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Bangkok Post:Article by Josef Silve



Subject: Bangkok Post:Article by Josef Silverstein


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March 10, 1994
Bangkok Post

ARTICLE BY PROF. JOSEF SILVERSTEIN:
"IT'S TIME TO BEGIN A TRUE DIALOGUE IN BURMA"

(The author is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University and an
acknowledged scholar on Burma affairs.)

With the excitement caused by the meeting of Nobel Laureate Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and US Congressman W. Richardson having passed and
the focus of the media having shifted elsewhere, it is time to
consider more closely the words and ideas she expressed and realize
that the dialogue she called for was nothing less than about
dismantling the military dictatorship and replacing it with the
democracy the people thought they were creating when the elected
representatives int he 1990 elections.

It may not have been SLORC's intention to giver her a means by
which, at last, to talk to the world; but that is what happened. 
With letters from the President of the United States, the Secretary
General of the United Nations and the new UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights hand-carried to her by the Congressman and the UNDP
Representative, who also was present at the meeting, it was clear
that world leaders were standing with her and leaving no doubt if
there is to be a peaceful solution to Burma's problems, she must be
involved and her views must be taken seriously.

SLORC learned, if it did not already know, how formidable an
opponent Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is and will continue to be.

Whether or not it was their intention, the fact that SLORC has held
her prisoner without charges and trial has made her one with the
people and through common mistreatment at the hand of ruthless and
arbitrary rulers, who have no regard for law and the will of the
people, has made her the only leader who can speak for them.  If
anyone doubts this, let him stand in a free and fair election
against her.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made clear in the reported remarks that she
stands politically where she stood in 1989, on the eve of her
arrest, for a truly democratic Burma.  By that she meant and still
means civilian rule by the leaders who have been elected freely and
fairly under laws made by a parliament in public sessions and a
court system free of intimidation or coercion.

She made clear that while she still honors and respects the
military her father created, she believes political rule belongs to
the people, the army must be under government control and unable to
disrupt the constitutional precess once in place.

If the world sees her as the leader of Burma, she sees herself as
one of the many leaders chosen in Burma.  Before her house arrest,
she was their spokesperson and a source of many of the ideas they
collectively shared, but she firmly believed then and believes now
in open and frank dialogue both with them and the people.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called for a true dialogue with the men in
power as the first step[ to change in Burma.  It must take place in
an environment of equality between discussants and talks must be
free of coercion. And, if that dialogue is to produce positive
results, there can be no expectation that she alone "gives" and
they "take".

To create such an environment SLORC must curb itself and free the
people  as well as the leaders.  There can be no meaningful
dialogue between SLORC and Aung San Suu Kyi if she cannot
communicate freely with her fellow leaders in the NDF and the
people to reflect their ideas as well as her own.  That implies
that she and her fellow leaders in the NLD must be free of jail or
house-arrest, living at home, moving about the community, talking
and communicating with one another and constituents without threat
of further arrest, imprisonment or torture.

Representative Democracy is the vehicle by which she believes
people govern themselves best.  Under such a system, only those who
are elected by the people have a right to represent them.  Only
they have the right to write a constitution and make the rules by
which the people will be governed.

SLORC may have forgotten but it endorsed the above in Declaration
1/90 (July 27, 1990) its self-granted charter to rule by martial
law until a new constitution is in place.  Article 20 says,


     ...under present conditions, the representatives elected
     by the people are those who have the responsibility to
     draw up the constitution of the future democratic State.


The charade of a national convention going on in Rangoon does not
fit that criterion.  It is not a convention o f the people's
elected representatives; instead, it is a shadow play with the
SLORC acting as dalang moving handpicked puppets before the
flickering light and speaking the words they appear to say.

Any dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and SLORC in the political
future of Burma must begin by dismantling the national convention
and the convening of the Pyithu Hluttaw (national assembly) as
provided for in Declaration 1/90.  

Some may argue that it is impossible for SLORC to retreat from its
present course; after all it seeks to present itself to the outside
world as a legitimate government.  But SLORC retreated before. 
Didn't it hold a national election for all the world to see and
then acted as though it had not occurred?  Didn't it say that it
held no political prisoners and then in April 1992 admitted their
existence by releasing some from jail?

As it said in another part of Declaration 1/90, (Article 6), 

     The SLORC is not an organisation that observes any
     constitution; it is an organisation that is governing the
     nation by Martial Law.

Thus, it sees itself as free to do as it chooses.  It answers to no
authority and has no responsibility to explain its behavior.  If
SLORC wants to create an environment for dialogue it can shut down
the national convention and return to its position of July 27,
1990.

SLORC knows that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be intimidated; she
made the point clearly in the meeting when she told about advice
she once received from a 90-year old monk,  "to achieve happiness
you must be willing to suffer," and "anyone willing to indulge in
honest politics and must be prepared to be reviled."

Having taken all the punishment SLORC imposed, she is unlikely to
accept an invitation to dialogue unless the conditions under which
it is held are acceptable to her.

SLORC has not admitted it, but it needs Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.  With
its latest decision to print new money in ever larger denominations
because the kyat is nearly worthless and inflation growing, with
its Finance Minister appealing to the World Bang to allow it to
draw on its gold reserves because Burma is broke and cannot obtain
financial or economic help from the nations of the world so long as
it continues its inhumane and cruel violations of its people's
rights, it must take steps to show that real change on these issues
is in progress.

SLORC knows that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is pragmatic and realistic. 
She said, and SLORC should ponder it carefully, "that once a pre-
dialogue has begun and each side has acquired confidence in the
reliability of the other side, then the talks could hone in on the
real substance of the ways and means of moving forward
politically."

It is time to begin the dialogue.  Each day lost means that the
nation has that much greater to climb to extricate itself from the
pit the military has dug since it seized power in 1962.  If the
military really loves the people, as its leaders profess they do,
then let SLORC begin the long way out now by holding talks now with
the people's leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.