Why Ecuador Stands for Junian Assange?

Julian Assange the whistleblower of twenty first century has become a buzzing name of the present world. Emergence of Assange and his role in establishing a rare type of instance of ‘free world’ have attracted mixed reactions from experts to general pupil in both worlds of media and at the same time of politics. Many people say that Assange has established ‘right to information’ of laymen to government’ activities while other are saying that he has endangered national security of many countries. On which side you will stand for? Now there is another scenario regarding Assange. The question of Assange’s political asylum has placed many states in strained relations against one another. Now another popular question has risen among people that why Ecuador is eager to give asylum to Mr. Assange. Why does it dare to challenge Britain for Assange?  In the background of all those complex developments and queries I have sit to write for.

Assange is probably, the best whistleblower in world history in terms of his works that shocked most possible countries of the world. There is little doubt that Julian Assange, having exposed some of the barbarities perpetuated by the American military in its ill-fated war in Iraq, has reason to fear the wrath of an enraged US government — particularly given the appalling treatment meted out to whistleblower Bradley Manning, the army private accused of orchestrating the biggest leak of state secrets in US history. But what is the significance of whistleblower? There is strong evidence in American history that whistleblowers played a significant role in American Civil War. In Europe the historical instance is no less igniting than that of America. Ryszard Kukliński, a Polish colonel, Cold War spy and communist whistleblower believed that he would be able to prevent the war in Europe between the Warsaw Pact and Nato countries by handing in 40,265 pages of secret military documents of German Democratic Republic and People's Republic of Poland to CIA. Lev Trotsky in late 1920s gave an ethico-political dimension of whistleblowing. He started reading the correspondence between his predecessors Tsarist Russia and the ministers of the other countries. Official documents revealed that it was not fought for patriotic reasons. Trotsky did not hesitate in deciding what to do: the Foreign Ministry's archives had to be made public in order to make the whole world aware that the war in Europe was fought by the hegemonic classes against their own peoples. There Trotsky served as a whistleblower to expose the curse of secret diplomacy.

In the name of ‘national security ‘, secret diplomacy has been dominating administrative policy of governments in democratic countries. Secret diplomacy was just the make-up needed to hide this fact: “Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests”. In the aspect of leaking the activities of secret diplomacies many experts see Assange is a continuation of Trotsky, Ryszard Kukliński and so forth. But Assange’s performance and its impacts have global range. Assange gave a big blow against the evils of secret diplomacy.  Clandestine diplomatic activities only served the regime interest. It never can be a pro-people strategy or policy.

Since the US government issued a warrant against those leaks, Assange had been on the run. He submitted to police questioning in Sweden in the immediate wake of the complaints in late 2010, left the country unaware that a police warrant had been issued for his arrest. Since then, he has taken his fight against a European Extradition Warrant (EEW) through three different courts in the UK, the Magistrates’ Court, the High Court and Supreme Court, and lost on every occasion. Later he flew to the Ecuadorian embassy two months ago and sought political asylum, which he was duly given. But this move has made the UK government annoyed over Ecuador. The UK government has made it clear that the Australian activist will be arrested and extradited if he steps outside the building after jumping bail. But the curiosity became indomitable when we had found Ecuador standing firmly besides Assange. Even thirty seven South American countries extended their supports for the decision taken by the government of Ecuador. Some experts say that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Assange have mutual interests- they both support the idea that the U.S. is an imperial power that has to be checked. Robert Amsterdam, a Canadian international lawyer presence of overwhelming anti-American sentiment in whole Latin America. He shared his experiences “When I'm in Guatemala, they still call the (U.S.) 'the empire.'” There really is an almost universal hostility toward American foreign policy. Assange would be welcomed in many countries just for that fact. Jorge Leon, an Ecuadorian political analyst who lives in Quito, said that with presidential elections in Ecuador scheduled for next February giving Assange asylum in the country could be "useful to Correa to give himself a leftist image." In this way Assange needs Ecuador and Ecuador needs Assange. There are mutual interests. But how far this mutual interest will last?  Will Correa be able to continue his support for Assange after the next election? Future will give the answer.   

This article was published in the daily Sun on 1st September, 2012