MIC: The South African band with a new lineup and a new album

Sunday 1st July 2001

South Africa's most popular Christian band MIC are in Britain this summer. The band's Stephen Rothquel spoke to Tony Cummings.



Continued from page 1

JAMES MAWDSLEY's one-man stand against the injustices of the Burmese government catapulted him into the media spotlight. Tony Cummings met James.

It was in a squalid Burmese prison cell that James Mawdsley not only encountered brutal torturers but the living God. Knowing full well that his peaceful political one-man protest against the vicious governing Junta of Burma would lead to his arrest and imprisonment, the 28 year old backpacker became a figure of huge media interest and, before his release earlier this I year, had succeeded totally in drawing the West's attention to Burma's murderous military government. Now booked to speak at the Cross Rhythms festival, I spoke to James in his father's London home.

Tony: How did it all begin for you, this travelling bug? You were at university, were you?

James: Yes, at Bristol, but I dropped out after about a year and a half because I felt there were more pressing things to be doing than a degree. Mum was Australian so I thought I'd start out in Australia and see that side of the family. From there I travelled to other places. In Burma I've been campaigning for the universities to be reopened because for the past 10 years they've been closed. Universities are an essential part of our democracy.

Tony: There are many suffering in the world. Was it simply "an accident" that Burma became the focus of your attention?

James: I don't think so. There's some reason Burma resonates with me. Even when I was a teenager I was interested in Burma. I remember in '88 the huge demonstrations that came on our news and in 1990 there was an election and in '91 Dor Un Su Chin won the Nobel peace prize. Now I didn't really follow other international affairs at that time but these things really stuck in my mind and I'm not sure why. But whenever I'm on Burmese soil I feel very much at home, very relaxed. I don't feel I'm in danger when I'm in Burma.

Tony: I How did you begin to get involved in political activity?

James: Anyone who wants any measure of justice or fairness or equality is considered subversive, undermining the State. There have been examples of doctors giving out medicine for free who have been forced to close down their project because they have been accused of undermining the popularity of the Generals. The NLD giving away rice for free to desperately hungry people in Rangoon and the truck drivers and distributors have been first of all driven out of town and dumped 20 kilometres out and when they returned they were put in prison. By giving away rice for free the Generals say they are trying to draw attention to problems in Burma. So if ever you try to do anything humanitarian in Burma you are accused of being a political subversive. I used to teach English to refugees along the border and the way that was referred to in court was I had contact with terrorist organisations. It's crazy.

Tony: Briefly talk me through the circumstances of your arrest.

James: I had gone in each of the three times in '97, '98 and '99 to distribute letters which expressed solidarity with the suffering people of Burma and asked that all political prisoners be released and asked that the universities be reopened and that the Junta hold dialogue with the elected party, the NLD. The whole point of this was only to get myself arrested. It's a peaceful expression, it's not illegal by any reasonable standards of law but I knew the Junta would arrest me for doing it. And once they'd arrested me then at last I could be face to face with them and discuss the issues that really counted, however limited our discussion. It was the best I could do because you cannot as an NGO worker or even a diplomat have a very constructive discussion with the Junta because if you start to criticise them the doors close. I felt as a prisoner I can say what I like and they can't do anything, because I'm already in prison. At the very end of the day when I became so much trouble they'd throw me out and that would suit me fine.

Tony: But presumably you had some knowledge of the environment that was going on in those prisons. I mean, they are not particularly pleasant prisons, are they?

James: That's another reason I wanted to be arrested, because I wanted to see for myself the inside of these prisons. I just cannot understand how people can treat others so cruelly, who they see face to face. It's one thing to be at the top of a regime and have senseless policies which make people suffer, but it's another to be face to face with those who are making people suffer. It's extremely important to show real solidarity with the prisoners who are really suffering. However much people are campaigning for democracy and however much progress we think is being made through the UN or sanctions of America or Europe or anything that's going on - dialogue between the Junta and the NLD, none of this is making the slightest bit of difference to the prisoners' lives. It's as if people think, 'Well, let's fight the big fight on the big scale and it takes a decade or three decades or five decades and then the prisoners will be alright because there will be democracy.' But meanwhile they've just been suffering unimaginably for 50 years. We need to get in with them and stand by them. In prison nearly every week I was making some major protest every week or two weeks and sending extremely clear signals to the prisoners that they were of exactly the same value as me and their maltreatment was wrong. That's something they've all known in their hearts but which can be crushed out of your heart after decades of oppression, where you begin to think, 'Maybe I am worthless. Maybe I do deserve to suffer. Maybe I shouldn't raise my head when the authorities walk past.' I always tried to redress that by treating the other prisoners as my equals and treating the most senior officers as my equals as well. No one is below me, no one is above me. And it worked.

Tony: There's a popular myth in some circles that they would not treat a Westerner in a bad way because it would create such bad publicity for them. But you didn't find that, did you?

James: Certainly they would rather not have had to treat me in a bad way. They would like everything to be cosy and sweet. But they kind of missed the point, that they had locked me up illegally and I wasn't going to let it drop. So I was pushing them and pushing them. If I was a criminal prisoner I could have bribed the guards and been very comfortable indeed. I could have had a very easy time. But I wasn't interested in doing that. I wanted to address the issue of the rule of law and due process and for that reason we very often came into conflict and it got quite violent at the end as well. But I was not surprised by them, it was just par for the course.

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Reader Comments

Posted by zahra in quuensburgh @ 14:58 on Mar 25 2015

hi my name is zahra greyvenstien i was a small when you guys pefromed at the ethearbeth childrens home you guys give us a cv when it had a few songs on i was so inlove with the mucis that it got marks and didnt want to play. the point of my stroying now that im 26 years i want to buy your cv but some how i cant find the cv that you gave us.... please could you help me and send me a address where i could find thank you so much for being my inspertion



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