In Solidarity With The Burmese People (please forward)
Paramendra Bhagat
http://democracyforum.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-solidarity-with-burmese-people.html
This reminds me of Nepal's magical April Revolution of 2006. This is
how it starts. The Burmese masses have to come out into the streets in
the hundreds of thousands, in every town, every city, every village,
to shut the country completely down until the military junta hands
over power to Aang Sang Su Kyi who would organize a multi-party
interim government that would hold elections to a constituent assembly
that would give Burma a new constitution, turn into a federal,
democratic republic.
There is no need for talks. There is no need for compromise. You draw
the line in the sand, and you stick to it.
Elected officials in all established democracies must lend their voice
to Burma right about now. Heads of state in democracies must see the
urgency of what is happening in Burma right now.
This is a do or die struggle for them. They have waited for long
enough, for too long. What was due them in 1990 they will finally get
it this time around.
It has to start big and intense. The bigger and more intense it is,
fewer the number of casualties on the road to victory.
This stirring must not be allowed to go cold. This stirring must be
led to its logical conclusion: a mass uprising. The bigger that mass
uprising, less the chance that the junta will be able to suppress it.
The clearer and louder the voice of the democratically elected leaders
and activists in the larger world, fewer protesters in Burma will be
beaten, fewer will be arrested, fewer will get killed. The clearer and
louder the voice, shorter will the movement have to be.
This stirring is also a great opportunity for Obama 2008. Burma has
twice as many people as Iraq. A successful democracy uprising in Burma
will show there is only one way to spread democracy in countries
reeling under the thumbs of dictators: the grassroots way. Military
invasion does not seem to do it.
India must come into the picture big time. The European countries
should. America should. Australia. Nepal was the last country in the
region and the world to do this. The leaders and activists in Nepal
must extend all possible moral and logistical support. Reach out to
the Burmese in Delhi, in New York City, and elsewhere. We have to show
that Nepal's magical April Revolution 2006 was no accidental act. It
was science. It can be done again, and again, and again. It can work
every time in every country without democracy.
They will declare curfews. Defy them. They will declare martial law.
Defy martial law. Fill up the streets, day after day after day until
the military junta totally and unconditionally gives up power.
They will shoot. When they do that, send more people out into the
streets. There is only so many people they can shoot. But the shooters
will be tried later.
Next stop: Zimbabwe, Bhutan.
http://democracyforum.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-solidarity-with-burmese-people.html