True Grit

Her Father's Blood

Aung San Suu Kyi and the Struggle For Burmese Freedom

We have just finished reading Peter Popham's biography of Aung San Suu Kyi.  It is a well-done biography of Myanmar's famous leader.  [Peter Popham, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi (Croydon:  Rider-Ebury Publishing, 2012.]

The whole book is valuable for a whole lot of different reasons.  Suu Kyi, of course, is now a political leader in what is an increasingly progressive, emerging state, Myanmar (formerly Burma).  We have had the privilege of visiting Myanmar twice in recent years.  One does not have to travel far, nor meet many people, before one hears about Suu Kyi's work and exploits in helping Myanmar change from being a military dictatorship to a democratic republic. 

What sort of a person is Aung San Suu Kyi, then?  A remarkable one, is the straightforward reality.  Try this on for size . . . .

Isolated Attacks Upon Christians in Myanmar

“Lord, forgive our persecutors” say Rohingya Christians

Brutal attacks in Muslim Rohingya Backlash

Barnabas Fund
28 January 2020

One Rohingya Christian is missing and twelve were seriously injured, including several children, in multiple attacks by Rohingya Muslim mobs on the isolated Rohingya Christian community in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh.

The attacks are thought to be a backlash in the wake of UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee’s statement, on 23 January, raising specific concerns over anti-Christian persecution in the camp.  Rohingya Christian families fled their homes, taking refuge at administrative offices in the camp, when their community was violently attacked by Rohingya Muslim extremists.

“I also met with a group of Rohingya Christians who are in a most difficult position. They told me they were persecuted due to their religion by the Myanmar Government while they lived in Rakhine [Myanmar], and now they face hostility and violence from a small number of other camp residents. This worries me,” Yanghee Lee stated after a fact-finding visit to the camp as part of her investigation of human right violations in Myanmar (Burma).

An extremist mob, in gangs of at least 100, swarmed into the vulnerable Christian community on 27 January, four days after the expert’s report was released.

The Church in Myanmar

Pastor Kidnapped by Buddhist forces

Reported Dead in Myanmar

Barnabas Fund
12 February 2019

[Myanmar is an Asian country which is increasingly riven by sectarian violence.  More often than not, Christians are bearing the brunt of the ethnic and violence.]

A pastor kidnapped at gunpoint by Buddhist militants in Myanmar (Burma) on 19 January is believed dead, according to regional reports, although Barnabas’ contacts in the region say that his body has not yet been found.

Pastor Tun was reportedly killed alongside several others held captive in Rakhine state by militants thought to be members of the “Arakan Army” (AA), an emerging ethnic Buddhist military force in conflict with the Myanmar Army.


Pastor Tun and his family [image credit: Gospel for Asia]

Pastor Tun was a spokesman for his village and his Christian missionary work made him a target. Witnesses describe the AA as “truly brutal” and concerns are mounting that more abductions of Christians are likely.

From Barnabas Fund contacts

What Myanmar Can Learn From the Idi Amin Strategy

Recovering Myanmar

It is obvious that the Muslim Rohingya people have faced the worst of the persecution by the Tatmadaw, the Mynamar Army in that country.  The generals of Tatmadaw are not reported to be particularly committed to Bhuddism, beyond the level of folk superstition.  Nevertheless they hate the predominantly Islamic Rohingya.

But, the army has teamed up with a group of radical, extremist ultranationalist Bhuddist monks represented by an organisation called Ma Ba Tha.  Tadmadaw and Ma Ba Tha work together, feeding off each other, acting as allies in an ethnic cleansing exercise.  The Rohingya are being pushed out of Myanmar.

But it's not just the Rohingya.  Falling upon Christians fits in with Ma Ba Tha ideology as well, and Tatmadaw is more than ready to step up to the plate to provide back up and assistance.

The United Nations has condemned the treatment of Christian ethnic minorities in Myanmar as “crimes against humanity” in a damning newly-released report.  Press attention has focused on the elements of the report which call for genocide prosecutions against leaders of the Myanmar Army for actions against Rohingya Muslims. But the report also highlights “similar patterns of conduct by security forces” in [predominantly Christian] Kachin and [Bhuddist] Shan states in Myanmar.

