Wednesday, March 27, 2013

K.M.Kaung -- "Aung San Suu Kyi -- a strange collection of clear victories?" First draft of article published in International Gallerie -

(An edited version of this was published in International Gallerie -)





During his historic six-hour visit to Rangoon, Burma, newly re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama mispronounced Aung San Suu Kyi’s name twice, calling her “Aung Yann Suu Kyi” – one almost saw Suu Kyi hiding her wince.
Yann means “reckless.”
Her real name is:
Aung San   from her famous father   the George Washington of Burma.
Aung = victory or victorious.
San= strange, glorious or unique, rare or scarce.
Suu — her own given name, based on the day of the week on which she was born, and the name of Aung San’s mother, whose father was hanged by the British during the Saya San uprising of 1920.
Kyi – based on her mother’s Monday-born name.  Kyi in Burmese means “clear”.
As Jack Healey, the former director of Amnesty International said, “We should learn how to pronounce her name correctly.”
Be that as it may, on Nov 13, 2010, a week after the rigged election, the Junta released her from her third bout of house arrest, which had started from a roadside ambush   and is now known as the Depayin Massacre.
Daw Suu was truly between a rock and a hard place.  She cannot be blamed for having sent out feelers that she could help get sanctions lifted in exchange for being treated better by the Junta, now hiding behind its front man, the so-called “moderate” PM turned President.
Thein Sein went to see her and for the first time in junta history, complimented her in a public space saying, "As a Myanmar citizen, I would like to congratulate her for the honors she has received in this country in recognition of her efforts for democracy.".
When Obama called her by phone this time last year, she had only to say “I trust him (Thein Sein).  I think I can work with him,” for the U.S. President to send Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
This unleashed an unreasonable euphoria which has only now started to wear a bit thin. 
Just this morning, Nov 29, at 3 AM in the dawn, the junta used deadly force to quell workers and miners demonstrating against the Chinese-owned Wampau copper mine in Letpadaung Township near Monywa.  Presdt. Thein Sein’s office says it (only) used tear gas and water hoses “in line with international standards” but Radio Free Asia reported that an expert said, “there is no way tear gas can start fires”and also others have noted the strange nature of the burns, which might denote some kind of chemical weapon.  Later, samples analyzed overseas confirmed it was white phosphorus that was used.  Eighty monk demonstrators were reported wounded and thirty hospitalized.  http://www.rfa.org/burmese/
Aung San Suu Kyi went to Monywa and gave a speech in which she swore to help resolve the issue peacefully.

Earlier, BBC 4 uncovered mass graves in Western Burma, where a genocide against the Muslim Rohingya community has been going on since June, even as Suu Kyi travelled internationally and gave impeccable speeches.  In the northeast of Burma, the Junta, now in civilian dress, broke a 17 year ceasefire.
What are the Lady’s prospects in this boiling situation?
One should note, she did not win a majority in the April 1 “April Fools’ Day” by-elections — she won the majority of the few seats she and her party were allowed to contest.  Nevertheless, she campaigned all over the country and won once again — demonstrating her immense popularity.
But it is not about popularity, is it?
It is about what the Junta allows to happen in Burma.
What seems to have happened is due to a coincidence of wants and needs by major actors: Suu Kyi’s situation was a no-win one.
The Junta itself was said to have been scared of what happened in the Middle East, and wanted an exit and an out.
The USA and Europe are in the throes of a major recession — the United States itself hugely indebted to China, which is holding the bulk of its national debt or treasury bills.  The foreign media and the Burmese exile media are compromised as they have apparently traded access for “doing PR for the Junta.”
In November 2012, the Lady was losing patience again — she said, “Nothing will happen if the constitution is not changed.” She also said two days ago — “The military is already the most powerful entity in the country.  We in the parliament [hluttaw] should not make decisions that increase its power.”
Her prospects over-all are not good. 
One can argue that they never were.  I used to think she has a martyr complex.
She can surely win in 2015.  But then, what?
Every day on Burmese language news from VOA [Voice of America] and RFA [Radio Free Asia], we see tearful farmers whose land has been taken by the thousands of acres by the junta cronies.  We see miners in equal desperation.  We see workers, each one a Fantine out of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, who sold her hair, her teeth and her body to stay alive.  
Maybe the junta will let Suu Kyi win, and then let her “handle” these deep-seated structural and systemic (to do with the system) changes.
Then everyone will hate her.  Already there’s a growing chorus of those who think she did not speak up forcibly enough about the plight of the Rohingya.
Like all politicians, she will, when she comes to power, have to pay off supporters.  Then she can easily be accused of corruption as Benazir Bhutto was.
I don’t wish to sound flippant or disrespectful — she is one of my greatest heroes.
But some days I think she should leave and carve out a life for herself as an international figure who is deeply respected. 

There are speculations about the current government and Aung San Suu Kyi’s equation with it. The Irrawaddy highlighted the protest demonstrations against a Chinese-owned copper mine in Kyaukpadaung, Burma, quelled with the junta's old style pre-dawn raid – Is this "democracy?"
Aung San Suu Kyi declined to condemn the junta’s use of force.
One commentator says she is now in a zone of half-truths and there are attempts at co-opting her further.
For her safety, I think perhaps she should leave for other engagements; there are opportunities in heading a Burma Foundation overseas like the NCGUB (National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma – dissolved in late 2012) which had its own think tank division, or in academia, where there is a Chair of Democracy in her honour at the University of Kentucky in Louisville.
She should live and work overseas, even teach sometimes – as His Holiness the Dalai Lama or A. K. Sen (Amartya Sen) does – or head a foundation like former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
This will be controversial. There will be a lot of people who want Daw Suu to do it all:  Take all the risks and do all the heavy lifting. 
I may be criticized for my views but I say it from the perspective of an exiled dissenter, and for the sake of her hopefully long life.

                                                         *
Kyi May Kaung is a US-based poet, visual artist and novelist, with a doctorate in Political Economy from the University of Pennsylvania. 

For Burma, she hopes that the change will happen with full protection of everyone's rights, especially those of farmers and workers.


                                                    


Specialpost--Ellen Bernstein--expose of World Bank Rohingya project--

https://www.irrawaddy.com/culture/books/hellfire-and-damnation-in-myanmar-ex-world-bank-country-head-recounts-rohingya-catastrophe-response....