KEY POINTS:
When Ye Aung jumped ship off a Korean fishing trawler in Bluff last year, he was saying "no" a second time to intolerable conditions. His first act of resistance had been to leave Myanmar, a country lacking human rights and opportunities.
Now in New Zealand, he is disillusioned
about the possibilities for a better life unless it is shared with others.
"My Government doesn't care about its people so nobody else cares about us either, you know. Our life has no value," says Ye. "You take your country with you. I want to go back and be part of making a democratic country so we have human rights in the eyes of the world also."
Having obtained refugee status, 23-year-old Ye is living with six other young Burmese men in a West Auckland house and studying automotive engineering at Unitec, awaiting his chance. In Myanmar, his studies were severely limited by lack of resources, both material and human. Most of what he learned came out of ancient textbooks, left behind by professors long since gone abroad.
Another young Burmese refugee, Aye Thaung, is going to Otago University to study medicine.
Until now, Ye has been too afraid of reprisals against himself and his family back in Myanmar to reveal his name publicly. The courage of the monks and nuns in risking their lives as human shields for a population in fear of beatings, torture and death has inspired him to bravery.
Buddhist monk Sumanasiri knows that most of the more 1000 refugees here yearn to return home.
"The idea of people leaving for greener pastures is a policy of the regime to prevent educated people from coming together," he says. "The regime won't allow an education policy that conflicts with its idea of dictatorial rule. Once it is overthrown, I believe most people who've left the country will want to return to reconstruct and rebuild."
Sumanasiri tends the Ratanadipa Burmese temple in New Lynn. He says the role of the clergy in Myanmar as living representatives of Buddha would continue to be an active one.
"A monk is a respected person in our country so we can play a vital role in harmonising and stabilising the different ethnic groups for a peaceful nation," he says. "Any person would appreciate a monk's sincere efforts to stabilise when misunderstandings occur. Our service is selfless and apolitical."
Although monks and nuns traditionally are not permitted to handle money and must rely on the lay population for their food, they have been building free medical centres and schools in Myanmar where the literacy rate is only 42 per cent. But for those overseas, knowing how to fix a car, heal a body or mediate in disputes is a long way from the skills required to repair a country whose infrastructure and laws have been determined by 45 years of corrupt military rule.
After independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar had one of the most educated populations in Asia, but the political inexperience of those who succeeded its colonial transfer of power is widely agreed to have contributed to an ensuing civil war.
Recognising that this weakness could easily recur, a clandestine Foreign Affairs Training programme has been operating out of Thailand since 2003. Funded primarily by the Dutch Government and the George Soros Foundation, the programme trains 16 young Burmese each year in international relations and politics.
Four of its graduates have spent three months each in New Zealand observing democracy in action. Sponsored by the Burma Support Group, the young women - all in their early twenties - have been observers in Trade Minister Phil Goff's office, the Council of Trade Unions, and during visits to Parliament and the High Court.
Support group co-ordinator Fiona Thompson has facilitated all the placements.
"Besides having the opportunity to look closely at a democracy in action without fear of someone informing on them, they're being trained to look further than the surface, to understand why events are happening, to look at how international relations impact on everyday life," she says.
Like Ye, they've been disillusioned about certain aspects of life beyond the iron fist of General Than Shwe.
"Here you have a good Government," says Seik Nyan, "but I'm learning that democracy doesn't make everything perfect. You still have to challenge the Government to provide good service to the people."
Parliamentary behaviour was an eye-opener. "Before we came we learned about Parliament," says Htoo Paw, "but I was really surprised. The Speaker is like a teacher and the MPs are like children who have to be controlled. I knew they had debates but I never imagined they made so much noise!"
The women return to active social work in the refugee camps lining the Thai/Myanmar border, teaching children, supporting women who have been raped and attending international conferences to raise the issue of their country. More than two million people have been displaced under military rule.
Fundamental change, says Goff, will always have to come from within a country. "But the international community can play a role. The military at present can treat itself to the privilege of power without making itself accountable through a democratic process. With these young women I believe we're making a small but worthwhile contribution."
New Zealand has a history of supporting democratic "capacity building" stretching back to the 1950s when Colombo Plan students from Southeast Asia attended universities here.
The plan's political aim was to combat the spread of Communism in Asian countries and its most touted success was Malaysia's first astrophysicist, who gained a PhD from Otago University and went on to head that country's National Space Agency.
From the 1980s, black South Africans who were actively fighting apartheid came here on short study tours to scrutinise our systems. Youth justice workers returned to create a national pilot programme for youth justice legislation, largely modelled on New Zealand laws.
Myanmar, like South Africa, has a complex task ahead if democracy is restored. As Ye says, "we have to rebuild a lot of things, our souls included. The country is rich in natural resources but human resources are poor."
Myanmar's population of 47 million is divided into many ethnic minorities, within three discrete language groups, the Mon-Khmers, Tibeto-Burmans and T'ai Chinese. They are all Chinese in origin, having immigrated throughout the centuries along the three main rivers that run north south through the country. Its military rulers are Burman.
The unresolved ethnic divisions are complex, exacerbated by Japanese conquest during World War II and a thriving drugs trade.
Writer and American trial lawyer Shelby Tucker, who trekked through Myanmar's jungles with rebels, is convinced that the country's troubles, although complex, are not intractable. Neither will they be solved overnight. In his 2001 book, Burma: The Curse of Independence he writes, "Half a century of torching villages, herding people into concentration camps, using them as human mine sweepers, poisoning crops, raping women and lopping off the ears of those suspected of colluding with insurgents to force Myanmar's minorities to submit to Burman rule has replaced what once was mere distrust with a legacy of profound and intense hatred, compounded by enduring problems of corruption, ambition, greed and mendacity."
UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is today briefing the UN Security Council and secretary general on his meetings in Myanmar with both military leader General Than Shwe and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a 1990 election.
Thousands of monks are still in detention, in makeshift prisons around the former capital of Rangoon (Yangon), or are missing.
New Zealand has no economic sanctions in place against Myanmar although it has banned visas for military rulers.
