BURMA:What do the Burmese protesters want? Soe Myint, a Burmese journalist in exile, explains
The Burmese military junta, grown accustomed to years of repressive rule, is today in the eye of a storm. The Sanghas have taken on the Tatmadaw. In a dramatic form of peaceful protest, Buddhist monks with upturned begging bowls have flooded the streets of Burma, turning them into a crimson sea. The generals in their wildest dreams could not have imagined that the shock increase in oil prices would let loose a movement so momentous.
What started as sporadic protests spearheaded by '88-generation students seems to be engulfing the Burmese polity. Hordes of people have joined the protests. Anyone outside the regime's penumbra is for the protests. Students, monks, activists, politicians and others have reacted. The pent-up feelings of a populace under the heels of the army has found a vent. In the ultimate analysis the demand is for change. That's what the people of Burma desire. Used to putting down dissent with a heavy hand, the junta thought nothing of arresting some monks who were protesting in Pakhokku in central Burma. The goons who owe allegiance to the junta, such as Union Solidarity Development Association and Swan Arrshin, allegedly beat up a few monks after the arrests. Rumours spread like wildfire that a monk beaten on the head with a baton had died.
It was as if the spark was waiting to be ignited. The monks deftly turned the tables on the junta. Officials who forcibly entered the monastery in Pakhokku, including those from the department of religious affairs, were detained and four of their vehicles set ablaze. The junta had to eat humble pie and release the arrested monks in exchange for the detained officials.
The Buddhist Monks Alliance demanded an apology from the regime. With the junta not obliging, the monks took to the streets more vehemently. Several thousand disciplined Buddhist monks marched on the streets of several cities, including Rangoon and Mandalay, praying for peace and freedom from evil and untold suffering.
In another move which the junta did not anticipate, it called for a religious boycott of the junta and anyone on its side.
The snowballing events have now become inexorably interlaced with the movement for democracy. The rare sight of detained democracy icon and Nobel Peace Price laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in the compound of her house has lent a different dimension to the protests.
This emotional contact may weigh heavily on a junta struggling to control the growing monks' movement, which has demanded freedom for Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners, a political dialogue with the opposition and an end to economic hardship in beleaguered Burma.
Caught totally unawares by the turn of events, the junta is floundering. While there are rumours of a massive crackdown, any attempt at it will invite the wrath of the populace, a majority of whom are Buddhists.
For the first time the monks' alliance has called on Burmese people to "banish the common enemy, the evil despots from Burmese soil forever". If this does not send a chill down the collective spines of the military brass then nothing will.
The monks have done what they had to do. To be precise, they have done more than is expected of men in robes. They have opened the floodgates. Now it is for the people of Burma to carry the movement forward and send the military to where it belongs - the barracks.
The current movement is definitely not a religious affair but it is rooted in the political system. The ruling military generals should also note that the protesting monks, students and activists and their supporters are calling for a political dialogue and national reconciliation, not a change of regime.
This should pave the way for a peaceful political and economic transition in the country, unless the ruling generals do something else. However, using force would put Burma in a retrograde mode for at least the next 20 years.
It is now for the international community, especially Burma's neighbours, to intervene and pressure the regime to talk to the opposition and ethnic nationalities for a peaceful transition to democracy.
The people of Burma have again spoken out. The message is that they want the peace, democracy and development that their counterparts in many southeast Asian countries are enjoying. They have spoken loud and clear.
Soe Myint is editor-in-chief of Mizzima News which was established in August 1998 by a group of Burmese journalists in exile to promote awareness about repression in Burma, as well as promoting democracy and freedom of expression through information, advocacy and lobbying