Part of the interpretation of Than Shwe as “the” man in charge I think stems from two trends:
1) Than Shwe rose to power as a conciliator between the Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye factions within the military. As such, he’s had his hand in most of the top military promotions. Kyaw Yin Hlaing has a good account of Than Shwe’s rise to power and influence, although I can’t remember the name of the article right now…
2) Along the lines of what Nicholas said, a few years ago activists and regime opponents realized it was easier to mobilize opposition against the junta by putting a face on “evil.” There seems to have been a conscious decision to portray Than Shwe as the personification of the junta (culminating in Benedict Rogers’ biography of Than Shwe coming out next year). Unfortunately, one problem with this approach may be to gloss over Burma’s many other problems (such as the fact that the next generation of generals may be even worse).
Plan B, your surprise remark, “I believe even Bogyoke Aung San was at one time was accused of atrocity against the Karenni,” appears naively sympathetic to the sole architect and principal founder of this brutal institution called Burmese Army.
He definitely committed atrocities against pro-British civilians during the second world war. He personally beheaded a British appointed village chief for accused-treason against Burma as he re-entered Burma with his BIA after the Japanese Army.
When the then British Governor of Burma eagerly tried to put him on trial for murder charges after the war, Field Marshall Lord Mountbatten stopped him so that a civil war threat by Aung San could be prevented.
He wasn’t that loyal to his masters Japanese too. My late father was a guerrilla battalion commander serving directly under Aung San in First Military Division during the Japanese Revolution in the 1945 and he had to execute the Japanese advisers, all 9 of them, attached to his battalion after Aung San gave him a personal order.
Because of the official ban and self-censorship on writing any negative things against the BIA, General Aung San, and later the army since U Nu’s AFPLF days, we have these sugar-coated view of our national hero. Almost every Burmese do.
Historically our Aung San is parallel to the late Indian nationalist Subat Chandra Bose. Luckily for India the Japanese Imperial Army was stopped on the Burma-India border. Otherwise India probably now would have Bose’s Indian National Army ruling and terrorizing her people as Aung San’s Burmese National Army is doing in Burma now.
I sometimes imagine what Burma now would be if Japanese invaders were stopped on the Thai border and British peacefully transferred the political power to the well-established Burmese ruling class similar to the Indian Congress Party in India instead of Aung San’s violent young mob, U Nu backed by Ne Win and the army.
Our beloved Burma would be democratic, peaceful, and prosperous like India, Singapore, or even Malaysia, the former British colonies.
Dave e http://dangerousdaveeverett.com/karenofburma.html
“Hence, when the recent cyclone devastated Burma, the military leadership showed total disregard to its civilian population in this region and prevented international aid agencies and relief supplies from reaching the people in this area. Little do people realise the main reason for this. It is a monumental genocidal act by the military junta to devastate the Karen population. Of the hundreds of thousands killed in this cyclone, the majority were Karen civilians, a point missed by the international media.”
This is just an example of your reality created by the west accepted by you and your ilk to continue to dare boast about how and why you have done this nefarious deeds that you claim to be “helping the Krenni”.
I do not believe New MandalaтДв will allow me to counter your ignorance about Myanmar line by line.
That actually will serve you better.
I will be glad if this one got printed to be compared to the article by one of your country man that I linked my “plan B” to.
“White man can’t jump” is a metaphor for being unable to see things beyond Black orWhite. Usually associated with people who are caucasoid that involve themselves with none caucasoid affaires under the Black/ WHite premises that well represented here in New Mandela.
So please do not play that race card here.
You have spoken clearly enough to be described as been described with utmost politeness and restraint.
I may have been the first but I can assure you I represent the sentiment of majority.
I dislike the SPDC as much as my brethren Ko Hla Oo. But have you seen him advocating for “SPDC body count” any where in New MandalaтДв.
A little knowledge is dangerous as he has proven repeatedly by high lighting facts.
Are those facts as well as ideas by the like of Susie lost to all?
Is bashing the Junta in any way become absolutely equated with “helping the citizenry”.
