Peaceful Burma (ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းျမန္မာ)平和なビルマ

Peaceful Burma (ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းျမန္မာ)平和なビルマ

TO PEOPLE OF JAPAN



JAPAN YOU ARE NOT ALONE



GANBARE JAPAN



WE ARE WITH YOU



ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေျပာတဲ့ညီညြတ္ေရး


“ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတာ ဘာလဲ နားလည္ဖုိ႔လုိတယ္။ ဒီေတာ့ကာ ဒီအပုိဒ္ ဒီ၀ါက်မွာ ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတဲ့အေၾကာင္းကုိ သ႐ုပ္ေဖာ္ျပ ထားတယ္။ တူညီေသာအက်ဳိး၊ တူညီေသာအလုပ္၊ တူညီေသာ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ရွိရမယ္။ က်ေနာ္တုိ႔ ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတာ ဘာအတြက္ ညီၫြတ္ရမွာလဲ။ ဘယ္လုိရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္နဲ႔ ညီၫြတ္ရမွာလဲ။ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ဆုိတာ ရွိရမယ္။

“မတရားမႈတခုမွာ သင္ဟာ ၾကားေနတယ္ဆုိရင္… သင္ဟာ ဖိႏွိပ္သူဘက္က လုိက္ဖုိ႔ ေရြးခ်ယ္လုိက္တာနဲ႔ အတူတူဘဲ”

“If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen to side with the oppressor.”
ေတာင္အာဖရိကက ႏိုဘယ္လ္ဆုရွင္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ၾကီး ဒက္စ္မြန္တူးတူး

THANK YOU MR. SECRETARY GENERAL

Ban’s visit may not have achieved any visible outcome, but the people of Burma will remember what he promised: "I have come to show the unequivocal shared commitment of the United Nations to the people of Myanmar. I am here today to say: Myanmar – you are not alone."

QUOTES BY UN SECRETARY GENERAL

Without participation of Aung San Suu Kyi, without her being able to campaign freely, and without her NLD party [being able] to establish party offices all throughout the provinces, this [2010] election may not be regarded as credible and legitimate. ­
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Where there's political will, there is a way

政治的な意思がある一方、方法がある
စစ္မွန္တဲ့ခိုင္မာတဲ့နိုင္ငံေရးခံယူခ်က္ရိွရင္ႀကိဳးစားမႈရိွရင္ နိုင္ငံေရးအေျဖ
ထြက္ရပ္လမ္းဟာေသခ်ာေပါက္ရိွတယ္
Burmese Translation-Phone Hlaing-fwubc

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Biting the hand that feeds the nation

http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2278

Pascal Khoo-Thwe

Mar 2, 2009 (DVB)–As Peasants’ Day is marked in Burma on 2 March, the plight of farmers in the country remains desperate.


Farmers or 'peasants', including tribesmen, are one of the most abused, exploited and overlooked social denomination in Burma – and they are often taken for granted not only by the ruling elites but also by the opposition groups.

Yet they make up the majority of the population, and the ruling elites are mostly of peasant stock.

Whenever there is political instability or power struggles among the ruling elites, rural areas are where they always go to rally for support. Villagers are forced to join willy-nilly at their own risk and irrespective of the outcomes.



After the coup in September 1988, preceded by the nationwide uprising, students and activists fled into the jungles to avoid arrests. Villagers gave us shelters, fed us and guided us through the dangerous jungles, feared by us so-called educated people. But as soon as we were out of danger, it was the villagers who bore the brunt of the wrath of the army, and their villages were burnt down, crops destroyed, and they themselves were imprisoned, tortured or even killed.

During the parliamentary democracy period from 1948 to 1962, many farmers were recruited as cannon fodder for various factions of the rebels fighting U Nu's government, which also recruited villagers. When asked by U Nu why so many farmers had joined the Burma Communist Party, someone reportedly replied that had the prime minister looked after the farmers better, there would not be much support for the communists.

The late dictator General Ne Win exploited the weakness of U Nu by enticing farmers with favours and actively promoting the myth of noble peasants on the one hand and meting out brutality towards those who opposed his myth with the other. As a result, the communists were driven out of their strongholds in central Burma, but sympathy for the communists never went away, even though most of them do not believe in Communism. Once he achieved his aim of gaining absolute power, Ne Win treated the farmers with same disdain as his predecessors and ignored their plight.

