Has Aung San Suu Kyi turned her back

on Burmas student protesters?

Aung

San Suu Kyi. Pic: AP

By Mark Inkey Feb 06, 2015 10:57AM UTC

One suspects that General Aung San, a former student activist, would be
horrified that his daughter, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, threatened National League for
Democracy (NLD) member Thein Lwin with legal action for supporting protesting
students.
Student activism has a long, proud history in Burma. The first student strikes in
Burma were at Rangoon University in 1920 when students were protesting against the
University Act being brought in by the British.
Aung San was a student leader at Rangoon University and became the president of
both the Rangoon University Student Union (RUSU) and the All-Burma Students

Union (ABSU).
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself is probably far less aware of the struggles facing
Burmese students having never attended university in Burma
Even if Daw Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be ignoring students historic past in Burmas
struggles for independence todays student protesters are clearly very aware of it. At
protests last November Ma Phyo Phyo Aung, one of the student leaders said: We
honour the veteran students who took part in the first student protest in 1920. The
struggle for democratic education has not been completed until now.
The students have been protesting against the new education bill and are fighting to
have it amended. Aspects of the bill they disagree with include the banning of student
unions, the centralisation of educational control away from universities to the
government, the lack of provision for teaching in ethnic languages ,and the lack of free
education above primary level.
They are backed in their demands by the National Network for Educational Reform
(NNER), a network formed in 2012 that includes members of teachers unions, ethnic
education groups, 88 Generation Peace and Open Society members, and monks.
Students first started holding protests against the educational bill at various
universities across the country in September 2014. The protests culminated in protests
in Rangoon from November 14-17 last year.

Univers
ity students march to protest against Burmas National Education Law in Yangon in
November. Pic: AP

On November 17 the students suspended their protests and gave the government 60
days to respond to their demands, threatening a national boycott if the government did
nothing.
After receiving no response from the government the students resumed their protests
on January 20 when a group of students started marching from Mandalay to Rangoon.
After a standoff between student protesters and the police outside the town of
Taungtha on Tuesday, January 27 the government agreed to hold four way talks to
discuss the education bill in return for the students suspending their march.
Talks were held in Rangoon University on February 1 between the students Action
Committee for Democratic Education (ACDE), the NNER and members of the
government and parliament.
Thein Lwin, who is a temporary member of the NLD central executive committee and
has acted as its education spokesperson, attended the meeting in his capacity as an
NNER member.
The NLD then issued a statement saying that Thein Lwin was not representing the
NLD at the meeting and was only there representing the NNER. It also threatened him
with legal action for violating NLD rules that require members to seek committee
approval before becoming involved in other organisations.
(MORE: Burma government says student protest threatens stability)
According to a report in Mizzima Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said: I told Dr Thein Lwin
that if he wants to work as an executive of the NNER or if he wants to pursue activities
for the NNER, he can be an ordinary NLD member, but he cannot be a member of the
central executive committee.
Earlier I told him to choose one of the two options. If he is enthusiastic to [support]
the NNER, he has the right to freely stand for the group. But according to the rules of
the NLD, he cannot continue holding a position in the NLD.
The ACDE countered with its own statement that accused the NLD of trying to disrupt
the student movement at a critical time. It criticised the NLDs timing and said that it
was attempting to indirectly object to the students protests and could delay future
discussions.
This is not the only time recently that the NLD has shown itself to be a stickler for the
rules, whatever the cost.

In January an NLD MP, Daw Khin San Hlaing, submitted a proposal to parliament to
exclude temporary citizens, also known as white card holders because of the colour of
their ID cards, from voting in the constitutional referendum due to be held in May.
Many of the approximately one million white card holders are from the persecuted
Muslim minority Rohingya group, whose plight Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been
notably silent on. Many people believe that her refusal to speak out for them is because
she is worried that it will lose her votes from Burmas mainly Buddhist population.
The reason Daw Khin San Hlaing gave for submitting the proposal was that under
amendments made to the Political Parties Registration Law last year white card
holders should not be allowed to vote in the constitutional referendum.
She ignored the fact that the amendments she was referring to had been proposed by
the Rakhine National Party who do not want the Rohingya to be allowed to take part in
politics and regard them as Bengali foreigners who should be kicked out of the
country, despite the fact that some have been in Burma for generations and that most
would be stateless if they left Burma, which could cause them immense suffering.
Daw Khin San Hlaing also went against the advice of U Ko Ni, the chairman of Laurel
Law Firm and a legal advisor to the NLD on constitutional reform who said excluding
white card holders from the referendum vote could lead to them being barred from
taking part in this years elections, which he believes is wrong.
According to Mizzima he said: They may be citizens, they are not foreigners, so I think
they need to get the right to vote.
Despite the obvious unfairness of this law and the fact that its implementation could
cause about a million people to become wrongly disenfranchised and undergo further
hardship and suffering, Daw Khin San Hlaing and the NLD clearly believe that
insisting an unjust law is upheld is far more important than possibly alleviating the
suffering of a million people.
Another example of how Daw Aung San Suu Kyi seems to regard rules as more
important than morals are her views that contracts given to companies mining copper
at Letpadaung mine by the previous military regime should be upheld, even though all
the locals oppose the mine and say that if it continues it will cause them hardship and
suffering.
It seems that rather than being revolutionary politicians with conviction and vision the
NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are turning out to be timid small-minded petty
bureaucrats.

One wonders whether they will be capable of supplying the visionary leadership Burma
so badly needs.
Posted by Thavam