Myitkyina and Bhamo may be Shan/Burmese majority cities, but there are plenty of Kachins living in them- including Rawangs. In fact, these days there are probably as many Hkahku-ni and Hkahku-ni descendants in Myitkyina as in the Hkahku region (the upper Irrawaddy Valley). Remember, at Panglong the Kachins gave up the right to leave the union like the Shans in exchange for having Myitkyina and Bhamo including in the Kachin State. There were enough Kachins in Myitkina in the early 1960s to derail U Nu’s plan to put up a Buddha statue there by staging mass protests. Also the Kachins in the northern Shan State (and all the Kachins in the adjacent areas of China) have been there for several generations. There wouldn’t have been any Howa and Hpanseng (sp?) Duwas in the Shan States if the Kachins had just hung around the Mali and N-Mai Hka.
It should also be pointed out that Kachins and Shan have been intermarrying for a long time, so it is a pretty good bet that many of the Shans in Bhamo have Kachin relatives and vice versa. The same would be true of the Chinese. I have a Kachin friend who is a pretty ardent KIO supporter whose father is Chinese. I met a Chinese man in a Lisu village in Thailand spent several years in the KIA before he moved to Thailand. There have also been Shan who have served in the KIA. I suspect these days the ethnic boundaries in Myitkyina are not as clear as they used to be.
Perhaps Kachin Highlander forgets that Burma Proper was a colonial administrative term imposed upon the country for convenience and not least to divide and rule. They may call their own country Great Britain, we call ours Burma and never felt the need to call it Great or Greater Burma. Burma was never a maritime power with overseas colonies either. The reply to membership of the Commonwealth (member countries are independent albeit former colonies and not autonomous states BTW), or Churchill’s assertion that the Burmese were not ready to govern themselves, was a matter of historical record as were the boundaries of Burma (no boundary stone at Meza).
Granted Burmanisation is a very important issue to the minorities (it’s not like ‘Burma Proper’ is off limits to any of you) , and I wish you all luck in achieving a full measure of autonomy unlike the parlous state of affairs to date. It is evident that Kachin State has a far from homogeneous population, and we can agree that ethnic cleansing is not an option for either side. Rather than tempting the chauvinist militarist regime in that direction, it’s in your best interest to make your struggle a common cause with all the rest of us.
You may want to take a look at my father H.B. Lim’s autobiography: “Born into War: Autobiography of a barefoot colonial boy who grew up to face the challenge of the modern world ” regarding the founding members of the English/Cambridge educated left. He was co-founder of the Malayan Democratic Union.
Nick: It is such a display of blinkered zealotry to make pronouncements on someone’s selection of a particular news service without knowing the intended use. The choice has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘opinion’. My participation in this thread has nothing to do with ‘opinion’ – it’s to do with facts.
Dan: I can’t offer you much on AFP Cambodia but for me their main mess-up lately was their reporting of the large earthquake off Sumatra the other week.
Personally I thought it was the only decent idea Julia has ever had. We swap Islamic boat people for Burmese. At least they had a reasonable chance of assimilating into society as opposed to the former pushing for the Islamization of Australia, including all the baggage that made them leave them homelands to begin with.
While everyone was standing up cheering for the Muslims that will never integrate into Australia, why was no thought given to the actual genuine refugees that we could have helped? Another shameful day for leftist political correctness, ideology over humanity.
If an English man lectured you, “Perhaps you entertain aspirations to a Greater Burma from your own Burma Proper. An autonomous state within the British Commonwealth has to be the workable goal.”
How would you reply??
Perhaps Moe Aung forgets “Mae Zar Taung Che” was the end of Burmese Kings’ territory where Bamars convicts were deported to.
And perhaps He wants to intentionally ignore or alter the history by saying that “Myitkyina and Bamaw (Bhamo) with no significant Kachin presence were part of the deal as a concession when the union was formed. ”
Please read report of frontier enquiry 1947 which says
(a) Bhamo District.
Area 4,148 sq.mls.
Total Population 129,000
Part I Population 52,000
Part II Population 77,000
Population by Races:-
Kachin 49,794 or 38.6%
Shan 36,765 or 28.5%
Burma Group 33,540 or 26.0%
Indian, Chinese and Others 8,901 or 6.9%
(b) Myitkyina District.
