The current unrest in Myanmar and George Bush's predictable and ineffectual "sanction 'em" solution brings to mind an old Buddhist koan:
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
This koan is oft cited by those who have a passing knowledge of Buddhism. Most people understand that Buddha, in this case, is a fantasy image, something that prevents us for seeing reality for what it is. We idolize a teacher, a sutra, even ourselves. For George Bush, Iraq is his Buddha, he is unable to see his mistakes there.
In Burma, the Buddha is the Democracy movement led by Buddhist monks and nuns.
We've seen this Buddha before, in neighboring China, not twenty years ago.
He wasn't dressed as a monk, but in the West we treated him as a holy man, a harbinger of a bright new Democratic future for China.
We all know what happened to that dream.
In the west, we saw an ideal where there were many undercurrents. We believed that change was inevitable, when it was not. We believed that we could sit back and witness history. In that, we were right.
The reality in Burma today is that sanctions won't matter without Chinese support. The Buddha of Spontaneous Democracy is tempting, but will ultimately prove fatal to many of those marching in the streets if we do not face the truth. China will not encourage democratic Buddhist demonstrators in a neighboring country unless there is direct and significant pressure placed on Beijing. China made this unequivocally clear today:
China called for stability in Myanmar, where the military junta faces the biggest street protests in almost 20 years, and said it won't interfere in the nation's affairs.
"As a friendly neighboring country of Myanmar, China hopes to see stability and economic development," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing today. "China adopts a policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries."
Stability.
Economic development.
Non-interference.
In other words, if you have to kill some monks to keep drilling for our gas, we understand.
American sanctions alone will not work on the junta in Burma without Chinese participation. They haven't worked in the past, and they won't work in the future until someone in Washington DC decides that the time has come to finally put pressure on China.
It is time to kill the sanction Buddha, and put a meaningful policy into action.
With the Panderlympics set to take place in 2008, though, don't look for any courage from anyone anytime soon. Our Democratic frontrunners have been silent on this issue. Let us hope they break the silence soon, for the sake of those in Burma.
Update- Per Lib Dem, below, I've learned that Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to a prison from her home and that soldiers may be dressing like protesters to incite violence. Today could be June 4th in Burma. Let us hope that it is not.
Update II The monks are chanting the Metta Sutta today during their protests. Here are some key lines, the complete version is available here.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!