BOOK REVIEW Myanmar's gritty democratic
diaspora Burma File: A
Question of Democracy compiled by Soe
Myint
Reviewed by Piyush Mathur
Blame
the India Research Press, curse at Soe Myint, or look
back in anger at academic conventions for having
polluted our minds with neat expectations, but Burma
File fits no known genre. Disorganized and very
poorly proofread, the volume announces itself under the
name of one author even though it is anything but
single-authored. Neither entertaining nor
philosophically profound - but timely, informative, and
ultimately humbling - this compilation is a hodgepodge
of hurriedly written and imperfectly cited essays (some
multi-authored, many by different authors); interviews;
press reports; biographical accounts; texts of treaties
and award citations; historical
comments; chronologies; letters; and pieces of strategic
advice for Myanmar's democracy activists in exile.
Going through all the disparate entries -
drafted roughly through 1998-2002 - leaves one with a
clear taste of the desperation currently being felt by
Myanmar democracy activists in exile; that one actually
learns quite a bit is discomforting evidence of how
little of substance is typically allowed to come out of
Myanmar or, for that matter, from the borderlands of
Southeast Asia. That the volume does not belong to any
given genre - but hangs on to the rough edges of many -
points to the abject geopolitical, economic and cultural
marginality of the contributors; the internal failings
of the volume also reflect the dire conditions under
which the material for it has been procured and put
together, (mostly) by struggling Myanmar exiles and
(some) by their sympathizers. For all that, what we have
on hand is a brewing testimony to the gritty survival of
Burmese democracy outside Burma (as the country was
known until its military rulers renamed it Myanmar in
1989).
The background The volume's
title betrays a conspiratorial, scandalous feeling: It
is a "file" - let's say, on Burma - but one put
out for all to see: a letting of the cat out of the bag,
as it were. Outside the realm of computing (clearly not
the context), the term "file" also serves as an
olfactory reminder of the choking mustiness of
cloistered environs: Somebody, somewhere, has been
through the thick of those - has struggled with the very
worst as they became the life - and is now giving the
outsiders a rare account of the same. As its subtitle
tells us, this file is offered as a "question" -
of democracy - and it thus is an opportunity to look
beyond and forward, well, inquisitively.
The
long-term context for the publication is, of course,
Burma/Myanmar's military rule since 1962 - and the
continuing desire of its citizens to have both symbolic
and effective freedoms (including the right to access
and disseminate information about their country).
However, an immediate context - or rather, the condition
of possibility - for the publication is the growth of
Burmese diasporic journalism. Wherefore, many entries to
the volume were originally journalistic contributions to
the online Mizzima News, founded by Soe Myint, Thin Thin
Aung, and Win Aung in 1998, and started from "a small
rented room in Old Delhi" that "did not even have a
telephone line" (p 5).
In his eye-opening
biographical piece that serves as the introduction to
the volume, Myint also brings to our attention some
other offshore Burmese news sources, such as The
Irrawaddy (Chiang Mai, Thailand), the Democratic Voice
of Burma (Oslo, Norway), and Radio Free Asia
(Washington, DC). Alongside, we also get a raw portrait
of how Indian, Thai, and Bangladeshi journalists
interact with Myanmar democracy activists in exile in
South Asia and react to their cause.
Other
contextual elements of - and topics of discussion for -
this publication include: India's increasing military
and economic cooperation with the Myanmar military junta
roughly since the mid-1990s (and its effect on Myanmar's
democracy activists in exile); the "Look East" turn in
India's foreign policy under the thrust of economic
globalization and its effects on India's relationship
with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN);
resultant changes in ASEAN's relationship with Myanmar;
the effects of economic globalization on the military
junta's relationship with the rest of the world,
especially the West; the junta's changed international
status through the post-September 11, 2001, priorities
in global foreign policies (including India's hard line
against the militancy in its northeast); and the closer
and conspicuous cooperation of China, Pakistan and
Russia with Myanmar's generals especially through the
past six years or so.
