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Burma Uprising – Abdullah should articulate ASEAN aspirations for Burma in UN speech on Thursday

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should articulate the aspirations of the ASEAN people for national reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Burma in his United Nations speech on Thursday as any omission on the latest developments in Burma would have rendered his speech quite irrelevant to the region and the world.

Today is the seven straight day that monks have marched in the Burmese capital of Yangon, leading protestors reaching 10,000 on Saturday, 20,000 yesterday and 30,000 today against the military junta over the chronic economic crisis resulting in ever-rising prices of commodities and human rights violations including illegal detentions and mistreatment of political detainees.

There are fears of a repeat of 1988, when the last democracy uprising was crushed by the military and some 3,000 people were killed.

This is the time for ASEAN government leaders, together with the support of China and India, to engage and impress on the Myanmar military junta not to resort to violence but to turn it into an opportunity to resolve the present crisis with the support of all stakeholders, including Nobel Prize laureate Aung Sun Suu Kyi, all political prisoners, the pro-democracy activists and ethnic nationalities, to work out a national reconciliation formula to return Burma to democracy and civilian rule.

While in the United Nations, Abdullah should take the initiative for a mini-ASEAN summit and emergency UN General Assembly debate on Burma.

Malaysia and the other ASEAN nations must be in the forefront in the UN General Assembly beginning on Thursday to work out a peaceful and democratic solution to the long-running crisis in Burma.

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18 Replies to “Burma Uprising – Abdullah should articulate ASEAN aspirations for Burma in UN speech on Thursday”

  1. Myanmar Protesters Hit 100,000 Mark
    The Associated Press
    Monday, September 24, 2007 – 42 minutes ago
    (from washingtonpost.com)

    YANGON, Myanmar — As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar’s biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military.

    From the front of the march, witnesses could see a one-mile stretch of eight-lane road was filled with people.

    Buddhist monks, accompanied by civilians, march on a street in a protest against the military government in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007. About 20,000 Buddhist monks and citizens demonstrated against Myanmar’s military junta in the country’s largest city Sunday, with many shouting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.

    Some participants said there were several hundred thousand marchers in their ranks, but an international aid agency official with employees monitoring the crowd estimated said the size was well over 50,000 and approaching 100,000.

    It was the latest in a series of protests that began Aug. 19 as a movement against economic hardship in the Southeast Asian country after the government sharply raised fuel prices. But arrests and intimidation kept demonstrations small and scattered until the monks entered the fray.

    The usually iron-fisted junta has so far kept minimal security at the protests, and diplomats and analysts said Myanmar’s military rulers were showing the unexpected restraint because of pressure from the country’s key trading partner and diplomatic ally, China.

    The march kicked off, like the previous ones, at the Shwedagon pagoda, a historical center for political movements as well as the country’s most sacred religious shrine. Some 20,000 monks took the lead, with onlookers joining in on what had been billed as a day of general protest.

    In the central city of Mandalay, meanwhile, 500 to 600 monks set off shortly after noon on their own protest march.

    The monks, who took over a faltering protest movement from political activists, already had managed to bring people into the streets in numbers not seen since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising snuffed out by the army at a cost of thousands of lives.

    On Sunday, about 20,000 people including thousands of monks filled the streets in Yangon, stepping up their confrontation with authorities by chanting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    The increasingly confrontational tone of the anti-government protesters has raised both expectations of possible political change and fear that the military might forcefully stamp out the demonstrations, as it did in 1988.

    A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of protocol, said the regime is under pressure from China to avoid a crackdown just as its larger neighbor has pressured it to speed up other democratic changes.

    “The Myanmar government is tolerating the protesters and not taking any action against the monks because of pressure from China,” the diplomat told The Associated Press. “Beijing is to host the next summer’s Olympic Games. Everyone knows that China is the major supporter of the junta so if government takes any action it will affect the image of China.”

    China, which is counting on Myanmar’s vast oil and gas reserves to help fuel its booming economy, earlier this year blocked a U.N. Security Council criticizing Myanmar’s rights record saying it was not the right forum.

