New Delhi - With the thundering noises of monks and people flooding
the streets of Rangoon in protest, Wut Yee (name changed), manager of a
tourism company, rushed off from her little office to witness the
crowds filling the streets.

It was the 26th of September 2007,
recalls Wut Yee. While in the beginning she was preoccupied with fears
that kept her away from the protestors, with the demonstrations gaining
momentum and hearing news of monks beaten, Wut Yee's fears were
shattered.

"I could no longer hold myself back. I wanted to be
with the monks, and the people on the streets," said Wut Yee, the
27-year old manager.

Not more than half an hour later, Wut Yee
said she found herself joining the multitudes marching the streets
against armed soldiers blocking their paths with barbed wired
barricades.

While not knowing what was in store for her and her
fellow protestors in the following hour, she said her reasons for
joining the demonstration were anger against the soldiers who behaved
ruthlessly toward the people as well as her expectation that the
success of the protests could lead to certain kinds of changes in the
day-to-day lives of the people.

"I didn't know anything much
about politics, but I was enraged by the news of soldiers beating
monks, and I wanted some kind of change that would ease the
difficulties of the people," Wut Yee explained.

But her
expectations and dreams of change did not last long. With shots from
soldiers targeting the protesting crowd, Wut Yee found herself running
along with the crowd, not knowing where she was heading.

The
fear she earlier had crept back into her. She lost all hope - the hope
to avenge the soldiers for their misbehaviors as well as her
expectation of change.

As a tour operation manager, Wut Yee said
she earned a pretty good salary of some 100,000 kyat (about 80 USD) per
month. Her salary was exceptional in Burma, where the average company
worker earns about 25,000 to 50,000 kyat over the same period.

But
Wut Yee said that with skyrocketing commodity prices, her earnings were
barely supporting her and her five other family members.

"Compared
to some of the young girls working as sales promoters, I was in a much
better position, but that still was not sufficient," Wut Yee explained.

Wut
Yee said the fuel price hike of mid-August 2007 had a direct impact on
her and her colleagues at the office, as they were forced to spend
extra on their transit to the office, which as she says, "robbed me of
my capacity for sustenance."

Against this backdrop, the
demonstrations led by the monks thrilled her, and she saw it as a
chance that could bring a change in the lives of the people.

"I
didn't think much of bringing down the government, my expectations were
just that the protests might be able to bring a change in our
lifestyles," Wut Yee said.

But with the firing of gunshots and
the sight of bloodshed on the streets, her fears once again crept into
her, shattering her hopes.

"I lost all hope when I heard the
gunshots and saw the bloodshed on the streets. I saw myself running
down the street back to my office, I never thought people could be so
savage," Wut Yee said.

But Wut Yee was not alone, her fears and
hopelessness seem to be shared by many today in Burma, a country ruled
by military dictators for over four decades.

A young man in
Rangoon, who joined the protests last year in a sense of similar hopes
and expectations to that of Wut Yee, commented, "When I saw the monks
on the streets, I was so thrilled and joined wholeheartedly."

"But
then when the government began shooting and killing the monks and
protestors, I lost hope and had to run away from the junta's spies –
who are still looking for me today."

Widespread support

Though the 'Saffron Revolution' – as it has come to be called – of last
September seems to have met with failure as soldiers randomly fired on
protestors and rampantly raided houses and monasteries, arresting monks
and activists, it had gained popular support even within the
government's administrative system.

In
Mandalay, a secretary in the government's ward administrative office
said she and her colleagues were secretly thrilled to hear of the monks
marching in protest, and though they were unable to give their open
support, they had hoped it could bring changes to their lives.

"We all hoped that the protests could be a turning point for all of us, and change our lives," she said.

As
a secretary of the local ward administration office, she said she earns
some 25,000 kyat (less than 20 USD) per month and can barely support
herself and her five-year old child.

"We could not join the
protests, but we were so happy to hear that people were marching and we
were hoping things could become better," she said.

Similarly, a
police officer in-charge of a township in Rangoon added that though he
was assigned to disperse protestors and take security measures, he had
wished that the protests could result in some form of change.

