If you want to know what it is like to live under the repression of the military junta in  Burma then read this book.  I would recommend it to anyone.  The title was selected as the majority of the people of Burma live in fear of informers and military intelligence spying on them – to speak any criticism or opposition to the junta is to risk interrogation, torture, imprisonment or death –many people keep silent about their views on politics, they live a life of silence.

The book has been extremely well researched by Ms Fink, who worked as editor of BurmaNet News for two years, travelled into Burma several times and made many trips to the border areas, travelling to India, Thailand and China to speak with Burmese people.  She spent a full year interviewing Burmese and ethnic people to provide authentic personal statements about life in Burma.  The words of those interviewed are used throughout the book to illustrate the devastating and heartbreaking effect of the intimidation and brutally of the regime.  Several of those interviewed had fled Burma over the years after their lives were made intolerable by the continuing persecution.  Once someone has been marked by the regime as a ‘destructive element’ – i.e. someone who has written an anti-government poem, or served a sentence as a political prisoner for organising student demonstrations – that person and their family are continually harassed by military intelligence, making life and making a livelihood in Burma difficult.

The book traces the political history of independent Burma from the colonial freedom struggle through independence and focuses on the years of military rule since 1962, including an detailed chapter on the ‘breaking the silence’ protest in 1988 and the emergence, albeit briefly, of a civil society and a people taking up the responsibilities of political life.  There follows chapters covering various aspects of how military rule has impacted on families, communities, the military life, the life of political prisoners, education and the artistic life, and religious and spiritual life and the internationalisation of Burma’s politics.  Throughout each chapter the author draws us a picture of the effect that military rule has had on the lives of people living in Burma – the family pressure to conform and not submit to repression, the communities who ostracise activist families for fear of being persecuted themselves.

When I read the book, I was some way through it thinking that this book was depressing – the persecution and intimidation of individuals and families has been continuing for so long and so brutally - and is still continuing today – that I felt that these horrors will only continue, with no respite as the junta digs in even deeper and refuses to budge an inch.  But as I read, I could see the glimmer of hope in the lives of all those who live in Burma, leaking out into society through the chinks in the junta’s shell.  No one in Burma wants the military junta and when released from the shackles of tyranny, the people will cast off the past in a euphoric dance.  The people still find ways around the oppressive censorship and lack of open communication with the outside world, they read beyond the state propaganda, produce works of art (plays, films, artwork, and poetry) that defy or confound the junta.

The book details how in every aspect of civil life, the military have taken over control at the highest level – not because they know anything about agriculture or education, industry or infrastructure – but because they want to control and dictate every aspect of life in Burma.  The SPDC want to ensure that high school and university students who exhibit anti-junta sympathies do not get good grades, irrespective of their ability.  Students from activist families never get school prizes – if they did, then the teachers would be persecuted by the military authorities.  The junta want to control the curriculum in schools and universities so that they can dictate a revised pro-SPDC history – one in which the Tatmadaw are spelt out as the saviours of Burma, rather than their enslavers!

The book tells the story of student activists imprisoned for the role in politics in the mid-1990s, who after serving a prison sentence are continually harassed by military intelligence in a brutish crude manner – asking where the person has been, who they have spoken with and every other aspect of their life – the junta wanting to make life ‘hell’ for anyone who has ever opposed them and attempt to dissuade them from continuing their opposition.  As we have seen recently with the ’88 Generation Students’, the SPDC are still persecuting those who want a peaceful transition to civilian rule.  While we may not have been aware of it those involved have been suffering this type of harassment both during and after their release from prison.  The junta does everything to dissuade anyone from participating or continuing in their involvement with politic opposition to its rule, by interrogating, torturing dissidents to obtain information and break their spirits.

Military Intelligence are also credited with building a base of intellectuals who have been turned to the dark side and given a degree of freedom to develop ideas that are supportive of the regime’s rule.  This ploy is designed to upgrade the propaganda war and the insidious psychological warfare waged by the SPDC against the people of Burma – fear of physical abuse is only part of their retinue of survival techniques.  As we are seeing with the National Convention, the entire process is one of immortalising the Tatmadaw and its role in Burma’s political life and to ensure that it remains above the constitution and above the law.

The book’s concluding chapter looks at ways in which Burma might change towards a democratic society – one in which upheaval and violence may erupt as pent up frustrations and unresolved issues come to the surface.  “After centuries under the absolutist rule of kings and decades under repressive military generals, people in Burma today have little experience with democratic norms.  Even members of the pro-democracy movement find it difficult to develop the openness and tolerance required of a democratic culture.”  The issues of the constitution and the stance taken by any ethnic groups is divergent from the centralist model taken by the regime and that of many pro-democracy groups – but is at the heart of the civil war that still rages and will rage on until it is resolved politically and not militarily.  Only in a free dialogue unfettered by pre-conceived notions of government or intimidation by a bullying junta will resolution and reconciliation occur.  Burma will change, becoming a confident world nation.  “It would be a time of exuberant hopes and thoughtful reflection… universities, markets and teashops would be teeming with people comparing experiences and sharing ideas.  In short, Burma would no longer be a place of silence.”

The Book

Living Silence: Burma under Military Rule.

2001 Christina Fink.

Zed Books Ltd. London, UK. White Lotus Co.Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand. University Press Ltd. Dhaka, Bangladesh.

ISBN 1-85649-926-X(limp)/925-1(cased)/ISBN 974-7534-68-1(Thai)

What others have said

A meticulous study of the surreal horror imposed upon the people of Burma by its illegitimate rulers.  Read this book and never forget them………John Pilger

The Burmese have found their Boswell.  Christina Fink has carefully recorded their statements and thoughts.  Now, no one can dismiss the tragedy of Burma as the fiction of outsiders……..Prof.Josef Silverstein, Rutgers University.

Particularly valuable for its study of the psychological effects of the military rule on the people of Burma.  Christina Fink makes an important contribution towards understanding the root causes of the problems and choices that the people of Burma are facing today………Aung San Suu Kyi