Marching Monks

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.