There is no central committee of truth

This column appears in today's IN&M regional newspapers.

By Michael Commane

Rathgar Road in Dublin, linking Rathmines with Rathgar, has to be one of the finest roads in the country’s capital. It is approximately two kilometres long and links the south side of the city with Terenure, Rathfranham, Tallaght and Ballyboden. Before the days of ring roads and motorways it was one of the roads out of Dublin to the south.

There are some fabulous houses on the road. It boasts a Catholic and Presbyterian church. And a long list of famous people have lived on or near the road.
I have been traversing the road for over 50 years and most of the time on a bicycle.
Last Thursday just as I was about to head up the road from the Rathmines end I noticed a young woman cycling in front of me. Her bicycle was clearly too small for her. It was in bad shape, no oil on the chain, a buckle in the back wheel. And yet she was going at great speed.

It was between 6 and 7pm and miserable weather to be out on a bike. As I was passing her I noticed she was not from these parts. Before we got as far as the Catholic church, which is half way up the road we were chatting away to each other.
She was from south east China, not too far away from Hong Kong.

Zhong Ping – not her real name - is studying accountancy in Dublin and has been in Ireland over five years. Except for the rain she loves the place and the people.
I asked her for her opinions on Liu Xiabobo, who was recently conferred with the Nobel peace prize.

We began a great political conversation. Her English is fluent. I was asking myself how many of our Government ministers speak Mandarin the way she speaks English. I can only guess.

I was somewhat slow to talk about anything political because on previous occasions I have found how Chinese people with whom I spoke were somewhat reticent to get involved.

Zhong Ping was delighted to talk politics. Nor was she afraid to speak her mind. And in her opinion over half the Chinese people are annoyed and irritated with the Chinese Government for not allowing Liu Xiaobo to attend the award winning ceremony in Oslo. She also expressed her annoyance with how the Chinese government does not permit freedom of speech.

“In Ireland you are allowed say what you like about your government and that’s great but something we cannot do in China,” Zhong stressed. And it is something that greatly annoys her.

I commented on the size of China with a population of 1.6 billon people. When I remarked that shortly it would be the greatest power on earth, she was proud to remind me of China’s old name – The Middle Kingdom.
And just as we arrived at the top of the road, close to the Presbyterian church, she was turning right and I was going on straight. But before we parted she gave me her email address and hoped that we would have more to say to one another about Chinese politics.

At the award winning ceremony in Oslo, actor Liv Ullmann read a speech of Liu Xiaobo. Here is a paragraph from the speech she read:
“Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity and suppress truth.”

It was easy for me cycling up Rathgar Road on a winter’s evening talking to an engaging Chinese student about what life can be like in a dictatorship. But just as Zhong turned right, it dawned on me how many of us in the western world speak our mind, how many of us really speak what we believe.

Of course we don’t. We are all the time watching out to make sure that we say and do is the right thing so as to please our masters and bosses. And that’s whether they are bosses or bishops.

True, we don’t have censorship, nor are we subject to the terror that is a reality in dictatorships but it would be naive to think that our world and our society epitomises freedom of thought and speech. Of course it doesn’t. Ask WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

We admire those who speak their minds, that is, provided it never upsets our little worlds. Once that happens we do all in our power to dismiss them as mavericks.
I am intrigued how there can be such a uniformity of thought in corporations and institutions.
In the church too, there can be a worrying homogeneity.

The job of the priest is to tease out the truth, but always in the context of the time and environment in which she or he lives.

Reality is not concretised in conformity, so how then can truth be subject to strict conformity? There never can be a central commmitte of truth.

The Chinese Communist Party argues that it knows best what is for the good of China and the Chinese people. But isn’t that what every boss and manager says. And isn’t there sometimes a culture within the churches that leaders and priests, not only claim to know what is best for the people but they might also claim they have a direct and exclusive link with God.

Leadership, whatever its form is bedevilled with difficulties.

Wherever in the world or whatever the ideology, there is no perfect way and we have to be on guard to keep the dictators at bay – whatever their creeds, styles or beliefs may be.