[vinnomot] Comments and Analysis : Quest for democracy in Myanmar

SAN-Feature Service

SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE

October 2,2007

 

Quest for democracy in Myanmar

 

Ripan Kumar Biswas

 

Warning against Burma's ruling generals by the G8, the world's eight most industrialized countries and sanctions announced against them by the United States have been undercut the effectiveness of warning or economic sanctions due to Support from China — and to a lesser extent other Asian nations investing in Myanmar, notably India, South Korea and Singapore.

 

SAN-Feature Service : Thirteen people have been killed so far as of September 28, 2007 including a Japanese photographer in a crackdown on mass anti-government protests against 45 years of military rule and growing economic hardship as the military junta clamped down and soldiers raided monasteries in the middle of the night, rounding up hundreds of the monks who had been leading protests--a ominous reminders of the crushing of a 1988 uprising (known as 8888 Uprising) in which more than 3,000 people were killed.

 

The government disconnected the Internet, adding to the country's isolation. However, the leading ISP, an offshoot of the ministry of technologies, tried to blame it on a technical problem with an underwater cable.

 

Military are hounding the foreign journalists still working on the ground while several publications, including those owned by the Eleven Media and Pyi Myanmar press groups, have closed after refusing to publish propaganda articles as the public would not be interested in buying their publications if they could not read about the demonstrations.

 

In a sudden overthrow of existing democratic rule in March 2, 1962, Burma entered into the military regime. Revolutionary Government, led by Ne Win, abolished all political parties by military decree of the Revolutionary Council after March 23, 1964 and formed Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) which became the sole political party in Burma under Ne Win.

 

Following independence in January 4, 1948, there were uprisings in the army and amongst ethnic minority groups in Burma and even before independence, the country was riven with political division and Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kye) was assassinated together with six of his cabinet members on July 19, 1947.

 

After 8888 Uprising, General Saw Maung formed State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and declared martial law after widespread protests in 1989. SLORC renamed Burma "Myanmar" in the English language and government held free elections in May, 1990 for the first time in almost 30 years in where "the National League for Democracy (NLD)," the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 489 seats, but the election results were annulled by SLORC, which refused to step down to date.

 

The latest protests were led on August 19, 2007 by former student protesters and other activists in response to sharp and unannounced fuel price increases that raised the prices of goods and transport in a country that is already one of the poorest in Asia, but most of these leaders had been arrested or were in hiding when the monks began their own protests on Tuesday, September 18, 2007.

 

The monks, who are the highest moral authority in the Burmese culture, were apparently motivated by an attack on a small demonstration near a temple, during which security officers fired shots in the air and beat a number of monks. Since then the monks' protests have spread quickly and have become more overtly political in order to banish the common enemy evil regime from Burmese soil forever.

 

The link between the clergy and the leader of Myanmar 's pro-democracy movement, as well as calls by some monks for a wider protest, raised the stakes for the government, which has mostly kept its hands off the monks for fear of a public backlash.

 

There was no sign the government had any intention of backing down, and monks said the violence would not deter them from pressing on with what has become the most sustained anti-junta protest since a failed 1988 democracy uprising.

 

The corralling of monks was a serious blow, but they were besieged in their monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the compounds in the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay . Troops stood guard outside and blocked nearby roads to keep the clergymen isolated and took control of the streets on Friday, September 28, 2007.

 

Although monks have been spearheading the demonstrations and filling most of the ranks in protest marches, but they aren't likely to emerge in a leadership role and the protests have been failed to produce a visible challenge against the junta forces.

 

Monks and other protesters, however, tried to be under the leadership of the iconic democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, who remains a martyr and rallying symbol for the 56 million people of Myanmar .

 

In 2002, the military government miscalculated her appeal and released her from house arrest and allowed her to tour the country, visiting party offices, but it drew increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds until a band of pro-government thugs attacked a convoy in which she was traveling, killing several people. Then government seized her again and placed under even stricter house arrest, cutting off her telephone and barring most visitors.

 

Warning against Burma's ruling generals by the G8, the world's eight most industrialized countries and sanctions announced against them by the United States have been undercut the effectiveness of warning or economic sanctions due to Support from China — and to a lesser extent other Asian nations investing in Myanmar, notably India, South Korea and Singapore.

 

"Every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand up for people suffering under a brutal military regime like the one that has ruled Burma for so long," said the US President George W. Bush and called on all countries with influence over Myanmar to tell the junta to stop using force.

 

Myanmar 's fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed "revulsion" over the crackdown and told the junta "to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution." Officials in neighboring Thailand said planes were on standby to evacuate ASEAN citizens in case the situation deteriorated. But ASEAN has been reluctant to push Burma towards political reform out of deference to its doctrine of non-interference.

 

An agreement was signed not only to promote and strengthen relations in various fields, including art, music, education, research, media and tourism but also to re-establish the relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar during the visit of Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of Myanmar , General Than Shwe on 17 December 2002.

 

Although Myanmar and Bangladesh share a 256-kilometer (159-mile) border, but the relation between this two south Asian nations much more depend on 2.5 million Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar 's northwestern Rakhine state to escape persecution by Myanmar 's military rulers. However, 230,000 have returned to Myanmar since 1993, when the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees began a repatriation program, but 20,000 Rohingya refugees are still left in camps in Bangladesh .

 

AS because Myanmar has been under military rule for so long, few people today understand the role that civil society is meant to play in a democracy or that a healthy democracy requires broad-mindedness and a dispersion of power.

 

Whatever, world wants an end to human rights abuses and the installation of a democratically elected government in Myanmar, and the people of Burma, who desire what so many others around the world now take for granted: the chance to freely express their views and to be represented by leaders of their choosing.--SAN-Feature Service

 

 

Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York: Ripan.Biswas@ yahoo.com

 

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