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ASSK: Freedom From Fear
************************Posted by BurmaNet************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies--Practical Strategies"
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FREEDOM FROM FEAR
Editor's note: Usually BurmaNet posts current news articles from the
international press or from sources in and around Burma. This posting of the
title story from Aung San Suu Kyi's book is a departure from the normal
policy and is done in order to acquaint Internet users who have not had the
chance to read any of her works.
-Strider
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Aung San Suu Kyi. Freedom from Fear. NY: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1991.
180-185
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
*The following was first release for publication by the editor to
commemorate the European Parliament's award to Aung San Suu Kyi
of the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The award
ceremony took place in her absence at Strasbourg on 10 July 1991. In
the same week the essay appeared in full or in part in The Times
Literary Supplement, the New York Times, the Far East Economic
Review, the Bangkok Post, the Times of India and in the German,
Norwegian and Icelandic press.*
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts
those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those
who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati,
the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by
desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the
sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite
those against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration due
to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not
only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and
wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption.
Just as chanda-gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can be
caused by fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one
loves, so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some way
can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be difficult to dispel
ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by
fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little
wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms
becomes deeply entrenched.
Public dissatisfaction with economic hardships has been seen as the
chief cause of the movement for democracy in Burma, sparked off by
the student demonstrations 1988. It is true that years of incoherent
policies, inept official measures, burgeoning inflation and falling real
income had turned the country into an economic shambles. But it was
more than the difficulties of eking out a barely acceptable standard of
living that had eroded the patience of a traditionally good-natured,
quiescent people -- it was also the humiliation of a way of life
disfigured by corruption and fear. The students were protesting not
just against the death of their comrades but against the denial of their
right to life by a totalitarian regime which deprived the present of
meaningfulness and held out not hope for the future. And because the
students' protests articulated the frustrations of the people at large, the
demonstrations quickly grew into a nationwide movement. Some of its
keenest supporters were businessmen who had developed the skills
and the contacts necessary not only to survive but to prosper within
the system. But their affluence offered them no genuine sense of
security of fulfillment, and they could not but see that if they and their
fellow citizens, regardless of economic status, were to achieve a
worthwhile existence, an accountable administration was at least a
necessary if not a sufficient condition. The people of Burma had
wearied of a precarious state of passive apprehension where they were
'as water in the cupped hands' of the powers that be.
Emerald cool we may be
As water in cupped hands
But oh that we might be
As splinters of glass
In cupped hands.
Glass splinters, the smallest with its sharp, glinting power to defend
itself against hands that try to crush, could only be seen as a vivid
symbol of the spark of courage that is an essential attribute of those
who would free themselves from the grip of oppression. Bogyoke
Aung San regarded himself as a revolutionary and searched tirelessly
for answers to the problems that beset Burma during her times of trial.
He exhorted the people to develop courage: 'Don't just depend on the
courage and intrepidity of others. Each and every one of you must
make sacrifices to become a hero possessed of courage and intrepidity.
Then only shall we all be able to enjoy true freedom.'
The effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where
fear is an integral part of everyday existence is not immediately
apparent to those fortunate enough to live in states governed by the
rule of law. Just laws do not merely prevent corruption by meting out
impartial punishment to offenders. They also help to create a society in
which people can fulfil the basic requirements necessary for the
preservation of human dignity without recourse to corrupt practices.
Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles
of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the
cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which
will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear
into one where legal rules exist to promote man's desire for harmony
and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his
nature.
In an age when immense technological advances have created lethal
weapons which could be, and are, used by the powerful and the
unprincipled to dominate the weak and the helpless, there is a
compelling need for a closer relationship between politics and ethics at
both the national and international levels. The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights of the United Nations proclaims that 'every individual
and every organ of society' should strive to promote the basic rights
and freedoms to which all human beings regardless of race, nationality
or religion are entitled. but as long as there are governments whose
authority is founded on coercion rather than on the mandate of the
people, and interest groups which place short-term profits above long-
term peace and prosperity, concerted international action to protect
and promote human rights will remain at best a partially realized
struggle. There will continue to be arenas of struggle where victims of
oppression have to draw on their own inner resources to defend their
inalienable rights as members of the human family.
The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an
intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes
and values which shape the course of a nations development. A
revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and
institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has
little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the
forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue
to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and
regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy
and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere
in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to
resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.
Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men
are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make
themselves fit to bear the responsibility and to uphold the disciplines
which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which
men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from
fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build
a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established
as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate
their own minds from apathy and fear.
Always one to practice what he preached, Aung San himself
constantly demonstrated courage -- not just the physical sort but the
kind that enabled him to speak the truth, to stand by his word, to
accept criticism, to admit his faults, to correct his mistakes, to respect
the opposition, to parley with the enemy and to let people be the judge
of his worthiness as a leader. It is for such moral courage that he will
always be loved and respected in Burma -- not merely as a warrior hero
but as the inspiration and conscience of the nation. The words used
by Jawaharal Nehru to describe Mahatma Gandhi could well be
applied to Aung San: 'The essence of his teaching was fearlessness
and truth, and action allied to these, always keeping the welfare of the
masses in view.'
Gandhi, the great apostle of non-violence, and Aung San, the founder
of a national army, were very different personalities, but as there is an
inevitable sameness about the challenges of authoritarian rule
anywhere at any time, so there is a similarity in the intrinsic qualities of
those who rise up to meet the challenge. Nehru, who considered the
instillation of courage in the people of India one of Gandhi's greatest
achievements, was a political modernist, but he assessed the needs for
a twentieth-century movement for independence, he found himself
looking back to the philosophy of ancient India: 'The greatest gift for
an individual nation . . . was abhaya, fearlessness, not merely bodily
courage but absence of fear from the mind.'
Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage
acquired through endeavor, courage that comes from cultivating the
habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be
described as 'grace under pressure' -- grace which is renewed
repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear
tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture,
fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property of means of
livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most
insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or
even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile
the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-
respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for people
conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is
right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even
under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and
again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled
power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles
combined with a historical sense that despite all set-backs the
condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and
material advancement. It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-
redemption which most distinguishes man from mere brute. At the root
of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to
achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to
follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise
above individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man's
vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to
dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. Concepts
such as truth, justice, and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite
when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless
power.