Sometimes out of the dull gray of Burmese politics and cold weather in exile, a spark of light and joy shines.
And sometimes it comes very unexpectedly, this finding of people of like mind. Sometimes, as now, the invitations actually come by email, and almost look like spam, except that spammers can’t spell and have no imagination.
Those of you who know something about Burma, will know that the pro-democracy struggle, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Daw=Ms. in Burmese), has been going on now since the mass demonstrations of 1988.
Daw Suu (or Aunty Suu) as she is affectionately known inside and outside the country of Burma, which the junta which rules it insists on calling “Myanmar,” – has been in and out of house arrest for a cumulative total of 13 years now.
At the beginning of her first house arrest, in spite of being incarcerated at the time of the elections, her party, The National League for Democracy, won an overwhelming majority.
The military junta which still rules Burma has never honored the results of the election, and has continued to harass and oppress the NLD, as well as the people of Burma. “It’s equal opportunity oppression,” as the late dissident, Dr. Chao Tzang Yawngwe, once said at an international meeting in Gottenberg, in 2002.
As a Burma expert I am often invited to international meetings, but disappointingly, the majority are now dominated by people who are willing to dis Daw Suu, in return for promoting pro-trade policies with the junta. I consider this reprehensible.
At the beginning of this year, I wrote a number of foreign policy articles for Open Democracy on line, as well as Foreign Policy in Focus.
As a result of these articles, I was invited to be on a panel about Burma by Northeastern Illinois University, which was co-sponsoring the Conference together with Open Democracy.
I happily accepted when the invitation came by email.
Barbara Victor, who wrote The Lady, a biography of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was the keynote speaker. On April 5th, Ms. Victor spoke of how she came to go to Burma to interview Daw Suu. Ms. Victor is a journalist with a very impressive resume who normally writes about the Middle East. She has interviewed such notable people as President George W. Bush and Gaddaffi.
She described how her publisher asked her to write the book, and she went to Burma with the help of a business woman Miriam Marshall Segal, then “friendly” with Gen, Saw Maung, whom she called “Mon General” according to newspaper accounts at the time. In 1998, with the collapse of the Asian Tiger economies, Ms. Segal’s business Peregrine Inc., also crashed. I distinctly remember using a falcon’s shrill cries as a mini-sound byte in my on air political and economic analysis column, Reading between the Lines, at that time.
Barbara Victor movingly described an overwhelming atmosphere of fear in Burma which she said she had never experienced before, even though she has covered many major wars. She said, the MI or Military Intelligence, followed her everywhere and insisted she stay the three months she was in Rangoon, in the government guest house, not in an hotel. She told me that Col. Hla Min, included in internal purge together with his boss Lt.Col. Khin Nyunt in 2004, was her “handler” in Rangoon.
During Ms. Victor’s presentation, we were treated to a slide show of photographs of Daw Suu and her father, the founding father of Burma’s Independence (from Great Britain in 1948) – Bogyoke (General) Aung San.
It is sobering to think that this beautiful and frail looking woman is so strong, and has suffered so much, for freedom for Burma. Though of course, she herself has always said, her suffering and sacrifice is nothing compared to that of all the people of Burma.
The Conference was organized by Dr Hamid Akbari of NEIU, Danny Postel of Open Democracy, Dean Murrell Duster and Assistant Dean, Yasmin Ranney. It was also co-sponsored by the Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh Leadership Fund at NEIU. Since Dr. Mossadegh was the democratically elected leader of Iran, who was also not allowed to assume power, we see the parallels with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in Burma.
The morning panel was chaired ably by Danny Postel. Prof. Emeritus Clark Neher, Northern Illinois University, and Maura Stephens, U.S. spokesperson for the International Campaign for Freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma, were also on the panel with me.
I gave an opening short summary in 20 minutes of the important events, regime changes, economic and political systems in Burma from the late 19th century and colonization by Great Britain, to World War II and the Japanese Occupation, Independence and then the military coup of 1962 – and the various dates between 1962 and 1988 when the military shot at Burmese citizens who were un-armed and demonstrating peacefully. I emphasized the importance of 1988 as the watershed event which has impacted and shaped all of our lives. Prof. Neher, I found, also shared some of my revulsion with the junta. Maura Stephens related how she met a Burmese dissident who was on hunger strike to the death to lobby the U.N., how she became involved in the Free Burma Movement, and she also described the current work that she does helping Burmese refugees.
In the afternoon, we saw 2 films about Burma: John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon, and the recent Frontline documentary by Evan Williams.
There was also a moving Prayer Circle during which Prof. Dan Creely described the sacred fire that had been brought to NEIU from a Native American traditional Healer. We then sat in a circle and shared whatever we wished to share as we were each given the “peace totem” in turn. Most moving were what a young man who had been an NLD member told us. A journalist who was imprisoned and tortured in Burma and his family were also there.
I’d like to thank everyone at NEIU and Open Democracy, for bringing us all together. There is indeed good energy emanating from this place.
I pray for Daw Suu and all the people of Burma and hope this darkness in our lives will soon be over.
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