Myanmar is inhabited by of over 100 ethnicities among which Karenni is one who got the shortest end.
Yet deluding oneself as helping, in reality just getting satisfaction for oneself is truly incredible.
More people died from Nargis, Diseases and negligent than the direct atrocity of SPDC’s zeal to hold on to power.
Is SPDC entirely to be blamed also for the above 3 mentioned factors?
Can you imagine other parties involved?
Ko Hla Oo
I stand corrected in detail.
However the animosity never existed was a result of colonization remain a fact neither admitted or dignified by HRM.
I believe even Bogyoke Aung San was at one time was accused of atrocity against the Karenni.
The bottom line is we DO NOT need a westerner teaching methods of physical harms to Brothers against brother
WE need them to help reconcile through economic, educational, and other none bias promotion of relationship which has not been seen since 4/1/1948.
Instead we have unprecedented Sanctions, Threat, Jingoism and demands and actions that weaken the resolve of the citizenry more than the SPDC.
This is just calling them to undo what has been unjustifiably been done.
These mercenaries’ brovados just represent the tip of “how low the fate of the suffering of Myanmar citizenry has been equated with in this Black or WHite perception of Myanmar by the west”.
You continually refer to the “white man” in your various posts. I have to wonder if I’m exchanging posts with Louis Farrakhan.
Your love affair with the SPDC and the Tatmadaw is obvious to anyone who reads your posts. But you’re attempting to defend the indefensible.
Government atrocities against the populace in Burma are well documented and irrefutable. And sooner or later the SPDC and Tatmadaw will answer for it.
You can attack me and my motives all you care to, but that doesn’t erase what the Burmese government has done to its own people.
And yes, you’re right; I do hate the SPDC. I would hate anyone who would visit such atrocities against its own people. The SPDC consists of murderers, rapists, drug smugglers and sex slavers. What’s to like about that? Is there a new moral barometer that I haven’t been made aware of?
Thongchai. I don’t think the implication that your talk was like Landon’s. Rather, I was pointing out, as you do, that Landon’s book is a historical piece. I was not put in mind of Landon’s book when reading your commentary. Your talk was excellent. Thanks for your thoughtful and powerful commentaries.
All I can say is, I would rather spend my 100 Baht to buy a pack of toilet paper towel rather than this biased writer like Nongnut.
She’s absolutely blinded and full of prejudice, and, a pro-military pet?? should I say that?
Thailand has been under those general Prime Ministers for decades, any civilians would end up with the same old charge, corruption. Didn’t those military governments corrupt?
The latest coup made those generals new millionaire. Gen. Saprang appointed as board director of TOT, and TAT. How much did he get paid?
Ralph – could you be more explicit ?
It’s not clear to me what you are talking about. Which rumours, which theories – specifically.
Perhaps the problem arises from my typing error :
I meant to write : “personally I doubt Prem would EVER be so disloyal as to…”.
Apologies to all for my mis-typing an “N” when there should not have been one.
Watch out – the royalists, not the other “R”, are dangerous to the monarchy; they are the ones who undermine the future of the monarchy.
I think that certainly seems to be the case. The conservatives, reactionaries really, have tried to hitch their star to that of HM King Bhumipol, to borrow his baromi.
………..
The danger of the first paragraph’s line of argument is that quite a few people will draw the conclusion as in the second paragraph which is at best misleading, at worst completely wrong.
Let take the most important event of the past year, the one that was the watershed for great many people’s political consciousness: HMQ presiding over the funeral of PAD supporter on October 13, 2008 (dubbed by regualars at political webboards like Faw Diew Kan and Prachatai as “The National Eye Opening Day”!). During the funeral, HMQ told the father of the dead girl that the HM the King was well aware of her case and the money she passed on to the girl’s family came from HMK himself. Now as a very, very loyal subject myself, I wholeheartedly believe HMQ’s every word. Therefore, I must wonder who could JFL’s “conservative reactionaries …” be in this historic event?
