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| - Interview with U Win Tin – Part 2, by Elke Kujper for The Best Friend |
When I get
hold of him – I am referred to a different number a few times, as he has no
permanent place of residence because the junta repossessed his house during his
detention and is putting pressure on landlords not to rent to him, so he is
forced to stay with various friends – I am surprised by his eloquency and his
energetic sounding voice. He is witty and sharp and talks a lot. He has no fear
that conversations like ours might cause him danger. “No, I do not
mind, you see, in Burma you cannot speak like this because some action or
something you have done cannot bring danger for you at the present time, but it
might be dangerous for you at a later time. They keep a record of your actions
and then when you are sent for trial these things will become the evidence of
you being guilty.
But I do not mind; I am always talking to the media: VOA, BBC,
DVB, Irrawaddy. I am very outspoken and I have no restraints about my opinions.
Recently, I was telling everybody, that Burma at this moment is like a jail,
like a prison. The whole country is in prison and people are suffering. We talk
about human rights violations and about the 2,000 political prisoners in the
jail now, but all people are prisoners. They are prisoners in their own
country. In their own towns. In their own house. Whenever I go out to the town
and to my office or to my friend’s house or even to a funeral you see, there
are some two or three motorcycles following me. It is almost impossible to see
a free man in Burma at this moment.”
When asked about his opinion on the recently announced
‘pattanikkujjana’ (alms boycott) and whether he thinks it effective, his answer
is long and passionate: it is obvious that he admires the monks and is a devout
Buddhist.
“This ‘pattanikkujjana’ is very effective. For a Buddhist, you are
boycotted by the Sangha organisation. When you are under a ‘pattanikkujjana’,
you are no longer a Buddhist. For the government it is very effective. They are
Buddhist – nomally ofcourse – and the ‘pattanikkujjana’ has a very bad effect
on them, that is one thing. As a Buddhist they have a big influence in the
country. They play the religious card: they assume they are the guardians of
the religion. They are the promotor of the religion. They put up big pagodas
and give support to the ‘chaungs’ (monasteries).
Although it is effective, in order to move or to make a big action
or to have a more pronounced way of change, more is needed. The monks,
according to the Buddhist teaching, do not act as politicians. Some Western
newspapers wrote that monks are never permitted to vote in elections. Burmese
monks are always out of politics because they are the religious people, so they
are not concerned with voting. Anyhow, they have a very high tradition of
political activity, even as long ago as Colonial days, as leaders in the
movement. Although the government promotes the religion so that people will
regard them as the guardians of the religion, they try too hard. Then you see,
this ‘pattannikujjana’ action happened and they were very shocked. In a
situation like this, the monks could make a movement if they were a political
party, but they are not. They are no political party, so they have to wait and
just provide people with information and tell the people that this government
is really no authority and the monks are surpressed.”
Things have not changed for the better since the peaceful
demonstrations by the monks were violently cut down in 2007.
“Every week we hear news about monks being arrested and taken from
their ‘chaungs’. Even for instance, if I want to ask a ‘pongyi’ (monk) to give
some offering to my house, his ‘chaung’ will be asked not to go to my house.
The government’s suppression of religious people will not go unnoticed, because
in the foreign press and media people are reporting about these incidents. So
although there is not so much activity by the monks as a political force, they
are still there, the force is going on everyday and they work everyday.“
“Although they are not a political organisation and they have no
real political activity, they do visit maybe 4 or 20 houses everyday, because
they have to collect their meals, so they have to go around in the streets and
they talk to the people. They are in contact with the people. In that way they
are more political than us, because we do not go to people’s houses everyday.
They have to go out and collect their meals early in the morning or in the
daytime: they get one spoonful of rice from this house and one from that house
and so on. They are in close contact with the people and can exchange ideas and
opinions. Their influence on the people is very high, because they are their
friends. They go out everyday to the houses and collect alms and they talk and
talk. And in those talks there might be some political matters or talks about
their suffering in live. So Burmese people are always ready to sympathise with
them.”
