Let’s Open the Freedom Gate, TOGETHER

By Bo Kyaw Nyein
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

What Next?

It is surely good news to hear and watch the current developments in the opposition camp forming coalitions or alliances among Burmese opposition groups. But some wonder what is the goal and have they really thought it through and how will they meet the goal once they are defined properly. Thus, the question, what next?

This same question has been asked to many of the opposition leaders, and has received several different answers. I just want to share my thinking, because in my humble opinion, we are at the critical crossroad. If we have clear and realistic goals and plans, if we can visualize the end game, if we can form UNITY, and if we can execute it in a practical manner, we have a strong chance to walk the last mile and close the ugly chapter of the military dictatorial rule in our beloved home land of Burma.

Is Reconciliation still possible?

There are some in the opposition camp who still believe that there is still a chance for reconciliation and hope that there will be a place for them. When DASSK was released last year we all had a slight hope that there might be a chance for unity talks but soon all the hopes got dimmer, as we can clearly see the techniques the SPDC were using were the same old techniques they had learned from their deposed mentor, their ‘A-Phay-Gyi’ Ne Win. After the Depayin incident, we are back to square one and their ‘Bilu’ Head has been exposed. So it should be crystal clear that SPDC has no intention to relax their tight dictatorial rule or to share power with DASSK, or to allow free elections in Burma.

Ne Win Legacy

When Ne Win staged a coup d’etat in 1962, his sole ambition was to seize power for himself. He used the army, an established institution, and immediately practiced military dictatorship to fulfill his ambition. Next, he stole the word ‘Socialism’ so that he could use the tool of the dictatorship to suppress the opposition and destroy the democratic institutions in the name of building a ‘Socialist Society’. Then, he tried to legitimize the military rule by dropping their green army uniform and transforming themselves into civilian politicians. By creating the BSPP party and rewriting the constitution, Ne Win was trying to legitimize his illigimate rule and, at the same time, was trying to create a political system that would support him. Because his power base came from the military institution, Ne Win established the system that puts military officers as a ruling class. The ugly legacy of Ne Win is that he institutionalized the Military Dictatorship where the whole population is forced to support the military to enrich themselves. It is nothing short of “Domestic Slavery”

Like every dictatorial system, the base of support comes from placing the supporters in key positions. Starting from Ne Win, through all successive military governments, up to present day SPDC, the most critical key support lies with the military commanders in the field. Regimental commanders during Ne Win time and now the LIDs commanders and Military Regional commanders for SPDC. Their line of succession starts from regimental commanders to LID commanders to military region commanders right up to SPDC members. Then they rotate themselves between different government ministries to enrich themselves. Every commanding positions and every governmental positions are just rewards for being “LOYAL”.

That is the reason why corruption is basically the way of life in Burma like in every dictatorship. Corruption is the means to pay for loyalty. If one carefully study the process of Burma military dictatorship there has been no progress and it has comes around the whole circle. It starts with Ne Win’s single rule, and then changing to BSPP in a civilian form, then back to military junta. The consolidation of power by Than Shwe is almost complete and we are marching towards another strong man era. It should be very clear to everyone that the structure of the military rule is still the same, only the name of the ruling council changes.

Many among the Burmese and some foreign scholars had suggested that there are moderate elements in the Burmese army and they are hoping against hope that they will save the country from the hard-line Generals. I see it differently. Like in every organization there are several groups within the Burmese military. In my view, essentially there are 3 elements within the military: Intelligence, fighting forces and administration. The armed forces, which comprises of regiments, LIDs and Regional Commanders are the main backbone or the body of the military. Intelligence plays 3 parts: maintaining control of the population, finding money for the military through drug connections and fending off foreign pressure. OSS officers are supposedly more educated, have more exposure to Western world and have ‘WORLD VIEW’, and thus some like to think of them as ‘moderates’. In reality they are the part of the whole. They are all playing their role. Government is the bureaucratic arm of the military to implement the set policies. The only thing that can be said is that after Saw Maung was eliminated and Than Shwe was promoted, there was a power gap and Khin Nyunt played a special role, compared to his counterparts in other dictatorship systems. For example, Beria’s sole responsibility was to search for and destroy all the enemies of Stalin. Just like “one and a half” Tin Oo who played the exact role for Ne Win. Khin Nyunt has extra duties in setting policies in addition to his intelligence chief role. Nothing more.