Area 19,762 sq.mls. (excluding the Triangle not measured).
Total Population 298,000
Part I Population 189,000
Part II Population 109,000
Population by Races:-
Kachin 157,642 or 53.2%
Shan, Lolo Moso 76,586 or 26.0%
Burma Group 40,230 or 13.7%
Indian, Chinese and Others 23,542 or 7.1%
Most Kachins do not want to live by noisy, dusty downtown in Bhamo and Myitkyina but all suburb areas and surrounding hills were full of Kachin.
But it is changing as successive Burmese governments prepared to use both bullets and ballots in Kachinland by transporting large numbers of lowland people.
Mr. Plan B,
Perhaps all information you’ve got is from Myanma Alin, Kye Mon, and Burmese exiled media that you conclude there is religious freedom in Burma.
There are still lots of Church buildings refused to be built, crosses ordered to be removed just because its location is higher than a pagoda in NSS, religious services were often disrupted by authorities in villages, and just recently mosque building was halted in Hpakant.
Mr. Nicholas,
If internationalisation of reporting Kachin means “you guy make it a big issue or exaggerate it”, then I would says what international media is saying is just a small portion of what they see in China-Burma border. It is still under-reported. A lot more need to be reported considering the abuses going on daily and the sufferings for half a century.
Thanks for the support! No worries on the career front, I’m doing fine there (if I may be a bit hypocritical vis-a-vis my criticism of rankings, I’m at a place which outranks Chulalongkorn on the above rankings). My point about Chula was more that there was this split: younger faculty (it seemed) wanted something more “international”, seeking recruits with a non-Thai academic background who were nonetheless interested in working in Thailand. Older faculty were skeptical or suspicious of such folks, and wanted instead for Chula to expand and increase its rankings without all that pesky foreign stuff creeping in.
Rather like “Thai-Style Democracy,” come to think of it….
An Ajarn……wonderful but not surprising ditty. However, I can asssure you this is not unique to Thai universities. A friend of mine long ago applied for a job in an Australian university – better not mention its name – and was told he was short-listed for the job but not the department’s preferred choice: indeed he was the most lowly ranked of the short-listed. This person inquired about the weather the day of the interview and was told it was a lovely spring day of 18C (no its not ANU) so he decided he would rather go surfing than being interviewed. Subsequently he secured a postion at Oxford. So Ajarn I would not worry too much if Chula rejected you!!!!!!!!!!
Putrajaya only had 6,008 voters but Opposition-held Kapar needed a staggering 112,224 voters, 17 times more than Putrajaya. Deceit; gerrymandering; State-controlled media; vote buying; phantom voters; postal votes; useless ink, new voters from illegal immigrants, public machinery used to support votes for incumbent, crooked government….
Why are you so forgiving & relenting? Have they-UMNO got a trace of the people’s interest at heart? NO! It’s endless tricks, acrobatics & deception to stay in power. If you research globally & think thoroughly: Politicians are the roots of all the problems in the world: pillage & plunder; cronies; in-equality of races & incomes; hardship & grief turning to crime & tragedy; trillions of $$$ wasted worldwide on corruption, thefts, land-grabs, resource-grabs, amassing of projects, money outflow & laundering, white elephants & kickbacks; abuses, mismanagements, misuses, mismanagement, crime-fighting, strife, riots, wars. In the end, to cling to power & luxury, they will kill. Look at Idi Amin, Africa, N. Korea, Arab Spring.
Not after 55 years of UMNO! It must now be zero tolerance & striking back with the greatest force.
“The cause of War is not just over resources, but also religious rights, very basic human rights to preserve our own culture, traditions and identity.
No Kachin is so stupid to sacrifice his or her live just over resources!!”
Kachin Highlander
Concerning religious freedom:
Myanmar similar to Thailand, a country of Buddhist majority has traditionally allow the existence of other religion without any prosecution as long as no politics are involved.
The proof is the functioning thriving besides various monasteries, churches, Mosque and their respective CBO within. Some even enjoy the assist of present government.
Armed conflicts between any 2 parties always result in the violation of the weaker basic freedom more.
Religion of Karen Christian and now Kachin is but the latest.
Let us not use the obvious casualty of this ongoing conflict and others as the next reason to continue these senseless acts.
