01.10.2006

Living in the Past

_ by Taisamyone

The study of history has a lot to commend it – we learn of our own nation’s past, and of the history of the nations of the world, and we can learn from the mistakes of others, and take pleasure and encouragement in the victories of others who have achieved greatness among those who have gone before.  But by itself the study of history is sterile if we view it with the wrong attitude, or more especially it becomes distorted with present day prejudice if we view it with the wrong motivation.  When the SPDC use history in their New Light of Myanmar articles it is with both the wrong attitude and the wrong motivation.  They do not seek to educate and learn, but to revile and foster hatred.  This last week has seen numerous articles about the good works of the SPDC in national development of roads, trains, hospitals and major construction projects – mostly about projects that have only succeeded through the brutal use of the Tatmadaw’s own style of ‘development’ – no consultation, forced relocation, forced labour, ‘four-cuts’ land clearing, and the whole gamut of human rights abuses that flow in their trail like a slug’s slimy trace. 

The NLM claims that the SPDC are ‘taking all possible steps for democratic transition’; well, no they aren’t – the SPDC have done everything in their power to prevent the transition to democratic government since they took power in 1962 – jailing the 1962 government leaders for years and denying any possibility of change until they were forced unto action in 1988.   They used every brutal tactic of suppression to stop any dissent, even arranging ceasefire agreements and offering to hold democratic elections to reduce the high level of tension in the country.  Then as people started to think that they had a chance for ‘democratic transition’, the SPDC began tightening the screw slowly, slowly, so slow that we hardly noticed the consequences of disappearances, house arrests, unjust imprisonments – all carefully planned to silence any effective opposition leadership by the time the election was complete.  When that didn’t go to plan, the SPDC declared it void – like a comedian telling us he was just joking when he said we could have democracy.  The SPDC had the chance of moving directly to ‘democratic transition’, but just didn’t want to do it.  And they still don’t want to do it.  They prevaricate, they threaten, they bully, they torture, they rape, they beat to death, and they unjustly imprison anyone who speaks too loudly.  As for civil society in Burma, the people are subjected to minute scrutiny and monitoring by the military intelligence for any signs of opposition to the SPDC.  They operate an oppressive police state, in which the people are the suspects; those who love freedom are considered to be disruptive elements and traitors. 

The NLM claims that Burma adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – this may come as a surprise for anyone who knows anything at all about Burma.  Article 1 states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”  The SPDC do not even meet this article – they do not accept that all are equal – the Tatmadaw treat the people of Burma as third class citizens, forcing obedience, severely punishing any slight criticism and brutal suppression of anyone who opposes their will.  The SPDC do not treat the people of Burma’s brothers – they treat them like children or slaves – to be told what to do and punished for disobeying the rules.  We could go through every one of the articles on the UDHR and find that the SPDC failed to met it – we could do the same for many countries worldwide and find not one actually meets all articles, but that is not an excuse for even failing to recognise that the people of a nation have certain basic rights to determine their own future – in Burma the SPDC  are clinging on to their power over every aspect of life, to ensure that only the SPDC tyranny – that small group of generals and their sycophants - determines the future for Burma.

Freedom of opinion and expression are spelt out in article 19.  The NLM claims that the US controls various media to make them believe what the US wants them to.  That might work for some US media on national security issues (same in most countries), but much of the world’s media are free to report news and events in their own style – and many do criticize the US both with cause and without – as readers in a free world we can access all of that media and make our own choices about what we read and what we believe.  But if we look at the situation in Burma, it is the SPDC who very definitely control all of the media, using the Press Scrutiny Board and a myriad array of legal instruments to suppress any news, to print and broadcast only government propaganda – such as the New Light of Myanmar and the other news controlled via MRTV.  You may be interested to learn that the NLM stated this diatribe against US misreporting with an unsubstantiated claim that the New York Times made slanderous statements about the internal affairs (there it is again) of King Thibaw’s court. 