The highlights A
key position to emerge from the volume is that economic
globalization won't help in democratizing Myanmar, as
many pundits would like the world to believe; on the
contrary, globalization has only benefited and
strengthened the ruling junta at the expense of the
common people. The militaristic occupation of the
country allows the junta to force the populace to work
on infrastructure for multinational corporate projects
even as the profits are divided between the corporations
and the junta. The volume contains specific reports
revealing severe exploitation of Myanmar labor for the
systemic needs of multinational oil companies, dam
projects and export-oriented ventures floated and
promoted by the junta.
A strong mention is made
of the joint "construction of a gas pipeline from the
Yadana field in the Gulf of Martaban to the Thai border"
by the United States' Unocal and France's Total (p 27).
Kanbawza Win, a former foreign affairs secretary to the
prime minister of the Union of Burma, points out that
the "potential annual income for the junta from the
Yadana project ... is ... [US] $400 million ... and is
the regime's single largest source of foreign currency"
(p 107). While such money allows the junta to add to its
armament and stay in power, "civilians are [routinely]
seized ... and ... forced to work, often without pay or
food, on roads and other infrastructures related to the
oil project. Soldiers patrolling the pipeline areas also
force local Burmese to walk with them and carry their
heavy loads" (p 107).
Win broadens his
democratic reasoning against the economic globalization
of Myanmar by noting that the claim that global economic
investments lead to domestic democratic amends in
authoritarian countries stands disputed "in Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, etc" (p 90). He
aptly stresses: "The US alone has invested $85 billion
in China and yet one would be hard pressed to find
commensurate gains in democratic institutions or the
enhancement of human rights in China" (p 90). As for
addressing the problem of poverty, a statement by B K
Sen, an advocate working for the Burma's Lawyers Council
in India, hits the spot: "Rule of law," Sen argues, "is
the only guarantee for economic recovery not only in
Burma but also in the entire region" (p 241).
While Western governments and corporations bear
the brunt of the criticism for foreign industrial
investments in Myanmar, there are enough disturbing
accounts related to similar investments by corporations
and governments of India, China, Bangladesh, Singapore,
Russia and Thailand. The volume also provides many
details related to the impossible corruption levels
inside Myanmar - such that expecting any economic
benefits from global investments to percolate to the
average Myanmar national would be either to live in a
fool's paradise or knowingly bypass the plight of the
Myanmar people. In fact, much corruption in Myanmar has
been variously institutionalized, beginning with the
rule of a patently rejected government, of course.
But, for instance: "On 19 February 1990," Myint
points out, "the military government set up a
military-owned Economic Enterprise Ltd with the amount
of kyat 100 crores [1 billion kyat - US$159.9 million]
in which 40% came from the public money. In 1995, the
Economic Enterprises Ltd also established a kyat 1
billion military bank" (p 12). The junta also "made it
mandatory in 2000 for overseas Burmese workers to remit
10% of their income annually to the Burmese embassies
abroad, and 50% of their monthly salaries to their
families in Burma in foreign currency through the
Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank" (p 12).
Meanwhile, a
deliberate disregard for the average Myanmar national
seems to be at the heart, for example, of Unocal's
rejection of "a call by a group of shareholders for a
comprehensive report on the company's activities in
Burma"; the same goes for the vote by "India, China,
Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Cuba, Pakistan
and some other Asian countries" against the
International Labor Organization's resolution demanding
that the junta end forced labor in Myanmar or invite
punitive sanctions (pp 110, 77). (The resolution was
nevertheless adopted by an overwhelming 257 votes on
June 14, 2000.)
The Indian angle The
volume contains a series of interviews with New Delhi
mandarins and some Indian political leaders that should
greatly interest international political observers.
