ASSK and nonviolent struggle

[sayagyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Seminar on Theory and Practice of non-violence
2-4-98 to 4-4-98

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and non-violent movement in Burma
Presented by Dr. Tint Swe

Non-violence history of Burma
Burma gained her independence 50 years ago from British colony and
Japanese occupation. Burma achieved independence through dialogue because
Burma army had a limited role in liberation. It, along with Japanese
forces fought against British. The allied forces defeated Japan. The
independence hero, Aung San quit Burma Army to join politics. He and his
colleagues negotiated British government to liberate Burma.

Most of the resistance attempts against British since 1885 were armed till
Burmese nationalism began to gather strength in 1920. The peasant (1) took
arm to revolt in 1930 and the rebellion was quickly stamped out. During
1930s, the students of Rangoon University had become prominent in
nationalist activities. The Dohbama Asiayone (We Burmese Association) came
into existence. The members, men and women took Thakin (Master) as a
prefix to their names as a symbolic protest against colonialism. Gandhi's
philosophy stretched out to Burma. The people wore only domestic
traditional clothes and consume the local products. National schools were
opened protesting the British colonial education. The workers (2) from the
oil field at the center of Burma, Chauk and Yananchaung marched down to
Rangoon. A well-known Buddhist monk, U Wisara staged a hunger strike for
108 days before he died. Aung Kyaw was the first student beaten to death
by Colonial police while demonstrating.

The independence also gave birth the various armed insurgent groups, red
and white communists and ethnic peoples. These armed groups, after 50
years, are still fighting or holding arms till today. But I don't see any
hope for them to realize their demands. Moreover, the 14 ethnic groups who
had reached a temporary cease-fire agreement with the present military
junta are not expectant to fulfill their desire either.

Modern Burma
All of sudden, all walks of life in Burma took part the popular uprising
on 8-8-88. Civil disobedience and street demonstrations brought down three
Presidents (3) of the Socialist regime. The military coupe of 1988 forced
thousands of students to flee to the borders and to hold arms. But the
10-year experience taught them to sort more of non-violence. 

Not-well-organized strike committees in 1988 transformed into legal
political parties in 1989. Out of more 200 parties, the NLD became at the
center of pro-democracy struggle. Aung San Suu Kyi was the first human
being who was brave to openly criticize the powerful military regime that
had ruled for three decades. She spoke nothing but the truth. However it
was interpreted as confrontation. The slogan of NLD in 1989 was, "It is
our duty to oppose all unjust decrees". Aung San Suu Kyi toured through
out Burma and met the people of all kinds. She talked about democracy,
discipline and unity. She encouraged the people to defend their rights in
whatever means possible.

In 1989, under strict martial law she laid a bouquet at Myaenigon, Rangoon
where 40 civilians were suffocated to death in a police van. Once, while
she and her party colleagues were touring in Delta region, the whole
harbor was full of troops, most of streets were blocked, sandbagged and
barbwired, hundreds of soldiers posted all over the town, Bassein. As
their vehicles were not allowed to drive, she got out and walked. It was
on 14-1-89. A captain came running up to try to stop her so she asked him
if she were under arrest. The captain said, "No". So she said, "In that
case I am going." So off she went straight in front of a couple of
sheep-looking soldiers with guns at the ready. Pandemonium reigned. But
the soldiers released the cars in a minute and removed the blocks from the
road.

When she branded General New Win as a fascist, she was put under house
arrest from 20-7-89 to 10-7-95. In her absence, the leadership of NLD led
the party to win a landslide victory in 1990 election. The victory of NLD
was expression of non-violent political defiance of the entire people. In
1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Soon after that she received a
number of prestigious international awards. She became the symbol of
democracy, peace and struggle for human rights. 

As soon as her release, she arranged weekend meetings with the people at
the gate of her house. Thousands of people braved gathering to listen to
her. She continued saying the truth. But she wisely criticized the
policies and unjust deeds of the military rulers. However, after a couple
of months, the meetings were barred. She organized annual celebrations at
home, which was the sole place where NLD could exercise its political
proceedings. She invited intellectuals and writers to speak to her party
members. The entertainment troop, Anyein (4) from Mandalay, which
celebrated the water festival at her house in 1996, was arrested. She and
her senior colleagues tried to visit Mandalay to appear before court as
witness. But they were not allowed to go. 

