Will Burma Tomorrow Be Another Country?

By Saneitha Nagani Allister Sparks book, Tomorrow Is Another Country is about the inside story of South Africa s negotiated revolution that took place between F W de Klerk s apartheid regime and Nelson Mandela s African National Congress (ANC). My short piece is about a view from the sidelines about a country that is changing, but changing in a very complex manner. To me, it is like a child looking at small fish-like creatures in the backyard pond, indistinct to say for sure whether they turn into fish or frogs or even into tadpoles. The changes that are taking place are too fragile to say for certain that they are going to be democratic or they might turn out to be a hybrid regime likes a democratic Burma with Burmese characteristics . We should be wary of all such regimes with Burmese characteristics . Under U Ne Win we have put up with man-made poverty, striving and struggling, to reach the man-made heaven on earth the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. We did not even get half way. Burma was neither a Union nor a Socialist and everything that we were made to strive for since 1962 disappeared with the mocked coup of Bogyoke Saw Maung and his successors. The National League for Democracy (NLD) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have decided to re-register and will to take part in the forthcoming by-elections to be held on 1 April 2012. Why on earth April Fool s day was chosen is beyond anyone s comprehension. Without first seeking amendments to the controversial clauses in the 2008 Constitution first as they have done with the Political Parties Registration laws, the NLD must have grounds to have enough faith to take President Thein Sein s words at their face value. To me it seems like they are going to take a plunge right into the deep and murky political waters with just faith as their life-jacket . However, judging from her character one would have to assume that Daw Suu must be well aware of what she is doing. As she often said that she is a cautious optimist. The party must have faith in her to go along with her in a unanimous decision to both the re-registration of the party and to contest in the forthcoming by-elections. Daw Suu, being a leader with so much insight, is sure to know what sort of risks she is taking. It is not with blind faith that she has given U Thein Sein s government her support but it is indeed a calculated risk. Suspending the dam project in Myitsone is one thing but the speculation that he is facing difficulties from within some sections of his government as regards to the release of political prisoners, or the ongoing armed conflicts in many of the ethnic minorities region somehow shows that the President does not seem have full authority when it comes to the running of his government. There can be the possibility of a backlash if the changes took a direction in which some in the present quasi-civilian government feel uneasy about and that they could be call to account for their past behaviours or if the changes went to the extent to which President U Thein Sein might feel that he and his government no longer have control of. But everybody seems to have already set their minds on the hope that, political reforms, once granted are difficult to rescind. I hope they are right. Like the lyrics of the song the old lady in Po Chit Kon village in the Kachin State was told to have sung to her grandchild I also regard Daw Suu with great admiration and affection as, Oh this ruler of our kingdom, a pretty thing, a pretty little thing. I never have doubts as regards to her honesty and her genuine love for her people. According to my Sayadaw, one cannot do politics without a generous

heart. To what I have observed my Sayadaw s assertion has proven to be true. He said that to be involved in politics is like performing a dana (the rendering of this Pali word may not be exact but it can be translated as close to the act of charity ). When performing dana an act of kusala (a virtuous act) one needs to have a heart that neither has constraints nor hope of getting something back in return. This kind of mindset must be kept at all three stages of the act, that is, before the act; during and after the act. One s might have to be very clear of what one is about to do then when performing the act one must be fully conscious of one s action and there shall be no remorse for one action afterwards. Unlike South Afric ca s Nelson Mandela, Daw Suu was not barred from leaving the country. As Peter Popham mentioned in his book, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, that, Suu s detention was never strictly comparable to Nelson Mandela s twenty-seven years imprisonment on Robben Island because, unlike Mandel, she was free to leave. At any time in her years of confinement between 1989 and 2009, she could have phoned her contact in the regime, packed a suitcase, said goodbye to here faithful housekeepers and companions, taken a taxi to the airport and flown away; but it would have been with certainty, if she did, that her passport would have been cancelled and that she would never have been permitted to return. And by flying away to the safe and loving embrace of the outside world, she would have vindicated all the slurs of her enemies, and the worst apprehensions of her supporters. Like her late father, Daw Suu certainly knew what she is in for right at the beginning and she is also determined to go through to the end hog and see that she has won the second struggle for independence of the people of Burma. Burmese politics and Daw Suu reminded me of the very first verse in the first chapter of Vissudhi Magga (The Path to Purification) that, When a wise man, established well in Virtue, Develops Consciousness and Understanding, Then as a bhikkhu ardent and sagacious, He succeeds in disentangling this tangle. This stanza was the answer to a certain deity s question, The inner tangle and the outer tangle - this generation is entangled in a tangle. And so I ask of Gotaman this question: Who succeeds in disentangling this tangle? After her late father, the founding father of Burma s military and the founder of Burma s independence Bogyoke Aung San, many leaders such as U Nu, U Ne Win, U San Yu, Dr Maung Maung, Bogyoke Saw Maung, Senior General Than Shwe and now U Thein Sein took over power. They all have lofty plans for the country but none of them have made the country richer, the suffering and hardships of the ordinary people lesser, or the reputation of the country in the international community more respectable. None of them was seen received with so much love and affection as Daw Suu. They all have been what my father said, Under the Ne Win s socialist regime Burma produces only sanpya loke-tha (outstanding or model workers) but never a model product . They said they had to take over power because of their love for the country. In spite of their love, a rich country like Burma descended into one of the United Nations Least Developed Countries ; while Burma gets poor their foreign bank accounts grew bigger. For Burma, to become another country tomorrow - both respectable and with a reputation of being of not just a rich country but with an ethos like the Australian ethos of fair go for everybody, unity in diversity and a humane society where one is the keeper of one s brothers and sisters; and a country everybody is equal before the law and not the generals are more equal the other written into the constitution ; the rule of the gun or the rule of the whim is replaced by the rule of law without any political prisoners in our prisons - Daw Suu has to be the one who is going to disentangle the tangle. Despite the fact that it may still be a prophecy with no scientific basis or with

very little hard evidence to prove that it is true, from what I have observed from the sidelines I am getting more and more convinced with each passing day that what was mentioned in the lyrics of the song, malei hlet-khat-than shwe-chi ngwe-chi tan-par-lo; yet-kan shwe-zin kan-shwe-zin; bethu bethu win-gar-ma chi-khin htwe shin-naing-pa ma-shin (with all the golden yarns, the silver yarns and the golden loom; who will be the one to disentangle the tangle web) is about to become a reality. Be a sceptic at thy own peril! END