Daw Suu's Letter from Burma #6 (199

[carol@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Daw Suu's Letter from Burma #6 (1997)

Mainichi Daily News, Sunday, July 13, 1997

TURBULENT YEARS TAKE TOLL ON DEMOCRACY ADVOCATES:
"Transitions II"

Letter from Burma (No. 6) by Aung San Suu Kyi

During periods of transition there are usually a number of victims.  The
turbulent years since 1988 have been particularly hard on those who have
been at the forefront of the democratic movement.  The latest victim was U
Tin Shwe of Monywa, a member of the Central Committee of the National League
for Democracy (NLD).  A lawyer and a writer, his involvement in politics
went back to the days when he was a university student.  It was natural that
he should have been one of the vanguards in the founding of a party that
knitted together many different movements aimed at creating a democratic
society in Burma.

U Tin Shwe played a leading role in the election campaign of 1990, although
he decided not to contest as a prospective member of Parliament.  The
resounding success of the NLD in those election days owed much to people
like him who worked tirelessly, without thought of personal gain, for a
cause in which they believed strongly.

It was during the disillusioning months that followed the elections that U
Tin Shwe was arrested and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.  At the time
of his arrest at the end of 1990, U Tin Shwe was a healthy man entering the
61st year of his life.  Conditions in the prisons of Burma are such that
even a robust young man cannot manage to keep his physical health intact
after a couple of years.  Despite the food and medicine sent in by his
family to supplement the atrocious prison diet, for a man of U Tin Shwe's
age, six years of the prison regime was more than enough to bring on life
threatening diseases.

By April 1997 U Tin Shwe was suffering from a heart condition which was so
serious his family asked that he should be allowed to receive treatment in
the Rangoon General Hospital.  The authorities did not accede to this
request.  The chairman of the NLD then wrote to the chairman of the State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to urge that U Tin Shwe be allowed
proper medical treatment and to point out that should anything untoward
befall U Tin Shwe, the authorities would have to be held responsible.  That
the SLORC sent no reply to this letter was hardly a surprise.  Neither was
it altogether a surprise when U Tin Shwe died on June 6, 1997, of a heart
attack in his cell at Insein Jail.

U Tin Shwe's death is a great loss to those who wish to see Burma progress
towards intellectual and political freedom.  This loss is part of the price
that we have to pay in making the painful transition from an authoritarian
to a liberal society.  Some might question whether there is any evidence
that we are making such a transition at all.  Where are the signs to
indicate that there is a loosening of the iron grip of military rule?

It is indeed difficult to find any tangible evidence of a liberal trend on
the part of the authorities.  However, there has been wrought in the minds
of the vast majority of the people of Burma an unshakable conviction that
change is absolutely necessary if we are to achieve progress and stability.
That mental transition is the most important one of all.  It is the
beginning of new era of perception which opens the doors to parts of
practical institutional changes towards a new society.

This perception is based to a large extent on an awareness that a dangerous
elitism has emerged in Burma over the last nine years.  Ours has
traditionally been a casteless society without any insuperable barriers
between different classes.  The gap between the haves and have-nots was
never one beyond the conquest of energetic, enterprising individuals.
However in recent years, there has been an enormous widening of the space
that divides the privileged few from the rest of the population.  People
have learned that without the right connections it is well night impossible
to profit from the economic opportunities that become available since the
collapse of the Burma Socialist Programme Party Government.

Of course a mental transition that recognizes the need for change is not
enough by itself.  Practical steps have to taken to transform the political
and economic climate in our country.  Then we shall see the real transition
from repression to freedom, from fear to security.