The NLM looks back over US foreign policy and finds it lacking in UN support – something that the people of the US also do – and they are allowed to do and to criticise their government publicly, and to change their government – something denied the people of Burma by the SPDC censorship rules.  Few would look back at some of the US wars of the last 60 years and claim every one was a cause of freedom, let alone speak well of the CIA operations.  But the NLM includes the Korean War and the Balkans in the US involvement ‘without a reasonable cause’ - which were led by the UN and NATO – but forced enslavement by a mad communist dictator for the people of North Korea (backed by the SPDC’s friends, China) was not considered acceptable by the world community, nor was genocide in the Balkans – these are of course what the SPDC would call ‘internal affairs’.  The US war against Afghanistan is also mentioned – although without mention of the Al-Qaeda/Taliban connection, nor of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s which entailed horrendous human rights abuses – a sorry story, as it was the US supply of arms to the Taliban and other insurgents that brought about the defect of Russia and the establishment of the Taliban regime.  

This week, NLM gave a potted history of World War 2 as a clash of colonial and world-be colonial countries.  To struggle was a great deal more than that; it was a clash of humanity against fascist tyranny.  Life under the fascist governments of Japan, Germany and Italy and all those they dominated was grinding hell – as it is under any fascist government – whether it was those mentioned, Franco’s Spain, Pinochet's Chile, or the SPDC’s Burma.   Of course, the aim of NLM is to lead into an article in which Burma is painted as the picture of good government, abiding by every UN resolution and keeping out of any other countries ‘internal affairs, whereas the USA has bullied the UN to get its own way.  They claim that the US wants to establish military bases in Burma and set up a puppet government.  Well, the SPDC may not have noticed, but that Cold War policy has long gone.

What the NLM failed to mention was the welcome given to the British and allied forces in 1945 who liberated Burma from Japanese oppression.  Then the nascent Tatmadaw left the Japanese side, who they had foolishly thought would give Burma independence, and joined the Allies in throwing the Japanese out of Burma.  At that time, the US forces – US air force, American Volunteer Group ‘Flying Tigers’ and troops like ‘Merrill’s Marauders’ – were welcomed into Burma.  What the NLM also failed to mention was the key role played by ethnic groups (Kachin, Chin, Naga, Karen) in support of behind-the-lines operations and with the liberating armies.

The NLM mentions an apparent ‘conspiracy’ of a ‘breakaway region’ to set up an independent state and join SEATO, a US led group of South East Asian countries formed to counter the communist invasions led by China.  In my studies of Burma’s recent history I had not seen this mention of any ‘regions’ wishing to join SEATO – it could be a reference to Karen State or Shan State.  Shan State was a leading state in the federalist movement, and the Karen did not hide their political ambitions for self-determination.  Perhaps the SEATO plot was something that only existed in the minds of the Tatmadaw’s own strategic thinkers as a possible outcome of the civil war.  They themselves had given U Nu the projection that if China invaded Burma (rather than just provide assistance to the CPB), the Tatmadaw could only hold them at bay, falling back from the border to Rangoon, for 3 months – enough time they said for U Nu to get the UN to land armed forces to repel the invaders – a UN force that would inevitably have a major contingent of US forces.  Of course it may have been that the plan to join SEATO was seen by the breakaway state as a solution to self-determination and as giving greater protection from communist invasion by China than the Tatmadaw could provide.  The point I am trying to make here is that Burma has in the past been reliant on US forces fighting in Burma for Burma’s liberation – and not as an army of occupation seeking to ‘destroy the Union of Burma’. 

On another issue, the NLM’s view that the US wants to establish military bases in Burma is just a Cold War anachronism – the US keeps a few bases around the world, mostly in friendly countries – some remain for historical reasons, like the Gitmo base in Castro’s Cuba.  However, modern armed forces are very mobile, as is the network of intelligence gathering by conventional methods and the latest satellite technology.  Movement and deployment of troops can be made from the US’s massive aircraft carriers, landing craft and transport helicopters.  When the UK initiated Operation Barras in Sierra Leone in 2000, the troops left Britain by plane, the helicopters were assembled in Africa and the rescue operation completed so quickly, that the SAS were back on the plane to Britain before the press got hold of the story.  Modern armies do not need military bases in far away countries; they build a flexible responsive army with the latest communications and intelligence, and use fast transportation to get to the field of action as quickly as possible.

