An Open Letter to Mr. Barack Obama

To:

Mr. Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

An Open Letter:

Dear Mr. President

We the freedom loving peoples of Burma make this declaration to you on this momentous occasion. Your inauguration represents the triumph of the politics of hope against the politics of fear and division. Today our country is engaged in a great struggle to free ourselves from tyranny and fear. In order to achieve the very principles of democratic values that we harbor in our hearts, the same values you so eloquently espoused in your victory speech with words that aroused our hopes and inspired us, we must persist in our struggle in this critical year 2009.

So many of our fellow country women and men, whose hearts and minds are dedicated to the ideals of democracy, are now languishing in remote prison labor camps far from their homes and loved ones, in atrocious conditions, enduring mental and physical torture and summary executions at the hands of the military. This then is the measure of what the military is willing to do at any given point, and at any cost, in order to stay in power. Thus, military rule has deprived the present of meaningfulness and hold out no hope for the future – so said our leading figure in this struggle, Aung San Suu Kyi, in 1990.

Presently, this military has embarked on maneuvering to transform itself into a pseudo-civil government that will secure its power in perpetuity. Hence, it has manipulated, and continues to manipulate, some of these breakaway ethnic groups who have compromised and succumbed to the military's corrupt ways of persuasion. However, these compromised and corrupted ethnic individuals do not in any way represent the ethnic people's real need nor their true aspirations to be freed from oppression, tyranny and unjust laws brutally imposed on them, the overwhelming majority within the nation. This goes against the grain of human nature enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

These machinations by the military all point to an intransigent junta bent on holding power for power's sake only. It is the worst form of tyranny and has become the tragedy of a nation that keeps the people in unending suffering and continuous turmoil, not of their own making.

We the freedom loving peoples therefore seek your help urgently to enact more effective measures and maintain strong sanctions that will force the military to come to the negotiating table and engage in meaningful dialogue with the democratic forces of the nation. The bogus and fraudulent 2010 election planned by the junta is designed to further enslave the peoples of Burma to a cruel and callous regime. Hence, Mr. President, as the present leader of the world's leading democracy, we are hopefully confident that you will do all in your just power to help us emancipate our country from a military planned system of dominance.

For these cogent reasons, with your help Mr. President, we will be able to reclaim our inalienable rights as members of the human family, living and protected with dignity by the rule of law. We understand that you have a great task ahead of you, but know that you are committed to the principles of freedom and democracy, and that you will help us in our struggle to free ourselves from oppression and tyranny. We wish you and your family well in the future.


May God bless you.

From:

2009 Collective Action Committee (CAC-BURMA), on behalf of all the freedom loving peoples of Burma.