A Day of Shame and a Day of Hope

By THE IRRAWADDY

Today, September 18, is the anniversary of two important events in Burma’s political history. The first is the bloody coup that installed the current regime in power 20 years ago, and the second is the start of last year’s uprising by Buddhist monks who took to the streets to seek a peaceful end to decades of brutal military rule.

The coincidence of these two anniversaries serves as a sad reminder of Burma’s plight as a nation struggling for survival under rulers hell-bent on holding onto power. In the 19 years that separate these two events, Burma moved not one step closer to peace and political reconciliation. It is as if the country’s history simply collapsed on this day.

As if to underline the futility of the Burmese people’s desire for freedom, this September, too, has been a month of arrests, torture, intimidation and trials that make a mockery of the law.

The streets of Rangoon are now monitored by soldiers, police and armed thugs known as Swan Arr Shin, the Masters of Force, who are constantly on the alert against any signs of potential unrest. In recent weeks, they have arrested a number of prominent activists, including Nilar Thein, a mother who has not seen her infant daughter since she was forced to go into hiding after last year’s protests. She is now in prison and at risk of torture, according to Amnesty International.

The regime has also apprehended at least 14 other activists in recent weeks. One of the detained activists is the younger brother of the prominent activist-monk U Gambira, who is also in prison for his leading role in last year’s “Saffron Revolution.”

There is also growing concern over the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s most famous torchbearer for the democratic cause. For four weeks from the middle of August, she refused to accept food deliveries to her home, where she has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. This prompted fears that she had gone on a hunger strike—something she hasn’t done since 1989, when she was first refused permission to leave her home. These fears have been confirmed by reports that she is now malnourished and receiving intravenous fluid to help her recover her strength.

Despite claims that it is moving towards democracy, the Burmese regime continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners. And even after signing numerous ceasefire agreements with ethnic insurgent groups, forced labor, rape and mass killings are still commonplace in border regions.

Burma’s rulers have succeeded only in placing the country near the bottom of every human development index. Burma is now among the worst countries in the world in terms of poverty, education, healthcare and corruption. The result of decades of economic mismanagement has been dire: more than a third of children in Burma are malnourished, the average household spends up to 70 percent of its budget on food, and more than 30 percent of the population lives under the poverty line, according to United Nations estimates.

It is difficult to believe that Burma’s economy was once regarded as one of the strongest and most promising in the region. But now the country’s immense natural wealth serves only to enrich the junta and a handful of cronies.

The regime is quick to blame its Western critics for Burma’s precipitous economic decline, but it refuses to acknowledge that the US and the EU have imposed sanctions for a reason. Burma’s human rights record is appalling, and the junta’s refusal to engage in meaningful reconciliation talks with the democratic opposition has sent a strong signal to the West that the ruling generals have no interest in moving the country forward.

All of this has earned Burma a place among the world’s pariah states. But the junta doesn’t seem to mind that Burma now stands alongside North Korea, Zimbabwe and Sudan as a country that routinely brutalizes its own population.

Burmese people, however, are keenly aware that their country has been dragged down to this shameful state. More than anything else, the two anniversaries that we mark today show that Burma is a nation divided between those who have no shame, and those who, despite their fear and their past failures to liberate their country, still nurture some hope for the future.