Saffron-coloured Winds of Change
The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~ Stalin
Different political and democratic movements have been symbolised by different colours; different parties representing different ideologies fly under their own banners. The most recent and most notable is the Orange Revolution in Ukraine that swept Viktor Yushchenko into power.
Back in the year of 2003, the US led an invasion of Iraq, claiming that it would be welcomed and that the people longed for democracy, having languished under a brutal dictatorial regime for too long. The nation of Iraq was never ready for an American style democracy, and the government they elected is not entirely democratic either.
Meanwhile in another part of the world, a massive pro-democracy movement has gained momentum despite years of opposition from the ruling party. The pro-democracy movement of Burma (Myanmar) has been gaining since the largest crackdown on protesters happened in 1988. The ruling Junta (Spanish for “committee”) during the student protests of ‘88 killed many, estimated in the thousands.
In Myanmar, there is an electricity to the air. The people have a yearning for democracy and the nation who could have brought it to its doorstep ignored the nation and went where it was ill-advised. They have taken to the streets in droves to protest the price inflation on fuel and other goods.
They have been joined by the highest spiritual authority in Myanmar, the monks. The monks serve the people and everyday make rounds; some bring their bowls with them to beg for alms. If the offering is rejected, the monk will turn his bowl upside down, meaning the person is ultimately spiritually damned.
The monks have very little and rely on the people for support who in turn look to the monks for their ultimate guidance. Even the Junta, who may be the ruling party, have a certain amount of respect for the monks and to ensure social order remains. The Junta grants the monks amenities, for which they hope will ensure the monks’ good graces.
But all that changed when the Junta realised that the monks held an incredible amount of real power over the people. That the monks could easily influence the people and help fuel the biggest democratic movement since 1988 when students and pro-democracy activists led protests against the Junta, demanding democratic freedoms.
The monks have led protests, with their numbers recorded at the peak as 100,000 before the Junta took action against the protestors by locking down the capital and driving the monks back into the temples; locking them in. With the monks barred in their temples, the Junta could clear the streets.
The protests got their life from the monks but without the monks protests have died down.
Fear keeps democracy from coming out of the ashes of ruins.
The people have grown silent as the monks are locked up and some have been killed.
Yet the people want democracy. It’s being denied to them by a violent Junta.
Meanwhile there is no room for democracy to grow and flourish unfettered in Iraq. Secretariat violence rules that country while it grows divided along religious and ethnic lines.
Democracy was brought in by people who didn’t know what the population wanted.
The population of Myanmar longs for that democracy; the democracy brought to Iraq at the tip of the gun’s barrel. They want the democracy that the Iraqis are failing to implement. They want the democracy that the American government says should be spread around the world but instead they are ignored. They offer nothing for those who can bring them democracy.
Tragically they are still waiting while their monks are tortured and killed. The monks who showed the people the way; the ones who lit the path to democracy.
Those who yearn for democracy see nothing but bloodshed and the internal gut of a dark unforgiving cell of political oppression and those who have democracy thrust upon them show no gratitude for the freedoms granted under such a system
Stumble It!
