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BurmaNet News: December 17, 1994
- Subject: BurmaNet News: December 17, 1994
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 23:04:00
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BurmaNet News: Saturday, December 17, 1994
Issue #83
**************************************************************
Contents:
ABSDF: PRESENT SITAUATION OF RECENT FIGHTING IN DAWN GWIN AREA
AP: BURMESE STUDENTS ACCUSE GOVT.
NCGUB (BANGKOK): REPORT ON FIGHTING ON DAWN GWIN
REG.BURMA: KNU COMMENTARY ON RECENT EVENTS
NATION: SLORC BREAKS CEASEFIRE VOW WITH ATTACK ON KAREN REBELS
BKK POST: KNU ACCUSES RANGOON JUNTA OF AGITATION
BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS ROUT DISSIDENT STUDENTS
NATION: STUNNED STUDENTS SEEK REFUGE AFTER BURMESE ARMY OFFENSIVE
NATION: CITY REALTY PLANS HOTEL IN BURMA WITH THAI COUT
NATION: KAREN DETAINEES FREED BUT SITUATION VOLATILE
SEASIA-L: IRRAWADDY JOURNEY
BURMANET: TEXT OF LINTNER'S "AUNG SAN SUU KYI AND BURMAS
UNFINISHED RENAISSANCE"
**************************************************************
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ABSDF: PRESENT SITAUATION OF RECENT FIGHTING IN DAWN GWIN AREA
PRESS STATEMENT - For Immediate Release 17 December 1994
Since the first week of December 1994, there had been reports
that SLORC troops were preparing to launch an offensive against
the Headquarters of ABSDF in Dawn Gwin in the KNU-controlled
area. Concurrently, this was the time of a conflict within the
Karen National Union (KNU) because of religious differences.
A total of 14 SLORC military companies (Coys) -- three Coys from
the 1st Column of Infantry Battalion (IB) 19, three Coys from
the 1st Column of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 434, two Coys
from the 2nd Column of LIB 434, three Coys from the 1st Column
of LIB 340, and three Coys from the 1st Column of LIB 431,
comprised of over 1,000 troops in all -- launched the planned
offensive against Dawn Gwin. On 11 December SLORC troops
occupied Lae Toe outpost located 6,000 yards west of Dawn Gwin.
Two days later, on 13 December fighting took place between SLORC
troops and ABSDFs Student Army near Lae Toe outpost. In the
evening on 14 December the Student Army attacked SLORC troops,
who attempted to burn down buildings of ABSDFs 216th Regiment
(Regt) and nearby NLD camps, located north of Dawn Gwin. SLORC
troops arrived at the Dawn Gwin area, and retreated after being
engaged by the Student Army. Buildings of the 216th Regt were
razed to the ground. Subsequently, the Student Army has been
taking positions on hilltops in the Dawn Gwin area and are ready
to repulse any further SLORC aggression. At present, there are
no more SLORC troops in the Dawn Gwin area as they have
retreated to the west 12 km from ABSDF Headquarters. In these
recent clashes with SLORC troops, there were no casualties
reported from the Student Army. The number of SLORC casualties
has not yet been confirmed.
Central Committee Dawn Gwin 17 December 1994
***********************************************************
AP: BURMESE STUDENTS ACCUSE GOVT.
December 17, 1994
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- More than 1,000 armed Burmese
government soldiers have been attacking student rebels in an
effort to seize their jungle headquarters near the Thai border,
the students said Saturday.
Minn Aung Myint, of the All Burma Students Democratic Front,
said in a telephone interview that the students had repelled
Burmese forces trying since Tuesday to seize their headquarters
at Dawn Gwin, about 400 miles northwest of Bangkok. The
soldiers bombed one of the outposts controlled by the 700
students earlier this week, but the students repelled them with
automatic rifles, grenade launchers and mortars, Minn Aung Myint
said.
No students have been injured in the skirmishes.
The Burmese government has been increasing its attacks in recent
months on rebels who have refused to follow their former comrades
in reaching cease-fire pacts with the junta.
The Democratic Front was formed by Burmese students who
fled the capital after the military junta crushed a pro-democracy
uprising in 1988, killing hundreds of protestors.
***********************************************************
NCGUB (BANGKOK): REPORT ON FIGHTING ON DAWN GWIN
December 16, 1994
ACCORDING TO THE ABSDF URGENT RELEASE TODAY, FIGHTING STARTED ON
8 DEC'94. ON 13 AND 14 DEC'94, FIGHTING BROKE OUT NEAR DAWN GWIN.
ON 14 DEC'94, SLORC TROOPS ATTACKED NOTHARN OF DAWN GWIN AND
BURN DAWN THE OFFICE OF ABSDF REGEMENT 206 AND OFFICE OF NLD(LA)
OCCUPIED ONE NIGHT THERE. THE NEXT DAY SLORC TROOPS WITHDRAW ITS
TROOPS FROM DAWN GWIN AS ABSDF STUDENTS ARMY CUT OFF SLORC SUPPLY
TROOPS. NEVERTHELESS, THE FIGHTING IS STILL GOING ON AT WESTERN
OF DAWN GWIN.
REPORT END.
********************************************************
REG.BURMA: KNU COMMENTARY ON RECENT EVENTS
fink reg.burma11:25 AM Dec 17, 1994 (at qal.Berkeley.EDU)
A KNU Representative asked me to post the following
(parapharased) on the net:
Calm has been restored in KNU territory. Internal conflicts were
generated by SLORC agents who led some Buddhist Karen to believe
that the Karen leadership (predominantly Christian) was only
interested in the creation of a Christian Karen state and
Buddhists would have no place in this state. SLORC troops
implemented a policy of not taking Karen Buddhists as porters
and slaves in return for their refusing to join the KNLA.
Those Karen who rose up against the KNU now understand that they
were misled by SLORC agents, and all captives have been
released. The KNU is committed to freedom of religion for all.
During the period of internal conflict, travel on the Moei River
was restricted. Now, however, boats are operating as normal.
SLORC sought to stir up internal dissention so that SLORC troops
could more easily attack the Karen. Clearly SLORC is not
committed to peaceful negotiations.
*************************************************************
BKK POST: KNU ACCUSES RANGOON JUNTA OF AGITATION
Friday December 16, 1994
THE Karen National Union claims undercover agents from Burmas
State Law and Order Restoration Council have organised
unscrupulous opportunists to carry out agitation in an area
controlled by Karen guerrillas. A KNU press release said that
not long after SLORC announced in 1992 the suspension of major
offensives against Karen resistance areas, in the interests of
national reconciliation and unity it began a propaganda campaign
to sow dissension among people in Karen State through
manipulation of religious differences. On December 2, matters
came to a head when the agitators succeeded in creating
misunderstanding among a small group of lower-ranking elements
of the Karen National Liberation Army to call a strike.
However, on December 13, the KNU leaders, with the help of some
Democratic Alliance of Burma leaders and Buddhist monks resolved
the problem. The SLORC, on hearing the news of the incident,
moved up heavy weapons and reinforcements to the front and has
been shelling KNLA positions since December 10.
****************************************************
NATION: SLORC BREAKS CEASEFIRE VOW WITH ATTACK ON KAREN REBELS
Friday, December 16 1994
by Yindee Lertcharoenchok
THE Burmese junta has broken its ceasefire pledge and launched
the first major offensive against ethnic Karen guerrillas in
nearly three years, capitalizing on internal religious
dissension and a mutiny by a group of Buddhist Karen fighters.
The Karen National Union (KNU), in a statement released
yesterday, accused the ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) of sending agitators to stir up dissension
between Buddhists and Christians, and questioned SLORCs
intentions and earlier calls for national reconciliation. The
Buddhist-Christian conflict climaxed on Sunday when several
hundred Buddhist guerrillas in and around a Buddhist temple on
the confluence of the Moei and Salween rivers clashed with
mainforce KNU fighters. The mutineers temporarily held hostage
a group of mediators sent to settle the dispute, but released
them after fighting which resulted in several casualties. The
KNU blamed SLORC for the mutiny, saying it had tried to sow
dissension among the Karen people through tences. Through the
work of its undercover agents, it (SLORC) succeeded in
organizing some unscrupulous opportunists to agitate in one area
of the KNU, said the statement. According to the statement,
the Burmese army began heavy shelling of Karen bases at Kawmoora
and Nawta on Saturday, one day before the mutiny. It said the
SLORC troops who attacked Nawta, which is opposite Thailand's
Tak province, were repulsed with heavy casualties. This move by
SLORC has made the KNU leadership see the SLORCs affirmation of
national reconciliation and unity in a different light and to
start questioning the real intention of SLORC, added the
statement. Thai border authorities have confirmed that since
early December SLORC had been moving heavy weapons and
reinforcements into its stronghold around Htee Par Wee Cho, or
Sleeping Dog Hill the frontline where the Burmese and Karen
troops have confronted one another for the past few years. The
offensive resumed after a lull of nearly three years after the
time when the KNU and the SLORC are quietly working out a
formula for their first meeting to negotiate peace. While SLORC
has insisted that ceasefire talks take place in Moulmein, the
capital of the Mon State, the Karen demand that they occur in
Rangoon in the presence of the United Nations. Thai
authorities expressed extreme surprise at the Burmese offensive
but confirmed fighting was continuing yesterday. They said
shelling was detected yesterday along the Karen-controlled
border with Thailand. The Burmese troops were about 10 kms from
the KNU Kawmoora camp on the Moei River opposite Taks Mae Sot
district, and about 10 kms from the dissident students
headquarters of Dawn Gwin in upper Salween River opposite Mae
Hong Son province. The All Burma Students Democratic Front
(ABSDF), which established its bases in the KNU areas said the
Burmese armys dry season offensive was aimed at over-running the
Karen headquarters at Manerplaw and other bases of anti-SLORC
democratic forces. It said intense fighting was continuing and
that the 33rd and 44th light infantry divisions of the Burmese
armys southeastern command had attacked and occupied Mae Nyaw
Khei and Mae Pa outposts on Sunday.
