Zaw Naing Wynn, Australia
Not many Burmese nowadays can remember and think of Bogyoke Aung San and reflect his philosophy and approach to Burma’s freedom and unity. Especially in time of the current political crisis facing Burma today, many in large number have forgotten who he was and what he stood for.
But why so many of us did not get his political philosophy and his principles? Did we just listen but not heard them? Or we read but not understood them? Or have we just got selective memories of them?
He devoted his lifetime to the struggle for political freedom from the British and also to the unity in Union of Burma. At the same time he also devoted to spiritual improvement and betterment. He often expressed about his journeys in the search of truth and perfection and his conscious striving after sincerity and purity in thoughts, words and actions. The people of Burma had seen and witnessed his spiritual refinement and improvement in the form of his purified intention and pure love of the country.
During the struggle for Burma’s freedom, he often expressed his worries over the spiritual ‘black hole’ among Burmese youth in that time and his fears that ‘unless we brace ourselves to withstand the tide… we will soon be spiritual bankrupts..’
His devotion to spiritual betterment and to the politics and unity in Burma, no doubt, inspired many people including his own daughter Daw Aung Sann Kyi (DASSK).
At all times in the struggle for freedom from the military dictatorship, she has talked about the need to show courage with pure intention. She often referred to freedom and democracy movement in Burma as a ‘revolution of the spirit’. She has consistently spoken that ‘a true revolution has to be that of the spirit’. To liberate ourselves from the tyrants is emotional liberation is the first order. ‘Fear is a habit’, but we can nurture courage out of fear, because fear has its use.
But have we heard her message? Have we understood them? Have we seen them being taken up by our oppositions and put into actions?
Sadly, the answer is “NO”.
Recent developments and responses to the military regime’s repressive 2008 constitution and more recently to their repugnant party registration and election laws have proved that we have not heard and understood these messages, let alone embracing and putting them into actions.
We have seen many opposition politicians registered their political parties. They have submitted to the unfair and unjust election laws and process, which are disgusting to our human conscience and spirit. We have seen them surrendered their souls to the most brutal regime the world ever have.
Even foreigners and their governments, particularly the United States government, looking to engage the regime, have applauded the moral courage of DASSK and the National League for Democracy (NLD) and their political defiance to the unjust laws and unfair process. They have also declared that “the regime has chosen to move ahead unilaterally” and concluded that “these elections will lack international legitimacy”. They also urged “the regime to take immediate steps to open the process in the time remaining before elections”.
But our own oppositions have turned their backs to their inner sense of what is right or wrong in the regime's conducts. And they have chosen to cooperate with the dictators by surrendering their souls to the evils and terrors of the regime. They have registered and many more are registering to take part in the elections that lack both domestic and international legitimacies. They are feeding the evils prolonging their evil terrors in Burma.
Mahatma Gandhi was right. "Man loses his freedom through his own weakness". It is not so much the regime guns that are responsible for the failures of our struggle in Burma, but the weak and coward opposition politicians. Because of people like them we lost our dearly freedom to the military regime in 1962. We also have lost our national dignity in the world since then.
We do not want to repeat that history. DASSK and the NLD have thought through these. Consistently, she has reminded us to reform ourselves because she understands that unless we Burmese can reform ourselves and our spirits, politics in Burma will continue to be the power rule of the mighty over the weak and cowards.
The greatest moral challenge of our generation has arrived. It is time for us to heed and put into actions these messages and those of our founding father Bogyoke Aung san and our and forefathers.
Joy and happiness are not just in victories but also in the fights – the fights and struggles for the ‘Truth’. You are free man when you fight for freedom. When you attempt and fight with conviction and with heart, you will discover your true self of who you really are. When you discover your true self, you will find the ‘Truth’.
Zaw Naing Wynn, Australia
Tuesday 11 May 2010
