job.
The riots in the UK likely have economic stresses, like inflation and unemployment, as their underlying cause. If the UK government was better at its job, the economic stresses in the UK would not have reached such a stage where a high number of its citizens have become so stressed that, like the forest during the dry season, just the slightest spark could set everything ablaze in a drop of a hat.
If the UK government and leaders had integrity, because they held themselves to a higher standard than their people, even when they suffered, the people would have still been able to contain their suffering and trust that their government and leaders are doing all that they can to address their suffering.
It is because they have neither that a large number of its citizens have resorted to rioting.
TheRealNehruism is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
