The media war in Kachin State continues, with the The New Light of Myanmar ramping up the regularity of its coverage. Earlier I pointed out the months of quiet — when the Kachin war was completely missing from Burma’s official news. There are now almost daily reports from Kachin State, with stories on everything from the explicitly tactical to the charmingly mundane. The most recent tells us:
KIA (Kachin) armed group blasts Myitkyina-Mandalay railroad again
NAY PYI TAW, 1 May- About one and a half miles from Hsahmaw railway station on Myitkyina- Mandalay railroad, about two-foot rail tracks and nine sleepers of east and west rail tracks were destroyed in double mine blasts plotted by KIA (Kachin) Armed Group at 1.05 am today.
Fifteen 200-gram TNTs, 13 detonators, six eight-inch tripwires and two intensification explosives were found near the damaged rail track and 18 200-gram TNTs and related items 75 yards from the scene by the officials who deactivated the explosives.
A Kachin national who is in service in Nay Pyi Taw said he doubted whether KIA are doing the good for the people as they proclaimed because of such destruction of non-military targets and public places — railways, motor roads and bridges – and firing heavy weapons to villages, undermining transportation and socioeconomic standards of national people in Kachin State.-MNA
The remarkable part of this brief story is the paraphrashing of a “Kachin national who is in service in Nay Pyi Taw”. He isn’t named, nor do we hear him in his own words. For me at least, this sums up the old school approach to news reporting still practiced at The New Light.
On the Kachin Independence Army side, where media savvy has long been considered a strategic commodity, some must be chuckling into their tsa pi.
It is at once hilarious and sad.
Similar crowd to people who used to write filthy things on Aung San Suu Kyi are now helping their clumsy literal brothers-in-arms who with millions of dollars worth of ammunitions from China and Russia wasting away (yet people insist the poverty is due to this big, bad sanction- so now and soon all are going to be out of poverty like that Ashton woman said-can’t wait) with helicopters, 105 mm canons and all, has no realistic chance of beating far less staffed and equipped Kachin. The young Burmese soldiers’ blood is expendable whether it was 3000 or not.
Sad because there is really a ready audience to swallow them whole. And the enlightened free press and the opposition?
One might indeed ask!
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It’s an unfortunate fact that the state media is set in aspic regardless of the recent flourishing of private media outlets some close to the govt circles and even acting as cheer leaders but producing some very readable stuff with excellent colour photos.
The New Light still reads like The Working People’s Daily and the old NLM, with an unchanging diet of dignitaries (lists of names with full designation making up considerable column inches) opening ceremonies, giving awards, inspecting projects, receiving foreign state officials and so on plus public exhortations and ritual condemnations of the internal and external destructive elements including one kalama until recently.
A fair indication of the old mindset still in operation despite some good PR stunts of late and more importantly a very successful charm offensive. I guess they do know which side their bread is buttered and how to get it. Still on a roll with everyone cheering on, east and west, drowning out the Kachin’s voice.
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Yes, it must be amusing for KIA and trying to figure it out what it means with the help of tsa pi!
Burmese state media creates more stories on Kachin while eliminates some sentences like “Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding negative”.
The irony for me is that nowadays even Burmese exiled media is quoting more on state media as though it is a credible source for “truth reporting”.
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Alas! I thought hardliners only exist in military regimes. Yes, I have to say that majority of the Kachin who lives along to the border have so many options with their lives. Over 50% of them have Chinese relatives in the other side of the border. KIA leaderships are not 100% Kachin. They all mixed with Chinese. They can speak, read and write Chinese when no white-faced men (as they call them) around. It will be an extremist view when one believes majority of, over 70% of 1.5 million in this case, ethnic people in Kachin state live in or around KIA controlled territory. Anyone can make an educated guess that it is a complete dollop when someone say KIA (who does not respresent Kachin people) came to the explosion site and severed the arms, legs and heads of the victims. Anyone who watches MythBusters can tell you these are the result of the impact. Unless someone must have been watching SAW too many times. If one upholds a view that everything suffering and misfortune happened to Kachin or any other ethic group such as Chin, Mon, Karen, Rakhine (including Bangaladashis who calling themselves ethnic Rohingyas) were and are the sole making and direct result of Burmese Army (or wilfully misspelled ‘That’madaw, Burmese Royalist Killers Army) than they are no different from the egoistic and chauvinistic military commanders of Burma past and present, U Ne Win and U Than Shwe included. (I used ‘U’ title because my upbringing taught me even I a person disgusting nauseating it is not right for me to treat him or her with disrespect.)
