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Freedom from Fear (r)



Typed by FBC
 ............
The following was first released for publication by the editor 
to commemorate the European Parliament's award to 
Aung San Suu Kyi of the 1990 Sakharov Prire for Freedom of Thought. 
The award ceremony took place in her absence at Strasbourg on 
10 July 1991. In the same week the essay appeared in full or in part 
in The Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times, 
the Far East Economic Review, the Bangkok Post, the Times of India 
and in the German, Norwegian and Icelandic press.

FREEDOM FROM FEAR by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
=================

	It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing 
power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of 
power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are 
familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. 
Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from 
the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those 
one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those 
against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration 
due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is 
bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly 
destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the 
root of the other three kinds ofcorruption. Just as chanda-gati, 
when not the result of sheer avarice, can be caused by fear 
of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, 
so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some 
way can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be 
difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to 
pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a 
relationship between fear and corruption it is little 
wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in 
all forms becomes deeply entrenched.

	Public dissatisfaction with economic hardships has been 
seen as the chief cause of the movement for democracy in Burma, 
sparked off by the student demonstrations 1988. It is true that 
years of incoherent policies, inept official measures, burgeoning 
inflation and falling real income had turned the country into an 
economic shambles. But it was more than the difficulties of eking 
out a barely acceptable standard of living that had eroded the 
patience of a traditionally good-natured, quiescent people - 
it was also the humiliation of a way of life disfigured by corruption 
and fear. The students were protesting not just against the death 
of their comrades but against the denial of their right to life by 
a totalitarian regime which deprived the present of meaningfulness 
and held out no hope for the future. And because the students' 
protests articulated the frustrations of the people at large, 
the demonstrations quickly grew into a nationwide movement. 
Some of its keenest supporters were businessmen who had developed 
the skills and the contacts necessary not only to survive but to 
prosper within the system. But their affluence offered them no genuine 
sense of security or fulfilment, and they could not but see that if 
they and their fellow citizens, regardless of economic status, were 
to achieve a worthwhile existence, an accountable administration was 
at least a necessary if not a sufficient condition. The people of 
Burma had wearied of a precarious state of passive apprehension 
where they were 'as water in the cupped hands' of the powers that be.

Emerald cool we may be
As water in cupped hands
But oh that we might be
As splinters of glass
In cupped hands.

Glass splinters, the smallest with its sharp, glinting power 
to defend itself against hands that try to crush, could be seen as a  
vivid symbol of the spark of courage that is an essential attribute 
of those who would free themselves from the grip of oppression. 
Bogyoke Aung San regarded himself as a revolutionary and searched 
tirelessly for answers to the problems that beset Burma during her 
times of trial. He exhorted the people to develop courage: 'Don't just 
depend on the courage and intrepidity of others. Each and every one of 
you must make sacrifices to become a hero possessed of courage and 
intrepidity. Then only shall we all be able to enjoy true freedom.'

The effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where fear 
is an integral part of everyday existence is not immediately apparent 
to those fortunate enough to live in states governed by the rule of law. 
Just laws do not merely prevent corruption by meting out impartial 
punishment to offenders. They also help to create a society in which people 
can fulfil the basic requirements necessary for the preservation of human 
dignity without recourse to corrupt practices. Where there are no such 
laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common 
decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on 
their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation 
where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal 
rules exist to promote man's desire for harmony and justice while 
restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature.

In an age when immense technological advances have created lethal weapons 
which could be, and are, used by the powefful and the unprincipled to 
dominate the weak and the helpless, there is a compelling need for a closer 
relationship between politics and ethics at both the national and 
international levels. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the 
United Nations proclaims that 'every individual and every organ of society' 
should strive to promote the basic rights and freedoms to which all human 
beings regardless of race, nationality or religion are entitled. But as 
long as there are governments whose authority is founded on coercion rather 
than on the mandate of the people, and interest groups which place 
short-term profits above long-term peace and prosperity, concerted 
international action to protect and promote human rights will remain at best 
a partially realized struggle.. There will continue to be arenas of struggle 
where victims of oppression have to draw on their own inner resources to 
defend their inalienable rights as members of the human family.

The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual 
conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which 
shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely 
at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement 
in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a 
revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old 
order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process 
of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, 
democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to 
persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring 
truths, to resist the corrupting influences ofdesire, ill will, 
ignorance and fear.

Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are 
the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to 
bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a 
free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives 
might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and 
an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic 
institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power 
must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

Always one to practise what he preached, Aung San himself constantly 
demonstrated courage - not just the physical sort but the kind that enabled 
him to speak the truth, to stand by his word, to accept criticism, to admit 
his faults, to correct his mistakes, to respect the opposition, to parley with 
the enemy and to let people be the judge of his worthiness as a leader. 
It is for such moral courage that he will always be loved and respected in Burma 
- not merely as a warrior hero but as the inspiration and conscience of 
the nation. The words used by Jawaharlal Nehru to describe Mahatma Gandhi 
could well be applied to Aung San:

'The essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth, 
and action allied to these, always keeping the welfare of 
the masses in view.'

Gandhi, that great apostle of non-violence, and Aung San, the founder 
of a national army, were very different personalities, but as there is 
an inevitable sameness about the challenges of authoritarian rule 
anywhere at any time, so there is a similarity in the intrinsic 
qualities of those who rise up to meet the challenge. Nehru, who 
considered the instillation of courage in the people of India one 
of Gandhi's greatest achievements, was a political modernist, 
but as he assessed the needs for a twentieth-century movement 
for independence, he found himself looking back to the philosophy 
of ancient India: 'The greatest gift for an individual or a nation
 ... was abhaya, fearlessness, not merely bodily courage but absence 
of fear from the mind.'

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage 
acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating 
the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, 
courage that could be described as 'grace under pressure' - 
grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, 
unremitting pressure.

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, 
fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear 
of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property 
or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear 
of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades 
as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, 
insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which 
help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. 
It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron 
rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves 
from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most 
crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for 
fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled 
power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical 
principles combined with a historical sense that despite all 
setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for 
both spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for
self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes 
man from the mere brute. At the root of human responsibility 
is the concept of peffection, the urge to achieve it, the 
intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow 
that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to 
rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments. 
It is man's vision of a world fit for rational, civilized 
humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build 
societies free from want and fear. Concepts such as truth, 
justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when 
these are often the only bulwarks which stand against 
ruthless power.

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