Sanjay Kapoor
Sutaungpyei Pagoda atop Mandalay Hill in Burma has a reputation of fulfilling the wishes of those who endure the 1,700-steps climb to reach it. The guide who took me around the picturesque pagoda and its glorious surroundings had taken those steps many times in the hope of getting one wish fulfilled - ouster of the brutal military regime that had been ruling Burma with an iron fist for decades. This was five years ago.
Possibly, he may have made many more trips in the last few years; that is, if he had not lost all hope in the power of prayers to change his personal and tragedy-scarred nation's (mis)fortunes. He had reason to be upset with the military rulers. In the late 1980s, he was part of the pro-democracy agitation that swept Rangoon and other cities of Burma. Not only was he arrested and beaten up, his desire to go for higher studies was rudely nipped as he was jailed. "I was in jail for sometime, but managed to get out early due to some contacts," he said. Many of his friends had crossed the border from Mandalay and gone to India, Thailand and other countries. "I have few friends left here now," he said.
From one of the terraces of the pagoda, from where one gets a breath-taking view of Mandalay city, he pointed out how the Chinese were slowly enlarging their presence in Mandalay and rest of Burma. "See those distant hills. At one point of time, there were villages along the road with Burmese names. Now they all have Chinese names," he explained. In his reckoning, the Burmese military leadership was prospering because of the immunity the Chinese gave them. "All the money and military hardware is given by the Chinese. The Burmese government, in return, has given them ports, oil and gas fields, and the freedom for thousands of Chinese to live in Burma." His interesting thesis was that the political problems in Burma got aggravated with the progressive loss of India's influence over its neighbour. Although many may disagree, problems for ordinary Burmese have increased since then.
The country looks frozen in time. Its towns look like what Indian towns used to look like in the 1960s. Trapped in low level of development. And the people are like Plato's slaves chained in dark caves who do not know what sunlight is all about.
Till the early 1980s, my friend explained, all bicycles were Indian and so were the longis or lungis, single pieces of cloth that men wrap around their waists. There were many streets earmarked by the king for Indians. The Chinese now occupy most of them. It was only in the last few years that New Delhi woke up to the importance of Burma, but by then we had lost the plot and were just playing to 'catch up' with the Chinese. Worse, we were playing on their terms and losing badly.
This policy, to keep the military junta happy, has cost the Indian government dear. It has lost out on the enormous goodwill that India enjoyed as the land where Buddha attained nirvana. Instead of providing a moral anchor to the non-violent forces of democracy, the Indian government has given legitimacy to a ruthless and corrupt dictatorship that has relentlessly crushed human rights and aspirations of the common people.
Although Burma's neighbours, Thailand and China, did not have the moral right to criticise the bloody repression, the Indian government - enjoying the democratic mandate of a billion people - surely could have given moral support to the thousands of monks, nuns, students and citizens who streamed out of their monasteries and homes to protest against the brutish regime. The fact that the junta could repeat the crackdown on peaceful protestors while still holding Aung Sang Suu Kyi under detention shows what it thinks of those who swear by democracy and fair play.
This only proves that many of our political leaders are not democratic by conviction and are forced to seek fresh mandate due to constitutional compulsions. Why, otherwise, did our government not stir when unarmed monks and nuns were being bayoneted by the military? Maybe, the answer still lies - in the journey of 1,700 steps.