************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS ROUT DISSIDENT STUDENTS
Saturday, December 17, 1994
Bangkok, Reuters
BURMESE government troops have captured and razed the
headquarters of dissident students in southeastern Burma,
sending hundreds of rebels into hiding in the jungle, student
sources said yesterday. "Initial reports confirmed that Burma
troops have captured our headquarters at Dagwin, and some of the
student militia are reported wounded, said Shan Lay foreign
affairs secretary for the All Burma Students Democratic Front
(ABSDF). The fate of nearly half the 1,500 student soldiers
based in the strategic buffer camp at Dagwin was still unknown,
Shan Lay said, but indications are that many of them are hiding
in dense jungle or in the homes of nearby villagers. The other
half escaped down the Salween river to Karen rebel bases further
south to flee what is shaping up to be a steady advance of
Burmese forces toward Manerplaw, the headquarters of the Karen
National Union (KNU) 50 kilometres away. A Thai army source
quoted intelligence reports as saying about 10,000 government
troops were involved in the bombarding of Dagwin from early on
Thursday. The ABSDF was formed by Burmese students who fled
Rangoon to the jungles along the Thai border after the junta
cracked down on a pro- democracy movement in 1988, killing
hundreds and probably thousands of protesters. The students
and the KNU linked up with exiled dissident politicians in a
continuing struggle against the military rule of Rangoon. All are
based at Manerplaw between the Moei and Salween rivers about 20
kilometres northeast of Rangoon. The KNU is regarded as the
strongest of the more than a dozen ethnic minority groups which
have fought for autonomy from Rangoon since Burma gained
independence from Britain in 1948, but it has recently been
weakened by a major split in its ranks. Several hundred
Buddhist guerrillas, backed by monks and villagers, are
occupying a hilltop monastery at the junction of the Moei and
Salween rivers in protest against the mainly Christian
leadership of the KNU. Thai army sources have said the
mutineers killed at least three out of 15 envoys whom the KNU
sent to negotiate with them, and detained the rest except one.
The KNU leadership believes government agitators are behind the
split. This has all been planned, KNU official Em Marta told
Reuters Thursday. Negotiations over their grievances, which
include allegations of mistreatment and discrimination, were
continuing.
********************************************************
NATION: STUNNED STUDENTS SEEK REFUGE AFTER BURMESE ARMY OFFENSIVE
Saturday, December 17, 1994
by Yindee Lertcharoenchok
THE Burmese army yesterday captured the headquarters of dissident
students on the Salween River and continued its mortar attack on
the Karen headquarters further down stream. The lightning
Burmese offensive by troops of the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) and the fall of Dawn Gwin took the
students and the ethnic Karen National Union (KNU) guerrillas by
surprise, causing hundreds of students to seek refuge across the
river in Thailand. The capture of Dawn Gwin has severed one of
the two supply lines to the Karen headquarters of Manerplaw on
the Moei River, which is also accessible by the Salween River.
Thai officials expressed alarm at the Burmese offensive, the
first in nearly three years since the Burmese junta announced a
unilateral ceasefire against armed ethnic groups in April 1992.
Troops have been deployed along the border to prevent a military
spillover and territorial violations. Authorities are also
worried that the offensive will drive a new wave of refugees
into the Kingdom. Informed border sources said mortar shelling
of several Karen border camps continued yesterday after the fall
of Dawn Gwin, with the prime target the KNU headquarters at
Manerplaw, 50 kilometres south of Dawn Gwin on the Moei River.
Shells were also reported falling on Kawmoora, the Karen special
101st military base on the Moei River opposite Thailands Mae Sot
district, and Naw Hta, another Karen base which is about 50 kms
south of Manerplaw. Sources said that about 700 lightly-armed
students of the All Burma Students Democratic Front were stunned
and unprepared by the ground attack by two Burmese battalions
which started early this week. The Burmese forces in the area
were supported by three or four local battalions. The students
scattered in the jungle after the fall of their camp but many
managed to cross the river into Thailand. They were disarmed on
arrival and will be allowed to remain here on a temporary basis.
They must return to Burma when the situation permits, Thai
officials said. The Burmese army sent in heavy weapons and
deployed more troops early this month around Htee Par Wee Cho,
or Sleeping Dog Mountain, where it confronted Karen forces and
seized several frontline outposts after the KNU withdrew its
fighters to settle an internal religious conflict with a group
of Karen mutineers. The frontline around Dawn Gwin was
weakened after the Karen withdrawal and the Burmese army must
have capitalized on the situation to launch an offensive against
the students who possess only small and light arms, said one
Thai authority who has been monitoring the border situation.
We [Thailand] dont know why the SLORC decided to launch an
operation now, but the most important thing is to monitor if it
[SLORC] will continue its offensive to attack Manerplaw or will
halt the fighting after the fall of Dawn Gwin, he said. While
some Thai authorities believed that operations were staged to
force the Karen group to begin peace talks with Rangoon, others
believed that the offensive dispelled any hope of the two sides
meeting to end the long war which has lasted for four decades.
Border security officers said they could not predict if the Karen
headquarters would fall, but one official said capturing
Manerplaw would cost the Burmese army very dearly.
*******************************************************
NATION: KAREN DETAINEES FREED BUT SITUATION VOLATILE
December 13, 1994
Four top Karen leaders and four Buddhist monks who were taken
hostage last week by a group os Karen troops during a violent
religious dispute were released yesterday, but the conflict has
not yet been resolved.
The situation remained tense at the scene of a violent inter- nal
clash between Buddhist soldiers and leaders of the Karen National
Union (KNU), the strongest remaining armed ethnic group yet to
enter ceasefire talks with Rangoon.
About 70 per cent of KNU forces, mainly low ranking officers and
common soldiers, are Buddhist while most of the remainder -
including top leaders - are Christian.
Fighting centred around the Mae Sam Lap Buddhist temple at the
confluence of the Moei and Salween rivers.
Border sources said both sides are still working out "a peace-
ful solution" to the religious conflict which had been simmer-
ing for some time until gunfire broke out on Sunday between a
group of discontented Karen Buddhist troops and the main Karen
Army.
One of the temple's senior monks, widely respected by local Karen
villagers and many KNU soldiers, was suspected by KNU leaders of
being an infiltrator sent by the ruling Burmese junta to
instigate religious uprisings against them.
According to the sources, the monk's recent expulsion coupled
with the prohibition of the temple's religious activities
worsened already bad relations between the two different
religious communities and resulted in Sunday's clash. Commuter
boats are still banned from travelling between the Thai village
of Mae Sam Lap and KNU headquarters at Manerplaw, about five km
south of the temple. Sources confirmed that yesterday morning and
afternoon two separate groups were released, comprising Karen 2nd
Secretary- General Maj Gen Maung Maung; Justice Minister Tu Tu
Lay; 3rd Secretary-General Padoh San Lin; Padoh Manh Sha,
personal adviser to KNU leader Gen Bo Mya; and four Burmese
Buddhist monks who tried to mediate in talks to resolve the
conflict, including U Wizaya.
At least three people were reportedly killed in Sunday's gunfire
but nobody could confirm the victims' identities. Sources said
the clash broke-out as Burmese troops were advancing purportedly
to exploit the situation and attack Karen outposts and camps
along the Thai border.
Sgt Maj Kyaw Sein, a former soldier of the Karen 7th Brigade, was
said to have headed the group of several hundred disgruntled
Buddhist soldiers of the KNU 1st Brigade's 20th Battalion which
held the hostages and still control the Mae Sam Lap temple and
nearby jungle area, according to sources. A KNU statement
released on Sunday said the leaders were "arrested and tortured"
when they went to temple to defuse the conflict and that U Wizaya
and his team faced the same fate after arriving there to mediate.
The statement, written in Karen, also announces amnesty for all
those who had revolted and said the KNU would try to solve the
problems peacefully. (TN)
*************************************************************
NATION: CITY REALTY PLANS HOTEL IN BURMA WITH THAI COUT
13 December 1994
CITY Realty Co Ltd, a major real estate developer affiliated with
Bangkok Bank, the Sophonpanich family and Mitsui & Co, will sign
a lease agreement with Thai Cout in Rangoon today invest Bt700
million in a deluxe hotel.
Chali Sophonpanich, managing director of City Reality, told the
nation last week that he would be in Rangoon today on behalf of a
joint venture called Royal Lake while Thai Cout holds the rest.
Thai Cout also affiliated with Bangkok Bank. Chali, son of BBL's
Executive Chairman Chatri Sophonpanich, said Royal Lake will
lease about 10 Rai od\f land near the Royal Lake for 30 years to
build a 320-room hotel which is schedules for completion in two
years. He said the Royal Lake Hotel; will be a four-five star
hotel.The executive noted that after the expiration of the lease
agreement , the company can extend the contract for another 15
years to manage the hotel.
He also revealed that a hotel management group is being sought,
adding that a group from either Europe or the US may be chosen.
Royal Lake is among several international developers seeking to
cash in on the strong pontential in Burma's tourism industry.
At present, the supply of deluxe hotel rooms in Rangoon is
thought to be infficient ti meet the anticipate flod of tourists.
Chali said thast number of visistors to Burma are at present
relatively low; last years numbers were recoeded at 50,000
mcompared to 6 million visistor to Thailand.
But the Burmese governmrnt aims to increase the number to half a
million by nominating 1996 as 'Visit Burma' year. The Royal Lake
hotel is likely to fface competition from several other projects
planned for Rangoon by Asian and Thai companies.
"We don't expect to have it all our own way as there will be
plenty of other hotels in the furture,"Chali said.
Room supply will soar when several hotels begin operations in two
years time.
Currently, there are at least three hotels planned by Thai
developers including Kandawyi Hotel of Baiyoke Hotels Group,
Sofitel Hotel by LP Holding Ltd and Central floating Hotel (Boat
Hotel) owned by central group.
International competitors include the Kuok Group which is
planning to develop two hotels; Shangri-La and Traders. The
400-room Trader Hotel is scheduled to open inn 1997 while the
first phase of Shangri-La with 450 rooms will start operating a
year later, with a futher 250 rooms coming on tap in the year
2001.
Both hotels will be managed by Hong Kong-based Shangri-La
International Management Ltd.
