The execution of Akmal Shaikh – Ayi Jihu
I would firstly like to give my condolences to the children and family of Akmal Shaikh. I will not pretend to even know or understand this case other than what I have seen and heard on the news like everyone else, and I have learned that what we hear on the news is only a fraction of the truth most times.
I have many English friends and this topic has been brought up time and time again recently and many people have been asking me questions about China and how and why things work this way. So I feel compelled to maybe help people understand a little more about China in this respect.
The greatest thing I have learned from being in the West is how different we are and how the same we are. I am not sure if that makes sense to you. What I am saying is that we are all fundamentally the same yes, but the culture, food, thinking and ways of the Chinese is in many ways different to those of people in the UK. China is such a massive country it’s even hard for people in the UK to imagine that. People in the UK think there is just one type of Chinese person, but in fact their are over 50 different minority Chinese, each with their own culture and language, and then of course there is the Majority. This general ignorance by most people of China plays a great part in why are so outraged about all of this. They are thinking in English not Chinese. They are making judgements based on their limited knowledge and understanding of China how it works and how the people think and live.
Everyone marvelled at the spectacular opening ceremony of the Olympic games. They could not believe that anyone could get so many people to move as one, and do the things they did. China is great at this. China has the ability to make a billion people almost move as one. Trying to do that in the West would be almost impossible. I am not say this is a good or bad thing, I am just saying it is a thing that we can do and do well.
In order to keep order with so many people spread across such a vast land, our thinking has to be different, our approach different and the people also have to be different. Their are strengths and weaknesses in everything and this is one of our strengths. In China we know the consequences of certain things. We know the law is tough and that their is little chance of reprieve if you are caught doing the wrong thing. We accept and live by these laws and understand that they are for the most part for the benefit of the whole. We do not always like them but we do understand them.
China has to do what is best for China first and they have to consider the big picture. As they move more and more into the ways of the West they have to be careful not to move to fast as the repercussions for a country with that many people could be catastrophic. Akmal Shaikh may well have been duped as some say, and if so those are the people who hold the blame. They may have been Chinese or they may have been English, but one thing is for sure the cowards did not wish to take the risk themselves and part of that reason is they know they are going to China, not Amsterdam. Everyone knows the rules about drugs in China, they make no secret of it, from the time you land the signs are right in your face with the penalty.
Once again I am not making any judgement on Akmal Shaikh even if I knew everything about the case I would not make a judgement because it is not my place to do so. I just hope that this particular case does not shed too dark a light on China. People are executed in the USA all the time and in many countries around the world and because this no longer happens in the UK, the English will never quite be able to swallow it no matter where it happens, especially when it happens to one of their own.
I hope that if there is any good to come of this it will make people think twice, and be careful when travelling, that they know exactly what is in their luggage and pack it themselves.
Every country has it laws and ways of dealing with things some fair some unfair, but it is for that country and its people to change. It is for us I feel to understand that there is not only the English way or the American way, but there is also the African way, the Chinese Way, and the Arabic way of doing things and they may not always be the same.
RIP Akmal Shaikh
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