Aung San Kuu Kyi: A “Dissident†Speaks

by PARMINDER S. BHOGAL

Delivering this year’s BBC Reith Lecture, Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader in Burma, described herself as a “dissident†and a “democracy activist†who was not merely thinking of “replacing one government with another†or “simply agitating for particular changes in the system†, but one who was “working and living for a cause that was the sum of the aspirations of our people which are not, after all, so very different from the aspirations of the people elsewhere†.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of General Aung San, the legendary Burmese leader of anti-colonial struggle, has been in the forefront of the pro-democracy movement ever since she returned to Burma in 1988 after marrying and living abroad, quietly, for a good number of years. For almost twentyseven years she has been providing a firm and relentless leadership to the movement in Burma even at great personal cost. All the regime’s repression and her incarceration in jail and in her own home for a good number of years have failed to make any dent in her determination. The pro-democracy movement is now indeed identified with her persona, making her the symbol of people’s hope and aspirations and their determined fight for freedom and democracy in their country.

Recounting her beginnings on the path to dissent, she mentions having read an auto-biography Seven Years Solitary, of a Hungarian woman during the Communist Party purges of the early 1950s. “At 13 years old, I was fascinated by the determination and ingenuity with which one woman alone was able to keep her mind sharp and her spirit unbroken through the years when her only human contact was with men whose everyday preoccupation was to try to break her.â€

Back home, she found her hapless people being mauled and massacred by the military dictators. Now the since-dormant ‘dissident’ in her woke up and she, resembling her father General Aung San, suddenly found herself in the forefront of a huge movement of people protesting against the military government and demanding the restoration of democracy and civil liberties. Addressing a huge gathering of protesting people in 1988 in Rangoon she declared, echoing her late father’s words:

We must make democracy the popular creed. We must try to build up a free Burma in accordance with such a creed…. Democracy is the only ideology which is consistent with freedom. It is also an ideology that promotes and strengthen peace.

Since its independence Burma has remained plagued with ethnic issues which her late father tried to address, and called the historic ‘Panglong Conference’ of all minorities. However, the achievements of the conference could not be consolidated as General Aung San was assassi-nated just before Burma was to attain freedom in 1948. She thus understands the dire need to generate national unity through political accom-modation of the ethnic minorities in “a fully democratic multi-party parliamentary system†to be “introduced as quickly as possible by means of free and fair elections†.

Striking at the root of the ethnic problem of her country she also courageously reminds the ethnic majority, the Burmans, about their greater responsibility:

The Burmese people form the biggest majority; they should make the greatest efforts to live in this accord and amity and to achieve that much needed unity and friendship among national racial groups. Those who have greater strength should show restraint and tolerance towards those who have less strength. Demcoracy is an ideology that allows everyone to stand up according to his beliefs. They (minorities) should not be threatened or endangered.

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YEARS of ruthless suppression of protest by the military dictatorship had instilled a deep-rooted fear among the common people. And she knew that in order to re-invigorate the struggle, her people needed to be liberated from fear psychosis created by the military dictators over the years. Fear, not power, she said, is the greatest enemy of the free thought, conviction, and democracy, and that a people in the grip of fear can never hope to be free.

Since the very beginning of the democracy movement in Burma, we had to contend with a debilitating sense of fear that permeates our whole society. Fear is the first adversary we have to get past when we set out for battle for freedom and often it is the one that remains until the very end.

She further observes:

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Freedom from fear leads to courage and courage is the ultimate moving force in a movement:

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through ended-avour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’—grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

Like Mahatma Gandhi, she feels that freedom from fear adds to the inner strength of a person and enables him to stand for truth with perseverance and passion. She says:

We have to act out our belief in freedom….We go about our duties out of our own free will in spite of the dangers that are inherent in trying to live like free people in an un-free nation. We exercise our freedom of choice by choosing to do what we consider to be right….We engage in dissent for the sake of liberty and we are prepared to try again and again with passion, with a sense of responsibility and sense of proportion, to achieve what may seem impossible to some.

Dissent, she says, is the spirit of freedom. It must therefore be respected and not coerced by an unbridled state or an untamed majority. Dissent, she believes, can however be managed or resolved through discussion and dialogue:
I have always asked for dialogue….There will be disagreements and arugments. Dialogue does not involve winners and losers. It is not a question of losing face. It involves finding the best solutions for the country.

Struggle for the restoration of democracy in Burma has so far been remained non-violent. However, Suu Kyi, like Nelson Mandela, makes it amply clear that their movement is non-violent not because of any moral reasons “but for practical and political reasons, because I think it is best for the country†. In other words, if the strategy demands a change, use of violence is not ruled out.

On the issue of the primacy of economic growth and development vis a vis democracy, she holds:

It can hardly be expected that an increase in material prosperity alone would ensure even a decline in economic strife, let alone a mitigation of those myriad other forces that spawn misery… People’s particiapation in social and political transformation is the central issue of our time.

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AUNG SAN SUU KYI’S thought mechanism is replete with the modern phraseology of politics, democracy and human rights, but is certainly not without streaks of the cultural influence of Buddhism. She often refers to the centrality of man in the Buddhist discourse, which is also the cardinal point of the modern theory of democracy:

Buddhism, the foundation of traditional Burmese culture, places the greatest value on man, who alone of all beings can achieve the supreme state of Buddhahood.

Along with the centrality of man comes the Buddhist concept of kingship which does not invest the ruler with any divine right to govern the realm as he pleases. Instead a king is a Mahsammata, “chosen by popoular consent and required to goven in accordance with just laws†, she says.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s principal leadership of the Burmese movement for the restoration of democracy aptly fits in with James MacGregor Burns’ description of revolutionary leadership:

The leaders must be absolutely dedicated to the cause and able to demonstrate that commitment by giving time and effort to it, risking their lives, undergoing imprisonment, exile, persecution and continual hardship….This commitment, which may end in martyrdom, must survive all defeats and setbacks.

The smiling ‘lady’ (‘Daw’) who looks frail but possesses nerves of steel, is every inch a revolutionary leader in the above sense as she aims to raise a new Burma, united, free and democratic, encompassing all her people with their dignity assured and place secured. The struggle of course is far from over but the clarity of purpose and her tremendous resoluteness is sure to win any day, sooner or later.

An alumnus of the School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi, the author is currently Associate Professor and Head of the PG Department of Political Science, Arya College, Ludhiana. His e-mail is: bhogal-ps@hotmail.com