JALAN PANJANG MERENTAS KEMERDEKAAN BURMA

Pandangan “bapak rasisme modern”, Charles Darwin soal mahluk paling kuat akan selalu menghegemoni mahluk mahluk lebih lemah seperti tertuang dalam the origin of species, telah mengilhami sebagian orang didunia untuk merebut kekuasaan dengan cara cara tidak halal. Para penguasa tiran, despotis dan paranoid adalah bukti dari pengejawantahan pandangan sinting itu, dimana mereka mewarnai perjalanan sejarah umat manusia bukan dengan kasih sayang tapi darah. Tengok saja bagaimana pemerintah Uni soviet mengeksekusi 39 juta rakyatnya sendiri, atau pemerintah komunis Cina yang menghilangkan lebih dari 45 juta nyawa. Itu baru dua negara, belum ditambah dengan korban tewas pada perang dunia I dan II. Sepanjang abad ke 20, diperkirakan hampir 170 juta nyawa melayang sia sia akibat ambisi segelintir orang yang mabuk kekuasaan.

Karena sikap paranoid mereka, para penguasa ini mendapat sejumlah stigma negatif, seperti diktator, fasis, tangan besi atau malaikat pencabut nyawa. Apapun julukannya, terdapat keseragaman cara yang mereka praktekan ketika menjalankan pemerintahan. Adalah paham ke-aku-an yang mereka pakai, dimana “aku” lebih digdaya daripada “kamu”, Agar kedigdayaan “ku” tidak diambil oleh “kamu”, maka “aku” dengan segala cara harus menyingkirkan “kamu”. Dalam hal ini Kebenaran absolut tidak lagi datang dari demokrasi tapi represi. Lahirlah tukang tukang jagal semacam Hitler, Stalin, Ante Pavelic, Mao Tse Tung, Idi amin atau Theoneste Bogosora.

Hari ini, walau zaman telah berganti dan nilai nilai kemanusiaan, perdamaian, anti kekerasan dijunjung tinggi pasca berakhirnya perang dunia ke II, Ternyata masih ada negara negara yang menganut paham ke-aku-an ini. Dari sekian banyak negara, Burma adalah salah satunya. Sejak kudeta tahun 1988 silam, junta militer telah melakukan sejumlah kekangan, pembatasan dan teror pada rakyatnya. Sebagai contoh, kebebasan mengakses informasi diberangus. Penggunaan mesin pencari internet tanpa izin bisa berakhir pada penangkapan. “Kalau kedapatan memakai Yahoo atau Google ataupun mesin pencari lainnya oleh aparat negara maka bisa dihukum hingga 10 tahun penjara”, kata Jurnalis Burma Sien win dalam wawancaranya dengan the globe jornal. Slogan populis pemerintah “no politic and pornography” tersebar di senatero negri seribu pagoda itu. Sementara “Politik”, kata Sien win “pengertiannya sangat luas di Burma, bisa berarti anda tidak boleh menonton CNN, ABC, mencari kata “Aung San Suu Kyi” atau kata “Burma” sekalipun di internet,”. Ia melanjutkan, Pemakaian telepon dan faxilime harus dilaporkan ke pemerintah sebab kalau tidak, bisa berakhir pada penahanan.

Sikap represif junta militer lebih kentara diranah politik. Walaupun mendapat suara pemilih sebanyak 80 % pada pemilu tahun 1990, pemerintah tidak mengakui LND (liga nasional untuk demokrasi) sebagai pemenangnya. Aung san suu kyi, pemimpin partai pro rakyat tersebut dijebloskan kedalam tahanan rumah dalam waktu sangat panjang (19 tahun). Pemerintah selalu mencari cara dan alasan agar Suu kyi tidak berkomuniasi dengan lingkungan luar. Politik isolasi mereka terapkan. Jared Genser dan Meghan Barron yang bekerja pada LSM Freedom New menulis, ”Telepon sudah bisu buat selama-lamanya, lantaran kawatnya diputuskan. Lonceng pintu tidak pernah berbunyi, lantaran tamu-tamu dilarang datang. Tidak ada surat pos, tidak ada warta berita Bagi Aung San Suu Kyi, pemimpin Myanmar yang telah terpilih secara demokratis”. Berita terbaru menyebut pemerintah menuntut Suu kyi lima tahun penjara, karena dituduh mengancam keamanan nasional dengan mengizinkan seorang warga AS, Jhon yettaw menginap secara rahasia selama dua hari dirumahnya. Tuduhan tidak masuk akal ini, menurut para pengamat adalah alasan yang dicari cari agar suu kyi lebih lama mendekam dalam penjara sehingga tidak dapat mengikuti pemilihan umum pada tahun 2010 nanti.

