I got misty-eyed looking at pictures of Burmese people waiting in lines to cast their votes on Sunday. Their faces and eyes
conveyed a sense of hope for something better. To be in those lines, they had already
managed to overcome their fear, fear of once again having their voices and
aspirations squashed by a brutal and paranoid military regime, which has lorded
over them since 1962.
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Myanmar villagers walking to polling stations on Sunday, April 1, 2012. (Photo: Altaf Qadri/AP) |
As the outspoken Burmese
democracy activist Maung Zarni has noted, it was
a "psycho-social" victory for the people of Burma, a resource-rich
Southeast Asian nation of 60 million.
In America the term democracy is often thrown
around like a chess piece in a match between two political parties that essentially
vie for the largess and approval from the ruling class. For the people of Burma, it’s the fundamental
and existential necessity of life. Ordinary people, whether Burmese or
Vietnamese or Americans, just want to have a dignified life, to be left alone
to earn a living in order to feed and clothe their families and, if possible, a nominal
amount of freedom to express their hopes and fulfill their aspirations. They
want to be able to vent their grievances without fear of being detained,
tortured or disappeared.
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I Love Democracy. Burma's By-Election, Sunday, April 1, 2012 (Photo: European Press Photo/DailyMailUK) |
So to know that something akin to a "free
and fair" election did actually take place in Burma, a country that not
long ago was considered as closed as that of North Korea, makes one feel
hopeful about the world. Whether it's long-lasting remains to be seen and regardless
of the behind-the-scene machinations, the people of Burma have set an example
for their Asian neighbors, especially Vietnamese and Chinese.
I hope the world media won’t just take up and
leave right after election for it was a very wobbly baby-step and the people of
Burma, now more than ever, need the world’s help in holding the military regime
accountable while they chart the next course of adventure called democracy.
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