Living Silence in Burma (46 page)

    
Burmese Citizens – Beware!

    The Muslims living in Burma are attempting to expand their religion while destroying Buddhism in Burma by using the following ways:

        1)  Land: All the land in the country shall be owned by the Muslims.

        2)  Money: To organize Buddhists to become Muslims using the power of money.

        3)  Women: To organize Buddhist women to get married with Muslims using money and other ways.

        4)  Doctrine: To preach Muslim doctrine in every place.

        5)  State power: After successfully using these above methods and [the] majority of the people become Muslim, to take state power.
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Although many people realize that these pamphlets are intended to incite unrest, some people still fall for them every time, and the damage done leaves a legacy of bitterness.

The authorities have often prevented Muslims from building new mosques or even making repairs to historic mosques in some of the larger towns.
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Muslims, like Christians, have also sometimes had to donate cash and labour to the building of Buddhist pagodas.

In more extreme cases, the military has sought to drive Muslims out of Burma, such as during the 1997
tatmadaw
offensive against the Karen National Union.
Tatmadaw
soldiers looted and destroyed the mosques in many of the towns and villages where the KNU had previously operated.
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One Muslim man was getting water from a well in front of a mosque in his village when
tatmadaw
soldiers came out of the mosque ripping up the Koran. He said, ‘They threw the pieces of the Koran on the street. When the Muslim women on the street saw this, they cried and felt such pain. The soldiers said, “Don’t cry! This is not a Muslim country. This is a Buddhist country! Go away!”’
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In other cases Muslims were killed. As a result of the campaign to clear the area of Muslims, hundreds of Muslims fled with Karen villagers across the border into Thailand.

The Muslim Rohingya community in Northern Arakan State has been particularly targeted. A heavy-handed
tatmadaw
operation in the area drove 200,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh in 1978, and a
tatmadaw
-orchestrated
forced-relocation programme in 1991 sent 250,000 Rohingyas over the border. Today, as many as 300,000 displaced Rohingya are living in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, unable or unwilling to go back.
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For those who remain, restrictions have tightened in recent years. Besides the fact that they are denied citizenship, Rohingya villagers in the northern districts of Rakhine State cannot travel even to another village without permission, seriously limiting their ability to work, get an education or even go to the doctor. Far worse, in some townships young Rohingya have effectively not been allowed to marry, because their marriage applications have not been processed. Those who marry unofficially can be arrested and jailed. Malnutrition is extremely high, and rice cannot be moved from one village to another without a permit. All these practices are meant to drive the Rohingya out of Burma permanently.

Among local Buddhist Rakhines and the Burmese population in general, there is little apparent sympathy for the Rohingyas’ plight. The regime has been able to play off different populations against each other, and although those opposed to military rule know that they must be unified, they have often fallen victim to their own fears and prejudices. Among the exiled groups, a desire to keep the largely anti-Rohingya Arakanese organizations in their alliances led other groups to stay quiet for many years, although the policy has changed among some of the alliances in recent years. Notably, there are several Muslims from various areas of Burma in the NLD. They clearly hope that a democratic government would stop much of the discrimination they have experienced under military rule.

As much as the junta has promoted the Buddhist religion, even ethnic minority Buddhists are dissatisfied with the regime’s explicitly Burman version of Buddhism. Mon and Shan monks have faced difficulties in distributing literature in their own languages, and in some cases they have been prohibited from taking Buddhist exams in their own languages. Shan people were furious when SLORC authorities took over the funeral arrangements for a famous Shan monk who died in Hsipaw in the mid-1990s. The entire ceremony was Burmanized, from the design of the structure holding the coffin to the way he was cremated. Likewise, when the regime restored a famous Shan temple in Hsipaw, the Shan-style roof was replaced with a Burmese-style one. Thus, the regime has attempted to impose a homogeneous culture that is both Buddhist and Burman, and while this policy has offended many, from members of other religions to members of other ethnic nationalities, they have found it difficult to unite in opposition.
¹⁸

