Passive-Resistance

Emerald cool we may be

As water in cupped hands
But oh that we might be
As splinters of glass
In cupped hands.
Aung San Su Kyi
(Freedom from Fear)

I can feel the theme of the poem as the struggle of oppressed, courage

of the oppressed and the power of the oppressed. I will express it by

describing with photos’ collection from various electronics sources.

Before Aung San Su Kyi printed this poem in her book “Freedom

from Fear”, words of the poem had already been spread notably in

mouths of Burmese people. Burmese people will recite the poem

whenever they feel feeble to resist an injustice and brutal ruling of

Burmese tyranny so as to encourage themselves that they have the

power; that power will become effective when they collectively refuse to

say “Yes” to the brutal ruling.

Emerald is a jewelry that Burmese people culturally view as a

symbol of tranquility, beauty, and valuable stone. The poet metaphors the

emerald stone as if water in the cupped hands that are Burmese people

in the hands of tyranny’s oppression. The more the hands are squeezing

water, the more, the longer Burmese people are enduring the injustice

and the brutal oppression of tyranny, the faster and the stronger,

“Emerald cool water” (line 1), changes into pieces of glass splinters,

and crashes the cupped hands, cuts the chains and gains the liberty.

The tone of the poem is so brilliant and can give readers hope and

confident for future.

Many leaders of governments, academics, and activists including

departments of United Nations have issued numerous statements regarding

the human rights’ violations in Burma, and taken agenda into UNSC’s

meeting. U.S Department of State also has announced that “The

Government's extremely poor human rights record worsened, and it

continued to commit numerous serious abuses. Citizens still did not have

the right to change their government. Security forces continued to commit

extrajudicial killings and rape, forcibly relocate persons, use forced

labor,conscript child soldiers and reestablished forced conscription of the

civilian population into militia units”(pars. 4).

Aung San Su Kyi once said in her speech that “We want the

world to know that we are prisoners in our own country.” As she

mentioned in her speech, rights of Burmese people---rights to life, liberty

and property are intentionally denied by an illegal authority. There is no

common consent, executive, judge, and law established in Burmese polity.

Burmese people never believe that they have met the fulfillment of their

basic necessity needs; thus, they struggle to change the system. They

confront with the oppressor.

I remember some pieces of Dr. Martin Luther King’s words in his

writing “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” He said in his essay, “Injustice

anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Legacies 1443). Of course,

politics is about who gets what, how and when. And, so do how long

Burmese people have to wait to get the fair share of amount at the

dinner table with their oppressor? No, they cannot wait. Just like Dr.

King says, “Wait” means “Never” (Legacies 1446). The freedom is not

a “given gift,” it is a “struggle” that Burmese people must enjoy.

So, as I try to catch images of the poem, I feel a sense of

conflict between oppressor and oppressed, the struggle of oppressed, the

passive-resistance of the oppressed, the courage of the oppressed, the

power of the oppressed, and eventually the crash of the cupped hands.