KAO WAO NEWS No. 49

 

An electronic newsletter for social justice and freedom in Burma


July 21 -
August 3, 2003



READERS' FRONT

MON POLITICIANS IN PEGU ARRESTED

ACTIVISTS ACCUSED OF STATE ASSASSINATION

NO WORK PERMIT FOR NEW MIGRANT WORKERS

5-MINUTE TOUCH  

OPPOSITION OFFICES CLOSE, ROAD MAP PITCH CONTINUES

MYANMAR DEFIANT ON SUU KYI

VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE: DIASPORA NEEDS DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP

TALK IN RANGOON: WAR ON THE BORDER

NEW MON JOURNALS

MON LANGUAGE COURSE AT SILAPAKON UNIVERSITY

 

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READERS' FRONT

 

Dear Readers,

We invite comments and suggestions on improvements to Kao-Wao newsletter.

With your help, we hope that Kao-Wao News will continue to grow to serve better the needs of those seeking social justice in Burma and Thailand. And we hope that it will become an important forum for discussion and debate and help readers to keep abreast of issues and news. Above all, we hope the newsletter will be used as a vehicle for those who want to share their views and experiences.  We reserve the right to edit and reject articles without prior notification. You can use a pseudonym but we encourage you to include your full name and address.

 

Regards,

Editor

kaowao@hotmail.com

http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1215&lo=d&sl=0

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Dear Editor,

Thailand's road map seems to the people of Burma as what Kanbawza Win said "red mode" (Sayagyi Yodaya : by        Kanbawza Win).  Now Thailand is preparing a measure to protect the flow of refugees from Burma. We should understand Thailand's road map is for maintaining the SPDC in the power and doing business.  The Thaksin government care for the rich SPDC Generals more than the poor people of Burma as it has huge business deal with them such as satellite transponder, mobile phone, air flight and natural gas.  From all these business, the people of Burma have nothing but to suffer from them.  How we can trust the road map draw by the person dealing business with the Burmese junta. It would be better if Thailand provide safe place for the Generals after they step down from power.

 

NSS

(Bangkok, Thailand)

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MON POLITICIANS IN PEGU ARRESTED

(Kao Wao, July 23, 2003)

 

A Mon politician and two youth leaders were arrested by the military junta in Pegu near Rangoon, the capital city of Burma.

 

According to a local source, Nai Min Kyi, a candidate for Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) and two youth leaders Mehm Shwe Man and Mehm Than Tun were arrested by the authorities from the Pegu Division Peace and Development Council and taken to Rangoon on July 17, 2003.

 

The next day, a Moulmein based Military Intelligence (MI 5) in Mon State also raided the house of Nai Yekkha, a former New Mon State Party (NMSP) officer in Moulmein.   The source reported that a mobile phone and document papers were seized by the Intelligence while Nai Yekkha escaped and is on the run.

 

The reason for the crack down by the SPDC is not clear but the order came from the authorities in Rangoon showing a political connection between the arrests in Pegu and Moulmein, reported the source from the NMSP.

 

Nai Yekkha, a former officer of the NMSP’s Public Relations Department joined the Party from Moulmein University and has been in charge of setting up a Network in the urban areas for several years.

 

Nai Min Kyi, a respected community leader, has actively worked with the MNDF in the Pegu region and was the Mon candidate for the Pegu Constituency during the 1990 election.

 

The MNDF won 5 seats in the general election but its leaders Nai Ngwe Thein, Dr. Min Kyi Win and Dr. Soe Lin were arrested in 1998 for their political beliefs and are serving long prison terms in Moulmein, Mon State.

 

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ACTIVISTS ACCUSED OF STATE ASSASSINATION

(Kao-Wao, July 29, 2003)

 

The Burmese military junta has arrested 12 activists for being involved in a state assassination attempt against Burmese military leaders.

 

According to a press briefing by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the authorities have arrested 12 suspects including two members from the cease-fire group, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) on July 17.  The suspects were allegedly to have been found with two grenades and a cell phone linked to an explosion that occurred in Moulmein and other cities.

