Daily Times

“…That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security” — US Declaration of Independence.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s stand on the people’s rights is unambiguous. She says, “The struggle to survive under oppression and the passion to be the master of one’s own fate and the captain of one’s own soul is common to all races.” She compares the present Middle-Eastern upheaval with the 1988 Burmese struggle because of similar flashpoints. She explains: “A friend once said she thought the straw that broke the camel’s back became intolerable because the animal had caught a glimpse of itself in a mirror.” Such incidents she calls ‘the mirror’; the Baloch people are shown ‘the mirror’ daily and those who refuse to see certainly have problems with their moral vision.
On use of force as means for achieving rights she unambiguously states, “I have said in the lectures that I do not hold to non-violence for moral reasons, but for practical and political reasons, because I think it’s best for the country. And even Ghandiji, who is supposed to be the father of non-violence, said that between cowardice and violence, he would choose violence any time.”
She elaborates: “When the military crushed the uprisings of 1988 by shooting down unarmed demonstrators with a brutal lack of discrimination or restraint, hundreds of students and other activists fled across the border to Thailand. Many of them were convinced that those who lived by the gun could only be defeated by the gun, and decided to form student armies for democracy. I have never condemned and shall never condemn the path they chose because there had been ample cause for them to conclude the only way out of repressive rule was that of armed resistance.”
She says her National League for Democracy is not just agitating for change of government or only particular changes in the system “but to restore the whole fabric of our society that civilians might be assured of their rightful space.” The pusillanimous politicians here are devoid of such vision.
She explains: “The Burmese expression for law and order translates literally as quiescent, cowering, crushed and flattened.” And adds that, “The regime’s version of law and order was a state of affairs to which we were thoroughly opposed: a nation of quiescent, cowering, crushed and flattened citizens was the very antithesis of what we were trying to achieve.” The government here wants to impose this version of law and order in Balochistan.
She quotes Václav Havel to highlight dissidents’ role, “The basic job of a dissident movement was to serve the truth — that is to serve the real aims of life — and that this endeavour should develop into a defence of the individual and his or her right to a free and truthful life. That is a defence of human rights and a struggle to see the laws respected.”
When her terminally ill husband Michael was denied a Burmese visa, she refused to go abroad fearing the junta would proscribe her return. When asked, “Is there too high a price to pay for dissent?” she replied, “Don’t think so because if you think of what many of my colleagues have had to go through…There are many others who have paid much more, a much higher price for their beliefs.” Baloch activists continue to pay with their lives for their rights.
She understands human weaknesses fully and says, “First of all, I think we have to accept the sad fact that people are attracted by power. I have found that perfectly decent [people] are flattered when the ruling government bathes them with some attention, makes a fuss over them, and this is true for Burmese people as well as for non-Burmese people who come to Burma. And this attraction that power and influence has over humanity in general works against those who are in the dissenting faction because we are who are the dissidents, we do not have the power, and people tend to think that those who are in power must be in power for good reasons when actually there can be very, very horrible reasons for people being in power.” The numerous Baloch Sardars and other collaborators coveting Pakistani state attention are of the breed ‘attracted by power’.
“Dissent,” she says, “is a vocation in accordance with Max Weber’s views on politics as a vocation. We engage in dissent for the sake of liberty and we are prepared to try again and again with passion, with a sense of responsibility and a sense of proportion to achieve what may seem impossible to some. We are struggling with open eyes to turn our dream of freedom into a reality.” The Burmese government has recently started negotiating with her.
Aung San Suu Kyi will always be the beacon and source of inspiration for those who struggle for rights and human dignity. Her iron-willed determination, and also of all those who struggle for their rights against brutal regimes the world over, is best expressed by her life and is beautifully summarised in William Ernest Henley’s (1849-1903) poem, ‘Invictus’.
“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.”

(Concluded)

The writer has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com