BBC News 2007/10/01 16:07:50 GMT
A Buddhism student, who experienced first-hand the events of the last two weeks at a Buddhist monastery in Burma, describes the recent unrest.
"In Burma, the topic of politics is always on people's minds. But only until recently it would have been impossible to predict the events that were about to unfold.
It is commonly perceived in Buddhist monasteries that the government has spies there.
There is always a feeling of suspicion and everyone's careful about what they say. Casual conversations have led to trouble in the past.
Burmese people protested against fuel price increase in August. The monks' first reaction was a response to the economic situation. Monasteries depend on material support from the public.
The price increases put a strain on ordinary people and in turn they couldn't spare much of their income to give to monasteries. Monks were worried that they can't survive like that and that they soon won't have anything to eat.
For those who have spent all their lives in a monastery, to leave and do something else was not an option. A few monks expressed their dissatisfaction to members of the government.
The incident in Pakokku, in which monks were beaten was like a kick to their faces. It activated their attention and that's when they realised that this involves them too.
There was widespread outrage, but still no action.
Impact of the news
Then they heard on the radio that groups of monks were protesting on the streets of Rangoon. That's when they realised that something was happening. Everyone was glued to the radio waiting to hear the latest news from the BBC and Voice of America.
The news had a bigger impact on decisions and events, than any leader could have had.
Those who took part were from the younger generation of monks, who hadn't experienced the events of 1988 and thought that they couldn't be attacked.
The older monks were too frightened and hesitant. Those who had responsible positions in the monastery were particularly against anybody taking part in protests.
After they had fled the beatings, they would come back and cheer that they could go out and do what they have done
They issued orders to other monks not to take part. They were saying 'don't do anything, if you leave, you will be disassociated'.
The middle-level monks were sandwiched between the senior monks and the young ones. Many sneaked in and out.
After they had fled the beatings, they would come back and cheer that they could go out and do what they have done. Some got injured, but nobody was killed.
Then we heard on the news that monks were being killed. There was outrage, disappointment, hopelessness.
They wanted to send a message to the international community. They heard about China, sanctions, the UN, negotiations, things they didn't understand. But it gave them hope that the international community is watching closely what's happening in Burma.
Losing hope
The whole thing started as a religious movement. It was not an organised democratic movement and there was no intention whatsoever for it to be turned into one. Monks were adamant about it.
They knew that there is no point in asking the generals for freedom. They knew that they don't have guns and can't beat the army. All they wanted to do was show the world what their situation is and that they are prepared to die.
They were very hopeful about the UN envoy coming to Burma. But they were quite surprised to hear that the UN envoy met Aung San Suu Kyi.
They love and respect her, but they felt that this time it is about them and that the UN envoy should be speaking to them. They felt that it's a distraction from them while they are being shot at and need protection.
This was an opportunity for them to express themselves after 20 years. Their eyes are on the international community, their only hope is that the world will see their plight and help them.
But when they hear that support for the demonstrations is dwindling and time passes by without help from anyone, they lose hope. They are getting disillusioned and eventually they'll give up."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7022475.stm
Published: 2007/10/01 16:07:50 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma
Sydney Morning Herald
October 1, 2007
SINGAPORE is not just skilled at mandatory executions of drug traffickers, running an excellent airport and selling cameras on Orchard Road. It also does a very useful trade keeping Burma's military rulers and their cronies afloat.
Much attention is focused on China and its hosting of the Olympic Games next year as a diplomatic trigger point for placing pressure on Burma's junta. But there is a group of government businessmen-technocrats in Singapore who will also be closely - and perhaps nervously - monitoring the brutality in Rangoon. Were they so inclined, their influence could go a long way to limiting the misery being inflicted on Burma's 54 million people.
Collectively known as Singapore Inc, they gather around the $150 billion state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings, controlled by Singapore's long-ruling Lee family. With an estimated $3 billion invested in Burma (and more than $20 billion in Australia), Singapore Inc companies have been some of the biggest investors in and supporters of Burma's military junta - this while its Government, on the rare times it is asked, gently suggests a softly-softly diplomatic approach toward the junta.
When it comes to Burma, Singapore pockets the high morals it likes to wave at the West.
Singapore's one-time head of foreign trade said, as his country was building links with Burma in the mid-1990s: "While the other countries are ignoring it, it's a good time for us to go in. You get better deals, and you're more appreciated. Singapore's position is not to judge them and take a judgmental moral high ground."
But by providing Burma's pariah junta with crucial material and equipment mostly denied by Western sanctions Singapore has helped keep the military government and its cronies afloat for 20 years, indeed since the last time the generals killed the citizens they are supposed to protect with industrial efficiency and brutality, as now.
Without the support from Singapore, Burma's junta would be greatly weakened and perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable business with the generals and their cronies, that is about the last thing Singapore Inc is likely to do. There's too much money to be made.
From hotels, airlines, military equipment and training, crowd control equipment and sophisticated telecommunications monitoring devices, Singapore is a crucial manager and supplier to the junta, and Burma's economy.
It is impossible to spend any meaningful time in Burma and not make the junta richer, via contracts with Singapore suppliers to the tourism industry. Singapore's hospitals also keep its leaders alive - the 74-year-old strongman Than Shwe has been receiving treatment for intestinal cancer in a government hospital in Singapore, in a ward heavily protected by Singapore security.
Much of Singapore's activity in Burma has been documented by an analyst working in Australia's Office of National Assessments. Andrew Selth is recognised as a leading authority on Burma's military. Now a research fellow at Queensland's Griffith University, Selth has written extensively for years on how close Singapore Inc is to the junta.
Often writing as "William Ashton" in Jane's Intelligence Review, Selth has described how Singapore has sent guns, rockets, armoured personnel carriers and grenade launchers to the junta, some of it trans-shipped from stocks seized by Israel from Palestinians in southern Lebanon.
Singaporean companies have provided computers and communications equipment for Burma's defence ministry and army, while upgrading the junta's ability to communicate with regional commanders - so crucial as protesters take to the streets of 20 cities in Burma. The sheer scale of the protests is causing logistical headaches for the Tatmadaw, as Burma's military is known.
"Singapore cares little about human rights, in particular the plight of the ethnic and religious minorities in Burma," Selth writes. "Having developed one of the region's most advanced armed forces and defence industrial support bases, Singapore is in a good position to offer Burma a number of inducements which other ASEAN [Association of South-East Asian Nations] countries would find hard to match."
Selth says Singapore also provided the equipment for a "cyber war centre" to monitor dissident activity, while training Burma's secret police, whose sole job appears to be ensuring democracy groups are crushed.
Monitoring dissidents is an area where Singapore has expertise. After almost five decades in power, the Lee family-controlled People's Action Party ranks behind only the communists of China, Cuba and North Korea in leadership longevity.
"This centre is reported to be closely involved in the monitoring and recording of foreign and domestic telecommunications, including the satellite telephone conversations of Burmese opposition groups," Selth writes.
Singaporean government companies, such as the arms supplier Singapore Technologies, dominate the communications and military sector in Singapore. Selth writes: "It is highly unlikely that any of these arms shipments to Burma could have been made without the knowledge and support of the Singapore Government." He notes that Singapore's ambassadors to Burma have included a former senior Singapore Armed Forces officer and a past director of Singapore's defence-oriented Joint Intelligence Directorate. "It is curious that Singapore chose to assign someone with a military background to this new member of ASEAN and not one of its many capable professional diplomats."
