07.01.2007
BURMA BRAINS GET 6 D's
_ By David Law
Long, long ago in 1969, the year Sanda Win (huh? who's she? ).....you know, the daughter of Ne Win. What? Who? You know, that old crazy lecher who lorded over Burma with 8 wives and brought it to ruin. Oh. That old Nhaboogyi. (sex maniac). Now I remember.
NE
WIN
Look what you did. Now I got to start all over again. Long ago in 1969 when Sanda Win and I and others from Dagon 1 State High School (aka MEHS) graduated, the maximum number of D's (Distinctions) was only 4.
For our friends outside of Burma who are not D-crazy, let me explain. In the tenth standard, the final year of high school, equivalent to the American 12th grade, we had 6 subjects. If you scored 80% or better in Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, you received a D for Distinction. If you had a 75% or better in English or Burmese, you received a D also. But in 1969, no one got a D in Burmese nor in Biology, and so the maximum number of D's was only 4 that year. It was not until later years in the 70's that students began getting 5 D's and finally, 6 D's because the Burmese Department finally relented. For years, it was a matter of pride, the teachers said, that no one be given any higher than 60's in Burmese. ( I scored a 63 which was considered high in 1969)
How come the number of D's rose? Well, maybe it had something to do with the cost of living. With each year of Ne Win's Burmese Way to Socialism, the nation's economy went lower as inflation rose higher, so did the number of D's. So although Sanda Win did not get 6 D's in 1969, her "younger brothers and sisters" later did get 6 D's. Perhaps it is the power of persuasion from the mouth of the gun barrel of Ne Win and other strongmen generals.
So D in Burma, means Excellent, and by the way, A means Absent from class. (whereas in the ABCDF American system, A means Excellent, D means a Dunce, and F means a Fxxxing failure.)
Recently, our BURMA DIGEST requested us writers for articles on the Burma Brain Drain. I begged to disagree and here is how my opinion is different. BURMA DIGEST initially wanted us to only write about a single D-for-Drainage.
Me, I think the problem is more than that. We have at least a 6-D problem. However, none of the D's have anything to do with Distinctions.
Instead, I'm referring to Drain, Damage, Deterioration, Drugs, Damnation, and Delusions.
1. Brain Drain (Yo hpeik chin) --
In Burma, the rampant political persecution, not to mention the worsening economic conditions, are forcing the brightest and best minds to leave. This is not surprising, and it happens in all poor 3rd and 4th world countries. I once referred to Burma as a 3rd world country back in 1989 to classmate Zarni (the great Dr. Zarni of FBC, the Free Burma Coalition) at the U. of California and he got offended.
Why should he be so? We are definitely not in the 1st world with the US nor are we in the 2nd world with the Russians, so by default, we are (or were) in the 3rd world. But since the Slorc Supressions of 8-8-88, the nation has worsened.......and so now we are in the 4th world. He should be happy if I still refer to Burma as 3rd world country.
Students, professionals, and other elite members of poor societies leave the nation for greener pastures.....yay kyi yar, myet noot yar, to where the water is clear and the grass is tender. That is dammatar, or natural. It is sad, but it happens. What I want to say is that we have in Burma something much worse than the Brain Drain. We have the other 5 D's.
2.Brain Damage (Yo Ywin Pyet see jin)
Consider the picture of Ko Thet -- with his skull wounds -- in the assault and murder that occured in Kemmendine last year where he was beaten, punched, slammed, and kicked by 12 firemen and policemen.
Likewise, in the Depeyin Massacre of 2003, women and men were grabbed by their hair, and their faces repeatedly slammed onto the ground. If anyone ever survived such barbaric treatment, they would surely have brain damage.
Many survivors of Moscow (Insein) Prison mention getting hit in the head. Their heads are hooded in filthy black bags that have dried blood, spit, and snot, and they get slapped and hit in the face and head in a gruesome ritual of torture.
When Burma is freed, it should be very interesting to conduct a research project on the number of victims with Brain Damage.
Burma's universities, often the source of protest, have been shut.
3. Brain Deterioration (Yein Yaing Teingaw jin)
-- Ever since 7 July 1962, universities and schools have been frequently shut down. When we were in college, there was the shutdown that occured in 1969 and in 1974, U Thant's Funeral Uprising. In between was another crisis the name which I have forgotten. Then of course, in later years, the unrest of 1987, 1988, and all through the 90's. Just like DASSK's imprisonment, about half of the past 20 years have seen schools closed and the students' brains are deteriorating.