When Than Shwe became the head of the military, most of the people who were in the key positions were not his appointees. They were all Ne Win appointees. It took Than Shwe nearly 14 years to fill many of these key positions with his loyal followers. Than Shwe may not have a worldview, or intellectual capacity, but he is very street smart in my opinion. He took advantage of the rivalry between Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt and slowly filled the key military positions with his followers. Another known fact about the Military Intelligence is that they are unpopular and mistrustful by their fellow officers. So without a proper political infrastructure, it is very hard for the Intelligence chief to grab power. Andropov became the SG of the Soviet Communist party when he used the KGB power base to capitulate himself to become the political boss. But there was a Communist party as a proper political infrastructure. The only time that an intelligence chief could grab power in the military dictatorship was in Greece in the 1960s when the Greek intelligence chief Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrios Ioannides, became defacto head of the Greek military junta. Khin Nyunt is unlikely to betray his fellow officers simply because he has no power base outside the MIS and is personally despised by fellow officers.

What Options do we have?

So we now need to ask what options we have.
There are three options:
1. Armed Revolution
2. Evolutional Transition
3. People Revolution

Armed Revolution
It is obvious that many tried this route and for several reasons we have to admit that the opposition failed miserably. Some factions, especially some ethic groups, are still pursuing this route. It is not an easy task to build the army, arm and train these forces, and maintain the logistic support infrastructure. Also, the military had an advantage because they had been fighting this civil war for more than 40 years and had gained experience and definitely had the advantage over any opposition elements.

Evolution Transition.
This is the road we all had hoped would succeed and had been walking for the past 14 years. We now realize that we have been walking in a circle and are back to square one. The May 30th event and the arrest of DASSK demonstrated to the world, especially to us, that this is actually the dead end road.

People Revolution
This road is what many had hoped for and what many had experienced on several occasions in our recent history. Yet, we failed to appreciate the distinction between a spontaneous event and a well thought out strategy as a means to remove a military dictatorship. This latter route is what SPDC feared most and, in my opinion, is the most feasible and practical route to get rid of SPDC. After 14 years of trying, this is the route that DASSK appears to have finally accepted. If one listens to last few speeches of DASSK, she had started to guide her followers and the people for confrontation, which is the start of the people demonstrations that will end with Peoples’ revolution.

The relationship between the people and government of Burma and its military rulers is just like the natural earthquake process. When two tectonic plates push at each other, enormous pressure is being built and when they are released we have an earthquake. After the destruction the plates push at each other again and we wait for the next release of pressure and another earthquake. Earthquakes are unpredictable but it is an accepted scientific fact that guarantees another occurrence years later. Similarly, the military suppression is creating the pressure within the people, and the hatred against the military rulers grows with every passing day. Occasionally there have been outbursts during the 40 years rule of the military: 1962 Students demonstrations; 1974 U Thant Uprising; 1975 Mhine Anniversary; and finally, the 1988 National uprising are very good examples. The real sad part is that these uprisings needed years to build up the pressure and when they happened, they happened in a spontaneous manner and there was no strategic plan of action to guide these uprisings to final victory.

We are not unique. If we observe at the current events around the globe, mass demonstration and people uprising in Iran and Venezuela are similar situations that failed to achieve the final goal because there are no defined political movements/leadership that can guide these countries to the final victory. Like us, they may have missed their golden opportunities to victory. At the same time, there are rare but precious victories of national uprisings employing people power. The Philippines and Yugoslav (Serbia) victories are good examples. We must learn and take lessons from these successes.

In the Philippines, there was a symbol, Cory Aquino, the tragic death of a hero (Senator Aquino), the hated dictator, and finally, some factions within the army sided with the people and People Power was achieved. The key factor of success in the Philippine was that the symbol of Cory Aquino and hatred for the dictator attracted the common people, and that attraction gave HOPE to the opposition, and this HOPE finally resulted in the army refusal to support the failing dictatorship. We have all the same ingredients in Burma today. We have a symbol and a hero, DASSK to attract the common people. We have a very much-hated dictatorship. We just need a spark to start the events that will lead to the National uprising that, in turn, will give HOPE to the opposition. With this HOPE, our ranks will grow and the movement will gain momentum and traction. We will then walk the last mile, together with the people to end this forty years reign of terror.

