14.01.2007
Editorial: Open Heart Campaign
The People of Burma start to find their voice
_ By Taisamyone
The recent Burma Digest poll for ‘Politician of the Year 2006 Burma’ voted for the 88 Generation Student activist Ko Mya Aye with over 21% of the poll. The 88 Generation Students together with Ko Mya Aye achieved over 40% of the votes cast, reflecting the tremendous impact that they have had on political events on Burma over the last year. It is excellent news that the group have the courage and initiative to start the New Year with another campaign aimed at releasing the potential of the people of Burma for participation and self-expression that has been for so long denied them. With a government imposing draconian press restrictions amongst the worst in the world, imprisoning anyone writing the vaguest hint of dissent from the junta’s dictate and imposing an unrepresentative transition process to another military ruled junta on the people in the name of democracy – the rightly disregarded and irrelevant “National Convention”.
The Open Heart campaign is rightly named. It is an opportunity for people to express their innermost ‘heart-felt’ feelings about life in Burma. In psychology it is well known that just describing the events of trauma in life and what is felt about this has a great therapeutic value. It allows the person to come to terms themselves with the tragedy, but also to heal their inner fears. By keeping silent about traumatic events, individuals only store up tension and anger within themselves, resulting in unhealthy states of mind, causing both mental and physical illness. The Open Heart Campaign allows people to release their inner tension – it will provide the safety valve outlet, leaving those who join in to continue their process of healing – and coming into a more active participation in the peaceful civic processes of participation in politics.
Such campaigns have started spontaneously from a small group of activists in Burma who realise that the time is ripe, the people are reaching the end of their tether, they want change, they want to stop the atrocities and the tragedy and trauma of military rule and move on a to a free and democratic society – to heal the catatonia (state of frozen silence) induced by 45 years of demonic repressive incompetent rule.
The junta’s perspective on participation in politics in Burma is that the USDA provides the opportunity – as long as you are prepared to follow the junta’s rules. The New Light of Myanmar has been running a series of articles about the sovereignty and independence of Burma – and how the Tatmadaw are helping to keep it. As usual they are stating the opposite of the truth – the people of Burma do deserve and wish for their sovereignty and independence – independent from the Tatmadaw, able to elect a government over their sovereign territory, and not have it confiscated by the Tatmadaw for their own purposes.
The Open Heart Campaign is an excellent vehicle for the people of Burma to become involved in politics in a meaningful way – and a way in which they can directly express their own experience of life under the tyranny. I hope that very many people will become involved in the current campaign. However, we should also remember that while many people (i.e. not Tatmadaw and their cronies) in central Burma suffer hardships and poverty, there are people on the borderlands of Burma who will not be posting in letters – they have been denied education, denied access to postal services as they tramp around the jungle displaced from their homes or eking out a living in a refugee camp, working as illegal migrant workers in neighbouring countries, languishing in internment camps awaiting deportation back to the terror of life inside Burma, some are denied citizenship, and who are regularly harangued by the junta as destructive elements or terrorists. Their complaints are the same now that they have been in some cases since before ‘independence’. The issues that face ethnic peoples range from harassment over religious observances to persecution, land confiscation, extortion, torture, rape, killings, villages burnt, landmines left in homes, crops stolen, culture destroyed, language, costumes and festival days banned – in short, genocide. A friend who has recently returned form a trip to Burma was horrified by the vast areas of traditional farmlands in Shan State that have been commandeered (stolen) for ‘Tatmadaw projects’, and found that people in Rangoon seem unaware that the fate endured by ethnic peoples is far worse than that experienced in central Burma. Perhaps that is why some initial respondents to the Open Heart campaign cited electricity blackouts as a complaint – an issue that directly affects everyone in Burma; but there is the broader view regarding the blackout of news and information via press repression that leaves most people in Burma unaware of the true situation of suffering in the borderlands.
