Printable Version

After the Revolution

By Raluca Enescu

            The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every single human being living on Earth has got the natural right to live under a democratic regime, which would guarantee his fundamental rights and liberties. But, unfortunately, there are still countries in the world ruled by equally abusive and corrupted regimes which consequently deny basic human rights, and Burma is one of the worse cases. What is happening?

            One thing we can be certain about: democracy won’t just come out of the sky. And, by saying this, I am not only to referring to the matter of throwing up a dictatorship; a revolution is, of course, more than necessary. But what will happen after the revolution?

The instauration of a democratic regime won’t immediately ensure a perfectly functioning authentic democracy; it is just the beginning of a long process that would lead to being able to truly guarantee people’s freedom and rights. A revolution eliminates an unjust regime, but the mentalities formed under fear’s pressure remain. The people remain. And how could you possibly expect people who have lived all their lives in an oppressive regime which made it impossible for them to communicate with the outside world, who had no other source of information than the regime’s propaganda, who had been indoctrinated and denied any possibility of knowing and understanding democracy, to start immediately, overnight, to think freely and to act like responsible citizens of a democratic country? From now on, the new democratic regime has got a very important task, as important as the revolution itself, and it is an educational-one.

“The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success” has Aung San Suu Kyi once said.

Have you ever wondered how come that, after so many years, Burma is still ruled by a dictatorship? Let’s ask ourselves (and answer honestly) a question: Do you think that the people who are guilty and responsible of the regime’s abuses, those who would let the Military Intelligence know that their neighbor is involved in pro-democracy actions, those who convicted innocent people in unfair trials, those who torture political prisoners, do you think they truly believe in the regime’s claimed ideology? Or do they only do what they do in order to serve their personal interests?

Now think about what someone like this would do after a change of regime. I am sure, and this is a lesson I’ve learned from my country’s own experience, that, as long as keeping the ideology of the old regime won’t be in their advantage anymore, they would try to conceal their true identity. They will pretend that they had been “revolutionary” as well, that they had even contributed in the democracy movement. They would manipulate. Someone who, under the dictatorship, has benefited from corruption will try the same under the new regime, as well.

A democracy means that people are supposed to use their free will. But what if they are manipulated? It wouldn’t be too hard to manipulate people who have been indoctrinated for all their lives and who are now faced for the first time with democracy’s decisional process. That is the reason why the educational task of new-born democracies is of such great importance, that’s why the revolution must be associated with a revolution of the spirit.

My country, Romania, has become a democracy in 1989. Of course, everything is incomparably better than Ceausescu’s era, but yet we are far from being perfect.  This article I’ve written is based on our experience, on the mistakes we’ve made and on our hopes.

I am confident and I am wishing that the same mistakes won’t be repeated and that Burmese people are prepared not only for a change of the regime, but also for after the revolution.

Raluca Enescu

Please sign the REQUEST to SPDC Regime to STOP KILLING Ethnic People. (click here)

......................................................

Comments

Feraya Nangmone said _

Dear Raluca,

I absolutely agree with you. REVOLUTION OF THE SPIRIT is very much needed NOW and in the future! THANK YOU and warm regards.

Your Comments here_

If you have evidences of genocide committed by military regime please contact burmadigest@tayzathuria.org.uk