Shoulder-to-shoulder in Exile

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_ By Cedric Snodgrass  

All activists agree on the aim.

The methods must be many.
Different methods are complementary if used intelligently, in a coordinated way.
Different groups work in different ways using different methods.
There should be no rivalry.
All share the same goal.

“Party politics” must wait, until the time when democracy comes to Burma.

The rivals of the ethno-democratic alliance are the SPDC and its stooges and props.
How to deal with each of these must vary.
The military regime will collapse when overwhelmed from all sides.

That the present government-in-exile has shortcomings has been apparent for some time.
This seems to be an observable fact.
It is not intended to question the integrity or the good intentions of its members.
The reasons are likely to include a lack of structure within the movement as a whole.

Without a review of the situation and the introduction of structural changes to meet the challenges facing the movement, new people may find themselves facing old problems.

No one person or even group of people has all the qualities and abilities necessary to bring democracy and human rights to Burma.
Everyone has his or her qualities, his or her failings.
Everyone of sincerity and good intentions should be helped to find a place within the movement where his or her knowledge and abilities are put to the best possible use.

Unity is not produced out of a hat by a conjurer.
It is built, little by little, by working together for a common cause.

Of course, there will be disagreements. There always are.
Their resolution depends upon calling to mind the purpose all activists serve.

Of course, there exist people whose self-interest comes before all; others who are being manipulated by the enemy; and some who are enemy agents. There is great benefit in marginalising such people. There are doubtless not many of them. But, while few in number, they can do great damage.

One should ask:

What is the purpose of a government-in-exile ?

The answer to this question will help decide what a government-in-exile should be, what it should do, and how it should do it.

Clearly, a government-in-exile is very different in nature to a government.
Its purpose is also different.
For example, it has no power. It has no authority, other than a moral one.
In the case of the Burmese government-in-exile, its financial resources are pitiful.

Yet in so far as possible, it needs to act like a government—to maintain a pretence, as it were—to try to gain acceptance by governments and other international bodies. In this, all exiled Burmese have a part to play, while the regime will do its best to prevent it.

As to its purpose, here are a few suggestions, which others can add to:

1. Representation on the international scene of the interests of the people and of the sovereignty (which belongs to the people) of an occupied country. Burma is militarily occupied—not by a foreign power, but by its own armed forces which have taken over all functions of government, both national and local.

2. Encourage the people in the country and assist them to resist in ways that are appropriate to the circumstances, to help them regain their freedom.

3. Assist and help to coordinate the work of exile-based groups working inside and outside the country, which are working—in any number of different ways—for its liberation.

4. Obtain assistance of whatever kind from foreign powers and organisations for the purpose of liberating the country.

5. Encourage aid from abroad for the people of the country for their immediate or longer-term welfare: food, health services, education.

A government-in-exile needs to be accountable to major groups that are actively working in one way or another for ethnic and democratic rights. There must be two-way communication. In fact, there must be more than this. It must integrate the work it does with the work done by the movement’s organisations, and in so doing not only draw them closer to itself, but also closer to one another.
We are living in The Age of Communications.

The government-in-exile needs to be able to inspire the Burmese, both those living inside and outside the country: a leadership of ideas and ideals. Not easy. Because it must not be empty rhetoric.

But it must also pursue consistent policies, and—while being open to change—must not be too easily deflected from those policies.

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