 

A local source in Mon State reported that since July 17 when two youth leaders, Mehm Shwe Man and Mehm Than Tun from the Mon National Democratic Front and their leader Nai Min Kyi were arrested in Pegu and sent to Rangoon, the Military Intelligence has intensified its search for additional suspects and explosive substances in various areas in Mon State

 

According to news from IMNA, the junta is deploying more security and setting up various checkpoints and sending out Intelligence personnel in many areas to search for explosives in passenger vehicles and ferries.

 

“They are looking for suspects, they search every truck, car, and motorbike that passes through here,” said a driver from Mudon. “The authorities comprised of the police, immigration officials and the army, order passengers to get out from buses and present their identity cards; after they check through everybody’s belongings they are told to move on.”

 

The regime has accused 12 detainees of plotting the assassination attempt against military leaders. The activities of the NMSP are being closely watched over by the SPDC’s military intelligence, ordering the cease-fire group members not to hold any arms in their travels to cities.

 

On July 1, the NMSP and six other ceasefire groups issued an official Statement over the premeditated violent attack against Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters while on tour in upper Burma on May 30.

 

Nai Pong, a leader of Mon National Democratic Front (Liberated Area) said MNDF has had nothing to do with any violent attacks.  Accusing politicians as being terrorists is nothing but a tactic used by the regime whenever they want to crack down on them to divert anger from civilians.

 

The liaison office of the NMSP said that it has no knowledge of any (member’s) arrests and is not involved in any violent activities; its objective is to solve the political crisis through political means.

 

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Migrant Watch

 

NO WORK PERMIT FOR NEW MIGRANTS

(By Bop Htaw / Kao Wao)

 

July 31, 2003, Samutsakhorn -- Thousands of illegal migrant workers from Burma, especially from the southern part, have been waiting for a new Work Permit Card from the Labor Registration of the Royal Thai Government’s Ministry of Labour.

 

Many new arrivals including teenage girls have been hiding inside their flats outside Mahachai city for several months. They dream for the Work permit cards since July.  However, the Ministry of Labour, will not be issuing cards for the new arrivals but will be renewing previous cardholders only. Many won’t be able to find jobs if they cannot provide proof of a Work Permit ID card to employers, but a few are providing their “labor on demand” in the food processing factories.

 

The Minister for Labour of Thailand went on prime time local television with a brief message to Thai employers to remind employers to renew their employees’ migrant status or otherwise face legal punishment. However in Mahachai city alone, officially known as Samutsakhorn, there are hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants scattered throughout the city who remain unemployed and unregistered with the MOL.

 

“Illegal migrant workers would not find safety in the future if they hold no Work Permit cards” said Ko Myint Wai of Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) who publishes Labour Affairs Network monthly newsletter.

 

The TACDB is concerned with the welfare of migrant workers in Mahachai, the Committee advocates for a “fair go” for migrant workers.  In 1997, the Committee conducted an “Evening Learning Class” for migrant children but it was closed down in 1999 after strong pressure by local Thai authorities. The Committee organized a second course but it lasted only seven months for security reasons.

 

Many young boys and girls have arrived with friends and siblings in the last six months and are not able to find jobs without the Worker ID cards known in Thai as “bard- raieng- ngan” said Nai LaHoin, a social worker from Mahachai.

 

According to a Cabinet Resolution on Illegal Migrants dated on 27 August 2002-3, migrants can only register in the area they are now working, the same province as the last time, they do not have permission to move around the country from province to province.

 

Migrants are allowed to work in the six categories of employment: general labourers, land and water transport, mineral mining, pottery and brick making, construction, rice mills, processing crop factories, processing wood factories and warehouses. The second category is in fisheries and related industries, fish sauce, prawns and ice factories. The others are labour intensive employment in factories, domestic work, animal and vegetable farms, fruit plantations etc.