It should be recalled that, in his recent Time Online interview, Thaksin of course used similar line of argument/explanation. But this is to be expected. Thaksin is, after all, a politician, not an academic.
Speaking of academics, this reminds me. Months ago, there’s a seminar on LM at Thammasat. The prominent historian, Nidhi Iewsriwong also put forward the same argument that “conservative royalists have hidden behind the throne, and in the course of their activity, doing great harms to it.” After his talk, Nidhi refused to take questions from audience, otherwise I would definitely have got up as asked: how in heavens would such argument-explanaiton of what’s been happening to the monarchy, explain events like the “Eye Opening Day”?
P.S. I suggest academic observers listen to phone in at community radio or talk to some taxi drivers. It seems to me that while a lot of these ordinary folks do indeed think like what has been said above, a good many number of them also understand the situations more clearly than many academics.
Nongnut is a regular columnist of Matichon newspaper. When Thaksin was in power, her dissenting views could be quite refreshing at times. Later, until now, she has become rabidly anti-Thaksin/Red.
I’ve thought that this very long war between Burmese Army and KNDO/KNU was over. Maybe only on the Thai Border. Not yet on New Mandala.
Since a war-time BIA unit under Japanese officers supposedly slaughtered a few Karen villagers in the Delta in the early forty’s and KNDO’s supposedly aggressive retaliations against many Burmese villages, this purely race-based and religion-based war has been going on for too long.
It definitely started out as a losing war for Karens as they are not sufficiently numerous as Burmese, for most people from the Delta claimed themselves Burmese racially even though they may have some considerable Karen or Mon bloods.
The leadership of Karen Struggle being Christians but their ranks and files being Buddhists also do not help their cause too from the beginning and that was the final nail in their coffin eventually.
Especially in Burma, many Burmese Buddhist monks are aggressively militant as religious fundamentalists, not as peace-loving as many people has in mind of a typical meditating monk.
And the army knows when to excite the monks to rise against the Christians or Muslims, and when to drive their bayonets into the monk’s guts. (That phrase was from George Orwell’s essay “Shooting of Elephant in Moulmein”.)
Also the intermarriages have over the long time made the racial divide in the Delta much less prominent than the regions near the Thai border. So KNDO collapsed in the Delta first and now followed by the KNU and KNLA on the border.
But I still want to read famous Mr Dave Everett’s Shadow Warrior just out of curiosity.
Since last year when I discovered that the local library has two copies of Shadow Warrior I’ve been trying to get hold of one but to no avail. Book is so popular here in Sydney, the waiting list to borrow is so long, I still haven’t read it yet. But my name is on the long list now and hopefully I will read it before the year ends!
Those two paragraphs seem to state a non-controversial obvious that crosses all governments and throughout SE Asia too.
Although myself I tend to read works and consider them whether written by pro-or anti-thaksin writers, I guess if we follw the advice on post two we should also ignore the writngs of all pro-Thaksin writers too to ensure we dont end up propagandized. Personally I prefer all forms of input unedited. We are all capable of maiking our own infoprmed decsions without being told what we should consider worthy or not.
“Nothing lasts forever. At some point the SPDC will collapse, and with it, the Tatmadaw. The survivors could likely end up in the Hague, standing in the dock for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
If you truly believe this statement
Isn’t it contradicting yourself to be stating this:
“When I returned home I spent hundreds more to purchase and send equipment to the guerrillas – web belts, ammo pouches, packs, ”
“You hate the SPDC. In your hatred you will sacrifice everything and anything to hurt the entity.”
So tell us how is the ammo and web belts going to change anything beyond another round of “WHite man self justified interferences” to continue the atrocities of “BrotheR against brother” that was started by another bunch of white man?
You don’t know or care about Myanmar. Culture, history or any other relevant aspect that might contradict your conviction.
You are not the only one who have seen what you claimed.
Only You and your ilk choose to act in such manner that prove nothing beyond what you claim yourself “higher SPDC body count.”
With such ignorance and still claiming to help, you sure make the point of “white man can’t Jump” .
