The Comeback
On February 4th, the New York Times podcast "The Daily" did an episode entitled "The End of Democracy in Myanmar." Speaking to Southeast Asia bureau chief Hannah Beech, they told a story with a definite end, as the title indicates: the 10 year experiment with democracy was now over for Myanmar, and the country would revert back to military rule.
Thank goodness the Burmese people don't listen to "The Daily."
Today the analogy hit me, this is kind of like a game you're watching where your team suddenly gets down by a lot at the very start, and the sportscasters start to assume an outcome before the players who are actually still in the game have given up. I don't know what quarter we're in now, but I know there is a comeback and a momentum now building that puts Hannah Beech and her bureau in an embarrassing light of not really understanding the country assigned to her.
In one fell swoop, taking just hours, the Burmese people found themselves down way more than 28-3. And yet the most remarkable story stemming from their gradual comeback is that it is seeming to take place without a Tom Brady. That is, ground activists have been quoted as saying they are sick of the cult of personality, no matter who that leader is, and so groups have been self-organizing according to region, profession, background, and other ways.
But the game isn't over, and it actually isn't a game at all. It's not a fair fight, and the refs are rigged. That is what is making this moment all the more remarkable. This isn't a protest, it's an uprising, and I don't know where we've ever seen an entire country come out in these numbers, with this courage, with this commitment to non-violence, with this sense of service to others, and with this much fun! Yet we're still watching with bated breath as the whole of Burmese society stands up (or sits down) to assert that its basic freedoms not be taken away. And we're still sitting on a powder keg.
Make no mistake, however this plays out, Burmese society is being remade before our eyes. And so also is Burmese monastic society, with monks being accountable and held to scrutiny as never before. With this kind of freedom now in sight, lay Burmese are now asking, and rightly so, which monks and nuns truly speak for them. This is no easy task, because monastics are not supposed to engage directly in worldly affairs, although they clearly have a duty to provide ethical and spiritual council, and to respond to the problems of the day.
Just as the pain of coming out of British colonialism reinvented a new and dynamic way to engage with these teachings of liberation, one wonders what seeds are being planted in the present moment. Will traditions like Thabarwa, once reviled, now begin to seem more relevant to this new society being built? Will progressive monks like Shwe Nya War Sayadaw begin to have a bigger platform? How will mindfulness and classic Buddhist doctrine be integrated into this new social justice movement? For now, it's enough to just hope the Patriots pull this one out.