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With the United Nations toothless to compel improvement from the regime, the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has to bring into play silent protests as a measure of breaking the political stalemate.
The military junta of Burma showed no indication of cooperation with the international community in the midst of worldwide pressure for political change even following the bloody crackdown on the Saffron Revolution in September 2007.
Then what of U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari? It is obvious that Gambari's latest six-day mission, from Aug. 18-23, to resolve the political impasse between the military junta and detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came to a complete standstill. His efforts to facilitate conciliatory talks between the junta and the opposition fell apart.
The truth was, Gambari failed to have any meetings with Senior General Than Shwe, which means he obtained no significant message from the junta. The Nobel laureate was to meet with him on Aug. 20, but she did not “show up,” because she did not want to give false hope to the nation. The junta supervised the agenda of the U.N. envoy, exploiting the occasion. Obviously, the lady did not want Gambari to be able to overstate his mission as a success. It was a strong protest against the junta and a clear signal to the people.
After declining to meet Gambari, Aung San Suu Kyi also refused to meet her doctor and Liaison Minister Aung Kyi, who is in charge of mediating with her. She has refused to see anyone except her lawyer, U Kyi Win. Moreover, she has refused food supplies since Aug. 15. She has not accepted food delivered to her home for four weeks. But no one can confirm whether she is on a hunger strike, a question that has remained unanswered.
The lawyer, U Kyi Win, has denied that she is on a hunger strike, saying Aung San Suu Kyi is demonstrating her dissent by living on less food. She is also asking for greater “freedom of movement” for the two women who assist her in domestic work. She has been demanding better conditions for her house arrest, including access to information, deliveries of private mail and monthly visits by her physician.
Her party spokesperson, U Nyan Win, said that she had even asked for permission to have Internet access, but it was undisclosed whether the authorities considered her request. Her requests came in the midst of rare meetings with U Kyi Win to discuss a proper legal course against her unjust confinement.
Some analysts assume there may be some mutual understanding between the authorities and the opposition leader. It seems that the Nobel laureate’s latest protest is being kept as a low-key affair.
The current concern about the limitless incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi and the unlawful arrests of more than 2,100 dissidents in Burma is not merely a question of law and order, but rather one that is challenging the political aspirations of the Burmese people, who are overwhelmingly in favor of change.
Summing up the situation, the lady seems unhappy about not receiving any reply from the regime in response to her suggestions for the reconciliation process that were given to the junta’s liaison officer, Aung Kyi, in previous meetings. She is also protesting to be allowed to enjoy her fundamental legal rights. The Nobel peace prize winner has spent over a decade under house arrest at her dreary, lakeside home in Rangoon, allowed little contact with the outside world. At present, she remains unlawfully detained under Burma’s State Protection Law.
In fact, the junta should terminate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's detention right away because the junta is violating its own law. The law says that the duration of such restriction shall be kept to a minimum and only the most necessary restrictions on fundamental rights shall be implemented. The whole world is concerned about Suu Kyi's detention and has called on the junta to bring the situation back to normal.
In brief, the lady is spotlighting the lack of law and order in the country. Looking back into the recent past, one can see many crimes committed by the military authorities. The most atrocious chapter of contemporary Burmese history is the assassination attempt by the Burmese military junta of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, and her entourage at Dapeyin in northern Burma on May 30, 2003.
The violence committed by the Burmese regime at Dapeyin caused repercussions among the top generals of the junta. According to anonymous military sources, the plot was directly handled by Senior General Than Shwe without prior knowledge of Intelligence Chief General Khin Nyunt or the second-in-command, General Maung Aye. Then, there was also an argument about the incident between Khin Nyunt and Than Shwe. But Than Shwe played the game easily by demoting Khin Nyunt to the post of prime minister.
Eventually, Khin Nyunt was sacked just over a year after he announced the junta's seven-step ''road map to democracy.'' According to some analysts, Khin Nyunt was no democrat, but he was behind the junta's abandoned policy of reconciliation with Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. It was visible evidence that there was a rising division within Burma’s military superiors on how to tackle the question of Aung San Suu Kyi and how to defend the army’s political role in the future Burma.
There has been a rift between the pragmatists, who understand the need for political and economic reform, and the hardliners, who want to hang on to power regardless of the pressure for change from inside and outside of the country. While people believe that Aung San Suu Kyi plays a major role in Burma’s national reconciliation process, the military chief Than Shwe has disregarded the reality.
The lady knows that time is running out. So, her refusal to meet with the U.N. special envoy and the rejection of food supplies may not be a vague message. As she once told others to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, her current lone protest against the junta is a brave call – to stand up against the worst – to the whole nation, including the men in uniform who believe in a pragmatic approach to rebuild the ruined nation.
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(Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist living in exile. He is the information director at the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma-East Office and vice president of Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers. He can be contacted at uzinlinn@gmail.com. ©Copyright Zin Linn)
