To Burma -- and to Aung San Suu Kyi

June 19, 2005 marks the 60th birthday of one of the most remarkable leaders of our time: Aung San Suu Kyi, the icon of Burma's non-violent struggle for freedom. Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. And her country, and virtually all its people, continue to languish under the brutal repression of a military dictatorship that has withstood the passage of time.

This is the article I wrote half a decade ago, after returning from Burma.

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August 2000
The Woman Who Would Save a Nation

By Frida Ghitis

(Rangoon) The taxi driver was suddenly refusing to accept the fare we had agreed on. I would pay 400 Kyat to University Road, that was the deal. But, as we approached the area, I told him my exact destination: I wanted to go to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house. Visibly frightened, he looked at me in the rear view mirror, pulled over to a side street, and stopped the car. “I can’t go there,” he said, “big problem for me.” Then he pulled his umbrella from under the seat. “It’s starting to rain," He said. "Take it.” I declined, and reached over with the 400 Kyat trying to pay. “No,” he shook her head, “No pay. Please take my umbrella. You go see our leader. No charge.”

Like everyone to whom we had mentioned Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's gasping democracy movement, his face had brightened at the sound of her name. And then, also like all the others, he had looked over his shoulder, visibly frightened, making sure no one had heard. The crumbling streets of Rangoon, renamed Yangon by the military dictators of the nation of Burma (itself renamed Myanmar by the same generals)are teeming with beggars who seem to have lost even the energy to beg. And yet, there is a name that appears to electrify the despondent. It's the name of their hero: Aung San Suu Kyi.

A few weeks after my visit to Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi left her home with 14 members of her National League for Democracy (NLLD) party, headed for a meeting outside the capital. Their journey came to an abrupt stop when uniformed men blocked their way. The air was let out of her tires and a nine-day test of wills ensued. The group camped by the side of the road in sweltering heat, refusing to give up their efforts. The military finally took them back by force to Rangoon. The party leaders -- including Suu Kyi -- were taken to their homes, locked up and placed under heavy guard. NLD offices were ransacked, and what is perhaps the final crackdown on Burma’s efforts at democracy was set in motion.

For the impoverished and frightened people of Burma, and for the international community who supports them, the critical time has arrived. What strategy, if any, will allow Burma -- the once prosperous land -- to join the world in the global march to open, responsible government?

In a country where millions live in the military’s two-handed strangling grip of wretched poverty and vicious repression, Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's democracy movement, and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, is a figure of hope --- fading hope. She is revered by malnourished mothers sleeping under bridges with their emaciated babies, by taxi drivers eking out a living in cities with stagnant economies, and by students kept by the military from attending classes and forging a better future.

But Suu Kyi, the winner of a landslide election victory in 1990 has spent most of the time since winning the election living under house arrest or confined to such restrictions by the ruling military junta as to have virtually no possibility of affecting her country’s future. Ten years after her electoral victory, life could hardly be more painful for the people of the legendary land of towering teak forests.

The taxi, by the way, left me a few blocks from Suu Kyi’s home. I walked until I reached a military roadblock. After a low-key discussion with a soldier and an officer in plain clothes, it was made clear I would not be allowed to walk down the wide thoroughfare in front of the deserted university. No explanation given. Rangoon’s traffic is completely disrupted to keep it from passing in front of the 55 year-old-woman’s home.

After the nine-day standoff, nobody was allowed in Suu Kyi’s home. Not diplomats, not supporters, not servants. Food was passed to her over the padlocked gate, allowing for some sustenance. That’s more than can be said of the pro-democracy movement.

A leading member of the military junta has vowed to “crush” the party.

Demands by diplomats to see Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders were futile. The junta dismissed calls by Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and other world figures for their release. Officially known as the State Peace and Development Council, the ruling military conclave maintains its rule is needed to keep the peace and maintain the nation united in the face of ethnic divisions. The government accuses the NLD of planning terrorist activities, and insists the matter with Suu Kyi and her party is an internal affair. The international community, it says, should stay out of it.

Internal affairs in Burma are resolved through intimidation, incarceration and worse. The junta routinely uses the population, especially members of tribes seeking independence as slave labor for unpaid road construction and other grueling projects. People who resist the brutal forced labor are routinely shot. Gross violations of human rights are commonplace. Freedom of the press is such an alien concept in Myanmar that the local version of newspapers and television news could easily pass for comedy in the West.

The streets are filled with billboards describing what the government audaciously calls “People’s Desire,” a litany of government objectives aimed at maintaining the junta’s tight leash on society. Among the so-called People’s Desires: “Oppose those trying to jeopardize stability of the State and progress of the nation; “Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy.” It is clear that such “destructive elements” include Suu Kyi who is regularly referred to in the press as a prostitute, a stooge of the West and a number of other disparaging labels.

In 1997, the United States imposed a ban on new trade with the country. But the same year, Asian countries welcomed Yangon into the regional South East Asian association, ASEAN, sending conflicting messages to the Junta. The European Parliament has urged EU members to refrain from trading with the generals and Suu Kyi has urged foreigners to stay away from Burma; to keep their money from flowing into the coffers of the supremely corrupt military regime.

All international and domestic efforts to persuade the military to negotiate with the winners of the 1990 election have proved either useless or counter-productive. Life for the people of Myanmar has descended from purgatory to hell.

In frustration, some former allies of Suu Kyi have called for an end to the sanctions, hoping an increase in trade will bring a trickle of money for the impoverished Burmese.
And yet, it’s hard to see exactly which strategy has failed. Is it the isolation brought by countries like the US, or is it the engagement policy of Myanmar’s neighbors?

The key to the destruction of Myanmar and the survival of its military’s power may be found in Beijing and in Southeast Asia. China has supported and armed the junta, providing it with the resources to keep the people under its heel. The influence of Asia neighbors carries the moral authority of cultural understanding. According to the SPDC, all criticism of the regime is based on the colonial aspirations of the West. Incidentally, neither China nor India – the other Asian power aiming to gain ascendancy in Myanmar – made any open complaints about the junta’s recent displays of despotism.

Isolation by the West will accomplish nothing without pressure on China, the behemoth of human rights violations. Beijing may not want to relent on its atrocities against Tibet or against religious minorities in China, but it might consider interceding for a political solution in Burma, as a concession to western powers continually harping on human rights.

Whether economic sanctions are effective or not, one thing is clear. Sanctions followed by silence achieve nothing. If the United States and Europe want change in Myanmar, simple economic isolation is not sufficient. The generals urgently need hard currency to keep their country from a total economic collapse. They should know that any possibility of trade or assistance will not come without political change. Show them a carrot and remind them of the stick. The United States, with the exception of the last couple of weeks, has been much too silent on the tragedy of the Burmese people.

For the people of Myanmar, options appear to be running out. Suu Kyi’s latest effort achieved success on the international front. Major world figures chose to shine a spotlight on her plight. But within her country’s borders, the situation is now even more critical. For the people of Myanmar, the struggle may be reduced to a simple desperate gesture: not charging taxi fare to a foreigner hoping to visit Aung San Suu Kyi.


Frida Ghitis, Copyright 2000