In the unrelated superficial issue, there surely are Australian businesses advised by gentlemen-in-the- know desperate to get in and grab in the imminent lolly scramble with the world’s most supine investment law which will be endorsed by Aung SannSuu Kyi herself reassuring the exploits as “moral” and more importantly the money safe.
The real problem is that there is no so-called reform at all. Step back and look from the distance. The military has calculated these all carefully and it turns out better than their wildest imagination. Because the effusive and consistent endorsement would have come to them as a pleasant surprise just as like a kick in the guts to many previous brethren of Aung San Suu Kyi who never discussed or agreed with her fellow fighters (one simply cannot be sure she realizes there are others involved) simply because she knows best, and she does not seem to need to ask people what they want NOW either. But on this score just about all the participants are the same.
For all the 60 odd million public, most now illiterate and 1% or so on the Internet are simply players in a drama to get directed by the elite, a sort of collective authoritarianism with the very same effect on the public just as much as the Germans under Hitler.
For all those narrow imaginary plans though , eg. like taking the Singapore model, the basic problem is the assumption that Singapore IS a good model or even desirable. (as an aside, Goh Chauk Tong once said none of his childhood friends are in Singapore when he was prime minster. The Burmese are in hordes there now because a large number of Singaporeans who can go out go out just like most of the administrative positions on Burma nowadays are filled by the people from the districts as the Rangoonites either leave the country or get dollar-paying jobs.) For example, the health care in Singapore depends on how much one can pay.
Money unfortunately does not make the world to go around. By now one would think that people around the world would notice that this consumerism based business boom and bust cycles are not sustainable simply because there are always winners and losers. Eg. For the foreign company- say an Australian company- to “gain”, some segment of the population in other part of the world has to lose like in Lynas situation.
Otherwise they would make the reprocessing plant on the Swanson Walk. So long as one person’s benefit is dependent of exploitation of others, it can at least methametically go on until the last one and then what?
Another fundamental problem is the acceptance of the prevailing “democratic” model of the “western democracy” or even as desirable even though all know that there are serious short comings. Once the American Election funds can take “donations” without decleration, it will become more interesting.
It is not required to imitate any model if one wants to do the right thing. In true democracy, the public has a right and opportunity to get truthful, accurate and timely facts ( not like in WMD’s) and honest unbiased assessment and the expression of their own desires. Where there is no conflict of interest between any groups, it is the duty of the government to carry it out and if there are conflict of interest, they are debated, discussed and arbitrated fairly. A model that does not exist anywhere in the world now but used to do so in ancient Indian kingdoms.
There is no doubt immense pressure from around the world and the region as well as from China for Burma to get ” integrated”. This desire looks great as saliently and expertly argued by Thant Myint-U in his rightly much celebrated book. But it neglects the loss of the unmeasurable. Like family connections, traditional culture, social fabric, innocence, caring tradition.
The year Aung San Suu Kyi got married, the previous king of Bhutan introduced the idea of measuring national happiness. Sarkozy commissioned Stiglitz who wrote paper in 2008 but hard to see any evidence he believes that by himself and when people are trouble like David Cameron during the London Riots, they mention it like a desirable but not the thing.
Going back to the teachings in religion. One is content only when there is no desire. Getting one always makes you want two.
On the practical point now, this pretend opening up did not lessen the entrenchment of the military but more as we now see open and blatant killing and shellings of the civilian establishment ( Laiza) today unhindered by the world’ s salivating community or colluding “democratic opposition”.
Any willful damage to life, property or livelihood must be stopped immediately.
The investment law must be regarded by the international business community as too good to be true. It must not come into effect.
[…] some new federal structure, a Panglong II. In addition, as New Mandala rightly notes, the claimed high casualty figures in the Kachin conflict –KIA sources claims 3,000 Burmese soldiers have been killed in recent […]
Honestly, I have struggled to understand your flowery writing which looklikes you’re aiming only to a narrow audience. This led me to feel not so sure about whether you are directing to me as an ignorant toward the shaky Burmese history.
However, I’m aware that you’ll end all your rants by blaming the usual suspect “the West” which looks bizzarre for me and most of my friends.
