Marching Monks

Kerry Howley | September 24, 2007

Incredible news from Myanmar:

As many as 100,000 protesters led by a phalanx of barefoot monks marched Monday through Yangon, the most powerful show of strength yet from a movement that has grown in a week from faltering demonstrations to one rivaling the failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

Marching for more than five hours and over at least 12 miles, a last hard-core group of more than 1,000 maroon-robed Buddhist monks and 400 sympathizers finished by walking up to an intersection where police blocked access to the street where democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest.

The longer you live in Yangon, the more pessimistic you become about change from within. My impression after a year or so was one of exhausted passivity on the part of ordinary people and complete incompetence on the part of the opposition party. Even virulently anti-junta types seemed paralyzed by Suu Kyi's imprisonment; she was the opposition, and her absence left nothing behind. This display of defiance comes from a quarter I would never have expected, and it's stunning.

Comments

|9.24.07 @ 11:09AM|#

This is exciting. There is every reason to hope the junta is about to fall. I'm skeptical by inclination that what replaces them will bring property rights and freedom of speech. Still it's hard to imagine how it could get worse.

Doctor Duck|9.24.07 @ 11:33AM|#

If the junta bites it, can we go back to calling it Burma? Myanmar Shave just doesn't have that ring to it.

|9.24.07 @ 11:48AM|#

A 12 mile march while barefoot? I might respect a few of our protesters if they could do that.

|9.24.07 @ 11:58AM|#

You go, monks!

|9.24.07 @ 12:24PM|#

Kerry,

You have first-hand experience of the place. Care to voice an opinion what the chances of success of a popular revolt might be? Then, what could be next? Your post says nothing about viable alternatives to the present regime. On the contrary. Will the country then not go the way of so many others and descend into decades of anarchy, brutal fighting amonst several groups, etc?
Bad as the present situation is, what's better for the common people. I'm not trying to make excuses, but a revolution without a clear common aim is most often worse than the present.

|9.24.07 @ 12:26PM|#

Warren,

"Still it's hard to imagine how it could get worse."

Yes, it can get a lot worse. Remember Liberia, Zimbabwe, Cambodia? The list goes on.

ed|9.24.07 @ 12:36PM|#

Will this one go down in history as the "barefoot" revolution?

|9.24.07 @ 1:00PM|#

I wish only the best for these stalwart felonius monks.

Syloson of Samos|9.24.07 @ 1:00PM|#

This display of defiance comes from a quarter I would never have expected, and it's stunning.

Politically active Buddhist monks aren't unheard of in SE Asia.

thoreau|9.24.07 @ 1:28PM|#

If the monks really want to fix things they could always be reincarnated as generals and use their powers for good instead of evil.

|9.24.07 @ 1:30PM|#

hope this movement move on to next stage

VM|9.24.07 @ 1:47PM|#

ooh, gosh, I'd always wanted to see a million monkey march!

errr. monk.

Syloson of Samos|9.24.07 @ 2:02PM|#

Well, at this point all we can do is wish them the best.

|9.24.07 @ 2:12PM|#

VM,

Ah, Monk-Free Tuesday! Free as in freedom, not as in the absence thereof. I mean, that would be pointless. Every Tuesday is Monk-Free Tuesday by that measure.

|9.24.07 @ 2:41PM|#

I wish only the best for these stalwart felonius monks.

Randolph Carter, you wanted me to google this, didn't you?

BMI.com | Michael Weiss Wins BMI/Thelonious Monk Competition

Thelonious Monk Composers Competition winner Michael Weiss (left) is ... A Dallas-native, Weiss has been a stalwart on the New York scene since 1981. ...
www.bmi.com/news/entry/200120 - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

|9.24.07 @ 5:50PM|#

Yes, it can get a lot worse. Remember Liberia, Zimbabwe, Cambodia?

The generals aren't ideological zealots, though. They're just power hungry thugs. I'd be much more afraid of a brutal, Tiananmen-like crackdown than a genocide.

|9.24.07 @ 9:43PM|#

Well, the junta has just thrown down the gauntlet... will be interesting to see if the monks will accept the challenge or back down. I wish them only the best.