Police patrol on a street in Yangon on July 19, the 76th Martyrs’ Day, which marks the anniversary of the assassination of independence leaders including General Aung San, father of the currently deposed and imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo: AFP)
By Benedict Rogers
Aug 4 2023
Few human beings, and certainly no Catholic, should ever seek anything for a country other than justice, peace, truth and reconciliation.
Those four words are in the bones of Catholic social teaching, and they go together. They are like four pillars of a house, four branches of a tree, and four legs of a stool. On these four principles is humanity built.
And so it is in the nature of every true Catholic — indeed, Christians of all traditions — to seek peace and to welcome signs of hope.
But it is also in our nature to spot falsehoods and counter injustice.
The recent headlines that Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was being pardoned by the military regime, which had overthrown her elected government in a coup in February 2021, might have appeared good news to the lazy eye.“Pardon” and “reduction in sentence” sound positive.
But one only had to read the small print to understand that it was yet another lie among the litany of con tricks played by Myanmar’s illegal, criminal and brutal military regime.
“Unless there are further pardons or significant changes in Myanmar, Suu Kyi will likely die in jail”
And so — while we must always be on the lookout for positive steps, and always be ready to welcome them if they occur — for now, there is nothing whatsoever to welcome.
Indeed, the news coverage may just as well have been accompanied by a sign: “Move on — nothing to see here.”
First, the so-called pardon for Suu Kyi is, as the junta itself states, “partial.”
It applies to just five of the 19 trumped-up charges laid against her by the regime. It cuts her 33-year prison sentence by just six years, still leaving her with a quarter of a century to serve in jail.
At the age of 78, this effectively means a life sentence for the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.Unless there are further pardons or significant changes in Myanmar, Suu Kyi will likely die in jail.So much for a pardon.
Second, and more importantly, there is nothing to pardon.All of the charges on which Suu Kyi is convicted and jailed are made up and fabricated.
From possessing walkie-talkies to breaching Covid-19 restrictions, election fraud, violating the official secrets act, and various counts of corruption, every single charge is an absurd lie.
Like many of her international admirers, I found myself in profound disagreement with some of the positions she took as she steered the country’s first civilian-military coalition government. I know that whatever mistakes and misjudgments she made in government, there is one thing she is definitely not, and that is corrupt.
And there is another thing that is absolutely clear: she and the party she led, the National League for Democracy (NLD), overwhelmingly won the November 2020 elections, securing a mandate for a second term.
Whatever disagreements I may have had over her positions and decisions, as a democrat I have no reason to doubt that she, and the NLD, are the legitimate, elected government of Myanmar.
“No one truly believed that any elections under this regime would be credible, free or fair”
So not only are the pardons absurd, they are meaningless when the charges made against her are so patently ridiculous.
The context in which Suu Kyi — and the ousted, jailed, elected President Win Myint — received these partial pardons also points to their absurdity, coming as they did just a day after military dictator General Min Aung Hlaing and his illegal junta once again extended the state of emergency that has existed since the coup two-and-a-half years ago.
And, yet again they postponed promised elections. No one truly believed that any elections under this regime would be credible, free or fair, but the regime’s multiple postponement of the polls shows that, even when it can rig it, the military fears the ballot box — and prefers to rule through the barrel of a gun.
Equally meaningless is the decision to transfer Suu Kyi from prison to detention in “a more comfortable state-owned residence.” This simply means a slightly less grim prison — but still a prison.
Even Myanmar’s previous military regimes which detained Suu Kyi for a cumulative total of 15 years, in three periods over 21 years from 1989 until 2010, kept her under house arrest in her own famous home in University Avenue, Yangon.Min Aung Hlaing won’t even allow her that comfort.
But as the world focuses, once again, on Suu Kyi, we should not forget the wider suffering in the country as a whole.
Evidence is mounting that Min Aung Hlaing’s regime is perpetrating crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, as a recent powerful Sky News investigation shows. Since the coup, it has displaced over 1.5 million people, burned at least 70,000 homes, and killed more than 3,747 civilians.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has said the junta is committing “sexual violence, mass killings, extra-judicial executions, beheadings, dismemberments and mutilations” and has caused a desperate humanitarian crisis, plunging millions into dire poverty.
According to the United Nations, at least 17.6 million people in Myanmar require some form of aid, while 15.2 million need urgent food and nutrition support.
Despite this grim picture, what does offer perhaps a flicker of hope is the fact that the junta felt it had to act at all. That it decided to offer a fragment of a fig leaf suggests it is starting to feel the pressure — from international isolation, economic sanctions and sustained domestic resistance.
It is also facing greater opposition within the country than it expected; it is in direct control of far less of the country than it anticipated; and it is experiencing greater economic punishment than it imagined.
That should be a sign for the international community to increase and intensify its efforts to cut the lifelines of money, arms and political support to the junta and provide a lifeline of aid and solidarity to the resistance.
“Myanmar’s youth will bring the change that the country so desperately needs”
It should be a motivation for all actors — governments, aid organizations, human rights groups, media, and most of all Myanmar’s civil society, ethnic groups, women’s organizations, and especially religious groups, including the Church — to step up efforts, prepare for the possibility of change and work for the release, not only of Suu Kyi, but all political prisoners.
In his message for World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, which begins today, Myanmar’s courageous and outspoken Cardinal Bo, a constant voice for peace and justice, told a gathering of Jesuits on the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola that “a Jesuit is defined by his ability to push boundaries and work miracles where others saw only nightmares.”
Coming from a Salesian, that is both a beautiful tribute and an apposite challenge.
I take hope from Cardinal Bo’s words: “As a Salesian and as a citizen of a nation blessed with more than 40 percent youth, I strongly believe change will come only through young people.”
Cardinal Bo is right.Having worked closely with young people in Myanmar over the past decade, I know Myanmar’s youth will bring the change that the country so desperately needs.
The Church has a vital role to play in this struggle — within the country and around the world.
As WYD begins in Lisbon, I hope Catholics will pray for Myanmar, pray for the release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, pray for an end to the bombing, raping and killing, and pray either for the hearts of Min Aung Hlaing and his junta to change or for them to fall.
Pray for true peace with justice and real reconciliation based on truth to sprout in Myanmar. Pray for the current pyramid of lies, injustice and conflict to collapse and for a new dawn to break.
Only pray this time, that it would be real and long-lasting, and not a repeat of the false dawn of a decade or so ago. Let it start with the burial of false pardons and the genuine changing of hearts. – UCA News
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
