Is democracy in Myanmar a lost case?

The Dilemma

“It was hard not to be moved both by the demeanour of Aung San Suu Kyi when she was freed from house arrest in Yangon on November 13th, and by the popular reaction to her freedom. Her grace, courage and good humour seem undiminished…” wrote The Economist recently. But, it further wrote, “The foundations for the optimism she herself professes seem flimsy.”

There is a sense of hopelessness about what might happen in Myanmar. She is now 65 years old; the best part of her political life been spent under guard. Her party got divided over the issue of participating in the recently held elections. The rising powers of today, China and even India, seem to be far busy signing trade agreements with the junta. The worst, neither she nor Myanmar has been able to force the junta repeal her long periods of detention and house arrest.

An analogy

If we compare Suu Kyi’s resistance with that of Mahatma Gandhi, the contexts are very different. The rulers or the oppressors of Gandhi’s India were foreigners. The world was different. The leading world powers of the world sympathised with India’s freedom struggle. Gandhi was not the single important leader, though he was the most important one. The leadership was entrenched to the smallest level of the society. Also, thanks to the British who at least held trial when they arrested a political leader. The mood back home in England was also against British oppression.

In Suu Kyi’s Myanmar, most of the political prisoners remain jailed. She has been freed just in time to miss Myanmar’s general election but how long she will be free is deeply doubtful. The breakaway faction of NLD seems to be getting back in the fold but most of the political prisoners remain locked. The modern world presents the junta with much advanced means at its disposal to monitor, control and suppress any anti-establishment activities. On geopolitical level, the opposition to the junta has become customary and lacks any real teeth. And the countries that matter to Myanmar, namely India and China, want business to prosper at any cost. The military junta shifted its capital to Naypyidaw in 2008. From the multi-tiered, flower-covered traffic circles of the new capital, the junta is happy signing gas and port deals with Myanmar’s energy hungry neighbours.

Living in world’s largest democracy, it is difficult to even write, “Is democracy in Myanmar a lost case?” Suu Kyi has been by far an Indian in more than one ways. Her early life, her best moments and of course education and inspiration, all belong to India. She is, by all parameters, the daughter of India. To even think of democracy being a lost case in Myanmar, until Suu Kyi has not stopped, would be our greatest failure. The defeat of the thought of belief and hope of democracy is the real source of energy and inspiration that Myanmar can’t afford without.

After her release on November 13, Ms Suu Kyi, in a traditional lilac dress, took a flower from someone in the crowd and said, “I have to give you the first political lesson since my release….” She further told, “There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.”

Fortunately, hope is not the only hope of Burma’s democratic struggle. Burma has resisted the junta from time to time. The August-September 2007 protests by thousands of monks for over one month when they marched from the golden hilltop Shwedagon Pagoda, a religious center and historical focal point for social and political protests, into the capital city’s downtown district is something that has not gone unnoticed. And it was not an “Only monks’ affair”. Along the way, they were joined by thousands of supporters. The protests were quelled only after the military was brought in and many people were killed and beaten. The demonstrations in December 1996 were also suppressed in a similar manner.

Myanmar is sitting on a landmine of unrest from the junta rule. Myanmareses just need to remember what Suu Kyi said on her release. One united effort and it would shake the junta forever.

The article was published on iSikkim.com