Selth writes that after Burma's 1988 crackdown, in which 3000 democracy protesters were killed, "the first country to come to the regime's rescue was in fact Singapore".
In an interview with the chief executive officer of Singapore Technologies, Peter Seah, at his office in Singapore, the Herald asked about the model of an armoured personnel carrier made by his company that sat on his office table. Seah said his company sold the vehicles "only to allies". Did that include Burma, given Singapore helped sponsor the military regime into ASEAN? Seah was not specific: "We only sell to allies and we make sure they are responsible." He did not say how. For its part, Temasek does not respond to questions about its activities in Burma.
A Singaporean diplomat to Burma, Matthew Sim, wrote a handbook for Singaporean businesspeople, Myanmar on My Mind. It is full of tips for doing business in Burma, although odd given Singapore's contempt for corruption and lawbreakers. "A little money goes a long way in greasing the wheels of productivity," he writes.
A chapter headed Committing Manslaughter When Driving describes the appropriate action for a Singaporean if they accidentally kill a pedestrian in Burma. "Firstly, the international businessman could give the family of the deceased some money as compensation and dissuade them from pressing charges. Secondly, he could pay a Myanmar citizen to take the blame by declaring that he was the driver in the fatal accident. An international businessman should not make the mistake of trying to argue his case in a court of law when it comes to a fatal accident, even if he is in the right. He highly probably will spend time in jail regretting it. It is a sad and hard world. The facts of life can be ugly."
Describing Singapore's usefulness to Burma, Sim says "many successful Myanmar businessmen have opened shell companies" in Singapore "with little or no staff, used to keep funds overseas". The companies are used to keep business deals outside the control of Burma's central bank, enabling Singaporeans and others to make transactions with Burma in Singapore, he says.
Sim may be referring to junta cronies such as Tay Za and the druglord Lo Hsing Han. Lo is an ethnic Chinese, from Burma's traditionally Chinese-populated and opium-rich Kokang region in the country's east, bordering China. Lo controls a heroin empire and one of Burma's biggest companies, Asia World, which the US Drug Enforcement Agency describes as a front for his drug trafficking. Asia World controls toll roads, industrial parks and trading companies.
Singapore is the Lo family's window to the world, a base for controlling several companies. Lo's son Steven, who has been denied a visa to the US because of his drug links, is married to a Singaporean, Cecilia Ng. The two reportedly control a Singapore-based trading house, Kokang Singapore Pty Ltd. The couple transit Singapore at will. A former US assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Robert Gelbard, has said half of Singapore's investment in Burma has been "tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han".
Tay Zar, who is linked romantically to a daughter of Than Shwe, is also well known in Singapore. His fleet of Ferrari, Lexus and Mercedes cars was shipped to Burma from Singapore. When on the island, he likes to stay at the tacky Meritus Mandarin hotel on Orchard Road, close to the hospitals favoured by his senior military patrons from Burma.
Tay Za was featured in the Singaporean media last year toasting the launch of his new airline, Air Bagan, with the head of Singapore's aviation authority. Dissident groups say the trade-off for Tay Za's government business contracts in Burma is to fund junta leaders' medical trips to Singapore.
So when the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, vows to impose financial sanctions on Burma's regime, as he did this week, perhaps he should be calling Singapore's bankers rather than Australia's.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/30/1191090945019.html
October 1, 2007
SINGAPORE is not just skilled at mandatory executions of drug traffickers, running an excellent airport and selling cameras on Orchard Road. It also does a very useful trade keeping Burma's military rulers and their cronies afloat.
Much attention is focused on China and its hosting of the Olympic Games next year as a diplomatic trigger point for placing pressure on Burma's junta. But there is a group of government businessmen-technocrats in Singapore who will also be closely - and perhaps nervously - monitoring the brutality in Rangoon. Were they so inclined, their influence could go a long way to limiting the misery being inflicted on Burma's 54 million people.
Collectively known as Singapore Inc, they gather around the $150 billion state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings, controlled by Singapore's long-ruling Lee family. With an estimated $3 billion invested in Burma (and more than $20 billion in Australia), Singapore Inc companies have been some of the biggest investors in and supporters of Burma's military junta - this while its Government, on the rare times it is asked, gently suggests a softly-softly diplomatic approach toward the junta.
When it comes to Burma, Singapore pockets the high morals it likes to wave at the West.
Singapore's one-time head of foreign trade said, as his country was building links with Burma in the mid-1990s: "While the other countries are ignoring it, it's a good time for us to go in. You get better deals, and you're more appreciated. Singapore's position is not to judge them and take a judgmental moral high ground."
But by providing Burma's pariah junta with crucial material and equipment mostly denied by Western sanctions Singapore has helped keep the military government and its cronies afloat for 20 years, indeed since the last time the generals killed the citizens they are supposed to protect with industrial efficiency and brutality, as now.
Without the support from Singapore, Burma's junta would be greatly weakened and perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable business with the generals and their cronies, that is about the last thing Singapore Inc is likely to do. There's too much money to be made.
From hotels, airlines, military equipment and training, crowd control equipment and sophisticated telecommunications monitoring devices, Singapore is a crucial manager and supplier to the junta, and Burma's economy.
It is impossible to spend any meaningful time in Burma and not make the junta richer, via contracts with Singapore suppliers to the tourism industry. Singapore's hospitals also keep its leaders alive - the 74-year-old strongman Than Shwe has been receiving treatment for intestinal cancer in a government hospital in Singapore, in a ward heavily protected by Singapore security.
Much of Singapore's activity in Burma has been documented by an analyst working in Australia's Office of National Assessments. Andrew Selth is recognised as a leading authority on Burma's military. Now a research fellow at Queensland's Griffith University, Selth has written extensively for years on how close Singapore Inc is to the junta.
Often writing as "William Ashton" in Jane's Intelligence Review, Selth has described how Singapore has sent guns, rockets, armoured personnel carriers and grenade launchers to the junta, some of it trans-shipped from stocks seized by Israel from Palestinians in southern Lebanon.
Singaporean companies have provided computers and communications equipment for Burma's defence ministry and army, while upgrading the junta's ability to communicate with regional commanders - so crucial as protesters take to the streets of 20 cities in Burma. The sheer scale of the protests is causing logistical headaches for the Tatmadaw, as Burma's military is known.
"Singapore cares little about human rights, in particular the plight of the ethnic and religious minorities in Burma," Selth writes. "Having developed one of the region's most advanced armed forces and defence industrial support bases, Singapore is in a good position to offer Burma a number of inducements which other ASEAN [Association of South-East Asian Nations] countries would find hard to match."
Selth says Singapore also provided the equipment for a "cyber war centre" to monitor dissident activity, while training Burma's secret police, whose sole job appears to be ensuring democracy groups are crushed.
Monitoring dissidents is an area where Singapore has expertise. After almost five decades in power, the Lee family-controlled People's Action Party ranks behind only the communists of China, Cuba and North Korea in leadership longevity.
"This centre is reported to be closely involved in the monitoring and recording of foreign and domestic telecommunications, including the satellite telephone conversations of Burmese opposition groups," Selth writes.