Another development reported by AFP last Fridaywill be on the
basis of a build, operate and transfer agreement between a
Malaysian firm, Austral Amalgamated and Burma's Civil Aviation
Department.
Austral Amalgamated will develop a Bt75 million hotel featuring
121 rooms to be opened in May, 1996. Despite the prospect of
stiff competition, Chali said "the company has to take the
initiative now, and is looking to enjoy long-term profits,"
Chali admitted that the Royal Lake hotel project, the first by
City Realty in Burma, involved several risks such as the
instability of the local currency (kyat), and restrictions on the
impottation of construction materials.
"The difference between the official exchange rate and the black
market rate is at least 20 times," he said.
Chali said the currency fluctuations will make it difficult for
his company to manage operational costs as conversion of US
dollars to kyat is unpredictable.
He added that customs clearance for building materials is one of
manyproblems expected by the construction company, Thai Hasama,
which worked with City Realty on Sathorn City Tower. Another of
Chali's concerns is the price of utilities. He fears that the
Burmese government may raise the price of electricity for foreign
business operators. (TN)
*****************************************************
SEASIA-L: IRRAWADDY JOURNEY
moe
bit.listserv.seasia-l
4:00 AM Dec 17, 1994(at MINERVA.ORI.U-TOKYO.AC.JP) (From News
system)
"The Irrawaddy is of all the rivers in Indo-China the
greatest.... It is no light undertaking to describe this
majestic creature. Its length and volume, its importance as
artery of the world, its rise and fall---- these are easily
recorded facts. The beauty of its waters that mirror a sky of
varied loveliness, of its hills and forests and precipitous
heights, of its vast spaces that calm to the most fretful
spirit, of the sunsets that wrap it in mysteries of colour---
these are things for which words are greatly inadequate."
VC Scott O'Connor 'The silken East', 1904
Irrawaddy Journey : Pagan to Bhamo 'Reconnaissance Voyage' on
the Irrawaddy Princess, that was commissioned this year for
river cruising in comfort, will start in January, 1995.
The journeys will be organised and led by Paul Strachan who knows
Burma well after spending 2 years there in the mid-eighties.
Paul is the founder-editor of Kiscadale Publications, that have
published more than 20 works on Burma's history, art and
culture. He is also the author of a well known book on the
temples at Pagan and recently published 'Mandalay-Travels from
the Golden City'. This includes chapters on journeys he made on
the Chindwin and Irrawaddy rivers, where in many places he found
that he was the first foreigner people had seen since the 1940s.
Irrawaddy Princess, a catamaran three-deck vessel, is
offering good food and accommodation on board. Attractively
finished in rattan and teak, each double cabin has its own
bathroom, aircon and private deck. There is an obervation
lounge/bar (well stocked) to the fore and a dining room aft.
Above is a spacious open deck where, nursing a cool refreshment,
the observer may enjoy river life from the depths of a planter's
chair. The chef will offer a twice daily buff of Oriental
dishes-- Burmese, Indian and Chinese for vegetarians and
non-vegetarians - as well as Western-style breakfast. European
dishes wil be available by special request.
The voyage will take totally 15 days, starting Rangoon to
Pagan by French ATR72 plane and sailing from Pagan to Bhamo for
404 miles. It will stop at Pakokku, Sagaing, Ava, Mandalay,
Mingun, Tagaung, Katha, Shwegu.
Each evening there will be a short talk on Burma's art
and culture, the history of the river, and other subjects(?) by
either Paul Strachan or an accompanying guest lecturer. One of
the upper deck 'state rooms' will be converted for the duration
of the voyage into a library. Price for January 1995
'Reconnaissance Voyage' will be 1,600 pounds (about US$ 2,500)
and will sail with a minimum of 20 and max. of 30 people. Price
includes all transport and accomodation, on water, land and air
from the day one to the end with three meals a day on board.
For booking and any further information, please call or fax
Paul Strachan.
Kiscadale Publications Gartmore, Stirling, FK83RJ
Scotland, UK Phone : 01877 382 776 Fax :
01877 382 778
(Excerpt from the Kiscadale Publications' Irrawaddy Journey)
***********************************************************
BURMANET: TEXT OF LINTNER'S "AUNG SAN SUU KYI AND BURMAS
UNFINISHED RENAISSANCE"
by Bertil Lintner
White Lotus, Bangkok, 1991.29 pp. ISBN 974-8495-61-2
__________________________________________________________
During the night of August 25th, 1988 - at the height of the pro-
democracy uprising that shook Burma that year - a large crowd
gathered at the foot of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in the capital
Rangoon. Some has brought their bed rolls and entire families
squatted in circles around their evening meals. By mid-morning
next day, several hundred thousand people of all ages, and
national and social groups in Burmese society had come together
for what would be the biggest rally in the countrys student-led
movement for democracy. They were all there well in time to get
a good viewpoint for the meeting that had been announced for the
26th: Aung San Suu Kyi, the 43-year old daughter of Burma's
independence hero Aung San, was going to address the crowd. The
slim, professorial woman had returned to Burma from her home in
Oxford, England, in April to nurse her sick mother - at a time
when the country was in the midst of political upheaval. Student
protests had led to the most serious threat to the iron-fisted
rule of the old strongman, General Ne Win, since he had
overthrown Burma's democratically elected government and seized
power in a coup detat in 1962.
The mood was festive but there were several bomb scares before
the actual meeting began. Students and Buddhist monks were
taking care of the security and formed human chains around the
stage where she was going to appear. They spent more than three
hours searching the stage and checking out suspicious-looking
characters. The ground outside the pagoda complex was
jam-packed. Even all the roads leading up to the meeting place
were full of people.
A huge portrait of her father, Aung San, had been placed above
the stage alongside a resistance flag from World War Two.
Loudspeakers were directed towards the enormous crowd.
Eventually, she arrived. Her car had to stop outside the meeting
ground since there were so many people and she walked the
remaining stretch up to the stage amidst deafening applause and
cheers. Htun Wai, a well-known Burmese film actor, introduced
Aung San Suu Kyi and told the restive crowd to sit down and
listen to her speech. It was the first major political speech for
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was present at this historical time almost
be accident. Yet she was confident, slipping easily into the
heritage of her politician father.
She moved from an initial message of democracy through unity to a
more personal tone:
-A number of people are saying that since Ive spent most of my
life abroad and am married to a foreigner, I could not be
familiar with the ramifications of this countrys politics, she
said over the loudspeakers. I wish to speak very frankly and
openly. Its true that Ive lived abroad. Its also true that Im
married to a foreigner. But these facts have never, and will
never, interfere with or lessen my love and devotion for my
country by any measure or degree. People have been saying that I
know nothing of Burmese politics. The trouble is, I know too
much. My family knows better than any how devious Burmese
politics can be and how much my father had to suffer on this
account.
Hundreds of thousands of people cheered and applauded. Her
famous, almost deified father had been assassinated by a rival
politician on July 19th, 1947, barely six months before Burma
gained its independence from Britain. The roar reached its
crescendo when she concluded: The present crisis is the concern
of the entire nation. I could not, as my fathers daughter,
remain indifferent to all that was going on. This national
crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for
independence.
Most of the people who had come to see and hear her outside the
Shwe Dagon had probably done so out of curiosity. But during her
speech, the daughter of Burma's foremost hero won the hearts of
her audience. She emerged as the leading voice for the
opposition that demanded the restoration of democracy in the
country.
-We were all surprised, a participant in the meeting commented
much later. Not only did she look like her father, she spoke
like him also: short, concise and right to the point.
Aung San Suu Kyis intervention had actually begun on August 15th,
eleven days before her first public appearance, with a personal
letter to the secretary of the State Council, Kyaw Htun. He had
become the officiating head of state following the resignation
on August 12th of Ne Wins trusted protege Sein Lwin, who had
served as Burma's president for only 18 days - from the old
strongmans resignation from his post as chairman of the countrys
only legally permitted organisation, the Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP) on July 23rd. Sein Lwins short reign had
been marked by almost daily street protests - and the massacre of
thousands of unarmed demonstrators. The letter was supported by a
number of former state leaders of the pre-1962 era, including the
erstwhile prime minister U Nu and ex-president Mahn Win Maung. It
stated that a situation of ugliness unmatched since Burma
regained her independence arose throughout the country - and it
suggested the formation of a Peoples Consultative Committee to
solve the crisis.
Until this letter was sent - and the decisive mass meeting
outside the Shwe Dagon that followed - Burma's pro-democracy
uprising had been completely spontaneous and it had lacked
proper leadership. Now, a leader was emerging who commanded
increasing admiration and support. Her insistence on Gandhian
principles of non-violent confrontation came to play a crucial
role in transforming the Burmese uprising into a sustained and
remarkably co-ordinated movement. That became even more apparent
after September 18th, 1988, when the military led by the Chief
of Staff, General Saw Maung, decided to step in, not to
overthrow a failing government but to shore up a regime
overwhelmed by popular protests. Thousands of people were
massacred once again as heavily armed troops opened fire on
demonstrators in Rangoon and elsewhere.
But somewhat surprisingly, after suppressing the pro-democracy
movement in 1988, General Saw Maungs new junta, the so-called
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), also announced
that it intended to honour the pledge of the previous government
- which had been led by Sein Lwins successor, Dr Maung Maung -
to hold free and fair elections. Burma's previous socialist
system was formally abolished and a multi-party system replaced
the former one-party rule of the BSPP. But a notorious martial
law decree issued by the SLORC and named 2/88 banned public
gatherings of five or more people. The media was also firmly
controlled by the military; there was only one newspaper, the
SLORC's own propaganda sheet, the Working Peoples Daily. Within
the strict limitations of the new martial law regime, however,
the Burmese opposition continued the struggle that had begun
months before.