Perhaps Kachin Highlander forgets his people were the newest of successive waves of Mongolian migration into the land that became known as Burma/Myanmar. And why does he think they remain by the headwaters of the Irrawaddy and in the highlands? Who stopped them overrunning the entire upper Irrawaddy valley? Bamar southward migration on the other hand has continued from before and during British colonial rule and to this day now spilling over into Thailand.
Myitkyina and Bamaw (Bhamo) with no significant Kachin presence were part of the deal as a concession when the union was formed. The Kachin were signatories to Panglong (the Karen were not), and no Burmese worth their salt would envisage the breakup of the union.
Your Singpho and Jingpo brethren in India and China have no state of their own, not even recognised as a major ethnic group, unlike the Kachin. Perhaps you entertain aspirations to a Greater Kachinland like the Chin to a Greater Mizoram. An autonomous state within the union has to be the workable goal.
But let us not lose sight of our common goal. The whole point is to rid ourselves of these chauvinist militarist thugs that have devastated the country for half a century keeping all of us down.
ASSK/NLD for all their faults have a leading role to play. When armed resistance has not got us anywhere we want, neither Bamar nor ethnic, this can work in the long run in a meandering sort of way probably and ultimately violent.
Total intransigence in politics can be a dead weight that keeps dragging us down. Both the regime and the opposition have realised it’s time to change tack, and that’s where they have agreed to try and move things forward, each with their own agenda. ASSK is making her moves admirably, cautiously and tactfully from necessity. The bull in the China shop approach did not pay. We could do with a little flexibility and sophistication in this, admittedly with adequate planning and vision toward the winning post and beyond.
Count yourself lucky that Khin Nyunt’s ceasefire did provide you with a lengthy window of opportunity to build up your own resources and power base. That was a necessary and wise move at the time on your leaders’ part ,and the Karen as in Panglong became isolated and weak once again. Laiza and Panghsang are both thriving modern cities nowadays. Why do you think the KIO is willing to talk and their sincerity unlike their adversary’s is never in doubt?
You won’t argue that we in Burma are all as nationalist as the next man. Let’s fight the common fight against those who reneged on Panglong. There is strength in numbers and in unity. UNITE and PREPARE!
These “top universities” ranking sites aren’t terribly convincing, and this over-emphasis on “rankings” is a bit, well, rankling. Chula is good *in what* and poor *in what*? There are some departments that do quite a good job of putting together good, insightful conferences, and there are quite a few twits who come out with a Chula degree. It’s the same at any top university (as the example of Bush indicates) – privileged kids get away with murder (sometimes literally).
But this (xenophobic) focus on being “world” or “national” strikes a personal note. I applied for a job at Chula at an unnamed department (I’m also anonymous for that reason here, as I don’t want to embarrass anyone). One younger faculty member was excited by my application, but her department head wasn’t. I sat down with both of them. Here’s the conversation between the head and myself:
H: Well, we don’t think we’ll take you. We teach in Thai and need someone who speaks Thai.
Me: I speak Thai. We are speaking Thai right now.
H: Well, yes, you can speak Thai. But the students will be writing in Thai. We need someone who reads Thai.
Me: I read Thai. I did much of my research in Thai language. I’ve given academic talks in Thai.
H: Ok. But it’s not just a matter of the language. I don’t think you’d be satisfied with the salary here. It’s [here, he cites a number which my fellow Chula professor friends claim is bunk. I forget the actual figure, but it was around 12,000 – 18,000 baht/month].
I said I was still interested, and we parted amicably, but I was later told that the head “just didn’t want to hire a foreigner.” I don’t know why that was, but the VP’s comment strikes me as being largely the same sort of sentiment. The idea is that Chula will be equal to other universities, but somehow separate.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Double, double toil and trouble…
What I want to know is, who was purged and appointed Andrew Spooner ‘Grand Inquisitor’?
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
Myitkyina and Bhamo may be Shan/Burmese majority cities, but there are plenty of Kachins living in them- including Rawangs. In fact, these days there are probably as many Hkahku-ni and Hkahku-ni descendants in Myitkyina as in the Hkahku region (the upper Irrawaddy Valley). Remember, at Panglong the Kachins gave up the right to leave the union like the Shans in exchange for having Myitkyina and Bhamo including in the Kachin State. There were enough Kachins in Myitkina in the early 1960s to derail U Nu’s plan to put up a Buddha statue there by staging mass protests. Also the Kachins in the northern Shan State (and all the Kachins in the adjacent areas of China) have been there for several generations. There wouldn’t have been any Howa and Hpanseng (sp?) Duwas in the Shan States if the Kachins had just hung around the Mali and N-Mai Hka.