Based on those interviews and other reports, Soe Myint
outlines the key elements of India's evolving foreign
policy toward Myanmar, locating the strategic
significance of Myanmar (for India) vis-a-vis China,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and platforms such as ASEAN. The
volume also contains many local reports from
northeastern India that by default highlight certain
weaknesses of India's big media - their lack of
understanding and neglect of the region - and point up
India's flawed short-term view of the problems faced by
the region.
The threat of Chinese intervention
in Myanmar and the Myanmar government's hosting of
Pakistani intelligence agents inside Myanmar at the
behest of China are cited as two major reasons by Indian
policy analysts for India's increasing cooperation with
Myanmar's military junta; the other three significant
reasons are India's concern related to the insurgency on
the India-Myanmar border (in which some strongly cite a
Pakistani hand), energy needs, and expectations of
economic benefits from trade. While the New Delhi
mandarins support the change in India's policy toward
Myanmar - Swaran Singh, research fellow at the Institute
of Defense Research and Analysis, calls it a matter of
"cooperation between ... violence management agencies" -
many of them, including Singh (but also Brahma Chellaney
of the Center for Policy Research), concede that India's
long-term interests lie in supporting democracies (p
207; see also pp 263, 264).
"Undemocratic
regimes in India's neighborhood are all very hostile to
India," Chellaney observes in a July 6, 2000, interview
(p 266). He goes on to note: "It is Taliban in
Afghanistan ... Musharraf's military junta in Pakistan
and we have China, which is our largest neighbor, a big
communist power and you have the military in Burma. So
this arc of undemocratic states around India is most
inimical to India's interest. So India would certainly
like to see democratic forces in Burma triumph. But
until they do triumph, it makes sense for India to
establish a working relationship with Burma so that
Burma does not fall by default into China's lap" (p
267).
Myanmar's democratic activists in exile
and their Indian sympathizers, on the other hand,
convincingly argue that cooperating with the junta even
in the short run won't help the cause of any of India's
or Myanmar's people. The insurgency in India's
northeastern region, they point out, "exists because of
the lopsided development policy of [the Indian]
government" - and dealing with this political problem
militarily would only "breathe more violence" (p 264).
They also assert that the military rule in Myanmar is
squarely responsible for the mass migrations of hopeless
Myanmarese into India, Thailand, Bangladesh and the rest
of the world - and it is sections of these people who
have had to arm themselves and resist the junta from the
Indian side in their quest for a decent future (p 204).
A prominent Indian politician and a strong
advocate of democracy in Myanmar, Jaya Jaitley, counters
the Indian security cooperation with the junta rather
eloquently: "I think we are perfectly capable of looking
after our own border areas and we can never be really
assured of the support of people who oppress their own
people" (p 221). Indeed, many news reports reprinted in
this volume indicate that the junta has slyly exploited
Indian vulnerabilities - and it can't be in its
strategic interest to eliminate India's insurgency. In
fact, a logical analysis of this entire situation is apt
to suggest that the junta must keep the Indian border
problem alive in order to stay relevant to India.
Other important details The volume
includes interesting references to the connections to
Burma of Dr Rajendra Prasad, former president of India,
and Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister;
significant sections are devoted to the special
friendship Nehru had with U Nu, former prime minister of
Burma, who stayed in India through 1974-80 after being
deposed by the Burmese military. More contemporary
details include the shameful restraining in 1991 by the
Indian government of Daw Thau Nu, U Nu's daughter, from
broadcasting Burmese-language programs from All India
Radio (p 387).
The volume also has lots of
internal details related to: the interconnections among
Indian insurgent groups in the northeast, the Myanmar
army, and the Myanmar-based ethnic insurgent groups in
the borderlands of Southeast Asia. One also gets a crude
but realistic sketch of the local politics in India's
border states of Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and
West Bengal vis-a-vis Myanmar refugees and insurgents as
well as the Myanmar military government. Chilling
references are also made to the dreadful living
conditions of Myanmar refugees and to prisoners from
Myanmar in South Asian and Southeast Asian countries;
several reports reveal serious human-rights violations
and torture of Myanmar exiles at the hands of Indian and
other nations' governments.
