Living Silence in Burma (39 page)

Bathrooms were a much-used site for political activity in schools in 1988, because they afforded anonymity to those who wanted to promote political messages. One former high-school student remembers that during the weeks before the nationwide demonstrations in August 1988, the bathroom at his school was full of political posters and cartoons. At lunchtime, he recalls, the teachers would be waiting at the entrance to the bathrooms, but they hesitated to go in, because everyone inside was shouting. Locking themselves in the stalls, where no one could see them, the boys shouted slogans to their classmates outside. Those students who really had to use the toilets were out of luck.

Teachers warned their students to stop their political activities, but most did not record the perpetrators’ names as they were ordered to. According to several high-school student organizers, teachers were often torn between support for what the students were doing, worries about their students, and fear that they would get fired if they allowed the students to continue. One Rangoon high-school student who often wrote political slogans on the blackboard before the teacher arrived said his teacher begged her class not to do such things. She said, ‘You should pity me. I’ll lose my job.’ But he said that when he went to his teachers privately to ask for money for the movement, many contributed. Some teachers did eventually join the demonstrations or at least clap in support of student speeches.

Another way in which young activists in Rangoon tried to educate students in the early 1990s was by handing out pamphlets to them on their way to school in the morning. Students caught with pamphlets were, however, sometimes arrested and severely interrogated until they revealed who had given them the pamphlets. Student activist Lin Htet and his colleagues devised a method to protect both the distributors and the recipients. Folding five pamphlets very tightly together, they stapled an instruction sheet on top saying: ‘You can pass this on, you can use these slogans for demonstrations at your school, or you can stick this on a wall.’

University students would hand packets to the school students, telling them to give the packet to another classmate. The recipient would look
for a name on the top, see the instructions and then start opening it, but because of the tight packaging, by the time it was open, the distributor would be gone. The recipient would not have had time to notice the distributor’s face, so even if the recipient were arrested, he or she would hopefully not be severely punished, because the package had been unwittingly received.

‘But then’, Lin Htet said, ‘the SLORC announced a new regulation that it was illegal to receive notes on the way to school. So the activists had to adapt. They used pretty university girls to do the distribution. The high-school guys couldn’t resist.’

Male students sometimes had the opposite problem when giving pamphlets to female students. One male activist remembered: ‘The female students were very shy and afraid it was a love letter.’ Many boys in Burma declare their love by putting a letter in a girl’s book-bag on her way home from school, so the activists had to reassure the girls that they weren’t giving them love letters but pamphlets which they could read and pass on to friends.

Other techniques that students used to distribute pamphlets included leaving a stack on top of a bus, so that when it pulled out, the pamphlets would scatter in all directions and could be picked up by curious bystanders. Lin Htet and his friends also relied on what they called the ‘Shelley method’, named after the Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In the early 1800s, Shelley sent out pamphlets promoting atheism to academics and clerics around Oxford. Burmese students in Rangoon also sent pamphlets by post, selecting addresses from the telephone book, which Lin Htet referred to as ‘the activist’s best friend’. Sometimes military intelligence, who read the mail selectively, caught the pamphlets, but the students tried to ensure that at least some got through by using several different kinds of envelopes.

Lin Htet and his group also made pamphlets with questions about student issues, such as: ‘Are you satisfied with the education system? Do you want to change it? Check the boxes “yes” or “no” and send [the pamphlet] back to this address.’ The pamphlet-writers wanted the readers to take at least a small action in support of their beliefs. Following that, they sent out another questionnaire, saying, ‘If you still support the NLD, check this box and send it to BBC, VOA and the NLD.’

Before 1988, most pamphlets and political literature were ‘printed’ individually, using a fluorescent tube. Although there were mimeograph machines in government offices at the time, students didn’t dare use them for political pamphlets. Since the late 1990s, computer use has become
more widespread and political literature can be far more easily printed and distributed through CDs and other means as well as on paper.

The students’ political discussions at tea shops and the writing and distribution of pamphlets may seem like trivial activities in the face of a determined military regime, but because of the key role that students have played in political movements in the past, the authorities treat those distributing even the most rudimentary political literature harshly. The generals understand that if people do not have concrete ideas about how to change Burma and are lacking leaders and organizations to spearhead a movement, they will remain quiescent. If, however, a group of committed individuals can develop a vocabulary to describe the country’s problems, propose alternatives and organize themselves into effective networks, they may be able to mobilize the general population. Many of the student leaders in the 1988 and 1996 demonstrations had previously been members of study groups or had worked with private tutors from dissident backgrounds, and some had been involved in writing and distributing political literature before the demonstrations broke out.