Singaporean government companies, such as the arms supplier Singapore Technologies, dominate the communications and military sector in Singapore. Selth writes: "It is highly unlikely that any of these arms shipments to Burma could have been made without the knowledge and support of the Singapore Government." He notes that Singapore's ambassadors to Burma have included a former senior Singapore Armed Forces officer and a past director of Singapore's defence-oriented Joint Intelligence Directorate. "It is curious that Singapore chose to assign someone with a military background to this new member of ASEAN and not one of its many capable professional diplomats."
Selth writes that after Burma's 1988 crackdown, in which 3000 democracy protesters were killed, "the first country to come to the regime's rescue was in fact Singapore".
In an interview with the chief executive officer of Singapore Technologies, Peter Seah, at his office in Singapore, the Herald asked about the model of an armoured personnel carrier made by his company that sat on his office table. Seah said his company sold the vehicles "only to allies". Did that include Burma, given Singapore helped sponsor the military regime into ASEAN? Seah was not specific: "We only sell to allies and we make sure they are responsible." He did not say how. For its part, Temasek does not respond to questions about its activities in Burma.
A Singaporean diplomat to Burma, Matthew Sim, wrote a handbook for Singaporean businesspeople, Myanmar on My Mind. It is full of tips for doing business in Burma, although odd given Singapore's contempt for corruption and lawbreakers. "A little money goes a long way in greasing the wheels of productivity," he writes.
A chapter headed Committing Manslaughter When Driving describes the appropriate action for a Singaporean if they accidentally kill a pedestrian in Burma. "Firstly, the international businessman could give the family of the deceased some money as compensation and dissuade them from pressing charges. Secondly, he could pay a Myanmar citizen to take the blame by declaring that he was the driver in the fatal accident. An international businessman should not make the mistake of trying to argue his case in a court of law when it comes to a fatal accident, even if he is in the right. He highly probably will spend time in jail regretting it. It is a sad and hard world. The facts of life can be ugly."
Describing Singapore's usefulness to Burma, Sim says "many successful Myanmar businessmen have opened shell companies" in Singapore "with little or no staff, used to keep funds overseas". The companies are used to keep business deals outside the control of Burma's central bank, enabling Singaporeans and others to make transactions with Burma in Singapore, he says.
Sim may be referring to junta cronies such as Tay Za and the druglord Lo Hsing Han. Lo is an ethnic Chinese, from Burma's traditionally Chinese-populated and opium-rich Kokang region in the country's east, bordering China. Lo controls a heroin empire and one of Burma's biggest companies, Asia World, which the US Drug Enforcement Agency describes as a front for his drug trafficking. Asia World controls toll roads, industrial parks and trading companies.
Singapore is the Lo family's window to the world, a base for controlling several companies. Lo's son Steven, who has been denied a visa to the US because of his drug links, is married to a Singaporean, Cecilia Ng. The two reportedly control a Singapore-based trading house, Kokang Singapore Pty Ltd. The couple transit Singapore at will. A former US assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Robert Gelbard, has said half of Singapore's investment in Burma has been "tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han".
Tay Zar, who is linked romantically to a daughter of Than Shwe, is also well known in Singapore. His fleet of Ferrari, Lexus and Mercedes cars was shipped to Burma from Singapore. When on the island, he likes to stay at the tacky Meritus Mandarin hotel on Orchard Road, close to the hospitals favoured by his senior military patrons from Burma.
Tay Za was featured in the Singaporean media last year toasting the launch of his new airline, Air Bagan, with the head of Singapore's aviation authority. Dissident groups say the trade-off for Tay Za's government business contracts in Burma is to fund junta leaders' medical trips to Singapore.
So when the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, vows to impose financial sanctions on Burma's regime, as he did this week, perhaps he should be calling Singapore's bankers rather than Australia's.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/30/1191090945019.html
Monday, October 1, 2007
Karma Power: What Makes a Monk Mad
New York Times
September 30, 2007
By SETH MYDANS
BANGKOK
AS they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.
It was a shocking image in the devoutly Buddhist nation. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.
That gesture is a key to understanding the power of the rebellion that shook Myanmar last week.
The country — the former Burma — has roughly as many monks as soldiers. The military rules by force, but the monks retain ultimate moral authority. The lowliest soldier depends on them for spiritual approval, and even the highest generals have felt a need to honor the clerical establishment. They claim to rule in its name.
Begging is a ritual that expresses a profound bond between the ordinary Buddhist and the monk. “The people are feeding the monks and the monks are helping the people make merit,” said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University. “When you refuse to accept, you have broken the bond that has tied them for centuries together.”
Instead, the monks drew on a different and more fundamental bond with Myanmar’s population, leading huge demonstrations after the government tried to repress protests that began a month ago over a rise in fuel prices.
By last week, the country’s two largest and most established institutions were confronting each other, the monkhood and the military, both about 400,000 strong, both made up of young men, mostly from the poorer classes, who could well be brothers. Rejected by both its spiritual and popular bases, the junta that has ruled for 19 years had little to fall back on but force.
It unleashed its troops to shoot, beat, arrest and humiliate the men in brick-red robes, definitively alienating itself from the clergy whose support gives it legitimacy. Soldiers surrounded monasteries, preventing monks from leading further demonstrations — or from making their morning rounds to collect the alms that feed them.
In Myanmar and other Buddhist nations, many join the monkhood as a lifelong vocation, but many other young men become monks for shorter periods, ranging from a few months to a few years. These young monks remain closer to the lives and concerns of the people whose alms they receive.
Burmese monks have taken part in protests in the past, against British colonial rule and against a half-century of rule by military dictatorship. The most notable recent occasion was in 1990.
Their militant resistance to the British produced the most prominent political martyr of Burmese Buddhism, U Wisara, who died in prison in 1929 after a 166-day hunger strike.
His statue stands near the tall, golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the country’s holiest shrine, which was a rallying point for the recent demonstrations and the scene of the first violence against the monks last week.
That attack came as a shock to people who said the military would not turn violently against the monks, and it had the predictable effect of arousing the fury of a devout population.
But monks have not always been in the political front lines. It was students, for example, who led the mass demonstrations of 1988 that brought the current junta to power in a military massacre.
The monks’ power comes instead from their role in bestowing legitimacy on the rulers.
“Legitimacy in Burma is not about regime performance, it’s not about human rights like the West,” said Ingrid Jordt, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and an expert on Burmese Buddhism. “It is something that comes from the potency and karma bestowed by the monks. That’s why the sangha is so important to the government,” she said, referring to the Buddhist hierarchy and the spiritual status that its monks can convey. “They are actually the source of power.”
The junta has gone to great lengths to identify itself with Buddhism. Like their predecessors through the centuries, the generals have been busy building temples, supporting monasteries and carrying out religiously symbolic acts. In 1999, they regilded the spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda, which now glitters with 53 tons of gold and 4,341 diamonds on the crowning orb.
The gilding of the spire was a high-risk ploy for an unpopular regime, an act permitted only to kings and legitimate rulers. When the two-ton, seven-tier finial was added and the spire was complete, the nation held its breath, waiting for the earth to send a signal of disapproval through lightning or thunder or floods, Ms. Jordt said. But nature remained indifferent.
“Aung pyi!” the generals shouted. “We won!”
But their grip on power has never been secure. They have ruled through a security service that keeps order through intimidation. They have arrested thousands of political prisoners and have held the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.
In that context, the huge street demonstrations were an act of courage and catharsis.