Yugoslav example is a somewhat different but very interesting. In Yugoslavia, there was not a single hero. Three elements that are parallel to Burma’s situation pushed the Opposition to victory.

Optor – Student-based political movement.
Twenty students from Belgrade University founded “Otpor”, Serbian for “Resistance” in the autumn of 1998, when Serbian law gave government appointees the power to hire or fire university faculty members and required professors to sign an oath of loyalty to the state.
Optor soon expanded beyond university grounds, leading a “March to Democracy” between Belgrade and Northern city of Novi Sad. In his Oct 11, 2000 report, Steve Nettleton, CNN.com correspondent in Yugoslavia quoted Jovan Ratkoniv, one of the founders of Optor as follows: “We came from all different faculties. It was chaotic at first: We didn’t have a common strategy. But in the end we just clicked”. Steve went on to report that through a series of media stunts ridiculing the Yugoslav ruler and his policies, Optor did what no political party could do—it suggested to the Serbian people that Milosevic was not invincible.

Opposition Unites
Overcoming years of divisive squabbling, the Yugoslav opposition formed an 18 party alliance known as ‘Democratic Opposition of Serbia. Vojislav Kostunica, a 56-year-old constitution lawyer was chosen as their presidential candidate.

Miners Defiant
When Milosevic and his thugs tried to rig the election results (seem familiar?) there was a mass protest and the general strike was called. Miners, once fiercely loyal to Milosevic, stopped work and joined the opposition.

The final PUSH, Uprising (Oct 5, 2000)
A Yugoslav constitutional court annulled the election result and said Milosevic should serve out his last year in office and called for new elections for 2001. The opposition rejected the court’s finding and called for the mass rally in the center of Belgrade to back up their demands.

At dawn, convoys of thousands of farmers, miners, and opposition supporters from all over Serbia converged on Belgrade, breaking through police roadblocks. Thousands of opposition supporters clashed with police guarding the parliament building. Tear gas was used extensively by the police and the military were standing by. With streaming eyes and choking throats, protesters were temporarily dispersed, but thousands more continued to flood into the capital. At 1600 hours, the protesters captured Serbia parliament after they surged up the assembly steps, overwhelming the police in front of them. Many policemen handed over their arms and joined the opposition. Opposition forces took control of the State TV station and the new transmission under the banner “New Radio Television Serbia” was first broadcast. Soon Serbia was liberated from Slobodan Milosevic and his thugs.

A capable, determined and efficient Under-Ground leadership led The Serbian resistance movement. UG leadership coordinated all the efforts and worked selflessly with one single goal: to overthrow the hated dictatorship. In other word, there was a quiet but united and efficient MOVEMENT that led the events to the desire results.

In her article, ‘Ouster was well-planned uprising”, Danica Kirka, Associated Press writer explained how the seizure of the parliament building seemed to be the act of impulse, seizing the moment to oust Milosevic, but in reality, every step was planned. Some of the groundwork for the tumultuous events that toppled Milosevic had been laid as much as four years earlier.

It is important that we study these successful events and incorporate the best practices

HOPE, UNITY AND FEAR

After destroying all the democratic institutions and legal political parties, Ne Win and his Military Intelligence came down real hard on the opposition. They not only arrested all the opposing politicians and their active followers, they arrested anyone who they deemed to disagreeing with the military rule. They formed the “5 member committee” all over the country and set up the system of informers to report any suspicious activities by anyone. After this reign of terror, many of the opposition forces became weak, and the worst legacy of Ne Win era was that the military instilled fear and suspicion into the whole population of Burma. Many Burmese, who grew up during Ne Win era, are still suspicious of each other. And up to this day the majority of the Burmese have lost ‘HOPE’. Burmese became suspicious of each other and live with fear of the military intelligence. This is their achievement and their victory and we all must fight hard to change this MINDSET.

