Yau Chui-yan
South China Morning Post
Twenty years ago on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Myanmese marched for democracy through the streets of Yangon. This brief flowering of people power was bloodily repressed, with 3,000 protesters losing their lives and thousands more jailed. From the outside, nothing much appears to have changed in the 20 years since the 1988protests.
The military is still in control of Myanmar. Achieving democracy remains a marathon undertaking.
"Yes, it is. But Daw Suu Kyi is 63 and dictator Than Shwe is 75; we are more likely to {hellip}" said Nyo Ohn Myint, a former aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, his voice trailing off. While the prospect of operating without Ms Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader and daughter of liberation hero Aung San, is not something he will be drawn on, he admits the party has to think about the future.
Nyo Ohn Myint is chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the National League for Democracy (NLD) - its external representative.
He says there are about 2 million NLD members inside Myanmar, but he believes there will be a long wait for change inside the country, which he compares to the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin.
"The government spends lots of money on a punishment and reward system. There are secret police around and people lose their jobs if their affiliation with the party is known."
The military rulers are still in a firm position, notwithstanding international protests. Reports quoting foreign diplomats in Myanmar say that Senior General Than Shwe's position is more secure than ever, despite international sanctions and the impact of Cyclone Nargis, which swept the Irrawaddy Delta region in May, leaving 133,000 dead or missing.
Nyo Ohn Myint believes Beijing is the key. Having been in contact with mainland officials for five years, he believes that what China wants most is a stable Myanmar that can secure its interests.
"My observation is, I want a stable Myanmar no matter who is in charge," said Nyo Ohn Myint, who is also responsible for overseeing links with India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"In fact, [Ms Suu Kyi] did once contact China eight months ago," he said. "Our strategy is to request that Aung San Suu Kyi make assurances to China, but of course we understand that China is afraid if there is any western linkage with Aung San Suu Kyi."
He says Beijing is worried about a "ripple effect" from democracy being brought to Myanmar. "Our democratic movement happened in 1988, and then there was Tiananmen Square in 1989. Last September was the 'saffron revolution' [led by Buddhist monks] and then there was a mass demonstration in Tibet."
Long considered an ally of Myanmar by virtue of its close economic ties, China did try to push the ruling junta to allow full-scale international efforts to help with the humanitarian crisis after Nargis. But Beijing blocked a UN Security Council resolution that would have forced the junta to do so.
Nyo Ohn Myint still believes Beijing is the key to ending 20 years of inertia.
"China is going to lead the rest of the world," he said.
But he faces an uphill battle. After arriving at Myanmar's consulate in Hong Kong on Thursday with several other demonstrators, he found himself in a dark room, with the consulate having closed once he and his colleagues entered.
They were eventually forced to leave by security guards before they could pass their message to consulate staff.
Nyo Ohn Myint, now 45 and living in Mae Sot on the Thai-Myanmese border, has not seen his homeland for 19 years. Like others in the protest movement, his life has changed.
Coming from a government official's family in southern Myanmar, he was used to living in comfort. When he was five, he moved to Yangon, then the capital, with his family and, during the journey north, encountered poor people for the first time.
When he was 25, he went south along the same route. The same images from two decades earlier came back to him. "After 20 years, it was still the same. It was so poor. I felt very bad, and I knew I had to be involved in a movement that could improve people's lives."
After he finished his studies in 1984, he got a teaching job at Yangon University.
"We were always being treated as VIPs. My father was a district chief. I know we always had better opportunities. Why did I become a university teacher immediately? The first question they asked was, 'What is your father's position?'"
Nyo Ohn Myint admits that many middle- and upper-class families have enjoyed great benefits throughout the years of military rule, which also helped stabilise the regime. "People don't want to gamble," he said.
Nyo Ohn Myint was one who did choose to gamble. "During my days as a history teacher at the university, I taught comparative US and Soviet politics.
"We were supposed to say how great the communist Soviets were, but the USSR started to collapse after 1987. What message should we give our students when we are expected to praise the socialist regime?"
It was a time of great confusion and upheaval for his students and colleagues alike. Many chose to join student movements or underground campaigns.
There was a price to pay. Nyo Ohn Myint and his colleagues were warned by the director of the university that they would receive no pay rises or promotions for three years. He was not dissuaded.
The mass protests on August 8, 1988 - "the 8.8.88 uprising" - were the largest in Myanmar, or Burma as it was then known, since independence in 1948. A month later, Nyo Ohn Myint became the spokesman and bodyguard for Ms Suu Kyi.
"There were about 20 days of freedom of speech after the protests. The local press wanted to interview Daw Suu Kyi after that, and so did the overseas press. We had to arrange it."
But this did not last long. The military cracked down heavily, and the days of
freedom were over.
Nyo Ohn Myint decided to go into exile in July 1989. "Instead of being put in jail for my whole life, I would rather continue my effort outside."
He has never had the chance to go back. "I have not seen my parents for 19 years. If I go back, I will be charged with treason. The minimum sentence is 20 years in jail."
In 1990 the NLD, led by Ms Suu Kyi, won 80 per cent of the seats in a democratically contested election but was not allowed to take office. She has had her freedom restricted for most of the time since then, and remains under house arrest. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
A seven-stage road map to democracy was announced in 2003 but it has not become a reality. The military junta's 46-year rule appears as secure as ever - last year's "saffron revolution", while it inspired protests in Yangon, Mandalay and other major cities, was easily snuffed out - and the situation for the country's poor, already serious, was made worse for many by Cyclone Nargis.
Still, Nyo Ohn Myint believes that there is hope for a breakthrough thanks to the thousands of NLD members. "We are like radar. We will try to take every chance outside to help push for a democratic Myanmar," he said.
Source: South China Morning Post (printed)