    But at the same time, it has employed quiet diplomacy and subtle public pressure on the regime, urging it to move toward inclusive democracy and speed up the process of dialogue and reform.

    Josef Silverstein, a political scientist and author of several books on Myanmar, said it would not be in China’s interest to have civil unrest in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

    “China is very eager to have a peaceful Burma in order to complete roads and railroads, to develop mines and finish assimilating the country under its economic control,” Silverstein said.

    The movement seemed to gain momentum Saturday, when more than 500 monks and sympathizers went past barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is under house arrest. She greeted them from her gate in her first public appearance in more than four years. But access to her home was barred Sunday.

    The meeting symbolically linked the current protests to Nobel laureate’s Suu Kyi’s struggle for democracy, which has seen her detained for about 12 of the last 18 years.

  2. Myanmar generals face biggest protests in 20 yrs
    Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:02 AM EDT (50 minutes ago)

    By Aung Hla Tun

    YANGON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people joined streams of Buddhist monks on marches through Yangon on Monday in the biggest demonstration against Myanmar’s ruling generals since they crushed student-led protests 20 years ago.

    “The streets are packed,” a witness said of massed opposition to the generals and 45 years of military rule that has turned the resource-rich country into one of Asia’s poorest.

    Five columns of maroon-robed monks, one stretching more than one kilometer (nearly a mile), marched from the Shwedagon Pagoda, the devoutly Buddhist country’s holiest shrine, to the city centre to applause from thousands of onlookers who joined them.

    “People locked arms around the monks. They were clapping and cheering,” the witness said on the sixth day of marches by monks, some of them carrying placards calling for “National Reconciliation” and “Release of Political Prisoners.”

    Protests were also reported in Mandalay, where 10,000 monks marched on Saturday, in the northwestern city of Sittwe and in Bago, just north of Yangon.

    In Yangon, after holding prayers at the Sule Pagoda in the main business district, the monks marched to another pagoda with tens of thousands of people trailing behind them.

    For the first time, the marchers included members of parliament elected in 1990 from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) two days after a dramatic appearance of support for the monks by detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    “IT’S ABOUT REFORM”

    What began as anger at last month’s shock fuel price rises has become a wider movement against the generals, with one monk group calling for peaceful mass protests against the junta until its downfall.

    “There’s no prospect now of the monks just deciding to abandon this. They are getting braver every day and their demands are getting greater every day, and it’s much more overtly political,” a Yangon-based diplomat said.

    “It’s now about Aung San Suu Kyi, it’s about reform.

    “The monks have got numbers and, if not immunity, then certainly it’s much more difficult for the government to crack down on them than ordinary civilians,” the diplomat said.

    The United States, the loudest Western critic of the regime, expressed sympathy for the protesters and denounced the military.

    Myanmar’s regional neighbors, long frustrated by the generals refusal to speed up reforms, looked on with worry.

    “We hope that the ongoing protests will be resolved in a peaceful manner,” said the Foreign Ministry in Singapore, one of Myanmar’s biggest foreign investors.

    There were no signs of trouble during Monday’s protests, but rumors of an imminent crackdown — one suggested hospitals were being emptied of non-critical patients — swirled in Yangon.

    The generals are due soon to hold a quarterly summit in their new capital of Naypyidaw, carved out of the jungle. Dealing with the protests is sure to top the agenda.

    The protests, which began on August 19, prompted a midnight round-up of the democracy activists who organized them. They now face up to 20 years in jail and are drawing public declarations of support from the famous.

    The country’s biggest stars of the stage, screen and music, including Tun Eindra Bo — Myanmar’s equivalent of Angelina Jolie — have formed a “Sangkha Support Committee” and pledged to provide the monks with whatever assistance they need.

    “The fact these celebrities are joining in is very significant,” said one Myanmar exile who listened to them giving interviews on Burmese-language foreign radio stations.

    “The committee said they will move on with the struggle until the end,” the exile said.

    © Reuters 2007.

  4. We might as well be under a military junta.

    Perhaps we could learn from what’s now happening there. A peaceful march to the Palace of Justice involving thousands of not just lawyers but every Malaysian who wants to re-take the government from a group of self serving politicians and their cronies would be timely.

