Political work for Burma in Mae Sot, Part 1

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/travelfellowship/stephanie/?p=54

Posted by stephanie on Nov 4th, 2008 2008
Nov 4
While I was in Bangkok discussing my project with the guys of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma, they suggested that I take a trip to Mae Sot, a town about 5 km from the Thailand and Burma border, and basically Burma in Thailand as the majority of the population of the town is from Burma. So, during my trip to Chiang Mai I also made a side trip to this interesting and diverse town to further learn about the situation in Burma from those who have lived it. I don’t think I can accurately describe how incredible my few days in this town were, and I am so glad that I went! I am going to divide my writings for this trip into 2 parts, with the first part focusing on the political side of the work going on for Burma and the second part highlighting the humanitarian side.



Melissa Bates (Vanderbilt ’05) has been so amazing getting me in touch with the guys she works with in Thailand, and she definitely came through for me in connecting me with Win Hlaing, one of her co-workers in Mae Sot. Win Hlaing was the youngest Member of Parliament elected in Burma’s 1990 election (the NLD—Burma’s party for democracy–overwhelming won this election, but the military government refused to recognize this results). He was 22-years-old when he was elected. Being 22 myself, I cannot even imagine being elected to represent my people. However, because of his political beliefs, which, as for so many, are to replace the military government with the democratically elected government from the 1990 elections, Win Hlaing spent many years as a political prisoner and just released only recently. He worked for the movement inside of Burma for a while, but the situation became too dangerous for him so he came to Mae Sot to continue his work. While I was in Mae Sot, he arranged meetings for me for 4 different organizations working to change the political situation in Burma: the NCUB (National Council of the Union of Burma), the NLD-LA (National League for Democracy- Liberated Area), the MPU (Members of Parliament Union), and the BLC (Burma Lawyers’ Council).

The NCUB (www.ncub.org) is working for the abolition of the military dictatorship, internal peace, democracy, and the establishment of a genuine federal union in Burma. Its main aims are national reconciliation, the emergence of a dialogue between ethnic forces and democratic forces, and the emergency of the peoples’ Parliament based on the 1990 general election results. I had the opportunity to talk to the joint-general secretary of NCUB, Myint Thein, who discussed a lot of the background on the situation in Burma with me, which I’ve discussed some in past blogs so won’t go into much detail into that. When I was asking Myint Thein about his views on freedom in Burma and what is needed, in addition to highlighting the basic human rights freedoms of expression, thought, religion, personal rights, he said that for Burma, as a multi-ethnic state, cultural rights are extremely important. The population of Burma is estimated at being between 48-50 million, and this population is divided between at least 15 major ethnic groups. The Burmese government is working for the systematic eradication of many of these ethnic groups, most clearly that of the Karen ethnic minority. There has been much speculation as to if this situation qualifies as genocide. Personally, I think it most definitely does, but I don’t think that the international community wants to label the situation as such because then it would have to do something to stop what is happening in Burma. Being able to live in peace, and to be able to be safe and free to belong to particular ethnicity and culture, is a fundamental freedom that is taken away from millions of people in Burma.

My next meeting was with the NLD-LA (www.nldla.org). The National League for Democracy is a political party founded in 1988 and headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD-LA is different from the NLD in Burma, but it advocates the same position of the NLD in calling for tripartite dialogue between the SPDC (the military junta), the NLD, and representatives from the ethnic minority groups in Burma. The leader of the NLD-LA who I talked to gave me an interesting background on how the unrest for democracy and change in Burma came about. He told me that in 1979, the people of Burma had access to international news for less than an hour a day, but in that time they had the opportunity to see the freedoms of other countries in the world and compared those situations to their own. This caused people to start to think that like the people in the other countries of the world, they are human beings as well, so why can’t they enjoy the same freedoms as well? Another important event for the fueling of unrest in Burma was Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost in Russia. The people of Burma saw a world super power reexamining its policies and enacting political change, so additionally, they began to think that they could do the same in their country. The man I talked with, as have so many of the people I have talked to about Burma, was involved in the 1988 uprising in Burma and worked closely with Aung San Suu Kyi, and spent 14 years in prison for his activities. Myint Soe, the man I was talking to, had one of the most powerful insights into freedom for me. He told me that whenever he sees poverty, pain, fear, etc., he does not feel free. As long as other human beings are not free, none of us can be. I think this is an important perspective to keep in mind, especially when thinking about places that are so geographically removed from us. Violations of human rights that occur in other parts of the world should not be seen as only problems for the regions in which they occur; a violation of the rights of some should be seen as a violation of all humanity.

Because this post is getting a little lengthy, I am going to talk about the other 2 political organizations I visited in a separate post. I think the issues that were raised during my time in Mae Sot and what I learned and saw are too important to worry about brevity, so I apologize for the long reading, but I hope that you find it as interesting and inspiring as I did!