A Revolution That Could Have Been

By Tettoe Aung

While watching the events that unfold in Tunisia, then Egypt

and then Libya, I relived and felt the emotions that I have when I
have to live through the events of 1988 as a diplomat in one of the
Burmese missions overseas. Through those experiences I have
learnt the most ugly aspects of human beings as well - their
untrustworthiness.

Let alone the ambassadors- who are appointed not because of their
ability but because of their blinded loyalty to the regime - even
colleagues who were career diplomats would have no hesitancy of
sinking a knife into your back once it turned. We started out the
campaign as five and then ended up as three in the end. Those who
decided to remain loyal stole whatever they wanted and put the
blame on us.

It may be quite ordinary and straightforward to see the Libyan

representatives at the United Nations defections as the rats leaving
the sinking ship. Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s son
mentioned as such on YouTube as well to those Libyan diplomats at
the United Nations. But in fact, these are normal human beings
acting irrationally. That is, when they decided to defect they have
abandoned the conventional notion of rationality. They were voting
with their conscience not knowing what their lives would be
tomorrow.

I am certain these diplomats know that their lives will change

forever. Mine changed beyond recognition, but for the better. Some
may not be so fortunate. They may have to start a new life in a new
country and with a new social status. Some may be able to
reconcile their lives and some may not but whatever their case may
be, I raise my hat to them for the decisions they have made.

Nick Thompson in his paper “What Makes a Revolution?” assessing

the Burma’s revolt of 1988 in comparison with the revolutions of the
late 1980s, mentioned that in accordance with current theories of
revolution what happened in Burma missed one critical point. He
also said that:

“What often makes a revolution, particularly a revolution against an

authoritarian regime is abandonment of conventional notions of rationality
by a series of actors who decide they are willing to give up their lives. For
some this means protesting in the streets, for others it means throwing
down their police rifles or removing pro-government sign from their shop
windows. A revolution occurs when enough people, from different and
diverse sectors in society, say ‘to hell with rationality’ and decide, in the
words of Vaclav Havel, that they are sick of ‘living in a lie’ and instead
want to live ‘within truth’.”
The events that we see on television, on the World Wide Web, on
YouTube and so on each day about the revolutions taking place in
the Arab world is just that. The people are sick and tired of the
corruption, the nepotism, living a life that gets harder day-by-day to
get by while their leaders are siphoning off their countries’ wealth
with the help of unethical leaders from countries hungry for energy
and unethical corporate leaders of the international oil companies.

The lesson that we could learn from the people’s revolution in

Tunisia, Egypt and Libya is that non-violent revolution works as long
as the people are convinced that they can make the change.

When we have our 1988 uprisings in Burma majority of the people

who took part in these events were convinced that they could make
the change. They have no doubt in their mind that when the army
shoot they will shoot to kill just as their ‘Aphaegyi’ U Ne Win has
warned in his speech. But we lacked unity, we lacked leadership and
we lacked coordination. The ethnic who have arms and who have
been waging war against the military were not doing that instead
they were fighting each other.

However, the situation has changed. Libyan may use force to quell
the revolt, but unlike what has happened in Burma during 1988, he
will have to face the consequences. If only the international
community lives up to their resolve, as they have expressed in
terms of ‘resolutions’ at the United Nations Security Council and
other international arenas, and not just as what George Orwell said
as ‘political language designed to make lies sound truthful and
murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind’ we might have a revolution in Burma soon.

One thing to remember is that it is not just the amount of force you
use to strike with that is important but also the ‘timing’. When the
strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of the
timing. We owe it to all those who lost their lives during our
struggle; we owe it to those who lost their lives while in detention;
we owe it tho those whose lives has been destroyed just because of
a few who wanted to hold on to power at any cost. We owe it to
ourselves so that we can say to our children and their generation
that we have stood up against tyrants. END