In 1997 I visited Burma (now Myanmar) as a backpacker. I had three weeks to travel from Rangoon (now Yangon) to Mandalay and further north. I traveled there because of friend of mine recommended it and he drew me a somewhat off the beaten track map of where to go and what to look for.

He said, people will approach you in the marketplace and invite you to their homes for dinner. If they do, be sure to bring something really expensive as a gift, because they will spend a month’s salary to feed you. And don’t eat it all; say you’re full quickly, or they will keep offering you food until it’s gone and they’ll go to bed hungry.

So, a friend and I were in Mandalay and we did talk to ordinary people and go to their homes for dinner. I had already lived in Asia for almost two years as an English teacher when I traveled to Myanmar, and I almost never got sick from what I ate. But, obviously, we didn’t visit people for the food but for the conversation. And we brought expensive gifts. People in Myanmar are literally hungry, but also mentally starving for international news. They wanted to tell their stories and to hear how Myanmar was being talked about abroad. They showed me pictures of Aung San Su Kyi, also referring to her as The Lady, and Daw which means Aunt, but is used as an honorary title. They told me if I ever came back to Burma they hoped I would bring books about Burma for them to read. Living in one of the most isolated, closed-off societies in the world, it was like they just wanted proof that someone outside their borders knew that they existed.

We don’t have any idea what that’s like here. And we don’t really have an idea what it’s like to love a politician like Aung San Suu Kyi is loved and revered in Myanmar. Obama and his historic election is the closest we’ve come in my lifetime. But we don’t carry photos of him in our taxis, most of us, or have his picture, framed, on an alter with sticks of burning incense beside it.

Obviously, there’s a lot of history. You can skip over the next three paragraphs if you already know it. But I’m retelling it because in our glut of five second news stories these days, we don’t always hear the background of a stories the way we might like to.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San is a national hero and a martyr in Myanmar. His photo adorns the money, he’s that famous, and in earlier currencies, in the image he even carried his young daughter, Suu Kyi, in his arms. (Later these currencies would be removed by her political opponents). After helping to negotiate Myanmar’s freedom from British colonial rule after World War II, Aung San was somewhat mysteriously murdered behind the scenes. And, after his death, instead of creating the promised democracy, his compatriots created the clever “The Burmese Way to Socialism” which involved delaying socialist democracy for as long as possible while maintaining a brutal military dictatorship, poetically named SLORC (they’ve actually changed their title now, but SLORC, in its slug-orc resembling glory, is probably the name history will remember them by).

This military regime has closed off the country to any sort of official observations by the Red Cross or Amnesty International, so the extent of their crimes have not and may not ever be fully exposed. But they use forced labor. And in 1987, one of the military dictators, Ne Win, changed the currency overnight so that most of the people, especially farmers, who kept their savings in cash, lost everything. Ne Win’s astrologist suggested, subtly that he move the country left, perhaps hinting that the socialist reforms he had been promising be delivered. However, although Burma is a former British and Japanese colony with vehicles designed for driving on the right-hand side, he decreed that cars now had to drive on the left hand side of the road. So any two driver coming toward one another from opposite directions have both of their passenger sides coming together as they pass. Which does make a perfect metaphor for the bizarre, accident-proned state of affairs SLORC has brought to Burma.

In 1990, a student uprising finally seemed to goad the leaders into calling an election. The first one in their history. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had come to Myanmar in 1988 to help take care of her dying mother, had became a de facto spokesperson for the growing Democracy movement. Her party won in a 90% landslide. The Democracy party may have benefited from the anything but the status quo vote. Even so! And yet, following this election, the military leaders put her under house arrest for most of the past 19 years. Other, less internationally well known members of the Democracy movement were put to death or served long hard prison sentences that robbed them of their youth and health.

