Fear still rules Myanmar

Clashes between Myanmar police and student-led protesters calling for education reform have sparked an international outcry.

This week police used batons to beat demonstrating monks, journalists and students before dragging more than 100 onto transport trucks.

Images of security personnel beating people lying helplessly on the ground were seen around the world and recalled the dark days when the country was under military dictatorship.

Amnesty International’s Rupert Abbott described Tuesday’s violent crackdown in Letpadan township in Bago region as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international law”.

The incident is also an indication of how comfortable the Myanmar authorities are with maintaining a repressive environment.

It is a stark reminder that the so-called national reforms can be taken back in a heartbeat, should this military-dominated government decide to do so. The resurrection of a climate of fear, despite a government pledge to start listening to the people’s voice, demonstrates that Myanmar still faces a long and uncertain journey to an open and democratic society.

Students around the country have been protesting peacefully for months, demanding that the government amend the National Education Law. The law was passed last September with little input from the academic sphere. The students are demanding greater academic freedom and a greater say in the teaching of minority languages.

But the former generals who dominate the government are reluctant to give up their old military ways. Obsessed with power, they are not about to relinquish control over education, a traditional hotbed of resistance to authoritarian rule. Students have played a central role in many of the country’s mass protests, including the popular uprising of 1988 and the “Saffron Revolution” in 2007.

The junta responded to the 1988 protests by closing universities in Yangon for a decade. The country had boasted one of the best higher-education systems in the region, but that went down the drain when the military took over.

Today, as the country undergoes a wide-ranging process of reform, the government continues to fear the students. 

Myanmar’s ruling elite seems slow to understand that it can’t have it both ways: Reform must be inclusive and democratisation means the grip on power has to loosen.

As a recent report to the UN Human Rights Council notes, Myanmar risks sliding into conflict if certain trends are not reversed.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the country is moving towards “extreme nationalism, religious hatred and conflict”.

Lee said she observed “a growing atmosphere of fear, distrust and hostility”, partly because of backtracking by the government on reform efforts that began in 2011.

During her January visit to the country, Lee was subjected to vicious personal attacks from a firebrand Buddhist monk and nationalist leader named Wirathu, who called her a “whore” for warning about growing anti-Muslim sentiment.

In a stark example of how division and hostility have gripped politics and society, no Myanmar politician dared criticise Wirathu, aware of the power this sexist and racist monk has over the voters.

It’s wake-up time for Myanmar and its people from all walks of life. Those lulled by bigotry and nationalism need to realise that, without an inclusive reform process that treats every group in the country fairly, the future will be bleak.