Sikap represif junta militer mendulang protes baik didalam ataupun luar negri. Tuntutan agar demokrasi lebih terbuka dan iklim politik lebih sehat diselenggarakan oleh pemerintah, berdatangan dari negara negara dan LSM LSM yang menyimpan simpati pada pejuangan rakyat Burma. Namun seperti halnya penguasa tiran di manapun, junta militer menjawab semua itu cukup dengan todongan senjata dan barikade panser. Aksi aksi damai para biksu dan pejuang pro demokrasi berakhir dengan huru hara. Pemukulan, penahanan, penyiksaan, penembakan terus terjadi sampai hari ini. Selain menggunakan tentara reguler sebagai benteng pertahanan, junta militer juga mendapat sokongan dari pasukan partikelir bernama Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). Mereka ditugasi untuk bergabung dalam aksi aksi anti pemerintah kemudian merubahnya menjadi kekerasan. Tahun 2003 USDA terlibat dalam upaya pembunuhan Aung San Suu Kyi. Meskipun gagal tindakan itu menewaskan simpatisan LND sebagai gantinnya.

Sampai sekarang junta militer masih berkuasa. Dengan sikap ke-aku-an warisan charles darwin mereka mengontrol tiap sendi kehidupan dengan cara cara fasistik, sementara rakyat hidup dalam ketakutan dan teror. Jendral jendral dalam tubuh junta militer barangkali tidak pernah membaca the origin of species, namun metalitas fasis yang diwariskannya terus menular dari satu penguasa tiran penguasa tiran lain. Kita tidak tahu sampai kapan tentara tentara memegang kendali. Kita hanya berharap semoga kediktaron junta militer segera disudahi. Semua pihak mesti bersinergi dalam hal ini, masalah Burma bukan hanya masalah rakyat Burma tapi juga masalah seluruh masyarakat dunia karena berkaitan dengan isu kemanusiaaan. Dewan keamanan PBB harus membuktikan kalau mereka adalah representasi dari suara negara negara anggotanya yang mencintai perdamaian. Selain kecaman, PBB harus memberlakukan sanksi politik, seperti mengadili para pelanggar HAM di mahkamah internasional. Masyarakat biasa yang tergabung dalam LSM LSM atau berjuang secara individu berbuat dengan cara cara yang mereka bisa. Baik ahli ekonomi, dokter, penulis, seniman, ilmuwan atau kuli kuli kasar sekalipun dengan penuh kesadaran, menyumbangkan ide, saran dan tindakan nyata. Sehingga kelak, apabila kekuatan pro demokrasi berhasil merebut kekuasaan dan menyelenggarakan pemerintahan dengan lebih beradab, yang merasa menang bukan hanya rakyat Burma tapi juga Umat Manusia.

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The known history of the Huns predates the rule of Attila by at least a century. However, prior to his times they were merely a nomadic people living on the fringes of civilisation which were at times a nuisance with their rapid raiding but posed no serious threat to ordered nations. They also served in great quantities as mercenaries in the armies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.

It was under Attila that the Huns rose to rule an empire of oppressed peoples who formed an army partly of slaves, partly of free men who threatened to overthrow both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires as well as setting in progress changes which would soon cause the fall of Rome. In the process their name became synonymous with cruelty and ferocity. Despite the fact that they posed a serious threat for a comparatively short period of time, the name of the Huns is far better known to most people today than that of the Avars, Khazars or Magyars who followed them.

