Suu Kyi will need to do a lot of balancing

On January 22, when I read a Reuter's report about Myanmar freeing fifty-two political prisoners, Neatji Subhas Chandra Bose came to mind. This past summer, I was finally able to finish the 336-page biography of my enigmatic hero Subhas Bose. The book titled His Majesty's Opponentis written by his grandnephew and Harvard University historian Sugata Bose. There is quite a bit written about Bose's imprisonment by the British in three different Burmese prisons (Mandalay Central Jail, Insein Central Jail and Rangoon Central Jail) from May, 1923-July1926 under awful conditions.
In those prisons young Bose remained mostly in solitary confinement and had faced many health problems and malnutrition. His body weight was reduced to 138 from 161 lbs. During his incarceration he was allowed to write and correspond with his family and friends. His personal jail correspondences were later added in the twelve-volume set of Netaji Collected Works. As a political prisoner, his letters to his elder brother Sarat Bose, his wife Bibhabati Devi, his political mentor Deshbandhu Chittranjan Das and his wife Basanti Devi were especially subjected to the scrutiny of government censors. Despite that his letters portray some of the deepest insight to his mind. His letters reveal to us that he had survived horrible prison life with a combination of stoicism, determination and humour. In one letter he wrote: 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'
In Mandalay prison, Subhas got the death news of Deshbandhu. After that he felt 'desolate with a sense of bereavement' as he wrote to his friend Dilip Roy. Netaji's letters covered a wide range of topics - art, music, literature, education, nature, science, folk culture, criminology, civic affairs, mysticism, and, of course, politics. His letters are indication that through confinement the British authorities had failed to break his spirit and bend him to their will.
If a famous political prisoner like Bose had to endure and suffer awful prison conditions, we can only imagine what prison life is like for the prisoners of conscience who are sitting behind Myanmar's prison walls today. "Torture of political prisoners is believed to be routine and has included severe beatings, electric shock, immersion in water for long periods, sleep deprivation, peeling off skin by rubbing wood or bamboo repeatedly against a person's shins, and applying salt or curry powder to wounds made with a knife or bayonet," HRW reported a few years back.
In 2011, there were 2,003 political prisoners in Myanmar's jails. They committed no crimes. Only crime these opposition activists were guilty of was that they only exercised their freedom of expression, they were guilty of association of assembly. These people included rights activists, writers, and journalists, politicians, community leaders, artists, monks, comedians, and poets. They were jailed and tortured because of their political, religious or other conscientious-held beliefs that are innocent of advocating any kind of violence.
A lot of them only took part in peaceful demonstrations against rising prices of daily commodities. Some were locked away just for distributing written materials that the military considered as 'unauthorised.' Other non-violent protesters were sent to prison for forming any organisation that the government viewed as 'unlawful.' Some still have to endure hard labour in their old age. Some of them have spent most of their adult lives in prison under deplorable surroundings. Some keep on fighting from behind bars.
Among these prisoners there are also many of the country's ethnic groups who fought the military generals for denying their constitutional rights. Some are foreign nationals who got imprisoned for critical Facebook posts of the military. One New Zealand native is currently serving time in Yangon's notorious Insein prison for insulting a statue of a Buddha.
I remember reading an Amnesty International report where they had profiled four political prisoners in Myanmar. The story of a 32-year-old monk named U Gambira moved me very much. He became a public face of a movement led by the monks called the Saffron Revolution. U was an underground political activist, and continued his pro-democracy work for many years. In 2007, he got caught while protesting for rising fuel and food prices. He was thrown into prison for 68 years to do hard labour. He later was in solitary confinement in Kalay prison for chanting protest with other inmates.
After reading his story, I had tried to imagine what it is like to be in an isolation unit - within the walls of silence, for weeks and months. Maybe every now-and-then I would hear the jingle of a key, if a guard was walking by the cell. Sometimes I would hear food dropped through a slot in the door. Or once a week, I would hear a squeak of a wheel of a book cart if I am lucky enough to read while in isolation. Other than that I would be mostly lying on my narrow metal cot in my cell. In that grey room, only things I could stare at is the ceiling, a tiny stainless steel sink and the toilet in the corner. If I am a model prisoner then maybe my jailor would give me a writing pad and a pencil, and I would be able to chronicle my solitary prison life.