The independent fact-finding mission reported “Violations against ethnic and religious minorities in northern Myanmar are often committed with persecutory intent, in a context of severe discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds. This manifests, for example, in the destruction or ransacking of churches and religious objects during military operations (and sometimes subsequent erecting of Buddhist pagodas).” [The Barnabas Fund]

An article in National Review Online ["To Save the Rohingyas, Go after Burma’s Generals"] quoted from a recent UN report on what is happening in Myanmar.

Myanmar's Unsavoury Export

From the Golden Triangle to New Zealand, With "Love"

Methamphetamine made by armed rebels and gangs in Myanmar jungles coming to New Zealand

Kurt Bayer
NZ Herald

Narco-guerrillas and ruthless foreign gangs in the lawless, remote jungles of Myanmar are cranking out high-purity crystal methamphetamine at unprecedented levels, which top drug experts say is appearing on New Zealand streets.

Safely nestled in mountainous, dense forests, with the Myanmar authorities and army turning a blind eye, and often aided by state-backed militias, high-tech meth laboratories and factories employing world-class chemists are fuelling a US$40 billion regional drug economy.

Record billion-dollar busts in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in recent months – with tonnes bound for wider distribution by organised crime supply networks – has the United Nations ramping up political pressure on troubled Myanmar, also called Burma, and other governments of the so-called Golden Triangle region, to help crack down on the rampant drug trade.

"What we see inside Myanmar right now is massive amounts of really-high-purity crystal meth being produced, and this supply push or oversupply is being connected to high demand across the region, including in places like Australia and New Zealand, which have some of the highest crystal meth prices per kilo in the world," says Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and the Pacific regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The last three years have seen a "massive surge" in crystal meth production in northern Myanmar, especially from outside gangs moving into the territory controlled by ethnic armed groups, says Douglas, the veteran Bangkok-based UN head of office.  The mass-produced methamphetamine, widely known as P in New Zealand, is typically produced using pseudoephedrine and ephedrine – everyday cough and cold remedy ingredients. Huge quantities of the precursor chemicals are smuggled into Myanmar, mostly from China and Northeast India, the Herald has been told.

Once synthesised into crystal meth, the finished product is trafficked across the country's porous borders before being shifted through established Southeast Asian organised crime networks.

On the Road to Mandalay . . .

A Plural Army Liberates A Plural Society

For those of our readers interested in historical cameos you may be interested in the following pieces.  They are taken from one of the best, recent books on Myanmar.  That country was the scene of some of the most terrible jungle fighting of World War II.  

So, for all amateur historians of WWII, we reproduce the following:

The last hurrah for Burma's plural society was, appropriately enough, the reconquest of Burma itself, for General Slim's 700,000--strong 14th Army was as dazzlingly multi-ethnic as pre-war Burma had cone been.  One historian has speculated that the 17th Army must have "contained more diverse races than any other perhaps in history", and at its core were the Indians: Rajputs, Dogras, Sikhs, Jats, Punjabis, Ahirs, Amirs, Chamars, Rawats, Minas, Mahars, Coorgs, Assamese, Adivasis, Kumaonis, Pathans, Brahuis, Mers, Tamils, Telegus, Paraiyahs, Brahmans, Hindustani, Mussulmans, Punjabi Mussulmans, Madrassi Mussulmans and Gurkhas, from Nepal.

They were joined by a wide variety of soliders from east and West Africa, including Hausas, Ibos and Yorubas from Nigeria, Mandis and Timminis from Sierra Leone, Baganda and Achole from Uganda and Womalis from Somaliland--as well as white New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians and South Africans, to say nothing of the Scots, Welsh, Irish and English.

The large and beautifully maintained Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Kaukkyan on the outskirts of today's Yangon bears silent witness to the sacrifice of the 14th Army in the reconquest of Burma.  But the long lists of names from almost every part of the globe carved on plain white stone also testify to the pluralism of the army, even if the very society that those soldiers fought to preserve had all but disappeared by the time they reached Rangoon in August 1945.  Even so, it was, quite appropriately, an Indian solider, Mohammed Munsif Khan, who finally raised the Union Jack over the "liberated" city.  [Richard Cockett, Blood, Dreams and Gold: The Changing Face of Burma (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 53.]

We have had the privilege of visiting the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery.  It remains a sober, yet awe inspiring place.

So Much Simpler . . .

A Portrait of Courage

In early 1989, Myanmar was in turmoil.  The military government had cracked down hard on political dissent.  Aung San Suu Kyi, carrying her freedom by a slender thread, was touring the country speaking to groups of people, calling for basic human rights to be respected by the government and for free and fair elections.