Fortune-telling and sympathetic magic

While Buddhism preaches the importance of realizing the impermanence of all living things, many Burmese are attached to beliefs in the power of spirits, the planets and magic to affect their present lives. Even the most devout Burmese Buddhists do not necessarily deny the existence of such forces, but insist that whether they exist or not is irrelevant in the larger quest for enlightenment. Thus, the brother and sister spirits whose shrine is on Mount Popa (described in
Chapter 1
) continue to be propitiated in return for protection. Some of the most devoted followers are military generals and especially their wives. This is because the pattern of those in power removing potential rivals continues, and generals vying for the top slots are in the most precarious positions of all.

Numerous books and magazines are devoted to fortune-telling and astrology and sell well. Besides including stories of magical occurrences and special powers, they feature in-depth coverage of horoscopes and antidotes to the troubles that might befall the readers. The simplicity of many of the
yadaya
– or cheating fate – techniques helps people feel they can do something concrete to assert control over their lives. During the 1988 demonstrations, for instance, one mother had her sons eat bowls of
mohingha
, a fish-and-noodle soup that was often served at funerals. This was her own brand of cheating fate. She reasoned that if they ate the funeral food before joining the demonstrations, they would not be killed.

The SLORC and SPDC also apparently tried to thwart the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi through astrological means. According to one person working with the Education Ministry, in 1996 the regime reportedly changed the rules for the beauty contests held at annual school sports competitions. The officials were told to eliminate any girls whose astrological charts predicted strong leadership potential, because this was associated with Aung San Suu Kyi assuming power.

In March 1999, an apocryphal story about Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt’s test to predict Burma’s political future was whispered from person to person in Rangoon. It went like this:

    As rain fell during the recent full-moon day of the hottest and driest month of the Burmese calendar, a story about Khin Nyunt started spreading. According to this story, Khin Nyunt climbed up to the top part of the Shwedagon Pagoda at 4.00 a.m. He placed a lion made of mud and a peacock made of wax at the top part of the pagoda, and vowed that the peacock should dissolve and the lion get harder as a sign that he will
continue to rule the country. On the other hand, if Aung San Suu Kyi were going to rule the country, the lion would dissolve and the peacock would get harder. Many people thought the peacock would dissolve as the weather was very hot. But unexpectedly, it started raining around 11.00 a.m., and it lasted until the evening. Finally, the figure of the lion dissolved, while the peacock became harder.
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This story bolstered the spirits of the beleaguered opposition, but other tales seem to favour the regime. A 2007 story spoke of General Than Shwe’s wife, Kyaing Kyaing, going to Shwedagon Pagoda in a wheelchair and circling the middle level of the pagoda, declaring, ‘
ma hsin bu, ma hsin bu, ma hsin bu
’, meaning ‘I/we won’t step down, won’t step down, won’t step down’. I asked May Hlaing, the well-educated woman who told me this, whether it wasn’t just a rumour. But she said assuredly, ‘Some rumours are true.’ Whether true or not, it reflects the understanding of Burmese citizens that General Than Shwe (and his wife) are determined to remain in power at all costs.

Because of the widespread belief in the potential efficacy of
yadaya
, people in Burma expect that the generals engage in such actions. As noted earlier, General Ne Win frequently turned to magic to strengthen his hold on power. Such tales, however, may also be part of ‘whispering campaigns’, where one side tries to derail the other by the use of rumours. This technique has been used by the authorities and people opposed to military rule, although there is no evidence that the NLD leadership has resorted to this. With facts always hard to come by, such stories spread quickly.