It should also be pointed out that Kachins and Shan have been intermarrying for a long time, so it is a pretty good bet that many of the Shans in Bhamo have Kachin relatives and vice versa. The same would be true of the Chinese. I have a Kachin friend who is a pretty ardent KIO supporter whose father is Chinese. I met a Chinese man in a Lisu village in Thailand spent several years in the KIA before he moved to Thailand. There have also been Shan who have served in the KIA. I suspect these days the ethnic boundaries in Myitkyina are not as clear as they used to be.
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
Perhaps Kachin Highlander forgets that Burma Proper was a colonial administrative term imposed upon the country for convenience and not least to divide and rule. They may call their own country Great Britain, we call ours Burma and never felt the need to call it Great or Greater Burma. Burma was never a maritime power with overseas colonies either. The reply to membership of the Commonwealth (member countries are independent albeit former colonies and not autonomous states BTW), or Churchill’s assertion that the Burmese were not ready to govern themselves, was a matter of historical record as were the boundaries of Burma (no boundary stone at Meza).
Granted Burmanisation is a very important issue to the minorities (it’s not like ‘Burma Proper’ is off limits to any of you) , and I wish you all luck in achieving a full measure of autonomy unlike the parlous state of affairs to date. It is evident that Kachin State has a far from homogeneous population, and we can agree that ethnic cleansing is not an option for either side. Rather than tempting the chauvinist militarist regime in that direction, it’s in your best interest to make your struggle a common cause with all the rest of us.
Eu Chooi Yip: Singapore’s unknown communist leader
You may want to take a look at my father H.B. Lim’s autobiography: “Born into War: Autobiography of a barefoot colonial boy who grew up to face the challenge of the modern world ” regarding the founding members of the English/Cambridge educated left. He was co-founder of the Malayan Democratic Union.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/born-into-war-autobiography-of-a-barefoot-colonial-boy-who-grew-up-to-face-the-challenge-of-the-modern-world/oclc/243477735?tab=details
When Thaksin comes home
Nick: It is such a display of blinkered zealotry to make pronouncements on someone’s selection of a particular news service without knowing the intended use. The choice has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘opinion’. My participation in this thread has nothing to do with ‘opinion’ – it’s to do with facts.
Dan: I can’t offer you much on AFP Cambodia but for me their main mess-up lately was their reporting of the large earthquake off Sumatra the other week.
Malaysian media perspectives on the “Malaysia Solution”
Personally I thought it was the only decent idea Julia has ever had. We swap Islamic boat people for Burmese. At least they had a reasonable chance of assimilating into society as opposed to the former pushing for the Islamization of Australia, including all the baggage that made them leave them homelands to begin with.
While everyone was standing up cheering for the Muslims that will never integrate into Australia, why was no thought given to the actual genuine refugees that we could have helped? Another shameful day for leftist political correctness, ideology over humanity.
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
Mr. Moe Aung,
If an English man lectured you, “Perhaps you entertain aspirations to a Greater Burma from your own Burma Proper. An autonomous state within the British Commonwealth has to be the workable goal.”
How would you reply??
Perhaps Moe Aung forgets “Mae Zar Taung Che” was the end of Burmese Kings’ territory where Bamars convicts were deported to.
And perhaps He wants to intentionally ignore or alter the history by saying that “Myitkyina and Bamaw (Bhamo) with no significant Kachin presence were part of the deal as a concession when the union was formed. ”
Please read report of frontier enquiry 1947 which says
(a) Bhamo District.
Area 4,148 sq.mls.
Total Population 129,000
Part I Population 52,000
Part II Population 77,000
Population by Races:-
Kachin 49,794 or 38.6%
Shan 36,765 or 28.5%
Burma Group 33,540 or 26.0%
Indian, Chinese and Others 8,901 or 6.9%
(b) Myitkyina District.
Area 19,762 sq.mls. (excluding the Triangle not measured).