The most daring decision made by NLD in November 1995 was to walk out of
the sham National Convention which was to write a new constitution, that
would allow the army permanent highest role in politics. Since then the
National Convention was unable to continue. 

As her phone line was continuously cut off, she tried to send her message
to the world by various means. She wrote a series of "Letters from Burma"
in the Mainichi dailies. She made numerous radio and video interviews. She
sent the written, audio-recorded and video-recorded messages to the
international conferences and meetings. She made exclusive interviews with
foreign journalists and organizations. She regularly met with diplomats in
Rangoon. She called the press conferences before the military junta did.
She responded unfounded allegations.

As restrictions and suppressions on NLD were increasing day and night, the
party issued relevant statements. Although the NLD was allowed to use only
a typewriter, it continued distributing the party instructions to township
party offices. NLD wrote letters to the Chairman of the military regime
expressing atrocities and unlawful acts upon the party. One of the
examples was a letter written to General Than Shwe mentioning all
atrocities, arrests, bringing down the party signboards through out the
country. NLD keeps saying its legitimate right as the legal political
party, which must have to organize meeting, to print party circulation and
to meet its party members.

When the executive members of NLD were once summoned by the junta, the
military minister called the name of Aung San Suu Kyi as Daw Suu Kyi
omitting the prefix of father. The NLD executive promptly corrected that
there was no Daw Suu Kyi in NLD. The minister had to voice accordingly.

The official statements of NLD were smuggled out of the country by various
means. They were translated, printed and sent to concern organizations,
UN, Amnesty International, UNHRC, UNHCR, Asia Watch etc. Many exile
Burmese groups translated and published the letters, statements and
messages of Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD and sneaked around Burma. The radio
stations, RFA (5), BBC, VOA and DVB (6) are good source of information for
the people of Burma where all newspaper, radio and TV stations are run
only by the government and total censorship is strictly imposed.

Aung San Suu Kyi called for a dialogue to solve the problems of the
country. Whenever there is a chance she insisted calling the substantive
dialogue with the military. But, in 1997, the NLD turned down to talk to
the authorities, as the later wanted to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi. NLD
clings to the principles and collective decision-making.

Violence is not the right way
Alen Clements wrote a book, "The Voice of Hope", which was an exclusive
interview with Aung San Suu Kyi. In his book, she was introduced, "...Aung
San Suu Kyi- recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and numerous prestigious
international awards for her courageous leadership in a non-violent
struggle to bring justice, freedom and democracy to the people of Burma."
"In her inspired campaign, Aung San Suu Kyi advanced in the foot steps of
Mahatma Gandhi, Min Luther King, employing tactics of non-violence and
civil disobedience in pursuit of democracy. Her essential message of
self-responsibility, rooted in Buddhism, developed into a high-minded
political ideology that she calls Burma's revolution of spirit."

Alan Clements: I'm struck by the major distinction among leaders of
non-violent political movements. There appear to be two basic paradigms of
non-violence. One version is rooted in the belief in God; meaning that its
power and inspiration come from a theistic or monotheistic understanding
of universe, life and human kind as seen in the movements led by Martin
Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela prior of his
formation of Umkhonto (7). Each of these leaders, to a greater or lesser
extent had conviction in either a Christian or a Hindu conception of
existence. Where as the second version is rooted in the belief in anatta-
the Buddhist concept of emptiness, or inter relatedness, without any
permanent god, entity, or thing figure behind the evil. His Holiness the
Dalai Lama of Tibet is one example. Another one is Vietnamese Buddhist
monk, Thich Nhat Hahn who, as you may know, led a non -violent peace
movement during the Vietnam war and was nominated for the Nobel Peace
Price by Martin Luther King in 1968. And of course there's you, Aung San
Suu Kyi, a dedicated Buddhist. When you look at these examples, all the
theistic expressions of non-violence have been successful in their
struggles, whereas the Buddhist have not been successful in bringing about
political change - Thich Nhat Hahn admits this in his writings and the
Dalai Lama states that 'time is quickly running out in Tibet'. While in
your own struggle here in Burma, the results remain uncertain as SLORC
repression tightens daily. May I ask you for your impressions on this
distinction that I've raised?