Within the military, and to some extent within the opposition, Ne Win cleverly used the ‘divide and rule’ policy. Even within his most trusted intelligence community Ne Win instilled competition and mistrust among the key players. Dividing NIB and MI is one of the examples. Within the opposition, MI artfully gave false hope to some opposition leaders that the National Reconciliation between military and the opposition was still possible. Sometime, Ne Win extended the hand for negotiation, like he did to the Communist, not in a good faith but as a political ploy to see the hands of the communist leaders and a chance to instill suspicion among the communist leaders.

When dealing with the political opposition, Ne Win’s methods were well known. He arrested all the key leaders and the supporting followers and put all the others under surveillance.
MI harassed all the family members of these opposition sympathizers to the point that the whole families had to struggle just to survive. After 5 and 10 years of detention, when Ne Win felt that his opponents had either lost the following or satisfied that his opponents had lost their potency, Ne Win would released his opponents. For ex-military officers Ne Win would grant some permit to buy a car or offer some privileges so that the grudge against him would be lessen. Ne Win avoided killing, because he did not want to push his opponents to the edge and create bitter enemies. Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint was the rare event where he hanged him as an exemplar so no other officers would dare to plan to stage another coup de’tat against him. PDP agitators were the other exception.

Surprisingly, although Ne Win techniques were like an open book, many still fell for them, even up to the present time. If we carefully follow the actions of the current military rulers, they are still applying the methods and techniques of Ne Win, since the ‘system’ is the creation of Ne Win and they all learned their dirty tricks from the originator. Because times have changed and no country can isolate itself in this present age of Globalization, like Ne Win did during the Cold War days, SLORC and SPDC did not imprison DASSK until now, but they arrested all the able and capable leaders that could surround her or could help her build the necessary political infrastructure to effectively opposed the military dictatorship. All these NLD leaders, potential leaders, student leaders and heroes of the 1988 uprising like Min Ko Naing are still suffering in Burmese prisons. Now and then, they pretend to be planning for the smooth transfer of power, or talk more of National Reconciliation and gave false hopes to the opposition. Some still fall for the same old trick and some thought they would have a place in the future government, and unbelievably some are still hoping and pushing for reconciliation talks. These false hopes are design to achieve two goals: To buy time for the military rule, and to divide the opposition.

Many Burmese unknowingly or knowingly are still carrying this baggage of mistrust, hopelessness, and fear. This is the critical and opportune time to get rid of this BAGGAGE, and the false MINDSET that was imposed upon many Burmese by the Burmese military.

It is time to UNITE, offer HOPE to the Burmese people, and turn around the FEAR for SPDC.

Much easier said than done.
Then how shall we do it?

(1) UNITY

The first step is to form a ‘UNITY’.
That is what is currently developing among the opposition elements.
The first mindset the opposition needs to change is not to form alliances on ‘PERSONALITY’. Many Burmese like to say that ‘Poke-ko-khin-ma’,ta-yar-min’, basically it is the singer not the song. Personality should not be an issue. Why? If Maung Ba cannot work together or cooperate with Maung Hla, then Maung Ba should work together with Maung Mya.

There are 2 setbacks when we put our personality issues in front of our goals. There is only 24 hours in a day and if Maung Ba spent an hour attacking Maung Hla and in return Maung Hla spends an hour responding back, we are losing our efforts doubly in focusing our energy towards attacking our common and major enemy of the Burmese people, the military dictatorship.

We only need a Presentable Unity in the first place to give hope to the Burmese people and to our Democratic friends, that we in the opposition is getting serious to form a UNITY among its elements.

From Presentable UNITY, we need to progress and form a FUNCTIONAL UNITY, which means we can set aside our personal differences and can functionally work together to get rid of the military dictatorship.

If we can reach to this stage we will give a glimpse of HOPE to the Burmese people and the Western observers that we are serious in opposing the military government. And SPDC will surely notice that they now have a formidable opposition at hand.

If we focus on the big picture and do not lose sight of our goal, we can help form a WORKABLE UNITED FRONT.

Imprisonment of DASSK can and shall be the glue to form a UNITY.

