Shan Herald Agency for News |
- Can we trust ourselves?
- Shan resistance explains drug cooperation with government, UNODC
- Repentance and political will key to Burma’s peace process
| Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:25 AM PDT  When the character played by Tommy Lee Jones in 'Lincoln' was questioned by a fellow politician how Lincoln could be trusted, he replied, in effect, "Mr…, I was under the mistaken impression that your chosen profession was politics."His words, in a nutshell, told us that in politics there are more important things than trust, no matter how important it is. It is a lesson many of our non-Burman leaders have yet to learn. In 2009, a year after the military drawn constitution was adopted by the military, Senior General Than Shwe, then junta supremo, reportedly called a close door meeting where he appointed who was going to be who after the 2010 "elections": Gen Thein Sein President Gen Thura Shwe Mann House Speaker Gen Min Aung Hlaing Commander-in-Chief etc. What followed were a series of surprises for all at home and abroad:
No doubt some of what the reader has read may not sound right, but yet others may. One leader recently asked SHAN almost the identical question from 'Lincoln': "How can we trust the Burmese government?" SHAN reminded him what sages long ago had counseled: Whether or not you trust someone is important But, more important is whether or not you trust yourself Ongoing trustbuilding programs and activities therefore are unquestionably very important. But, after reading between the lines here, the reader may also agree that the master key is the right understanding of the situation. | ||||||||
| Shan resistance explains drug cooperation with government, UNODC Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:25 AM PDT A booklet recently published by the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) says the tripartite cooperation with the government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) is most important in the ultimate solution of the long standing drug problem in the country. "Although the eventual solution of the drug problem rests with the political settlement, the drug situation among the people is so severe, the solution for the drug problem should be sought simultaneously with the search for the political solution," reads its Shan version.  The 82 page booklet has been presented in three languages: Shan, Burmese and English. All the data included in the report are before June 2013, before the RCSS/SSA leader Sao Yawd Serk made his historic trip to meet President Thein Sein in Naypyitaw, where he also discussed the drug issue with the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC).  The group had signed a 9 point agreement with the government and UNODC on 28 October 2012 for a pilot project in Mongnai and Mongpan township, in southern Shan State.The reason for the delay in the implementation was explained to SHAN by a top CCDAC official as shortage of funds, while the UNODC had attributed to the continued fighting between the Burma Army and the SSA South despite the ceasefire signed on 2 December 2011. The SSA South meanwhile says another reason was the security issue at the projected sites. The SSA had proposed that it should be a joint responsibility, while Naypyitaw insisted that there should be no SSA armed personnel. Yawd Serk later told SHAN, "There should be no unnecessary delay due to this because our troops with be operating outside the project sites anyway." According to the reports, the RCSS/SSA's Anti Narcotics Committee (ANC), headed by Sai Harn, Sai Wun Kherh and Sai Hseng Wan, had held:
The ANC also conducted a trial assessment in Mongnai and Mongpan and a month long training on illicit drugs eradication based on the experiences on the royal projects in Thailand. The RCSS/SSA received a Golden Eagle Award conferred by Privy Councilor Gen Pichit Kullavanich on 23 June 2012 for "Good relationship and Cooperating Information in Anti Narcotics (Campaign)." One American official, during a meeting with Yawd Serk, told him despite progress on the drug front being made, the United States was "still keeping its eyes wide open" on the RCSS/SSA. "I'm glad to hear you're are doing it," Yawd Serk replied. | ||||||||
| Repentance and political will key to Burma’s peace process Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:23 AM PDT Monday, 19 August 2013 After reading a recent piece, dated 16 August, written by Harn Yawnghwe, in DVB, titled: "Can President Thein Sein be trusted?" two crucial points raised, need to be emphasized. One is "engaging the Bama or Burman" and the other, the need to learn from our "past mistakes".  