What’s next?
WE ARE a people in a democracy who may not be quite aware of the nation as a gift in our life. Other people are not half as lucky.
Last Sunday, Myanmar (Burma) went to the polls last Sunday after years of military rule and news came out with the impression of it as a few steps to freedom, like voters eager to speak through the ballot.
Last Sunday was the next try for the Burmese people to free themselves with the help of a woman fighter whose father is Myanmar's national hero. In Myanmar, the Burmese people are all awed by the situation of change or transition from a time when government seats were given to retired generals, although claiming life to be democracy-oriented. The Burmese people this week are hoping and praying for a democratic return to a country which might be finally free from one-party dictatorship and military regimes.
The Myanmar military junta had agreed to have elections and recognition of the results. There was a time for elections in 1990 but the military junta refused to let go and even sent Aung San Suu Kyi to jail earlier for leading the movement for democracy. What do you think will happen next week? After the elections a week ago, the world is watching the next step in life among the Burmese people. And what's also in the mind of world watchers is the fate of the Myanmar heroine, Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 15 years. She had raised a family in Britain and nurtured two children and came back to Myanmar in 1988 to attend to a dying mother. It was a meaningful come-back, he joined the movement against a dictatorship and became its leader.
But the dictatorship did promise to give the Burmese people democracy if the opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Suu Kyi, wins in Sunday's elections. Even though she has the right to vote, the Nobel Peace Prize awardee could not run in a state of house arrest and also, according to the constitution, because her children with her late British husband are not Burmese.
The news ran this way a day after the elections, “It's Landslide Victory for Suu Kyi in Burma.” Or in BBC News: “Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD has won election majority.” An Australian news said “Suu Kyi hints at election win” for the opposition party, NLD. Four days after the elections came a news story which said, “Maynmar opposition: Poll panel delaying results.”
The news went this way: “So far, in this round, only regional assembly results have been announced, with yet more victories for the NLD.” What do you think will happen next? But my heart says Suu Kyi's fight for democracy is a win although the job is big in putting up another democratic leadership in the Southeast Asian region. She is the daughter of Burma's national hero, anti-imperialist Bogyoke (General) Aung San, who led the Burmese fight for independence from British rule. Suu Kyi was only two years old when her father was killed in his fight against imperialism. But she has his guts. The voice of democracy in Myanmar, she wants peaceful resistance, assuring the people of freedom.
Fairly small and soft-spoken in her 70s, Suu to her family and friends, is the international symbol of quiet resistance for peace. But she would be strong as a leader who cannot run for the top office but will be “above the president.”
The election commission a couple of days ago announced the results of the elections in 298 seats out of 491 seats contested, with Suu Kyi reelected to her seat. Suu Kyi's NLD party won 256 seats, the ruling party winning 21 seats.
Now the big job begins, turning an isolated country, whose economy has been “strait-jacketed” in all these years, into a democratic voice in Southeast Asia. Suu Kyi would go back to one of the books she wrote about Burma, “The Voice of Hope”.