The Spirit of the Fighting Peacock: Always Together

THE SPIRIT OF THE FIGHTING PEACOCK: ALWAYS TOGETHER

BY AUNG DIN, POLICY DIRECTOR, US CAMPAIGN FOR BURMA
http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/_PDF/publications/libertas/vol.16_no_1.pdf
Rights and Democracy Journal


A COMMON DEMOCRATIC IDEOLOGY links student movements and popular struggles in Burma. This link was forged through the fight against colonialism and fascism, strengthened through the independence movement during the Second World War, and remains strong to this day in opposition to Burma’s current military dictatorship. When oppression rears its head, students in Burma have always stood with the people.

Burmese students and the student unions have always respected and honoured this tradition. Their commit­ment to truth, their belief in peace and democracy, and their sacrifices for that belief are well-known as the “Spirit of the Fighting Peacock.” The fighting peacock is the sacred symbol of the national student union of Burma, known as the “All Burma Federation of Student Unions” (ABFSU) or “Ba-Ka-Tha,” which Burma’s military junta has outlawed. Yet the “spirit of the fighting peacock” remains the trademark of Burmese students.

The struggle for democracy in Burma started in 1962, when the military seized power, and experienced a resurgence in 1988, when students led a popular, nationwide uprising that brought down former dictator Ne Win and his hastily appointed two succes­sors. The struggle for democracy continues to this day, and thousands of Burmese students have been arrested, killed and tortured in their ongoing fight for freedom, justice and democracy.

Burma’s student movement continues this struggle on three fronts. While the majority of student activists work against the military regime from inside Burma, many support their efforts from the liberated areas at Burma’s border with Thailand and India and others contribute from countries around the world. The “spirit of the fighting peacock” is a bond that binds them, no matter how far they find themselves from Burma.

The brutal, public killing of student activist Thet Naing Oo by municipal police and fire fighters in Rangoon recently, serves to highlight the dangers students continue to face. In addition to the daily harassment, threats of arrest, and torture by government authorities and military personnel, they also are now facing death threats from civilians, who are organized, trained and supported by the regime.

Conditions in the librated areas are not much better. Students living there face malaria and other infectious diseases, brutal attacks by Burmese military personnel and harassment by authorities in neighbouring countries. The cost in student lives has been high. But they remain committed to the struggle for democracy, true to the “spirit of the fighting peacock.”

People may think that students who leave Burma altogether will be in a better situation, but they too face tough challenges. Tempted by the many comforts of a life abroad, Burma’s student activists struggle to lead simple lives in order to support the ongoing efforts of their colleagues inside Burma, often at the expense of improving their own individual lives. The “spirit of the fighting peacock” makes them stay with the cause.

That is because they know that one fine day, they all will be reunited in Burma with the people they love, in a Burma that will embody the spirit of the fighting peacock. That day is coming soon.
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In 1988, Aung Din was a 26-year-old mechanical engineering student at the Rangoon Institute of Technology, where he helped organize the nationwide uprising in Burma in August of that year. He was elected Vice-Chairperson of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) in 1989 and arrested by military intelligence soon after. Aung Din served over four years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, and was adopted by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of Conscience. Aung Din also worked closely with former student leader Min Ko Naing. In 1995, he fled Burma for the United States, where he now serves as a policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma in Washington. www.uscampaignforburma.org