The NLM are filled with historical inaccuracies and half truths, attacks on DASSK and the NLD – who apparently receive instructions from US Ambassadors to Burma.  The SPDC are attacking everyone who states the obvious – that the SPDC is an illegal government, the National Convention a sham, and that the only motivation the SPDC have for re-convening the NC is to plod on for years in an attempt to enshrine their own power in government in an inviolate constitution.  Most modern democracies find that modern ideas of good government require amendments to constitutions – the NV will deliver a constitution that can be amending in only one way – throw it away.  Far from installing a puppet government in Rangoon (or NayPyiDaw), the US are trying to help liberate the people of Burma from the SPDC and allow them to build their own nation in a peaceful democratic process.  Most of the world agrees with the US on this (they may disagree with everything else the US does) – we all look forward to the day when the US achieves this goal and the people of Burma are free to choose their own constitution and their own government without being bullied and intimidated by the SPDC.

Quotes 

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm

Merrill's Marauders

“President Roosevelt issued a Presidential call for volunteers for "A Dangerous and Hazardous Mission". The call was answered by approximately 3,000 American soldiers. The volunteers came from State side units, from the jungles of Panama and Trinidad they came, from the campaigns of Guadalcanal, New Guinea, New Georgia they came, to answer the call, some battle scarred, some new to the ways of war, each different but with one thing in common. They Answered The Call. The attack on Myitkyina was the climax to four months of marching and combat in the Burma jungles. No other American force except the First Marine Division, which took and held Guadalcanal for four months, has had as much uninterrupted jungle fighting service as Merrill's Marauders. But no other American force anywhere had marched as far, fought as continuously or had to display such endurance, as the swift-moving, hard-hitting foot soldiers, of Merrill's Marauders.”

http://www.marauder.org/marauder.htm

American Volunteer Group

"Although, the A.V.G. was blooded over China, it was the air battles over Rangoon that stamped the hallmark on its fame as the Flying Tigers.  The cold statistics for the 10 weeks the A.V.G. served at Rangoon show its strength varied between twenty and five serviceable P-40's.  This tiny force met a total of a thousand-odd Japanese aircraft over Southern Burma and Thailand.  In 31 encounters they destroyed 217 enemy planes and probably destroyed 43.  Our losses in combat were four pilots killed in the air, one killed while strafing and one taken prisoner.  Sixteen P-40's were destroyed.  During the same period, the R.A.F., fighting side by side with the A.V.G., destroyed 74 enemy planes, probably destroyed 33, with a loss of 22 Buffaloes and Hurricanes.  "Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, added his eloquence to these statistics, cabling the Governor of Burma, 'The victories of these Americans over the rice paddies of Burma are comparable in character, if not in scope, with those won by the R.A.F. over the hop fields of Kent in the Battle of Britain.'  

http://www.flyingtigersavg.com/index.html

Laura Bush uses U.N. visit to pressure Myanmar

 Zaid Ibrahim of Malaysia, who heads the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Inter-Parliamentary Burma Caucus, told Mrs. Bush he thought Myanmar would change only "when this regime cracks."  "Sustained pressure at all levels, coordinated pressure, will work," he said.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/20092006/6/n-usa-laura-bush-uses-u-n-visit-pressure-myanmar.html

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Click here for This week’s  articles

Last week’s English articles

Seeing in Black & White

Blue Print for Burma

Interview with Global Peace Malaysia

A pledge for Non-violence

Five pages of Blather

The Great Natural Light of Freedom

Is there a cause to celebrate?

Humanitarian Intervention

Cultural Politics, Asian Values & Burma (4)

Disappearances

Guess who is staying for a Thai dinner?

Protest in India against 18 years Long Military Rule in Burma

Protest in Malaysia against 18 years Long Military Rule in Burma

International Day of Peace celebration in New Delhi