They started tentatively on Aug. 19 after a fuel price increase raised the costs of transportation and basic goods. Veterans of the student demonstrations of 1988 staged small protests, but most were quickly arrested or driven into hiding. The unrest was fading when security officers beat monks and fired shots into the air during a confrontation in the city of Pakokku on Sept. 5.
That became a spark that grew into a broad-based challenge to the government, culminating last week in the breach between those who hold moral authority and those who have the guns.
“This was not an accidental uprising,” said Zin Linn, a former editor and political prisoner who is now information minister for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile opposition group based in Washington. The transition in leadership in the protests — from militant former students to activist monks — was well planned, he said, through secret meetings among young men sharing similar grievances and aspirations for their country. For the most part, it was not the elders who backed the protests. Over the years, the junta has worked to co-opt the Buddhist hierarchy, placing chosen men in key positions just as they have done in every other institution, angering and alienating the younger monks.
After the military clampdown on the monasteries last week, the streets of Yangon were mostly empty of monks. But their gesture of rejection of the junta, and the junta’s violent response, had changed the dynamics of Burmese society in ways that had only begun to play out.
The junta’s action “shows how desperate they are,” Ms. Jordt said. “It shows that they are willing to do anything at this point in terms of violence. Once you’ve thrown your lot in against the monks, I think it will be impossible for the regime to go back to normal daily legitimacy.”
September 30, 2007
By SETH MYDANS
BANGKOK
AS they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.
It was a shocking image in the devoutly Buddhist nation. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.
That gesture is a key to understanding the power of the rebellion that shook Myanmar last week.
The country — the former Burma — has roughly as many monks as soldiers. The military rules by force, but the monks retain ultimate moral authority. The lowliest soldier depends on them for spiritual approval, and even the highest generals have felt a need to honor the clerical establishment. They claim to rule in its name.
Begging is a ritual that expresses a profound bond between the ordinary Buddhist and the monk. “The people are feeding the monks and the monks are helping the people make merit,” said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University. “When you refuse to accept, you have broken the bond that has tied them for centuries together.”
Instead, the monks drew on a different and more fundamental bond with Myanmar’s population, leading huge demonstrations after the government tried to repress protests that began a month ago over a rise in fuel prices.
By last week, the country’s two largest and most established institutions were confronting each other, the monkhood and the military, both about 400,000 strong, both made up of young men, mostly from the poorer classes, who could well be brothers. Rejected by both its spiritual and popular bases, the junta that has ruled for 19 years had little to fall back on but force.
It unleashed its troops to shoot, beat, arrest and humiliate the men in brick-red robes, definitively alienating itself from the clergy whose support gives it legitimacy. Soldiers surrounded monasteries, preventing monks from leading further demonstrations — or from making their morning rounds to collect the alms that feed them.
In Myanmar and other Buddhist nations, many join the monkhood as a lifelong vocation, but many other young men become monks for shorter periods, ranging from a few months to a few years. These young monks remain closer to the lives and concerns of the people whose alms they receive.
Burmese monks have taken part in protests in the past, against British colonial rule and against a half-century of rule by military dictatorship. The most notable recent occasion was in 1990.
Their militant resistance to the British produced the most prominent political martyr of Burmese Buddhism, U Wisara, who died in prison in 1929 after a 166-day hunger strike.
His statue stands near the tall, golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the country’s holiest shrine, which was a rallying point for the recent demonstrations and the scene of the first violence against the monks last week.
That attack came as a shock to people who said the military would not turn violently against the monks, and it had the predictable effect of arousing the fury of a devout population.
But monks have not always been in the political front lines. It was students, for example, who led the mass demonstrations of 1988 that brought the current junta to power in a military massacre.
The monks’ power comes instead from their role in bestowing legitimacy on the rulers.
“Legitimacy in Burma is not about regime performance, it’s not about human rights like the West,” said Ingrid Jordt, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and an expert on Burmese Buddhism. “It is something that comes from the potency and karma bestowed by the monks. That’s why the sangha is so important to the government,” she said, referring to the Buddhist hierarchy and the spiritual status that its monks can convey. “They are actually the source of power.”
The junta has gone to great lengths to identify itself with Buddhism. Like their predecessors through the centuries, the generals have been busy building temples, supporting monasteries and carrying out religiously symbolic acts. In 1999, they regilded the spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda, which now glitters with 53 tons of gold and 4,341 diamonds on the crowning orb.
The gilding of the spire was a high-risk ploy for an unpopular regime, an act permitted only to kings and legitimate rulers. When the two-ton, seven-tier finial was added and the spire was complete, the nation held its breath, waiting for the earth to send a signal of disapproval through lightning or thunder or floods, Ms. Jordt said. But nature remained indifferent.
“Aung pyi!” the generals shouted. “We won!”
But their grip on power has never been secure. They have ruled through a security service that keeps order through intimidation. They have arrested thousands of political prisoners and have held the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.
In that context, the huge street demonstrations were an act of courage and catharsis.
They started tentatively on Aug. 19 after a fuel price increase raised the costs of transportation and basic goods. Veterans of the student demonstrations of 1988 staged small protests, but most were quickly arrested or driven into hiding. The unrest was fading when security officers beat monks and fired shots into the air during a confrontation in the city of Pakokku on Sept. 5.
That became a spark that grew into a broad-based challenge to the government, culminating last week in the breach between those who hold moral authority and those who have the guns.
“This was not an accidental uprising,” said Zin Linn, a former editor and political prisoner who is now information minister for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile opposition group based in Washington. The transition in leadership in the protests — from militant former students to activist monks — was well planned, he said, through secret meetings among young men sharing similar grievances and aspirations for their country. For the most part, it was not the elders who backed the protests. Over the years, the junta has worked to co-opt the Buddhist hierarchy, placing chosen men in key positions just as they have done in every other institution, angering and alienating the younger monks.
After the military clampdown on the monasteries last week, the streets of Yangon were mostly empty of monks. But their gesture of rejection of the junta, and the junta’s violent response, had changed the dynamics of Burmese society in ways that had only begun to play out.
The junta’s action “shows how desperate they are,” Ms. Jordt said. “It shows that they are willing to do anything at this point in terms of violence. Once you’ve thrown your lot in against the monks, I think it will be impossible for the regime to go back to normal daily legitimacy.”
Mad Monks In Myanmar
Sept. 30, 2007
Andrew Lam, The Nation
If you think that Buddhist monks in Myanmar currently waging protests against the military powers are passive and peace-loving, think again. After a monthlong protest, hundreds have been arrested while dozens of others have died or sustained serious injuries since the Burmese junta began its crackdown.
(After the crackdown on demonstrators in Yangon - which left at least nine dead and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of monks - Independent Television News reported today that monks have largely disappeared from the streets.)
The monks' protest is not surprising in Southeast Asia, where Buddhist clerics and intellectuals have traditionally played important roles far beyond the spiritual life. Given the deepening poverty and an economic crisis that left many Burmese on the brink of starvation, including the monks who depend solely on alms to survive, it's surprising that it took them this long before taking action.
"Engaged Buddhism" - a term coined by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh - has long been the practice in the region. In Vietnam, the ruling class knows each time a Buddhist monk sets himself ablaze they'd better watch out. That was certainly true in 1963 when a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc immolated himself in downtown Saigon to protest a crackdown on Buddhism. Unrest grew as civilian fear turned into anger, and Ngo Dinh Diem's regime fell soon afterward.