Although most students do not directly involve themselves in political activities, they are sometimes willing to help out their activist friends. Ma Aye Aye, who was a high-school student activist in the 1990s, explained: ‘I have some friends who are interested in politics but they are not permitted to get involved by their parents. And some of them are totally uninterested in it. But they helped my work for the sake of friendship.’ For instance, when she asked them to join her in wearing the
pinni
, a traditional cotton jacket regularly worn by NLD members, on National Day, they did so. When she wanted to stick anti-government stickers on a wall at school, her friends would help by watching to see whether there were any teachers near by. Sometimes her friends also let her hide pamphlets at their houses.

While politically active students are rare, when protests break out, other students often join in, whether out of loyalty to friends or a desire to participate in making history.

Radio, the Internet and other educational sources

Few people besides students and intellectuals read political books. A much broader audience, however, tunes into Burmese radio broadcasts from foreign-based stations. There are four stations that have Burmese broadcasts: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), which was set up by pro-democracy activists in Norway. The radio
broadcasts offer information about other countries’ policies towards Burma as well as the perspectives of opposition leaders from both the democracy movement and the ethnic armed groups. Through the radio, Burmese have also found out about the successful political transition in South Africa, the collapse of Indonesian dictator Suharto’s regime, and the democratic movement that overthrew Milosevic in Serbia. The BBC provides more international news and is popular for its English-language teaching, while RFA and DVB specialize more in Burmese news. The number of listeners for all the stations increases dramatically during periods of political activity, when people want to find out what really happened that day and what activists are planning for the days ahead.

The Democratic Voice of Burma and Radio Free Asia have also provided news, political education and cultural programmes in some of the other languages of Burma, such as Karen, Shan, Kachin and Mon. The ethnic nationalities appreciate these broadcasts, because they focus on local issues and their languages are never spoken on the state-controlled radio stations.

From time to time, the authorities have jammed the radio frequencies of the foreign stations, but threat of arrest is the main tactic used to deter people at least from listening in public. In December 1999, a seventy-year-old tea-shop owner in Kachin State was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with labour for tuning the tea shop’s radio to a Voice of America broadcast. Thus, most people listen to foreign broadcasts only in the privacy of their own homes. Lower-ranking soldiers are not allowed to listen, although some of the top generals and intelligence agents certainly do.
¹⁸

Other avenues for a political education include foreign news magazines, satellite TV, the Internet and study trips abroad. The Asia editions of
Time
and
Newsweek
magazines are allowed in Burma, although any articles relating to Burma or the trials of former dictators in other countries are ripped out. Restaurants and wealthier private homes in Rangoon and, to a lesser extent, other cities and towns often have satellite TV hook-ups, providing access to international news programmes along with foreign entertainment shows.

The Democratic Voice of Burma set up a TV station in 2005, providing, via satellite, the first alternative Burmese television programming. The station began with weekly broadcasts and later expanded to broadcasting every day. It was a major source of information for Burmese citizens during the monks’ protests in 2007.

More and more young educated people in urban areas also use the
Internet, although, as elsewhere, they primarily use it to chat with friends, check out social networking sites and download music. The authorities block the political and news websites of Burmese exiles, but Burmese computer techies often delight in finding ways around these obstacles, either because it presents an exciting challenge or because they resent having their freedom curtailed. Thus, for those few people who seek to read other perspectives about their country or to communicate with friends in exile, there are computer experts who will help them. Students, monks and others made great use of the Internet during the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when they posted accounts of what they had witnessed and pictures of the brutality used against the demonstrators. Since then, the authorities have been more vigilant in monitoring Internet cafés to stop people from uploading images and accessing forbidden websites.
¹⁹

Many book-lovers and people eager to learn English have turned to the American Center and the British Council in Rangoon. Both offer English courses and have libraries with books and magazines on a wide range of subjects, as well as English learning materials and computers with high-speed Internet connections. In 2006, the American Center boasted a membership of almost 16,000, indicating how eager so many Burmese are to pursue their own education.
²⁰
Although many of the courses that have been offered at the American Center would hardly be considered subversive in a free country, the fact that they have promoted discussion and critical reflection make them so in Burma. In the years leading up to the Saffron Revolution, the American Center served as a refuge for some political activists, prompting strong condemnation in the state-controlled press. Nevertheless, most people who go there, and to the British Council, simply want to expand their knowledge and better themselves.

Study tours, short courses and higher-education programmes abroad have also provided opportunities for Burmese to broaden their education. Besides deepening their knowledge about the subjects they are being taught, they have an opportunity to observe social, economic and political life in another country. Burmese migrant workers are also made aware of other countries’ greater levels of development and freedom (for citizens of the host country if not for migrant workers) through their experiences working abroad.

As we shall see in the next chapter, a number of Burmese film-makers, writers, musicians and artists have also tried to open the eyes of their fellow citizens and get them thinking.

9 Students leaving their high school near Mrauk U, Arakan State, 2006