Episode #230: Taming the Tiger
“Unfortunately, in 2020, after the NLD won a landslide election, there was a military coup. And [then] the PDF resistance started. I took part in the resistance as I had years before, but there is a difference this time, too. Before 2010, the way we did politics is far from the way we do politics after 2020,” explains Nway. There is a lot to tease out of this opening comment, and Nway does so in the interview that follows. Author Delphine Scrhank made him the main protagonist in her book, The Rebel of Rangoon, sharing his story in her recent interview. Here, Nway goes deeper into his background.
As someone who has been “doing politics” for decades, Nway has much to share about how the shape of the resistance has shifted in these past few years. “When I was young, I didn't really understand politics,” Nway admits, tracing the story back to his early years. “As normal young people, we didn’t know what is democracy, what is human rights. We just followed the normal doctrine of our life. So, we went to school, had friends, had fun, and then followed the authority’s orders, that’s all. But my mother was different because she always actively took part in politics.” A nurse in Taunggyi when Ne Win launched his 1962 coup, she watched with sadness as, one by one, the best doctors and medical personnel fled the country. Then, as the economy crashed and the once-acclaimed university system got dismantled, she and her husband knew they couldn’t just stand by. They felt they needed to act and do whatever they could to free their country from the tyranny of military rule. That landed Nway’s father in prison, where he died in 1996. So his mother gathered her four young sons together one day, and told them that one of them would have to pledge to devote his life to “help Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” while the rest of family would promise to support them financially. Still not quite understanding much about political science or democracy, Nway figured it wouldn’t be that hard to take on, so he volunteered.
Still, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to contact the world’s most famous home prisoner. But an opportunity presented itself after the infamous incident in 2008 when a mentally ill American, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake to Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound to bring her a Bible. The SPDC used this as a pretext to extend her detention, but she was allowed to consult with a lawyer, Nyan Win, who happened to be a friend of Nway’s. They somehow leveraged that relationship to find a way for Nway to make contact with Aung San Suu Kyi, despite the military’s tightly regulating who had access to her. (Nyan Win would go on to play an important leadership position in the NLD, but was arrested following the 2021 coup, and sadly, later killed in prison.) As for Nway, now that the connection was established, he was able to keep up a communication with Aung San Suu Kyi by sneaking messages in through the cooks who prepared her breakfasts.
Nway became involved in more clandestine operations in which the resistance had to get information to people who were hard to find for a variety of reasons. He describes how, before the 2008 Saffron Revolution, they had to alert an imprisoned monk about the imminent protests. An activist volunteered to get arrested so the message could be delivered. First tried to break the loitering law by hanging out all night in places where police were known to check; when that didn’t work, he changed tactics by hanging around a fish market where crime was notorious. To his chagrin, however, he remained a free man. So then he began frequenting illegal massage parlors— but unbeknown to him, many were run by generals, so that didn’t work, either. At his wit’s end, he decided to do something drastic and hit a policeman; that did the trick, and the message finally got delivered.
When the transition period began in 2010 and Aung San Suu Kyi was freed at last, two of Nway’s brothers complained that there was no need to continue supporting him, as the country’s democratic aspirations had been achieved. But Nway protested, saying that the 2008 Constitution had only entrenched the military’s role in the country’s future, so things were far from resolved. “It doesn't mean that we got democracy, we still have to fight! But, they said it's finished. So, that means I could not get support from my family after 2012.” Nway ironically quips that while, for most people, those years presented more opportunities than ever before, for him, it was somewhat of a hard time to navigate.
For him, it is not really accurate to call that time a “transition,” a term he critiques as “just branding. So as for the NLD or Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or even for myself, we never thought that a real transition was occurring… As long as we are under the 2008 constitution, it means that we have no democracy in the country!” Indeed, he even interprets Aung San Suu Kyi’s role as State Councilor not so much a genuine sign of progress, but rather the result of international pressure from such countries as the United States, China and others to hold elections, as sort of a democratic quick-fix. Nway lays some of the blame on the international community for pushing Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to work with the military, an effort he believed was doomed from the start.
“We didn’t have any option,” Nway explains in looking back at this time. “We had to follow this [plan], not in order to make the best [system possible], but in order to make it just a little bit better. That is the point! So, she negotiated with the military, because the world sees that without elections, there is no democracy. For the people of Burma, we want democracy because we think under a democratic ruler we will be respected, have an equal opportunity to do business, get better education; that is the point, not democracy, per se. But, the other side of this is if you don't have an election, you cannot say that it is democracy.”
Nway always knew that the picture was far more complex than what the rest of the world could see. “We realized that an election is not the solution for the country, and dialogue is impossible. You cannot convince a tiger not to eat meat!” He saw that the Burmese military had enjoyed power, prestige, and wealth for generations, and they had no intent to give it up. “If it was possible for the SAC to be pushed to go to the table, there would be no coup, they would not kill our young people, they would not rape young girls, and then they would not give death sentences to Ko Jimmy and Thura Zaw and many unknown people in the first place! The international community thinks that elections and democracy are the solution. Of course, we call for democracy because we want support from the international community, but in reality, what we really want is the best solution for our country! We will not stand for China, America, or India; we stand for our own people.”