Please do not help us with that kind of attitude.
Landon’s book was first published in 1939, based on his PhD at U of Chicago (1937?). Landon later bcame a diplomat at the beginning of the Cold War.
Landon’s book was dated. It is a historical piece itself. The narrative in my talk is entirely mine; nothing from Landon’s. I refer to the title and subject merely as an entry point to talk about the past/present. If it is misunderstood that the narrative is from Landon’s, I apologize for not making it clear enough.
You wrote, “How presumptuous of you all think yourself of helping people of Myanmar”.
The same could be said of the SPDC and Tatmadaw. They definitely don’t have the best interests of the Burmese people at heart.
After I returned to Thailand from Burma I had the occasion to see firsthand how the Tatmadaw and SPDC treat their own people. I spent some time in a refugee camp, composed primarily of Karenni.
Men, women and children with missing limbs, blown off by landmines. Women, some as young as eight or nine years old, gang raped by Tatmadaw soldiers. Old women with horrendous scars on their backs, the result of beatings administered by Tatmadaw soldiers.
In Kayah State, Burma, where I was at, an area 40 miles wide by 60 miles long, was completely devoid of human life with the exception of marauding SPDC troops and Karenni guerrillas.
All the villages had been burnt down. Wells poisoned. Livestock killed or stolen. Even the elephants had been killed – shot with heavy machineguns or shoulder fired rockets. Landmines had been strewn indiscriminately to prevent the return of the people who had lived there.
You can call me a mercenary all you want, though you’d be wrong. I spent hundreds of dollars of my own money to get there, and hundreds more on equipment that I brought to give to the guerrillas. I’m not affiliated with any government agency – this was money out of my own pocket.
When I returned home I spent hundreds more to purchase and send equipment to the guerrillas – web belts, ammo pouches, packs, etc. But no bibles – I’m not a missionary either.
Nothing lasts forever. At some point the SPDC will collapse, and with it, the Tatmadaw. The survivors could likely end up in the Hague, standing in the dock for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
What will you say then?
“I hope that what myself and other foreigners contribute to the resistance pays off in a higher SPDC body count.”
Does it remotely remind you of why SPDC has been doing what it has been doing for the past 2 decades? Or are you too pompous or far gone to realize the nefarious contribution that you have made only stoke the hatred fire?
Helping the citizenry of Myanmar 101
1) Undo the main factor that weaken the citizenry: “Relentless useless sanctions by the west”.
Has the fact that the west supported equally if not more atrocious dictators like Chiang Kai Shek, Marcos and others for more than 4 decades b/f their respective citizenry become strong through benefit of an economy boot them out of power permanently lost on you?
2) Support the citizenry healthcare and education directly and indirectly now.
Indirectly by uncoupling the healthcare and Education aspects of sanction from the rest.
More people have died from preventable diseases that traditionally rely on WHO and western aid that has practically stopped by yahoos who do not know any better.
Education? New MandalaтДв already has enough post here on how thirsty the citizenry is for common knowledge that has been deprived due to the sanction and SPDC willful neglect.
Directly by getting involved with thousands westerners volunteering where needed effectively. Through independent means or 2┬║ through the local organizations. Healthy citizenry can look beyond short term survival.
If nothing else you folks should realize SPDC is not going away with your “hurt them more” philosophy.
The exact philosophy that SPDC espouse in this no body win “one up against each other” game.
Your misplaced empathy with the KNLA is not even helping beyond their short term survival.
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Than Shwe all alone?
Agence France Presse has an article (reprinted here: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20091213-241779/Myanmar-junta-chiefs-future-still-uncertainactivists) called “Myanmar junta chief’s future still uncertain–activists.” Seems appropriate given the post.
