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Burma: Expats Keep Democracy Movement Alive From Afar
By Marwaan Macan-Markar /Tierramérica
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug. 8, 2008 (IPS/GIN) -- Aung Moe Zaw is still hoping that democracy will take root in Burma, 20 years after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Rangoon to oppose that country’s military dictatorship.
“More people have joined our democracy movement. We are very optimistic about it,’’ the 41-year-old said on the eve of an anniversary better known in Burma as 8-8-88, the day when this spirit of democracy flowered on Aug. 8, 1988.
It happened 26 years after the military had grabbed power in a coup, in March 1962, and ruled the country with an iron grip and a policy of isolationism.
“The momentum is still with us, if you look at what has happened since then. The international community is with us and is better aware than it was in August 1988,’’ added the leader of the Democratic Party for a New Society, the second largest political party in the country.
The military dictatorship at the time crushed the pro-democracy uprising with force, troops firing into unarmed crowd, leaving more than 3,000 protesters dead. Similar brazen attacks on unarmed citizens have continued to occur, taking other oppressive forms in the ensuing years. Such attacks have undermined the pro-democracy leaders that emerged out of the 8-8-88 protests and their efforts to build a country that celebrates political and civil liberties.
Aung Moe Zaw typifies this predicament of Burma’s pro-democracy leaders -- men and women who have been denied a chance to shape their political vision. He cannot talk freely and champion democracy in his country. Rather, he has to work from afar as a political exile in Thailand.
He is not an exception. Many Burmese who won seats at the 1990 parliamentary elections -- held due to the pressure of 8-8-88 -- have had to flee the country. The regime refused to recognize the results of the poll, where the National League for Democracy, an opposition party that was formed after the pro- democracy protests, won with a solid majority. These elected Burmese parliamentarians who escaped set up the National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma in exile.
And for the country’s democracy leaders who chose to stay behind and fight, the regime responded with arrests and long periods in jail or under house arrest. The most famous among them are Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who leads the National League for Democracy, and who has spent more than 12 of her last 18 years under house arrest. The other is Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation university students who spearheaded the 8-8-88 protests, and who is currently in jail for the third time in the past two decades.
The junta’s repression of democracy is best captured in Burma’s notorious prisons, where more than 10,000 political activists have been jailed since the protests of August 1988, of which 2,000 still remain behind bars. And during the two decades, 137 political activists have died in Burmese jails or while being interrogated.
“The ‘88 demonstrations produced many new leaders for Burma’s democracy movement, but they were denied the freedom to build a new culture. They have been jailed or kept under house arrest,’’ said Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and leading member of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group based on the Thai-Burma border championing the rights of the imprisoned activists.
“It is a very difficult decision they make being politically active,” he added during a telephone interview from Mae Sot. “They know they can be sent back to prison. And they know the suffering there.’’
The junta’s use of Burmese jails to crush the hint of democracy since 1988 has been amplified by the longer prison sentences that jailed political activists have been given than during the years before the pro-democracy uprising.
“Previously, a prison sentence for political activity would last seven years or a little more. But since 8-8-88, political activists have been given 20-year sentences to even over 50 years,’’ said Win Min, a Burmese national security expert who teaches at a Thai university in Chiang Mai.
“The jail has been one method the military regime has used to crush the political space for democratic activity. There is less space today than during the period shortly before the ‘88 uprising,’’ he added. “The military has used more coercive power to control the political process and they appear relatively stronger than opposition groups.’’
The junta’s newfound friends since 1988 -- China, India, Russia and the governments from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- have also contributed to its staying power at the expense of a healthy Burmese democracy. This international protective net came to the regime’s rescue last September after it was condemned for the brutal crackdown of peaceful pro- democracy protests led by tens of thousands of Buddhist monks.
It may be a daunting political landscape, but Burma’s young political leaders such as Aung Moe Zaw are far from conceding defeat. They want to keep the legacy of 8-8-88 alive, a reminder of a country in need of political reform.
“We have to use every possible means to convince the regime that democracy is good,’’ the young leader said. “We are not going to give up no matter how more restricted and controlled Burma is today than 20 years ago.’’