Burma

Twenty-three years ago when Burma’s dictator Ne Win paid a state visit to the Johnson White House, Katy Ba Than, wife No. 2, told reporters that the Burmese people must first learn to chew before they can eat steak. (His present wife is No. 7.) She was pointing out that democracy was not in the cards for the Burmese.

Now a Burmese army officer is saying the “people need to learn discipline before they can have democracy.” How faithfully the master’s voice has been echoed in the three decades the military has brutalized the hapless populace. Gen. Ne Win, 78, continues to manipulate the marionettes from behind the screen despite his “retirement” 15 months ago.

Burma’s student-led peaceful pro-democracy movement, which preceded China’s, was crushed on Sept. 18, 1988, by an ill-disciplined army, leaving heavy casualties in its wake. The exact number massacred may never be known. Estimates exceed 10,000. Yet, the media have ignored the sacrifice Burmese youths made because China is more important economically to the Western world. The country under martial law has now reverted to its former oppressive ways, with vengeance. Rangoon, the capital, is under heavy military siege.

The sun has not yet set on the pro-democracy movements in Burma and China. “The day of the dictator is over,” proclaimed President George Bush in his inaugural address. We who are free must help those who are shackled, for the purpose of freedom is for those who enjoy it to create it for others who do not.

U KYAW WIN, Laguna Hills