Sunday, August 6, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Govt Rejects Allegations of Human Rights Abuses in Rakhine

Posted: 06 Aug 2017 04:56 AM PDT

Myanmar on Sunday rejected allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during a crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State last year, accusing the United Nations of making exaggerated claims in its report on the issue.

Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

A UN report in February said security forces instigated a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. This led to the establishment of a UN probe which is being blocked by Myanmar.

The country's own 13-member investigation team—led by former head of military intelligence and now Vice President, U Myint Swe—has been dismissed by human rights monitors as lacking independence to produce a credible report.

Speaking to reporters gathered in Yangon to conclude its 8-month-long probe, U Myint Swe said the UN report exaggerated the claims and created misunderstanding for the international community.

"There is no possibility of crimes against humanity, no evidence of ethnic cleansing, as per UN accusations," said Myint Swe.

He added that, "some people from abroad have fabricated news claiming genocide had occurred, but we haven't found any evidence."

The panel said that the UN report did not take into consideration "violent acts" committed by the insurgents, instead focusing on the activities of the security forces.

The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Myanmar commission had received 21 reports from villagers of incidents of murder, rape, arson and torture by the security forces, but, unable to verify their veracity, it referred them to the authorities.

"We opened doors for them to complain to the courts if they have evidence that they suffered human rights abuses, but no one came to open a lawsuit until now," Zaw Myint Pe, the secretary of the panel, said.

The commission blamed the violence on the insurgents, accusing them of links to organizations abroad, "set up to destabilize and harm Myanmar."

The treatment of the roughly one million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar's most contentious rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

The post Govt Rejects Allegations of Human Rights Abuses in Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Translation of Lintner’s ‘Outrage’ Sheds Light on ’88 for Myanmar Readers

Posted: 06 Aug 2017 03:14 AM PDT

In June 2013, The Irrawaddy covered the release of a Burmese language translation of Bertil Lintner's "Outrage: Burma's Struggle for Democracy," marking an opportunity for young people to learn about the 1988 pro-democracy uprising beyond more informal oral accounts. This year, to mark the 29th anniversary of the movement, The Irrawaddy revisits the anticipation surrounding the publication of this text.

RANGOON — Over the last two decades, any young Burmese who wanted to learn about the historic 1988 popular uprising that nearly toppled the country's dictatorship was hard-pressed to do so.

One way would have been to Google it, but for most of the Internet age in Burma, there was nothing easy or convenient about accessing information via the search engine giant. The snail's pace of the country's Internet connection was one hurdle to overcome, and use of proxy servers—one of the only ways to access censored exile media and other content related to the 1988 democracy protests—required technical know-how.

For many from younger generations, oral accounts from those involved in the uprising were the most credible and accessible. The events of 1988 took on an almost ahistorical quality; the stuff of fables and favorite bedtime stories.

But now, with the release of a Burmese-language translation of "Outrage: Burma's Struggle for Democracy" inside the country this month, another curtain has been pulled back.

Penned by Bertil Lintner, a veteran journalist who has written six books on Burma, the tome covers the period leading up to the nationwide pro-democracy movement, widely known as the '88 Uprising, which broke out on Aug. 8, 1988, and in ensuing weeks saw the Burmese military brutally crack down on the protests, killing several thousand peaceful demonstrators.

"I've just made the most of the country's ongoing democratic transition and the demise of literary censorship," said Lwin Oo, the Burmese publisher of the book, adding that he didn't dare publish a book like "Outrage" five years ago, when the oppressive military regime was in power and its draconian press scrutiny board was active.

Lwin Oo said he published the book in honor of the students and other pro-democracy activists who were involved in the uprising, many of whom sacrificed their lives or lost years to political imprisonment.

Coincidently, the book hits shelves as political activists in the country are gearing up to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the uprising in August of this year.

"I really appreciate the publisher's effort to make the book see the light of day in advance of the '88 Silver Jubilee," said Jimmy, a member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society (formerly known as the 88 Generation Students group), an activist group made up of former students who were actively involved in the uprising.

The author Lintner, for years banned from entering Burma due to his coverage of the country, told The Irrawaddy via e-mail that he was glad Burmese readers would have the chance to learn about the historic protests in their native tongue.

"It's very important that the young generation gets to know what happened in their country 25 years ago," he said.

