From the Burma Border Region

By Tim Heinemann

Before returning to the Burma border region, I had gotten wind of assassination teams targeting key leaders of the Karen ethnic resistance movement with whom I had been working for some time. We had struggled uphill for several years trying to gain the approval for a youth-leader development concept that was now in the works. We wanted to develop a kind of grassroots initiative, to train ethical servant leaders so that they could then serve in the Karen’s decades-long resistance effort against Burma’s military dictatorship.

Within 24 hours of my arrival in this small border community, the assassins struck a few miles away. Once the situation cleared, I learned that the most important leader supporting our program had been killed.

My mind was racing in this moment. I was most disturbed by how it happened. Men disguised themselves by wearing smiles and bearing gifts that masked hidden intentions—thus luring our friend into a false sense of friendship. I was horrified by the injustice, and stunned by the casual quickness of it all. I mean, at one moment a man was here alive, and then at the very next, he was gone.

On the practical side of things, it also occurred to me that our “top cover” was now gone, as our principal supporter had been taken from us. Building such support in tribal societies dominated by councils of very conservative elders can be painstakingly slow. I then drifted back to the image of the old man I had come to know as a great leader of his freedom-seeking people. I was full of hate. But, this led me absolutely nowhere and I knew it.

We laid low in a safe house for several days contemplating our next steps, because assassin teams were prowling the area. But, in this space of time it all became clear to me. I realized that the death of one man had not changed what that man had stood for. All of that was intact, unaltered, and uninterrupted.

It also occurred to us that the desperate act—this lashing out at good—had been evil’s reaction to being threatened. That is to say, opponents felt threatened by the good our honored elder had embodied. In an odd way this attack was actually a recognition of the power of good. The error of evil here was reflected in the flawed idea that good could be destroyed by simply destroying a man. How wrong!

Just before departing on this trip someone gave me an article from the July 2004 edition of The Christian Science Journal called “A new road to peace.” One of the ideas that stood out to me were that divine Love or God is more than enough to dissolve any hatred, salve any hurt, bind together any break. And He and His creation—including including you and me—are never subject to an accumulation of distrusts and hatreds.

Amazingly enough, our ethnic friends were undeterred by what had just happened. These are a people who have been oppressed in the harshest ways imaginable for decades, if not centuries. But now there was not one word spoken in hate or anger. Neither was there any visible expression of these sentiments within this close-knit tribal society. They resolved to move forward with the planned training and specifically insisted on not altering plans or taking any extra precautionary measures whatsoever. Their clear theme was, “We do what we must do.”

I was struck by their trust in the simple goodness of what they were trying to accomplish. “If it is good, then we will do it.” This was a crisp, clear statement that refused to acknowledge the “awesomeness of error.” It was a natural response to an evil that made absolutely no sense to them. This was the funny thing. They saw evil not so much as being bad, but as being illogical. As the superintendent of the leadership school turned from me, I could not help but notice the words embossed on the back of the Free Burma Rangers T-Shirt he wore:

“Love each other. Unite and work for freedom, justice and peace. Forgive and don’t hate each other. Pray with faith, act with courage, never surrender.”

After reading these words I realized that surrendering to hate was a dead-end street. I was able to let go of my hateful thoughts and feelings. I had come thousands of miles to teach my friends about leadership, but came away from this training as the student and as one who had learned the most from them—and not for the first time, I must admit. On a previous trip I remember one of the elders telling me he was afraid of only one thing, and that was not doing what was right.

In this admission from an old warrior and statesman (and the one who will now take the place of his recently fallen brother), I discerned the acme of true leadership—doing what is right and never fearing the consequences.

Paul in the Bible asked, “…who did hinder you that you did not obey the truth?” It’s a good question and it applies to us all. What is it that hinders us? My friends from Burma’s Karen State appear to have a very clean, clear sense of this. This stature provides inspiration that liberates and opens up infinite possibilities. It is, indeed, high ground that one can lead from. And solutions might indeed come about through this kind of leadership. Our mission continues now from new altitude—new attitude.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under World Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.