Marching for Democracy

LEADER ARTICLE: The Monks Go Marching

29 Sep 2007, 0010 hrs IST , Times of India

John Samuel






YANGON: The city airport can be deceptive. It looks swanky, a brand new gateway to MYANMAR: the new-age airport in a forgotten country. Outside the departure hall another world unfolds — old Toyota cars, very old Ford trucks, and everything else that reminds one of the early fifties. While most of the people in Myanmar are at the receiving end of a society and economy stuck in the 1950s, a few hundred privileged fly every other day to Singapore for shopping, entertainment and to visit their children in elite schools. While the few rich, mostly relatives of the ruling mili-tary junta, drive imported SUVs, most Myanmarese struggle to make enough money to buy food. The New Light of Myanmar is the most 'popular' English newspaper in the country. It too looks like a relic from the 1950s. Everyone subscribes to the New Light because the scrap value of the paper has more worth than the news. The opening line of a recent editorial said a lot about the situation in Myanmar: "Now the nation is in the process of transition to democracy with flourishing discipline..." In the same newspaper, the lead story on September 11 this year was that of General Than Shew felicitating Kim Jong Il of North Korea. The editorial asks every citizen to respect the law and uphold the good habits of a citizen, and live within the framework of community, social and national discipline. A crude piece of propaganda journalism, the New Light exhorts the people to "crush the internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy". The marching monks of Mandalay seem to have violated the "people's desire" and the government is in the business of crushing the "destructive elements". The marching monks of Mandalay signify a new milestone in the history of the struggle for freedom in Myanmar. A new generation of youngsters, who have discovered cyberspace, is getting restless. Government monitors cyber cafes and many websites are blocked. But cyber cafes are full of young people, subverting government controls, learning about and linking with a world outside. There is a sense of suppressed anger among most of them, beneath their courteous smiles. "I no longer have a dream. I want to somehow get out of this place", says a young tourist guide who offered his services for $3 for three hours. He has completed an MBA, speaks impeccable English with a tinge of British accent and earns $80 in a month. His family of three survives on his income. He also has three blogs under three different names. He explains that Buddhism is supposed to be peaceful. "But our patience is running out", he says. He is the representative of a new generation. He does not belong to the older democracy movement; he also does not think that anything will change because of Aung San Suu Kyi or the other politicians. I met a group of young women who exuded a sense of confidence and a resolve that situation will change. None of them seem to be organised by any one leader or party. There is indeed a subterranean current of discontent and seething anger in Yangon, Mandalay and other smaller towns. The present wave of protest is in many ways qualitatively different from the earlier demo-cracy movement. In spite of the heavy censorship, there is a wide and informal network of communication through the Internet, temples and, of course, the monks. Young people seem to be angry about the fact that economic opportunities are denied to them. While Suu Kyi is the most visible symbol of democracy in Myanmar, within the country most young people are disappointed with the old democracy activists as well as with government. A young journalist says, "We need to go beyond these two outdated forces of conformist and useless political parties and that of the oppressive government". The brand new capital at Nei Pi Taw near Yangon, being built at a cost of $4 billion, is out of bounds for common people. A taxi driver tells me that no one can go in or come out without a permit. "The new capital is swanky. They use Chinese money to construct airports and houses by selling our forests and gas to them", he says angrily. He too has a blog. A senior economist tells me at one of the many new restaurants, "We are heading for a crash. This economy cannot simply be maintained. We do not have any data. The market exchange rate for one dollar is 60 times more than the government exchange rate". And 90 per cent of the economy is informal. One of the Indian streets in Yangon is full of people selling and buying dollars. At a dinner invitation, an academic who spent 11 years in jail says, "A political tsunami is on the way. It could destroy the edifice of the generals, shake its foundations and eventually it will fall down". He believes China is more interested in Myanmar's market, forests and gas and not in its people. He adds that India is not bothered about freedom or democracy in Myanmar though the two countries have more than two thousand years of cultural and economic ties. Everyone is waiting for change. But it won't come easily.

The writer is a political commentator.