"The 1988 uprising changed Burma forever, and is an important event in Burmese history that should not be forgotten," the former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent added.

In the wake of the '88 Uprising and government crackdown that followed, thousands of students fled to border areas. Some sought shelter at the Swedish journalist's home in Bangkok, giving him a chance to widely discuss the events with dissidents who would sleep in his living room, according to his new introduction to the Burmese printing of "Outrage." Lintner also interviewed more than 100 Burmese refugees in Thai-Burmese border camps.

"The people who told me their stories were the major drivers to write 'Outrage,'" the 60-year-old journalist recalled.

"I felt I had to give them a voice, to let them tell others what they had been through. The book is based entirely on first-hand accounts of the events of 1988," he added.

In the acknowledgements of "Outrage," Bertil writes that he was frequently told by Burmese people during his research for the book that he should "tell it as we saw it," since the junta in Rangoon was actively working to re-write history in the wake of the uprising. Lintner said he had followed "this advice as much as possible."

"I'll leave it up to the readers to decide which account of the events of 1988 is the most accurate," he said.

The publisher Lwin Oo said he chose "Outrage" for its vivid portrayal of the uprising and the credibility of its author.

"Every time I read the book, I can visualize the scenes, and I feel I am in 1988 again," he said.

"Another thing is that Bertil knows Burma and its people very well. He is one of the people who made the '88 Uprising internationally well known."

The Burmese publisher said Lintner did much to help make the Burmese translation possible, granting publishing permission, providing pictures and asking for nothing in terms of royalty payments.

"Because I felt it was more important that the book was published in Burmese, for Burmese people, than for me to earn some royalties from it," Lintner said.

Meanwhile, another book by the journalist, "The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma," has also been translated into Burmese and is now being serialized in The Voice daily newspaper. Lintner told The Irrawaddy that it will be published as a full book later this year.

"One day I would also like to see a Burmese translation of 'Land of Jade,' which I think would help the Burmese people to get a better understanding of what is happening, and what has happened, in the country's frontier areas," he said.

The post Translation of Lintner's 'Outrage' Sheds Light on '88 for Myanmar Readers appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

U Phyo Min Thein Under Fire Over YBS Deal with China

Posted: 06 Aug 2017 03:03 AM PDT

YANGON — Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's first major infrastructure project could hardly be more visible—hundreds of new yellow buses now plying the streets of Yangon in what her ruling party hopes will be a potent symbol of how it is transforming peoples' lives.

But two deals to import 2,000 buses from China estimated at more than US$100 million have caused an unusual rift within her National League for Democracy (NLD), with regional lawmakers questioning its cost and accusing Yangon's chief minister U Phyo Min Thein, a Daw Aung San Suu Kyi protégé, of cronyism and a lack of accountability.

"U Phyo Min Thein's government lacks transparency," said U Kyaw Zay Ya, a Yangon NLD lawmaker. "The image of the government will be damaged if he doesn't change."

The deal, struck with Chinese companies and a businessman with ties to the junta that ruled Myanmar for decades, has also soured relations with the West, according to diplomats.

While there is no evidence that any laws were broken in the awarding of the contracts, Roland Kobia, the EU ambassador to Myanmar, complained in a private letter to Commerce Minister U Than Myint of a lack of transparency in public procurements.

"Currently, the domestic economy remains dominated by a small number of domestic and regional actors whose long-standing practices prevent fair competition," Kobia wrote in the June dated letter, seen by Reuters. The letter did not specifically refer to the bus deal.

Although the Chinese buses were about half the price of international rivals, engineers who inspected them for Myanmar predict that they will wear out and need to be replaced far sooner than the international standard.

U Phyo Min Thein declined several interview requests from Reuters. He and other ministers have previously defended the deal, saying the government-to-government agreement with China offered a discount price and express delivery.

EU ambassador Kobia said in a statement in response to Reuters' questions that "many European actors stand ready to work in Myanmar, but more needs to be done to give them a fair chance to compete for contracts."

He was referring to the broader issue of transparency in public procurements, the EU said.

Myanmar's commerce ministry spokesman Khin Maung Lwin declined to comment.

When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi swept to power in an electoral landslide in 2015, analysts predicted Western companies, whose government's had cheered on the transition to democracy in the Southeast Asian nation that began in 2011, would flock to the country.

