Actions speak louder than words

I began my work here at a very interesting time in Burmese current events. The government of Burma held ("staged" would be the proper term) an election on November 7th 2010, just a few days after I began my placement. In quick summary, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won over 75% of the vote - a suspicious 180 degree flip in public opinion from the 94% won by military opposition Aung San Su Kyi in 1990. The world watched as shocking facts came to light about this election - 25% of the seats in Parliament were reserved for the military, foreign journalists were denied visas to enter Burma, the cost of registering a candidate was so high it excluded most hopeful individuals and parties and over 3,000 villages in ethnic minority areas were excluded because they were deemed by the military to be "too compromised" to hold fair elections.

The election was widely denounced by the international community - Ban Ki Moon, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown each publicly criticized it. Yet over here, something different was happening. ASEAN countries, China in particular, took a different approach, expressing naive hope (read: ulterior motive) that these elections would bring peaceful change to Burma.

Fast-forward six months - Senior General Than Shwe has "officially dissolved" the military government's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and replaced himself with a parliament of newly elected MP's, who appointed President Thein Sein to serve as Head of State. Change has come to Burma, they say. I'll skip over the fact that this new Parliament allocated over 20% of the 2011-2012 state budget to the Ministry of Defense, which runs one of the largest standing armies in the world despite facing no external threats; or that the Ministries of Health and Education received a combined 5% of that same budget, perpetuating the deterioration of the education and health systems; or the most disturbing fact of all being that General Than Shwe, has written a "special fund" into the budget, which the government must grant in any amount he requests for the purpose of "defending against internal enemies". Previous "internal enemies" include the Buddhist monks peacefully marching in the Saffron Revolution of 2007, journalists, comedians, artists and bloggers (ahh!), Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (Daw Suu, for short) and the thousands of ethnic groups who've had their villages burned and livestock stolen.

So, as I was saying, change has come to Burma. And just a few weeks ago Thailand, where hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees and migrant workers have found sanctuary, announced that it would repatriate over 100,000 of these refugees. We are always taught that actions speak louder than words, and in the case of the Burmese Parliament and new leadership, this is so true. President Thein Sein and Parliament have yet to prove that they will focus on improving the lives and opportunities available to their citizens. Straight out of the gates they passed a budget which does not look too hopeful for social welfare and education. The Internet remains heavily monitored and over 2,000 political prisoners are still incarcerated. Just last month, a foreign author of a biography on Than Shwe was searched, detained and deported by Burmese intelligence, but not before famously asking "Is it a crime to write a book?" It's safe to say that in today's Burma it depends on what that book says.

What is going to happen to these refugees who are forced to return to Burma? I have no doubts that they ultimately want to return to Burma - everyone I've met does. People can go on for hours about the natural beauty, their village, the bravery of Daw Suu, Burmese Buddhism, Thingyan (Songkran!) and the memory of a time when the University of Yangon (then Rangoon University) was one of the best, if not the best, universities in Asia. But the fact is that if these people are forced to return to Burma, they will be faced with the same human rights abuses that made them leave their homes and families in the first place. Fighting is ongoing between the military and ethnic armies, land mines liter the ground and the fear of military abuse, forced labor and sexual violence is a very real threat to those who've sought refuge in Thailand.

I'm writing this particular post because I find the "transfer of power" in Burma to be very deceiving, and the implications of that are scary. Most people agree that while there is indeed a new parliament and president, the military and General Than Shwe still control the country (as evidenced by the "special fund" among other things). Burma is rich in natural resources and neighboring countries want access to these resources - oil, natural gas, jade and gems, to name a few. What's unnerving about it is the thought that in order to gain access to these resources, heads of state are willing to strip Burma's leaders of their much-deserved international pariah status, throw out the sanctions (a whole other debate, but used here in the symbolic sense) and welcome them back into the global and regional economies, telling the Burmese refugees residing in their lands, "Don't worry, maybe there are still 2,000 political prisoners, maybe your village was "too compromised" to vote or was burned to the ground, maybe you can't use an Internet phone or use the Internet at all, but we are telling you, Burma is a democracy now! Go home."

Reports have come out from Mae Sot, the border town where the movement for democracy and peace in Burma is thriving, that Thai Police have been partnering with Burmese Intelligence to crack down on pro-democracy organizations headquartered there. Apparently these organizations no longer serve a purpose since democracy has come to Burma. Thankfully, many leaders, like our own President Obama, understand that actions speak louder than words and have drawn attention to the fact that this new government in Burma may indeed just be the military in their civvies.

It remains to be seen what will happen to the refugees on the Thai-Burma border and to the Burmese citizens continuing to come across. My hope is that the international community is able to influence countries like China and Thailand to hold the new government of Burma accountable for its claim of democracy and that this shift within the government of Burma is indeed a step in the right direction.