Buddhism through a Western lens can appear rosy for its messages of compassion, inner peace, and self-cultivation. In Asian societies Buddhism as an institution has a much broader political impact, comparable to those of Jesuit priests. Thich Nhat Hanh, taking his cue from Zen Buddhism (where Japanese Buddhist monks apply mindfulness to every action, be it drinking tea, shooting an arrow, or arranging flowers) saw engagement and activism as part of their Buddhist practice.
The prominent Thai social critic and activist Sulak Sivaraksa, author of Socially Engaged Buddhism, agreed with Hanh. "In making Buddhism more relevant for the contemporary world, it is important not to compromise on the essentials, such as the ethical precepts (sila)," he noted. "However, these ethical precepts need to be rethought in order to make sense of life in contemporary societies. Buddhists traditionally have lived in rather simple societies, largely agrarian."
But, when the society becomes much more complex, these simple interpretations of ethical norms don't work so well, he observed. "Social reality in the modern world has become much more complex and interconnected. We have to ask questions like these: Do we allow our tax money to go for armaments? Do we keep ourselves separate from the political realm and not challenge the government? Should we breed animals for consumption? If your society is unjust, exploitative, and violent, how do you respond?"
In northern Thailand a decade ago I witnessed Buddhist monks trying to save a forest, by tying sacred scarves around trees so that loggers (themselves devout Buddhists) wouldn't cut them down. It was the first time that I saw Buddhism as part of a grassroots environmental movement.
In Sri Lanka, some Buddhist monks have responded to the long civil war by forming a political party. They now hold seats in parliament and advocate military solutions to the Tamil Tigers insurgency. The Tamils are the largest minority and are Hindus and Christians in a largely Buddhist country. When a New York Times reporter asked Venerable Athuraliye Rathana, the monk who leads the National Heritage Party in Parliament, about Buddhist engagement in politics, he snapped: "Is politics polluted? Was Mao Zedong polluted? Was Mahatma Gandhi polluted?"
Engaged Buddhism continues to be the norm in Vietnam, where stepped-up arrests of outspoken Buddhist monks (and priests) were reported after President Bush visited the country and lifted it from the "country of particular concern" list. Today, Venerable Thich Quang Do, the leader of the outlawed Buddhist church - Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) - has been under house arrest for, among other things, trying to help flood victims in the Mekong Delta. In a country where 80 percent of the population remains Buddhist, the communist party intends on keeping the lid on the one power center it sees as rivaling its own.
Unlike Vietnam, where wars have a way of disrupting religious lives, in Myanmar Buddhism has continued to thrive despite a junta that claims a communist ideology and a strong alliance to Communist China. Cracking down on pro-democracy protesters has been routine in Myanmar, but crackdowns on monks have been relatively rare.
A dozen years ago it was a serious crime to own a fax machine but these days monks can text-message one another and synchronize their protests and marches in Myanmar's major cities. Foreign media, too, are no longer kept outside of the borders, nor is Myanmar as isolated as it once was during the Cold War. China, considered the puppet leader of Myanmar is more vulnerable to foreign criticism now with its integrated foreign markets and its high stake in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - which the pro-democracy movement and Buddhist activists are pushing to boycott.
The generals who run that country are themselves reportedly deeply religious, or at least superstitious, many having spent quite a bit of money to renovate temples and build new Buddha statues to accrue good karma. But Burmese monks recently refused to take alms from them and their families, turning their bowls upside down. For it is not Buddhism that is under threat in Myanmar, after all, but the ruling junta.
Andrew Lam, The Nation
If you think that Buddhist monks in Myanmar currently waging protests against the military powers are passive and peace-loving, think again. After a monthlong protest, hundreds have been arrested while dozens of others have died or sustained serious injuries since the Burmese junta began its crackdown.
(After the crackdown on demonstrators in Yangon - which left at least nine dead and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of monks - Independent Television News reported today that monks have largely disappeared from the streets.)
The monks' protest is not surprising in Southeast Asia, where Buddhist clerics and intellectuals have traditionally played important roles far beyond the spiritual life. Given the deepening poverty and an economic crisis that left many Burmese on the brink of starvation, including the monks who depend solely on alms to survive, it's surprising that it took them this long before taking action.
"Engaged Buddhism" - a term coined by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh - has long been the practice in the region. In Vietnam, the ruling class knows each time a Buddhist monk sets himself ablaze they'd better watch out. That was certainly true in 1963 when a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc immolated himself in downtown Saigon to protest a crackdown on Buddhism. Unrest grew as civilian fear turned into anger, and Ngo Dinh Diem's regime fell soon afterward.
Buddhism through a Western lens can appear rosy for its messages of compassion, inner peace, and self-cultivation. In Asian societies Buddhism as an institution has a much broader political impact, comparable to those of Jesuit priests. Thich Nhat Hanh, taking his cue from Zen Buddhism (where Japanese Buddhist monks apply mindfulness to every action, be it drinking tea, shooting an arrow, or arranging flowers) saw engagement and activism as part of their Buddhist practice.
The prominent Thai social critic and activist Sulak Sivaraksa, author of Socially Engaged Buddhism, agreed with Hanh. "In making Buddhism more relevant for the contemporary world, it is important not to compromise on the essentials, such as the ethical precepts (sila)," he noted. "However, these ethical precepts need to be rethought in order to make sense of life in contemporary societies. Buddhists traditionally have lived in rather simple societies, largely agrarian."
But, when the society becomes much more complex, these simple interpretations of ethical norms don't work so well, he observed. "Social reality in the modern world has become much more complex and interconnected. We have to ask questions like these: Do we allow our tax money to go for armaments? Do we keep ourselves separate from the political realm and not challenge the government? Should we breed animals for consumption? If your society is unjust, exploitative, and violent, how do you respond?"
In northern Thailand a decade ago I witnessed Buddhist monks trying to save a forest, by tying sacred scarves around trees so that loggers (themselves devout Buddhists) wouldn't cut them down. It was the first time that I saw Buddhism as part of a grassroots environmental movement.
In Sri Lanka, some Buddhist monks have responded to the long civil war by forming a political party. They now hold seats in parliament and advocate military solutions to the Tamil Tigers insurgency. The Tamils are the largest minority and are Hindus and Christians in a largely Buddhist country. When a New York Times reporter asked Venerable Athuraliye Rathana, the monk who leads the National Heritage Party in Parliament, about Buddhist engagement in politics, he snapped: "Is politics polluted? Was Mao Zedong polluted? Was Mahatma Gandhi polluted?"
Engaged Buddhism continues to be the norm in Vietnam, where stepped-up arrests of outspoken Buddhist monks (and priests) were reported after President Bush visited the country and lifted it from the "country of particular concern" list. Today, Venerable Thich Quang Do, the leader of the outlawed Buddhist church - Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) - has been under house arrest for, among other things, trying to help flood victims in the Mekong Delta. In a country where 80 percent of the population remains Buddhist, the communist party intends on keeping the lid on the one power center it sees as rivaling its own.
Unlike Vietnam, where wars have a way of disrupting religious lives, in Myanmar Buddhism has continued to thrive despite a junta that claims a communist ideology and a strong alliance to Communist China. Cracking down on pro-democracy protesters has been routine in Myanmar, but crackdowns on monks have been relatively rare.