But the Yangon bus deal underscores that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's backers in the West have grown disillusioned as Myanmar increasingly prefers to do business with China.

In a Hurry

U Phyo Min Thein, a charismatic 48-year-old who spent about 15 years behind bars for opposing the junta, likes to tell people he has no more time to waste.

His bid to overhaul Yangon's antiquated transit system offers Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party one of its first opportunities to tangibly improve the lives of more than two million commuters in a city that overwhelmingly voted for the NLD at the last election.

Yangon officials last year rejected a proposal to improve the transit network from the World Bank's investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, due to differences over the details of the plan, which required detailed traffic monitoring and an open tender process.

Initial talks with potential French and Dutch suppliers also came to nothing, because they could not deliver the number of buses with the speed the chief minister was demanding, diplomats and lobbyists involved said.

Instead Yangon Bus Public Company (YBPC), a public-private joint venture majority-owned by the city government, bought 1,000 buses from two Chinese suppliers picked by Beijing's ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang.

Another 1,000 buses were bought from a third Chinese company in a private deal by businessman Kyaw Ne Win, a grandson of former junta leader Ne Win.

There was no public tender or debate in the regional legislature before the deals were agreed.

"Yes, people can say that there's no transparency," said YBPC chairman Maung Aung. "But calling a tender is not necessarily better. The deal was struck to maintain good relations between the two countries."

China the Deal Maker

Under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—whose status as darling of the West has been tarnished over allegations of atrocities by security forces against the Rohingya Muslim minority—China and Myanmar have sought to repair ties strained when a previous semi-civilian government blocked a China-backed dam project in 2011.

On a trip to China in September, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed how Myanmar could take advantage of China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure investment programme, according to a senior official in Myanmar's President's office.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said there were some concerns in Myanmar about the quality of Chinese products, prompting Xi to propose the Chinese embassy could help find the best suppliers, said a senior official from a Chinese company involved in the deal.

The cost of the vehicles was set at $56,000 each and deal was signed on April 11. Two months later the chosen firms, state-run Anhui Ankai Automobil Co Ltd and Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co, had each delivered 500 yellow buses.

Privately-owned Zhengzhou Yutong is led by Yuxiang Tang, a member of China's National People's Congress.

The criteria under which the two firms were selected is not known, although Maung Aung said provincial Chinese governments where the two firms are based had given guarantees of quality.

Both Ankai and Yutong did not respond to requests for comments.

Such arrangements were "very rare," said the manager at one of the selected Chinese makers, because "in other countries, there usually is a tender process and we need to follow related regulations".

The Chinese embassy in Yangon did not respond to requests for comment.

Value for Money?

While an improvement on the 40-year-old unairconditioned vehicles in which long-suffering Yangon commuters have sweltered for years, Soe Aung, an engineer who inspected the Chinese buses for Myanmar before purchase, acknowledged they were of lower quality than European or Japanese alternatives, which he estimated would have cost around twice as much.

"This project is only for five years," said Soe Aung, adding that the vehicles would be worn out with daily use over that timeframe.

Officials say after that they will be replaced with electric vehicles, but some critics regard that as unrealistic in a country with an acute shortage of power that is not expected to be solved for at least a decade.

Western experts in public transport procurement say the average lifespan of buses would typically be more than twice that.

"It seems inefficient to me to be introducing a new technology, while planning a replacement technology in such a short time period," said Robert Marshall, global director of planning and landscape at consulting firm B+H Architects.

Unanswered Questions

When regional MPs approved 70 billion kyat ($51.5 million) for the project in December, they could only vote for "money for transportation."

After the contract was signed in April, some lawmakers complained that questions on financing, the business plan and how the buses were chosen were dodged or went unanswered.

Myint Thaung, Yangon region's minister of planning and finance, declined to provide more details to Reuters on how the deal was financed.

The involvement of Kyaw Ne Win, whose grandfather led Myanmar's ruling junta until 1988, has particularly incensed some NLD lawmakers.

Opponents say it smacks of the cronyism under the junta, when lucrative contracts were routinely doled out to a small group of well-connected businessmen.

The junta leader scion bought the buses from Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd—another Chinese state-owned company, but declined to discuss the details of the deal.

Beiqi Foton did not respond to a request to comment.

