The signs of reform are irresistible, with Aung San Suu Kyi preparing to run for parliament for the first time
FOR SOMEONE WHO has spent eight years as a political prisoner Hla Min laughs a lot. The senior opposition leader says this is the Burmese tactic for dealing with adversity during almost 50 years of rule by a military dictatorship.
“This is our character. Even though we had to live under this regime, the people are still smiling,” he says during an interview at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party led by Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
There are now strong but irresistible signs of change. Since the interview with Min, the Burmese government has granted legal status to the NLD in a sign of reforms ahead of byelections in which Suu Kyi will run for parliament for the first time.
While rights groups still complain of restrictions, the Burmese are hopeful over moves by the country’s president, Thein Sein, to reform. The former general freed Suu Kyi from house arrest, introduced limited elections and freed political prisoners. The NLD will contest a byelection at some point soon, probably early next year. “We don’t see the dawn yet, we see the time just before the dawn when things are bright and the sun is about to rise,” says Min.
Previous signs of openness have come adrift, but there is general agreement that this is the most promising period of reform since the junta seized power in 1962, and a visit this month by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton underscored this promise.
Min worked for the government trade ministry but left to join the NLD in 1988 after the junta, led by dictator Ne Win, ordered a crackdown and killed about 3,000 student protesters. The international community turned against the junta and a programme of sanctions began that have kept Burma, also known as Myanmar, isolated ever since.
For 20 years Min was the NLD MP of the southern Kawthaung township in Tenessarim, although he never attended parliament. In 1996 he was sentenced to seven years in jail. He spent his time there studying Buddhist texts and organising the opposition.
Fast forward from the darkest period of oppression, including the 2007 crackdown on democracy, and suddenly you have Clinton and Suu Kyi, the two most recognisable women leaders in the world, embracing on the veranda of the house where Suu Kyi was a prisoner.
At NLD headquarters a young party member approaches, giddy with excitement at the prospect of elections. Even though it is a Sunday, normally a holiday, there is a table full of young volunteers getting ready for the polls.
“We are seeing this in all parts of the country. Not only our members, all the people are happy about the situation, about the meeting with Clinton. We are hoping for good,” he says.
Another move, which underlines optimism on reform, is a decision to suspend the unpopular Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River, which was being built by Chinese companies and would supply electricity mostly to Yunnan province in neighbouring China.
This was read as a sign of growing closeness with the West at the expense of relations with Burma’s increasingly powerful neighbour.
Min says relations with China remain key in Burma, echoing comments by Suu Kyi after her meeting with Clinton.
Min is convinced the Burmese spirit will allow his country to prevail. “During World War Two we were being bombed, and the people hid from the bombs, but when the bombing was over, people danced. It’s our nature. From Buddhism we learn to face difficult times with good grace.”