Total Population 298,000
Part I Population 189,000
Part II Population 109,000
Population by Races:-
Kachin 157,642 or 53.2%
Shan, Lolo Moso 76,586 or 26.0%
Burma Group 40,230 or 13.7%
Indian, Chinese and Others 23,542 or 7.1%
http://www.shanland.org/oldversion/index-3143.htm
Most Kachins do not want to live by noisy, dusty downtown in Bhamo and Myitkyina but all suburb areas and surrounding hills were full of Kachin.
But it is changing as successive Burmese governments prepared to use both bullets and ballots in Kachinland by transporting large numbers of lowland people.
Mr. Plan B,
Perhaps all information you’ve got is from Myanma Alin, Kye Mon, and Burmese exiled media that you conclude there is religious freedom in Burma.
There are still lots of Church buildings refused to be built, crosses ordered to be removed just because its location is higher than a pagoda in NSS, religious services were often disrupted by authorities in villages, and just recently mosque building was halted in Hpakant.
Mr. Nicholas,
If internationalisation of reporting Kachin means “you guy make it a big issue or exaggerate it”, then I would says what international media is saying is just a small portion of what they see in China-Burma border. It is still under-reported. A lot more need to be reported considering the abuses going on daily and the sufferings for half a century.
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
Not much surfing at Oxford.
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
@shanetarr
Thanks for the support! No worries on the career front, I’m doing fine there (if I may be a bit hypocritical vis-a-vis my criticism of rankings, I’m at a place which outranks Chulalongkorn on the above rankings). My point about Chula was more that there was this split: younger faculty (it seemed) wanted something more “international”, seeking recruits with a non-Thai academic background who were nonetheless interested in working in Thailand. Older faculty were skeptical or suspicious of such folks, and wanted instead for Chula to expand and increase its rankings without all that pesky foreign stuff creeping in.
Rather like “Thai-Style Democracy,” come to think of it….
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
An Ajarn……wonderful but not surprising ditty. However, I can asssure you this is not unique to Thai universities. A friend of mine long ago applied for a job in an Australian university – better not mention its name – and was told he was short-listed for the job but not the department’s preferred choice: indeed he was the most lowly ranked of the short-listed. This person inquired about the weather the day of the interview and was told it was a lovely spring day of 18C (no its not ANU) so he decided he would rather go surfing than being interviewed. Subsequently he secured a postion at Oxford. So Ajarn I would not worry too much if Chula rejected you!!!!!!!!!!
PEKIDA: UMNO gangsters, organised crime or a missionary body?
Putrajaya only had 6,008 voters but Opposition-held Kapar needed a staggering 112,224 voters, 17 times more than Putrajaya. Deceit; gerrymandering; State-controlled media; vote buying; phantom voters; postal votes; useless ink, new voters from illegal immigrants, public machinery used to support votes for incumbent, crooked government….
PEKIDA: UMNO gangsters, organised crime or a missionary body?
Why are you so forgiving & relenting? Have they-UMNO got a trace of the people’s interest at heart? NO! It’s endless tricks, acrobatics & deception to stay in power. If you research globally & think thoroughly: Politicians are the roots of all the problems in the world: pillage & plunder; cronies; in-equality of races & incomes; hardship & grief turning to crime & tragedy; trillions of $$$ wasted worldwide on corruption, thefts, land-grabs, resource-grabs, amassing of projects, money outflow & laundering, white elephants & kickbacks; abuses, mismanagements, misuses, mismanagement, crime-fighting, strife, riots, wars. In the end, to cling to power & luxury, they will kill. Look at Idi Amin, Africa, N. Korea, Arab Spring.
Not after 55 years of UMNO! It must now be zero tolerance & striking back with the greatest force.
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
“The cause of War is not just over resources, but also religious rights, very basic human rights to preserve our own culture, traditions and identity.
No Kachin is so stupid to sacrifice his or her live just over resources!!”
Kachin Highlander
Concerning religious freedom:
Myanmar similar to Thailand, a country of Buddhist majority has traditionally allow the existence of other religion without any prosecution as long as no politics are involved.
The proof is the functioning thriving besides various monasteries, churches, Mosque and their respective CBO within. Some even enjoy the assist of present government.
Armed conflicts between any 2 parties always result in the violation of the weaker basic freedom more.
Religion of Karen Christian and now Kachin is but the latest.