The deal, which will make Kyaw Ne Win the city's largest bus operator, was "simple and straightforward", he said, adding he wanted to "provide good service for the people of Yangon."

The post U Phyo Min Thein Under Fire Over YBS Deal with China appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Protesting Nationalist Monks Arrested in Mandalay

Posted: 06 Aug 2017 01:16 AM PDT

YANGON— Following the government's early-morning Saturday raid on an anti-government protest camp in Mandalay set up by nationalist monks and laymen, six out of eight leading monks have been detained and charged with "Offence against the State or the Public Tranquility"—a Penal Code article punishable by two years' imprisonment.

Mandalay Regional Police Force said eight leading monks and five laypersons had been on an arrest warrant since Friday but only six monks were arrested during Saturday's raid, the rest are still at large.

The regional Police Chief Aung Soe Win told local media the police are "in pursuit" of the other individuals.

Several dozen nationalist monks and laymen had camped near Maha Muni Pagoda in Mandalay and the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon since Wednesday afternoon, calling for the government to step down as it has failed to protect national interests and security.

Rather than attracting support, the protestors' calls earned public condemnation for inflaming nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment derailing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led government's reform process in the country.

A nationalist shouts at local residents in Yangon on Saturday as they shut down the anti-government protest camp near Shwedagon Pagoda. (Photo: Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy)

On Saturday afternoon, Mandalay Chief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maug said during a press conference on the raid that the government had carried out the clearance operation "according to legal procedures." Eleven monks and two women were arrested in Mandalay on Saturday.

"The reason behind their protest is not solid. We told them several times to disperse for what they were doing is unlawful. But our warnings fell on deaf ears," he told reporters.

He added that the protestors had committed crimes covered by "several other charges," but they have been charged with 505(b) of the Penal Code as the government wanted to tackle the situation as peacefully as possible.

The chief minister said he suspected there was someone behind the protests who wanted to "destabilize" the country, but said it was difficult to find out who.

Around 4 p.m. on Saturday in Yangon, when seven nationalist monks and about 30 supporters announced that they shut down their camp temporarily, local residents clapped in jubilation. The protestors shouted back with obscenities.

When asked how long they would postpone the protest, the nationalists failed to answer. "We protest because we want to criticize the government we love," said one of the leading monks.

It's not clear if Yangon protestors will be prosecuted with similar charges to their Mandalay counterparts.

The post Protesting Nationalist Monks Arrested in Mandalay appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

In 1988, A Brief Renaissance for Myanmar’s Journalists

Posted: 05 Aug 2017 10:57 PM PDT

On the 29th anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising of 1988, The Irrawaddy revisits this 2013 article revealing a silver lining of the demonstrations, despite the brutal crackdown which was to follow: a brief return of press freedom to a country that had been muzzled by a literary censorship system for 26 years.

RANGOON — Hmyar Ni still remembers how his nearly 10-member editorial team crowded around a small attic in Burma's biggest city to write articles and lay out his daily newspaper, Our Cause, 25 years ago.

It was late August 1988, several days after the government brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protesters trying to topple then-dictator Gen Ne Win's regime. Outside the newspaper bureau, the streets of downtown Rangoon had ground to a halt, as the country trembled with the people's determination to oust a dictator who had oppressed them since 1962.

The days were chaotic but had a silver lining: a brief return of press freedom to a country that had been muzzled by a literary censorship system for the past 26 years. Newshounds like Hmyar Ni and his friends ventured out to report and publish independent newspapers, taking advantage of the government's inability to restore Burma to normalcy.

Starting around mid-August 1988, newspaper boys hawked morning and evening papers featuring photographs and accounts of ongoing demonstrations against the Burmese authoritarian government. Some editions were handwritten and then photocopied or mimeographed, while others were professionally printed.

"As far as I'm concerned, there may have been more than three dozen dailies and weeklies like us at that time in Rangoon" the 64-year old Hmyar Ni said.

It was the first return of privately owned daily news publications in modern Burmese history, long before the resurrection of today's private dailies in April with permission from the quasi-civilian government. The Southeast Asian country had lost freedom of expression after the 1962 coup, when Ne Win shut down nearly two dozen private papers and established a draconian censorship board to ban anything that would disgrace his government.

The resurrection of independent publications in 1988 was short lived, however. The newspapers published only from mid-August to Sept.18, when a new military government came to power.

