30.07.2006
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Warning to all the Universities around the world
Nowadays Myanmar Military or Tatmadaw has opened their own universities. Now they have their own universities to produce Medical Graduates, Engineers, and almost all kinds of professionals. Entrance criteria are just to pass the tenth grade and must be pure Burmese Buddhists. If related to the Tatmadaw officers, they could be helped in the examinations and given an almost automatic acceptance in one of their universities. Scores and gradings are not important. Anyone who is willing to be enlisted in the Military, even if one just scored 20 marks out of 100 would be definitely accepted especially if one is related to someone in Tatmadaw. They are given monthly salaries from Tatmadaw as a military personal. And no need to worry about the examinations nor attendance percentages. All the exam questions, and answers to those questions, are usually given to exam candidates during revision classes before each and every examination. The causes of the drop outs or failures are due to the reports of their background checks by special agents only. Each and every one of those Military enlisted students, their parents and grandparents are checked thoroughly and if any one of them has mixed blood or involvement in politics, the student would be expelled from the respective university.
Because of the notorious, shameful, widespread knowledge about the lack of higher education of most of the Military leaders, now Senior General Than Shwe himself had ordered a new rule to improve the image of the Tatmadaw. All the Military officers’ wives are ordered to sit the 10th standard or matriculation examinations. For them also, there is no need to worry about the examinations because the questions are given in advance and they all are put into the special examination rooms in each and every examination centers so that they are free to copy from the note books. Even then many of them face difficulty to find the relevant and appropriate answers in their note books and text books. But even if they just score 10 marks out of 100 they were regarded or accepted as passing the examinations. And so there used to be almost 101% pass rates for the wives of military persons. (Burma Digest readers should not question the 101% as a ridiculous pass rate as all the Myanmar people had already accepted that there could be 1% error by the over enthusiastic examiners, who were ordered by the higher authorities to give at least 100% pass rate. And if the 1% error is on the minus side and the pass rate go down to 99% they could be punished, demoted or transferred to the remote places).
And those wives of military officers are encouraged to enroll in the open or distant learning Higher Institutes or Universities and are graduated in due course by just repeating the above system of examinations. Alas! Now at least the families of Military are graduates of Universities. Who in the right mind could claim that the SPDC Generals and Tatmadaw people are illiterate?
Workers, Farmers, Intellectuals, Students, Monks, Employers, Landlords, and Artists are not the favoured class under the successive Myanmar Military rulers. So the Military class is the most favoured in BSPP, SLORC and SPCD Military governments. Among them the families, in-laws, business partners and friends of the Generals form the VVIP class.
Myanmar Tatmadaw has failed dismally to perform even its first and primary function, which is to ensure the security, not only of the residents of the capital, but the people of the whole country." Very large majorities of the people had openly rejected Myanmar Tatmadaw’s political function during the last free and fair elections, and this rejection must form the basic part of the political reform process.
Myanmar Military has a credibility problem, the Tatmadaw, or the armed forces, lack popular support. Not only has the Tatmadaw failed to perform its duties. The Tatmadaw is killing the innocent people, committing violence in ethnic minority areas, creating religious riots, and practicing ethnic cleansing.
Furthermore, while Burma remains one of the poorest countries in the world, the Tatmadaw's defense spending is 40% of the national budget and the generals and their families have become the country's millionaires. Ironically, Burma's generals claim that they had 'saved' the country. But today, this has become a joke in Burma. Despite holding power for more than 40 years, the self-styled armed 'saviors of the country' have saved only themselves, their families and friends."
"For a long time the state of Myanmar's children was perhaps one of the country's best kept secrets. Decades of self-imposed isolation, fabricated statistics and the absence of social research and journalistic inquiry had created a false image of social developments... In fact, neither the outside world nor even the authorities inside Myanmar have an accurate or complete appreciation of the very serious conditions in the social sectors."
After wasting time for many years without transferring the state power to the rightful owner, NLD, by giving lame excuses, the Army even dare to blame and belittle Daw Su, contrary to the internationally accepted norms. It is like the thief running away from the pursuing crowd, in order to confuse the people in front of him, shouting, “Thief! Thief! Thief! Then only the real thief, SPDC Generals could disguise as a Good Samaritan pursuing the thief. What a shame! Burma Military robbed the whole country and trying to confuse the people of the whole world.