Let us not use the obvious casualty of this ongoing conflict and others as the next reason to continue these senseless acts.
Seeking practical benefits from national reconciliation in Myanmar
There are a few fundamental problems.
In the unrelated superficial issue, there surely are Australian businesses advised by gentlemen-in-the- know desperate to get in and grab in the imminent lolly scramble with the world’s most supine investment law which will be endorsed by Aung SannSuu Kyi herself reassuring the exploits as “moral” and more importantly the money safe.
The real problem is that there is no so-called reform at all. Step back and look from the distance. The military has calculated these all carefully and it turns out better than their wildest imagination. Because the effusive and consistent endorsement would have come to them as a pleasant surprise just as like a kick in the guts to many previous brethren of Aung San Suu Kyi who never discussed or agreed with her fellow fighters (one simply cannot be sure she realizes there are others involved) simply because she knows best, and she does not seem to need to ask people what they want NOW either. But on this score just about all the participants are the same.
For all the 60 odd million public, most now illiterate and 1% or so on the Internet are simply players in a drama to get directed by the elite, a sort of collective authoritarianism with the very same effect on the public just as much as the Germans under Hitler.
For all those narrow imaginary plans though , eg. like taking the Singapore model, the basic problem is the assumption that Singapore IS a good model or even desirable. (as an aside, Goh Chauk Tong once said none of his childhood friends are in Singapore when he was prime minster. The Burmese are in hordes there now because a large number of Singaporeans who can go out go out just like most of the administrative positions on Burma nowadays are filled by the people from the districts as the Rangoonites either leave the country or get dollar-paying jobs.) For example, the health care in Singapore depends on how much one can pay.
Money unfortunately does not make the world to go around. By now one would think that people around the world would notice that this consumerism based business boom and bust cycles are not sustainable simply because there are always winners and losers. Eg. For the foreign company- say an Australian company- to “gain”, some segment of the population in other part of the world has to lose like in Lynas situation.
Otherwise they would make the reprocessing plant on the Swanson Walk. So long as one person’s benefit is dependent of exploitation of others, it can at least methametically go on until the last one and then what?
Another fundamental problem is the acceptance of the prevailing “democratic” model of the “western democracy” or even as desirable even though all know that there are serious short comings. Once the American Election funds can take “donations” without decleration, it will become more interesting.
It is not required to imitate any model if one wants to do the right thing. In true democracy, the public has a right and opportunity to get truthful, accurate and timely facts ( not like in WMD’s) and honest unbiased assessment and the expression of their own desires. Where there is no conflict of interest between any groups, it is the duty of the government to carry it out and if there are conflict of interest, they are debated, discussed and arbitrated fairly. A model that does not exist anywhere in the world now but used to do so in ancient Indian kingdoms.
There is no doubt immense pressure from around the world and the region as well as from China for Burma to get ” integrated”. This desire looks great as saliently and expertly argued by Thant Myint-U in his rightly much celebrated book. But it neglects the loss of the unmeasurable. Like family connections, traditional culture, social fabric, innocence, caring tradition.
The year Aung San Suu Kyi got married, the previous king of Bhutan introduced the idea of measuring national happiness. Sarkozy commissioned Stiglitz who wrote paper in 2008 but hard to see any evidence he believes that by himself and when people are trouble like David Cameron during the London Riots, they mention it like a desirable but not the thing.
http://www.measuring-well-being.asia/pdf/karmatshiteem.pdf
http://rtm.gnhc.gov.bt/presentations/daytwo/operationalizing_gnh_rtm.pdf
But it is the thing.
Going back to the teachings in religion. One is content only when there is no desire. Getting one always makes you want two.
On the practical point now, this pretend opening up did not lessen the entrenchment of the military but more as we now see open and blatant killing and shellings of the civilian establishment ( Laiza) today unhindered by the world’ s salivating community or colluding “democratic opposition”.
Any willful damage to life, property or livelihood must be stopped immediately.
The investment law must be regarded by the international business community as too good to be true. It must not come into effect.
3,000 dead Burmese soldiers?