Aung San Suu Kyi: But in Vietnam, especially in South Vietnam, there are
so many Christians, and so many of them were in key positions during the
war. Ngo Dinh Diem was a Catholic. I think that's one of the reasons for
the failure of the Buddhist movement, because there were so many
non-Buddhists holding power. The Buddhist movement could not activate
those who were crucial to the situation.

AC: Well, coming back to the question, is there anything to be said about
the conviction of those who have God in their souls vis a vis those who
see anatta as their truth?

ASSK: I wonder whether it isn't something more practical than that.
Organized movements are essential to the way in which Christianity works.
Their churches are organized that way, whereas Buddhism is not really
organized around their monasteries. Although one might go to the local
monastery, or have one's favorite monastery in which to worship, one does
not necessarily stay confined to that one monastery only. It's not like
Christians who go to the same church for years and years, and so doing
develop congregational relationships. Perhaps your parents too went to the
same church and you know a lot of people through your ongoing association
with them. You also know what their parents were like and what
affiliations they had. I think this is the way the base for organized
movement is formed. I have often thought that this is probably one of the
reasons why Christian-base political movements tend to take off quickly
and efficiently. The organization is already there. Look at Latin America,
you'll find that a lot of their political movements against the
dictatorships, although they were not non-violent, were church-based,
which made them take off rather quickly. Even in Islamic countries they
have the mosque, which is formally organized, with regular mosque meetings
taking place weekly. This sort of formal organization does not exit in
Buddhist countries.

AC: So obviously you don't think that the success of these movements had
anything to do with convictions in God.

ASSK: I think that it's just the fact that they can meet regularly. Even
in India the government cannot say that Muslims must not go to the mosque.
It would create such a reaction. They must allow them to go to the mosque,
so they can always meet regularly a minimum of once a week. Whereas, where
can Buddhists meet? If the Buddhist started meeting once a week at a
particular monastery, the MI (8) would be on to them immediately to find
out what the meeting was about. But you can't stop people from going to
church. In the Eastern European countries they tried this but once the
focus of Western countries was on them and they needed Western loans, they
could not tell people any more: "Don't go to church." It was so in Poland.
There was a great deal of church-based political activities.

AC: But what about choosing violence out of compassion, if it's the right
word, rather than using it as an option in stead of cowardice?

ASSK: It depends on the situation and I think that in the context of Burma
today, non-violent means are the best way to achieve our goals. But I
certainly do not condemn those who fight the just fight, as it were. My
father did, and I admire him greatly for it.

AC: I know that in Western countries it's been very easy for a lot of us
to see the military machine as a body for violent aggression. In so doing
we often polarize them from ourselves, judging them as the antithesis of
ahimsa or non-violence. But I wonder if there is a way not to divide so
sharply those who use weapons justly from those who would never use
violent means under any circumstances?

ASSK: Take Burma for example, during the time of resistance against the
Japanese. The Burma Army was born out of the people and was part of it.
And certainly, during the time of the Japanese resistance, the people did
not think the army as 'them' and of themselves as 'us'. Even after
independence, as long as Burma was a democratic country, there was not
this division between the military and the civilians. This 'them and us'
syndrome came in after the military took over power and became an elite.
The privileged and the unprivileged! That's is what all amounts to.
Privilege because they've got guns, money or power and the others don't
have any of those.

Above-ground and under-ground organizations
In Burma, since 1962, there was no non-governmental organization, which
was free from government control. The government orchestrates all
organizations including religious bodies. The students' Union was blown up
by dynamite on 7-7-92. Since then the students movement went underground.
The monk body (9) was restructured. That attempt divided the Sangha.
Workers unions were totally dissolved and forced them to become
underground. All anti-government movements were totally organized
underground.

