Struggle for Hearts

No one in Burma seems to doubt that General Ne Win's military regime will, in due course, call general elections and hand the country back to civilian rule. But due course is not soon enough for U Nu, the moonfaced ex-Premier who called the soldiers in when his own political dominance began to crumble.

Last week U Nu was campaigning furiously--or as furiously as a Buddhist's placidity will permit--to rebuild his political power and get the military back into the barracks. In a May Day speech, he proposed a "struggle to win hearts," declaring that the country "is being confronted with the worst situation since independence. People cannot enjoy fundamental rights; in fear of the authorities they keep silent." His remedy seemed to be something approaching a civil disobedience campaign: "If a participant in the nonviolent struggle should be arrested, or beaten or tortured or murdered, we must show joy . . . We will oppose anger and hostility with love and amicability."

Much of U Nu's anger at the army seems rooted in his belief that high officers are in league with U Nu's political rivals to prevent his victory at the next elections--whenever they are held. The army has also embarrassed U Nu by turning up numerous cases of corruption in his government. So far, by general agreement, General Ne Win has served Burma well. He has kept prices generally stable, has cleared miles of hideous Rangoon slums, and moved 100,000 squatters out of the city. The general has not tampered with the courts or the press. Still, army rule is, by its own declaration, temporary.

U Nu himself got away with proclaiming that the army has its "sinners and wrongdoers" inclined to "fascism." The army does not want to make a martyr of him. But for repeating his slogans in villages two of his young partisans have been charged with sedition. When another U Nu supporter was arrested, 500 of his party members, loyal to the new spirit of jolly nonviolence, embarrassed the cops by banging on cymbals, playing flutes, and beating drums in a shrill crescendo of musical disapproval.

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