Attila¹s brother Bleda became King of the Huns in 435 AD. Despite the strong tradition that the two brothers shared the kingship, the preponderance of evidence suggests that Attila was the second ranking prince at this time although with a great degree of independence in terms of both action and military forces. When his brother launched major campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople in 440 and 441 AD, Attila at first stayed out of the conflict with his forces and indeed dealt diplomatically with the Eastern Emperor until he decided to share in his brother¹s success. The Huns¹ actions resulted in the sack of many towns and even though Constantinople was not threatened at this time the Eastern Empire signed a favourable treaty with the Huns providing them with large amounts of tribute.

In 440 AD the Sassanid Persians invaded Armenia. Large Hun contingents were sent to fight them until a major defeat of the Armenians in 451 AD caused a scaling down of Hun interest there. Attila was believed at one point to be considering an attack on Sassanid Persia but direct confrontation appears to have never materialised.

In 445 AD Bleda died. Whether his death was natural or due to a hunting accident or whether Attila had him murdered will never be known for sure. After his death, Attila became the undisputed King of the Huns, the first to hold such a title and he was to prove to be the last.

In 447 AD Attila launched a major campaign against the Eastern Roman Empire. He sacked over seventy towns. By a curious coincidence a major earthquake at the same time severely damaged the walls of Constantinople and for a period of two months while they were feverishly repaired Attila could probably have taken the city. But it appears that his army consisting of many Germanic peoples as well as Huns did not move as fast as Hun armies of old and the opportunity passed. A major battle was fought in Thrace from which the Huns emerged victorious from a costly conflict. Disease forced them to retreat after ravaging northern Greece as far south as Thermopylae.

Attila then turned his attention to the Western Roman Empire. In 451 AD he led his forces in an invasion of Germany and France picking up forces of Franks, Goths and Burgundians en route. His heterogeneous army spread fear wherever it went. The city of Metz was sacked and Paris threatened. Tradition has it that the city was saved by the intervention of Saint Genevieve who persuaded Attila to spare the city. A similar event saved the city of Troyes. Possibly Metz had been comprehensively sacked as an example to encourage other cities not to resist Attila. Attila then settled down to lay siege to Orleans. As the siege was on the verge of success the main Roman forces under Aetius arrived to give battle.

The battle was fought at Chalons or the Catalaunian Fields in June 451 AD. For a battle included by Creasy in his list of fifteen decisive battles of history it was remarkably indecisive ­ both armies were battered but remained to fight another day but Attila withdrew from his besieged camp to the Hungarian homeland for the winter. It has been suggested that Aetius allowed Attila to escape total defeat in order to retain the Huns as a threat to control the Visigoths.

In 452 AD Attila launched an invasion of Italy. The city of Aquileia was besieged and sacked after a siege lasting two months. Much of Lombardy was laid waste but Rome was saved partly by the intervention of the Pope Leo I. In addition Attila¹s forces appeared to have caught a plague (malaria?), the Eastern Emperor, Marcian, had attacked Hunnic possessions across the Danube and it was near the end of the campaign season. For one or all of these reasons Attila withdrew again to Hungary.

In 453 AD Attila took a new wife. He died on his wedding night from a burst blood vessel due to over-indulgence at the wedding feast.

On his death, his eldest son, Erlak, became King but his other sons held much power. Such division led to civil war in which Erlak drove out the other sons. However he now faced a more serious threat in the shape of a revolt led by the Gepid King Ardaric. Erlak with his Hun forces met Ardaric with Gepid and Germanic troops at the river Nedao in 454 or 455 AD. The Huns were heavily defeated and Erlak was killed.

Of the surviving Huns some returned to the Steppes while others settled as Foederati in the Eastern Empire. Many served as mercenaries in the Roman armies. The days of Hun Empire were however over. Attila had ruled the Huns as absolute King for a mere 8 years but his claim to immortality was secure.