In 1989, political parties mushroomed as the aboveground organizations,
which are more important in non-violent struggle. But 230 political
parties reduced to 70 in the wake of 1990 election. After the election the
number became only 10 because they were vanished by force. More than 100
elected Members of Parliaments were ordered to resign. So some political
parties, CNLD (10), ALD (11), UNLD (12), DPNS (13) and etc. went
underground. So also some representatives to the internationally condemned
National Convention went exile. About 20 elected MPs went exile and formed
the parallel government, NCGUB (14) on 18-12-90.

The Democratic Voice of Burma radio station comes into existence on
19-7-93. The NCGUB opens offices in various friendly countries. Organizers
and MP from NLD went exile and formed the NLD/LA (15). The armed ethnic
groups joined with democratic forces under the name of NCUB (16). Numerous
Burmese expatriates joined the pro-democracy groups. The NGOs from western
countries are very much in support of the democracy struggle. The
diplomatic efforts of the NCGUB exert international pressure on the
military regime. The Free Burma Coalition based in the USA plays a role to
impose sanctions by the US. The UN General Assembly passed resolutions on
Burma since 1992 strongly against the human rights violations of various
kinds. The Human Rights yearbook was printed every year by HRDU (17).

Thailand and India are two neighboring countries, which provide shelter
for the pro-democracy activists. The PDC (18) was key coalition for
non-violent activities through the eastern border while the CNAB (19)
operates from the western border of Burma. These two non-violent groups
are coordinating and taking various nonviolent actions. Thousands of "From
Dictatorship to Democracy (20) (by Gene Sharp) have been printed and
imported into Burma. "Thought of Gandhi" was translated into Burmese and
English and smuggled into Burma. The popular "Water Festival Songs and
Chant" cassettes (21) were produced and distributed. Many inside people
have been arrested and jailed for possession and distributing of those
materials. The "Beyond Rangoon" film attracts many outside people who do
not know much about Burma.

Conclusion
The non-violent struggle is going on and on. The military rulers dare not
opening the Universities and Colleges, which were closed since 1996
December when Rangoon University students staged a demonstration. Peasant
protest in upper Burma in 1997 was a victory. Workers strike in Pegu in
1997 met their demand. The monks' gathering in Mandalay was turned into
anti-Muslim riots by the military intelligence. The campaign against
"Visit Myanmar Year" was a success. The campaign against "No investment"
under military rule is gaining momentum. Arms embargo, visa restriction
and withdrawal of GSP by EU have impact. New investment sanction imposed
by US is in force. The military regime turned to narcotic business to
survive. SLORC (22) was dissolved by itself. It sacked its own generals.
Power struggle inside them is immense. It is conceivable that soldiers,
like in 1990 election, will turn to the side of people.

* "The Buddha has said that good friendship is one of the greatest gifts
of life. In our struggle for democracy in Burma we need more good friends
- people who cherish freedom and desire to help us gain ours". [U Tin Oo
(23)]

* "But what I do fear is that I would be so weak that I would choose the
easiest way out, lie around in bed all day and read some book on the
collapse of yet another totalitarian regime..." [U Kyi Maung (24)]

* "Burma should be helped at a time when help is needed. And one day we
hope to be ourselves in a position to help others in need". [Aung San Suu
Kyi]


Tint Swe
3-4-98

Footnote:
1 Saya San rebellion
2 Thakin Pho Hla Gyi
3 U Ne Win, U Sein Lwin and Dr. Maung Maung
4 U Pa Pa Lay and U Lu Zaw were sentenced to 7 years on 18-3-96.
5 Radio Free Asia
6 Democratic Voice of Burma
7 the military wing of the ANC's struggle in South Africa
8 Military Intelligence
9 Sanga Maganayaka
10 Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD)
11 Araken League for Democracy (ALD)
12 United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD)
13 Democratic Party of New Society (DPNS)
14 National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB)
15 National League for Democracy (Liberated Area)
16 National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB)
17 Human Rights Documentation Unit (of NCGUB)
18 Political Defiance Committee (PDC)
19 Committee for Non-violence Action in Burma (CNAB)
20 Printed by NLD/LA (West)
21 Produced by CNAB
22 State Law and Order Restoration Council became State Peace and
Development Council on 15-11-97.
23 The Vice-Chair of the National League for Democracy
24 The Vice-Chair of the National League for Democracy