 

Migrant workers pay at least baht 7000-10,000 Baht each (160-230 US) to local brokers or “human traffickers” to be smuggled into Mahachai.  It takes five-seven days of traveling on foot through the jungle from the southern Thai Burma border. While some can recover the traveling costs, many are strapped with huge debts in Thailand.

 

“What can they do? They live inside the flat and must depend upon friends and family until they can land jobs or get a Worker ID card”, said Lamyom Mon, a social worker for the Mon migrant workers.  They don’t go outside the flats because they fear arrest and attack by local Thai mafia gangs. “I don’t understand what the situation is at home and why so many young people come here,” he added.

 

The Three Pagodas Pass Border is a main route for migrant workers from southern Burma to cross over into Thailand.  Both the Burmese army and ethnic armed organizations in its respected camps control the local border area checkpoints. Burmese migrants pay various fees to unofficial brokers both on entry into Thailand and upon returning home.

 

Mahachai city, a vast area housing many hundreds of thousands migrant workers from Burma (mostly from Mon State) come to escape economic destitution back home, they do not receive any support from the Ministry of Labour of the Government of Union of Myanmar.  Undocumented Burmese workers have no access to the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok nor are they able to seek further help. A “Temporary Stay” for registered migrant workers will end on 25 September 2003 where many will become increasingly marginalized. 

 

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Sexual abuse during drug campaign

 

5-MINUTE TOUCH  

(Kao Wao: July 23, 2003)

 

The Thai authorities subjected three Mon migrant women to a strip search and sexual abuse in its crackdown on drug trafficking in Mae Sot, Tak Province, at the Thai-Burma border town.

 

A victim told Kao Wao that some Taw-Mall (Immigration Police officer) raided her place to search for drugs amongst the migrant workers.

 

Mi Aye, one of the three victims, said a Taw-Mall burst into her room when her husband was at work.  Mi Aye along with her two female friends who were visiting, hid in the toilet and locked the door, the officers broke the lock and shouted at them to come out from the toilet, and he then closed the doors of the main room.

 

Mi Aye recalled that the Taw-mall told her he wanted to search for drugs and wanted to do a body search on each woman. To do this, he told each woman to go into the toilet where he forced the victim to remove her clothes so he could sexually assault them with his hands.  The victims said the ordeal lasted five minutes for each woman.

 

The Mon women want to complain about this sexual abuse, but are unable to because of their illegal status in the country.

 

Burmese migrants form a very vulnerable population in Thailand and fall prey to a range of abuses including rape and extortion by Thai policemen.  They are often falsely accused and arrested for using Yaba, crazy medicine, (amphetamines).  

 

Migrant workers in Maharchai, Samut Sakhorn Province, in the fish processing area are often targeted for arrest when they cross the path of police.  Several Mon workers are framed for drug’s possession and arrested, police will slip a small pill of Yaba into the migrant’s pocket directly in front of everybody’s face. They are then accused of possession and are either extorted for money or sent to jail by the local police.

 

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Security Alert

 

OPPOSITION OFFICES CLOSE, ROAD MAP PITCH CONTINUES

(Cited from Irrawaddy, By Kyaw Zwa Moe)

August 01, 2003—The Thai Foreign Minister is busy selling his "road map" to peace in Burma, while officials in the north of Thailand are cracking down on Burmese dissidents. Sources said many of the offices of Burmese opposition groups in Mae Sariang have closed today, as staff members and volunteers try to avoid arrest by local authorities.

An ethnic Karen women in the town said: "All the offices of dissident groups shut down. Most members moved to other locations and a few went into hiding yesterday." The source said she and others had been told authorities would start arresting dissidents today.

On July 18, Thai officials gave dissidents until the end of the month to leave Mae Sariang, close to the Thai-Burma border, opposite Burma’s Karenni State. Local authorities met with opposition and ethnic groups to warn them to take the threat of arrest seriously, and explain that the arrest order had come from the central government in Bangkok.

On Tuesday morning in Mae Sariang, border police arrested six members of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), but they were released after being held for eight hours at a local police station.