Then it dawned on me that I was indeed imagining a solitary cell here in the west. U Gambira was in an archaic penal facility where he did not have a well-lit cell. Most likely, he sat in a pit of darkness with his tattered saffron robe hanging from his frame. He had no bunk but a concrete floor. It may very well have been a mud floor. I read that he suffered from bronchitis and asthma. There were times where he had starved in his tiny cell and if he asked for a slice of bread, he was only taunted by his guard. There was no clock to tell the time. He was not given any books to read, he was not permitted any activities to release his tension. All day long, he listened to the sound of his breathing-out as he was an asthmatic. When it became unbearable, perhaps his own thoughts got him through the hours.
U would have gone on like this to a point of a mental breakdown. But he was one of the lucky ones to survive prison. After spending four years in prison under brutal conditions, Gambira was freed as part of a mass pardon just prior to US President Barack Obama's 2012 visit. After getting released from prison, Gambira was blacklisted, forced to disrobe and he left Myanmar for Thailand.
Amnesty International has been campaigning for the release of prisoners of conscience since the military junta took over. In September, 2010, prior to Myanmar had its first election in 20 years, the military released 128 prisoners, it was perceived as a demonstration of goodwill. It felt hopeful that the military will be turning the wheels of justice. But quietly within two months, they kept on arresting the activists. The police continued to attack and beat the protesters. They rounded them up and put them in jail for indefinite periods. Then in the course of the next couple of months, eighty more activists and one hundred ethnic minorities were arbitrarily arrested for protesting the election results.
Suu Kyi's release had highlighted their plight but they were not released along with her. The democratic world made repeated appeals to Myanmar's military regime for the release of the rest of them but only six other political prisoners were freed. Since then facing huge economic sanctions and under pressure from the international community they had started to release the political prisoners in batches.     
The European Union, the United States and other developed countries have increased aid and decreased most sanctions as a response to Myanmar freeing hundreds of political prisoners that was deemed unimaginable under the juntas that ruled Myanmar for 49 years.
According to a Thailand-based Political Prisoner Watchdog AAPP's joint secretary Bo Kyi, there are still 77 political prisoners behind bars, some 230 people still face charges over their political activities and 408 are awaiting trial. There are many other contradictory reports about how many are still in prisons. Rights activists and the United Nations say the Myanmar government needs to free all political detainees.
After five years, this past Friday's (January 22) announcement by the Myanmar government that the remaining political prisoners would be freed in phases came because of a promise made by President Thein Sein, the former general and heavyweight in the army, during his UK visit in July of 2015. This also came days before a Parliament dominated by NLD (National League for Democracy) sits for the first time on February 01 after the November, 2015 election to elect a president and two vice presidents. During his trip, Thein vowed to free all political prisoners by the end of the year. This particular amnesty also coincided with the visit of a high-profile foreign delegation, the European Union and Deputy US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He went to Myanmar to observe its post-election transition to democracy. Prior to his visit Blinken urged Myanmar to free all political prisoners.
The Amnesty International gave a thumbs-up to the legacy of Thein Sein whose semi-civilian government replaced the junta. The world is watching if Myanmar will free the rest of the prisoners before his departure. But then Amnesty released the following statement after Friday's release: "We continue to receive reports of peaceful activists and human rights defenders being harassed and at risk of imprisonment for nothing but expressing their opinion. This has to end immediately; otherwise releases like the one today will be meaningless."
In the new Parliament, the military will control a quarter of the seats under the terms of the junta's constitution. They will hold a tight grip on all key security portfolios which will include the prisons. Suu Kyi will have to do a lot of balancing when the new government embarks on reforms. The Aung San Suu Kyi government will either have to amend or remove oppressive laws as a testament that ultimately in any nation, it is the people, who hold the winning formula if they want to say 'no' to passivism and repression.
Nestled between India and China, Myanmar once was a prosperous nation because of its natural resources. But under the authoritarian military dictatorship it remained in recluse for half of a century, scarred by bloody crackdowns and oppressions. Its notorious prisons are reminder of the challenges and difficult tasks that lay ahead. Many wonder whether the former military leaders will be handed out any punishment at all.
Activists like U Gambira who still continue to speak up against military oppression thinks that in a country where a 67-year-old ethnic minority was convicted of treason just for leading a critical dinner conversation over government's constitutional reform plan - is not likely to prosecute any of the military because they will still be in position of power. For Myanmar, this year will test whether critics like Gambira have reason for pessimism.
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