There are many issues to complain about in Burma, but few are listening. Parliamentarians in numerous countries may stand and deliver great speeches condemning the atrocities that occur in Burma, and although the international community has a role in supporting the desires of the people of Burma, they must take charge of their own destiny – the Open Heart Campaign is a step in the right direction. The world knows about the pro-democracy campaigns in Burma even if the junta’s media choose to ignore it – we await their expected snivelling diatribe by the day – it is up to us to give our families and friends inside Burma every support in their endeavours and to make sure that the rest of the world knows about their courageous steps against a vicious group of terrorist thugs (aka SPDC).
As Christina Fink notes in ‘Living Silence’; “People in Burma are reluctant to speak up because they are living under the seemingly omnipresent surveillance of military intelligence personnel and informers. Those who act against the regime risk torture, long term imprisonment and being treated as outcast for life. To protect themselves and their families, Burmese participate in creating the silence that constrains many aspects of their lives.” With the courageous efforts of the 88generation student group, the people of Burma are starting to find their voice. The tide is now turning, the people of Burma won’t remain silent for very much longer.
The campaign may not produce immediate results. The signature petition and White Campaign were rebuffed by the regime in the last days of 2006. With mounting international focus on their misdemeanours and pressure from the UN and US, the regime have now released Min Ko Naing and the other 88generation student leaders. This may be a cynical ploy to play off against the international community and the US-led resolution to the UN Security Council, but it is a sign that they are not invincible, they can be forced to change. In future, when an SPDC leader dies, we won’t be asking which general will replace him; we will be asking “how quickly will we get freedom and democracy?”
What other papers say: _
“You will never be free from suffering unless the world can hear your cry,” the 88 Generation Students group said in a report announcing the campaign..........Irrawaddy: Activists in Burma Start New Campaign http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6544&z=163
The campaigners said the "Open Heart" campaign was aimed to reflect the real situation and feeling of the Burmese people at different levels of society in a deteriorating economic, political and educational situation under the military regime. "At every level Burmese people including the police, soldiers, and government employees are facing a crisis". They are not getting a chance to speak out, said Mya Aye.........Mizzima: Open Heart yields results: Campaigners http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/Jan/21-01-2007.html
''The people want to cooperate in this campaign because of the growing suffering. Some people don't care what will happen to them because they are just angry,'' Zaw Min, spokesman for the Democratic Party for a New Society, an opposition party banned by the SPDC, told IPS. ''People are increasingly identifying themselves as they express their opinion.''............IPS: Defiant public blitz on junta with letters http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36088
''This is an effort to break the silence. To get people to openly write about their grievances to the military government,'' said Naing Aung, secretary-general of the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a group of Burmese political exiles who work closely with the 88-Generation. ‘'It is not enough to just complain. This is to get people to show their courage by standing up and openly identifying themselves as critics.''...........IPS: Defiant public blitz on junta with letters http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36088
“the people of Burma are still strong enough to win their freedom. They need only wake up to this fact, that they do have the power.”.........Dictator Watch: THE PEOPLE OF BURMA http://dictatorwatch.org/
“They are slowly carving out a public space for the expression of dissent, and their level of coordination and planning has made it possible for masses of people to participate at once, without creating a target for the military in the way that a public demonstrations or protests would. They've also created a means of raising politics in the public consciousness”.........Burma Underground: Open Heart Campaign http://ethnicvoices.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2007/1/5/2623215.html
Ko Mya Aye said letters were already flooding back to the group complaining about issues ranging from electricity shortages to the detention of political prisoners. U Myint Aye of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group told DVB the Open Heart campaign had his full support.............DVB http://www.dvb.no/
The U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based group that lobbies for measures to pressure Myanmar in making democratic reforms, issued a statement calling the new prisoner release a trick made under the pressure of international disapproval. “This looks like nothing but a cynical ploy to stop the U.N, Security Council from taking action," said Aung Din, the group's policy director. Condemning the junta for human rights abuses, he said "The international community shouldn't allow these prisoners to be used as hostages."..........Reuters http://uk.news.yahoo.com/11012007/325/myanmar-junta-releases-dissidents.html
Imprisonment had not cowed them into giving up, "We are determined to keep on working for the emergence of national reconciliation and democracy in our country through dialogue. We will continue all our campaigns," Min Ko Naing said...........Reuters http://uk.news.yahoo.com/11012007/325/myanmar-junta-releases-dissidents.html
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