"It
is sad to see that the protests did not result in any form of change.
Though on duty I was supposed to disperse protestors, I was encouraged
to see the monks come out to raise their voices over the suffering of
the people," the officer said.

The officer continued, saying
that while in government service he can illegally enjoy a second or
third income that easily supports his family, he is worried to think of
the future for his children.

"My children are no exception, they do not have any future under the kind of system that we have," the police officer confided.

Increased frustrations

Despite successfully cracking down on protestors by raiding houses and
monasteries and arresting key activists and monks, Burma's military
rulers have failed to suppress the increasing frustrations of the
people, which are directly linked with the economic mismanagement of
the regime.

According
to Sean Turnell, an associate professor in the department of economics
at Australia's Macquarie University, Burma's economic situation in 2008
is far worse than before the September 2007 protests, particularly
after deadly Cyclone Nargis hit the country in May.

"The
economic circumstances faced by the average person in Burma are now
worse than those which brought people out on the streets a year ago,"
Turnell told Mizzima.

When Cyclone Nargis stormed into Burma on
May 2-3, much of the country's main rice producing region of the
Irrawaddy delta was destroyed, with experts forecasting that the
country could potentially face a severe food shortage in the near
future unless the government could effectively and timely conduct
rehabilitation efforts.

Wut Yee, who once held a decent job in
the tourist industry, said tourism has almost come to a complete halt
since the protests of September 2007, and only worsened in the
aftermath of May's natural disaster.

"Tour companies are losing
jobs because tourists no longer see Burma as a place to visit," said
Wut Yee, who eventually left her job as a tour manager to become a
journalist. 

An employee at one of Burma's popular high-end
chain hotels, Sedona in Mandalay, said the hotel had to lay off up to
40 percent of its employees after May, as the numbers of tourists and
guests drastically declined.

"Nearly fifty employees were laid
off because the number of guests was declining," the employee at the
Mandalay branch of Sedona Hotels told Mizzima earlier in June.

Similarly,
Burma's three popular beach resorts – Chaung Thar, Ngwe Saung and
Ngapali – were sealed off for more than four months after Burma's
coastal regions were ravished by the cataclysmic storm.

"Finding
a job in Burma is becoming extremely difficult for young people now,
because many businesses are not running well," Wut Yee further remarked.

"So, the only option left for many young people is going abroad and picking up whatever job they can get," she added.

Signs of resistance

Despite the junta's efforts to prevent any kind of opposition display
similar to last September – principally by arresting, detaining and
sentencing several key activists – it has failed to subdue the
resistant feelings of the people.

A
secretary of a ward administrative office in Mandalay said that though
the people do not seem to dare to come out onto the streets, the anger
and agitation of the population does not seem to have subsided, but
rather has only increased as people continue to suffer hardships in
their daily lives.

"Every day people are struggling hard to keep
up with the skyrocketing prices of commodities, and trying to make ends
meet seems to be growing more difficult," she said.

"When the
government says the situation is normal, the anger of the people does
not turn on them, but that also does not mean they are all happy. The
struggle to survive has left the people busy and subdued their anger,"
she added.

Aung Thu Nyien, a former student activist who now
analyzes Burma's political affairs, said that while by arresting key
activists the government seems to have successfully stopped another
possible round of demonstrations; on the ground it is not healing the
wounds of people.

"It is only for a matter of time that people
can tolerate the present system, and though leaders are important in
starting peoples' movements, sometimes a movement itself creates
leaders," noted Aung Thu Nyien, who is based on the Thai-Burmese border.

Meanwhile,
Wut Yee, who now talks to people – including political activists and
lay people – as she files stories on the worsening economic state of
Burma, says that with the government failing to address the peoples'
hardships, another round of protests is imminent.

"There will be
another protest with a much stronger force and intensity, because the
peoples' sufferings are only getting worse and there seems to be no
solution coming forth from the government," Wut Yee, who now has a
clearer picture of Burma's political crisis, surmised.