The Kachin affair is a Bamar affair. In more ways than one.
The Kachin — long connected to Burma — are taken as kinsman by the common Burmese people. Even disregarding their forceful integration by way of “model villages” and the like, there have been long and intricate associations between the Kachin and Burma’s lowland dwellers.
At the same time, there is a palpable increase in chauvinistic attitudes in some quarters drummed up by the military which traditionally has an intensely racist, chauvinistic foundation. The three Warrior Kings of the statutes in (horridly named) Naypyidaw were all Burmese (Bamar).
Still, there have been concerted efforts by the common people of lowland Burmese to stop Burma’s wars by congregating for peace prayer sessions at Botataung Pagoda in Yangon.
After Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, those grass-root movements paradoxically stopped but are now picking up again without her official blessing or involvement. This culminated in the largest public demonstration in Yangon since 2007 seen on the International Day of Peace, 21September 2012. So the Kachin affair is now becoming a Bamar affair.
With the impetus coming from the grass-roots of the Bamar public.
But it is worrying that another interpretation of “Kachin affairs being Bamar affairs” is the extraordinary number of Bamar military casualties reported from the front lines by the Kachin News Group. This point has also generated some discussion on New Mandala in the past.
Realistically, the number of casualties is never going to be known unless the warring parties publish them with credible evidence. The Kachin article quoted Bamar military deaths at 10,000 in the space of one and a half years. It is concerning as the reports of deaths are increasing in recent months than earlier times. With the rainy season gone, there are likely to be more engagements. At the same time, the battle lines which were around the dams where the first skirmishes took place in June 2011, and along the Chinese gas pipeline, have now widened to the commercial jade production area of Hpakant. Attacks around and towards the Kachin capital of Myitkyina are also being talked about.
Even if half of the casualties reported are true, it is disturbing that there is no demonstration of anguish among the Burmese people regarding such large, rapid losses. Not a single even remotely related report is found in the newly supposedly “free” media inside or outside the country about the effect of these casualties on the Burmese populace in general or their close relatives in particular. This is something the American military may want to learn from their new best friends, Burmese military counterparts. A lesson in how to keep a tight lid on any repercussions from huge casualties. Intense and absolute repression: deception lesson 101.
It does raise the question of the voicelessness of the Bamar soldiers and their relatives.
Ohn is a commentator on contemporary Burmese politics
KIA has declared their losses so far as at least 2,000 killed. Out of 2,000 deaths 220 were accidental deaths caused by premature explosion of KIA land mines.
KIA’s Burmese bodycount of 10,000 is unbelievably ridiculous as it was at least 2 Light infantry division of men with at least 350 commissioned officers.
AS the families of fallen commissioned officers are officially allowed to put up death notices of their love ones, that body count will cause massive death notices in the Newspapers.
I haven’t seen that happening for this Kachin War so far. But I’d seen it at the height of Kayin War in the late 1990s.
Maybe the KIA just multiplied their deaths by 5 to reach such a ridiculously high Burmese bodycount.
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A correction is in order.
It appears no soldier was dead enough to be put in officially allowed death notices in the newspapers in the last one and a half years. Apologies!
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It is not a fluke that the 3 warriors kings were chosen to be at the (horridly named) Naypyidaw as well as in Pyin U Lwin.
Anawretha, Bayinnaung and Alaunpaya are all unifier of Myanmar.
There is even a belief among the graduating cadets at Pyin U Lwin that if Maha Bandoola has not been killed the historic outcome might have been different.
Therefore creating generations of graduates that aspire to be Maha Bandoola. Explaining well the tenacity that will ensure a bitter end as in the Bamar vs Kayin tragedy.
Whether the blood shed is of a Bamar, Kachin or Kayin they are all brothers.
Suggesting otherwise will surely invite useless careless third party intervention that we have seen just recently.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi portrayed Myanmar as Democracy vs dictatorship sans consideration to a citizenry well being.
Dubious HR organizations profiting from portrayal of Myanmar military regime as the worst HR violator while themselves advancing policy that permanently induce poverty especially of hope, an ultimate HR violation.
These are but a few examples that must be addressed in order to end the ever eventual quagmire of Bamar vs ??ethnic groups.
Present dangers facing Myanmar is more than the West’s policy induced SPDC survival strategy of:
1) Khin Nyunt cease fire agreement that are meant to be broken b/t Bamar and various ethnic groups.
2) but also the dangerous conditions in the Yakhine state due to neglect and poverty.
The level of violence is fast approaching a point of self propagation/no return.
With the availability of arms from the ongoing Middle East conflicts how long before a situation like Mali manifesting in western Myanmar?
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“The Kachin affair is a Bamar affair.”
This tittle might suggest and remind one of ongoing tragedy of brothers against brothers bloodshed.
Yet failure to mention any preceding conditions that prompted this continuum of events, a present quagmire, makes this article another obvious white washing of the useless careless third party’s sin.
Even for a casual westener the glaring truth about Bamar dominance through out history is undeniable.
Yet the past efforts of the third party since colonial time has been to diminish or change this reality .