The arrests prompted other groups to relocate ahead of the deadline. Offices of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) and the Karen National Union were among the first to close.

Meanwhile Burma’s Foreign Minister Win Aung arrived in Bangkok yesterday and will be meeting with his Thai counterpart Surakiart Sathirathai to discuss the Thai government’s "road map" for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Though details on the content of the road map have yet to be spelt out, Thailand’s idea has already won support from Japan.

Surakiart also met with ministers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia for talks today on regional economic cooperation, but news reports say problems in Burma were not on the agenda.

The Thai Foreign Minister told the BBC he did not expect Win Aung to agree to the proposals he had in mind but was confident the generals would respond favorably when they heard the details of Thailand’s road map.

Dissidents in Mae Sariang said they were frustrated about Thailand’s ambiguous solution. "If the Thai government really wants to help solve the political stalemate in our country, they must realize that they actually need agreement from Burma’s opposition inside and outside the country, not just a go-ahead from the junta," an ABSDF member told The Irrawaddy before leaving town yesterday.

"If they want to win the confidence of opposition groups, cracking down on dissidents working on Thai soil is not the way to do it. Such action only proves Thailand has no real desire to help Burma," the ABSDF source said.

Opposition groups have responded to Thailand’s road map with caution. But the consensus is that opposition and ethnic leaders, including those elected in 1990, must be invited to participate if the process is to be deemed legitimate.

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MYANMAR DEFIANT ON SUU KYI

(Cited from Reuters:  By Aung Hla Tun in Rangoon, July 25, 2003)

 

Myanmar's state-run media has carried out fresh denunciations of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and said stiffer sanctions against the military regime over her detention would backfire.

 

Diplomats said on Thursday the commentary in a newspaper, regarded as the junta’s mouthpiece, showed that the ruling generals were unlikely to bend to growing international pressure to free Suu Kyi.  The Nobel laureate and other key leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party have been detained since the May 30 clash, known as Black Friday, between her supporters and a pro-government group. The report came as an Asian and European foreign ministers meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali united on Thursday in calling for Suu Kyi's immediate release.

 

"The government welcomed and invited Daw Suu Kyi to follow the path of friendly negotiations and on reaching a settlement," said the commentary in the New Light of Myanmar daily.

 

"But the undesirable fact is that Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD are trying to push Myanmar towards total destruction," it said.

 

The United States and the European Union have threatened harsher sanctions against the impoverished country, while key donor Japan has turned off all new aid. The U.S. Senate this month sent legislation banning all imports from Myanmar for President George W. Bush's signature.

 

The commentary said more sanctions would hurt the withdrawing investors, adding that businessmen from other countries would readily take their place.

"The most important thing is one should not be frightened whenever intimidated," the commentary said. "The only requirement is to lay down a firm policy and to continue to march towards the future in unity and oneness."

 

The military has ruled Myanmar in various guises since a 1962 coup, arguing that strong rule is needed to keep the ethnically diverse country together. The generals refused to accept the NLD's 1990 election victory and have kept Kyi under house arrest for much of the last 15 years.

 

A Yangon-based Southeast Asian diplomat said the commentary was a sign that the junta, the State Peace and Democracy Council (SPDC), were unlikely to free Suu Kyi anytime soon.

 

"I come to the conclusion the SPDC will not change its stance regardless of outside pressure," the diplomat told Reuters. "They seem to be determined to stick to their decision."

 

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers were due to meet on the sidelines of the current Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Bali to discuss Myanmar and call for Suu Kyi's release.

 

Myanmar, which is not a member of ASEM, has not sent a representative to the ASEAN meeting but is sending envoys to neighbouring countries in the coming days to explain its stance.

 

For three decades ASEAN has had a strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of any member, but the grouping broke the policy last month to criticize Myanmar.

 

Some diplomats say the May 30 violence left dozens dead and was orchestrated by the military government, with hundreds of youths attacking Suu Kyi's defenseless convoy with bamboo and iron rods as she toured central Myanmar.