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The reason behind the conclusion made earlier is that they, U Ne Win, U Than Shwe including my great uncle who was a decorated military commander and divisional chief of eastern division, who later become a minister, kept the view that ‘all ethnic conflicts, civil war and as a result failed economy and untold suffering of people of Burma were caused by British Colonial Rulers and the interest groups these old master formed after in the West to continue the cause’ till the end. In this 21st century, even Americans are growing tired of constantly gulping ‘American Exceptionalism’ that the conservative groups in the upper echelon keep feeding them. However Victorian era commentaries remind me of the “Importance of Being Earnest”. They are classic and hugely enjoyable.
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There is no disputing the role of colonialism past and neo-colonialism present in kindling the fires of communal strife and stoking them up. It’s evident all over the planet.
It is incumbent upon the govt in power nonetheless to find a genuine political solution and end the over six decade old civil war on all fronts and to bring peace and progress that all the peoples of Burma deserve and long for. The political will however is conspicuous by its absence all along, and ‘peace talks’ have a track record of being merely tactical retreats to buy time and wriggle out of a crisis. Worse, keeping the fires smoldering serves the raison d’etre of military domination by stoking up the fear of Balkanisation.
Easy enough to coopt the NLD after wearing it down for so long given its total commitment to non-violence, not so in the case of people who uphold their right to armed resistance and are prepared to carry on indefinitely. It takes two to tango, and legitimate grievances that urgently need to be addressed a plenty. And it’s obvious which side needs to show magnanimity and fairness. Noblesse oblige.
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The last news of Kachin deaths, whether it is true or not as truth never matters in the Burma, being picked up by foreign media outlets immediately hopefully is because of the significance of the number of death.
If not, the other interpretation is the international media forces of WMD fame is joining forces with military government (yes, yes – clothes changed- lovely nice civilian democratic wonderful government) to beat up the Kachin as well because as far as the global pathetic business concern ( which owns these media) is concerned, Chinese interest ( The Dam, The Pipe, The mines) is global interest.
It does make the world a lot, a lot sadder.
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U Ne Win, U Than Shwe including my great uncle who was a decorated military commander and divisional chief of eastern division, who later become a minister,
Aung at #5,
Sounds like your great uncle was that notorious Brigadier Than Tin who was the CO of Eastern Command and later Minister for Mines?
Was he also credited for inventing that brutal Cut-4-cuts (Phyat-lay-phyat) operations in the delta and wiped out the Karens and communists?
Is he still alive or now in hell for all the atrocities he committed there?
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Well U Moe Aung, ‘..one big heavy sigh….’, I have to say he is not the one you mentioned and I am sorry if I have wasted your precious little time. There are 3 commands in the eastern part of Burma according to wikipedia under ‘Myanmar army’. Someone has to be in charge of South Western Command in order to lead an operation in the Irrawaddy Delta, don’t you think? Then again, I might be wrong as Wikipedia is not 100% reliable unlike your sources. I cannot tell you whether my great uncle committed similar atrocities. I would not have a clue even if he did because these matters were never discussed at the family table. I know it sounds very convenient but it is the truth. I had been their favourite boy until one day I refused to be a groomsman at one of my uncles wedding because I did not want to wear the uniform. But I can tell you this, that I believe he did exactly what his senior officers order him to do because of the fact that he was trained to follow orders and carry them out accordingly as any other military officers whether he or she graduated from West Point, Sandhurst or Duntroon. I was told my great uncle passed away peacefully in his home a couple of years ago. Unlike him, the final chapter of my great aunt who brought untold atrocities on KIA children; children of of service men and women killed during the ongoing conflicts who were involuntarily put to work as domestic servants by their families due to financial hardships mainly from loss of income, wasn’t all smooth. She suffered a stroke, was unable to speak or feed herself for a number of years before her pass, two years before my great uncle.
I have to say I have huge respect for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi since I’ve seen her at Shwedagon Pagoda site, when I was a member of RITSU Rangoon Institute of Technology Student Union. While I see her as the living treasure of Myanmar, I find it frustrating to see the actions and behaviours of a number of oversea Myanmar groups who indefinitely use her image to advance their personal and political gains without asking her prior permission. I hardly doubt that she will refuse any if requested. It will be nice if she can have prior knowledge of them.
My main concern right now however is the safety of her well-being as the extremist wing of KIA might attempt on her life as the last resort if their military objectives fail. Please see http://www2.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=19396.
Then it will be a real ’2012 apocalypse’ for Myanmar and all the poor souls it bore.
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Enjoy the victory parade of KIA who raided a Myanmar army outpost in this youtube clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy-MWSM1bpA. Readers please note the video contains graphic content. Hopefully the poor guys will be treated according to the Geneva Conventions.