Part of the interpretation of Than Shwe as “the” man in charge I think stems from two trends:
1) Than Shwe rose to power as a conciliator between the Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye factions within the military. As such, he’s had his hand in most of the top military promotions. Kyaw Yin Hlaing has a good account of Than Shwe’s rise to power and influence, although I can’t remember the name of the article right now…
2) Along the lines of what Nicholas said, a few years ago activists and regime opponents realized it was easier to mobilize opposition against the junta by putting a face on “evil.” There seems to have been a conscious decision to portray Than Shwe as the personification of the junta (culminating in Benedict Rogers’ biography of Than Shwe coming out next year). Unfortunately, one problem with this approach may be to gloss over Burma’s many other problems (such as the fact that the next generation of generals may be even worse).
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
Plan B, your surprise remark, “I believe even Bogyoke Aung San was at one time was accused of atrocity against the Karenni,” appears naively sympathetic to the sole architect and principal founder of this brutal institution called Burmese Army.
He definitely committed atrocities against pro-British civilians during the second world war. He personally beheaded a British appointed village chief for accused-treason against Burma as he re-entered Burma with his BIA after the Japanese Army.
When the then British Governor of Burma eagerly tried to put him on trial for murder charges after the war, Field Marshall Lord Mountbatten stopped him so that a civil war threat by Aung San could be prevented.
He wasn’t that loyal to his masters Japanese too. My late father was a guerrilla battalion commander serving directly under Aung San in First Military Division during the Japanese Revolution in the 1945 and he had to execute the Japanese advisers, all 9 of them, attached to his battalion after Aung San gave him a personal order.
Because of the official ban and self-censorship on writing any negative things against the BIA, General Aung San, and later the army since U Nu’s AFPLF days, we have these sugar-coated view of our national hero. Almost every Burmese do.
Historically our Aung San is parallel to the late Indian nationalist Subat Chandra Bose. Luckily for India the Japanese Imperial Army was stopped on the Burma-India border. Otherwise India probably now would have Bose’s Indian National Army ruling and terrorizing her people as Aung San’s Burmese National Army is doing in Burma now.
I sometimes imagine what Burma now would be if Japanese invaders were stopped on the Thai border and British peacefully transferred the political power to the well-established Burmese ruling class similar to the Indian Congress Party in India instead of Aung San’s violent young mob, U Nu backed by Ne Win and the army.
Our beloved Burma would be democratic, peaceful, and prosperous like India, Singapore, or even Malaysia, the former British colonies.
Just a pipe dream?
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
Dave e
http://dangerousdaveeverett.com/karenofburma.html
“Hence, when the recent cyclone devastated Burma, the military leadership showed total disregard to its civilian population in this region and prevented international aid agencies and relief supplies from reaching the people in this area. Little do people realise the main reason for this. It is a monumental genocidal act by the military junta to devastate the Karen population. Of the hundreds of thousands killed in this cyclone, the majority were Karen civilians, a point missed by the international media.”
This is just an example of your reality created by the west accepted by you and your ilk to continue to dare boast about how and why you have done this nefarious deeds that you claim to be “helping the Krenni”.
I do not believe New MandalaтДв will allow me to counter your ignorance about Myanmar line by line.
That actually will serve you better.
I will be glad if this one got printed to be compared to the article by one of your country man that I linked my “plan B” to.
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
“White man can’t jump” is a metaphor for being unable to see things beyond Black orWhite. Usually associated with people who are caucasoid that involve themselves with none caucasoid affaires under the Black/ WHite premises that well represented here in New Mandela.
So please do not play that race card here.
You have spoken clearly enough to be described as been described with utmost politeness and restraint.
I may have been the first but I can assure you I represent the sentiment of majority.
I dislike the SPDC as much as my brethren Ko Hla Oo. But have you seen him advocating for “SPDC body count” any where in New MandalaтДв.
A little knowledge is dangerous as he has proven repeatedly by high lighting facts.
Are those facts as well as ideas by the like of Susie lost to all?
Is bashing the Junta in any way become absolutely equated with “helping the citizenry”.
Myanmar is inhabited by of over 100 ethnicities among which Karenni is one who got the shortest end.
Yet deluding oneself as helping, in reality just getting satisfaction for oneself is truly incredible.
More people died from Nargis, Diseases and negligent than the direct atrocity of SPDC’s zeal to hold on to power.
