Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

A Dissident's Life (2)

In Burma, one should approach the telephone with a prayer on the lips and a determination to try, try and try again. Getting through to the required number at the first attempt is such an event to greet with incredulity and an expression of thanks to all powers, seen and unseen. The post office is no more reliable then the telephone system. I cannot quite make up my mind whether so many letters addressed to me fail to arrive because of the inefficiency of the post office or because of the efficiency of the Military Intelligence. My dear Japanese teacher Michiko-san sent me a little note through somebody who came to Rangoon to let me know she has been writing to me regularly through the post. None of those letters have reached me. Other friends also send messages to tell me they have written but their letters have not arrived either. Lately, the authorities have even prohibited courier services from delivering magazines and papers addressed to me.

With such unreliable communications services, inviting people from all over Burma to an NLD conference in Rangoon is not something that can be done with ease by a secretary sitting at a desk. It requires time and organization. It was therefore not surprising that some of our elected representatives found security personnel on their doorstep before they had even received invitations to the conference. The representatives were asked if they intended to attend the conference and when they answered "yes" they were whisked off into detention.

During the week before the conference was scheduled to take place, nearly 300 elected representatives were arrested. In the face of the protests of the NLD and an international outcry, SLORC claimed that the representatives had merely been taken in for questioning and would be released shortly. This statement was partly correct: our representatives were certainly questioned. There were variations in the questions asked from one part of the country to the other but there were some which come up everywhere: Why was the NLD holding this conference? Was the party going to set up a parallel government? How did the representatives assess the current political situation? What were their political beliefs? How did they think the situation had changed since my release from house arrest? What was their opinion of SLORC? What did they think of its aims and achievements? Did they think dialogue was possible between the NLD and SLORC? What did they think were the chances of success for such a dialogue?

It seemed to us that the authorities were unnecessarily nervous about the idea of the NLD carrying out its routine works as a political organization. We saw no reason why a conference of some 300 people should be viewed as an event which would create chaos and throw the country into confusion. We decided to adapt plans to accord with the situation. As the great majority of our elected representatives were in detention we decided that we would expand the conference to a congress, the first of a series which would lay down a future work program for our party.

In addition to our elected representatives, the authorities had also taken into custody a number of party workers and members of my office staff. Other party workers rallied around to fill the gaps that had been left and preparations for the congress proceeded in an atmosphere that was a cross between a crusade and a carnival, with everybody determined to keep faith with those who had been arrested by making a success of the occasion. The people also rallied around to demonstrate their solidarity. On the weekend of the congress our usual public meetings outside my house were attended by record numbers of supporters in spite of the inclement weather.

The three days of the congress went by quickly, leaving us all exhausted but thoroughly satisfied with what had been accomplished in the face of so much harassment and intimidation. But it was of course not the end of the story. A few days after the congress was over the authorities started releasing those who had been arrested. We then learned that there had been a systematic campaign to try to make our elected representatives relinquish their status as members of Parliament and to give up their membership in our party. To some it was merely suggested that such steps would be desirable but there were cases where pressure was exerted. There were threats of prison sentences, loss of business opportunities, evictions from state-owned apartments, dismissal from their jobs of family members who belonged to the civil service.

NLD workers are often "reminded" of the possible consequences of continued involvement in politics. In the middle of the night there could be a pounding on the door that signals arrest. Members of the security forces could be lying in wait at a dark corner of a market place, ready to pounce. Life is certainly not dull for dissidents in Burma.