 

The junta denies this and says four people died. The commentary on Thursday said Suu Kyi could have avoided the clash because she and her entourage had been warned in advance that opposing demonstrators were waiting for her.  "They could have returned to Yangon and informed the matter to the government," it said.

 

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KAO WAO’S VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE:

 

Discussion on Kanbawza Win’s “Diaspora Needs Dynamic Leadership”

 

The subject of the article, which I have slightly abbreviated, is worthy of further consideration.  The onus for initiative is now very firmly in the expatriate Burmese camp (using the word "Burmese" in its largest sense).  Indeed, it always has been the case, but now there is no excuse for believing otherwise.

 

For some time, on free Burma, I fought an uphill battle against virulent personal attacks against members of the NCGUB that left one completely uninformed of any clear reasons for wishing to replace its members. 


Such attacks not infrequently came from persons rabidly opposed to ethnic nationality organizations currently in the forefront of the fighting against the junta.  In other words, if such individuals were to play a role in determining the overall direction (or lack of direction?) of the movement, as they clearly seemed to think they should, the result would be more fragmentation within the movement, rather than more cohesiveness.


This question of leadership is crucial, and it is perhaps opportune to discuss it, in an OBJECTIVE, IMPERSONAL manner in order to determine what needs to be
done, and how to do it.  Change needs, if humanly possible, to be a radical, but transformational, change of what already exists.


Whatever is to be done, must occasion the minimum of personal recriminations and divisiveness within the movement.  If news of change within the movement makes it into the world media, it should ideally make for positive news, and not be seen as a sign of further division within the movement.


What is needed is a leadership that is both dynamic AND knowledgeable AND astute AND has the capacity to bring together all the elements actively fighting the junta (and those who could be fighting it tomorrow) AND has a mandate from the people of
Burma.  No one person has all these attributes, but a TEAM can possess them.


It needs to be “Government of National Unity in Exile", pending The Liberation of Burma from The Brutes.

 

Eric BJ

 

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No leader is perfect.  I agree that Burmese in exile needs a dynamic leadership but Kanbawza Win is more negative in observing the work of NCGUB despite it has been working enough to gain international attention for not restoration of democracy but also nationalities rights of the future federal union.

 

Towards a Democratic Federal Union of Burma.

 

Ko Ko Aye (Thailand)

 

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Since the Depayin political attack on Daw Su and the NLD by the SPDC authoritarian military state terrorists, the democratic forces outside our beloved country, Burma, have been actively engaged in the meetings-conferences. The latter processes were aimed, sincerely by all of us, in the hoped for  consolidation of political efforts" towards the implementation of Regime (Political System) Change in Burma.

 

But if we really care and seriously think through the "Burmese Political Problem", most of us and the leaders of the Democratic Fronts are still locked into a "mental culture" that the military-fascist leadership and the SPDC illegitimate state draws on to legitimize its power.  The cultural values and belief systems the Burmese are embedded in does not allow creative experimentation leading to innovation and positive dynamic changes to flourish in the sphere of politics and economics.


Lately some have floated the idea that a “new political organization" led by the “new generation" that matured politically and organizationally, after the 1974 and 1988 political revolutionary protest-upheaval in
Burma be the "legitimate" Burmese government in exile.


 My position is that "political leaders" whether it is the "old" or the "new" generation of the “democratic forces" cannot be determined by us outside of
Burma.


Only within
Burma, the continuing democratic struggle and if necessary through arm struggle, for the people of Burma and with the Burmese people, against the SPDC military-fascist dictatorship in Burma will decide who the real “political leaders" of Burma are. The people of Burma will decide who represents them.


With Solidarity

Myo Nyunt

Edith Cowan University

Mount LawleyWestern Australia

 

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With a very small proportion of the Burmese Diaspora in New Zealand, I watch with dismay as groups split into separate groups, sometimes over trivial issues, but also into ethnic religious or political ones.