"We just grabbed the chance we had at the time," said 77-year-old Maung Moe Thu, editor of the Warazein news weekly, which lasted four weeks. "We enjoyed freedom of expression during that short period because there was no longer censorship."

His weekly was in broadsheet format, while other editors opted for tabloids. Like many newspapers at the time, his paper sought to oppose dictatorship by covering ongoing democracy movements across the country. Sales soared as the public heartily welcomed a chance to learn more about the demonstrations.

"Any move against the government became news," Hmyar Ni from Our Cause daily said with a laugh. "Everyone became reporters overnight because they were always calling to give us information."

Win Tin, a veteran journalist and co-founder of the country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said the 1988 newspapers became "voices of the 88 Uprising" by documenting the wishes of the public. He added that some entrepreneurial editors made lucrative businesses from the brief return of press freedom, referring to newspapers that published graphic photographs and unethical stories about the demonstrations.

"As a whole, you could hear people's voices and find out how much they disliked the government in those papers," he said. "It was the first time they could unleash their anger."

Mandalay, the second-biggest city in Burma, also saw a boom of independent newspapers. Hsu Nget, a Mandalay-based writer, recalls that nearly 30 privately owned papers hit newsstands in the city. Among them was the Four-Eights daily—named after the 8/8/88 uprising, or the 88 Uprising—where he worked as an editor.

"People had a hunger for news," he said. "They really wanted to know what was happening, and where. They had to rely on Burmese services from the BBC or VOA [Voice of America], but at that time not everyone could afford to buy a radio, so they turned to our newspapers."

Among those who embraced the brief return of press freedom were journalists from the government's six daily newspapers, which usually served as propaganda tools for the state. Several days after the country took to the streets on Aug. 8, journalists at these papers restored their first loyalty to the public.

"We publicly announced that we had left behind censorship and were now with the Burmese people," said Ko Ko Gyi, who was then editing The Mirror daily, one of the state-run papers. "We told them to wait and see tomorrow's paper."

They kept their promise, with full coverage the next day of demonstrations across the country. When Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her first public appearance at an open ground near Shwedagon Pagoda's western stairway on Aug. 25, Ko Ko Gyi allocated a spot on his front page for the story.

The press freedom came to an abrupt end on Sept. 18. At 4 pm that day, a male announcer on the state-run Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) proclaimed that "in order to bring a timely halt to deteriorating conditions all over the country. … in the interests of the people, the defense forces have assumed all power in the state, effective from today." The broadcaster's regular programs were then interrupted by strident martial music.

With news of the military coup, nearly all independent newspapers quickly shut down their operations for fear of retribution. Editors burned the draft layouts they had prepared for the next day's papers and went into hiding. Photojournalists looked for secret places to stash away the negatives of photographs that had captured historic moments from the previous month.

Soldiers arrived at The Mirror's bureau in downtown Rangoon at 2 am on Sep 19.

"They stormed into our office to confiscate dummies for the next day's paper and seal the office," Ko Ko Gyi said. "Then they kicked us out!"

Shortly after the generals in olive green uniforms came to power, military intelligence officers combed through the country to arrest anyone who had been involved in publishing the newspapers. But to people's surprise, the journalists were only detained temporarily for interrogation.

"To the best of my knowledge, people weren't seriously punished for publishing the newspapers," Hmyar Ni said. "For my paper, only a few senior editors were taken away for questioning. They were released very soon." He himself was spared from detention.

Ko Ko Gyi was not so fortunate. He was arrested three days after the coup and taken to an interrogation center, where he spent the next 20 days. Upon his release, he was forced to retire from his job. He was 54 years old, or six years shy of official retirement.

Now 77, the veteran journalist doesn't seem remorseful about the decisions he made more than two decades ago.

"I'm proud of what I did," he told The Irrawaddy.

"For me, it was the time when we suddenly saw a flash of light after 26 years of darkness."

The post In 1988, A Brief Renaissance for Myanmar's Journalists appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Lessons of ‘88’

Posted: 05 Aug 2017 08:53 PM PDT

In 2013, journalist Dominic Faulder looked back at lessons that could be learned from the "failed pro-democracy movement of 1988," then 25 years earlier. The Irrawaddy revisits the article once again, as the country marks the 29th anniversary of the nationwide protests. 

