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Description
SIR: Rarely do I strongly disagree with the Editor, so when I read his contribution to the September issue I re-read it several times and then spent quite a lot of time thinking it through. Having gone to all the trouble, I decided that I should reply.
I will not comment of the Editor's performance appraisals of journalists and lawyers. They can look after themselves. I will concentrate on what I think is the underlying theme in the piece which suggests that governments need extraordinary powers to deal with the threat of terrorism facing the country and they cannot be expected to explain the reasons behind the execution of these powers or the evidence used to justify their actions.
Where one stands on this is, of course, not based on any objective set of facts. It seems to me that it depends on three basic value judgments on which each of us should make up our own minds.
First, how strongly do we feel about the freedoms and rights that are challenged? I doubt that many readers of Quadrant would answer, "Not much". Occasionally we hear people saying that they have nothing to fear from the government... |
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