National League for Democracy of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kayi of Myanmar won the November 8 election but not the power. The problems inherited remained. First, 25 percent parliamentary seats are reserved for the army who will also appoint three ministers including defence. Thus, the shadow of military dictatorship would continue until the constitution is amended deleting the provision.
Secondly, the constitution provides that if your children are foreigners, you are debarred from the presidency. Suu Kyi has two British children. So, she is debarred from presidency. The third problem is self-inflicted. Suu Kyi had been conspicuously maintained silence on genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Unfolding weaknesses
Myanmar has two million Rohingya Muslims who constitute 4 percent of total 55 million population of the country. Hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed and about two lakh forced to flee, but the Nobel Laureate has kept silent. Perhaps because to have spoken against genocide of a minority would have been a vote loser. If this was all, she would be no different from our reviled politicians and bearers of primitive zeitgeist. But this may be more than electoral opportunism.
From long before the elections she failed to raise her voice against monk-and-state inspired pogroms. Does she also harbour a chauvinist tilt to Buddhist? This is troubling. How Suu Kyi and her NLD government conduct themselves in the months ahead will tell us more. It goes beyond Rohingyas; the Buddhist majority accounts for 70 percent, Shans nine percent are also Buddhist, half the Karens (7%) are Christians as are the smaller Christian Kachin, and Chin groups. There has been armed conflict of varying intensity of the state with Karen and Shan nationalists in border regions since independence in 1948. There are 130 more ethnic minorities. Hence, ethnic tension goes well beyond the Rohingyas.
Suu Kyi is no Mandela. In April 1964 at the Rivonia Trial Mandela closed his address with these words: “I have fought against White domination and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Black and White, Buddhists and Muslims stands for all the people. Suu Kyi falls short of this categorical imperative. Unlike Suu Kyi, Gandhi paid the ultimate price for protecting Muslims during the partition riots of late 1947 when a million were killed and 13 million displaced. But for his intervention the carnage in Calcutta and Bengal would have been much worse. Gandhi was killed for shielding a minority. Suu Kyi is silent on Rohinya genocide.
Tightrope walking
The reasons for silence are known, but not acceptable. Hard-line Buddhist nationalists accuse her of being pro-Muslim and stir up emotions. They hand out pamphlets that warn of a foreign invasion and Buddhism being destroyed. Leaders of the military government appeared at rallies sponsored by the machete wielding Buddhists led by shadowy anti-Muslim monk Wirathu. They claim Rohingyas are stateless foreign migrants, though they have lived in Myanmar for generations who were disenfranchised. One expects this from the military and Myanmar’s Buddhist chauvinists, but the NLD, to its shame, refused to let a single Muslim contest on the party ticket or to explain why.
What next after this landslide victory? The tricky transition of throwing out the old regime will be followed by the trickier matter of putting together a sane and stable alternative. In one way it seems no or little difficult; thanks to a huge parliamentary majority there is no need to rely on reviled and corrupt detritus from the outgoing junta. In theory this debris can be discarded. However, practicality is otherwise.
The junta holds the power and cares not a hoot for the rights of the people or for democracy. Despite wholesale rejection by the people it may baulk at the verdict. In 1990 the junta annulled an NLD victory (60% of votes and 392 of 492 seats). Not the lust for power alone drives the military, but also the gravy train; corruption by all ranks of the poorly paid army is huge. Even if compelled to countenance an NLD government formally, the army will still breathe down its neck and endeavour to dictate decisions. Objections will be raised to a constitutional amendment permitting Suu Kyi to take up the presidency.
Source: Weekly Holiday