|
A Commentary by Lahpai Seng Raw
12 August 2019
In January 2009, Haruki Murakami received the Jerusalem Prize, a biennial literary award given to writers whose work deals with themes of human freedom, society, politics and government. In his acceptance speech Murakami spoke of the “System” which oppresses us. He said: "Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The System has no such thing. We must not allow the System to exploit us.” In Myanmar, where an unrepresentative structure of national governance has been failing us for over 70 years, we must all unite to change this. For if an unequal status quo is allowed to continue, even the small gains that we have made in peace and democratic reform will not be sustained.
We have seen the potential for real change, but windows of opportunity come and go. The nationwide pro-democracy protests of 1988, which came a year before the Gate of Heavenly Peace or Tiananmen Square protests, was such a one. But democratic aspirations were ruthlessly put down when the armed forces staged yet another "coup", replacing a pseudo-civilian government of former military officers. Then came the 1990 general election, the first multi-party polling since the initial military coup of 1962. The National League for Democracy won with a landslide, but the new military government refused to recognize it, forcing many students and elected candidates to flee to the borderlands for fear of retribution. Again, what could have been a unique opportunity to come together to change an entrenched system of political mis-governance did not materialize.
|
