Daniel Pedersen

Daniel Pedersen
Mae Sot

The great danger the violence that threatens to spiral out of control in Burma’s post-election period is that it will be painted by the ruling military junta as ethnic groups fighting one another.
And public perception is a keystone in how modern wars are dealt with at an international level.
At the moment intense fighting in Karen State, north of the military and administrative capital Naypidaw, is pushing tens of thousands of people across the border into Thailand.
It seems likely to spread across the country.
Burma’s ethnic peoples are little understood by the West.
And the Western propensity to link the nation’s future with that of Aung San Suu Kyi is a failing.
The world’s press, it seems, has a problem explaining myriad ethnicities existing together in a nation state cobbled together by an occupying colonial force long gone.
Its reticence to delve into Burma’s diversity is baffling.
One of the higher-profile news pieces to attract recent headlines is the fact the newly-elected parliamentarians’ right to speak has been stifled before parliament has even convened.
On Saturday December 4, it was reported that Burma was undergoing political change according to United Nations envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar.
But in fact, what Nambiar said was gradual political change might begin as newly-elected politicians vacated the seats they have not yet formally occupied.
“Government formation is taking place. I think there will be new spaces, new slots in the parliament which will open up for by-elections,” he said.
Nambiar added that this might provide “small opportunities for increasing the political space for a broader, inclusive involvement”.
It is a fact that the ethnics control and inhabit most of Burma’s countryside.
They live together and work together, mostly in Burma with the common aim to grow enough food to sustain them and collectively survive as peoples.
In different regions they have substantially different cultures, languages, national songs, flags and beliefs.
But they are not at war with each other and they are not at war with the Burman ethnic majority.
Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, is at war with its own population.
Aung San Suu Kyi is undoubtedly important to Burma’s future, but there is a future no matter the role in which she finds herself cast.
The “ethnic minorities”, as they are so often referred to, have democratic processes to elect their leaders.
In some cases their elected leaders represent as many as seven million people.
While Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest, the ethnic leaders have been talking to each other.
In fact significant dialogue has been underway since 2001.
All are keen to speak with Suu Kyi, to let her know their intentions, but their decisions taken in unison representing the people who elected them to positions of such responsibility will not be swayed by a single person.
That is not how a democracy operates.
The Karen National Union vice president David Tharckabaw says the Western media’s preoccupation with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is “interesting”.
“There’s sort of a messianic complex developed about her,” he said.
“It’s as if, if she dies, democracy will come more quickly – and it won’t.
“Too much of a personality cult is not good for anyone,” said Tharckabaw.
“It is not good for her, not good for the movement,” he said.
“But I don’t want what I am saying to be misinterpreted, and I can see that it could,” he added.
“I believe she has sacrificed and suffered long enough and with the junta still having no respect for her, well, it’s not working,” said Tharckabaw.
“I personally believe (and he insisted he was not speaking on behalf of any of the organisations he represents) that she should ‘come out’.
“I think she would be more effective if she came outside,” he said.
The prospect of Aung San Suu Kyi leaving Burma would probably horrify many activists in the West.
But they do not have to weather years devoid of social contact and an inability to take action against what is perceived as a great injustice to a great many people.
“She should put herself above politics,” said Tharckabaw.
He said by doing so she could become far more powerful, making herself a figure of great unity for the peoples of Burma.
“She could travel and she could speak about democracy,” he said.
ENDS