 

Clinging tightly to their cultural grievances, which however justified, should be secondary to rebuilding the trust that has dissolved after so many years of divisive propaganda. Shouldn't there be more effort among the various factions (this includes the ethnic and religious differences) to meet each other. If they sit down to eat and talk, then labels disappear and people become personalities.

 

And yes, you will disagree about some things, but surely there are enough points in common to find an avenue for constructive action. The first priority is the regime change, but it needs some social glue to achieve that. Burma is an alphabet soup of so many small and big groupings and the unity needed, both inside and out of the country is not going to come quickly, until that common purpose unites you, rather than divides.  

 

The reconstruction of Burma is not just the physical rebuilding, it is learning that the diversity which encompasses you all, is something to be valued. Each part has something to contribute.  Democracy is agreeing to disagree, instead of starting yet another group. Learning to trust others good intentions is the biggest hurdle to come.

 

Fiona

New Zealand

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I see the mental culture at work a lot and it is incapacitating politically at least, and yes the leaders are inside but the Diaspora needs leadership too and it is ok to have some outside and it is more about leadership than actual leaders.

 

Janelle

Australia

 

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Opinion & Analysis

 

TALK IN RANGOON: WAR ON THE BORDER

(By Bop Htaw / Monland: August 2003)

 

Talk in Rangoon on Daw Suu Kyi’s detention for over the past two months has been slogging through the mud while the world waits for over ten years.  World leaders have expressed “Concern” on Burma but the political will to solve the current crisis will be ultimately left for the Burmese people after the introduction of sanctions from the West.  

 

Is this right?  Sanctions will hand over more political power to China and a visa ban by Europe to senior Burmese generals will give ASEAN leaders more leverage to control Burma to the best of their advantage. There are two factors to be examined: Democracy Rhetoric and Genuine Peace in the country.

 

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, General Secretary of National League for Democracy has a legitimate right to campaign throughout the country to increase public awareness in the struggle for democracy.  Leaders of the NLD are reluctant to call for an “Unconditional/Genuine Peace” in the country while over ten anti-government armed forces are still actively engaging in a battle against the Rangoon junta, the State Peace and Development Council led by Senior General Than Shwe.  

 

According to the Mon Relief Committee based on the Thai-Burma border in southern part of the country, insurgent attacks often take place in the border area between the Karen and Burmese army along the Three Pagodas Pass area mostly during May and June. Mon Relief workers who have learned of armed clashes between the insurgents and the Burmese soldiers were unable to report specific details of the battles because they are banned to visit the sites in which they took place.  However, a coordinator of the Relief Committee has confirmed that armed fighting between insurgents and the Burmese often occur along the border area.

 

Karen and Mon insurgent forces in Southern Ye and along Ye River area oppose the ceasefire agreement with the ruling military junta.  The Karen National Union is the leading insurgent force in southern Burma.  For peace and democracy in Burma, the junta is urged by all involved in the battle to withdraw its massive military posts scattered along the border area and throughout Mon and Karen States.  Democratic Forces both at home and abroad are much too focused on reform in the country while ignoring the aggressive military expansion of the Burmese junta into several areas of the country which is laying waste to the livelihood of many villagers.

 

Without unconditional peace in Burma, the dream for democracy is in danger of fading away forever.  Burma simply cannot reform the country while the majority of cease-fire and non-ceasefire organizations show no faith in the current Burmese junta.  Democratic forces in exile have campaigned for “Democracy” in the country but many of them have not drawn up an “Ultimate Peace Plan”. Promoting democracy is a noble challenge, but unless the Burmese junta withdraws its massive military battalions and militia forces in rural non-Burman States, such a dream for peace will turn into a nightmare, and will not be the fault of just the military but by all those involved in the struggle.

