ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

Fight for democracy in Myanmar has become even tougher with the military junta now inflicting binds on the intellectual freedom of people. Till now they had been subjected to physical assaults. Now bloggers and Internet users are feeling the chains..

CJ: Md Mudassir Alam : JUST ONE day after Myanmar military junta allowed the country’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to meet with executives of her National League for Democracy party, another shocking act of Myanmar’s government came into notice. From physical assault, the military junta is now barring people from accessing the Internet. As per reports, the government authorities had arrested a blogger Nay Myo Latt, who had posted a critical story about political freedoms (or lack thereof) in his country. Nay Myo Latt, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, owns three cyber cafes.

From the beginning of the month, the government authorities are monitoring all the Internet-related activities. They have guided the cyber cafe owners to register all personal details of the surfers and also to programme screen captures every five minutes on each computer. All the data of net surfing are sent to the ministry of communications.

Since January 23, the government has also blocked the Google-owned Blogger, preventing bloggers from sharing their views. Acts of Myanmar are proving to be a big threat for the democratic world and India as well. All the major democracies across the world are trying hard for restoration of democracy in Myanmar, but nothing fruitful is happening. Myanmar government is not giving an ear to the international condemnation and is taking unethical steps to suppress the voice of people. Blocking the Blogger is one of the harsh steps taken by the government and the act may cut off the country from rest of the world.

Despite massive international condemnation, the Myanmar government is following all undemocratic means to control the chaos in the country. However, the rage of the local people and social activists is increasing day-by-day. Since the restlessness has arisen in Myanmar, the government has arrested protesters and social activists. In fact, the government has taken press as its enemy and is trying to suppress the voice and pen by power. A number of local and international correspondents had also been treated badly by the Myanmar military.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been fighting for the cause of people, was not happy in recent meetings with her party executives. In her meetings, she expressed her unhappiness that there is no deadline for talks to bring about democratic reform. Meanwhile, she asked the Myanmarese public to hope for the best and prepare for the worst in the country.

Let us come back to the basic questions. Is it possible to bring normalcy in Myanmar without restoration of democracy? No, it is not possible practically and Myanmar is in urgent need of democratic setup. If the irrelevant acts of the military junta continue further, the situation may worsen. As a part of the world’s biggest democracy, we Indians can hope for the best for Myanmarese people. Another neighbour of ours, Nepal had been facing problems and we had seen a series of strong protests by the countrymen in the past. Following the massive protests of people and political parties, the King of Nepal finally agreed for a democratic setup in the country and the influence of royal family in the country’s governance has also been wiped out.