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Burma celebrated 60 years of independence from British rule on 4 January 2007. But I’m sure it would have been far from a celebration for the 1000 Burmese still held captive by Burma’s military junta—the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)—following last September’s protests against military corruption.
It’s hard to believe that only months ago our TV screens and newspapers displayed images of bloodshed and violence, as the SPDC rounded up thousands of peaceful protesters—many of them monks—and imprisoned them.
International uproar ensued.
The United Nations (UN) called for peace and sent a special envoy to Burma to condemn the massacres. The European Union (EU) ‘applauded the courageous action of the Burmese monks and tens of thousands of other peaceful demonstrators…and utterly condemned the brutal response by the Burmese authorities’.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) also criticised the junta’s actions, with ASEAN Chairman (Singapore Prime Minister) Lee Hsien Loong saying, ‘the videos and photographs of what is happening on the streets of Rangoon and other cities in Myanmar [Burma] have evoked the revulsion of people throughout Southeast Asia and all over the world’.
But now there’s silence.
Turn on your TV set or radio, or flip through the paper, and you’ll hear no news of Burma. There’s no new action and no new images of violence and oppression. The mainstream media have moved on. Money makes the media go round, and somehow Britney beats Burma in the popularity stakes.
But don’t think that just because the media has gone, so too have the problems the Burmese face.
Hardly.
Many Burmese people have been crying out for real independence for years. The situation across the country was dire before the protests.
While the SPDC are raking money from Burma’s many natural resources, civilians are struggling to survive. Burma’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has plummeted in the past decade. One in ten Burmese babies will die before they turn five.
The SPDC spends a mere 45 cents on health per person each year, while more than 50 per cent of the regime’s budget is spent on the military. So in September 2007, when the junta hiked up fuel prices by 500 per cent, thousands of Buddhist clergy and civilians gathered on the streets to protest peacefully—the price increase was one more burden in a long history of oppression.
‘For all people in Burma to enjoy basic freedom, that would be the major breakthrough’
Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But the wish of Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has unfortunately been unattainable so far.
In 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi risked her life to lead protesters through Burma’s capital, Rangoon, calling for the end of military dictatorship. So extraordinary was her commitment to freedom and democracy that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
In Burma’s 1990 election, her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the backing of more than 80 per cent of the population. Her opposition immediately nullified the results and imposed martial law to ensure their rule.
This year, Suu Kyi will have spent 13 of the past 18 years under house arrest.
Though she is alone in her house, Suu Kyi is not alone in spirit. In 2007 Amnesty International predicted there were more than 1000 political prisoners in Burma. Now figures suggest that number could be as high as 2000.
Many of the monks involved in the recent protests are still being detained, forced to disrobe and intentionally fed in the afternoon when they are religiously forbidden to eat. UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who recently visited Burma, said he heard reports of prisoners held in tiny cells with little ventilation and no toilets.
Professor David Steinberg, a specialist on south-east Asian politics from Georgetown University in the United States, says that the SPDC’s strength has grown to the point that the economy, political process and social mobility is ‘all dependent now on the military’.
Clearly after 46 years of military rule, the situation continues to worsen in Burma. The mainstream media may have forgotten the plight of the Burmese people. Let’s make sure we don’t forget.
Want to ActNow?
Drop the Burmese Embassy a line.
Their address in Australia is: Embassy of the Union of Myanmar, 22 Arkana St, Yarralumla, ACT, 2600.
How do I know this?
BBC News, 2008, ‘Burma marks Independence Day’, January 4,
www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7171008.stm
BBC News, 2007, ‘Burmese monks in pagoda protest’, September 20,
www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7004074.stm
Dallas Morning News, 1993, ‘Burma prisoner – we must help Aung San Suu Kyi’, November 28, p2.
De Lore A, 2007, ‘Aung San Suu Kyi – Leadership’, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 3, p8.
DFAT, 2007, ‘Burma Country Brief – September 2007’,
www.dfat.gov.au/geo/burma/burma_brief.html
Doyle K, 2007, ‘Where are Burma’s monks?’, TIME, October 12,
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1670876,00.html
EU, 2007, ‘The EU’s relations with Burma/Myanmar – Overview’,
www.ec.europa.eu/external_relations/
myanmar/intro/index.htm#news
Herald Sun, 2007, ‘Massacre of the monks in Burma’, October 2,
www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story0,21985,22515138-661,00.html
Lyall K, 2002, ‘Democracy leader set free – Burma’s new dawn as Aung San Suu Kyi emerges’, The Australian, May 7, p1.
Percy K, 2007, ‘Burmese living on the edge, 60 years after independence’, ABC Online, January 5,
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/05/2132304.htm
Popham P, 2006, ‘A nation in waiting’, New Statesman, August 14, pp22-25.
The Statesman, 2007, ‘A stifled Myanmar’, September 10,
www.encburma.org/enc/enc_info/September/
A_stifled_Myanmar.pdf
Szep J, 2007, ‘UN report raises death toll in Myanmar crackdown’, Reuters, December 7,
www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0728314220071208 
