IndiaPost.com - Latest uprising in Burma should not be allowed to fail

Will history repeat itself in Burma? Will the present agitation also go the 1988 way? The silence emanating from Burma is ominous. The world has to sit up and make sure the repression doesn't kill the spirit of the people of Burma who have risen despite knowing the fate of those who took to the streets 19 years ago. NRIs, including those Indians who left Burma, should mobilize and impress upon the Indian government to revise its strategy of cooperating with the Burmese Generals.

With its tremendous resources and natural wealth, Burma would have been the richest country in the region. It was the rice bowl of Asia. However, by 1987, due to mismanagement by the Generals, Burma's economy had sunk to a level verging on bankruptcy and the UN had conferred on it 'least-developed nation' status. The next year, Burma erupted into a series of demonstrations and strikes protesting the existing extreme political oppression and economic hardships.

The shooting of a student triggered further protests, which gathered pace as the students were joined by ordinary citizens and Burma's much revered monks. Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, was in Rangoon by accident. She had come to attend to her ailing mother. She made a speech at Shwedagon Pagoda and became the public face of the democracy movement. At the ruling Generals order, the soldiers fired into the crowds of protesters killing over 3000. Suu Kyi was honored with the Nobel Prize but has been in jail since the movement was quelled. The world outside felt the uprising was over for good.

But the latest protest demonstrations by the monks show that a limit has been reached to their patience and endurance and a new courage is born among the Burmese people. People were already disgruntled with rising prices when a big, abrupt rise in fuel prices was imposed on them. This time they approached the monks and sought their advice. They told them they could not even give alms to the monks. Monks do not have kitchens. They depend totally on alms and take only one meal a day. Buddhist monks play a central role for people and also for the junta.

The monks felt disturbed and filed out on the streets in protest. Burmese masses by nature are very peaceful, forbearing, pious and without any major ambitions. The goodness of the Burmese people, the over 90 percent literacy and the rich natural resources should be the ideal combination for a prosperous nation. All farmers know how to read and write. There is no dowry system. Women are educated and emancipated. High literacy is due to the compulsory education for all given in monasteries. Before the age of 30 everyone is inducted into the practice of dharma - righteous living - following the four noble truths and the eight-fold path.

Taking advantage of the goodness, the contentment of the people, the Army has been killing its own people, creating hell out of a region destined to be a heaven. The Generals have been worse than Hitler. Hitler was killing Jews. But in Burma, the Junta is killing its own people A case can be made out for a benevolent dictatorship of the kind exercised in Singapore by Lee Kuan Yew. If the dictator here was fair as in Singapore, there would have been no uprising. It is the Chinese Burmese who are aggressive. Although the Chinese officially make up three percent of the population, this figure may be underestimated because of intermarriage between them and the ethnic groups.

The Chinese dominate the Burmese economy, although many enterprises today are co-owned by the military. The Burmese Chinese have a disproportionately large presence in higher education, and make up a high percentage of the educated class in Burma. It is a coincidence that the new uprising has taken place when the United Nations is in session. Appeals have been made to the countries bordering Burma - Thailand, China, India, and Malaysia - to exercise their influence with the Generals to let the people have a say in their own country's governance.

The role of China

The role of China has been the most dubious in its support for the killer Generals of Burma. After the shooting started, China blocked a Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown. With its booming economy and military might on display for the world, the great superpower is frightened of words like democracy and freedom. Any whiff of democracy in the neighborhood is viewed with great concern. It is no secret that the Generals in Burma were able to crush the rebellion with help and guidance from China. Apart from China's huge business, trade interests and secret military bases in Burma, Beijing detests any movement led by the clergy. For who knows this might give ideas to the monks in Tibet to file out of their monasteries and walk silently on the streets of Lhasa.

They could be joined by common Tibetan people moving towards the city centre, demanding freedom and democracy. And it could lead to similar demonstrations in other parts of China. Therefore they are happy to keep the world's most ruthless dictators in power in Burma. There is however a chink in Beijing's armor. As the Economist put it last week, "China must be wondering nervously how all this will affect next year's Olympic games in Beijing.

Already, protests about China's support for the government of Sudan, larded with comparisons to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, have shown that its foreign policy as well as its human-rights record at home is under scrutiny. Myanmar is justifiably a popular cause in the West. If China proves actively obstructive to international efforts to bring the junta to book, it may provoke calls for a boycott of the games." In fact, time is now ripe for people worldwide, particularly the NRIs, to run educational campaigns to explain why the Beijing Olympics should be boycotted. And even trips to China should be cancelled.

The US has clamped sanctions on Burma and the United Nations is bringing pressure on the Burma generals. But international effort should be geared more to pressurizing the Chinese to give up their Machiavellian policies.