Is SPDC entirely to be blamed also for the above 3 mentioned factors?
Can you imagine other parties involved?
Ko Hla Oo
I stand corrected in detail.
However the animosity never existed was a result of colonization remain a fact neither admitted or dignified by HRM.
I believe even Bogyoke Aung San was at one time was accused of atrocity against the Karenni.
The bottom line is we DO NOT need a westerner teaching methods of physical harms to Brothers against brother
WE need them to help reconcile through economic, educational, and other none bias promotion of relationship which has not been seen since 4/1/1948.
Instead we have unprecedented Sanctions, Threat, Jingoism and demands and actions that weaken the resolve of the citizenry more than the SPDC.
This is just calling them to undo what has been unjustifiably been done.
These mercenaries’ brovados just represent the tip of “how low the fate of the suffering of Myanmar citizenry has been equated with in this Black or WHite perception of Myanmar by the west”.
Thaksin on Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn
Chris: all of ’em. You throw the words around as if they are synonyms.
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
planB,
You continually refer to the “white man” in your various posts. I have to wonder if I’m exchanging posts with Louis Farrakhan.
Your love affair with the SPDC and the Tatmadaw is obvious to anyone who reads your posts. But you’re attempting to defend the indefensible.
Government atrocities against the populace in Burma are well documented and irrefutable. And sooner or later the SPDC and Tatmadaw will answer for it.
You can attack me and my motives all you care to, but that doesn’t erase what the Burmese government has done to its own people.
And yes, you’re right; I do hate the SPDC. I would hate anyone who would visit such atrocities against its own people. The SPDC consists of murderers, rapists, drug smugglers and sex slavers. What’s to like about that? Is there a new moral barometer that I haven’t been made aware of?
Thongchai on Thailand in transition
Thongchai. I don’t think the implication that your talk was like Landon’s. Rather, I was pointing out, as you do, that Landon’s book is a historical piece. I was not put in mind of Landon’s book when reading your commentary. Your talk was excellent. Thanks for your thoughtful and powerful commentaries.
A writer’s view of recent history
All I can say is, I would rather spend my 100 Baht to buy a pack of toilet paper towel rather than this biased writer like Nongnut.
She’s absolutely blinded and full of prejudice, and, a pro-military pet?? should I say that?
Thailand has been under those general Prime Ministers for decades, any civilians would end up with the same old charge, corruption. Didn’t those military governments corrupt?
The latest coup made those generals new millionaire. Gen. Saprang appointed as board director of TOT, and TAT. How much did he get paid?
Nongnut, where have you been?
Thaksin on Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn
Ralph – could you be more explicit ?
It’s not clear to me what you are talking about. Which rumours, which theories – specifically.
Perhaps the problem arises from my typing error :
I meant to write : “personally I doubt Prem would EVER be so disloyal as to…”.
Apologies to all for my mis-typing an “N” when there should not have been one.
Thongchai on Thailand in transition
JFL (bold typeface), quoting Thongchai (italics):
Watch out – the royalists, not the other “R”, are dangerous to the monarchy; they are the ones who undermine the future of the monarchy.
I think that certainly seems to be the case. The conservatives, reactionaries really, have tried to hitch their star to that of HM King Bhumipol, to borrow his baromi.
………..
The danger of the first paragraph’s line of argument is that quite a few people will draw the conclusion as in the second paragraph which is at best misleading, at worst completely wrong.
Let take the most important event of the past year, the one that was the watershed for great many people’s political consciousness: HMQ presiding over the funeral of PAD supporter on October 13, 2008 (dubbed by regualars at political webboards like Faw Diew Kan and Prachatai as “The National Eye Opening Day”!). During the funeral, HMQ told the father of the dead girl that the HM the King was well aware of her case and the money she passed on to the girl’s family came from HMK himself. Now as a very, very loyal subject myself, I wholeheartedly believe HMQ’s every word. Therefore, I must wonder who could JFL’s “conservative reactionaries …” be in this historic event?
