POLITICS-BURMA: Mobile Phones, Radios Keep Resistance Alive

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Feb 28 (IPS)

Somewhere in the dilapidated city of Rangoon is a man on the run since August last year. He has sheltered in over 10 homes so far. But he expects to continue avoiding arrest by Burma’s dreaded military or intelligence forces.

When Tun Myint Aung shifts from one safehouse to another, he goes armed with two items that have become indispensable. They are a mobile phone and a portable, Chinese-made radio, to listen to such anti-junta stations like the Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Oslo, Norway.

‘’The phone and the radio are very important now. I always take them wherever I go. They are next to me when I sleep,’’ says Tun Myint Aung, in a voice with a hint of excitement, during a recent telephone interview with IPS from his current safehouse in the former Burmese capital. ‘’Through them I stay in touch with people outside, my friends, and follow the news about events in the country.’’

But his Tecsum shortwave radio has taken on added value in military-ruled Burma’s current oppressive climate. ‘’The radio has become a social weapon for me and for our movement,’’ adds Tun Myint Aung over the phone, an act that could get him jailed. ‘’It is how the messages against the military regime are broadcast by us and others against them.’’

The ‘’us’’ he refers to is the ’88 Generation Students’, a highly respected group of former university graduates who have been at the vanguard of peaceful protests against Burma’s repressive military leaders. The group gets its name from leading a pro-democracy popular movement in 1988, which was brutally crushed by the military, leaving some 3,000 protestors dead.

Till August 2007, Tun Myint Aung worked in the shadows of ’88 Generation’ leaders like Min Ko Naing, who to many Burmese is the most respected person in the country for his democracy crusade after Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate. But that month, the junta arrested Min Ko Naing and other prominent leaders of the group to curb the protests they called for after the regime raised the price of oil by 500 percent without warning.

Tun Myint Aung, who will be turning 40 this year, had to flee his home to avoid arrest. It was an escape, forcing him to ‘’run and run,’’ sometimes having to spend nights on the streets with no place to hide, that has consequently propelled him to be a new leader of the ’88 Generation’. With him at the helm are two other activists of the same group, also on the run, Nilar Thein and Soe Htun.

His first month as a leader was overshadowed by the rage against the junta that poured on the streets of Rangoon and other cities in September. Tens of thousands of people, led by the countries maroon-robed Buddhist monks, staged peaceful protests. They raised a cry against the unbearable economic woes, the arrest of the ’88 Generation’ leaders, and the continued imprisonment of political activists, including Suu Kyi. But the junta responded with force, killing scores of demonstrators, including monks, and jailing hundreds.

The events, since then, have proved as formidable: the junta recently announced plans to conduct a referendum in May to seek approval for a controversial new constitution. And mounting a political campaign against that plebiscite from underground is a challenge.

‘’There are 11 organisations we are working with to inform the public that the new constitution was not drafted by the people’s representatives. We are also warning that the referendum will not be free and fair,’’ says Tun Myint Aung. ‘’But if people want to vote, we are urging them to vote ‘No’. They have to oppose the military’s plan to get its political life extended legally.’’

A mass movement against the referendum is also being discussed. ‘’We want a nation-wide silent movement against the military. We have been contacting people in our network, through the phone and other ways, to get this message out,’’ he reveals. ‘’Our actions are to get as many people to lead this silent protest. That is how we have always worked. It is never been based on only one person.’’

The anger that the new leaders of the ’88 Generation’ have towards the regime was displayed in mid-February, when they released a statement saying that the planned May referendum is a ‘’declaration of war by the military regime against the Burmese people.’’ Another has followed since, denouncing the Chinese government for ‘’bankrolling’’ the junta and calling for a boycott of this year’s summer olympics in Beijing.

Despite the odds, Tun Myint Aung relishes his new role to lead the Burmese opposition from within the country. ‘’It is a very heavy task that we have, but it is exciting,’’ he says. ‘’I am not depressed; I am eager to try as many actions as we can against the military. This is the way to help our people and to help my brothers, our comrades, in jail.’’

Even the solitary hours that he sometimes has to endure to avoid arrest barely gets him down. For he has experienced worse: he was arrested in 1990 and jailed at the notorious Insein Prison in Rangoon for three years. At the time, he was studying geography at Rangoon University. His ‘’crime’’ was to be a protest leader in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Then, in 1998, he was arrested again and jailed till 2005. Once again, it was for his political activism.

‘’I have not talked to my parents for many months; I cannot contact them, because our home in Rangoon is under watch by the intelligence,’’ he admits, after a pause. ‘’I miss that. I miss talking to my nieces and nephews. But they are used to not seeing me home’’

At times, however, the strain of struggling to remain free from the junta’s grip leads to restless nights. ‘’If I hear strange sounds on the road, too many dogs barking at night, I wake up,’’ he says. ‘’What is it?’’

And visits to a hospital or clinics are out of the question for him: ‘’I cannot get sick. It is too risky to go to a clinic. I am always taking care of my health now.’’

Yet there is a reason that weighs in his favour if he had to call on a doctor. His face remains a mystery to the junta; it had not been in the glare during the dissidents’ public campaign. ‘’It is fortunate. I avoided having my photos taken during the protests last year,’’ says Tun Myint Aung.

But that spell of anonymity may not last long, he concedes. ‘’The junta wants to arrest all our leaders. I cannot foretell my future: if I go to jail or not.’’

Ref: http://www.ipsnews.net