On September 24th, the National League for Democracy (NLD) was
formed officially. Aung Gyi, a retired brigadier-general of the
Burma Army who to some extent had initiated the movement by
writing and widely distributing a series of open letters to
General Ne Win, was chairman. Tin U, an ex-general and erstwhile
Chief of Staff who had been ousted and jailed by Ne Win in 1976,
was elected the NLDs vice chairman. But it was the NLDs general
secretary, the charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi, who became the most
popular spokesperson for the league. Her role as Burma's
foremost opposition leader was further enhanced when Aung Gyi
decided to split with the NLD in December 1988 to set up his own
organisation, the oddly-named Union Nationals Democracy Party
(UNDP). This new group failed to win any significant popular
support; Aung San Suu Kyi was now almost alone in challenging
Burma's military regime. Her NLD became increasingly
consolidated on explicitly non- violent principles, and the party
grew to become Burma's largest opposition group with a
membership of at least two million. The challenge became so
serious that the ruling military decided to place her under
house arrest on July 20th, 1989, less than a year after her first
speech outside the Shwe Dagon Pagoda.
The SLORC had hoped that the crack-down in July 1989 would
effectively decapitate the NLD; not only Aung San Suu Kyi but
also Tin U and a number of other, prominent party leaders were
interned. Some were sentenced to long prison terms. With Aung
San Suu Kyi incarcerated in her own house in Rangoon, the SLORC
most probably felt more secure - and confident that the threat
posed by her outspoken criticism of military excesses had been
eliminated. That was a serious misjudgment. When the Burmese
people on May 27th, 1990 at last were given the chance to freely
elect their own representatives for the first time since the
initial military takeover in 1962, an overwhelming majority
voted for the NLD. "It was a vote for Aung San Suu Kyi - and
against Ne Win," Time magazine wrote in a cover story
immediately after the astonishing elections in Burma. Although
the Burmese military is officially represented by the SLORC
chairman, General Saw Maung, few Burmese doubt that it is the
supposedly retired Ne Win who is still pulling the strings - in
the same way that Aung San Suu Kyi, despite her detention,
personifies the NLD and Burma's mass movement for democracy.
While trying to understand this phenomenon, the international
media has been quick to pick up on the 'family recognition
factor' and to use popular hyperboles. In the US press, she has
been compared to George Washington and Jane Fonda. Figaro of
France has likened her to La Passionaria. But generally, she has
been compared to a fellow Oxford graduate, Pakistan's Benazir
Bhutto, or to Corazon Aquino of the Philippines. However, the
Oxford Magazine, an UK academic journal, questioned these
comparisons in its Trinity term issue of 1990: "There is little
or no substance to such analogies, for they do not begin to ask
what sort of legacy Aung San Suu Kyi inherited. The
accomplishments of her father may help to understand why
initially people turned out in thousands to hear her. But Aung
San Suu Kyi inherited no party organisation, nor any senior
military leaders willing even to try to distance the army from
politics. Ne Win, unlike Zia and Marcos, is still very much
alive and in control. Suu did not even have the chance to know
her father, as she was only two years old when he was
assassinated. Her message, in any case, differs from his (and
all the others) in its crucial Gandhian aspect."
Aung San Suu Kyi must be seen, however, through the history her
father helped create. His name became associated with Burma's
nationalist movement well before World War Two. Aung San joined
Rangoon University in 1932, a year after an uprising, led by
Saya San, had been put down by British forces. Saya San was the
traditional minlaung (pretender) to the throne - a figure often
produced in times of crisis in Burma - and he wanted a return to
the old Buddhist kingdom of pre- colonial days. But the young
nationalists did not miss the point that most of Saya San's
followers were monks and impoverished farmers, and the rebellion
had clearly demonstrated their potential. Until then, the
Burmese nationalist movement had been confined to intellectual
circles in Rangoon, Mandalay and other major cities.
The injustice of colonial rule, and the realisation of the
sufferings of the agrarian population, which had manifested
itself in the Saya San rebellion, made the young nationalists
open to leftist thinking and the view that socialism was opposed
to colonialism and imperialism made these ideas even more
attractive in the 1930s. Ironically, the royalties from a book
written by Saya San provided the funds to establish a library
with the first Marxist literature to reach Burma. The young
nationalists were avid readers and the authors whose works they
studied included Karl Marx, Lenin, Nehru, Sun Yat Sen, Mazzini,
Garibaldi, Voltaire, Rousseau, Upton Sinclair, John Strachey,
John Reed and various writers from Ireland's Sinn Fein movement.
The nationalists were sufficiently educated to realise that
there was no way back to the Burmese monarchy, so they were
drawn to the utopia of a socialist state.
The confusion of the 1930s reflected an extremely complicated
historical dichotomy, which has always been Burma's dilemma.
Saya San stood for Burma's age-old authoritarian tradition.
Although there is no doubt that the impetus his rebellion
provided helped pave the way for Burma's independence movement,
it nevertheless represented the past, "an armed enterprise
relying on the call of racial pride and the charisma of the
leader," to quote Aung San Suu Kyi's own study on the topic.
According to US Burma scholar Josef Silverstein, a Burmese king
was "shielded from the eyes of his subjects, wrapped in ritual,
and responsible for the [Buddhist] faith; his authority was
viewed as semi-divine and unbridled." By the ancient tradition
of divine kingship, the monarch wielded unquestioned power over
life and death of his subjects. The values and beliefs of the
people provided no basis for a doctrine of popular sovereignty.
The other side of Burma's heritage is represented by a solid
intellectual and creative tradition. The yearly cycle in any
Burmese village includes a number of pwes, which is usually
translated as fairs, but they are actually much more than that.
Every pwe worth mentioning includes a theatrical performance and
there are few people in the world who are so fond of culture and
drama as the Burmese. Sir J.G. Scott, a Scotsman who wrote about
Burma under the pseudonym Shway Yoe in last century, aptly said
that "probably there is no man, otherwise than a cripple, in the
country who has not at some period of his life been himself an
actor, either in the drama or in a marionette show; if not in
either of these, certainly in a chorus dance."
Burma even prior to colonial times had a high literacy rate;
education was a source of national pride long before the British
came to the country. At the age of seven or eight, every Burmese
boy was sent to the local Buddhist monastery to learn to read,
write and to memorise chants and Pali formulas used in pagoda
worship. For girls, education was less universal but even so,
the census for British Burma in 1872 stated that female
education was a fact in Burma before Oxford was founded. The
long and strong tradition of widespread literacy was further
enhanced with the introduction of British-style education during
the colonial era. Needless to say, the colonial authorities were
mainly interested in procuring a stratum of English-speaking
civil servants and skilled clerks for the administration and
foreign companies. But the inevitable result also included an
abundance of newspapers and bookshops with foreign literature. A
powerful, intellectual and anti-authoritarian tendency began
taking shape.
The forward-looking nationalist movement which rejected a
fledgling Burmese renaissance of the intellectual tradition was
represented by the Dobhama Asiayone, or "We-Burmese
Association." It had been set up in 1930 and its leaders later
emerged as the most important statesmen in postwar Burma. They
called themselves thakins which actually means 'master' and was
a title set aside for the British, like sahib in India. By
adding this to their names, the nationalists wanted to show who
the real masters of their country were. The centre of their
activity was the leafy campus of Rangoon University - and among
the most prominent student leaders in the mid 1930s were the
young quintet Thakin Nu, Thakin Aung San, Thakin Kyaw Nyein,
Thakin Thein Pe, and M.A. Raschid, a Muslim of Indian origin.
Aung San Suu Kyi herself has analysed the movements of the 1930s
in her study, Burma and India - Some Aspects of Intellectual
Life under Colonialism. Comparing the different intellectual
traditions of these two countries, she argues that India already
in the 19th century managed to bring new, mainly Western ideas
relatively harmoniously into its development without losing its
identity, whereas the much later and less widespread renaissance
in Burma fell short of achieving an East-West, old-new synthesis
at the intellectual level.
But there was no time to allow political attitudes to mature
intellectually before World War Two broke out, Aung San Suu Kyi
argues: "With the advance of the Japanese the Burmese had to
face a new set of problems. They had to learn to cope with a
fellow Asian race whose achievements they had admired and who
professed to be their allies...it was against a different
background from that which had prevailed under the British that
the Burmese had to continue their search for a synthesis of ideas
and action which would carry their nation to the required goal
as an integrated whole."
That search took Aung San and a number of other Burmese
nationalists on a clandestine mission to Japan in 1940-41.
Peaceful political activities on the campus of Rangoon
University were no more; the young militants had decided to
resort to armed struggle against the British. They added up to
thirty dedicated young men and, consequently, they became known
as the Thirty Comrades. Led by Aung San, they received military
training on the Japanese-held islands of Hainan and Formosa.
In Burmese history, there is a certain mystique surrounding the
Thirty Comrades and the close relationship that supposedly
existed among them. Some of that however, is a myth: the tightly
knit brotherhood actually consisted of two factions,
representing Burma's different traditions. Twenty-two of the
young comrades belonged to the deeply committed, main faction of
the Dohbama Asiayone. But eight came from the so-called Ba
Sein-Tun Oke faction', named after two well-known thakins with
strong authoritarian leanings. Aung San belonged to the former
group while the latter included an ambiguous young man who had
left Judson College in Rangoon without a degree in March 1931 to
work as a clerk in a small, suburban post office. His name was
Thakin Shu Maung; in the Thirty Comrades he became Bo Ne Win,
'the Sun of Glory General'.
The Thirty Comrades returned with the Japanese army when it
launched an invasion of Burma from Thailand in December 1941. On
the 26th, they had set up in Bangkok the Burma Independence Army
(BIA) and they now followed the Japanese army when it captured
Rangoon on March 7th, 1942. A Japanese-sponsored puppet
administration was proclaimed on August 1st. Exactly a year
later, on August 1st, 1943, the Japanese granted Burma
'independence'. The Head of State, or adipati, was Dr Ba Maw, a
Burmese lawyer who had gained his early reputation by defending
Saya San and other leaders of the 1930-32 rebellion. He also
assumed the title Anashin Mingyi Kodaw, meaning 'Lord of Power,
the Great King's Royal Person'. Burma's authoritarian tradition
had surfaced again in the form of Axis-sponsored Fuhrerschaft
with tendencies that clearly hinted at National Socialism. Ne
Win became the commander of the reorganised Burmese nationalist
forces, now named the Burma National Army (BNA).