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Don’t be fool by Burmese run media, unless you’re so naive. The truth is The New Light of Myanmar was trying to cover the lost control of Burma Army in Pang Wa and other locations along the Chinese border by manipulating the reports, saying 29 rebles deaths. Actually most of them are civilians who were killed by Burma Army helicopter attack. KIA claimed 8 of its troops died during the raid of Pang Wa town and shot down a Burma Army helicopter. The news is KIA controls major border passes along the Chinese Border in Kachin State; Loije, Laiza, Kampaiti, Pang Wa. Sadly, some Burmese exile medias report the news by sourcing NLM. What kind of media ethic is that?
On the other hand, Why New Light of Myanmar tight lip on the casualties of Burmese soldiers during the 11 months war with KIA. The so called Burmese civilian government not even dare to informed the families of Burmese deceased soldiers. What kind of Burmese government and Burmese society is????Keep lying until end of the world?????????
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Pay attention, Aung. Understandable if a non-Burmese person gets Moe Aung and Aung Moe mixed up but not you.
Doubt it if the fortunes of a retired military govt minister/former divisional commander and his family can bear any similarity to those of a rank and file army veteran even if old age is not kind on anyone.
And BTW the “only obeying orders” defense has a long and infamous history. So you might want to reconsider before you recycle it in future.
Why would the KIA make an attempt on ASSK’s life just because she’s been coopted? It’s their American friends they should have some real beef with for letting them down. They still have friends like Sen. Mitch McConnell batting for them.
And why should people need her permission to use her image? It’s in the public domain. But whether we agree with her or not, she has never approved of violence as a means to achieve political goals, Bamar or ethnic.
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“….violence as a means to achieve political goals…”
Violence is simply dumb.
It is bankruptcy of intelligence as is the harsh words being bankruptcy to a degree itself.
Main example is the another much celebrated Nelson Mandala.
ANC never denounced, and does not do now , violence and it is the direct cause of slow progress in South Africa as a nation beset with civil violence driving away large number of essential professionals to UK, Australia and New Zealand with enormous benefit to these countries from the loss of the South African public.
Even with the nonviolence principles, Burma does have the real danger of greed and moral erosion as well as drug and drinking issues which are likely increase violence in the street in the near future, unless this imminent consumer goods craze can be nipped in the bud by moral authorities which we have aplenty but not necessarily engaged. Observing Five Precepts which people have forgotten will do wonders to Burma compared to each having iPAD’s.
Coming back to something people might not like but vital, even though Aung San Suu Kyi does not approve violence, her resolute public silence on the currently escalating largest and the most aggressive use of military troops on their own citizens in the history of Burma with demonstrable loss of lives and properties to ordinary people is regrettable.
Or in New Burma, is objecting the killing also “hard line” now?
Or picking up the same sentence, is “…violence as a means to achieve commercial goals..” acceptable?
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While people are fixated on the conflict with the Kachins, the Chinese are quietly going about their own business – like providing arms to the United Wa State Army.
http://networkedblogs.com/xk1LA
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When it’s used to keep a nation down in all its diversity and untapped potential, violence is not simply dumb, but repressive and devastatingly stunting to the development and growth of a country.
The South Africa parallel has always been spurious since –
a. the ANC had a military wing,
b. isolation of the apartheid regime was complete,
c. the issue was B&W literally and metaphorically, and last but not least, after regime change (relevant to the future in store for us too),
d. it simply shifted from white rule to class rule over a divided society between the haves and the have-nots as erstwhile freedom fighters like Messrs. Tokyo Sexwale & Cyril Ramaphosa became the ruling class. So here Ohn’s extrapolating question at the end becomes prescient.
The moral is it pays either way eventually whether you choose to ‘fight’ with both arms tied or not; it’s the people who lose on account of the corrupting nature of power that changes the behaviour of the leadership.
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Tamadaw and WA has supply of inexhaustible supply of arms.
How has KIA maintained the supply without assist from Guns & Ammos® enthusiasts like yourself?
Charles F. #14
Good call, no great call!
Chinese has a solid history of playing both ways in the history of Myanmar.
Consummate protector of SPDC has more to loose with present dawn of re engagement.
There are ALWAYS more than TWO parties involved in any conflicts.
When are these others protagonists be recognized by the West media and bu UN?