(2) Multi-front MOVEMENT

It is an open secret that many UG cells are forming inside Burma. OWay has declared their formation and there are many individual cells that are forming inside Burma. With global SANCTIONS being applied upon SPDC, many opportunities for SPDC and its opportunist friends will cease to exist. More corruption and more suppression will follow since the military cannot give up an inch of ‘control’. The military will circle the wagons and day-by-day the ‘CIRCLE’ will get smaller and smaller. This will create more suffering and more resistance will follow and the RESISTANCE FORCES within the country will grow larger and larger.

If the United Front leaders can get connected with these Resistance Forces within the country, multi-front Movement will be born.

(3) The goal of the MOVEMENT

The focus and goal of this movement is to create another “NATIONAL UPRISING” like 1988 Uprising.

All of the opposing elements must become “instigators”.

(4) Instigating from the airwave.

Before the 1988 Uprising, BBC played a major role in instigating the population inside Burma. We now have DVB, RFA in addition to BBC.
External Movement leaders must set the united strategy to utilize these broadcasting media to give HOPE to the Burmese people and send INSTIGATING MESSAGES to ENERGIZE the Burmese people.
The Opposition should study how a LA based Iranian TV station galvanized and mobilized the IRANIAN mass demonstration.
The Opposition should recruit capable writers who can instigate and mobilize and excite the Burmese audience inside Burma.

(5) Professional Instigators

Opposition forces must train “Professional Instigators” and send them inside to organize, plan and instigate mass demonstrations. If we look just back to our current history, there were freedom fighters that successfully started mass demonstrations. Both U Thant and Mhine uprisings were ignited by one talented instigator, Tin Maung Oo from PDP, a hero who was later hanged by Ne Win thugs. When Ne Win denied the proper burial place for U Thant and the students organized the march to Kyaikasan field, the goal was just to demonstrate the dissatisfaction of the country situation and the military suppression. Student leaders did not have a plan to seize the body and start the uprising. Just as the students were gathering around the body and enough mass had entered Kyaikasan, a young leader took the microphones and gave a speech that ignites the event. He then disappeared into the crowd. Again, he was responsible for the Mhine uprising six months later. He was the freedom fighter turned professional instigator who successfully started 2 uprising against Ne Win thugs. He was a hero. Ne Win thugs later hanged him mercilessly. He fought all the way to the gallows streaming, shouting and cursing the military thugs.

There is a saying that amateurs talked about tactics, professionals talked about logistics.
We must start thinking about logistics, forming support cells, logistics cells to support these professional instigators, infiltrators and organizers.

(6) Driving for United Nations SANCTIONS

Before the arrest of DASSK most of the Western Nations set their SANCTION policies toward Burma just to support DASSK’s request for SANCTIONS. Implementation was not real strict and there are many loop holes in their rules.

After Depayin, the Western Democracies implemented strict SANCTION rules that cover financial transaction in addition to Trade sanctions. U.S. SANCTION laws are surely starting to hurt because major banks are not allowed to perform transaction with Burma. Major ASEAN players like Singapore and Malaysia are starting to turn against these Burmese generals. At this present time, only Thailand and China are standing behind SPDC. If the opposition leaders can drive the Western policy makers to take the Burma issue to United Nation Security council and if UN Security Council decides to implement the SANCTION REGIME, even China and naturally Thailand must obey to the UN SANCTION RULES. (By exercising its veto power in the UN Security Council, China could prevent UN action against Burma.)

Attacking DASSK at Depayin was a spectacular miscalculation by the SPDC generals. Until this incident, Burma’s problems were viewed as internal issues that did not warrant international attention, especially in this present day climate where the major powers are occupied with Iraq, Iran, North Korea and African civil wars.

We all had to thank the knucklehead hardliners within the SPDC, for we now have the attention of the global key policy makers. We must exploit this opportunity because this may be the last opportunity of our lifetime.

Dictators do not like PRESSURE from hostile Governments. The more they are pressured, the more they will resist. Especially like Than Shwe, who does not have World View, and cannot understand the intricacies of the global diplomatic schemes.

NCGUB should take a leading role with the help of capable opposition leaders and thinkers to think through this issue carefully and set strategy to persuade the Western powers to present our issues at the UN Security Council and take careful steps to lay traps for SPDC.