Lest other forgotten the third party sin of ‘neglect’ followed by ‘unrelenting denigration’ knowing well (as in Cuba) that the resulting deprivation of over 6 decades will assure an intransigent Bamar regime that bend on survival at any cost.
Myanmar is a Buddhist nation. Unlike the majority of Christian Kachin, expecting outcry from the casualty is at best unprecedented and at the worst either a westerner fantasy or longing to return to the useless careless yesteryear policy by this New Mandala contributor.
War must always be an extension to a political solution.
Knowing the “Everything is a nail to a hammer” concept of any military regime, it is now imperative that a political solution be worked out by those/experts who use Wars as a last resort .
The question is where are these experts?
From Daw AUng San Suu Kyi, the great West’s hope, to UN an its litany of provocateurs (at least a dozen)that are so quick on condemning the HR violation.
Will they now come up with a lasting solutions to this enduring quagmire that they help created?
“This is something the American military may want to learn from their new best friends, Burmese military counterparts. A lesson in how to keep a tight lid on any repercussions from huge casualties. Intense and absolute repression: deception lesson 101.”
Or will they chime in with this contributor bemoaning the continuing bloodshed that seem to denigrate the a Bamar’s worth over a Kachin’s?
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Thanks for this long discourse Plan B.
The root of the problem, as it everywhere in Burma, comes back down to absolute chauvinsitic, domineering/ bullying attitude of the Bamar Sit-tut since the time of Ne Win.
Instead of getting better as everyone is screaming hoarse, it is now hugely magnified as the current practitioners of this raicist, chauvinistic, yet at once cowardly, policy are pampered by self-serving your “western” business communities and their lackeys- the western “Democratic” begging-shamelessly-for-money-at-each-election governments and the international bodies who always sing the exact required tune every time the Americans put a dime in the slot.
It is totally unintended if one gets the impression that loss of life of one race is different to another. Bamar, Kachin, Karen, Rohingya, a life is a life. Any losss is regrettable. And equally.
The point of the article is total lack of any mention in any media at all of the effect of the loss of large number of lives. That’s all. It is concerning.
Are they (dead people) worthless? Is there a pool of worthless surplus lives around in Burma for gun (mine) fodder?
Where are the voice of their relatives and friends in and outside the forces? One does see the Kachin losses mourned and decried.
That makes the current vioceless/ unrepresented Burmese society unhealthy apart from the sheer loss.
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It takes
1)”This Bamar government” that you have unfairly characterized, yet knowing the historical certainty of the behavior.
2)The equally irresponsible ethnic leaders that choose war over negotiation knowing the eventual quagmire of illustrated too well in the ongoing longest civil war of Bamar vs Kayin.
3)West incessant useless careless intervention of last few decades.
to arrive at this juncture.
Why that this 3 legged sustained quagmire can be now be resolve with 2 legged attribute ?
The losses among the Tamadaw is pale in comparison to the loss of #3 effect during the Nagis period where instead of pure humanitarian effort the incidence is used unprecedentedly against SPDC.
However you might be on to something when you mentioned “the worth of a citizenry” to the West be it a Bamar or a Kachin.
The ongoing animosity b/t the Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Yakhine is what will be driving the West policy for the near future.
A certain blind eye to this regime excesses.
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Bamar Government unfairly criticized!
That is perfectly OK Plan B. You need not worry. No one in that government of yours understands “fair”.
In fact there was no criticism. It was stating the plain facts.
Chauvinistic Sit-tut. Sold the country to Papa cheap, still thinking it was smart. Now killing, raping, looting everything in the way.
These are facts!
Philosophically it is hard to know which way. What is best way to do if someone comes in with guns, helicopters and mines to your place which they have already pre-sold in advance to kill you? To curl up and die or fight back?
There is plenty of money around. Not because Thein Sein or Aung San Suu Kyi or any one is so great. But because there are things in Burma saleable, to make money. Whether the people of Burma want it or not never features. They certainly will spend their and their descendants’ lives in hard and harsh labour camps and rehab centres to pay back only the interest on those sacks of money everyone is drooling for.
For that amount of money, Sit-tut can buy all the armed people. That is what is supposed to be called “Peace Process”. Look at Harn Lay’s cartoon.
http://drlunswe.blogspot.co.nz/search?updated-max=2012-10-26T20:04:00%2B07:00&max-results=12
“Peace Process” is indeed “Piece Process”. Dividing the country and its wealth among the armed groups. Nothing more, nothing less. And cowardly lying to the public. And posturing like saviours. Sick! (Now, this is criticism.)
Karen armed groups want a cut from the ports, roads, rails, trading posts, exorbitant land prices, Norwegian money, and SEZ’s – disposable, indentured, labour camps- and they will copy the decadent Burmese ways now.
Even if they want to, the leadership of Kachin will not be able to sell their public to drown their entire ancestral land and having Pipes with attendant Bamar Sit-tut all over their place, even if Aung San Suu Kyi seems to give tacit blessing just like she, like Pope, gives blessings to everything this military does with or without these trendy, ridiculous lu-byat gaung-paungs.