 

Democratic forces in exile should review their position by revamping their ideas for democracy and in cooperating more effectively with the non-Burman political organizations and its armed forces based in the border areas.  Over the last fifty years, the non-Burmans were not only engaged in an armed struggle for “Democracy” but also for “Political Rights” and “Self-Determination” for their civil, cultural and political rights.  Some non-Burmans armed organizations have fought for “Full Independence” rather than “Self-Determination” for over half a century.  However, the non-Burman leaders have signaled that they are prepared to talk peace and democracy in Burma despite taking on the risk of being admitted into the “Legal Fold” or a ceasefire agreement.

 

Bi-lateral talks have failed. The Tripartite dialogue has not even been part of the dialogue equation in Rangoon for establishing democracy and stability in Burma.  Systematic oppression is the only method used to maintain and legitimize its control over the civilian political organizations, and discrimination is the tool used against the non-Burman to remind them about who’s in power.  

 

If Senior General Than Shwe and his top military officials are committed to “Peace and Development” in the country, let the citizens gather for assembly and hold a “National Convention” without military interference on the ground.  The military regime’s mentality is slow to change, no single citizen is allowed to participate in the local or national politics contrary to what the Burman representative stated at a recent United Nation’s Security Council meeting on (23.07.2003).

 

Ceasefire leaders are not fools but indeed they have an obligation to serve their organizations and their people under the prevailing circumstances.  However, unless leaders of Burman and non-Burman build a genuine “Political Trust” among themselves right now, Burma will continue to meet the failed State status.  We need people to believe in themselves more and to generate new ideas to transform the autocratic mentality of the Generals, which stretches back 1000 years.

 

Burmese military officials have accused the non-Burman leaders and its armed forces of the “Break or Divide the Union of Burma” game, while the non-Burman leaders have accused the government as being bent on “Burmanization or Burmanizers”, going on now for well over fifty years. It’s a strong position to take for new political actors to confront whether these are factual elements that are blocking political settlement in the country.

 

 The “Tatmadaw” may wish to restore democracy or human rights in the country but senior military officials remain firmly stuck in the mud or past, as sticks in the mud (pun intended) to not grant any “political rights” for the non-Burman population.  Successive Burmese army officials have stuck by the old rule of cultural homogeny categorizing all citizens of Burma as “Union Citizenship” rather than any particular nationality.

  

The charismatic leader Daw Suu Kyi confronts a way of thinking that has been in place for centuries, for the generals it is the natural way to do things to maintain peace and order throughout the country.  She and everyone involved in the struggle must figure out a clever way to shift their thinking so as to draw up a relationship of understanding based on a “Peace Plan” to facilitate between the Burman and non-Burman people and leaders and establish concrete incentives to move things forward in the right direction that ensures stability.  It is sad that while pro-democracy leaders talk about democracy in Rangoon, ongoing violence and insurgent fighting is still actively operating in the border areas.  

 

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Literature and culture

 

NEW MON JOURNALS

(Kao-Wao, July 31, 2003)

 

The third issue of Mon Youth Progressive Organization (MYPO) Journal was published on the Thai-Burma border and widely distributed in both countries.

 

The junta endorses repression on intellectual activities and the publishing of literature in all its forms in Mon State; instead, ethnic groups publish their magazines and journals in the liberated areas or in exile and distribute it through their social network.

 

The forty-page journal contains articles, poems, comic strips, and interviews on issues related to youth, nationalism, and political development written in Mon and Burmese from the liberated area.  

 

MYPO was formed after a gathering of Mon youths at Sangkhalaburi border town, Karnchanaburi Province, Thailand in November 2001 to coordinate activities among the different youth groups, but its office was closed down after the crackdown by Thai authorities in December 2002.  The MYPO was relocated in the liberated area after the crackdown of the Burmese opposition offices and a Christian church in the Thai-Burma border town.

 

The USA based Monland Restoration Council (MRC) also publishes a journal named Tung Pakao.  The 66-page journal is written in Mon, an article is written in English.  The journal contains poems, comic strips, articles and a photo essay of the MRC.

