Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

A Fishy Episode

It is traditional to release caged birds or fish on Burmese New Year's Day as an act of merit. In April 1989, the last Burmese New Year I celebrated before my house arrest, we released some doves, launching them into the emptiness above the Inya Lake on which my house stands. The poor creatures had become used to captivity and fluttered about in a dazed way before they gained enough confidence to take off. One fell into the reeds at the edge of the lake and had to be rescued and relaunched. It hovered uncertainly near us for a few minutes before soaring away into the distance. We hoped that its flight would not end in the snare of a bird catcher. Many released birds are caught again and again and sold and resold to those who wish to gain the merit of freeing caged creatures. I could not help wondering how much value there could be to a gesture of liberation that does not truly guarantee freedom.

This year the women's wing of the NLD decided to arrange a fish-releasing ceremony on New Year's Day, April 16. They would gather at my house and walk in procession to a pond near the Shwedagon Pagoda where the fish could be released to swim their lives out in peace. The Rangoon Division Law and Order Restoration Council (LORC) was informed of our plan before the beginning of the water festival which precedes the New Year. On April 15, the authorities reacted. A number of township NLD offices received letters from their respective LORCs forbidding them to go ahead with the ceremony. In addition U Aung Shwe, the chairman of the NLD, and two of the members of the Executive Committee were asked to come to the office of the Bahan Township LORC. A statement was read out: The government could not allow the NLD ceremony to take place; as the ceremony would be conducted in the form of a public gathering organized by a political party, it would have to be considered a political activity and the authorities could not allow political benefit to be derived from a traditional ceremony. Further, such a gathering would be detrimental to peace and harmony, to the rule of law and to the prevalence of order. It would disturb and destroy peace and harmony in the nation and incite fear and alarm. U Aung Shwe countered that the whole statement was based on mere assumptions and left a written protest.

The reaction of the authorities was both nonsensical and revealing. The SLORC makes repeated claims that they have succeeded in restoring law and order and peace and harmony to the land. How fragile must be the law and order and peace and harmony to the land. How fragile must be the law and order that can be seriously threatened by a procession of women taking part in a traditional religious ceremony. How insubstantial must be the peace and harmony in a country where such a procession is expected to throw the populace into a panic. We knew that what the authorities really feared was not so much a public disturbance as a demonstration of public support for the NLD. However, New Year's Day should be an auspicious occasion and we wished it to be a day of happiness rather than confrontation, so we canceled our plans for the releasing of fish. We would listen to the chanting of protective sutras and pay our respects to our elders. But the authorities had other plans.

On New Year's Day at about 11:30 in the morning, the street in front of my house was blocked off with barbed wire barricades. Nobody was allowed to come in or go out except members of the security forces and numbers of awkward-looking men in civilian clothes, each with a handkerchief tied around one wrist. We discovered later that these were members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association. They had been collected from various townships and told to beat up those members of the NLD who came in through the barricades. The USDA were assured that the authorities would be behind them. Once serious fighting had erupted, all those involved would be taken away to prison (there were several prison vans waiting at the local police station), but USDA members would soon be released. The NLD members would no doubt be given substantial prison sentences. Thus, the USDA was "promoted"from mere tomato throwers to that of thugs. (In "An Eventful Week" I wrote about the aborted plan to throw tomatoes at us; on that occasion USDA members had rubber bands around their wrists as an identifying mark.)

The planned violence did not materialize because the NLD members took a firm, disciplined stand. They did not rush the barricades but they refused to leave on the orders of the security forces. They waited for a decision to be taken by the members of the Executive Committee who had been allowed to come to my house. We decided that the ceremony of paying respect to the elders must go ahead; if our people were prevented from coming to us, we would go out to them. Accordingly, we walked out through he barricades to where our people stood and thus an auspicious New Year's Day ceremony took place in the middle of the street, near a crossroad. It seemed an omen that the NLF would not lack public attention during the coming year.