ADVERTISE | DONATION
Irrawaddy CONTACT US|FAQ
BURMESE VERSION | VIDEO





COMMENTARY
What Can We Learn from Egypt?
By YENI Monday, February 7, 2011


COMMENTS (16)
RECOMMEND (537)
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
 
MORE
E-MAIL
PRINT

The ongoing protests that are forcing the beginning of a political transition in Egypt are receiving attention not only in the Arab region and among its strategic western allies like the US, the uprising is also being closely watched by authoritarian regimes such as Burma's and their pro-democracy opponents.

Yeni is news editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

Burma’s state-media remains silent on the recent turmoil in Egypt and the Burmese embassy has made no effort to contact or repatriate its nationals who are trapped in the country while many governments—including it's neighbor Thailand—help their citizens return home. However, the Burmese people are eagerly following news of the world’s most interesting and moving current event by watching foreign television networks, listening to foreign radio and reading reports on the Internet.

In a recent live question and answer session on BBC World Service radio, Burmese pro-democracy leader and Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi threw her support behind the “revolution” taking place in Egypt. “We're all with you,” she said, speaking to the hundreds of thousands of people on the streets in Cairo calling for democratic change and demanding that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled his country with an iron fist for 30 years, step down.

As reports emerged of the sudden and brutal violence unleashed against the peaceful Egyptian demonstrators by thuggish supporters of Mubarak, Suu Kyi responded to a caller from Cairo, who asked her advice as he faced a “very scary moment of transition,” by saying: “It's necessary to keep cool heads and strong hearts and not ever to lose hope and to keep on going.”

For many Burmese activists, watching the events in Egypt unfold brings back vivid recollections of the 1988 uprising, which ended in a bloody government crack-down following a military coup, and the 2007 “Saffron Revolution,” which was also violently suppressed by the ruling regime. In hindsight, members of the Burmese opposition understand that their own failed tactics contributed to their defeat in these uprisings, and so they are analyzing the similarities and disparities between their mass demonstrations and those taking place in Egypt in order to improve their strategy in the future.

The previous mass demonstrations in Burma were similar to the the current protests in Egypt in that the uprising in both countries was a “revolution without leaders” that was led by young people. In Egypt, the uprisings were started by tech-savvy young Egyptians who tapped into widespread discontent and spread word about planned protests through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In Burma, student-led protests eventually snowballed into a nationwide popular uprising in 1988. And the 2007 Saffron Revolution was led by both brave young Buddhist monks, who walked point in the street protests, and tech-savvy young bloggers, who broke through the military junta’s tight internet controls to post photos and videos of the swelling anti-government protests and the resulting crackdown. As in Egypt, the Burmese uprisings also spawned sympathy protests and solidarity movements across the world.

One of the main differences between the Egyptian and Burmese uprisings relate to the nature of the historically more well-known opposition organizations and personalities. While disparate Egyptian opposition leaders and groups—including the Muslim Brotherhood, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei and former Egyptian Foreign Minister and current Arab League Secretary Genera Amr Moussa—are displaying strength by effectively playing their respective roles and working in concert with a loosely harmonized strategy, Burmese opposition groups are currently divided and weak and in no position to threaten the military and its power structure.

U Gawsita, one of the monks who led the Saffron Revolution, told The Irrawaddy in a recent interview that Burma's leading opposition party, the National League for Democracy, failed to assume its appropriate leadership role in the protest. “When the opposition political forces failed to step in, we ourselves had to call for the forming of an interim government should no dialogue take place between us and the regime. That set off the brutal crackdown,” U Gawsita lamented.

But probably the biggest difference between Egypt and Burma is the role of the military in the midst of a civilian uprising.



1  |  2 



COMMENTS (16)
 
Please read our policy before you post comments. Click here
Name:
E-mail:   (Your e-mail will not be published.)
Comment:
You have characters left.
Word Verification: captcha Type the characters you see in the picture.
 

Simon NG Wrote:
15/02/2011
I like to suggest the new strategy for opposition in Myanmar is to let Ms Aung San Su Kyi exercise her legitimate power as elected President of Myanmar.

For a start,since Ms Su Kyi has called for FDI to Myanmar in Davos, why not instruct that all FDIs must be submitted to her,and then she will make the decisions accordingly. I am sure she would be supported by her own people and the international community.

In this way, slowly the people of Myanmar can slowly make the army and the administration useless, unable to exercise effective power.

I have followed Myanmar for so many years, so why not try some thing new?


Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
15/02/2011
Egypt now has military government.It is rather like Burma when U Nu was forced to hand over power to Fargaung ShuMaung in 1958 because of Panglong.Fargaung ShuMaung should have protected the democratically elected govt of U NU.
At independence Tatmataw as politically neutral and for and with the people. Sadly, command and control system of the army rendered ShuMaung to take advantage of it and ABUSED the Tatmataw and set about the culture of repression.
To stop being NAIVE, learn, learn and learn.
Military is the 'state' in extremity, whether you like it or not.
Stop insulting Tatmataw.
You know nothing about politics. EGYPT IS UNRAVELLING. You know nothing.Western media is playing with fire.
If you think that so-called Egyptian revolution is going to lead to Garden of Eden, think again. Boy, you are indeed naive.
We are very sad.

DetDoe Wrote:
13/02/2011
Call me naive. But Egyptian army does not shoot and kill its citizens, unlike Than Shwe's mercenary thugs.

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
13/02/2011
Mie Mie's friend Wrote:
"We can also learn that as Asmaa Mahfouz of Cairo, we have Mie Mie of Rangoon who led bravely in 2006 that led the saffion revolution of 2007 eventually. The next step is to learn how we would help a brave young Burmese woman like Mie Mie as Asmeaa worked with 6 cell phones to move 10 million Egyptians." SO SORRY to see such naivety.
Of course, we all want freedom, democracy and prosperity.Individual freedom is an integral part of our Buddhist religion too:no human being owns another,can enslave another.
BUT,between Egypt and Burma there are big differences:geopolitics,alliances, economic dependency,oil, history,external political environment,intellectual development of people, shared values, colonial legacy, balance of power, etc. etc.

Mie Mie's friend Wrote:
11/02/2011
We can also learn that as Asmaa Mahfouz of Cairo, we have Mie Mie of Rangoon who led bravely in 2006 that led the saffion revolution of 2007 eventually. The next step is to learn how we would help a brave young Burmese woman like Mie Mie as Asmeaa worked with 6 cell phones to move 10 million Egyptians.

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
10/02/2011
Myar Thu Pan Wrote:

"i agree with Timothy in that the Egyptian army is way more sophisticated and proud of their reputation and standing in the world than the Burmese military."
HOW VERY NAIVE? Egyptian army gets $1.3 billion a year from US,who does not like military to misbehave.Egyptian generals know that.Their largesse come from the US. However, as of today 300+ have been killed.
The protesters are just mobs!In Serbia too there were protests, against economic situation, forgetting that economy is driven by production, which in turn is driven by engineers of all description -civil, mechanical,production,construction etc., scientists, businessmen supported by an efficient, not necessarily just, legal systems. If Egyptian protesters think they can bring a better system themselves they must be dreaming.French Revolution did not bring in democracy and human right.
If there is a military coup in Egypt,it will be secretly agreed upon by those who matter- for greater interests. OK?

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
09/02/2011
To Soe Thane,
Thank you for your intelligent analysis. We concur.

Keep talking for the sake of humanity despite the ignorance and unwillingness to learn of those like Timothy.

It is our duty to open their eyes.

Nyi Nyi Wrote:
09/02/2011
Myanmar patriots is right. There is a big difference between Egypt and Burma. Egypt is civilized that the military does not fire on its population. In Burma the level of civilization is so low that military fired on everyone whether they are students or workers or monks. Egypt, despite its famous history of great civilization, Mubarak is at least not acting like a king although he is a dictator, but in little Burma Than Shwe thinks he is a king and his wife is a queen. In a league table of civilization in Asia Burma ranks the lowest, like it or not.

tocharian Wrote:
09/02/2011
Well the lesson is: if you are on top, take your time and let the people underneath fight it out. Than Shwe knows that!

The Egyptians will get at best a minor reshuffle at the top. The military still rules there.

What Burma and many other countries really need is a more fundamental change like the French Revolution or the Bolshevik Revolution that goes beyond a simple regime tearing the whole rotten existing social fabric. These type of fundamental revolutions are rare and can last for decades creating chaos (China wouldn't like that!) I am skeptical that this can happen in Burma or even in Egypt, for that matter. People nowadays are too risk-averse and tend to cling on to the little material things that they possess. So "petit bourgeois"!
However, oil prices and hence food prices (which depend on fertilizers and transportation costs) are going up in the world and once people go really hungry, their gut instincts will tell them to fight against "evil empires".

Blessed are the Poor!

Myar Thu Pan Wrote:
09/02/2011
i agree with Timothy in that the Egyptian army is way more sophisticated and proud of their reputation and standing in the world than the Burmese military. And of course the difference in God fathers is a major factor too. China who has been protecting Burma is not interested politically to see that Burma is free, but US is interested to see Egypt's democratic freedom because of Israel and also Egypt is geopolitically in a strategic position in the Arab Middle East. And it does not have the kind of natural resources to sell off and the military to sustain itself without US aid.