  6. Record numbers join Burmese protests

    Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
    Monday September 24, 2007
    (30 minutes ago)

    Guardian Unlimited

    As many as 100,000 demonstrators protesting against the Burmese military regime took to the streets of Rangoon today in the biggest show of dissent in almost two decades.

    Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and pink-robed nuns led the marchers, who snaked for several kilometres through the former capital, slowing traffic to a crawl and prompting the closures of shops and schools.

    The monks carried flags and banners proclaiming the peaceful nature of the demonstration. Flanking them were even greater numbers of people clapping and chanting, in what many described as a carnival atmosphere.

    The mood of elation in the ranks, which swelled to unprecedented numbers on the sixth straight day of marches sparked by fuel price rises, reflected surprise that the generals have shown restraint and not crushed the anti-government movement.

    An estimated 3,000 students, and some monks, were killed during the last great pro-democracy uprising, in 1988, when the military cracked down brutally on demonstrators demanding that the junta step aside.

    Fears that the military would exercise its authority in similar fashion kept many away from the sporadic, small-scale protests that began with the price rises on August 19.

    But the growing confidence of the crowds was reflected today when leading entertainers – including two of the country’s most famous, the comedian Zaganar and the film star Kyaw Thu – joined the protests.

    The pair joined MPs who donated food to protesting monks gathered at the rally’s starting point, the golden-domed Shwedagon pagoda, Burma’s most sacred shrine.

    Other groups of monks, accompanied by thousands of protesters, marched from other points of Rangoon in what has become a highly organised and coordinated opposition to Burma’s secretive military leaders.

    As many as 20,000 people protested in the second city, Mandalay, and there were reports of other, smaller marches.

    Some of the demonstrators chanted their support for the Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and pro-democracy activist who has been detained for 11 of the past 17 years after her National League for Democracy swept the polls in a 1990 general election victory.

    She was seen in public for the first time in three years on Saturday when 2,000 protesting monks were allowed through barricades to pray near the home where she is under house arrest. The Lady, as she is universally known, emerged to pray with them. But yesterday and today the barriers were reinforced with four fire engines to prevent a repeat of the scene as marchers passed through the Rangoon university area, near the house.

    The protests, which were sparked by a doubling of petrol and diesel prices and a five-fold increase in cooking gas, tapped a deep well of anger in a country in economic crisis. Inflation is running at about 40% and most people suffer real economic hardship.

    Yet the protesters’ anger against the government appears to have become more broad-based, even though the monks have restricted their demands. They seek only a cut in fuel prices, an apology for an earlier attack on monks, and dialogue between the military and the opposition in order to promote “reconciliation”.

    Britain’s ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning, applauded the way the Burmese military had handled the growing dissent on the streets. But he said he was fearful the demonstrations could yet end in bloodshed if the regime felt sufficiently threatened.

    “So far, the military have shown commendable restraint, and long may it continue,” he said. “But there are a number of scenarios that could unfold.

    “The protests could just fizzle out, though that looks less and less likely with each passing day. Or the government could try to restore its authority. But they need to be extremely careful, as harming monks would make matters much, much worse.”

    The reverence in which Buddhist monks are held in a country where almost every family sends a son to the monastery may be one reason for the softly-softly approach. But Aung Niang Oo, a Burmese exile, believes neighbouring China is also playing a restraining role.

    “China wants stability in Burma and believes the military is the only one to provide that,” Mr Canning said. “But if there’s an army crackdown, it would give Britain and the US the opportunity to take Burma back to the UN security council, where China would be forced to defend its neighbour.

    “China doesn’t want that – not after being criticised over Darfur and in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.”

  7. We hope this time around the people’s power will prevail as in the Philippines many times before.

    ASEAN leaders will not get involved in this because none of them can come out clean, they are also wary of people’s power coming to their shore. Majority if not all of the ASEAN countries can claim to be democratic, they are all managed democracy.

    Malaysian PM will not say a word because it is better to leave it as an “internal affair” of the country and practise “non interference”.