But many of the Burmese nationalists had begun to have their
doubts about the actual intentions of the Japanese. Some of
their more radical ex- fellow students, now in the Communist
Party of Burma (CPB), were already in the underground. By early
1945, the entire Burmese nationalist movement had turned against
the Japanese and secretly contacted the Allies in India. On
March 27th the BNA eventually declared war against the Japanese.
Four months later, the red flag with a white star of the Burmese
resistance flew beside the Union Jack in Rangoon. The war was
over - and Burma's democratic process, interrupted by the
Japanese occupation, gained momentum once again. Since then,
March 27th has been celebrated officially as Armed Forces Day -
a major event especially following the military takeover in
1962.
A broad-based popular front, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom
League (AFPFL) was set up by Aung San. It included even the CPB
and its stated goal was independence for Burma, and the by now
undisputed nationalist leader began working towards achieving
that objective. On January 27th, 1947, Aung San signed an
agreement in London with British labour prime minister Clement
Attlee, promising full independence for Burma "within one year."
On February 12th, he travelled to Panglong in the Shan area of
northeastern Burma and signed a second agreement, this time with
leaders of the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minorities, paving
the way for the non-Burman frontier areas for their joining the
proposed Union of Burma under a federal constitution. A new
constitution was drafted, which borrowed heavily from those of
Ireland, Yugoslavia and India. It was democratic and federal in
character and safeguarded basic civil liberties as well as the
right of the minorities. Totalitarianism, which
had briefly re-surfaced during the first stages of the Japanese
occupation, was now unequivocally left behind. Or, at least,
that was what most Burmese nationalists thought.
Everything appeared set for Burma's independence when a totally
unexpected event took place. In the morning of 19 July, a band of
gunmen burst into the Secretariat in central Rangoon during a
cabinet meeting. Coldly and quickly they killed Aung San and
several of his cabinet ministers, who had been preparing to take
over Burma after the British. On the same day, the Rangoon
police arrested U Saw, a rightist politician who had been Aung
San's main rival for the premiership of independent Burma, and
charged him with murder. U Saw was convicted and hanged in May
1948.
The AFPFL's vice president, the former student leader Thakin Nu,
now referred to as U Nu, took over as prime minister, which he
remained throughout most of Burma's 14-year long experiment with
parliamentary democracy. U Nu was a devout Buddhist and a
brilliant intellectual, but he lacked Aung San's firmness and
strong principles. With the death of Aung San, Burma had been
robbed of the only man Burmans as well as the non-Burman
minorities trusted. Above all, the new leader U Nu did not
control the military in the same, direct way as Aung San had
done. The autonomous status of the army was further enhanced
when the CPB went underground on March 28th, 1948 -
two-and-a-half months after independence on January 4th - and
the Karens and other ethnic minorities later took up arms
against Rangoon as well. In the early 1950s, thousands of
defeated Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang, stranded in Yunnan
province when the main force led by Chiang Kai-shek retreated to
Taiwan, crossed the border to Burma and established camps along
the Sino-Burmese frontier in northeastern Shan State. General Ne
Win, the Commander-in-Chief of Burma's armed forces soon became
the most powerful man in Burma. On March 2nd, 1962, he
eventually stepped in, overthrew U Nu's democratic government
and set up a military dictatorship. Burma's democratic
development came to an abrupt halt - and Burma's unfinished
renaissance was interrupted once again by the re-emergence of
authoritarianism represented by Ne Win.
The ideology' of the new military regime was published shortly
after the coup in a document entitled 'The Burmese Way to
Socialism. This was followed later by 'The System of Man and his
Environment, which again was as effort to provide philosophical
underpinnings for the military government. It was a hodgepodge
of Marxism, Buddhist thinking and humanism which reflected an
attempt by Ne Win to give his regime a semblance of belonging to
Burmas specific political traditions. In reality, however, Burma
went into a state of self-imposed isolation and the economy
deteriorated to a point of near-bankruptcy. All banks and
private enterprises were nationalised and Burmas previously free
and outspoken press was also strangled. The dark era of modern
Burmese history had begun; Ne Win, being one of the Thirty
Comrades, claimed to have bequeathed the mantle of leadership
from Aung San although there was nothing in the new policies
that continued the traditions of Burma's independence hero.
This fact was often overlooked primarily by Western scholars, and
few countries in the modern world has been victim of so many
misinterpretations as Burma. These have ranged from a glossy
guide-book image of Burma as a happy country of golden pagodas
and smiling people to apparently serious attempts by some
workers to give the oppressive Ne Win regime an air of
respectability by perpetuating the myth that it was the logical
consequence of Burmese traditions. This myth has been propagated
especially by Professor Robert Taylor of London's School of
Oriental and African Studies in his book The State in Burma.
The essence of his theory is that Burma has always been an
authoritarian state with a strong centre, gradually extending
its authority over the peripheral areas in an inevitable process
of assimilation of the non- Burman nationalities. Therefore, the
colonial era with its 19th century liberalism, and its extension
during the democratic period immediately after independence were
little more than a brief, alien interlude in the country's
history. Following the military takeover in 1962, Burma
"reasserted" the continuity which the colonialists and the
liberals had upset.
This misinterpretation of modern Burmese history failed to take
into account that a number of countries with an authoritarian
past have indeed broken with that tradition and become
functioning democracies: Germany, Italy, Japan, and to a certain
extent, even Burma's close neighbour Thailand, to mention just a
few. Sao Tzang Yawnghwe, a Shan scholar from Burma and the son
of Burma's first president, Sao Shwe Thaike, has in his writings
dismissed this picture of the 'Burmese state' as a static,
impersonal superstructure as pure fiction: "There has been very
little state- or nation-building in Burma [in modern times]...to
build a modern state meant that Ne Win and the Burmese army
would have to give up some power, and in time, it also meant
that 'the state' would evolve into a genuine state, i.e. one
which is not servile to the immediate powerholders.
Aung San Suu Kyi is, in fact, proof and torchbearer of the
profound Burmese drive for democracy. The Western perception of
'the Burmese state' as being static and unchangeable was
completely overturned by her when she introduced the concept of
the aborted Burmese renaissance in her comparative study of
Burma's and India's different intellectual developments under
colonialism. She concluded that "developments in Burma after
1940 took many abrupt twists and turns, and to this day, it
still remains a society waiting for its true potential to be
realised."
The most important reasons why Burma never managed to fully
develop a modern state was perhaps that one of the few men
capable of steering the country into the 20th century was
assassinated when he was only 32. Perhaps not surprisingly, it
was his family who had to continue the work he had had to leave
unfinished - even if it were many years before their efforts
became known. When he was killed in 1947, Aung San left behind
his wife Khin Kyi and three small children: two sons and the then
two- year old Aung San Suu Kyi. Khin Kyi became one of Burmas
most outstanding public figures in her own right. She had
succeeded her assassinated husband as MP for Lanmadaw
constituency but resigned in 1948 to take up the post as the
director of the Women and Children Welfare Board and later as
chairman of the Social Planning Commission and the Council of
Social Services. She travelled extensively in Europe, the United
States, China and Southeast Asia before being appointed Burma's
ambassador in New Delhi, the first Burmese woman to be given an
ambassadorial post.
Aung San Suu Kyi was 15 when she arrived in India with her
mother. In Rangoon, she had attended the Methodist School, one
of the most prestigious and strictest in the country. Malavika
Karlekar, a friend from her years in India, wrote in a very
personal note in the Indian Express of August 31st, 1988: Suu
prefers to sit bolt upright on a stool - to habitual slouchers
she points out that her posture symbolises a childhood of
rigourous training and discipline." U Ohn, a former Burmese
ambassador to the Soviet Union and the UK, was a close associate
of the family and, when visiting Rangoon, he always brought back
books for Aung San Suu Kyi. She was brought up reading Greek
mythology and European classics, prose as well as verse.
She completed her schooling in New Delhi, first at high school
and later at Lady Shri Ram College, where she always was at the
top of her class. While she could not remember her father, the
memories and legends surrounding him provided her with the
enduring inspiration for her own ideals - which in many ways
actually were to become rather different from those of the
founder of the Burmese army. It was during her time in India
that she acquired her lasting admiration for the principles of
non- violence embodied in the life and political philosophy of
Mahatma Gandhi.
Aung San Suu Kyi left for Britain in 1964 to further her studies
at St. Hugh's College in Oxford. In 1967 she earned a BA in
philosophy, politics and economics and worked for a while as
research assistant at London University. In 1967-71 she held
various posts at the United Nations Secretariat in New York
before marrying Michael Aris, a British Tibetologist, in 1972.
She met him through her long and close association with the
Gore-Booth family. Sir Paul, later Lord Gore-Booth, had been
British ambassador to Rangoon, High Commissioner to India, and he
acted as guardian to Aung San Suu Kyi when he was permanent
under- secretary at the Foreign Office in London.
Michael Aris had been employed since 1967 as private tutor to the
Royal Family of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and head of the
Translation Department. After their marriage, Aung San Suu Kyi
took the post of Research Officer in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs with specific responsibility for advising the Minister
on UN Affairs. Two years after the birth of their first son,
Myint San Aung (Alexander), in 1973, they returned to England
where her husband took up an academic career at the University
of Oxford. A second son, Htein Lin (Kim), was born in Oxford in
1977.
Aung San Suu Kyi's time in England, and her marriage to an
Englishman, are perhaps the most controversial aspects on her
life. Her political opponents have tried to capitalise on her
long absence from her home country; the present junta in Rangoon
has indicated time and again that it proves her un-Burmeseness.
Sein Win, a former Rangoon correspondent for the Associated
Press who is close to one of her political rivals, UNDP leader
Aung Gyi, tells nearly every visiting foreign journalist in Burma
that Aung San Suu Kyi during her time in St. Hugh's College was
deeply involved in "radical student politics."
Her friends from that time paint a completely different picture
of Aung San Suu Kyi. There is no record of her being involved in
any political activities as a student. Unlike Benazir Bhutto,
who served as President of the Students' Union in Oxford, Aung
San Suu Kyi was not involved in student politics. After
finishing her studies, she devoted her energies to contributing
academic papers to various seminars on South and South- East
Asian culture. One of many friends at Oxford was Sunethra
Bandaranaike, the daughter of the late Sri Lankan leader S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike. Other friends included Indians who shared her deep
interest in British as well as Asian cultures. At Oxford, she was
also close to Anne Pasternak Slater, the niece of dissident
Soviet writer Boris Pasternak.
