SPEAKING
FREELY Obama touches Myanmar
maelstrom By May Ng
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please
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contributing.
Barack Obama's visit
to Myanmar just two weeks after the historic
presidential re-election is the most powerful
statement ever made over this country in recent
memory. It is only fitting that President Obama
begins his journey at the Rangoon University where
generations of leaders of different races from all
across the continent and Myanmar, including Aung
San Suu Kyi's father, were educated long ago.
But, after the military took over power in
1962, the army swiftly commandeered the wealth of
all private entrepreneurs, especially from
non-Myanmar people whom the military generals called
foreigners. Subsequently, the
military went further and blocked all those
targeted foreigners who were Indians, Chinese,
other Asians, and Europeans from securing jobs,
attending universities, traveling, or owning their
own homes. Students who were considered to be
foreigners were thrown out of Rangoon University
or were asked to pay exorbitant fees only to be
allowed to take courses in non-professional
subjects. Today, like the Rohingyas in Arakan,
they are continued to be denied legal identity.
The foreign identity cards given to them make them
foreigners in their own homeland. And their
statelessness prevents them from escaping to other
countries as well.
The government enacted
racial discrimination in Myanmar, is worse than
the Apartheid of South Africa or the American
slavery of the south because no one dares talk
about the racial hatred it engenders even now.
After the 1988 uprising and the 2007
Saffron Revolution, mainland political oppositions
and the armed ethnic rebels who could no longer
safely use their citizenship identity became new
victims of statelessness. Since then not only the
so called foreigners, but also political
activists, ethnic hill tribes and countless
civilians running from government's assault became
stateless people without legal identity.
Myanmar cannot move forward, until it
faces this demon with candor and courage. Myanmar
must abolish all discriminatory and inhumane laws
from the book. All people in Myanmar should be
allowed human rights as defined by the United
Nations. They and the natives returning from
abroad should be given residential rights and
legal identity. They should be allowed to work and
educate themselves. They should be given
opportunity to emigrate from Myanmar legally if
other countries want to accept them.
As
President Obama has demonstrated in his election
victory, a culture of inclusion is a winning
ticket for the future. Myanmar must be encouraged
to choose a constructive path instead of hatred
and violence. Buddhism is not an enemy of Islam
and the authority in Arakan and Myanmar should not
be allowed to change Myanmar into a war zone
against the Rohingyas.
U Gambira aka Nyi
Nyi Lwin a famous leader of the Saffron Revolution
said that the spiritual realm of Simasambheda
endeavors to transcend the boundary of self and
non-self. The spirit of loving kindness at the
heart of Burmese Buddhism transcends race,
religion, and physical identity, and liberates
mankind from rage, hatred, and fury.
U
Gambira said that Myanmar must abandon the era of
dark ages and embrace a peaceful future according
to Gandhi's (Ahimsa Satyagaraha) a non-violence
path illuminated by true conviction.
Interestingly, the Arakan conflict is only
a smokescreen to cover up the real crimes inside
Myanmar by the remnant of the old regime; the
wholesale robbery of Myanmar's natural resources,
and the uprooting of native farmers to confiscate
their farmlands in a scale never seen in history;
and most important, the fundamental flaw in the
constitution that permanently installs the
military as the power behind the scene.
Obama's presidential victory speaks volume
for a campaign that embraces the future of
inclusiveness and leaves behind outdated bias and
bigotry. Obama is the right man to convince the
military in Myanmar that to avoid the scenario in
Libya and Syria, the Burmese army must embrace the
future of racial tolerance and respect for the
will of the people.
The government
security networks that relax the grip in Arakan to
unleash the fury of racial hatred also tighten the
fist to punish a brave young Saffron leader U
Gambira aka Nyi Nyi Lwin. Just like the Depayin
attempt to eliminate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2003;
after the 2007 Saffron revolution, the government
imprisoned, tortured, and left U Gambira for death
in a remote prison of Myanmar. And after his
release last January, the authority confiscated U
Gambira's national identity card to make his life
unbearable. The conflict-ridden Arakan, and
wounded U Gambira are the results of the Burmese
military campaign to diminish and eradicate the
memory of Saffron Revolution, a final challenge to
the military rule in Myanmar.
U Gambira,
who continues to suffer enormous pain from his
injuries, and another political leader Ko Moe Thee
Zun, continue to speak up against the destructive
campaigns in Arakan and Kachin State. If they are
risking their lives and reputation for Myanmar,
Aung San Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein, and
President Obama can surely take a chance and speak
up against hatred and bigotry in Myanmar. When
Lyndon Johnson was warned against speaking up for
civil rights for it might break his presidency, he
said, 'Well, what the hell's the presidency for''
What is the good of having power, if it is not
used to speak up for the people who have no voice
inside Myanmar now'
Finally, if President
Obama listens carefully before leaving Rangoon, he
may be able to hear a faint rumble of the Saffron
Monks prayer in Myanmar. 'May there be no
deception of one another.' 'May there be no
discrimination of one another.' 'May there be no
impoverishing, tormenting of one another.' As of
today, the excommunication or Patam Nikkujjana
Kamma against the military authority has not been
lifted yet by the Saffron monks.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their
say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
May Ng is a commentator for
mizzima.com, a Burmese online news journal
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