On the 5th of April 1989 Aung San Suu Kyi was seconds away from being deliberately executed by soldiers.  She was touring the Irrawaddy District when a group of soldiers confronted Suu Kyi and her group.  Their commanding officer told his troops to train their rifles upon them.

Eyewitnesses recounted:

As she (Suu Kyi) was walking down the street with some followers during a campaign visit, six soldiers under the command of an Army captain jumped down from a jeep, assumed a kneeling position, and took aim at her.  She motioned her followers to wait on the sidewalk, and she herself walked down the centre of the road towards the soldiers.  "It seemed so much simpler to provide them with a single target than to bring everyone else in," she said.  [Recounted in Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear (New York: The Penguin Group, 1991), p. 340.]

It was at this point that a major arrived just before they fired and countermanded the order, doubtless sparing her life.  Small wonder she remains a living legend in her own country.  Travellers report that one can be sitting in cafes and restaurants, and locals will come up to converse, practising their English.  It is not long before they ask, "And have you heard of our Aung San Suu Kyi?"

The Rise of Superstitions and the Demonic

East Meets West, and West Meets East

The Christian faith drives out demons.  It also drives out superstition.  During the public ministry of Jesus, demonic possession was commonplace.  Modern secularist scholars have asserted that what passes for demonic possession in the Gospels was actually mental illness.  Thus, they interpret the testimonies concerning the demonic in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts to be superstitious ignorance.

There is nothing new in this: it is precisely what one would expect secularists to claim.  Demons, according to the secularists and atheists, don't exist because we can't see, touch, taste, or empirically put them in a lab to experiment upon them.  The Bible, however, is emphatically clear on these matters: the Serpent in Genesis is the liar from the beginning.  Those who don't believe in the existence of the Satan are those most enthralled under his deceit.

Deflections Into False Hope

No Nirvana

We have been reading about the remarkable life of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is at present serving as the effective democratically elected leader of Myanmar, at the pleasure of its military overlords.    It remains to be seen whether the military will retire itself from politics and government and allow itself to be transformed into a servant, not master, of the state.

Aung San Suu Kyi is, like most Burmese, a Buddhist.  But her faith is held seriously, in a dedicated fashion.  She is a true believer.  In one of her published books, she gives a brief description of Buddhism in Myanmar.

The one single factor which has had the most influence on Burmese culture and civilization is Theravada Buddhism.  In all parts of the country where Burmese people live there are pagodas and Buddhist monasteries.  The graceful tapering shape of a pagoda, painted white or gilded to a shining gold, is a basic part of any Burmese  landscape.  Burma is often called the "Land of the Pagodas".  [Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear (New York: Penguin Group, 2010), p.66.]

It is true that the visitor to Myanmar is immediately confronted with pagodas around every corner.  It is the most striking and visible form of the hold which Buddhism has over the hearts and minds of the people.

Aung San provides a brief overview of Buddhist teaching and doctrine.

Sphere Sovereignty

The Bulwarks of Liberty

In order for civil freedom to flourish there has to be a widespread social consensus amongst the governed that the authority of governors is necessarily limited.  Democracy provides no such limitation.  In its brute form, democracy introduced the tyranny of the 51 percent.  The earliest democracies in Ancient Greece--in Athens--practised just such a democratic tyranny.  If more than 50 percent so voted, the victim could be exiled or executed at whim.  Justice had nothing to do with it.

The doctrine of political and government power being necessarily limited can only arise in human society when it is known and believed that God is the Judge of all men and human societies.  But this in itself, whilst necessary, is not sufficient.  It must also be known and believed that God has appointed a wide range of authorities within  the kingdoms of this world to serve Him and represent Him.  State power is always, thereby limited, because it "shares" power with a plurality of powers; the State is one such power, but only one.  There are many other divinely appointed powers.

In developing this truth, it was the Calvinistic Dutch theologians of the early twentieth century who introduced the concept of "sphere sovereignty".  God had established spheres of sovereignty in human society, each answerable to Him.  The Church, the civil state, the family, the individual soul, the market place, the school, the charitable/voluntary sector--each represented a God-ordained and protected sovereign sphere of social authority.  The state and the church may not intrude upon family life and family sovereignty--and so on.

Where God commands the family to live and act in a certain way, the State cannot prevent or outlaw the family thus acting.  To the extent that it does, the State is rebelling against God Himself.

