Behind the bamboo curtain

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It?s the Burmese Gulag. An Orwellian State where democracy witnesses a
daily death

Behind the bamboo curtain

The Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
September 19, 2000

By D.R. Rajagopal

?We are in hell, save us.? This terse message in laconic style is found
scrawled in big black bold letters in both Burmese and English scripts
on scores of posters, stuck on lamp-posts, pillars and walls of many
buildings at street-corners, market-squares and near round-abouts of
main roads and national highways, which lead out of the
heavily-garrisoned, tropical national capital, Yangon (Rangoon), and
from Mandalay and elsewhere in the hermit state of Burma (Myanmar) ?
behind the ?bamboo curtain?.

The bloated ruling elite of the military junta denounces the
?inflammatory? slogan as ?infra dig? to Burmese national psyche, besides
being ?treacherous and anti-national?. Radio Yangon broadcasts, almost
ad nauseam, everyday, the one-dimensional discourse of the regime.
Mobile military patrol units on vigil rush around and pull down the
posters and hunt down the perpetrators of this ?political sacrilege?, as
radio, television and the other media maintain in their steady drum-beat
the monologue of the dictatorship.

Young volunteers ? with obvious spunk and determination belonging to the
Opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) ? led by Dr Aung San Suu
Kyi, are hounded and hunted down. Their freedom is always on the
threshold. If caught, they are spirited away, never to be seen or heard
again.

Peripatetic diplomats of urbanity, known for their professional
competence and unfailing observation of the sad and daily vignettes of
Burma?s polity and ?civil society?, speak in whispers at many an Asian
airport and sundry other ?neutral zones? about the pessimism all around;
they speak of the depressing political ritual of taut nerves and
explosive ambience on both sides of the political divide.

Visiting businessmen and fleeting travelers in obvious awe of the
magnificent hill-top Shwedagon Pagoda beside the Yangon river, speakof
these subversive posters, reappearing again and again in the heart of
the capital. They are torn down with ?asinine consistency?, say all
those diplomats and political realists who are still able to retain
their sensitivity and conscientiousness and are still counted among the
Burmese patriots. There is no irony anymore in what they say, only
resignation. This, in a nutshell, is the Burmese Gulay in the first year
of the new millennium!

But Yangon isn?t rattled by this exposure of the state of tyranny,
political subterfuge, corruption and incompetence. ?We don?t care,?
snaps Foreign Minister U Win Aung, even while he waffled in his speech
at the recent United Nations millennium summit of more than 150
Presidents, Prime Ministers, monarchs and other top functionaries. This
is how he dismissed the legitimate criticism of the Burmese situation by
the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.

U Win Aung told the UN summit that Myanmar is taking a constructive path
while opposing forces were (and are) ?embarking on a path to
destruction?. He asserted: ?There is no single formula that could be
applied to all countries.? He claimed: ?Myanmar is building a genuine
and durable democratic system in our own way and yet there are some who
like to stir up the tranquil waters??

All these swirl of events have come in the wake of the house arrest and
detention behind padlocked doors at the residence of Aung San Suu Kyi on
University Avenue in Yangon, 10 days after the motorcade ?march? (or
drive) beyond the outer perimeter of Yangon, led by her with 15 National
League of Democracy colleagues. She was not allowed to meet her
supporters. She was stopped. She and her friends have no freedom of
movement.

Admittedly, as analysts underscore the army cabal on its slippery perch
of authority, it is absolutely clueless on how it can politically stifle
and decimate the 54-year-old Oxford-educated iconic personality of Suu
Kyi, whose endurance is matched by her charm, compassion, charisma and
sustained grassroots appeal. The growing international concern about
this frail widow, who is forbidden to telephonically communicate with
her two young sons and scores of diplomats, friends and visitors, has
outraged the ruling mili8tary satraps.

In this Orwellian State, the junta has banned internet and modem. They
control all forms of communication. Freedom of expression is denied.
People simply disappear. There is no system of justice or legal
redressal. They use their propaganda machinery to block all authentic
information of the democratic struggle or day-to-day life. They spread
vicious rumours. San Suu Kyi is denounced as ?a whiteman?s wife?, among
other unprintable things. (She was married to the eminent British
Tibetologist, Dr Michael Aries, who died of cancer over two years ago in
London. Despite multiple appeals from all over the world, the junta
refused him a visa).

Equally significantly, what is bothering the isolated and insular army
brass in addition to the honesty and intrepidity of the Nobel Peace
Prize winner is the serious and growing dissent, which has been
spreading within the highest echelons of the junta in the saddle. There
is no doubt that the army cabal?s internal fissures have acquired
ominous undertones.

The army brass, embarrassed and exposed, may be unwittingly finding
itself in a catch-22 situation. As understood by the frank public
comments of Brigadier General Zan Tun, who is the powerful and
articulate Deputy Minister for National Planning and Development, and
also, close to the ailing Prime Minister/Defence Minister, Gen Than
Shwe. He was summarily dismissed from the highest leadership councils of
Burma. His ouster has spurred the undercurrent of dissent.

Brig-Gen Zan Tun indulged in al bout of economic progress in Burma
today. He said: ?May be this is because we are a little shut-down from
the world. We still have a lot of restrictions compared with other
countries. But we are bringing the barriers down?.

Brig-Gen Zan Tun was extremely critical of the current investment
climate in the country. He underlined that the GDP growth was six and
not 10 per cent (as claimed by Yangon). He was acerbic in his comments
on Burma?s Investment Commission, once a conglomeration of holy cows,
though now in a state a monumental mess. Its chairman, deputy chairman
and secretary were all dismissed in 1999 for ineptitude, corruption and
endemic philandering, as reports point out.

Analysts suggest that what matters most to the army brass today is the
state of bilateral relations and growing trade with her two giant and
populous neighbours: India and China.
The cabal is almost impervious to what US, UK and EU declare in their
fulminations. Both Beijing and New Delhi have been discreet in their
relations with Yangon. India and China have skirted the unflagging
campaign by Suu Kyi. The Indian Government behaves as if she and the
pro-democracy movement dose no exist.