The situation was no better for farmers during the colonial period either. When ex-monk Saya San led farmers – mostly armed with amulets, spears and agricultural tools – against their foreign masters during the 1930s, the British ruthlessly crushed the rebellion with a campaign that treated the farmers no better than dacoits. They were imprisoned, hung and shot. The rebellion was said to be caused by money lending Chettiars from India who monopolised the rice market and sucked the blood of farmers dry with high interest rates, which was also exacerbated by the Great Depression.

But many, including those who lived under colonial rule, argue that the situation for present-day farmers is worse than that under the British. They are certainly not wrong, if not completely right. In place of Chettiars are now companies owned by the army and relatives and cronies of the generals, who are using all available means and tricks to bleed the farmers dry. Farmers are eking out a life no better than that of slaves as their best farms, crops, communal pastures and jungles are confiscated by the army, and they are commandeered into forced labour for 'government projects'. And their children are still forcibly recruited into the army.

Their remaining children cannot afford to go to school, and some of them have sold their ancestral farmlands to look for jobs in cities and neighbouring countries, or to join the rebels. When the guardians of Burmese rural life are forced to leave their homes due to the impacts of globalisation and greed, their old communities are left derelict and lifeless.

But it is hard to imagine the rise of a new Saya San in the near future for farmers as it is harder to fight your own flesh and blood than foreign 'bloodsuckers'. It will take more than Seven Samurais to get rid of the cancerous climate of fear and its agents in Burma, as the military itself is merely an agent of powerful neighbouring countries which only are mainly interested in getting cheap natural resources from Burma.

At the same time, farmers and the children of farmers who became soldiers, doctors, engineers and the like must change or at least improve our ways of thinking and modus operandi if we are to retain a hint of our traditions and identity. Burma is like a burning house and we can't save everything. What makes it worse is, most of us affected have been playing the crying and blaming game while the house burns.

Then again, in the past no one dared to think that peasants in China could defeat the mighty Chiang Kai Sheik government or that the mighty Shah of Iran could be overthrown by a religious figure. Look at the works of history and find in them hope or despair. But I do doubt if the majority of farmers would benefit from a successful revolution – which is one of the reasons why the farmers themselves are very reluctant to rebel against a government armed to the teeth. In any case, the farmers have too many things to do on the farms to survive and the best policy for any sensible government would be to leave them alone and let them do their jobs in peace. But will they? Paddy fields, jungles and villages have been the battlegrounds of greed and hatred for more than half a century in Burma and there is no sign that it will stop to be so.

Meanwhile, whether there is a government-appointed Peasants' Day in Burma or not – which incidentally is marked on the same day that Ne Win staged the military coup in 1962 – the role of the farmers is still being overlooked by all those involved who are wasting their time on theoretical matters which lead us nowhere and not taking action.

It's also time to think carefully whether it is successive constitutions and elections that have been feeding Burma every day or the 'peasants' and other hardworking people, and to look for more pragmatic strategies to help the country.

But one thing is certain – farmers will be the true inheritors of the earth for bad or for worse, as we will still have to eat the food they grow and the animals they feed.



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Burmese PM Agrees to Election Monitors

Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
By MIN LWIN Monday, March 2, 2009

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein reportedly said he would allow United Nations officials and developed countries to monitor the military-sponsored 2010 election during a meeting with his counterpart Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Asean Summit in Thailand.

The Burmese junta will allow United Nations officials to observe its long-awaited general election next year, the Thailand-based Bangkok Post newspaper said on Sunday.

The newspaper quoted Thai deputy government spokesman Suphachai Jaisamut who said Thein Sein told PM Abhisit Vejjajiva that Burma would allow UN special Burma envoy Ibrahim Gambari and the UN staff to observe the election.



Burma also wanted observers from developed countries to monitor the election, the newspaper reported. No countries were named.

The move was seen by some as an effort to move the momentum for the election forward, in the face of strong criticism from democracy groups inside and outside Burma.

“Before we even talk about monitoring the election, there has to be a constitutional review; there has to be a release of [political] prisoners,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday. “There has to be freedom of association and freedom of expression.”

“Otherwise, there is no free and fair [election]—there is no need to hold an election,” she said.

Meanwhile, many Burmese opposition groups have said they will not take part in the election unless the recently approved constitution is reviewed and amended.

The National League of Democracy (NLD), Burma’s main opposition party, has declared it will not take part in the election unless the regime releases all political prisoners, starts a dialogue between pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s leader and reviews the 2008 constitution.

