Testing Ground Exile Government

…

_ by Sammy

I don’t think we need a new rival government. NCGUB has got a good foundation of international recognition. Having a new one will only spread out our power thinner. I agree with that we must to be united. If we cannot cooperate with NCGUB, no matter whose fault it is, I don’t think we can establish democracy anyway.

I think the problem with Burma is not really the junta. It is with ourselves. 1988, we took down 3 presidents, and at the end, the government mechanism was totally collapse. Remember, we had to guard our own streets every night with swords and knives because there was no government and therefore no police? Don’t forget that we did get the freedom, but we couldn’t keep it because the student leaders were fighting at that time as to who is going to take what roles. They disagree with Ma Su also. We asked for democracy but we didn’t know how to practice it. Our in-fights opened up the opportunity for the junta stepped in because we were in a big chaos.

Ever since I came to America, my question has been, “why do these American’s deserve democracy and we don’t?” Ma Su told us that we must have discipline if we wanted democracy. We didn’t understand what she was talking about because we have never experience democracy like she did, even though we asked for it because we have heard about and read about democracy.

Now, I understand the the problem is in ourselves more than in the junta. If we can’t practice democracy (unitedly) outside of Burma, we should never think about trying it in Burma. It will be like Iraq, we would need the blood of American soldiers to keep us go through a long time of learning to practice democracy.

Don’t forget to we succeeded in 1988, we just wasn’t able to keep it. So our question should be why we failed to keep it rather than how to fight again, or we will repeat the history. It is the same problem that causes us to fail in exile.

The main part of the problem is because growing up under the dictatorship most of our life span, the junta has systematically destroyed our ability to unify. We always suspect one another and try to stab the other before he or she stab us. I learned about this effect of systematic torture from my psychologist who treated me, who specialized in the way dictatorship destroy people’s ability to cooperate. We all are psychologically damaged by the junta, and we need serious healing before we can trust each other.

The testing ground of our readiness for democracy in Burma is our ability to unify with NCGUB. If we can’t trust them, we fall exactly into the trap of the junta. I don’t mean NCGUB is completely good and effective. What I mean is it is an established international platform for us to come together and work together to make it good and effective. If we can make NCGUB successful, we can make our democracy successful!