In 1988, Myanmar hosted some of the largest demonstrations in recorded history. These began officially on Aug. 8, the supposedly auspicious "8/8/88" in a country run by "retired" generals, numerologists and soothsayers. Although Myanmar's political volcano had been rumbling for at least a year, the world was still caught unawares by the sudden tumult in a country that had essentially been forgotten. Foreign press access was minimal. The story then got knocked off the world's top slot when the C-130 Hercules carrying Pakistan's president, Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, mysteriously fell out of the sky on Aug. 17.

The failed 8/8/88 rebellion lasted nearly six weeks. It followed 26 years of bizarre and xenophobic misrule by strongman Gen Ne Win. Late that year, when there was still some lingering hope of change, an old Asia hand predicted it would take at least as long to put right the damage the old general had wrought. As we look back from 25 years on, that prediction has turned out to be grimly true. A quarter century down the road, can any lessons be learned from the failures of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement in 1988?

Size Does Not Matter

The large early demonstrations in Yangon, a city of well over 3 million at the time, mobilized virtually the entire populace of the capital. Although Myanmar was not a country with large population centers, there were similar scenes in smaller cities, including the northern capital of Mandalay, with a population of over 800,000. Given the terrible communications and transport infrastructure, the size of these protests was all the more remarkable. Indeed, one of the worst individual incidents of bloodshed followed a demonstration around a police station in Sagaing near Mandalay, a lightly populated area famous for its mist-shrouded hilltop temples.

In the second half of August and the first half of September, Yangon continued to see large, well-organized marches on a daily basis. Students, workers, civil servants, nurses, monks, nuns, schoolchildren, secret policemen, air force personnel—just about everybody who could gather behind a banner and march the streets did so, airing well justified grievances. After decades of locked-down frustration, the demonstrations were initially cathartic but of diminishing marginal value. Toward the end, there was some violence that included the beheading of up to 50 vagrants, possibly the work of provocateurs. There was also some looting. With such huge, largely peaceful turnouts, however, it was inconceivable that calls for meaningful change could be ignored—but they were.

Unfocused Grievances

Myanmar's economy was moribund, there was widespread unemployment and education led nowhere. Everything from fuel to rice was in short supply, and anything manufactured, be it an aspirin or instant coffee, had to be obtained on the black market. The most resource-rich country in Southeast Asia was an economic and social shambles. It had humiliatingly been compelled to apply for "least developed country" status with the United Nations to receive aid.

When everybody has so much reason to complain, one of the biggest challenges becomes the triage of issues: finding the overlaps among all the problems that must be addressed most urgently and to best effect. In Myanmar's case, the situation was made even more complicated by over a dozen low-intensity ethnic insurgencies which had continued to deny the central government in Yangon control of any of its frontier areas.

Thanks largely to Gen Ne Win, the military had a dismal track record on reform and utter contempt for technocrats and educated people in general. The emerging opposition was meanwhile inchoate and, not surprisingly, completely inexperienced in government. In the event, the brutal military backlash on Sept. 18, which installed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) of Snr-Gen Saw Maung, ensured nothing was really tackled beyond the immediate unrest. The military simply hunkered back down, again ignored critical opinion at home and abroad, and heaped blame on anyone but themselves.

Lack of Coherent Opposition

Within days of 8/8/88, the protests had at least achieved the removal of "Butcher" Sein Lwin, the man who replaced Gen Ne Win at the end of July as head of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and who also became president. Gen Sein Lwin was followed by a more conciliatory interim figure, Dr. Maung Maung, a lawyer and academic who had also served as Gen Ne Win's hagiographer.

Although many consider this to have been a cynical play for time by the Ne Win clique intended to allow troublesome poppies to grow tall, Dr. Maung Maung at least talked of democratic reforms and staging multi-party elections. But so had Gen Ne Win when he ostensibly stepped aside. Dr. Maung Maung lifted martial law, and there was a window of a month while the demonstrations carried on. A credible, unified opposition failed to emerge despite much talk of forming an interim government. There was also a call in early September for Dr. Maung Maung to step aside. Given Myanmar's modern history and the Ne Win government's intolerance of any organized structure, even the Buddhist Sangha, the failure of the opposition to come up with a viable alternative was to be expected.

Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was then a political neophyte who only appeared after the August uprising was under way. Moving from a standing start, she had her father's great name but no personal experience or political machine to back her. Indeed, her National League for Democracy (NLD) was only formed after the SLORC's coup. Brig-Gen Aung Gyi, whose critical letters to Gen Ne Win had stirred public discontent, was the NLD's first chairman. However, he still saw some value in the military and soon split off with his own party.

Workers had sufficient awareness to mobilize a general strike but not to take matters beyond that. Students were the core agitators and organizers, with inspirational leaders such as Min Ko Naing, the "Conqueror of Kings," but they could not find a suitable umbrella figure or movement to lock in behind and get to the next level.

All these players were certainly well aware of the dangers of a fragmented opposition, but still failed to somehow link up and accommodate each other in a bigger frame. In early September, it was U Nu, the prime minister ousted by Gen Ne Win in 1962, who sensed something had to be done and made a move. He reassembled the remnants of his old cabinet and declared himself to still be Myanmar's legitimate premier. Although this made him popular with some workers and students, it alarmed the military and caught other opposition figures off guard, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Brig-Gen Aung Gyi and Gen Tin Oo—who was actually in U Nu's party at the time.

A man who had always muddled his devout Buddhism with politics, U Nu was traumatized by the violence surrounding SLORC's appearance. He later admitted to being impetuous, but his real error may have been doing the right thing the wrong way. U Nu continued to reconvene his cabinet in a garden room at his home, even though many of his ministers were long dead and attended in spirit only, literally.

In late September the junta, to its rare credit, endorsed the five-man election commission created by Dr. Maung Maung. Over 400 parties applied for registration in the following months. This staggering number was rightly reduced to about a dozen eligible for participation, of which only the NLD and the National Unity Party (NUP), which replaced the BSPP, really counted. With Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, the NLD under the leadership of a cashiered colonel, U Kyi Maung, effectively countered the fragmentation problem and won a landslide election victory in May 1990, trouncing the NUP.

This free and fair election was subsequently ignored by the military. It was clear evidence of how hopelessly the generals continued to misjudge the mood of the people, but amply demonstrated the value of calm focus. By 1990, people had come to realize that the paramount issue was getting a competent government in place, and that all other matters must follow from there.

Democracy is a Beacon, not a Light Bulb

One of the great myths propagated by the West and its media is that democracy produces better governments. In recent decades, one need look no further than Australia, Cambodia, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Italy, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States or Venezuela to see that perfectly free and fair elections can produce perfectly rotten governments—which is exactly why elections are so valuable. The great gift of democracy is not the guarantee of electing a better government; it is the power it gives the electorate to vote out a bad one in a peaceful, orderly manner. The Catch 22, however, is that a bad government will often not allow itself to be dismissed in a decent and transparent process. Indeed, SLORC's disinclination to honor the 1990 election result is one of the best examples of this.

For many people, particularly in the Middle East at the moment, political change without pain is an elusive luxury. Even in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the notion of a loyal democratic opposition has yet to take seed in any of the 10 member countries—although Thailand and the Philippines might wish to dispute such an assertion. People rightly point out that Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyitaw has badly flawed democratic credentials, particularly with its military block vote. But the inclusion of the NLD as an opposition force with a legal platform is a major first step along a difficult road. The NLD's presence can be built upon and refined as it reconstructs itself. The tough process the NLD confronts of moving across from hectoring dissidence to productive political involvement is something outsiders should critique very cautiously and not condemn.

Gen Ne Win is no longer around to blame. It is not saying much at all, but at the end of the day this is the most democratic government Myanmar has had in over five decades. There is no mileage in lamenting that all this did not get going sooner. Maybe the greatest lesson of 8/8/88 is how easy it is to have all the moral high ground yet go nowhere.

Dominic Faulder is a British journalist based in Thailand who has covered Burma/Myanmar since 1981. He was a special correspondent with the Hong Kong newsweekly Asiaweek until the magazine's closure in 2001.

This story first appeared in the August 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

The post Lessons of '88' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Can the Forces of ’88 Come to the Fore

Posted: 05 Aug 2017 07:41 PM PDT

Marking the 25th anniversary in 2013 of the 8888 Uprising, The Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe and fellow 88 activists reflect on how far Myanmar had come, and its future challenges—many of which are still unresolved today.

YANGON — Twenty-five years on, are we now on the road to democracy that we hoped to attain through peaceful demonstrations on the streets in 1988? The answer, I think, is still not clear. It depends on all of us, the Burmese people.