What the regime should learn from the Egyptian experience is that there is a middle way to deal with revolts (and they are not even Buddhists) through dialogue and give and take. We don't know what the real outcome will be but at least the regime which had ignored the population for thirty years is at least talking to them and easing their high handedness. Seems Burmese regime does not trust Buddhism.

Nurul Islam AHRR Wrote:
09/02/2011
Indeed the Egypt and Tunisia Turmoil inspired the people of Burma. 1988 uprising in Burma failed due to many reasons including NLD`s improper role. But to uproot the long-rooted military dictatorship in Burma is not so easy because China, Russia, India are patronizing junta for their own economic interest.However,if public are ready to drop blood for the sake of the country than the goal is not so far.Hope the people of Burma are watching the uprising in Egypt and trying to learn the strategy of afresh uprising.The military backed parliament is an eye wash only.The people of Burma must create their fate by themselves. But right direction from NLD is crucial.
Nurul

PB Publico Wrote:
08/02/2011
The caption should have been "What Can They Learn From Egypt". Contonate "they" as the junta and the Burma military.
But will they ever learn?

Soe Thane Wrote:
08/02/2011
The problem for democracy movements is that they often get tricked by their own rhetoric. They demonstrate, gather in a square, etc., thousands, maybe tens of thousands, and say they are "The People" or "The Voice of the People". They become very emotional. They claim to represent tens of millions more. "The People Must Win!". "All Dictatorships Fall!"

But this is not a strategy. A dictator can easily ignore 100,000 marching down a street if he wants.

Government's fall when they lose control over their security apparatus. Either a new armed force destroys the old armed force, or the existing security apparatus supports a new political leadership that they trust. Key elite groups have to be brought on board - in the military, business, etc.

A democracy movement that bets that simply being "The Voice of the People" will get them anywhere, is a democracy movement that will fail.

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
08/02/2011
More pertinent question iS:"What can Egypt and her Western allies learn from Burma?".

If you think Myanmars will follow footsteps of Egyptians, you need to see a shrink. Similarities do not determine outcome; it is ONE crucial difference that makes the BIG difference. You know what that difference is? We are peaceful people.

Since 1988, Burma did not have losses of life of great magnitude.Contrast with the number killed as a result of Yellow Shirt-Red Shirt showdown;the number being killed on a daily basis in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Even in the so-called Saffron Revolution, very few were killed; still a great pity. No life should have been lost. But look at the picture of angry monks throwing firebombs at the soldiers. You expect the soldiers to remain like sitting ducks? And you legitimize the traitor infiltrators who returned from the West to be bogus monks?

timothy Wrote:
08/02/2011
Burmese revolution will be bloodier to break through the barrier deafening silence of flight and fright.The thugs we see in the Egyptian crisis is equivalent to the uniformed soldiers of Burmese army discharging live rounds of bullets into the defenseless crowd. We need to plan our strategy carefully to go for social upheaval bearing in mind that more blood will flow to face the fascist army.

timothy Wrote:
08/02/2011
Egyptian has finally break through the psychological barrier of deadly silence under the dictatorship. No more flight and fright from speaking out the truth or expressing the freedom wishes. Why? The beginning of the event showed the similar repressive attitudes of dictators. But when the anger of people grew, the dictator needs more potent adversary such as armed forces. Unfortunately the Egypt is heavily propped up by 1.8 billion £s worth of military and civil assistance yearly by USA. The professional soldiers trained by USA masters have to learn the American way of respecting the people and people alone. The Arab army gunned down the Arabs is unthinkable taboo. The army had been tamed by several reasons in Egypt situation to assume the neutral role in this crisis. Burma army is made up of thugs and criminal living in the cocoon of deafening silence not to know the truth or deny to see its citizens as their mother and father. This difference speaks the volume.continued

More Articles in This Section

bullet Sizing Up an Icon

bullet Fighting Corruption Begins at Home

bullet Future of Exiled Burmese Media

bullet How Much Freedom Does Burmese Media Enjoy?

bullet Five Days in Burma

bullet Turning Burma into Next Asian Tiger No Simple Task

bullet With Suu Kyi On Board, Is Burma Finally Moving Toward Real Change?

bullet The ‘Rule of Law’ in Burma

bullet New Doors are Opening in Burma

bullet A Good Beginning to the New Year






Thailand Hotels
Bangkok Hotels
China Hotels
India Hotels

Donations

Home |News |Regional |Business |Opinion |Multimedia |Special Feature |Interview |Magazine |Burmese Elections 2010 |Archives |Research
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.