[…] some new federal structure, a Panglong II. In addition, as New Mandala rightly notes, the claimed high casualty figures in the Kachin conflict –KIA sources claims 3,000 Burmese soldiers have been killed in recent […]
Internationalising the Kachin war
plan B @ 15
Honestly, I have struggled to understand your flowery writing which looklikes you’re aiming only to a narrow audience. This led me to feel not so sure about whether you are directing to me as an ignorant toward the shaky Burmese history.
However, I’m aware that you’ll end all your rants by blaming the usual suspect “the West” which looks bizzarre for me and most of my friends.
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
Kachin Highlander.
Too right.
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
Perhaps Kachin Highlander forgets his people were the newest of successive waves of Mongolian migration into the land that became known as Burma/Myanmar. And why does he think they remain by the headwaters of the Irrawaddy and in the highlands? Who stopped them overrunning the entire upper Irrawaddy valley? Bamar southward migration on the other hand has continued from before and during British colonial rule and to this day now spilling over into Thailand.
Myitkyina and Bamaw (Bhamo) with no significant Kachin presence were part of the deal as a concession when the union was formed. The Kachin were signatories to Panglong (the Karen were not), and no Burmese worth their salt would envisage the breakup of the union.
Your Singpho and Jingpo brethren in India and China have no state of their own, not even recognised as a major ethnic group, unlike the Kachin. Perhaps you entertain aspirations to a Greater Kachinland like the Chin to a Greater Mizoram. An autonomous state within the union has to be the workable goal.
But let us not lose sight of our common goal. The whole point is to rid ourselves of these chauvinist militarist thugs that have devastated the country for half a century keeping all of us down.
ASSK/NLD for all their faults have a leading role to play. When armed resistance has not got us anywhere we want, neither Bamar nor ethnic, this can work in the long run in a meandering sort of way probably and ultimately violent.
Total intransigence in politics can be a dead weight that keeps dragging us down. Both the regime and the opposition have realised it’s time to change tack, and that’s where they have agreed to try and move things forward, each with their own agenda. ASSK is making her moves admirably, cautiously and tactfully from necessity. The bull in the China shop approach did not pay. We could do with a little flexibility and sophistication in this, admittedly with adequate planning and vision toward the winning post and beyond.
Count yourself lucky that Khin Nyunt’s ceasefire did provide you with a lengthy window of opportunity to build up your own resources and power base. That was a necessary and wise move at the time on your leaders’ part ,and the Karen as in Panglong became isolated and weak once again. Laiza and Panghsang are both thriving modern cities nowadays. Why do you think the KIO is willing to talk and their sincerity unlike their adversary’s is never in doubt?
You won’t argue that we in Burma are all as nationalist as the next man. Let’s fight the common fight against those who reneged on Panglong. There is strength in numbers and in unity. UNITE and PREPARE!
Three issues for Singapore
Thank you for sharing the information with us..but what is your thesis on these so called “issues”?
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
These “top universities” ranking sites aren’t terribly convincing, and this over-emphasis on “rankings” is a bit, well, rankling. Chula is good *in what* and poor *in what*? There are some departments that do quite a good job of putting together good, insightful conferences, and there are quite a few twits who come out with a Chula degree. It’s the same at any top university (as the example of Bush indicates) – privileged kids get away with murder (sometimes literally).
But this (xenophobic) focus on being “world” or “national” strikes a personal note. I applied for a job at Chula at an unnamed department (I’m also anonymous for that reason here, as I don’t want to embarrass anyone). One younger faculty member was excited by my application, but her department head wasn’t. I sat down with both of them. Here’s the conversation between the head and myself:
H: Well, we don’t think we’ll take you. We teach in Thai and need someone who speaks Thai.
Me: I speak Thai. We are speaking Thai right now.
H: Well, yes, you can speak Thai. But the students will be writing in Thai. We need someone who reads Thai.
Me: I read Thai. I did much of my research in Thai language. I’ve given academic talks in Thai.
H: Ok. But it’s not just a matter of the language. I don’t think you’d be satisfied with the salary here. It’s [here, he cites a number which my fellow Chula professor friends claim is bunk. I forget the actual figure, but it was around 12,000 – 18,000 baht/month].
I said I was still interested, and we parted amicably, but I was later told that the head “just didn’t want to hire a foreigner.” I don’t know why that was, but the VP’s comment strikes me as being largely the same sort of sentiment. The idea is that Chula will be equal to other universities, but somehow separate.