  8. That is a very good suggestion for our PM. But sadly, as he had done so repeatedly in the past, he will not do what is just and right. He’ll probably come out again with high sounding ideas, all huff and puff but no action when it matters. Even if we can’t offer any concrete support our moral support will be most meaningful to the protesters challenging such a repressive regime.

  9. Monks and the military
    Sep 24th 2007 | BANGKOK
    From Economist.com
    (35 minutes ago)

    As more monks and laymen join protests in Myanmar, what will the junta do?

    DEMONSTRATIONS led by Buddhist monks in military-ruled Myanmar (formerly Burma) gathered force over the weekend and, on Monday September 24th, the biggest protest yet seen was staged in the main city, Yangon. Up to 100,000 people took part, among them perhaps 20,000 barefoot red- and orange-robed monks. The website of Irrawaddy, a newspaper run by Burmese exiles from Thailand, reported an equally huge monk-led protest on Monday in the western town of Sittwe.

    At first, the monks limited themselves to chanting prayers and sermons, and urged the Burmese public not to join their marches. But over the weekend, a hitherto unknown group, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, urged people to “struggle peacefully against the evil military dictatorship” until its downfall. Monday’s march was joined by some of the country’s best-known actors and musicians, as well as leaders of the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) and crowds of ordinary Burmese. It has become the biggest challenge Myanmar’s brutal regime has faced since the uprising of 1988, which it crushed with extreme violence. The question is: how will it respond this time?

    The protests began last month, when the government suddenly imposed drastic rises in fuel prices, making life even more unbearable for Myanmar’s impoverished people. The regime arrested many protest leaders and sent in plain-clothes goon squads to attack the demonstrators. It looked like the protests might fizzle until, earlier this month, soldiers fired over the heads of a group of monks demonstrating in the central town of Pakkoku. Some reports said monks were also beaten and arrested. After the regime ignored the clergy’s demands for an apology, monks took to the streets in several main cities. They have now, in effect, excommunicated the military and their families by refusing to accept alms from them—a serious matter in this devoutly Buddhist country.

    So far the regime has seemed unsure how to react. Early last week it fired warning shots and tear-gas canisters at a monks’ protest in Sittwe but since then it has taken no action against the demonstrations. For two days it barred monks from the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the country’s holiest shrine. But since Thursday it has allowed them back into the shrine, which has become the focal point for the protest movement. On Saturday, police let thousands of monks and laymen pray outside the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD and icon of Myanmar’s struggle for democracy. Though Miss Suu Kyi is under house arrest, she was able to walk to her gate and greet the protesters. But by Sunday, the police were once again barring access to the street where she lives.

    Besides their strength in numbers—there are 400,000 of them—the monks have considerable influence. They are the one group that the military regime might hesitate to confront. Even so, another 1988-style bloody crackdown cannot be ruled out. The question that the generals will be asking themselves is how the rest of the world would react. Though the regime has for decades brushed aside Western sanctions and resisted all pressure to reform, some things have changed since 1988.

    One is that Myanmar has been admitted to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The other ASEAN members argued that “constructive engagement” with Myanmar would achieve more than sanctions. This has proved a sham because they failed to apply enough pressure on its regime. But there is at least some hope that they may now discourage the regime from massacring the protesters, if only to spare themselves the embarrassment of sitting alongside generals with fresh blood on their hands as they celebrate ASEAN’s 40th anniversary later this year.

    Another big change in recent years is that China has signed many deals with the regime to exploit Myanmar’s rich mineral and hydrocarbons resources. As it prepares for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, it could really do without its allies in the Burmese junta staging another Tiananmen Square massacre. So it too might possibly seek to stay the junta’s hand. However, even if such pressure is applied by Myanmar’s Asian neighbours, there is no guarantee that the paranoid, insular and incompetent generals will pay any attention. Of the three most likely options—the protests gradually fading, a peaceful revolution to topple the regime and a harsh crackdown—so far the latter seems, sadly, the most likely.

  10. Burma’s Monks versus the Military

    A. Lin Neumann
    24 September 2007

    Eyewitnesses in Rangoon describe a protest movement growing daily. The stakes are rising for Southeast Asia’s most authoritarian government.