In his annual Armed Forces Day address to the country on March 27 General Than Shwe, the chairman of SLORC said, “by seizing power in September 1998, the military had ‘saved the country from all dangers’. If it had not done so, the country ‘would have fallen like some east European nations which fell apart, and bloodshed would have continued to the present’. The army was not ‘like a blind elephant pushing its way through the jungle’, but was "systematically managing and implementing the political, economic and social sectors by laying down firm objectives". The three main political duties of the armed forces were maintaining peace and stability, national reconciliation and producing a new state constitution.(Sic) He highlighted the success of the junta in inviting most of the armed insurgent groups to return to the legal fold. He added that, with the changing situation in the international arena, it was "essential to remain ever vigilant and safeguard independence and sovereignty". (Usual propaganda by all the dictators of the world).
By the end of the 1990s, cease-fire accords with the junta had been signed by 17 ethnic groups in exchange for a large measure of autonomy and advantageous concessions which included holding on to their weapons, control of lucrative cross-border trade, exploitation of teak forests, mining of precious stones and, sometimes, management of the opium trade.
But Burmese people are not easily fooled with these propaganda warfares of Than Shwe. Neither the whole world population believes them, except the Neo Fascist Japanese leaders, mainland Chinese leaders, Indian Government, Russia government and some Asean leaders like Thaksin from Thailand. But most of us already knew that those leaders support the illegal Myanmar Military government had their own agenda guided by sheer greed not only for their nations but especially for their cronies, families and friends’ business. We hope they would repent in time and pressure their naughty friends, Myanmar Military Generals to avoid the fate of Suharto, Mussolini, Starling and Hitler etc.
The children and relatives of Tatmadaw or Myanmar Military are openly favoured in the schools and universities and eventually in competition for jobs, postgraduate training internally and abroad, transfers and promotions. Military leaders’ children and their in-laws only are chosen and allowed to do postgraduate studies in various Universities, Faculties, most prominently in all the Medical Fields. And if there is any offer of scholarship from abroad for further studies or training abroad, they are favoured, chosen and sent without any professional meritocracy or seniority.
So we hereby wish to forewarn the various Education, Health
and Public Services Authorities around the world about the low quality
Military Education system practiced upon the Military relatives. If you
all wish to curry the favour of the SPDC Junta you accept them to study,
train and work in your countries with your own risks. You risked the legal
actions of your own citizens affected by those lowest grades valueless
Myanmar Military Graduates.
MAHA BANDULA
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Comments
Saw Winston Taw said _
Well said. Every University all over the world worth its salt should take heed.
Dave Law said _
Dear General Bandula, once again, your pen has proved to be mightier than all the swords of Pyinmanar Min.
After reading the sad state of Myanmar Military higher education, I can only say that for them, and for them especially, we must change the Burmese word, Bwairt Hninn Thabin (Graduation Ceremony), into Bwet Ninn Thamin (Stepping into the MUD deliberately). Well, to be grammatically correctly, the adverb, thamin (deliberately), in Burmese should be placed before, not after.
So, for the stupid sons and daughters of the military, they are "thamin bwet ninn" or deliberately stepping into the mud.
Almost 30 years ago, back in 1978 or 1979, the darling daughter of [Yoo] Ne Win [i.e., Ah Nar Yoo] Dr. Sanda Win, went to UK, the real UK, not Upper Kyandaw, to take the entrance exams of the British medical system. ....one of those MRCS or FRCS programs that are extremely difficult to pass. She failed, and she blamed the Burmese education system. So Daddy Ne Win ordered an improvement of the system.
Well, now, almost 30 years have passed.....and the Mighty Myanmar Army has risen from the small 180,000 men of that era to the NOW, almost 500,000 men. And now, they have nuclear potentials, bigger naval gunboats, MiG fighter squadron, and the latest MA 1, MA 2 assault rifles. As well as helicopters, rockets, trucks, and tanks. Such a Mighty, Myanmar Army.....
But in reality, all of it is based on nothing but just Myanmar Mud (Burmese Bwet). How can Pyimanar Shin hope to run a proper modern army, let alone a nation, with a bunch of mud-headed graduates?
Aung Kyaw Soe said _
I agree that it the Burmese educators and examiners let wives of some armed forces officers pass high school leaving exams without learning.
I agree that military affiliated institutions are enjoying unfair privileges over civilian peers. Admission criteria for some candidates with right connection may be lowered by officials. I also doubt about the academic freedom and room to grow in those military universities.
But I disagree that all graduates of pseudo-military universities are substandard. I think they are as competent as graduates from civilian institutions. Many of them are the sons of any ordinary Burmese who chose those military universities over civilian universities because of career options, mobility and guaranteed employment.
Your Comments here_
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