Burma: a year after the 'Saffron Revolution'

by Mungpi

Monday, 15 September 2008 16:08

New Delhi - With the thundering noises of monks and people flooding the streets of Rangoon in protest, Wut Yee (name changed), manager of a tourism company, rushed off from her little office to witness the crowds filling the streets. It was the 26th of September 2007, recalls Wut Yee. While in the beginning she was preoccupied with fears that kept her away from the protestors, with the demonstrations gaining momentum and hearing news of monks beaten, Wut Yee's fears were shattered. "I could no longer hold myself back. I wanted to be with the monks, and the people on the streets," said Wut Yee, the 27-year old manager. Not more than half an hour later, Wut Yee said she found herself joining the multitudes marching the streets against armed soldiers blocking their paths with barbed wired barricades. While not knowing what was in store for her and her fellow protestors in the following hour, she said her reasons for joining the demonstration were anger against the soldiers who behaved ruthlessly toward the people as well as her expectation that the success of the protests could lead to certain kinds of changes in the day-to-day lives of the people. "I didn't know anything much about politics, but I was enraged by the news of soldiers beating monks, and I wanted some kind of change that would ease the difficulties of the people," Wut Yee explained. But her expectations and dreams of change did not last long. With shots from soldiers targeting the protesting crowd, Wut Yee found herself running along with the crowd, not knowing where she was heading. The fear she earlier had crept back into her. She lost all hope - the hope to avenge the soldiers for their misbehaviors as well as her expectation of change. As a tour operation manager, Wut Yee said she earned a pretty good salary of some 100,000 kyat (about 80 USD) per month. Her salary was exceptional in Burma, where the average company worker earns about 25,000 to 50,000 kyat over the same period. But Wut Yee said that with skyrocketing commodity prices, her earnings were barely supporting her and her five other family members. "Compared to some of the young girls working as sales promoters, I was in a much better position, but that still was not sufficient," Wut Yee explained. Wut Yee said the fuel price hike of mid-August 2007 had a direct impact on her and her colleagues at the office, as they were forced to spend extra on their transit to the office, which as she says, "robbed me of my capacity for sustenance." Against this backdrop, the demonstrations led by the monks thrilled her, and she saw it as a chance that could bring a change in the lives of the people. "I didn't think much of bringing down the government, my expectations were just that the protests might be able to bring a change in our lifestyles," Wut Yee said. But with the firing of gunshots and the sight of bloodshed on the streets, her fears once again crept into her, shattering her hopes. "I lost all hope when I heard the gunshots and saw the bloodshed on the streets. I saw myself running down the street back to my office, I never thought people could be so savage," Wut Yee said. But Wut Yee was not alone, her fears and hopelessness seem to be shared by many today in Burma, a country ruled by military dictators for over four decades. A young man in Rangoon, who joined the protests last year in a sense of similar hopes and expectations to that of Wut Yee, commented, "When I saw the monks on the streets, I was so thrilled and joined wholeheartedly." "But then when the government began shooting and killing the monks and protestors, I lost hope and had to run away from the junta's spies – who are still looking for me today." Widespread support Though the 'Saffron Revolution' – as it has come to be called – of last September seems to have met with failure as soldiers randomly fired on protestors and rampantly raided houses and monasteries, arresting monks and activists, it had gained popular support even within the government's administrative system. In Mandalay, a secretary in the government's ward administrative office said she and her colleagues were secretly thrilled to hear of the monks marching in protest, and though they were unable to give their open support, they had hoped it could bring changes to their lives. "We all hoped that the protests could be a turning point for all of us, and change our lives," she said. As a secretary of the local ward administration office, she said she earns some 25,000 kyat (less than 20 USD) per month and can barely support herself and her five-year old child. "We could not join the protests, but we were so happy to hear that people were marching and we were hoping things could become better," she said. Similarly, a police officer in-charge of a township in Rangoon added that though he was assigned to disperse protestors and take security measures, he had wished that the protests could result in some form of change. "It is sad to see that the protests did not result in any form of change. Though on duty I was supposed to disperse protestors, I was encouraged to see the monks come out to raise their voices over the suffering of the people," the officer said. The officer continued, saying that while in government service he can illegally enjoy a second or third income that easily supports his family, he is worried to think of the future for his children. "My children are no exception, they do not have any future under the kind of system that we have," the police officer confided. Increased frustrations Despite successfully cracking down on protestors by raiding houses and monasteries and arresting key activists and monks, Burma's military rulers have failed to suppress the increasing frustrations of the people, which are directly linked with the economic mismanagement of the regime. According to Sean Turnell, an associate professor in the department of economics at Australia's Macquarie University, Burma's economic situation in 2008 is far worse than before the September 2007 protests, particularly after deadly Cyclone Nargis hit the country in May. "The economic circumstances faced by the average person in Burma are now worse than those which brought people out on the streets a year ago," Turnell told Mizzima. When Cyclone Nargis stormed into Burma on May 2-3, much of the country's main rice producing region of the Irrawaddy delta was destroyed, with experts forecasting that the country could potentially face a severe food shortage in the near future unless the government could effectively and timely conduct rehabilitation efforts. Wut Yee, who once held a decent job in the tourist industry, said tourism has almost come to a complete halt since the protests of September 2007, and only worsened in the aftermath of May's natural disaster. "Tour companies are losing jobs because tourists no longer see Burma as a place to visit," said Wut Yee, who eventually left her job as a tour manager to become a journalist. An employee at one of Burma's popular high-end chain hotels, Sedona in Mandalay, said the hotel had to lay off up to 40 percent of its employees after May, as the numbers of tourists and guests drastically declined. "Nearly fifty employees were laid off because the number of guests was declining," the employee at the Mandalay branch of Sedona Hotels told Mizzima earlier in June. Similarly, Burma's three popular beach resorts – Chaung Thar, Ngwe Saung and Ngapali – were sealed off for more than four months after Burma's coastal regions were ravished by the cataclysmic storm. "Finding a job in Burma is becoming extremely difficult for young people now, because many businesses are not running well," Wut Yee further remarked. "So, the only option left for many young people is going abroad and picking up whatever job they can get," she added. Signs of resistance Despite the junta's efforts to prevent any kind of opposition display similar to last September – principally by arresting, detaining and sentencing several key activists – it has failed to subdue the resistant feelings of the people. A secretary of a ward administrative office in Mandalay said that though the people do not seem to dare to come out onto the streets, the anger and agitation of the population does not seem to have subsided, but rather has only increased as people continue to suffer hardships in their daily lives. "Every day people are struggling hard to keep up with the skyrocketing prices of commodities, and trying to make ends meet seems to be growing more difficult," she said. "When the government says the situation is normal, the anger of the people does not turn on them, but that also does not mean they are all happy. The struggle to survive has left the people busy and subdued their anger," she added. Aung Thu Nyien, a former student activist who now analyzes Burma's political affairs, said that while by arresting key activists the government seems to have successfully stopped another possible round of demonstrations; on the ground it is not healing the wounds of people. "It is only for a matter of time that people can tolerate the present system, and though leaders are important in starting peoples' movements, sometimes a movement itself creates leaders," noted Aung Thu Nyien, who is based on the Thai-Burmese border. Meanwhile, Wut Yee, who now talks to people – including political activists and lay people – as she files stories on the worsening economic state of Burma, says that with the government failing to address the peoples' hardships, another round of protests is imminent. "There will be another protest with a much stronger force and intensity, because the peoples' sufferings are only getting worse and there seems to be no solution coming forth from the government," Wut Yee, who now has a clearer picture of Burma's political crisis, surmised. < Prev   Next >