Many reports on
India, including one on the notorious Leech Operation
conducted by the Indian military in the Andaman Islands,
suggest that corrupt Indian officials have found a good
excuse in India's new policy of constructive engagement
with the junta to exploit Myanmar refugees and
insurgents by implicating them in false cases and
violently manipulating them (p 242). Other reports bring
out nasty details about the junta's utter disregard for
Myanmar's environment - and its effects on the poor
people who depend on primary natural resources; still
other reports tell us about the contemporary dynamics of
Southeast Asian borderlands' culture and economics.
The thank-you factor All in all, the
volume pays rich tributes, especially to India, but also
to Thai and Bangladeshi civil societies (including the
Thai Chinese), for their support and hosting of
Myanmar's democratic movement in exile. Going through
this volume, many Indians, in fact, will be amazed by
the level of involvement that Indian governments have
had historically with the Myanmar democratic movement
and the high opinion that the exiled Myanmarese continue
to have of Indian democracy and civil society (despite
the change in India's official policy in the recent
years). Many Indians will be touched by these exiles'
eerily familial expression of their disappointment with
the Indian government's new policy; the canny Indian
won't ignore the strategic hints as to why this policy
should be abandoned.
While India is the chief
external source of inspiration and shelter for Myanmar
democracy activists, contributors to the volume
specifically thank the following Indians: George
Fernandes, former defense minister, who literally
accommodated Myint for many years - and whose open
recommendation letter for Myint and the Mizzima News
Group is prominently published on the fifth page of the
volume; former first lady Usha Narayanan, a scholar of
Burmese literature and well-known sympathizer of
democracy in Myanmar (so much so that she declined to
meet Myanmar General Maung Aye as he visited India in
November 2000); and Nandita Haksar, a noted human-rights
lawyer who extended free and spirited legal help to
Myanmar activists in India.
Of course, the
acknowledgement section at the end of the volume has
many a well-known name from the Indian political,
journalistic, legal, activist and intellectual classes;
the politicians thanked include the who's who of India's
leftist establishment - but also plenty from the center
(such as the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi).
Alongside, Myint recognizes the financial contributions
to Mizzima News by the Open Society Institute (USA),
Trocaire (Ireland), Prospects Burma (UK), and Jean
Jaures Foundation (France). He also extends his
gratitude to the National Coalition Government of the
Union of Burma, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, the South Asian Human Rights Documentation
Center, the People's Union for Civil Liberties, the
Association to Protect Democratic Rights, the Other
Media, Reporters Sans Frontieres, the Committee to
Protect Journalists, the Burma Peace Foundation, Justice
for Human Rights in Burma, the Burma Media Association,
the All Burma Students League, the Burma Lawyers
Council, and Amnesty International.
This whole
thank-you factor may not be critical in the typical
book; however, it is quite important here as it reveals
crucial under-publicized specifics about Myanmar exiles'
network of support: many readers may come to know about
a number of organizations associated with the cause of
Myanmar democracy through Myint's acknowledgements.
Strategically, it is important for the Myanmarese
pro-democracy diaspora to show how valuable their allies
are to them - and why they should continue to support
the democracy movement - just when the military junta is
gaining in international recognition.
Burma
File: A Question of Democracy, compiled by Myint
Doe. India Research Press, 2004 (authorized
international edition by Marshall Cavendish
International, Singapore), ISBN: 981-210-405-4. Price
US$23.35, 421 pages.
Piyush Mathur,
PhD, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi, and Virginia Tech, USA, is an independent
observer of world affairs, the environment, science and
technology policy, and literature.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)
citations; historical
comments; chronologies; letters; and pieces of strategic
advice for Myanmar's democracy activists in exile.
