A close friend of Burma withdraws from public life

Wednesday, 06 October 2010 11:51 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - The cause of democracy for Burma is not short of proponents, but few can be said to carry a better pedigree than South Africa’s archbishop emeritus, Desmond Tutu.

Recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, Tutu made it known this year that with his 79th birthday tomorrow, he would greatly scale back his public activities.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela - the joint recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with the last president of apartheid-era South Africa, Frederik Willem de Klerk - has called Tutu “sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour”.

“Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless,” Mandela said.

A long-time vocal supporter of Burma’s democracy movement, especially Aung San Suu Kyi, Tutu expounded at length on his views regarding Burma and its detained opposition leader in an editorial written for the London Guardian newspaper in July last year.

In the essay Tutu writes, “I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed.”

Both Tutu and Suu Kyi are members of The Elders, a group of a dozen eminent global leaders including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and former US president Jimmy Carter.

In late August, the archbishop emeritus joined Amnesty International’s open-palm campaign for the release of Suu Kyi, writing her name on his palm and extending it forward for all to see.

Referring to Suu Kyi as the embodiment of a country’s hope, courage and quest for freedom, Tutu has, meanwhile, singled out Burmese strongman Than Shwe for his inability to comprehend the innate human drive for freedom that cannot be suppressed forever.

“Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead,” Tutu furthered in the Guardian piece.

The South African, along with supporting an international arms embargo against Than Shwe’s Burma, was an early advocate for a UN commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by Than Shwe and his military regime, voicing his confidence that an inquiry would surely find the former senior general guilty on numerous accounts of gross violations.

Having lived through apartheid and fought for its end, Tutu believes there are lessons inherent in the South African experience from which Burma could benefit. Long supporting a total economic boycott of apartheid-era South Africa, the Nobel laureate further assesses targeted sanctions as critical in the eventual collapse of the apartheid government. Similarities in the tactics of Burmese opposition icon Suu Kyi and Western governments in their approaches towards confronting Burma’s generals are clearly discernable.

Though a vocal advocate for the presidency of Barack Obama, Tutu nonetheless credits the Bush administration for its approach vis-à-vis Burma, having spoken out sceptically of the Obama administration’s possible alternative approach to Burma, which attempts to counter negative policy with limited engagement.

Tutu, for his part, maintains Washington must differentiate between engagement and wishful thinking when it comes to dealing with Burma’s generals.

“Nothing in our experience suggests that offers of aid will cause Burma’s generals to change course; unlike some authoritarian regimes, this one seems to care not a bit for the economic well-being of its country,” penned Tutu on The Elders website last spring as the White House pondered a changed approach towards Burma.

Archbishop Tutu, together with a plethora of other accolades, was the 2008 honoree of the 18th W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, presented by Washington’s National Democratic Institute “for his work on behalf of democracy and human rights, which includes a focus on Burma”. Aung San Suu Kyi was previously honoured with the same recognition.

While Tutu will still pursue public activities once a week, and his commitment in supporting Suu Kyi and Burma’s pro-democracy opposition can be expected to remain undiminished, he says he is looking forward to watching cricket and drinking tea with his increased leisure time.