Burmese Activists Look to a Brightening Horizon

"Justice is a dream. But it is a dream that we are determined to realize." Aung San Suu Kyi

“I was sanctioned,” he said, “my name, my voice.”

His name is Zarganar, the extraction of fear. He is one of the over 500 prisoners of conscience released by the Burmese government since October 2011. He joined Khin Than Myint, a close associate of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and Daw Bauk Gyar, a Kachin advocate, for the National Endowment for Democracy’s panel on Burma’s Changing Political Landscape: A Conversation with Three Leading Activists.

During the panel discussion, these brave activists reflected on their recent experiences.Without the mass amnesty, Zarganar, Burma’s foremost comedian-satirist, would be serving a 59 year jail term for speaking to foreign media about the extreme conditions after the 2008 floods.

Gyar took advantage of the political loosening to run in a general election in Kachin. She envisions being a bridge between the Parliament and the common people. She lost to a regime-backed opponent, but boldly filed a fraud complaint and plans to run for a seat in the by-election in April 2012.

The group spoke at length about their varied perceptions. Political prisoners were released, but could be re-arrested at any time; censorship has decreased, but still exists; urban areas are allowing freedom of expression, but regions are subject to widespread human rights abuse. Zarganar put it succinctly, “We are released, but we are not free.”

The issue of ethnic minorities came up again and again. “Every minority has issues in our country,” Zarganar said. Gyar’s concerns were basic, illegal land and resource seizures and military violence, forcing people to become refugees. “We are the Burmese,” she said, “even though we’re ethnic minorities… We’re supposed to all have the same rights.” Myint and Zarganar concurred. When asked how unity could come about, Zarganar proposed making a grassroots forum first, addressing ethnic issues and then moving up the political ladder.

 SFCG shares Zarganar’s vision of changing the way ordinary people in conflict-plagued regions deal with differences from adversarial to cooperative solutions. We also share the sentiment of Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the State Department, stated as he closed the event: Burma needs “an inclusive meaningful dialogue leading towards genuine national reconciliation. To make Burma a home for all of its people requires broad, grassroots engagement by the widest possible range of politically active citizens…to build trust on both sides, and to negotiate a space where they can coexist peacefully,” he said.

“Change is never guaranteed, but there is an appetite for change.”