Throughout her time abroad, she also continued to visit Burma
regularly. She maintained her Burmese citizenship, sent her sons
to become novices in monasteries in Rangoon - and also wrote a
children's guide book to Burma in 1985. Titled Let's Visit Burma
it is written in simple language but reveals a deep devotion for
the country she left when she was a teenager. "We used to know
her as 'Burmese Suu'," one of her British class-mates recalls.
"She never took to Western ways and I remember how she would
come to class in Oxford, dressed in a traditional Burmese
sarong, or longyi ."
Despite having lost her father, her separation from her mother
and the exposure to English influences, everyone seems to agree
that she did not lose her Burmese identity. Rather, it appears
that her Burmese origin and the fact that she could never forget
whose daughter she was, provided her with the mental stability
she needed during her long stays in a variety of foreign
countries. This was particularly the case during her time in the
United States, which coincided with the height of the Vietnam war
and the upheavals that followed the assassinations of Robert
Kennedy and Martin Luther King - and culminated with the violent
incidents at Kent State University in 1970. Unlike some other
Asian students in the West at that time, notably Tariq Ali from
Pakistan, she was not swayed by these events; she remained
remarkably Burmese throughout the turmoil.
She lived in a small flat on Manhattan in the centre of New York
City together with Dora Than-E, a close acquaintance of the Aung
San family who had been a famous Burmese singer in the 1930s.
She usually referred to Dora Than-E, who in the 1970s worked as
an information officer at the UN, as her "Emergency Aunt". There
was always Burmese food, the two women spoke Burmese to each
other and their flat was known as "a Burmese home on Manhattan."
In her free time from the UN she worked in New York as a
volunteer social worker at the Belleview Hospital. Her main
intellectual inspiration during this time seems to have come
from the civil rights movement; in Martin Luther King's speeches
she found similarities with the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi with
which she was already keenly familiar.
By the beginning of the 1980s, after having been married for more
than ten years, Aung San Suu Kyi decided to go back to academic
life. While raising her sons she undertook some teaching and
research in Burmese studies. The outcome was a monograph on her
father which was published in 1984 in the Leaders of Asia Series
by University of Queensland Press, Australia. In the following
year, she was invited as a Visiting Scholar to the Centre for
South-East Asian studies at the University of Kyoto in Japan to
look at Burmese material from World War Two and, especially,
documents related to her father and the Thirty Comrades. One of
her main purposes was also to interview those in Japan who
remembered her father. She also learnt Japanese - and so did her
son Kim, who accompanied her to Kyoto.
Her time in Kyoto proved important for her intellectual
development. Being on her own and having studied her father she
came to recognise who she was in a more forceful way. She went
straight to Burma after completing her studies in Kyoto - before
continuing together with her son Kim to Simla, India, in 1986
where they joined Michael and Alexander Her husband had been
admitted as a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study
at the same time as she had gone to Kyoto. Now, she was offered
and accepted a similar fellowship to work on a manuscript
comparing Burmese and Indian nationalism in the inter-war years.
That was when she wrote Burma and India - Some Aspects of
Intellectual under Colonialism which, however, was not
published until June 1990.
She had just started a postgraduate thesis at the School of
Oriental and African Studies in London when in April 1988 her
mother suffered a stroke. Aung San Suu Kyi immediately returned
to Rangoon in April to look after her. For nearly four months,
she tended Khin Kyi in hospital, residing there herself. She
just managed to bring Khin Kyi to the family home on University
Avenue in Rangoon when Michael, Alexander and Kim arrived in
late July and the whole situation in Burma exploded with Ne
Win's resignation and subsequent events. In her guide book Let's
Visit Burma, she had concluded one of the chapters with the
following "The economy has not been well managed and Burma not a
prosperous nation. However, with its wealth of natural
resources, there is always hope for the future. And that future
lies in the hands of its peoples". Unintentionally, she now
herself came to play an important role in that future.
While the uprising was gathering force she had stayed neutral,
but after the August massacre pressure was building up that she
should take an active role in resolving the crisis. Thousands of
protesters had carried portraits of her father in demonstrations
all over the country; his name was almost mythical and
symbolised all that Burma was not but should be - free,
democratic and prosperous. The time was now ripe for Aung San
Suu Kyi to continue the legacy of her father and her appearance
on the political stage in Burma in August was met with
excitement and high expectations.
Many people had privately expressed hope that Aung San's son,
Aung San Oo who now lived in the United States, would return and
lead the struggle. But despite his family background, Aung San
Oo had shown little interest in politics; he had settled quietly
in San Diego, California, and taken US citizenship. The second
son, Aung San Lin, had drowned in a pond near to the family
compound in Rangoon when he was still a child. It was Aung San
Suu Kyi who had to shoulder the responsibility of continuing the
family tradition in this 'second struggle for independence' -
and to revive the theme that had been so recurrent in her Burmese
studies: the unfinished Burmese renaissance of the pre-coup era.
That a women had to take on this momentous task in a basically
patriarchal society as the Burmese at first surprised many
outside observers. But in Burmese history there are actually
instances where women have attained positions of power and
influence. Josef Silverstein wrote in a paper dated July 1990:
"During the colonial period, Burmese women held important
positions in the professions and even in politics...there were
countless women who participated in the nationalist struggle and
many worked closely with the men who were the leaders." Few
women, however, achieved leadership in their own right and,
perhaps not surprisingly in an army-dominated administration,
women came to play a much smaller political role during the
military dictatorship that began in 1962. Seen in this broader
perspective, Aung San Suu Kyi is indeed a new phenomenon in
Burmese politics, which also may help why she has become so
immensely popular; she is a fresh breeze in a country where time
has stood still for nearly three decades.
Burton Levin the then US ambassador to Burma, commented in a talk
at the Asia Society in New York on December 29th, 1988: "Even
though she is married to a foreigner, nonetheless she touches a
chord among the whole spectrum of Burmese life. The first time
she came to my house for lunch, I had every one of my servants
just lining up. It was like, in American terms one of these
nutty rock stars appearing at a high school. It was really
something. She's got charisma, she's bright, she knows how to
speak, she's come to the fore."
The movement of 1988 had been a spontaneous outburst of
frustration with an inept and repressive regime that had done
nothing to improve the living standard of the people. After 28
years of military misrule, the situation in Burma was so tense
that even a minor incident had the potential of developing into
a mass movement. And that was exactly what happened in March of
that year. A group of students from the Rangoon Institute of
Technology had been involved in a tea-house brawl with some
local people near their campus. One student was stabbed and
apparent attempts by the authorities to cover up the incident -
the culprit was the son of a low-ranking BSPP official -
infuriated the students. They took to the streets, and the
military responded by sending out the riot police who opened
fire on the demonstrators.
Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were arrested during
these "March Affairs, as they became known. But these draconian
measures only helped fuel the movement. Then came the
resignation on July 23rd of Ne Win from his post as BSPP
chairman, his last official office in the Burmese hierarchy - he
had handed over the post as president in favour of one of his
closest proteges. The appointment of hard-liner Sein Lwin as
BSPP chairman as well as president was another totally
counterproductive move. Sein Lwin had been in charge of the
security forces that had carried out the killings in March,
which had earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Rangoon.
A nation-wide general strike, including mass demonstrations all
over the country, was launched on August 8th to bring down the
BSPP government and, especially, the widely hated Sein Lwin. The
regime responded with unprecedented brutality. Troops from the
22nd Light Infantry Division sprayed automatic rifle fire into
crowds of unarmed protesters. Armoured cars equipped with
machine guns fired indiscriminately into Rangoon neighbourhoods,
killing scores of people inside their own homes.
When Sein Lwin eventually stepped down on August 12th, the
military probably sensed the failure of his hard-line approach
and appointed a supposed 'moderate, Dr Maung Maung, his
successor. But it was far too little, much too late. Nobody
doubted that Dr Maung Maung was another joker from the pack, a
powerless figurehead for Ne Win, and the move failed to placate
the already outraged public. The people also felt they had won a
partial victory - and the demonstrations continued, for the
resignation of Dr Maung Maung and for restoration of the
democracy that had existed before 1962.
Strikes in factories and government offices crippled Dr Maung
Maungs administration and local citizens' committees, comprising
Buddhist monks, students and ordinary citizens, ran day-to-day
affairs, and even ensured law and order in their respective
neighbourhoods. But the government still refused to step down
and after withdrawing its troops from Rangoon on August 24th,
authorities resorted to other means to ensure their future power
position. Before long, Burmese sources and diplomats alike
reported that actions by agent provocateurs from Burmas secret
police, the dreaded Directorate of the Defence Services
Intelligence (DDSI), became nightly occurrences, including
arson, looting and even an attack on the local UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation office on September 8th.
Army units began hauling rice and other daily necessities out of
the city and 'uniformed men' removed Kyats 600 million in
Burmese currency from the Union Bank of Burma in Rangoon, which
provoked a strong protest from the bank's newly formed,
unofficial trade union. By strange coincidence, there were also
nine almost simultaneous prison uprisings in different parts of
the country and nearly 9,000 inmates escaped or were released,
without food and money.
Early in the morning of September 6th, looters were seen carrying
construction material, papers and office furniture from the
compound of a German-sponsored rodent control project in
Gyogon-Insein, a Rangoon suburb. At the same time, two army
lorries were parked in the yard of the nearby People's Land
Settlement Department. The soldiers did not even attempt to stop
the looting - instead, they were loading their own lorries with
goods from the warehouse. Two hours later, after the army had
left with their loot about 200 people invaded the offices and
the godowns and took almost everything that the soldiers had
left behind.