This is not to say that Nway doesn’t regard the transition years as an important improvement. He points out that the sea change that Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD represented had two important components: first, they treated the citizenry with respect, and not the usual contempt that the military displayed; and second, they weren’t trying to run the country as a mafia outfit where corruption was the guiding principle. While he believes that Aung San Suu Kyi made some unforgivable mistakes regarding the Rohingya crisis, she still earned respect for meeting those two, basic benchmarks. Additionally, Nway points out that unlike past administrations, the NLD was almost entirely made up of civilians (as the NUG is now), not retired generals bringing their military mindset with them to the democracy movement.
While some commentators criticized Aung San Suu Kyi in her role as State Councilor for building a personality cult rather than choosing to strengthen civic institutions, Nway feels the reality is a bit more complex. “Burma has problems because of the military,” he explains. “The way Daw Aung San Suu Kyi tried to solve this problem, is she tried to use her charismatic power over the military. And if the military followed her, everything would be fine.” To Nway, this was an example— albeit one that didn’t turn out successfully— of trying to grapple with a sensitive problem in a pragmatic and practical way, given the reality of the bad hand she was dealt. But looking back with the advantage of hindsight, he acknowledges that her calculation was not a good one. “She was trying to convince a tiger by giving it sugar cane, so she was wrong.”
When the coup hit, Nway wanted to get messages to imprisoned NLD leadership about resistance plans, so like others before him, he tried to get arrested. But luckily, he suddenly remembered that the NLD leaders he needed to speak with were in safe houses, not Insein Prison! “That was not the time to be arrested,” he says, stating the obvious. Fortunately, he was somehow able to talk his way out of the arrest.
Nway also touches on the place of Buddhist practice. He meditates in the Thae Ingu tradition, which he feels has helped him in stressful times, and also mentions that Aung San Suu Kyi urged her young followers to take up a practice. However, the reality is that the interconnection of the Buddhist religion and politics is somewhat fraught and quite complex in these trying times. Nway sees a change in people’s attitudes towards religion since the coup, in part because of how some monks support the military, and the military’s aggressive Buddhist nationalism. Similarly, he explains how, over the years, some prestigious monks have tried to restrain democratic activists by emphasizing the tenants of non-violence and respect for authority. Yet he also notes the presence of progressive monks, such as those who launched the Saffron Revolution (check out our previous interviews with Ashin Kovida and U Gambira), as well as those who continue to support the democratic movement today, often at great risk to themselves. “There may be some religious persons who really commit their life for the sake of the people, but some of them are doing things for the sake of their own interests! If you look at Sītagu Sayadaw, he is supporting the military, and he is standing with the military. Because of him, how can we believe in religious person?”
Nway charts a history of military leaders who have tried to influence the Saṅgha, such as Than Shwe, who disguised many domestic spies in robes. They also found ways to promote monks who were viewed as friendly to the regime. “If the generals donate a lot of money to a monk, that monk will become powerful… This is the way that the military destroys the religion.”
As Nway suggested to start the discussion off, in one way, he is continuing to do what he has always done since the coup: advocating for real democracy and freedoms for his country. But in other ways, the game has changed dramatically for him. For one, he came to the painful conclusion that he had to leave Myanmar for Mae Sot. Second, he now supports the armed component of the revolution, which he believes is the only way forward. “The problem is, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did [non-violent resistance], and then it didn't work. So the leaders of the international community should know this! It is impossible.” For Nway, living in Mae Sot and supporting the armed resistance are closely tied. “You can work [at Mae Sot], you can collect money, you can buy weapons, and you can send anything you want to Burma,” he says. That said, Mae Sot is far from completely safe, since the SAC has spy networks everywhere, and the regime enjoys a cozy relationship with Thai authorities. Still, Nway feels that the military is weaker than it’s been in generations.
Nway is pleased to see how many young voices have emerged in the resistance, including women and ethnic leaders, as well as greater Rohingya representation. Yet he describes how terrible the situation has become all over Myanmar, worse even than the “the bad old days” of prior military rule. He exclaims, “Min Aung Hlaing has already declared war against the civil society!” For example, before, although the military knew he was an activist, they didn’t harass his family; but today, even children have been arrested when their parents fall under suspicion. “Then the international community pushes us, ‘Please, go to the peaceful way,’ which is impossible! So, that's why right now Burmese people are saying, ‘We have only ourselves, we must do what needs to be done by ourselves’ This is the proclamation of the revolution that started in 2021.”
“If we win the revolution, the international community will see a very civilized society in Burma, which will be very active in promoting peace for the whole world,” Nway says in closing. “But if the junta wins, you will have a society which believes in the stone age. So, I would like to request of you, please understand the feeling of people of Burma! We left our country, we want to be like you, we want our kids to be like your kids, to go to school and also we want to sleep with our family like you want to sleep with your family. That is why we are trying to get rid of the military in our political system. This is not only for a party sake, not only for an ethnicity sake, it is for all the people of Burma and also the people of the world.”