    Stopping traffic and streaming into the center of Burma’s largest city, red-robed monks, the religious heart of one of the world’s most repressive countries, are continuing to defy a brutal military junta, their numbers swelling daily.

    On Monday, witnesses told Asia Sentinel that tens of thousands of monks could be seen in strategic areas of the city being joined by civilian supporters as the military junta’s armed forces stayed off the streets, apparently unsure how to handle the largest outburst of protest seen in the country in nearly twenty years.

    “Some were carrying yellow peacock banners,” an eyewitness said, noting the presence of the flag that symbolizes the National League for Democracy, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party.

    Throughout the day, a witness said, the atmosphere was lighthearted, “almost like a party,” as Rangoon’s residents seem suddenly emboldened by the bravery of the revered clergy in this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. Earlier, the monks had withdrawn religious services from the military, refusing to accept alms from anyone connected to the junta in a virtually unprecedented boycott. Marching with empty alms bowls, the religious boycott has become a symbol of the new uprising.

    In one scene near the upscale neighborhoods in the Inya Lake district, the monks marched in a phalanx 10 to 15 abreast, surrounded by middle class residents who flocked to the streets to guard them. “It took 45 minutes for the crowd to go by my vantage point,” said a woman reached by phone.

    There were no authorities visible during the protest, another witness said. “People are cheering, clapping, standing outside their houses,” said the witness, who added that it was unlike anything she had seen in several years in Rangoon.

    Marchers were also joined by members of the National League for Democracy, including members of the parliament elected in 1990 in polls that were voided by the junta. Two days ago NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared at the gate outside of her residence, where she is under house arrest, to greet protesting monks.

    “Today we saw the most widespread demonstrations since 1988,” said Bangkok-based Burmese analyst Win Min. “Things are moving very quickly.”

    Win Min characterized the current situation as a spiritual rebellion, an economic protest and a reaction to longstanding suffering. “I’m worried that they will crack down,” he said, “but for now they are taking a wait-and-see approach and won’t announce martial law due to China’s influence. The Chinese won’t say it explicitly, but they don’t want to see bloodshed as it would damage China’s interests.”

    “There’s no prospect now of the monks just deciding to abandon this. They are getting braver every day and their demands are getting greater every day, and it’s much more overtly political,” a Yangon-based diplomat told Reuters.

    In another sign that even people with something to lose are willing to join the protests, movie stars and celebrities are joining the movement. Tun Eindra Bo – the country’s biggest female star – has reportedly begun a “Sangkha Support Committee” to help the monks. The country’s most famous comedian, Zargana, has also joined the movement, according to Win Min – “Everyone in Burma knows him, just like Aung San Suu Kyi. This has a big impact.”

    On Monday, rallies were held in several parts of the city, with a witness saying that one large group of monks appeared headed to the airport north of the former capital. Other reports described monks and supporters gathering in the center of the city.

    Many of the monks, who were also joined by Buddhist nuns, began their protests, as they have each day for six days, with prayers at Shwedagon Pagoda, the country’s holiest shrine, near the center of the city. Bystanders gave the monks water as the boldness of onlookers is growing with each passing day.

    Rallies were also reported in Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, and in the northwestern city of Sittwe and in Bago, just north of Rangoon, according to Reuters. The Burmese exile magazine Irrawaddy, which is based in Thailand, noted the presence of protesters nationwide, claiming that 100,000 people had joined the Rangoon protests.

    The magazine said monks led protests along the border with Thailand, and in townships scattered throughout the country. A monk involved in the protests told Irrawaddy that in Pakokku Township in central Burma, where the first monk-led protests began earlier this month, hundreds of monks left a group of monasteries to chant the “Metta Sutta” (the Buddha’s words on loving kindness). The same chant was heard in other protests.

    With witnesses telling Asian Sentinel that a political tinge has been added to the protests, the stakes are rising along with the numbers in the streets. Under military rule since 1962, the country’s leaders have impoverished the country while keeping themselves in power. Burma has watched as Thailand and its other neighbors have prospered, while it has moved steadily backwards from the days in the 1950s when it was considered one of the region’s wealthiest and most sophisticated countries.