A dozen years ago it was a serious crime to own a fax machine but these days monks can text-message one another and synchronize their protests and marches in Myanmar's major cities. Foreign media, too, are no longer kept outside of the borders, nor is Myanmar as isolated as it once was during the Cold War. China, considered the puppet leader of Myanmar is more vulnerable to foreign criticism now with its integrated foreign markets and its high stake in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - which the pro-democracy movement and Buddhist activists are pushing to boycott.
The generals who run that country are themselves reportedly deeply religious, or at least superstitious, many having spent quite a bit of money to renovate temples and build new Buddha statues to accrue good karma. But Burmese monks recently refused to take alms from them and their families, turning their bowls upside down. For it is not Buddhism that is under threat in Myanmar, after all, but the ruling junta.
One monk for every soldier
Comment
Only a mutiny in the army - and it is possible - can end the Junta's rule in Burma
Emma Larkin
Sunday September 30, 2007
The Observer
It is an epic clash between the monks and the military in Burma. On one side: the wisdom and non-violent principles of over 2,500 years of Buddhist tradition. On the other: military might honed over 45 years of brutal authoritarian rule. The number of monks in Burma is estimated to be anywhere between 400,000 to 500,000. The number of soldiers is around 400,000. So, one monk for every soldier.
When the monks began marching in peaceful protest over a week ago, the junta remained ominously silent. Then, on Tuesday, the crackdown began. An unconfirmed number of monks were shot dead, monasteries were raided and hundreds of monks have been imprisoned.
How will the predominately Buddhist population of Burma respond to this attack on members of its revered religious order? With absolute horror, I imagine, as they have done to previous attacks (an unverified number of monks were shot dead during the nationwide uprising in 1988, and over 500 were imprisoned). But people's reactions will probably be expressed behind closed doors. The regime has a terrifyingly effective network of spies and informers, and people are often not willing to openly voice any criticism of the regime for fear of imprisonment and torture. The surveillance has been so insidious that there are Burmese people I have met who do not trust anyone outside their immediate family; they won't talk openly to cousins or close friends. When I asked a friend for advice on how to safely do research in Burma, he told me to operate under the assumption that everyone I met was an informer - including him.
After the events of 1988, the regime began to eliminate all possible means of dissent within the country. The student community, which had led and organised the demonstrations, was politically emasculated. Through surveillance and intimidation, the regime managed to create a country in which there is no social or political space for people to gather or organise in big numbers. Many Burma watchers, myself included, thought that protests of the kind which took place in 1988 couldn't happen again as there is seemingly no way to gain a critical mass within such an oppressive environment.
And yet, over the past fortnight, the monks have risen up in numbers it would have been impossible to imagine just a few weeks ago. They are being led by the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, an organisation that must have been operating deeply underground as few people had ever heard of them before last week.
Many of my Burmese friends are unsurprised by surprising events such as this. One friend always travels prepared for any eventuality; he sits bolt upright throughout overnight train journeys with his belongings clasped in his lap, just in case. When I ask his opinion on future events, he squints his eyes with theatrical aplomb and says, "In Burma, anything can happen."
Somewhere within that "anything" is the possibility of a mutiny within the army. For many soldiers, being ordered to shoot or beat up a monk goes against every grain of their spiritual up-bringing, and ensures they will carry the burden of bad karma for life-times to come. And the lower-ranking soldiers share certain similarities with the rest of the population: they, too, are poor, badly treated and afraid. I used to see soldiers living in the crumbling outbuildings of the old British Secretariat, the regime's main ministerial building until it moved to its new capital. In the centre of Rangoon, these poorly-paid soldiers had to use kerosene lamps and cook over camp-fires as if they were in the jungle.
One of the many rumours to emerge from Burma over the past couple days is that there may be a split in the army. Troops from central Burma are said to be marching towards Rangoon. Some say they are coming to challenge the soldiers who are attacking monks; others say they are coming to reinforce them. Whether these rumours are true or not, they are often accurate barometers of people's hopes and fears: Will they free us, or will they crush us?
If the army succeeds in crushing this uprising - which, so far, it seems to be doing - then the regime will set to work purging the monastic order of what it likes to call "destructive elements" and even more monks will be imprisoned and tortured. The regime's intelligence agents will shave their heads and infiltrate the monasteries, praying among the monks as one of them. What little space for political organisation once existed within the monkhood will be obliterated. Yet another attempt by the people to speak out about their suffering will have been silenced.
So how will the Burmese people respond to soldiers aiming their guns at unarmed monks? How can they respond? If they are able to push aside a lifetime of oppression and fear, they can make martyrs of themselves and walk out into the street towards the guns. And the monks could do the same - if they are still able to mass themselves - there is, after all, at least one monk for every soldier willing to shoot him.
· Emma Larkin is the author of Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop, published by John Murray. She spent the better part of two years living in Burma to research the book and is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand
Only a mutiny in the army - and it is possible - can end the Junta's rule in Burma
Emma Larkin
Sunday September 30, 2007
The Observer
It is an epic clash between the monks and the military in Burma. On one side: the wisdom and non-violent principles of over 2,500 years of Buddhist tradition. On the other: military might honed over 45 years of brutal authoritarian rule. The number of monks in Burma is estimated to be anywhere between 400,000 to 500,000. The number of soldiers is around 400,000. So, one monk for every soldier.
When the monks began marching in peaceful protest over a week ago, the junta remained ominously silent. Then, on Tuesday, the crackdown began. An unconfirmed number of monks were shot dead, monasteries were raided and hundreds of monks have been imprisoned.
How will the predominately Buddhist population of Burma respond to this attack on members of its revered religious order? With absolute horror, I imagine, as they have done to previous attacks (an unverified number of monks were shot dead during the nationwide uprising in 1988, and over 500 were imprisoned). But people's reactions will probably be expressed behind closed doors. The regime has a terrifyingly effective network of spies and informers, and people are often not willing to openly voice any criticism of the regime for fear of imprisonment and torture. The surveillance has been so insidious that there are Burmese people I have met who do not trust anyone outside their immediate family; they won't talk openly to cousins or close friends. When I asked a friend for advice on how to safely do research in Burma, he told me to operate under the assumption that everyone I met was an informer - including him.
After the events of 1988, the regime began to eliminate all possible means of dissent within the country. The student community, which had led and organised the demonstrations, was politically emasculated. Through surveillance and intimidation, the regime managed to create a country in which there is no social or political space for people to gather or organise in big numbers. Many Burma watchers, myself included, thought that protests of the kind which took place in 1988 couldn't happen again as there is seemingly no way to gain a critical mass within such an oppressive environment.
And yet, over the past fortnight, the monks have risen up in numbers it would have been impossible to imagine just a few weeks ago. They are being led by the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, an organisation that must have been operating deeply underground as few people had ever heard of them before last week.
Many of my Burmese friends are unsurprised by surprising events such as this. One friend always travels prepared for any eventuality; he sits bolt upright throughout overnight train journeys with his belongings clasped in his lap, just in case. When I ask his opinion on future events, he squints his eyes with theatrical aplomb and says, "In Burma, anything can happen."
Somewhere within that "anything" is the possibility of a mutiny within the army. For many soldiers, being ordered to shoot or beat up a monk goes against every grain of their spiritual up-bringing, and ensures they will carry the burden of bad karma for life-times to come. And the lower-ranking soldiers share certain similarities with the rest of the population: they, too, are poor, badly treated and afraid. I used to see soldiers living in the crumbling outbuildings of the old British Secretariat, the regime's main ministerial building until it moved to its new capital. In the centre of Rangoon, these poorly-paid soldiers had to use kerosene lamps and cook over camp-fires as if they were in the jungle.