There were also excesses on the part of the demonstrators, even
if these now are being grossly exaggerated by the military in
its present propaganda to justify its claim that it had to step
in and "restore law and order." What had started as a
carnival-like, Philippine-style 'people's power uprising' was
during the week before the assumption of power by the SLORC
beginning to turn nasty and coming more and more to resemble the
hunt for the dreaded tonton macoutes in Haiti after the fall of
'Baby Doc' Duvalier in 1986. Public executions - mostly
beheadings - of suspected agent provocateurs sent by the DDSI
was becoming an almost daily occurrence in Rangoon. Aung San Suu
Kyi constantly sent her people, both her mature supporters and
young students who were camping in her compound on University
Avenue, to try to intervene in the beheadings. In some cases
they were successful in saving the lives of the suspected
agents, but public anger with the military intelligence was so
intense that it was almost impossible to stop the lynchings.
It seemed without doubt that the military - and especially the
DDSI - had not given up, but was plotting a come-back. On
September 18th the situation had deteriorated to a point where
the military could claim that it had to step in and
're-establish law and order.' The formation of the SLORC was
announced - but the new, self-proclaimed leaders were at first
conspicuous by their absence. Not even the army appeared until
late in the evening of the 18th. But when military trucks, full
of troops, and armoured cars with machine guns at last rolled
into Rangoon this time, it was an entirely different scene from
the August massacre. The organisation was impeccable and the
operation carried out with icy-cold military efficiency. Any
crowd in sight was mowed down systematically as the army
vehicles rumbled down the streets in perfect formation. After
two days of mass killings, the people had been literally shot off
the streets.
It was obvious that the ruling military had learnt a lesson; by
now they knew how to deal with the mass movement, although their
methods were some of the worst applied against any popular
uprising in modern history, even surpassing the June 4th, 1989
incident on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and the December 1989
revolt in Ceaucescu's Romania in brutality. But there was one
miscalculation on the part of Ne Win's military: Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Soon after the assumption of power by the SLORC on September
18th, 1988 and the formation of the NLD on September 24th, she
embarked on a strenuous programme. She made her first trip
upcountry in October 1988 to meet people in preparations for the
general elections which, despite the September massacre, the new
junta had indeed promised. Over a period of 13 days she visited
more than 50 towns and villages in Pegu, Magwe, Sagaing and
Mandalay Divisions as well as Shan State. Tens of thousands of
people turned out to see her, in effect defying the notorious
SLORC decree 2/88. The army surprisingly did not interfere;
there were even reports of soldiers presenting flowers to the
entourage, underlining the fact that her father's name, and by
heritage also hers, was magic among virtually every sector of
Burmese society.
In December, she went to the Moulmein area in southeastern Burma.
But this time, army vehicles mounted with loudspeakers cruised
the streets and told the public not to come out and greet her.
Thousands of people defied that order, and the welcome she
received in Moulmein was as enthusiastic as the one in the
north. After the trip, 13 NLD workers were arrested - and on
December 19th, the SLORC warned the political parties "to
behave...it is necessary...to abide by rules, orders, laws and
regulations." The SLORC was beginning to realise that a political
leader had emerged whom it would not be easy to control, or cow
into submission.
The next big challenge to the SLORC - and the puppet-master Ne
Win - came at the turn of the tumultuous year of 1988. On
December 27th, Aung San Suu Kyi's bed-ridden mother, Khin Kyi,
died. Hundreds of thousands of people attended her funeral on
January 2nd, 1989 in the first street march in Rangoon since the
formation of the SLORC. The well- disciplined marchers carried
banners and flags of the NLD as well as student flags with the
traditional symbol of Burmese nationalism, a fighting peacock.
In many ways, Khin Kyi's funeral marked a watershed in post-1988
Burmese politics. The opposition now demonstrated its
disciplined strength and organisation as well as its ability to
control the hitherto rather unruly crowds.
>From then onwards, the confrontation between the SLORC and the
NLD escalated. The harassment that began during Aung San Suu
Kyi's campaign tour of the Moulmein area intensified during two
subsequent trips to the Irrawaddy delta region southwest of
Rangoon, and to Tavoy and Mergui in Tenasserim in January and
February 1989. In several towns in the delta, people were told
to stay indoors, barbed-wire fences were erected in major
streets leading to the places where she was going to deliver her
speeches and 34 NLD workers were arrested in the wake of her
tour.
Anti-SLORC demonstrations began again in several cities and towns
across Burma in March 1989, when students and opposition parties
marked the first anniversary of the death of Maung Phone Maw, the
first student to be gunned down by the army during the upheaval
of 1988. Troops and armed police patrolled the streets of
Rangoon and many more student activists were arrested, among
them Min Ko Naing, one of the leaders of the mass movement of
August-September 1988. The situation became even more
confrontational when Ne Win himself reappeared at a dinner party
in Rangoon March 27th, Armed Forces Day, effectively laying to
rest all speculations that he was out of the picture despite his
formal 'resignation' on July 23rd, 1988.
In a much-publicised incident in the town of Danubyu on April
5th, Myint Oo, an army captain, ordered his soldiers to load
their guns and aim at Aung San Suu Kyi who was walking down the
street along with some of her followers during a campaign tour
of the Irrawaddy delta region. She told her followers to take to
the sides of the road while she calmly walked down the centre.
Before the troops could open fire, however, a major intervened.
But the fact that Myint Oo shortly afterwards was promoted to
major indicated that he had official approval for his action.
The reappearance of the old dictator Ne Win was ridiculed in a
traditional Burmese way by the NLD which staged a slogan
competition outside the party headquarters during thingyan, or
the water festival, on April 13th-17th. Infuriated by this, the
SLORC detained several students who had taken part in the event
- and, at about the same time, arrests began of NLD grassroot
organisers in a number of upcountry towns: Pakokku, Taunggyi,
Kyauk-Padaung, Monywa and Myinmu. On June 18th, the SLORC went a
step further in its attempt to suppress the re-born democracy
movement. A new draconian printing law was promulgated, aimed at
preventing the opposition from issuing "unauthorised
publications." In effect, it ensured the Working People's Daily's
monopoly on information.
Responding to these moves, Aung San Suu Kyi became increasingly
outspoken in her criticism of the military regime. She also, for
the first time, openly attacked Ne Win, accusing him of being
responsible for Burma's economic and political misery and
implying that nothing will fundamentally change as long as the
old dictator was still there, pretending that he had retired -
but still pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
'The movement of 1989', as it became known, was in many ways more
significant than the upheaval of 1988. The spectacle of massive,
restive crowds dancing down the streets, shouting slogans and
waving banners, now belonged to the past. Instead, tens of
thousands stood in silence, listening attentively for hours at
end to an entirely new message: democracy through discipline,
responsibility and non-violent struggle. The speaker was Aung
San Suu Kyi whose stamina and courage infused hope and
self-confidence among her massive audiences across the country.
It was obvious that this new movement posed a much more serious
challenge to Ne Win's regime than the street demonstrations of
1988; a new power centre was emerging, threatening the old
dictator's iron-grip of the Burmese nation. Among all the
politicians who had emerged on the Burmese scene since August
1988, Aung San Suu Kyi stood out as the only one who could unify
all segments of Burmese society: the urban as well as - the
rural population; Burma's many ethnic minorities; the young
student radicals; the older, much more moderate pro-democracy
activists; and, most important of all, by virtue of being the
daughter of the founder of the Burmese army, she was in a
position to rally even the armed forces behind her. The old
rulers were becoming redundant and they would soon belong to
history - if this young woman was allowed to continue her
country-wide campaign for a new Burma.
The situation became even more tense in the weeks before the 42nd
anniversary of Aung San's assassination on July 19th, 1989. Aung
San Suu Kyi had declared that she would march - in a peaceful
and disciplined manner - with thousands of her followers to pay
respect to her fallen father, and not take part in the
SLORC-organised ceremony.
However, on July 18th army trucks equipped with loudspeakers
criss- crossed Rangoon to announce the SLORC's latest decree
under which anyone opposing it could be tried by military
tribunal. Those found guilty would receive one of three
sentences: three years imprisonment with hard labour, life
imprisonment or execution. Early in the morning of the 19th an
estimated 10,000 soldiers, including artillery and armoured car
units, moved into Rangoon to reinforce the numerous troops
already stationed there. Roadblocks were erected at strategic
points in the city, all major hospitals were told to expect
casualties and all telephone and telex lines between Burma and
the outside world were cut. In order to avoid another bloodbath,
Aung San Suu Kyi called off her planned march.
On July 20th, she and the NLD's chairman Tin U. were placed under
house arrest "for up to one year" - hardly by coincidence well
beyond the promised general election, scheduled for May 1990. In
sweeps all over the country, thousands of NLD workers were
arrested and party offices were closed down by the SLORC.
But regardless of these measures, Aung San Suu Kyi's basic
message had begun to take firm roots among the population at
large. Between her first appearance in August 1988 and when she
was placed under house arrest in July 1989, she had delivered
more than a thousand speeches across the country. Not
surprisingly, her speeches had echoed themes of her father's
writings which had emerged during her research in England, Japan
and India: the dependence of freedom on discipline, strictly
fair treatment of political opponents, and a deep distaste for
power mongering and behind- the-scenes manoeuvering. More
informal talks had focussed on the importance of reading books,
or for the people to take responsibility of their own
neighbourhoods - where grassroot democracy should begin. Aung
San's legacy also appeared in statements addressing the
unresolved problems of continued militarism in Burma, as well as
the political factionalism that her father had foreseen, and
which had overtaken him at his assassination.
With Aung San Suu Kyi being placed under house arrest, the period
of open mass opposition to the SLORC regime came to an end. But
by that time she had matured into a seasoned politician, second
the none in her forthright speech and her ability to debate with
her opponents. More importantly, she had managed to infuse a new
way of thinking among the population at large. In 1988, the
millions who marched against Ne Win's military dictatorship knew
what they despised and did not want. But the movement was
characterised not only by spontaneity and rage at the excesses
of the regime; it also lacked a clear sense of direction and a
perspective on the future.
The emergence of the NLD after the SLORC's takeover meant that
there was for the first time a truly organised opposition. And
the NLD was a legally registered political party, not an
underground group or a clandestine organisation. The discipline
it demonstrated during Khin Kyi's funeral a few months later
must have shaken the SLORC; it was now clear that it had to deal
with an increasingly mature political movement, not just unruly
mobs in the streets.