Thailand and China will support SPDC generals to protect their investments and interests. If the situation in Burma becomes a burden to their relationship with the West and if it starts to hurt their trade and finance they will drop the SPDC generals in a New York minute. China’s 4th generation leaders are more focused on their internal migration and corruption issues and are less hostile to the Western powers than the 3rd generation leaders. Especially, when they are still trying to build their support system within China, they will be less likely to take risks on external issues. Combining the western pressure and acceptance of UN Sanctions, China leaders can be persuaded. WTO is another venue to think about. If ASEAN growth is slowed and ASEAN relationship with EU and US is hurt because of the stubbornness of the SPDC leaders, Thailand will become a lone voice of support for SPDC in the ASEAN. Just to throw some more political bombs into the SDPC camp, during these critical times, NCGUB should make more noise in replacing SPDC at the UN. Once Burma becomes a UN sponsored issue, the opposition can lobby to create UN sponsored International Criminal Court, in the fashion of Serbia and Rawanda, which will further isolate the Burmese military thugs. .

Once China and Thailand support is diminished and if UN becomes involved, South Asian countries support will slowly fade away.

(7) Nobel Peace Prize Club

The Noble Peace Prize Club is a very elite and small group. Using DASSK’s status, NCGUB and the Movement leaders should approach these World Leaders to make more noise and demands for the release of DASSK. If SPDC generals cave in to the world pressure and relax her status from imprisonment to house arrest we must demand full release. If she is released, we must demand her free movement to organize around the country, to restart the Unity talks, up to transfer of power. We must keep demanding with perpetual demands to off-balance SPDC regime in the world opinion and at the same time highlight their atrocities. We cannot let go of this major stupidity of SPDC for plotting against DASSK and arresting her.

(8)Eliminating FEAR and reinstalling HOPE

Throughout 40 years of its rule, military and its military intelligence, MI, has established a myth that they are invincible and that it is a super efficient organization. Many Burmese came to fear that if we oppose the military, the MI will eventually find and crush us. The prevailing attitude is that the Burma military is 400,000 strong and it is hopeless to oppose this strong army.

I read somewhere that Hla Min, OSS spokesperson said that the strength of the army is around 325,000 and half of them are deployed for building infrastructure, such as roads, dams and airports. I like to believe this, because they need a large number to back up their support to threaten with size and to instill hopelessness within the opposition. In reality, half of the army is just an employment agency so they can draw support for the survival of its generals. And, of course, to show off their nation building projects.
I was fooled like many. I once asked an American senior military officer who has an intimate knowledge of the capabilities of the Burmese army about the reality of Burma army capabilities. His reply was that the Burmese army has some experience and capability up to the regimental level but beyond that they have no clue for integrated warfare using divisional strength and beyond. Then, I realized that we all had been over sold.

Similarly, if we take a good look at the operation of the MI, they seem to be efficient on the surface. But if we look deeply, they rely on two facts: A large network of informers, and absolute power to arrest anyone without restriction. Let me give one example. At one of the national level uprising events, MIS was looking for a certain typewriter that one of the wanted activist was using to type a certain letter. So they went to Bar Street and arrested every professional typist, and questioned them. From that, they set out the dragnet and of course they caught a few and that is how they started their case. It is not that MI agents are super-smart or efficient. The important base is their network of informers. Many of the Burmese know who are the informers but they dare not touch them because of the power of MI. Worst Burmese has lost hope.

If there is UNITY, if there is an Opposition MOVEMENT, followed by UN SANCTIONS, if there is a ray of HOPE, and if the MI informer bodies start to show up in certain neighborhoods, there are many who wanted to take their hands on these informers. From informers, then we move up to their handlers, who are the Sergeants and Corporal of the MI. Then we move up to the officer rank. We are the sea, we are 50 millions strong. They are the fish. If we can connect the dots, connect all the individual anger and desire for revenge, we will be the force. Once we get the PEOPLE FORCE, we can drown these military THUGS.

(9)The SPARK and the final mile

The country is full of ANGER of the most potent kind-- SUPPRESSED ANGER. We only need a SPARK to start the fire, and a MOVEMENT to guide it to the end, once the fire has been started.