Of course, we have reached a political phase today that never seemed possible until a couple years ago, when the former military regime handed power to a quasi-civilian government. The country's nationwide uprising, known as the "Four Eights" democracy movement, is being commemorated this week, with the Silver Jubilee on Thursday.

For three days, starting on Tuesday, activists from the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society have held a commemorative event, with leading members of ethnic armed groups, former political prisoners, social workers, scholars and many more people coming together to openly discuss once-taboo issues inside the country for the first time. We cannot deny that this marks an unprecedented step in the reform process.

"For this anniversary of the 88 movement, it is quite significant that we can all reunite here again," said Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent leader of the 88 Uprising and a leading member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society.

It's true. Before the reforms, I would have never been able to participate in an outspoken and thought-provoking discussion with Ko Ko Gyi, one of my inmates back in the 1990s at the notorious Insein Prison, and another close activist friend, Min Zin, as we did this week for an episode of the "Dateline Irrawaddy" program at my office in downtown Rangoon.

Ko Ko Gyi and I were both arrested in December 1991 after taking part in a student demonstration in Rangoon. I spent eight years in prison before my release, and he was freed 10 years after that. Min Zin and I, as high school students, organized political activities together in 1989. The last time we met in Rangoon was that year on July 19, the Martyrs' Day holiday, when the military forcibly dispersed our peaceful demonstration.

"The 88 Uprising was a wide, colorful picture," Ko Ko Gyi said, visualizing the pro-democracy movement 25 years ago. Those who took part have since entered a diverse range of fields, as politicians, journalists, businesspeople, ethnic rebel leaders and even soldiers.

"I'm in the political field and you're in the media sector, while Min Zin is pursuing a PhD," Ko Ko Gyi said during our roundtable discussion. Min Zin is a PhD student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where I also studied journalism years ago.

We certainly feel fortunate to join this jubilee together with our former inmates and colleagues. But we also realize that we cannot achieve justice for many other friends who perished over the past two and a half decades in prison or at war in the jungle, fighting for their political beliefs.

Justice must be an important part of this reform process, but it will depend on the willingness of former military generals and our own efforts.

Ko Ko Gyi said that to truly promote reform, those who took part in the 1988 movement should collaborate and contribute to the rebuilding of the nation from each of their respective fields.

"We have to admit that the country is going through the motions of reform. But we need to try harder to achieve the essence of reform," he said. "The 2008 Constitution and the 2010 elections were one sided, controlled by the former military regime. Certainly the current political situation is not what we expected. On those grounds, we are trying to make this process inclusive."

Min Zin who is a contributor to The Irrawaddy and other international publications, including the Foreign Policy blog, thinks the playing field in Burma has never been fair.

"Because wealth, power, institutions and so on in the nation have always been monopolized by the rulers and their close associates, the underdogs have faced a disadvantage," he said.

"During the 88 demonstration, we 88 generation students received lunch boxes from people who donated with the expectation of achieving democracy. I don't think we have paid back the debt of those lunch boxes.

"Twenty-five years later, I think our generation should pay back this debt and the next generation should reap the rewards. … As long as the military is involved in politics, there will be students and monks who get involved in politics. I think this should end, and we should try to achieve reconciliation in a genuine way."

Min Zin urged people from all institutions, including the military, to practice their respective professions. In Burma, the military has been involved in politics since 1962, when Gen Ne Win took power, and its key role in politics has been guaranteed by the current 2008 Constitution. This is a major problem—and the reason why Burma has derailed. On the other hand, nobody can deny that the military is the main institution in this reform process.

To bring about real democracy, Burma needs strong leadership. Our country has lacked capable leaders at critical junctures in the past, including when we gained independence from the British in 1948, after the national hero Gen Aung San was assassinated. Burma was missing a strong leader then, and we are in the same situation now. Ko Ko Gyi said, "To attain national reconciliation, we need capable men and women who can narrow the gap between the military and civil society and also reduce ethnic conflicts."

Twenty-five years have passed. Nothing concrete has been achieved. We find ourselves in a reform process, but one important question still lingers: Who will benefit? Burma is changing, but is it changing for all of us, Burma's people, or just for a select handful of the elite?

The post Can the Forces of '88 Come to the Fore appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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