Our hopes for Myanmar now on 5th week of protest

MORE than 50 people have now been killed and 1,000 arrested in a brutal crackdown by the police and the military on the people of Myanmar, who have been demonstrating in the country’s streets since February 1.

The military mounted a military coup that ousted the government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi after her party won an overwhelming rate of 80 percent in the election. The military then took over and instated its own government.

Some 1,800 people have now been arrested all over Myanmar. There is no end in sought to the stand-off, with the military obviously determined to prevent it as it has prevailed in previous clashes with the people.

But the daily protests have now continued for more than five weeks and both sides appear determined to prevail. But neither side has received much support from outside the country. It is beginning to look like a long and protracted, but largely internal problem for Myanmar.

The United Nations may step in at any time to assure the safety of Aung San Suu Kyi, but the people do not or seem as pugnacious as, say, the people of Hong Kong.

Our own people who massed at EDSA in 1986, gathered force every day until President Marcos decided it was time to go.

We hope the people of Myanmar will find a resolution to their ongoing dispute. We would like to see their end such as ours in 1986, but we can only hope that the people of Myanmar will get the government they want and selected to office and that they will achieve it without the violence that threatens the country today.