    The State Peace and Development Council, as the junta calls itself, appears even more isolated than ever. Having moved the government in 2006 to the new capital of Naypyidaw, which means literally “abode of kings,” 220 kilometers north of Rangoon, the generals seem almost to have anticipated the need to hide from their own people.

    As with the protests in 1988, the current unrest began with an economic grievance. In 1988 it was the demonetization in September 1987 of about 80 percent of the currency then in circulation. That step, reportedly taken to accommodate the belief in numerology of then-dictator Ne Win, eventually spawned a student-led movement that became one of the largest mass protests in modern Asian history.

    By September 1988, virtually the entire country was shut down by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding change. When the military reasserted itself and proclaimed the birth of the current junta on September 18, 1988, thousands of people were gunned down in the streets of Rangoon by combat-hardened soldiers from rural areas who had been informed that Rangoon was taken over by communists.

    The current unrest began on August 19 as a result of fuel price increases. But with student organizations banned and campus life fragmented after 1988, this time the monks have come to the fore. As the only non-military organization with a nationwide network, the monks could prove to be formidable foes. Even in 1988, when thousands of monks were also involved, the military was careful not to kill members of the clergy, perhaps uncertain how even their own soldiers would react to orders to commit such an act against the respected clerics.

    In 1988 also there were often few signs of the military on the streets – until the killing began. The night before the junta seized power that year, Rangoon was completely in the hands of protesters who were dancing in the streets, forming neighborhood defense committees and organizing the looting of abandoned government buildings, often with the help of civil servants.

    But when the military decided to act, it was over in a matter of hours.

    With reporting by Daniel Ten Kate

  11. Myanmar should NEVER be admitted in the ASEAN in the first place back in the 1997, A BIG MISTAKE where Mahathir-led decision brings condemnation by world leaders which has translated into Asian Financial Crisis.

    Malaysian economy, in particular, is never the same again after 1997 and what we are experiencing today, inflation, unemployment, high cost of living, lower currency value and social problem like crimes are as the result of THAT ONE BIG MISTAKE BY MAHATHIR.

    And now ASEAN countries have to deal with Myanmar using “constructive engagement” on its political upheaval which they can easily avoided altogether if Myanmar is not ASEAN member in 1997.

    How I wish we can turn back the time.

  14. The Americans are using the Myanmar and Darfur conflicts to distract world attention from their murderous occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and their planned invasion of Iran. Three year old kids can see through that ploy.

  15. If there is one thing that Badawi and his den of thieves is afraid of is the thought of thousands of democracy and transparency activists marching to Putrajaya.

    This is what happens to non-transparent, unfair, and dictatorial regimes. There is the underlying insecurity, and the overwhelming need to control and suppress the mainstream press.

  16. Myanmar military junta (enriching themselves from resources of the state including narco trade) would not voluntarily work out a national reconciliation formula with pro-democracy activists and ethnic nationalities to return Burma to democracy and civilian rule because if the military junta were to do so, it would have to give up power and have their protection removed, and in due course made to account for many bad and corrupt things it has done.

    The lesson to be learnt is that no group of persons abusing power will voluntarily give it up via process of democracy. It is because they are afraid to be made to account in due course. It is only people who have nothing to worry about and who have chances to be honoured (not prosecuted) who would give up power through democratic process. Let us be realistic.

  17. Pak Lah will be flying off soon in his new jet and with his new wife to New York to deliver a speech at the UN.

    He will again bash the Jews and Israel and will try again to promote his “Islam Hadhari” to anyone who might be interested or is listening. He will then try to see if he can see Bush but the man is kinda busy so he will take in the sights and open a restaurant or two. Maybe a side trip to see his “buddy” Castro and “brother” Chavez. Then he flies home as a “hero”. Thats about it.

    Myanmar? Where’s that?

  18. The saga is still unfolding. The monks and nuns are still spearheading the protests and reports indicate many ordinary citizens are throwing their support behind them. I have heard first hand reports from a Malaysian nun who had been to Burma on how the police there punish the whole extended family if one family member is deemed to be anti-government. So for the lay people to risk been identified as anti-government is really something very courageous. I can only hope and pray that this time something positive will result.

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