Sai Wansai I really don't think Harn Yawnghwe should worry about the non-Burman ethnic nationalities for not engaging the Bama or political power holder of the day seriously enough. The hard fact is that most of the ethnic armed movements have showed their enthusiastic appreciation and even signed initial ceasefire agreements with the Thein Sein government, responding to his peace and reconciliation calls shortly after he came to power in the early 2011, although ironically, the armed clashes still continue to these days unabated. To date, more than a hundred fire fights have been registered and the count is increasing with the ongoing armed clashes in Shan State, since the signing of ceasefire agreements between the government and both, the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) two years ago, and even not to mention the continued armed engagement with Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/KIA) in northern Shan State and Kachin State, despite an agreement signed two months earlier to deescalate the armed conflict with the Burma Army. The first reason for such continued armed engagements is due to Burma Army's military occupation of the ethnic homelands and treated them as its colonial possessions, employing almost all of its available armed forces. Secondly, it's so-called "area clearance and control" policy of continued military operations to subjugate the non-Burman ethnic nationalities, which pushed them to militarily engage the Burma Army in self defence. Politically, most of the armed ethnic groups are still engaged in peace and reconciliation talks with the quasi-civilian Thein Sein government, although substantial outcomes and concrete results are still out of reach. In short, it is somewhat like a form of "talking, while fighting", but nevertheless it is an engagement on both fronts, politically and militarily. I totally agree with Harn Yawnghwe on the fact that the conditions are not ideal and that we should make use of the existing chance or situation to open up a dialogue that might lead to a better solution. My take is that the non-Burman ethnic nationalities, particularly groups' members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) and United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), are in fact enthusiastically making use of the less than ideal situation to engage the Burmese generals, who are on active duty and as well, the retired-turned politicians. The UNFC statement on 02 August 2013, following the Ethnic Conference for Peace and National Reconciliation just merely spelled out their political position and in no way should be seen as rejecting the dialogue process. It is also true that the rebuilding of the new union should not be left alone to the Bama. But the fact is that the ethnic nationalities need a basic cooperation from the powers-that-be in Naypyitaw, plus the Burmese military, that they are ready to revert back to the original promise of the federal form of governance, which have been agreed on the eve of the independence from the British, at Panglong, in 1947, without any deviation. Harn Yawnghwe has openly said that first the ethnic nationalities must accept the 2008 Constitution and the Thein Sein government as a pre-condition to engage in reconciliation talks. But the problem is how the ethnic nationalities could abandon their political goal of rebuilding a genuine federalism, if they have to yield to the present, presidential unitary system. This will amount to the abandonment of their long struggle to regain their rights of self-determination, democracy and equality, within the mold of "unity in diversity". One could hardly give up your political commitment or goal by accepting the opposite or contrary political system anchored in presidential unitary form of government. To put it differently, the ethnic nationalities could not surrender their political rights and aspiration of a genuine federalism and accept a Bama-dominated unitary, central control system, without question. In short, engagement on an equal term should be accepted and promoted, but definitely not the "negotiated surrender" trend in any form. Certainly, we can all learn from our mistakes, provided one has a "political will", accept the real course of history and has enough courage to "call a spade a spade". Tragically, the agreed principle of building a genuine federal system of government has never taken off from the ground, as all the architects, General Aung San and his cabinet members, gearing up to form a new political entity, based on federal structure, were all assassinated before it took place, on the 19 July 1947. All know that the non-Burman ethnic nationalities have joined the union, voluntarily and in good faith. If there is anything we could learn from our past mistakes, it is to honour Panglong Agreement in words and deeds. The rejection of building a true federal union, from the part of the Burmese military, and hijacking of the country's political power for itself have to be accepted as a cardinal sin and failure, if real reconciliation is to be started. There is a saying in Burmese that "if one doesn't know the real illness, appropriate medicine cannot be found". The same goes for the political and ethnic conflicts in Burma. In short, the Burmese military and the Thein Sein regime must embrace the fact that the successive military regimes have trampled upon the Panglong Agreement and its spirit and sought to build a unitary, centralized, Burman-dominated State for more than half a century, without success. And to end all these woes, the present regime must have the "political will" to repent on its past failure of political hijacking and a genuine desire or commitment to rebuild a true federal system of governance, envisioned by our founding forefathers of independence era. |
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