4. Brain on Drugs (Yoo Yit Hsay Wah)
-- Instead of saying, Moo Yit Hsay Wah, meaning narcotic drugs, I'd like to say, Yoo Yit Hsay Wah, or psychotic drugs because the methamphetamines being manufactured by government-sponsored cottage industries are making young people's brains crazy. The Thais call this drug, Yaa baa, and the Burmese call it A Yoo Hsay, both meaning Crazy Drug. In Rangoon, amphetamines can be readily bought on the streets and on the campuses. How can that be possible in a draconian-ruled society ? It is only possible because the "Dracones" are encouraging it to corrupt the youth and prevent them from rebelling against them. The British encouraged opium-eating amongst the Chinese to corrupt them and make them easy to conquer, but the Burmese generals who deliberately spread drugs among the Ethnic Members and their own Burmese people to make it easy to subjugate them are shooting not just at their own feet, but their heads also.
Min
Ko Naing
5.Brain Damnation ( Nga Yeah Yauk Chin)
--- It would have been gratifying to come up with 6 Y's, but I cannot think of a Burmese word for Damnation starting with a Y. The closest I could come up is the word for Hell, or Nga Yeah. Our National Intellects are being Damned to Hell by SPDC because they themselves are anti-intellectuals who hate intelligent brains. They fear that thinking intelligently will lead to speaking and doing intelligent things such as questioning the legitimacy of the regime and calling for its ouster. Student leaders of the Generation of 88 are under surveillance and they have been arrested --- time and again --- and people like Min Ko Naing and others are once more behind bars.
6.Brain Delusions. (Yoo Yaung Gyin)
You have surely heard of the joke about the Englishman, American, and Burman who each boasted about their countrymen's achievements. In case you haven't, here it is again: the Englishman bragged about how one of them who was a double leg amputee was so clever that he became a champion soccer player. Not to be outdone, the American bragged about how one of them, although he was a double arm amputee became a world-famous artist. To top them all, the Burmans bragged about how the generals have been able to rule Burma for over 4 decaded without any brains.
But we all know that is just a joke, and we must admit the army generals DO have brains.
But all these brains are ridden with delusions, starting with Ne Win with his pretensions to royalty. Prior to his 2 March 1962 coup detat, he reportedly went to pray on an unholy pilgrimage to Bagan. Perhaps he imagined himself to be the Great King Anawrahta, the first great ruler. His protege, Saw Maung, the Paw Kyaung declared himself to be Kyansittha, the successor of Anawrahta, while brandishing his pistol, truly flipping his lid.
But now, Than Shwe has outdone both of them, declaring himself to be related to King Thibaw. Now isn't that remarkable that the first two generals think they are the first 2 greatest kings of Burma while the third general imagines himself on the level of the last king, a weak figurehead? If declarations are all that they do, perhaps they could be tolerated, but when words are followed with deeds that drain the nation's dwindling resources, such as in building a royal capitol in Pyinmana, then the delusions have become truly monumental disasters.
King
Thibaw 
King Than Shwe
In Conclusion,
It is not possible to simply call for a stop to the drainage of brains. First of all, we must remove the Brain Delusions, and replace the national leadership with persons of reason, logic and equinamity. Next, we have to stop the army-assisted manufacture of Drugs and the Damnation of intellectuals, reopen all the universities to restore these institutions of learning, and to ensure the rule of law and justice. Only then, will the Brains will stop Draining, and then Burma will start Developing.
.
Comments:
MAHA BANDULA said _
Yes you are right Dr David Law. Because Ne Win wanted 6Ds for her daughter, Education & Health Minister's sons also wanted and given 6 Ds. In the MC (Medical College) they demanded favoures and were given Ds again. Therefore, Medical Professors also followed suit and started to grant Ds to their fellow colleagues' children and their own children and in laws. Later that entire elite group was favoured for further studies locally and abroad. Remaining other citizens were marginalized.
Just see the present MOH (Ministry of Health), Minister post was given to a son-in-law of a general (although it is his third marriage). Deputy Minister post goes to the relative of the General Kyaw Htin (former Rangoon Division Military Commander) and former MI chief Tin Oo.
Ne win's son-in-law and General Sun Yu's son-in-law were also given the Rector posts of the Medical Colleges.
The above-mentioned are easily visible tip of the elite ice-burg only. Therefore, no wonder the nepotism and cronyism prevails and meritocracy almost disappeared in the Myanmar Medical Field!
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