In an organic society, the spheres of social action are always brushing up against each other, and interacting.  There is always tension between the respective rights of each sovereign sphere.  Each free society will work out its own particular dynamic tension between the spheres.  One free nation will differ from another at the margins.   But a free society cannot remain free without constitutionally enshrining the sovereignty of each respective sphere.  There is a separation of church and state; of state and family; of church and family--and so forth, while together they all make up the organic whole of society.

Without such truths and doctrines, power tends to aggregate towards the State.  Absolutism is the eventual consequence.

Hoping the Best, Fearing the Worst

Let's Hope We are Proven Wrong

April 1st has come and gone.  And with it, a new government was sworn in Myanmar.  Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy ("NLD") and national heroine, saw an old friend and confidante become President of Myanmar.  Of course Suu Kyi could not, herself, become president because of a characteristic manipulation by the military masters who made a rule (deliberately to block Suu Kyi from becoming President).

Suu Kyi endured decades of house arrest and harassment by military rulers without ever giving up on her nonviolent campaign to unseat them. The constitutional clause that denied her the presidency excludes anyone from the position who has a foreign spouse or child. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband. The clause is widely seen as having been written by the military with Suu Kyi in mind. [NZ Herald]

Despite these, and other tricks, the NLD won 95% support in recent elections.  The challenges facing the new government are prodigious.  Moreover, the military dictatorship has reserved much control for itself.

Man's Inhumanity to Man, Part I

Blaming the Mongolian Race

In Emma Larkin's wonderful volume [Finding George Orwell in Burma (New York: The Penguin Group, 2011)] she describes the long history of tyranny which has afflicted that nation for many centuries.  Sadly, the British--as colonial masters--were little better.  By the time Burma became a colony the doctrines of evolutionism were becoming more and more embedded in the colonial mind.  This led to a "natural" conclusion that primitive native people were not sub-human.

She cites a government report at the time:

In Burma we are dealing with a Mongolian race . . . and Mongolian races appear to have always found an element of cruelty in their punishments necessary.  [Op cit., p. 146.]

In other words, "we need to treat them in the only way these brutes understand".  George Orwell served as a policeman in Burma for a time.  During his time there in the early 1920's some 20,000 criminals were being locked up every year.  He describes the horror of British run jails in Burma in The Road to Wigan Pier:

The wretched prisoners squatting in the reeking cages of the lock-ups, the grey cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos, the women and children howling when their menfolk were led away--things like these are beyond bearing when you are in any way directly responsible for them. [Ibid., p.46]

This is not to say, of course, that the British were any worse than the authoritarian rulers that preceded them.  Rather, it is to say they were as bad.

Repeated Folly

Men Rising Above Their God-Ordained Station

Myanmar, or Burma, has drawn the attention of the world's media in recent days with a largely free election and a staggering majority for Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy.  This has occurred under military rule--a rule which has persisted in Myanmar for over fifty years.  It remains to be seen where it will all lead.  We hope it leads to a much greater good for that country.

Burma was a former British colony; its economy was largely shattered as a result of the Japanese invasion in 1943 and the resulting land war throughout the country.  Eventually Japan was defeated and driven out by the Allies.

The leader of the Burmese army at the time, Ne Win seized power from the post-war elected civilian government, and the resulting military regime was welcomed by the populace.  Emma Larkin [Finding George Orwell in Burma (New York: The Penguin Group, 2011)] describes what developed from there:

Unintended Witness to the Truth

Patterns of Oppression

Emma Larkin, in her book Finding George Orwell in Burma [New York: Penguin Books, 2011] describes how the regime of state censorship applies in Myanmar.  She records a conversation with a printer and publisher in which he describes how the Press Registration and Security Department ("PRSD") operates.

The PRSD is a veritable army of "scrutinizers" headed by members of the Military Intelligence.  It has the awesome task of searching through every single printed item--whether school textbook, magazine, calendar or song lyrics--for a word, a sentence, a picture which might be considered anti-government.  Ko Ye picked up a copy of a lifestyle magazine that was lying of the desk.  Its rough, grey pages were filled with short stories, articles about moves, and profiles of popular singers.  He flicked through the magazine and showed me where censors had scrawled with a pink highlighter across certain paragraphs or, as was the case on some pages, whole articles.  Scribbled alongside each scrawl was the single word "hpyoke" or "remove".

"Why these particular pages?" I asked.