It should be recalled that, in his recent Time Online interview, Thaksin of course used similar line of argument/explanation. But this is to be expected. Thaksin is, after all, a politician, not an academic.
Speaking of academics, this reminds me. Months ago, there’s a seminar on LM at Thammasat. The prominent historian, Nidhi Iewsriwong also put forward the same argument that “conservative royalists have hidden behind the throne, and in the course of their activity, doing great harms to it.” After his talk, Nidhi refused to take questions from audience, otherwise I would definitely have got up as asked: how in heavens would such argument-explanaiton of what’s been happening to the monarchy, explain events like the “Eye Opening Day”?
P.S. I suggest academic observers listen to phone in at community radio or talk to some taxi drivers. It seems to me that while a lot of these ordinary folks do indeed think like what has been said above, a good many number of them also understand the situations more clearly than many academics.
A writer’s view of recent history
Nongnut is a regular columnist of Matichon newspaper. When Thaksin was in power, her dissenting views could be quite refreshing at times. Later, until now, she has become rabidly anti-Thaksin/Red.
Let the games begin
I think the Lao Communist ideologues preferred using the Xieng Mieng (spelling?) folktales more than Sinxay to encourage revolutionary tendencies.
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
I’ve thought that this very long war between Burmese Army and KNDO/KNU was over. Maybe only on the Thai Border. Not yet on New Mandala.
Since a war-time BIA unit under Japanese officers supposedly slaughtered a few Karen villagers in the Delta in the early forty’s and KNDO’s supposedly aggressive retaliations against many Burmese villages, this purely race-based and religion-based war has been going on for too long.
It definitely started out as a losing war for Karens as they are not sufficiently numerous as Burmese, for most people from the Delta claimed themselves Burmese racially even though they may have some considerable Karen or Mon bloods.
The leadership of Karen Struggle being Christians but their ranks and files being Buddhists also do not help their cause too from the beginning and that was the final nail in their coffin eventually.
Especially in Burma, many Burmese Buddhist monks are aggressively militant as religious fundamentalists, not as peace-loving as many people has in mind of a typical meditating monk.
And the army knows when to excite the monks to rise against the Christians or Muslims, and when to drive their bayonets into the monk’s guts. (That phrase was from George Orwell’s essay “Shooting of Elephant in Moulmein”.)
Also the intermarriages have over the long time made the racial divide in the Delta much less prominent than the regions near the Thai border. So KNDO collapsed in the Delta first and now followed by the KNU and KNLA on the border.
But I still want to read famous Mr Dave Everett’s Shadow Warrior just out of curiosity.
Since last year when I discovered that the local library has two copies of Shadow Warrior I’ve been trying to get hold of one but to no avail. Book is so popular here in Sydney, the waiting list to borrow is so long, I still haven’t read it yet. But my name is on the long list now and hopefully I will read it before the year ends!
A writer’s view of recent history
Those two paragraphs seem to state a non-controversial obvious that crosses all governments and throughout SE Asia too.
Although myself I tend to read works and consider them whether written by pro-or anti-thaksin writers, I guess if we follw the advice on post two we should also ignore the writngs of all pro-Thaksin writers too to ensure we dont end up propagandized. Personally I prefer all forms of input unedited. We are all capable of maiking our own infoprmed decsions without being told what we should consider worthy or not.
Thongchai on Thailand in transition
“Any parallels are your own imaginations. ”
Well, as the rule goes, in the face of restriction, imagination flourishes.
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
“Nothing lasts forever. At some point the SPDC will collapse, and with it, the Tatmadaw. The survivors could likely end up in the Hague, standing in the dock for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
If you truly believe this statement
Isn’t it contradicting yourself to be stating this:
“When I returned home I spent hundreds more to purchase and send equipment to the guerrillas – web belts, ammo pouches, packs, ”
“You hate the SPDC. In your hatred you will sacrifice everything and anything to hurt the entity.”
So tell us how is the ammo and web belts going to change anything beyond another round of “WHite man self justified interferences” to continue the atrocities of “BrotheR against brother” that was started by another bunch of white man?