One of the many rumours to emerge from Burma over the past couple days is that there may be a split in the army. Troops from central Burma are said to be marching towards Rangoon. Some say they are coming to challenge the soldiers who are attacking monks; others say they are coming to reinforce them. Whether these rumours are true or not, they are often accurate barometers of people's hopes and fears: Will they free us, or will they crush us?
If the army succeeds in crushing this uprising - which, so far, it seems to be doing - then the regime will set to work purging the monastic order of what it likes to call "destructive elements" and even more monks will be imprisoned and tortured. The regime's intelligence agents will shave their heads and infiltrate the monasteries, praying among the monks as one of them. What little space for political organisation once existed within the monkhood will be obliterated. Yet another attempt by the people to speak out about their suffering will have been silenced.
So how will the Burmese people respond to soldiers aiming their guns at unarmed monks? How can they respond? If they are able to push aside a lifetime of oppression and fear, they can make martyrs of themselves and walk out into the street towards the guns. And the monks could do the same - if they are still able to mass themselves - there is, after all, at least one monk for every soldier willing to shoot him.
· Emma Larkin is the author of Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop, published by John Murray. She spent the better part of two years living in Burma to research the book and is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand
Myanmar: Monks using Vinaya as remedy
by Visakha Kawasaki, Kandy, Sri Lanka, The Buddhist Channel, Sept 16, 2007
I write with regards to Jorge de Silva’s letter, “Political activities are forbidden for Sangha members”. Mr. de Silva’s outrage is misdirected. Sri Lanka and Burma are so dissimilar, it’s doubtful that anything in Burma can be described as “just like in Sri Lanka!” Sri Lanka has a democracy while Burma is a brutal, inept military dictatorship.
He also seems misinformed about vinaya, since vinaya doesn’t flat out “forbid” political activities of the Sangha. The rules of vinaya govern the lives of monks and nuns, and also stipulate the procedures by which decisions are made and compliance to the rules carried out. These rules range from the weightiest of matters to minor questions of etiquette. The purpose is to provide a framework for individuals to pursue their monastic livelihood and also to maintain smooth relations both among members of the community themselves and between monastics and their lay supporters.
Precisely because the Burmese military rulers have violently mistreated innocent members of the Sangha, monks in Burma have looked to the vinaya for an appropriate remedy.
That is pattam nikkujjana kamma or "overturning the bowl" against the military. This refusal to accept alms should be understood as a stern rebuke to a lay person guilty of one or more of eight offenses. These eight are: striving for that which is not gain, striving for that which is not benefit, acting against a monastery, vilifying and making insidious comparisons about monks, inciting dissension among monks, defaming the Buddha, defaming the Dhamma, and defaming the Sangha. If a lay person acts in any of these ways, he should be ostracized with the Sangha refusing all contact. This is not a joking matter nor is it being frivolously resorted to in Burma today.
In 1990 the monks of Mandalay declared pattam nikkujjana kamma after the army opened fire on a dignified procession of 7,000 monks walking to receive alms in commemoration of the second anniversary of the August 8th democracy uprising. On that occasion two monks and two students were killed outright, seventeen others were wounded, and one novice disappeared.
After the massacre, a boycott was declared in a ritual performed by more than 5000 monks. After that Sangha act, monks didn’t accept offerings from the military, which tried to break the boycott by offering cooked meals at various intersections in Mandalay which were untouched.
If a lay person harms the Sangha, the Sangha should shun him by not accepting religious offerings, not performing religious ceremonies, not going to them and not giving religious sermons to them. According to vinaya, offenders can be boycotted until they make an apology.
The purpose of overturning the bowl is a compassionate one, viz. to help evildoers repent their deeds, to forsake their wrong ways, and to return to the true path. In 1990 the military rulers rejected the correction. Since then conditions in Burma have gotten worse for the people and the Sangha. Burma’s prisons hold many monks as political prisoners.
In the villages and towns, people know that their monks suffer with them.
May the rulers of Burma reconsider and correct the error of their ways!
I write with regards to Jorge de Silva’s letter, “Political activities are forbidden for Sangha members”. Mr. de Silva’s outrage is misdirected. Sri Lanka and Burma are so dissimilar, it’s doubtful that anything in Burma can be described as “just like in Sri Lanka!” Sri Lanka has a democracy while Burma is a brutal, inept military dictatorship.
He also seems misinformed about vinaya, since vinaya doesn’t flat out “forbid” political activities of the Sangha. The rules of vinaya govern the lives of monks and nuns, and also stipulate the procedures by which decisions are made and compliance to the rules carried out. These rules range from the weightiest of matters to minor questions of etiquette. The purpose is to provide a framework for individuals to pursue their monastic livelihood and also to maintain smooth relations both among members of the community themselves and between monastics and their lay supporters.
Precisely because the Burmese military rulers have violently mistreated innocent members of the Sangha, monks in Burma have looked to the vinaya for an appropriate remedy.
That is pattam nikkujjana kamma or "overturning the bowl" against the military. This refusal to accept alms should be understood as a stern rebuke to a lay person guilty of one or more of eight offenses. These eight are: striving for that which is not gain, striving for that which is not benefit, acting against a monastery, vilifying and making insidious comparisons about monks, inciting dissension among monks, defaming the Buddha, defaming the Dhamma, and defaming the Sangha. If a lay person acts in any of these ways, he should be ostracized with the Sangha refusing all contact. This is not a joking matter nor is it being frivolously resorted to in Burma today.
In 1990 the monks of Mandalay declared pattam nikkujjana kamma after the army opened fire on a dignified procession of 7,000 monks walking to receive alms in commemoration of the second anniversary of the August 8th democracy uprising. On that occasion two monks and two students were killed outright, seventeen others were wounded, and one novice disappeared.
After the massacre, a boycott was declared in a ritual performed by more than 5000 monks. After that Sangha act, monks didn’t accept offerings from the military, which tried to break the boycott by offering cooked meals at various intersections in Mandalay which were untouched.
If a lay person harms the Sangha, the Sangha should shun him by not accepting religious offerings, not performing religious ceremonies, not going to them and not giving religious sermons to them. According to vinaya, offenders can be boycotted until they make an apology.
The purpose of overturning the bowl is a compassionate one, viz. to help evildoers repent their deeds, to forsake their wrong ways, and to return to the true path. In 1990 the military rulers rejected the correction. Since then conditions in Burma have gotten worse for the people and the Sangha. Burma’s prisons hold many monks as political prisoners.
In the villages and towns, people know that their monks suffer with them.
May the rulers of Burma reconsider and correct the error of their ways!
AHRC Appeal to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand 25/9/07
[AHRC Open Letter] BURMA: Appeal to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand on behalf of the Reverend Sangha in Burma (Myanmar)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2007
AHRC-OL-032-2007
Important letter to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand from the director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Dear Reverends
BURMA: Appeal to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand on behalf of the Reverend Sangha in Burma (Myanmar)
As you know, in the last week the Reverend Sangha in Burma (Myanmar) has declared an Excommunicative Boycott (Patta-Nikkujjana) against the military government there.
The Boycott is established under the Vinaya Pitika (IV, Silavar Commentary 5). According to the Vinaya, the Sangha may declare the Boycott in eight circumstances. One of them is if efforts are made to endanger the lives of monks. The Sangha has used the Boycott at times throughout history.