 

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MON LANGUAGE COURSE AT SILAPAKON UNIVERSITY

(Banya Hongsar / Bangkok: July 27, 2003)

 

For the last three months, a Mon Language Teaching Course is being offered at Silapakon University, in the heart of Bangkok, directed by a groups of volunteers of Mon scholars living in Thailand.  Over twenty students including leading academics from various universities in Bangkok have joined in the four-hour weekly evening class.

 

Maha Jaraunn, a Mon monk scholar with an M.A. at the Silapakon University volunteers his time to teach a free course with the cooperation of the University staff.  The language class recently invited a leading Mon historian, Khun Sunthorn Sripanngern, to give a public lecture to students on the historical significance of the Mon civilization especially in the area of language and culture of Mon (Raman) relationship to Siam.

 

“We must preserve our language and literature right now to prevent further destruction to our moral society within the context of globalization,” Sunthorn addressed.

 

The Mon Teaching Course is not a formal class for international studies but is for the university staff to integrate the Mon language as part of the Thai Studies Program.  Khun Sunthorn described the close relationship between the Royal Siam Families and the Mon Royal servants in the past two hundreds years.

 

According to Khun Sunthorn, the Mon in Thailand deserve awareness and respect for their language and culture right after the Hongsawatoi Kingdom (Pegu) was invaded in Burma by the Burmese, after having been discriminated against by successive Burmese governments before, during, and after the colonial period.  

 

“When I visited local Mon temples outside of Bangkok, I found a vast collection of hand written palm scripts in the Mon bubble script,” Khun Sunthorn told the class at Silapakon University.  He added that many of the palm scripts deserve special attention by worthy scholars intent on learning about the earlier worldview and philosophy of the Mon as well as offering a fresh perspective on the Thai art and Buddhism.  Despite the fact that the new generation of Mon in Thailand is unable to read the script, a few Mon from Burma will be able to read Mon if they have the opportunity to learn it at the temples in their early years of education.

 

Currently, many Mon from Burma and Thailand are not aware of the utility of their Mon literature from palm scripts because many are attracted to western literature to gain their knowledge and wisdom.  Many have missed a golden opportunity in developing their knowledge and wisdom because they do not take seriously the study of palm script literature, the speaker said.  

 

“The palm scripts not only contain scholarly research into art studies but are also a guide to how to behave in the family,” Sunthorn explained to the audience.  

 

A young lady flies in weekly from Phuket in southern Thailand to Bangkok to attend the class with a keen interest in Mon history.  Among the students, whose age ranges from 20 to 60, all are strongly motivated to resurrect a nearly dead language, at one time, not too long ago, a significant language in Southeast Asia.

 

A similar project is being developed at the Thai Khadee Research Institute at the Thamasat University.  Recently, the director of Thai-Khadee visited Wat Saladaeng, north of Bangkok, to photocopy the palm scripts with a digital camera to begin translation into Thai under a pilot project initiative.  There are a few temples in Pathum Thani where scholars can find old palm scripts beautifully handwritten in Mon and Pali text. The scripts at Wat Saladaeng are kept in a small hall where a local Mon named Kuhn Sakon is in charge of directing visitors on a study tour.  

 

Khun Sunthorn has studied Mon history for over twenty years both in Thailand and Burma.  He is committed to building a strong partnership between leading Thai and Mon academics at Silapakon, Thamasat and Rangsit Universities and in promoting the historic value of the Mon Language and Studies in the Thai Kingdom.  

 

Over the last ten years, Mon palm script studies are becoming more recognized in the Thai academic community in Bangkok while the Mon are being left out of the picture with no further opportunity to run Mon Studies. To address this problem, individual Thai and Mon Scholars are united to go ahead with funding the pilot-project with their own money.

 

“If we have a Mon Studies Resource Center in Bangkok, I think we can do better in the future”, Khun Sunthorn concluded in his lecture.

 

The free Mon Language Teaching Course is initiated by the Thai-Raman Association chaired by Hon. Dr. Su-ed Gajaseni at the Silapakon University located near Wat Phra Kaeo or the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

 

For further information about the Mon Studies and Language visit www.monland.org or email mul@anet.net.th

 

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