Obama visit highlights miracle of Myanmar

Things do change!

Friends of churches in Myanmar were working in a post-colonial Asia on missional ministry with meager materials in the margins with the marginalized, wherever the marginalized were, experiencing God’s mercy in the mini miracles that mysteriously materialized.

One such "mini miracle" happened on Dec. 11, 1974, in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma). It was 10 in the morning in Bogyoke Aung San Market (also called Scott Market), a popular place to shop for souvenirs. Suddenly, people started to scatter. Shopkeepers pulled down the shutters. Anxiety, panic and fear were in the air.

My colleague and I sniffed trouble and walked briskly back to our hotel. Sure enough, from the safety of our rooftop, we saw military fire power streaming into the heart of downtown Yangon. Tanks and trucks full of soldiers with rifles all ready for action rolled past our hotel.

Less than 500 yards from our hotel, monks in their saffron robes, students, workers and office workers in their longis (sarongs or wraparounds) were steeling themselves as they faced steel. Tanks rolled into the demonstrators. Rifles crackled. Columns of smoke, especially from the nearby train station, were clearly visible from our hotel rooftop. We saw a train on fire. The thick crowds thinned off at the water-fronting grand Strand Hotel as tanks and rifles injured and/or killed demonstrators.

Arab Spring happened in Asia some four decades ago.

Many citizens in Yangon were demonstrating against the military regime of Gen. Ne Win, military dictator since 1962, for its lack of respect for the body of their beloved U Thant, third secretary general of the United Nations.

The Burmese are famed for their Buddhist gentleness. Seldom is there any exchange of harsh words, let alone bloody deeds.

Usually placid (some people would even say "timid"), it was miraculous that the demonstrators had gotten angry enough to storm the street.

More demonstrations, internment and massacre of dissenters followed in the wake of the December 1974 killing field, until the recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in 1995.

In her own quiet but supremely effective way, the heroic daughter (appropriately known as "The Lady of No Fear") of the great hero Gen. Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi paved the long march toward democracy in Myanmar.

The recent visit of President Barack Obama to Myanmar is epochally significant, pregnant with promises of a democracy the Myanmar people have been dying for. It has not escaped the attention of those who know that Obama’s visit to Myanmar takes place in the Jubilee Year of Myanmar’s road to independence (1962-2012).

In the past five decades or so, Myanmar has aligned itself with China, militarily and commercially. For Myanmar to turn to America is a shot in the arm for democracy lovers all over the world.

Beijing must be reassessing its relationship with Myanmar, now that China’s oil pipeline running from Myanmar to China seems to be flowing into Washington. One could reasonably and arguably conclude that North Korea, too, may want to go the Myanmar way some day.

Asians can comfortably and easily identify themselves with President Obama. How he wowed Asians when he bowed! At long last, here is a rare American president who speaks their body language. Asians understand how much power and humility there is in a bow. What a refreshing change for post-colonial Asians (Africans and Pacific Islanders as well) who still remember how cowboys used to whip their back and lasso their land.

Since the election of Barack Hussein Obama — to the wild delight of Indonesians — it has become much less fun to hate America. As an American working in Jakarta, Indonesia, wrote: "It’s much harder for radical Islamists to drum up support among the great majority of moderate Indonesian Muslims."