TURBULENT YEARS TAKE TOLL ON DEMOCRACY ADVOCATES
Letter From Burma (No. 6)
13.7.97
MAINICHI DAILY NEWS
Aung San Suu KyiDuring periods of transition there are usually a number of victims. The turbulent years since 1988 have been particularly hard on those who have been at the forefront of the democratic movement. The latest victim was U Tin Shwe of Monywa, a member of the Central Committee of the National League for Democracy (NLD). A lawyer and a writer, his involvement in politics went back to the days when he was a university student. It was natural that he should have been one of the vanguards in the founding of a party that knitted together many different movements aimed at creating a democratic society in Burma.
U Tin Shwe played a leading role in the election campaign of 1990, although he decided not to contest as a prospective member of Parliament. The resounding success of the NLD in those election days owed much to people like him who worked tirelessly, without thought of personal gain, for a cause in which they believed strongly.
It was during the disillusioning months that followed the elections that U Tin Shwe was arrested and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. At the time of his arrest at the end of 1990, U Tin Shwe was a healthy man entering the 61st year of his life. Conditions in the prisons of Burma are such that even a robust young man cannot manage to keep his physical health intact after a couple of years. Despite the food and medicine sent in by his family to supplement the atrocious prison diet, for a man of U Tin Shwe's age, six years of the prison regime was more than enough to bring on life threatening diseases.
By April 1997 U Tin Shwe was suffering from a heart condition which was so serious his family asked that he should be allowed to receive treatment in the Rangoon General Hospital. The authorities did not accede to this request. The chairman of the NLD then wrote to the chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to urge that U Tin Shwe be allowed proper medical treatment and to point out that should anything untoward befall U Tin Shwe, the authorities would have to be held responsible. That the SLORC sent no reply to this letter was hardly a surprise. Neither was it altogether a surprise when U Tin Shwe died on June 6, 1997, of a heart attack in his cell at Insein Jail.
U Tin Shwe's death is a great loss to those who wish to see Burma progress towards intellectual and political freedom. This loss is part of the price that we have to pay in making the painful transition from an authoritarian to a liberal society. Some might question whether there is any evidence that we are making such a transition at all. Where are the signs to indicate that there is a loosening of the iron grip of military rule?
It is indeed difficult to find any tangible evidence of a liberal trend on the part of the authorities. However, there has been wrought in the minds of the vast majority of the people of Burma an unshakable conviction that change is absolutely necessary if we are to achieve progress and stability. That mental transition is the most important one of all. It is the beginning of new era of perception which opens the doors to parts of practical institutional changes towards a new society.
This perception is based to a large extent on an awareness that a dangerous elitism has emerged in Burma over the last nine years. Ours has traditionally been a casteless society without any insuperable barriers between different classes. The gap between the haves and have-nots was never one beyond the conquest of energetic, enterprising individuals. However in recent years, there has been an enormous widening of the space that divides the privileged few from the rest of the population. People have learned that without the right connections it is well nigh impossible to profit from the economic opportunities that became available since the collapse of the Burma Socialist Programme Party Government.
Of course a mental transition that recognizes the need for change is not enough by itself. Practical steps have to taken to transform the political and economic climate in our country. Then we shall see the real transition from repression to freedom, from fear to security.
Aung San Suu Kyi