But the way in which the military dealt with this new situation
left little room for optimism. There was no sign of any
willingness to find a compromise, or to enter into a dialogue
with the NLD. Instead, in order to defend the crack-down on the
NLD, the chief of Burma's secret police and first secretary of
the SLORC, DDSI chief Brig-Gen Khin Nyunt - who is believed to
be far more powerful than the puppet-head of the junta, Gen. Saw
Maung - gave a lengthy speech on August 5th. He accused the CPB
of manipulating the NLD and plotting to destabilise the military
government. On September 9th, Khin Nyunt spoke out again, this
time claiming that his intelligence outfit had unearthed 'a
rightist conspiracy' involving some unnamed foreign embassies in
Rangoon.
However, neither of Khin Nyunt's speeches offered much in terms
of hard evidence. Most observers dismissed the CPB conspiracy
claim as an attempt to discredit the NLD in the eyes of the
rank-and-file of the army, whose loyalty is essential for the
survival of the SLORC. Having fought the CPB insurgency
virtually since independence, the army has strong feelings about
the communists. Khin Nyunt also failed to mention that the CPB
in any case had been defunct since a mutiny in March-April 1989.
At that time, ethnic rank-and-file troops captured the party's
long-time headquarters at Panghsang near the Chinese border and
drove the ageing CPB leadership into exile in Yunnan.
Khin Nyunt's second speech appeared to be meant as a warning to
the international community - which almost unanimously had
condemned the SLORC regime and its brutality - to refrain from
"interfering in Burma's internal affairs" and to intimidate
local Rangoon residents who were known to have contacts with
foreigners in the capital. Khin Nyunt's fanciful speeches came
at a time when most democratic countries - including the United
States, the 12 members of the European Community, India, Canada
and Sweden - had expressed serious concern at human- rights
abuses in Burma.
The inability of the SLORC to deal sensibly with the country's
political crisis became even more apparent when the promised
election was eventually held in May 1990. Probably believing
that its year-long propaganda campaign in the Working People's
Daily against the NLD had been effective - and evidently
underestimating the degree of hatred towards the military that
still existed - the SLORC decided to allow an astonishing degree
of openness following months of repression, severely restricted
campaigning and harassment of candidates and political
activists. Even foreign journalists were invited to cover the
election and there were no reports of tampering with the voting
registers.
On election day, there was a massive turn-out of voters. Entire
families lines up outside the polling booths early in the
morning of the 27th to make sure they should be able to cast
their votes. And the outcome was an astounding victory for the
NLD. It captured 392 of the 485 seats contested in the
492-member assembly elections were postponed in seven
constituencies for security reasons. The rest went to NLD allies
from the various minority areas while the military-backed
National Unity Party (NUP; the new name for the BSPP since
September 26th, 1988) captured a mere ten seats. Only one
candidate from Aung Gyis UNDP was elected. The NLD's
overwhelming majority was a clear indication that Aung San Suu
Kyis year-long campaign, from August 1988 to July 1989, had
produced remarkable results not only in terms of support for her
party. There was not a single reported incident of violence or
misbehaviour on the part of the public on election day. The
Burmese went to the polls with unity and dignity.
The SLORC was probably as taken aback as almost everybody else;
it was utterly unprepared for an NLD victory of this magnitude.
The NLD won even in Rangoons Dagon township, which includes the
capital's cantonment area and the SLORC's headquarters. The
leader of the NUP, Tha Kyaw, a former BSPP minister, was also
defeated by the NLD in his constituency in Hmawbi, near a major
army camp and an air force base. For this reason, political
observers noted after the election that whatever the military
decided to do to counter its outcome, it would have to tread
carefully so as not to provoke a backlash from its own rank and
file who apparently also had voted for the NLD.
Many Burmese at the time pointed out that the election - in which
actually more than 90 different political parties participated -
should not be viewed as a Western-type poll with different
parties competing for seats. Rather, it was a referendum in
which the NLD represented the democratic aspirations of the vast
majority of the Burmese people - while the NUP stood for the old
system.
The SLORC, however, once again demonstrated its lack of political
acumen - and its belief that it is possible to control the people
with threats
and brute force alone. The DDSI chief Khin Nyunt appeared again
on July 27th, claiming that a 'constituent assembly, vested only
with the task of drafting a new constitution, had been elected,
not a parliament. He added: "it should not be necessary to
explain that a political organisation does not automatically
obtain the three sovereign powers of the legislative,
administrative and judicial powers by the emergence of a Pyithu
Hluttaw [parliament]...only the SLORC has the right to
legislative power...drafting an interim constitution to obtain
state power and to form a government will not be accepted in any
way and if it is done effective action will be taken according
to the law. Since its inception, the SLORC had always justified
its human-rights abuses by referring to 'the law' - a meaningless
concept in a Burmese context since the SLORC, claiming sole
legislative powers, made its own laws without consulting
anybody. The statement was also a retraction from earlier
promises made by Khin Nyunt; at a meeting with foreign military
attaches in Rangoon on September 22nd, 1988, shortly after the
formation of the SLORC, he had declared that elections will be
held as soon as law and order have been restored and the
tatmadaw will then hand over state power to the party which
wins."
But on the following day, the NLD members who had been elected to
the assembly met at the Gandhi Hall in Rangoon's Kyauktada
township and adopted a resolution calling on the SLORC to stand
down and hand over power to a democratically elected government.
During the interim period "the people shall, as a minimum, enjoy
the freedom of publication and expression. It is against
political nature that the NLD, which has overwhelmingly won
enough seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw to form a government, itself
has been prohibited from the minimum of democratic rights, the
widely distributed Gandhi Hall Declaration said. It also called
for frank and sincere discussions with good faith and with the
object of national reconciliation.
All this echoed the thoughts of Aung San Suu Kyi - but there was
nothing to indicate that the SLORC intended to release her from
her house arrest, not even after the massive election victory
for the NLD. The NLD in a separate resolution at the Gandhi Hall
meeting called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other
political prisoners; the SLORC, however, was as non-committal as
usual. By holding the elections and then refusing to honour the
outcome, the military government had also, in effect, undermined
whatever legitimacy it once could claim it had.
In effect, the election has pitted the pro-democracy forces
directly against the pillar of the old regime, Ne Win and his
private police force, the DDSI headed by Khin Nyunt- or, in a
historical context, it was a peaceful but head-on collision
between Burmas increasingly anachronistic authoritarian
tradition and an explicit desire to continue the democratic
development which was interrupted by Ne Win's coup in 1962.
Despite her absence from public life for more than a year, Aung
San Suu Kyi and her ideals are very much alive and valid in
Burma today. And despite the SLORC's bids to stall a transfer of
power, the general consensus in Burma today is that the movement
towards democracy which began in 1988 is irreversible.
According to Josef Silverstein: "Is Aung San Suu Kyi Burma's
woman of destiny? It would appear so at this time. There is no
other person who has achieved her status, love and respect from
the people of Burma and support from foreign governments who
have appealed in her behalf. She is her father's daughter
intelligent, honest, tough and fearless. Most of all,
she has no past connection with the failures of the democratic
government of U Nu or the corrupt, incompetent and brutal
dictatorship of Ne Win...For many Burmese, she appears as a
reincarnation of her father and is destined to carry out his
unfinished work of leading Burma into the modern world."
The traditional lack of satisfactory leadership for Burma was
recognised by Aung San already in the 1930s. In an article for
the Oway magazine, he wrote almost 50 years ago: "We are fully
prepared to follow men who are able and willing to be leaders
like Mahatma Gandhi, C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru and Tilak of India;
like De Valera of Ireland; or Garibaldi and Mazzini of Italy.
Let anybody appear who can be such a leader, who dares to be
such a leader. We are waiting."
The Burmese people had to wait for half a century for such a
leader to emerge. And she happens to be the daughter of the
author of that quote.
__________________________________________________________
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aung San Suu Kyi. _Aung San. Kiscadale, Edinburgh, 1991. 66
pages. A comprehensive biography of Aung San. Introduction by
Roger Matthews.
Aung San Suu Kyi. _Burma and India. Some aspects of intellectual
life under colonialism. Allied Publishers, New Delhi, l990. 84
pages.
Aung San Suu Kyi. _Let's Visit Burma. Burke Publishing Company,
London, 1985. 96 pages. A children's guide book to Burma.
Lintner, Bertil. _Outrage - Burma's Struggle for Democracy. White
Lotus, UK, 1990. 208 pages. An account of the 1988-89
prodemocracy uprising in Burma.
Lintner, Bertil. _Land of Jade - A Journey through Insurgent
Burma. Kiscadale and White Lotus, Edinburgh and Bangkok, 1990.
315 pages.
Lintner, Bertil. _The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of
Burma. Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, Ithaca, 1990.
124 pages. A history of Burma's communist movement.
Maung Maung, Dr. ed. _Aung San of Burma. The Hague: Martinus
Nihoff, 1962. 162 pages. An anthology of articles on and by Aung
San.
Maung Maung, U. _Burmese Nationalist Movements 1940-1948.
Kiscadale Publications, Edinburgh, 1990. 395 pages.
Silverstein, Josef. _Burma - Military Rule and the Politics of
Stagnation. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1977.
224 pages. An account of the Ne Win era with useful notes on
Burma's political heritage.
Silverstein, Josef. comp. with introduction. _Independent Burma
at Forty Years: Six Assessments. Cornell University Southeast
Asia Program, Ithaca, 1989. 112 pages. Six essays on Burma by
six different Burma scholars.
Silverstein, Josef. comp. with introduction. _The Political
Legacy of Aung San. Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.
Data paper no. 86, Ithaca, NY, 1972. A selection of Aung San's
writings and speeches in English, including Burma's Challenge
(Rangoon, 1946), a collection compiled by Aung San himself.
Smith, Martin. _Burma - Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity.
Zed Books, London and New Jersey, 1991. 492 pages. A detailed
history of Burma's civil war.
Steinberg, David. _The Future of Burma - Crisis and Choice in
Myanmar. The Asia Society, New York, 1990. 99 pages.
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