You don’t know or care about Myanmar. Culture, history or any other relevant aspect that might contradict your conviction.
You are not the only one who have seen what you claimed.
Only You and your ilk choose to act in such manner that prove nothing beyond what you claim yourself “higher SPDC body count.”
With such ignorance and still claiming to help, you sure make the point of “white man can’t Jump” .
Please do not help us with that kind of attitude.
Let the games begin
Great pics.
Keep up the good work in Laos, Simon.
Thongchai on Thailand in transition
Landon’s book was first published in 1939, based on his PhD at U of Chicago (1937?). Landon later bcame a diplomat at the beginning of the Cold War.
Landon’s book was dated. It is a historical piece itself. The narrative in my talk is entirely mine; nothing from Landon’s. I refer to the title and subject merely as an entry point to talk about the past/present. If it is misunderstood that the narrative is from Landon’s, I apologize for not making it clear enough.
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
plan B,
You wrote, “How presumptuous of you all think yourself of helping people of Myanmar”.
The same could be said of the SPDC and Tatmadaw. They definitely don’t have the best interests of the Burmese people at heart.
After I returned to Thailand from Burma I had the occasion to see firsthand how the Tatmadaw and SPDC treat their own people. I spent some time in a refugee camp, composed primarily of Karenni.
Men, women and children with missing limbs, blown off by landmines. Women, some as young as eight or nine years old, gang raped by Tatmadaw soldiers. Old women with horrendous scars on their backs, the result of beatings administered by Tatmadaw soldiers.
In Kayah State, Burma, where I was at, an area 40 miles wide by 60 miles long, was completely devoid of human life with the exception of marauding SPDC troops and Karenni guerrillas.
All the villages had been burnt down. Wells poisoned. Livestock killed or stolen. Even the elephants had been killed – shot with heavy machineguns or shoulder fired rockets. Landmines had been strewn indiscriminately to prevent the return of the people who had lived there.
You can call me a mercenary all you want, though you’d be wrong. I spent hundreds of dollars of my own money to get there, and hundreds more on equipment that I brought to give to the guerrillas. I’m not affiliated with any government agency – this was money out of my own pocket.
When I returned home I spent hundreds more to purchase and send equipment to the guerrillas – web belts, ammo pouches, packs, etc. But no bibles – I’m not a missionary either.
Nothing lasts forever. At some point the SPDC will collapse, and with it, the Tatmadaw. The survivors could likely end up in the Hague, standing in the dock for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
What will you say then?
Dave Everett and fighting for the KNLA
“I hope that what myself and other foreigners contribute to the resistance pays off in a higher SPDC body count.”
Does it remotely remind you of why SPDC has been doing what it has been doing for the past 2 decades? Or are you too pompous or far gone to realize the nefarious contribution that you have made only stoke the hatred fire?
Helping the citizenry of Myanmar 101
1) Undo the main factor that weaken the citizenry: “Relentless useless sanctions by the west”.
Has the fact that the west supported equally if not more atrocious dictators like Chiang Kai Shek, Marcos and others for more than 4 decades b/f their respective citizenry become strong through benefit of an economy boot them out of power permanently lost on you?
2) Support the citizenry healthcare and education directly and indirectly now.
Indirectly by uncoupling the healthcare and Education aspects of sanction from the rest.
More people have died from preventable diseases that traditionally rely on WHO and western aid that has practically stopped by yahoos who do not know any better.
Education? New MandalaтДв already has enough post here on how thirsty the citizenry is for common knowledge that has been deprived due to the sanction and SPDC willful neglect.
Directly by getting involved with thousands westerners volunteering where needed effectively. Through independent means or 2┬║ through the local organizations. Healthy citizenry can look beyond short term survival.
If nothing else you folks should realize SPDC is not going away with your “hurt them more” philosophy.
The exact philosophy that SPDC espouse in this no body win “one up against each other” game.
Your misplaced empathy with the KNLA is not even helping beyond their short term survival.