'Chocolate and cactus'

Freedom of expression is a basic human right that cannot be ignored. In conservative countries, such expression is considered a threat. Psychologically speaking, if thoughts and feelings do not get appropriate outlet, then emotional turbulence sets in and may lead to mental health crisis. This basic right is to be practiced in all spheres and from all platforms if the sanctity of mental health is to be preserved.
In traditional society like that of Pakistan, a number of mental health issues are witnessed by clinicians where suppression of emotions and feelings were identified as the major factors. Hence, ventilation of feelings is being advocated by scholars dealing with the subject of human psychology. However, excessive and irrelevant use of freedom of speech may well indicate the presence of a mental disorder per se. Freedom of expression though a basic right, it is one of the most threatened rights, with the governments and even the human right groups all over the world.
Historically speaking, in Pakistan, people were deprived of this basic right in a subtle way. On the other hand, there was always propaganda about the respect of this right. Human rights organisations brought into light a number of incidents where people were harassed, threatened and victimised for expression of their thoughts. Media was never independent until the then president, Pervez Musharraf, allowed freedom.
Since then, media has become too vocal and independent apparently. This has caused a lot of bitterness among corrupt politicians and people at the helm of affairs. This freedom is also being abused in order to achieve some political gains that are beyond the comprehension of ordinary citizens of the country.
A number of journalists were killed perhaps because they were responsible for exposing the bitter truth about wrongdoings and undesirable activities of people in power. The recent killing of reporters in Pakistan is a glaring example of the sabotage of this basic human right. In social milieu, those people who would speak out their feelings are not always liked and would create more foes than friends. Reverting back to the psychological aspect of expression, it is important to be expressive but the extent should limit to preserve one's own basic human rights.
Analysing cross section of society, inhibition and self-conceived idea of being rude if spoken freely is the observed trend. Being courteous is decent in social intercourse and this attitude should be maintained if at all possible. If the external circumstances compel one to cross the decent limit while becoming rude, this would be acceptable in order to avoid mental stress in bottling it up. The western countries do have laws protecting the human right of expression but it is not known how much it is tolerated in practice.
There are reports from those countries where journalists and human right advocates were given death threats. Our nation as a whole is on a rollercoaster in terms of emotion. The concept of "Chocolate and Cactus" is derived from the fact that an individual can be as accommodative and sweet but should become expressive, firm and assertive even to the extent of becoming bitter when it comes to standing up for 'self' in order to maintain the mental integrity.
When it comes to political arena and international relations, our country has been a "chocolate" in all matters, whether it is related to national ego, tolerating insurgencies, accepting bitter terms for loans, making policies for the country and so on. Foreign powers have dictated whatever they wanted and we succumb to everything-thanks to our ambitious politicians. Hillary Clinton once asked India to be more assertive-why not to Pakistan?
We have to be aware that assertiveness with positive attitude had remained a key to better mental health and better performance as a consequence. We have example of. The age of that country is almost same as that of Pakistan. China as a country had been 'chocolate as well as cactus' both in individual and collective terms. We have lessons to learn.
(The writer is a Professor of Psychiatry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)