Which brings me to my point: I know a lot will be made in the news about the stupid actions of the American John Yettaw. He, for reasons unknown, illegally swam to Aung San Suu Kyi’s home while she was still under house arrest and stayed there for two days. He has been arrested, and she has been arrested for speaking to him and giving him food. She now faces six years in Insein prison (yes, it’s really named that) where, at 63, and about ninety pounds, she may not survive the sort of prison conditions and torture that are the norm there.

But John Yettaw is not the only American to blame for where things now stand.

If there’s one phrase I’m tired of hearing in the past several years, it’s that we live in unprecedented times. All historical eras are unprecedented. Sort of. But what conservatives in this country in particular have meant by this phrase is that everything old has to be thrown out. This is the new, ahistorical conservatism. They argued and continue to argue that 9-11 changed the world so much that we had to change our principles, our laws, our government, and our ability to be honest about what we were doing in order to accommodate it.

It’s funny, as a liberal, to be part of the side arguing here for tradition. But the era of human rights has been so brief, and even more fragmentary in the application of these ideals.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s plight is just one example of how dangerous it is to change course on human rights because of any single particular war or threat. This week Obama claims that releasing photos of torture might put U.S. troops at harm. But he does not mention how much the real danger to U.S. troops exists because we tortured. We, as the most powerful country on earth, lead by example. We set an example by torturing. Contrary to popular belief in our media, our willingness to torture has not been a well-kept secret. The world, with the possible exception of Nancy Pelosi, has known about it for several years. This radio program in 2004, appropriately titled Habeas Schmabeas, gave me the briefing I needed to know that what we were doing was wrong, both pragmatically, and in principle. This is just one example of public information, but there are plenty of others. And Obama hasn’t recently mentioned, as he so frequently did as a candidate, how government secrecy and cover up can itself endanger the lives of U.S. troops as well as the foundations of our democracy.

As we watch Aung San Suu Kyi, an powerful and internationally respected advocate for democracy, go on trial, the U.S. no longer has the standing it once might have in world opinion to lecture Myanmar’s military regime about due process and the humane treatment of prisoners. Our loss of influence internationally is so huge, I don’t think we’ve yet begun to absorb it.

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Here’s a link for anyone who wishes to connect to the U.S. campaign to help free Aung San Suu Kyi.

New Update: Here are direct links to two petitions to free her.  This is Amnesty International's link, and this is the U.S. Burma Campaign's petition.

Here are other OS writers writing about Aung San Suu Kyi:

Theodora
Hazel Singer
Lucky Sweetheart
 
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And here is a link to another blogpost with a video showing some of the abuse of prisoners that is continuing under our current president, Barack Obama. It pains me to post this link, but I’m not one who is advocating patience when it comes to ending the abuse of prisoners or patience in investigating crimes committed by Americans regardless of which political party is in power.

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Poetry by Aung San Suu Kyi

In The Quiet Land

In the Quiet Land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd

In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...

In the Quiet Land....

In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.

But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.

Free bird towards a free Burma

My home...
where I was born and raised
used to be warm and lovely
now filled with darkness and horror.

My family...
whom I had grown with
used to be cheerful and lively
now living with fear and terror.

My friends...
whom I shared my life with
used to be pure and merry
now living with wounded heart.

A free bird...
which is just freed
used to be caged
now flying with an olive branch
for the place it loves.

A free bird towards a Free Burma.

Why do I have to fight???

They killed my father a year ago,
And they burnt my hut after that
I asked the city men “why me?” they ignored
“I don't know, mind your business,” the men said.
One day from elementary school I came home,
Saw my sister was lifeless, lying in blood.

I looked around to ask what happened, if somebody'd known,
Found no one but living room as a flood.
Running away by myself on the village road,
Not knowing where to go but heading for my teacher
Realizing she's the only one who could help to clear my throat,
But this time she gave up, telling me strange things in fear.

Why, teacher, why.. why.. why?
I have no dad nor a sister left.
To teach me and to care for me you said, was that a lie?
This time with tearful eyes she, again, said...

“Be a grown one, young man,
Can't you see we all are dying?
And stop this with your might as soon as you can,
For we all are suffering.”