On 5 September 2007, the lives of monks in Burma were endangered when soldiers and government gangs at Pakokku attacked a group of them, tied some to a post and hit them with rifle butts.
The Reverend Sangha was restrained. It requested that the government apologise for the action within two weeks. But the government did not apologise.
Therefore, from September 18 to 21, the Sangha around the country declared the Boycott. It also began to march peacefully and with firm discipline on the streets of cities and towns around the country.
People quickly came to join the monks on the streets. But in the first days the monks told them not to follow, and to allow the Sangha to walk alone. The reason was that the last time that it declared a Boycott in 1990, the authorities reacted with violence and many monks and other persons were killed and jailed. The reverends were worried for the safety of their people.
However, in recent days it has been impossible for the ordinary people to stay away. On September 24, around 100,000 people joined over 10,000 monks and nuns on the streets in Rangoon (Yangon). They have joined hands and walked alongside to protect the Sangha. Smaller protests are continuing everywhere. As the monks have walked, they have chanted the Metta Sutta.
Burma is now again at a crossroads.
I am thus appealing to you on behalf of its Reverend Sangha, and its people. As the Sangha in the neighbouring country where the Buddhist faith is also upheld throughout the land, please join with your brother Reverends, nuns and laity in Burma. Please do the following things:
1. Issue statements to support the Sangha in Burma. I am attaching the statement from His Holiness the Dalai Lama of September 23 as an example.
2. Organise gatherings to support and pray for the Sangha and laity in Burma. Many are already being held around the world. As the neighbouring country and proud inheritor of the Buddhist tradition, please join with them.
3. Discuss within your monasteries and communities also to declare a Boycott on the military regime in Burma and all persons associated with it. Although you may not receive alms or donations from it and its supporters, still this is an important symbolic action that you can take at this time. It will send a message to the military government in Burma that its actions were a wrong not only against the Sangha in Burma, but against the Triple Gem of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha everywhere.
I hope you will consider this request very seriously and soon do all that you can to support the Reverend Sangha in Burma. Even if one Reverend in Thailand will join in walking along this noble path it will be a blessing not only for the people of Burma but also for the people of Thailand, and indeed of the whole world.
"May all beings be happy"
Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2007
AHRC-OL-032-2007
Important letter to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand from the director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Dear Reverends
BURMA: Appeal to the Reverend Sangha in Thailand on behalf of the Reverend Sangha in Burma (Myanmar)
As you know, in the last week the Reverend Sangha in Burma (Myanmar) has declared an Excommunicative Boycott (Patta-Nikkujjana) against the military government there.
The Boycott is established under the Vinaya Pitika (IV, Silavar Commentary 5). According to the Vinaya, the Sangha may declare the Boycott in eight circumstances. One of them is if efforts are made to endanger the lives of monks. The Sangha has used the Boycott at times throughout history.
On 5 September 2007, the lives of monks in Burma were endangered when soldiers and government gangs at Pakokku attacked a group of them, tied some to a post and hit them with rifle butts.
The Reverend Sangha was restrained. It requested that the government apologise for the action within two weeks. But the government did not apologise.
Therefore, from September 18 to 21, the Sangha around the country declared the Boycott. It also began to march peacefully and with firm discipline on the streets of cities and towns around the country.
People quickly came to join the monks on the streets. But in the first days the monks told them not to follow, and to allow the Sangha to walk alone. The reason was that the last time that it declared a Boycott in 1990, the authorities reacted with violence and many monks and other persons were killed and jailed. The reverends were worried for the safety of their people.
However, in recent days it has been impossible for the ordinary people to stay away. On September 24, around 100,000 people joined over 10,000 monks and nuns on the streets in Rangoon (Yangon). They have joined hands and walked alongside to protect the Sangha. Smaller protests are continuing everywhere. As the monks have walked, they have chanted the Metta Sutta.
Burma is now again at a crossroads.
I am thus appealing to you on behalf of its Reverend Sangha, and its people. As the Sangha in the neighbouring country where the Buddhist faith is also upheld throughout the land, please join with your brother Reverends, nuns and laity in Burma. Please do the following things:
1. Issue statements to support the Sangha in Burma. I am attaching the statement from His Holiness the Dalai Lama of September 23 as an example.
2. Organise gatherings to support and pray for the Sangha and laity in Burma. Many are already being held around the world. As the neighbouring country and proud inheritor of the Buddhist tradition, please join with them.
3. Discuss within your monasteries and communities also to declare a Boycott on the military regime in Burma and all persons associated with it. Although you may not receive alms or donations from it and its supporters, still this is an important symbolic action that you can take at this time. It will send a message to the military government in Burma that its actions were a wrong not only against the Sangha in Burma, but against the Triple Gem of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha everywhere.
I hope you will consider this request very seriously and soon do all that you can to support the Reverend Sangha in Burma. Even if one Reverend in Thailand will join in walking along this noble path it will be a blessing not only for the people of Burma but also for the people of Thailand, and indeed of the whole world.
"May all beings be happy"
Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Indian Buddhist monks express solidarity with their Burmese counterparts
Indian Buddhist monks express solidarity with their Burmese counterparts
From our ANI Correspondent
New Delhi, Sept 30: Indian Buddhist monks on Sunday held a sit-in against the violent crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators in Myanmar and expressed solidarity with their counterparts in Myanmar, who are facing repression by the military junta there.
Dozens of monks, chanted religious verses and held placards against the Myanmar's military rule in the heart of the national capital.
Myanmar has seen hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks protesting in the country calling for democracy and an end to the military government.
Nearly two weeks of protests on the streets of Yangon, initially led by saffron-robed clad monks, have provoked a staunch reaction from the government, with at least nine people being reportedly killed in violent repression.
"We protest against the military government, violence in Burma, many Buddhist monks are arrested and killed, so we (are) against the military government. Today we are appealing for peace...," said Oben Nomra, a Buddhist monk.
The monks here also expressed their dissatisfaction over non-intervention by India.
On Saturday, Myanmar refugees in New Delhi had carried out a march here urging the Indian Government to intervene.
Although New Delhi initially supported Nobel laureate Aung Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, it changed its strategy in the early 1990s to court the military regime in what is seen as an effort to counter rival China.
Copyright Dailyindia.com/ANI
From our ANI Correspondent
New Delhi, Sept 30: Indian Buddhist monks on Sunday held a sit-in against the violent crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators in Myanmar and expressed solidarity with their counterparts in Myanmar, who are facing repression by the military junta there.
Dozens of monks, chanted religious verses and held placards against the Myanmar's military rule in the heart of the national capital.
Myanmar has seen hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks protesting in the country calling for democracy and an end to the military government.
Nearly two weeks of protests on the streets of Yangon, initially led by saffron-robed clad monks, have provoked a staunch reaction from the government, with at least nine people being reportedly killed in violent repression.
"We protest against the military government, violence in Burma, many Buddhist monks are arrested and killed, so we (are) against the military government. Today we are appealing for peace...," said Oben Nomra, a Buddhist monk.
The monks here also expressed their dissatisfaction over non-intervention by India.
On Saturday, Myanmar refugees in New Delhi had carried out a march here urging the Indian Government to intervene.
Although New Delhi initially supported Nobel laureate Aung Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, it changed its strategy in the early 1990s to court the military regime in what is seen as an effort to counter rival China.
Copyright Dailyindia.com/ANI
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