Burma, dreams under surveillance - The Book - Extract of testimony from a Burmese writer

Big Brother is Watching You

Ludu Sein Win, journaliste et écrivain tells his story.

We have always taken multiple precautions before going to Ludu Sein Win’s house. Holding a tourist guide and taking many detours before going up the alley which leads to his house and before returning to our hotel. According to him, information agents are often posted in the teashop opposite where he lives to see who is coming and going. We do not know if these fears are justified. Whatever the case, Ludu Sein Win is no longer worried about the pressure from the junta and chooses to show his face while talking. He is highly respected by the Burmese for his involvement and writing, and is always looking for ways to get around the censorship. Like other opponents of the regime, he has devoted his life to try and change the situation in his country. Recently, he has had to give up teaching “English” for health reasons. However, his former pupils still visit him regularly to borrow books or ask his advice. Behind his desk are mounds of works and reports piled up. Among them are a certain amount of censored or “forbidden” books in Burma. Despite his age, Ludu Sein Win continues to be a resistance symbol for the Burmese.

« In 1962, I was still a student. We were the first to protest against the military regime which had just been set up. But by 7 July, the army responded with gunfire. Over a hundred students died. I myself was arrested with several hundred of my classmates. They kept me in prison for three months until there was a general amnesty. After finishing my studies, in 1966, I started my career as a journalist. A year later, there were fresh demonstrations. My paper, which was one of the only ones to condemn the situation, had to close. I was arrested again, this time, with five journalism colleagues. They put us all behind bars, after being convicted without trial.
I spent three years in prison camps on Coco island. 223 political prisoners were held there. The conditions were unbearable. To solve it, we started a hunger strike. We requested a transfer to another prison. For 54 days we only accepted water, until we were transferred to Insein Prison in Rangoon. Several of us were unable to resist and died before the transfer.
Owing to a new amnesty, I was freed in 1977. I was only able to spend a year in Rangoon before being sent back to prison. My body could no longer tolerate the detention conditions and torture. In 1981, despite several stays in hospital, the whole of the right side of my body was paralysed. The authorities thought that I was close to death and that I was no longer “harmful” to them. They therefore decided to release me after two months in hospital. I spent one year relearning how to walk.

Unfortunately, I am not the only one to have experienced these conditions. Mine is an almost average story for many political prisoners. Today there are still more than a thousand of them in our cells. That’s why I say that our country is like a big prison.
My friend U Win Tin, a famous journalist, was initially sentenced to three years in prison. But he has been detained for almost 20 years! He is now over 75. U Win Tin has always refused the blackmail from the junta which tries to negotiate his release by making him promise to stop all political activity. Today, his health is failing. I am afraid that I will never see him alive again.

Since I came out of prison, I have started to write again. Today I am no longer afraid to speak out to denounce the system. I write in five weeklies and a dozen of monthly publications on social topics and I regularly give interviews on the radio which broadcast from abroad in Burmese. Of course, it is very dangerous but I cannot give up. If we give in to government pressure, we won’t be able to do anything. It is a battle of wills.
As I am well-known at the censorship office, I need to use more than fifteen different pen names. Sometimes the censors recognise me. If this happens, they add a new name to their writer and journalist “black list”.
In each new text, I must use ever more imagination to find metaphors or images which allow me to express my whole thought without being censored. The readers understand them and have learnt to read between the lines. Nobody believes the government propaganda any more. Take television for example, at 7pm everyone watches Chinese series. At 8pm, the government news is on. People turn off the telly and turn on the radio. The Burmese service from the BBC, VOA, DVB or RFA , are for us one of the only ways of obtaining reliable information. We have to listen to foreign radio stations to know what is happening in our own country. Even though listening to the radio is punishable with several years’ imprisonment, you can be sure to find a radio in each household.

We are living in a real « Orwellian » setting. We cannot say what we want, nor read what we want. The government even wants to control our thoughts. We joke sometimes that Georges Orwell was a visionary as he wrote a trilogy about our country. The first instalment of his trilogy was Burmese days in which he recounts his experiences as an officer in the British army during the colonial period in Burma. Then came Animal Farm, in which the animals take power over men and the socialist revolution which went wrong reminds us of the coup d’Etat of General Ne Win. Today we are living in 1984. We permanently fear being listened to and being observed. In every teashop, every restaurant and every pagoda, Big Brother is watching us. Of course they cannot entirely control our lives, but fear is internalised and that is what is controlling us.
Recently during an interview I gave to the BBC, the journalist said to me: “But it was you who chose your life!?” I replied that I hadn’t and that SLORC had chosen it for me.
In time, I starting getting used to affirming that I was the only master of my choices and the direction my life was taking. But today I realise that my life choices are entirely connected to this regime and this situation.

As I wanted to do everything I could to teach young people to think and judge for themselves, I decided to give private lessons. The government does all it can to stop them. Under the current system, young people only learn to repeat and obey. They have a lot of difficulty in developing a critical mind. They don’t have any tools to understand the world surrounding them – neither books nor independent press…
I am under the impression that young people in our country no longer dream. This is something which saddens me deeply. I often ask my students what their professional ambitions are but they don’t have any. The education system does not ensure any future for them. But I know they would like to learn.
The English class that I have opened has always been a pretext. I have never really taught this subject. As some have said, I have instead tried to open my students’ eyes and ears. I often spoke to them about politics, but above all I tried to get them to express their own opinions. Of course, in my class, information agents would sometimes pose as students. But I spotted them easily.
Young people are our only hope. Old people, like me, become selfish with age. They take care of their work and their family. Only the young are ready to sacrifice themselves for their country. That is why I work with them.

When we had independence, education was good and Burmese literature shone like a beacon across Asia. Burma was one of the richest countries in the region and we were self-sufficient in food and could even export. But today education is at a low and our country is among one of the Least Developed.
The past forty years of dictatorship have wiped everything out. You don’t have to look far to see that. Look outside. There are buses dating from the Second World War. You find children working in most teashops. Apart from that, the government doesn’t stop opening newly-constructed pagodas, buildings and bridges. Don’t think that this is for the benefit of the people. It’s just a smokescreen to give outside observers the impression that the country is doing well. What people need and especially in villages, are schools and not new pagodas.
People can’t take any more. We are sitting on a bomb that could explode at any time.

We fought the English and then the Japanese for our independence. In 88 we fought Ne Win’s regime. Now we are ready again. In 1988, nobody expected a popular uprising like that. The political and economic situation was such that hundreds and thousands of people took to the streets. A new uprising could occur at any time as our people are even more desperate. I dread this protest ending in bloodshed as the generals only speak through their weapons. They will do anything to keep hold of power. They will never give it up voluntarily; they are too attached to it. No one has as much power as them. They are above all the laws and can arrest or kill whoever they want. However, there will be other protests.