National Uprising, like 8-8-88, is what SPDV fears the most.. They still have the ugly images in their head. They can still taste the fear they felt during those chaotic days.

The country lost the opportunity because the leaders could not UNITE and give HOPE to the people. It was a spontaneous event and the activists and the student leaders did not know what direction they should take. They did not know where to turn. And the established political leaders could not form a single voice to guide these forces.

No more. The country has a HOPE now. If there is any uprising at this present time, the people know there is DASSK. They will ask for DASSK.
Unlike Iran and Venezuela, we have our undisputed leader.

If we can start, create or ignite an uprising, the victory is CERTAIN.
Once NLD can form a transition government and democracy can be established we have reach our final goal and every Burmese will have a role in politics and national reconstruction.

But while DASSK is in prison, we cannot let the momentum die down.
We must keep the flame.
Let’s UNITE for the country, for Daw Su, for the patriots who gave their lives, for our kids, for our future generations.
Let’s build this MOVEMENT.

We must use this National Uprising as a key strategy and build UNITY and the MOVEMENT to create this uprising.

Daw Su has played her role. Now we all need to play our role. DASSK alone cannot win the freedom for the country. We all have to play our role. We, as an entity, a unified movement will create the “FORCE”, and this “Force”, will open the “freedom gate” for us.

Encircling the Enemy

The preference for Mass Demonstrations and eventually a National Uprising to topple the wicked military government does not by any means belittle the other techniques of Non-violent struggle or armed insurrection against the military dictatorship. In this author’s view, it is the most feasible and practical mode for victory. There is a large population inside Burma where people have been suffering for the last 40 years under the yoke of the military and there is enough dissatisfaction and anger. This anger collectively can become a very potent force and weapon to dispose these military thugs. The weapon is there, if only the opposition can assemble it. It is in effect, the WMD, Weapon of Mass Demonstration that the opposition has failed to utilize. Nevertheless, armed attacks by various groups, targeted assassination, elimination of informers and their handlers, special operations etc, may be necessary to distract and dislocate the enemy in our efforts to encircle the regime. If violence is necessary, we must accept that it may weaken our movement, but it cannot be ruled out. All the targets must be strictly military personnel.

Conclusion

It is an opportune moment for the opposition to get together, form a united front and set definite strategies to change the political system in Burma. It is a well-know fact that it is very hard to get unity among the opposition. SPDC and its military thugs have committed a monumental blunder by cracking down on DASSK. It has captured the attention of the world leaders and they are implementing severe SANCTIONS that will have profound effects inside Burma. No doubt, our fellow citizens will have to bear the brunt of this suffering. There will be many lost jobs, less opportunities, and shortages. With or without these sanctions, our people have been suffering for more than 40 years from the rule of these military thugs. With sanctions pressuring SPDC from outside, we need to create equal pressure from inside. We must highlight the root cause of these SANCTIONS, the main culprit, and convert these suffering victims to anger, connect the dots and channel the anger towards the creation of collective force of the people.

Effects of these latest SANCTIONS are starting to materialize. The opposition has a small window left to get unity and start the united efforts to turn these events to final victory. We missed the opportunity in May when DASSK was attacked by the thugs. There should have been big uproar and mass demonstrations. We missed the opportunity when the military failed to transfer the power to duly elected representatives. We could not and should not afford to miss any more opportunities presented to us by these military dictators. We must start to lay the groundwork with clear goal to meet the target of removing these military goons from Burma. So let’s stop talking gibberish about factions and personalities and tactics and let’s start organizing into small groups, with clearly defined responsibilities and targeted milestones and dates. It is quite a tall order and a challenge to get the unity and start a movement. But who is going to do it if we are not going to step up to the challenges and fulfill our obligation. After all, it is our country and it is our people. Otherwise we all will become the perpetual slave of the military for generations to come.
Friends, countrymen, patriots, it is our duty to stop this dictatorship and we must do it.
Let’s get united and send the clear message to our people and the military thugs. We had enough and we will fight for our country and our people.
Let open the freedom gate, together

Long lives BURMA
Bo Bo Kyaw Nyein