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Moe Aung, Mitch McConnell’s support for the Kachins is so last year; you really need to keep up with the times, although I’ll admit that is a tall order these days. Look at the picture and see who he was shaking hands with in January of this year: http://www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22872. The amazing thing was I saw virtually no coverage of this visit in the US press, even though it was taking place during yet another congressional Republican faux existential struggle with the president. You’d think the Senate Minority Leader skipping town during a conflict with the President to shake hands with some foreigner would warrant some coverage, but I guess joint worship of unrighteous Mammon by his loyal minions is so commonplace it isn’t worth mentioning these days.
Plan B, as I pointed out before, Laiza isn’t getting its electricity from Lawpita or the Hoover Dam. But while China has a history of playing both ways, I would also point out that if they really thought their consummate lackey the SPDC could, you know, actually govern the country they wouldn’t be so flagrantly supporting both sides. They won’t even completely close the border, cut off the electricity and shut down cell phone service even though their dam and oil pipeline projects are on hold because of the fighting. The glorious Tatmawdaw can’t even accomplish its main self -appointed task, preventing the disintegration of the Union. So I guess you’re backing Aung San Suu Kyi for president in 2015, right?
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Another in a continuing series of careless, useless posts by plan B.
What does Guns And Ammo magazine have to do with the Chinese PLA arming the KIO?
You should think before you write.
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The intention was to point to the fact that a revolution incorporating violence is like breeding a monster, the violence sticks around forever.
But South Africa does have a lot of parallel.
Indeed farmer Jone’s pigs always behave like human over time.
That will be a worry for Burma down the road, like in the name of national progress (For the Greater Good) , NLD might start putting the (future) demonstrators in jail as demonstration is not NLD style! Not even a quiet one. In fact none. No amount of killing, torturing, burning rice storage and villages are ever enough for protest as there must be NO confrontation. Otherwise one would become a hardliner!!!
Money and racism. Somehow those two evils are excellent bedfellows.
Burmese chauvinism is a racism. And all the wars happen in money earning area- diamond, gold, drug, jade, teak, gas pipes, border trades.
Old Cecil Rhodes started De Beers first before bleating Anglo-Sexon Supremacy. Afrikaners then are caught red handed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/apartheid-made-in-britain-richard-dowden-explains-how-churchill-rhodes-and-smuts-caused-black-south-africans-to-lose-their-rights-1370856.html
The West does have something like a “Deifying Machine”.
When old man Mandela was in the can forever, 26 year old Winnie held the candle- a hot, burning one, for a long, long time. She was the mother of the nation- young, beautiful and respected. Later she did go off the rails with Serpei murder and necklacings.
Well before that, her crime was being a “hardliner”. One would have feeling that she is not lacking in connection and cunningness of Ramaphosa at the opposite end. But for all her faults, she sticks with the poor blacks.
Funny how none of the West-defied persons are hardliners including Havel. They do come out of the scream and shout group but then distinguish themselves by being a collaborator- a celebrated ones usually carefully choreographed in details.
Back to Burma, most important things are to have real peace where all killings, even the ones by the brand new lovely democratic government, are objected and stopped and to progress in such a way that the most beautiful social system, religionSSS, and social traditionss as well as environment are kept intact while using education and technology to make it happen for every single citizen.
For the dangling prize of catching up with the ASEAN business (which itself is simply dumb), people are ready to sell out anything and every thing to any buyer even though they cannot make a drop of water or an ounce of clean air themselves.
It plays right into the game of the multinational companies and their agents – “democratic” governments and the international financing agencies, development agencies
When IMF says there is a great chance of being a rich country, it means they know they have greedy, covetous audience, and they feel they can take them a for a ride.
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True, aiontay. There has been a consensus behind the support for ASSK, and now Messrs. Webb, McCain and Mitchell are all endorsing the great reforming president. Others such as Kurt Campbell however aren’t so ready to throw caution to the wind, although you get the feeling they are really all in it together since what is to them fundamentally at stake is Burma joining the new world order. So a convergence of interests and a joint effort can be expected, and the Kachin’s plight will be relegated to a lower level of priorities.
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Plan B, you have no idea what’s going in Kachin War. Don’t you know how many hundreds of Burmese soldiers were unnecessarily killed by KIA’s remote control mine. KIA doesn’t need Guns & Ammos. They don’t even know it. Don’t you know WA & KIA have its own ammunition industry??China doesn’t need to supply directly.
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KIA is so good at making mines and being experts at laying them, locals in Myitkyinar are now joking that “Koh-mine-ko-nin-KIA” meaning KIA is frequently blowing up themselves accidentally with their own mines.
Private Burmese news journals in Rangoon are frequently reporting the photos of dead KIA men killed and horribly mutilated when the mines they were laying accidentally gone off in their faces.
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