by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Throughout history, we have seen the importance of personality in shaping the destiny of a nation. These personalities become larger than their lives. They gravitate people to a common cause driving them to overcome their local, ethnic and minor/major differences. Rarely did a social and national movement succeed that did not have that iconic unifying figure. That unique role has been provided by Daw Suu Kyi for Burma, a country of many races, ethnicities, and religions.

Burma is not an easy terrain for anyone aspiring to become a leader. It has more than its share of brutal military dictatorships that have used the most horrendous methods that beastly human perverts could imagine to prolong their bloody grip of power. The faces of rulers have changed, but the institution that rules has not changed. Gone are the values and rights that many of us take it for granted, esp. those living in the West either as citizens, residents, refugees, or children of refugees. With Draconian measures implemented one after another inside Burma, the country has become the worst place on earth to live outside war-ravaged countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking pages from history, the usurpers have utilized divide-and-rule policy to fragment the already-fragmented society of nations and ethnicities - rewarding one for its cooperation and punishing the other for its non-compliance. It is therefore easy to bemuse oneself as belonging to the majority - with very little to lose. After all, the ruling regime happens to belong to the majority. And if you are an ethnic and religious minority, you automatically settle for the worst kind of human rights abuses, unless, of course, you can play the same tune as the military thugs play or like you to play. Well, there are those opportunists, bounty hunters even from the minority communities who like the roles of Quisling and Mir Jafar of olden times, and Chalaby of our time. But, fortunately, for the victims - they are too few and far between.

It is there that the role of true leadership become so crucial. Who can unite rival factions, tribes and nations, and yet take them to a higher glory that is win-win for all? It is an arduous task requiring vision and well chalked out plan, sincerity of propose and action, motivating and fulfilling? Very few have succeeded in this epoch-making trial of genuine leadership.

Is Daw Suu Kyi that person for Burma? No one can deny the fact that she is best recognized - both inside and outside Burma - to provide that glue-some attraction. She has essentially become the face of Burma in its struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights. No one comes even remotely close to her in that role of leadership. She is uncontested. In Suu Kyi, the majority sees her as one of their own, who understands them and can talk in the same language. They see her as the daughter of their leader. How about the minority?

It is in her that the minority communities like the Rohingya, Karen and Shan look for leadership, as do many other communities that form today’s Burma. They aspire for democracy, freedom and human rights - something that has been snatched away from them by the military regimes that have ruled Burma for most of its post-colonial period. She is their hope and dream. She is their leader, comrade, and sister. She is also a fellow-traveler tasting pain and suffering in the long march to freedom, democracy and human rights. She is their last chance to redress their old grievances and elevate their status from statelessness to statehood, denial to acceptance, non-entity to entity, and become effective citizens in a federal system that respects and protects their unique place in history, culture and religion. There is none that they can look to for providing that unifying leadership.

What is the strength of the movement for freedom, democracy and human rights, unfortunately, is also its greatest weakness. That being Daw Suu Kyi. This fact is known to the regime and all those who have studied history vis-a-vis role of leadership. The Burmese democratic movement has no one to replace Daw Suu Kyi. There is no Boumedine, no MBeki for Burma that could effectively lead if Daw Suu Kyi was no more. That is why many of the measures taken by the SPDC regime are nothing more than foot-dragging tactics to buy time, hoping that with the death of Daw Suu Kyi the dissident movement will cease to exist or lose its legitimacy as the unifying force. The measures that they tout are hypocritical and part of a long term strategy to solidify their grip over power. If they were sincere to make a positive change, knowing how well Daw Suu Kyi is respected by all dissidents, they would not have ignored or neglected her. They would have consulted her on the so-called roadmap for democracy in Myanmar.

SPDC’s tactics to ignore Daw Suu Kyi on its proposed roadmap shows their naked hypocrisy or insincerity. Such blue-prints for democracy will not have any better luck than dozens of other efforts that were tried out before that did not have people’s support. The sooner the SPDC planners understand the importance of Daw Suu Kyi in restoration of democracy, human rights and freedom, the better. Without her consent, there is no buy-in from the various communities that make up today’s Burma, and not even from the majority Burman community.

Will this realization sink in with the SPDC regime? I doubt it. When hypocrisy becomes the guiding principle, its practitioners try to hoodwink all, and imagine that everyone is fooled. Fat chance!