Choosing auspicious dates and numbers has been a subject of intense concern for the military regime and pro-democracy activists alike. According to one older male fortune-teller who takes his job quite seriously: ‘The military officers think that it is better to act by calculating things according to astrology than doing things haphazardly.’ He said they are right and the NLD should do the same. He thought that the NLD should use astrological calculations to determine when they should hold their meetings and undertake organizing trips, so that these would be successful. He said, ‘If they have to face their enemy the SPDC, [they should calculate] what day and what time will be advantageous for them.’ Although he thought that Aung San Suu Kyi herself did not consult astrologers, he was sure that others in the NLD did. He said that he certainly hoped so, because it could help them.

Moreover, the astrologer recommended that Aung San Suu Kyi should
stay away from the number 8, which is not a lucky number. He said that the chances of success on an 8 date are very low. Instead she should counter the regime with 9 or 12. One prominent student activist said that a couple of fortune-tellers had also warned his group about the inauspiciousness of the number 8. Thus, if a political anniversary fell on an 8, his group dated its statement the day before or the day after.

Similarly, the exile community, and some activists inside Burma, tried to promote the idea of launching a new mass movement on ‘9/9/99’, or 9 September 1999. Numerologically, this was an extremely auspicious date. The military regime was well prepared, however, and had posted military personnel in all public areas where people might gather. Up to five hundred activists, monks and NLD members were arrested or detained in the six weeks preceding 9/9/99. A few small protests broke out but were quickly dispersed.

In consultation with astrologers, first General Ne Win and later the SLORC chose 9 as their lucky number. Nine is also the special number of the
nats
, and thus is strongly associated with power. As a result, the regime at one point issued currency notes in denominations of 45 kyats and 90 kyats, which at least can be credited with keeping the population’s maths skills up. The SLORC staged its coup on 18 September, with September being the ninth month, and the eighteenth also representing a nine, because 1 + 8 = 9.

Likewise, the SLORC sought to guarantee that the National Convention would work in its favour by carefully putting delegates into groupings whose total numbers equalled nine. There were eighty-one NLD members plus eighteen other elected representatives from various parties. Each of these added up equals nine, and the two numbers added together (81 + 18) equal 99, which if added again equals 18, and 1 + 8 = 9. Then there were 603 appointed representatives, 6 + 0 + 3 = 9. The total number of delegates was 702, which again equals 9.

This was pointed out to me by a citizen-sleuth who revelled in uncovering the regime’s magical activities. He also showed me the 1-kyat notes issued by the SLORC, which appear to have four 8s inside the numeral 1. When the bill is turned sideways, the 1 resembles a chair, which symbolizes ruling power. The meaning, he said, was that the regime had overcome the pro-democracy movement. Whether or not the regime really intended this is not the key issue. The point is that people are reading meanings into everything around them, and that the psychological battle for political ascendancy is a critical part of the struggle.

Many citizens suspect that the generals have the ability to effectively
use
yadaya
, astrology and numerology to prolong their rule.
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They may also offer such explanations when the regime seems particularly strong and they are feeling that to challenge it would be futile. Some astrologers have even suggested that one reason Burma has suffered so long under military rule is because an inappropriate date was selected for independence. U Nu’s astrologers chose 4.20 a.m. on 4 January 1948. The problem was that the planet of Mars was ascendant during January, and Mars symbolizes the military. According to the fortune-teller, the astrologers couldn’t ask the nationalist leaders to delay independence another month, so they had to select the least bad day in January. Again, the degree of truth of such statements is not really important. They are useful as a barometer for people’s readings of the current balance of power and their confidence in their own ability to act.

Spirits of the dead

As hard as the regime tries to control the living, it must also confront the dead. In 1996, the SLORC ordered the digging up of Kyandaw cemetery in Rangoon, so it could sell the land for a large sum of money.
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This large cemetery contained the graves of people from different faiths, and surviving family members were extremely upset about having to move the remains of their ancestors to a distant cemetery outside the city. For many it was also a big financial burden, because they had to pay the unearthing fee, transportation charges and then a reburial fee at the new site. For others, their religious beliefs forbade the exhumation.