Recently, the NLD said it did not agree with a joint-statement by UN special envoy Gambari and Japan Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, saying international countries should encourage the Burmese junta to hold general elections in 2010 in a form that would be accepted by the international community.

Nyan Win, an NLD spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy that the joint statement was not consistent with NLD positions as well as resolutions by the UN General Assembly which honor the 1990 election results, which were not implemented by the military regime.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

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Thailand: ASEAN Grapples With Economic Crisis And Myanmar

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/21817?tid=37

2009-03-02 09:48

ASEAN leaders join in a traditional handshake at closing ceremonies Sunday, 1 March 2009, in Cha-am, Thailand, at the 14th ASEAN Summit. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/David Longstreath)
CHA-AM, THAILAND: Southeast Asian leaders vowed Sunday (1 March) to push ahead with ambitious plans to become a European Union-style economic community by 2015 despite roadblocks posed by the global financial crisis and Myanmar's dismal human rights record.

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded its 14th annual summit with a statement saying leaders had agreed to refrain from imposing new trade barriers and would stand firm against protectionism in their quest to create a single market in the next seven years.

The statement also called for "bold and urgent reform of the international financial system" that would take into account the needs of developing nations.

As the export-dependant nations of ASEAN grappled with the region's pressing economic woes, the bloc was forced, yet again, to confront the democratic shortcomings of Myanmar, whose military junta has ignored global demands to free an estimated 2,100 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The summit was the first since the group signed a landmark charter in Dec that makes ASEAN a legal entity, like the EU, and moves it a step closer to its goal of integration.

The summit aimed to highlight the charter's championship of human rights, but the issue suffered a setback when Myanmar and Cambodia refused to hold prearranged talks Saturday (28 Feb) with pro-democracy activists from their countries.



Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the leaders held an "open discussion" with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein about the country's so-called roadmap to democracy, which is supposed to culminate in elections next year _ the first in almost two decades.

"ASEAN leaders encouraged Myanmar to continue to cooperate with the United Nations and make sure that the roadmap continues according to plan," said Abhisit, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN.

Myanmar made no public statement during the summit.

ASEAN's goal of forming a single market mainly involves lifting trade barriers but not, at this point, adopting a common currency.

The closing statement said leaders "reaffirmed their commitment to implement measures adopted in the ASEAN Economic Blueprint," which calls for economic and some political and security integration by 2015, adding that the scope for regional cooperation must be expanded.

"ASEAN countries are firmly committed to free trade and will do whatever we can to make sure that no countries resort to protectionist measures to try to ease their way out of the crisis," Abhisit told a news conference.

The pledge was echoed by Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who told reporters, "All of us are of one mind that we are anti-protectionism."

Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila told The Associated Press there was reluctance to push ahead with the goal of dropping all trade barriers by 2015.

"Some ministers during unofficial discussions on the sidelines were saying that in the light of the global meltdown of course the local industries were affected," he said. "But those are just sentiments. You know everybody has to follow the leaders' instructions: Do it by 2015."

Summit delegates also worked on the formation of the region's first official human rights body, but critics noted that the body, expected to begin functioning by October when the leaders meet for their next summit, would lack power to punish violators such as Myanmar with expulsion or sanctions. ASEAN has followed a policy of "engagement" with Myanmar and noninterference in its internal affairs.

Saturday's incident _ when leaders from Cambodia and Myanmar threatened to walk out rather than meet pro-democracy activists invited to the talks _ proved a ready-made example of ASEAN's impotence in regulating human rights.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel said no one has come up with a viable strategy to reform Myanmar's entrenched military regime.

"The sanctions based approach hasn't worked, the ASEAN engagement approach hasn't worked," Marciel said, reiterating recent comments by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state. "There isn't any obvious way ahead."

Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo, whose country is one of ASEAN's more vocal critics of Myanmar, urged the junta to heed global demands for reform.

"For Myanmar, we continue to hope that because of the ASEAN charter and the forthcoming ASEAN human rights body that among other things they immediately release Aung San Suu Kyi," Romulo told AP, referring to Myanmar's pro-democracy leader who has been in detention for most of the last 19 years.

ASEAN's 10 members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The bloc encompasses a region of more than 500 million people, including two communist regimes, two constitutional monarchies, a military dictatorship and fledgling democracies.

Its leaders are scheduled to meet again in Thailand 10-12 April with its three principle partners outside the region _ China, Japan and South Korea. (By JOCELYN GECKER/ AP)

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Ambika Ahuja contributed to this report.

MySinchew 2009.03.02

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