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Will Burma Tomorrow Be Another Country?

By Saneitha Nagani

Allister Sparks book, Tomorrow Is Another Country is about the inside story of South

Africas negotiated revolution that took place between F W de Klerks apartheid regime and Nelson

Mandelas African National Congress (ANC). My short piece is about a view from the sidelines about

a country that is changing, but changing in a very complex manner. To me, it is like a child looking at

small fish-like creatures in the backyard pond, indistinct to say for sure whether they turn into fish

or frogs or even into tadpoles. The changes that are taking place are too fragile to say for certain

that they are going to be democratic or they might turn out to be a hybrid regime likes a

democratic Burma with Burmese characteristics. We should be wary of all such regimes with

Burmese characteristics. Under U Ne Win we have put up with man-made poverty, striving and

struggling, to reach the man-made heaven on earth the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

We did not even get half way. Burma was neither a Union nor a Socialist and everything that we

were made to strive for since 1962 disappeared with the mocked coup of Bogyoke Saw Maung and

his successors.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have decided to re-register

and will to take part in the forthcoming by-elections to be held on 1 April 2012. Why on earth April

Fools day was chosen is beyond anyones comprehension. Without first seeking amendments to

the controversial clauses in the 2008 Constitution first as they have done with the Political Parties

Registration laws, the NLD must have grounds to have enough faith to take President Thein Seins

words at their face value. To me it seems like they are going to take a plunge right into the deep

and murky political waters with just faith as their life-jacket. However, judging from her character

one would have to assume that Daw Suu must be well aware of what she is doing. As she often said

that she is a cautious optimist. The party must have faith in her to go along with her in a unanimous

decision to both the re-registration of the party and to contest in the forthcoming by-elections.

Daw Suu, being a leader with so much insight, is sure to know what sort of risks she is taking. It is not

with blind faith that she has given U Thein Seins government her support but it is indeed a

calculated risk. Suspending the dam project in Myitsone is one thing but the speculation that he is

facing difficulties from within some sections of his government as regards to the release of political

prisoners, or the ongoing armed conflicts in many of the ethnic minorities region somehow shows

that the President does not seem have full authority when it comes to the running of his

government. There can be the possibility of a backlash if the changes took a direction in which some

in the present quasi-civilian government feel uneasy about and that they could be call to account for

their past behaviours or if the changes went to the extent to which President U Thein Sein might feel

that he and his government no longer have control of. But everybody seems to have already settheir minds on the hope that, political reforms, once granted are difficult to rescind. I hope they are

right.

Like the lyrics of the song the old lady in Po Chit Kon village in the Kachin State was told to have sung

to her grandchild I also regard Daw Suu with great admiration and affection as, Oh this ruler of our

kingdom, a pretty thing, a pretty little thing. I never have doubts as regards to her honesty and her

genuine love for her people. According to my Sayadaw, one cannot do politics without a generous

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heart. To what I have observed my Sayadaws assertion has proven to be true. He said that to be

involved in politics is like performing a dana (the rendering of this Pali word may not be exact but it

can be translated as close to the act of charity). When performing dana an act of kusala (a

virtuous act) one needs to have a heart that neither has constraints nor hope of getting something

back in return. This kind of mindset must be kept at all three stages of the act, that is, before the act;

during and after the act. Ones might have to be very clear of what one is about to do then whenperforming the act one must be fully conscious of ones action and there shall be no remorse for one

action afterwards.

Unlike South Afric cas Nelson Mandela, Daw Suu was not barred from leaving the country. As Peter

Popham mentioned in his book, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, that, Suus

detention was never strictly comparable to Nelson Mandelas twenty-seven years imprisonment on

Robben Island because, unlike Mandel, she was free to leave. At any time in her years of

confinement between 1989 and 2009, she could have phoned her contact in the regime, packed a

suitcase, said goodbye to here faithful housekeepers and companions, taken a taxi to the airport and

flown away; but it would have been with certainty, if she did, that her passport would have been

cancelled and that she would never have been permitted to return. And by flying away to the safeand loving embrace of the outside world, she would have vindicated all the slurs of her enemies, and

the worst apprehensions of her supporters. Like her late father, Daw Suu certainly knew what she

is in for right at the beginning and she is also determined to go through to the end hog and see that

she has won the second struggle for independence of the people of Burma.

Burmese politics and Daw Suu reminded me of the very first verse in the first chapter of Vissudhi

Magga (The Path to Purification) that, When a wise man, established well in Virtue, Develops

Consciousness and Understanding, Then as a bhikkhu ardent and sagacious, He succeeds in

disentangling this tangle. This stanza was the answer to a certain deitys question, The inner tangle

and the outer tangle - this generation is entangled in a tangle. And so I ask of Gotaman this question:

Who succeeds in disentangling this tangle? After her late father, the founding father of Burmasmilitary and the founder of Burmas independence Bogyoke Aung San, many leaders such as U Nu, U

Ne Win, U San Yu, Dr Maung Maung, Bogyoke Saw Maung, Senior General Than Shwe and now U

Thein Sein took over power. They all have lofty plans for the country but none of them have made

the country richer, the suffering and hardships of the ordinary people lesser, or the reputation of the

country in the international community more respectable. None of them was seen received with so

much love and affection as Daw Suu. They all have been what my father said, Under the Ne Wins

socialist regime Burma produces only sanpya loke-tha (outstanding or model workers) but never a

model product. They said they had to take over power because of their love for the country. In

spite of their love, a rich country like Burma descended into one of the United Nations Least

Developed Countries; while Burma gets poor their foreign bank accounts grew bigger.

For Burma, to become another country tomorrow - both respectable and with a reputation of being

of not just a rich country but with an ethos like the Australian ethos of fair go for everybody, unity

in diversity and a humane society where one is the keeper of ones brothers and sisters; and a

country everybody is equal before the law and not the generals are more equal the other written

into the constitution; the rule of the gun or the rule of the whim is replaced by the rule of law

without any political prisoners in our prisons - Daw Suu has to be the one who is going to

disentangle the tangle. Despite the fact that it may still be a prophecy with no scientific basis or with

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very little hard evidence to prove that it is true, from what I have observed from the sidelines I am

getting more and more convinced with each passing day that what was mentioned in the lyrics of

the song, malei hlet-khat-than shwe-chi ngwe-chi tan-par-lo; yet-kan shwe-zin kan-shwe-zin;

bethu bethu win-gar-ma chi-khin htwe shin-naing-pa ma-shin (with all the golden yarns, the silver

yarns and the golden loom; who will be the one to disentangle the tangle web) is about to become a

reality. Be a sceptic at thy own peril! END