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Is Ohn (the guest contributor) from the KIA propaganda office? He sounds so awfully one-sided. Poor NM seems to have depleted all its previous Burma contributors!
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The public of the country Burma’s side, regardless of ethnicity or religion or occupation for that matter.
Remember the article was about the Burmese soldiers and their families.
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U Aung Moe,
“Poor NM seems to have depleted all its previous Burma contributors!”
Improbable as this statement was, it is serious concern for Burma.
It is funny that people keep on saying Burma is so, so poor!
The curse of the uncountable!
Yes. Burma is poor if one looks at countable. Dollars per person, number of cars, high rises, paved roads, megawatts, that all important GDP, so on and so forth. But Burmese are rich in their own way of morality, community spirit,easy contentment, ready smile, observation of social norms,caring for each other, etc. which more than make up for the countable. And the Burmese are losing all of them now,fast.
Not that things do not need to be improved but if things are to improve, it must be only if it does not mean losing any of these uncountable , irreplaceable, precious national characteristics.
To do that, there is one uncountable sorely and sadly missing.There comes your point.
The contributors for a healthy debate.
Here we are in the cusp of momentous change. Not because the country got that “Instant democracy: Just add water, complete with famous CoverGirl”, or military is, if anything, more potent and powerful than ever in Ne Win’s time (something to be proud of?), but because of the invitation by that omnipotent military for the “liberal democracies” into the country.
Here we are,in a world beset by financial crisis on the verge of total monetary collapse with Doomsday Preppers doing better business then ever, and that fact barely covered up by immense concerted western effort which itself is failing,with daily rising debts in all the “Liberal democracies” which they are NEVER going to pay back ever,and the ill effects of the global financial institutions and trade groupings causing more chaos than help so that people are either demonstrating against them or questioning their very existence.
Yet people of Burma are told this is their lucky day, the WB is going to land money! To build trade routes!
Typically such money, which of course is not real money but one of those thin air made up numbers even that 12 year-old canadian girgl knows about,( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5Sc3vWefE ) , goes to whoever is in power and WB’s own “mates” leaving the people of Burma the only benefit of having to pay exorbitant interest and loan money for decades if it is ever paid back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Qht7Hjm3s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOE7Ve06tXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbwZhCfO2GQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tqaLMOgPH0&feature=related
It may very well be that it is a very , very clever game these people are playing. Highly doubtful to say the least.
But regardless, unless Thein Sein will pay back all the money he takes from anywhere by himself, (the same goes for any one who wants that Pamela Cox’s money), the people who will end up paying back need to know what is being done (stolen) in their name, on what terms and what is involved.
Yes. That is never going to happen. And Aung San Suu Kyi is never going to tell the public what is going on either. She never has, and never will. Highly doubtful she is able to understand herself.
In these dangerous time, where the military is selling out the country or mortgaging the country, taking money which is mainly to benefit the loaners and themselves, there should be at the very least lively and active debates from people who have the knowledge and people who are going to be affected.
The most unhealthy thing of the current situation in Burma is just that.
There is no information of what is going on. And there is no debate. people are simply told that is it.
The very fact that very occasional meagre discussions are made in someone else’s “house” (New Mandala), however welcoming the hosts are, itself is an indictment of the pathetic situation of intellectual bankruptcy of the people of Burma inside and outside the country.
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A mishmash of concerns under category of ‘Politics’, Morality and Finance.
Politics: The very first time a military government has allowed an advancement in sorely needed development that is not achievable with guns. Albeit under the process of Road Map To Discipline Democracy.
Finance: Loans/Aide and investment, the vital fuel need in any economy. Any improvement in “Supply and demand” will ultimately improve all citizenry well being.
The concern about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi capability might be prove true yet. Myanmar is much more than the sum of struggle b/t DASSK and the military. Economic advisers are all readily available to all that wishes an economic for a successful Myanmar. At this point a better economy trounce every phobias.
Morality: Morality has always been the domain of religion and conscience. Through out decades of useless careless policy of deprivation Myanmar has overall done extremely well morally. CONSIDERING all religious and related humanitarian undertakings every where sans Ne Win’s and other dubious characters contribution of course, must surely make any citizenry of Myanmar hopeful and proud
The events in western Myanmar does however threaten to eclipse every positive process.
Let us hope this time Myanmar can out run it own past that created this quagmire.
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Apparent kidnapping of three soldiers, just like the tens of thousands killed in Kachin Land, attracts little or no interest by any one.
Apart from human tragedy for the three who will definately be ill-treated and may be killed in time-honoured fashion, and angusih of their dependents and the loves ones, and the people who are compelled to commit such heinous crime,it is too sad that the Human Rights Screaming Rohingya advocates of Rohingya descent or mostly White descent, found no voice to air for this particular tragedy.
worse, that was totally expected! Imagine that “Champion of Human Rights” Chris Lewa telling off the kidnappers!
But the total indifference of the people of Burma and those loud, loud monks is astounding.
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