Will there ever be Peace in Burma?
Please look at the map of Burma, what do you see?
Burma Proper, the homeland of the majority of ethnic Burmans, surrounded by seven other ethnic states, the homelands of the ; Shan, Kachin, Chin, Karen, Mon, Arakan and Kayah. Geographically, they are neighbours, therefore interdependent.. Whether Burma is a Federation or some states remaining independent , all the eight ethnic nationalities have to work together on political as well economical issues, and others.
Bogyoke Aungsan realised this so he made an alliance with leaders of other ethnic states and asked them to join with the Burmans, to ask Britain for Independence. He also realised that for a union to be successful, all members should enjoy equal freedom, equality of status and opportunity, and given the right of self-determination. But he was assassinated for his decision.
Other Burman politicians also realised that Burma Proper needed other ethnic states for a union to be viable, but they were chauvinistic, selfish and greedy for power. They wanted other ethnic states to be part of their dreamed country, regardless of the original citizens' rights of choice, they set out to possess the other 7 ethnic states by force, war , bullying and criminal actions, including ethnic cleansing and genocide until to day.
Like Maung Zani, I think although a lot of things are happening in Burma I don't think it is a real change. All these cease-fire agreement is a load of rubbish. The regime has a cunning ulterior motive in mind and just prolonging the time until the sanctions are uplifted, which they desperately want. As for peace in Burma, can there ever be one? As I have said before if Thein Sein and his Generals were genuine, they would withdraw their armed forces at once from all ethnic states. Instead they demanded the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ to pull out its troops from Shan State East, particularly from Mongyawng township, where Burma, China and Laos meet, according to SSA spokesman Maj Lao Hseng.
After fifty years, we have learned a lot about the Generals. Fired by greed for power and obsession the Generals used manipulative, cunning, bullying and deceitful methods to get what they wanted.
At present there are two things they are striving for, the Western sanctions to be lifted and to be accepted by International countries and the UN as a legitimate Government of Myanmar. Once they achieved this they will not care about the Ethnic Nationalities, and will continue to dominate and control if they can.
Peace is possible in Burma only if the Generals can alter their mentality, examine their conscience and admit openly, especially to themselves that they had made mistakes, and have committed awful crimes against the ethnic nationalities of Burma. Khin Nyunt is a reformed person now or is he? Can the hard-line Burmese politicians reform their mind-set and accept that they are no different from other human beings and have no right to treat other people as they have done all these fifty years ? If the Generals and hard-lined politicians do not make an effort to change then it is difficult to imagine how there can be peace in Burma, and the relationship between them and the other ethnic nationalities will forever remain sour.
And, as long as the dictatorial armed forces still occupy the homelands of other ethnic people, there will never be peace , as the ethnic nationals will never be free from suppression and human rights violations. The citizens will never be able to move on. To campaign and call for the withdrawal of the dictatorial armed forces from all ethnic states should be the priority of every ethnic nationals who love their homelands and want to live freely and peacefully in it.
It is now time too or all the ethnic nationalities to remove the fear which has been injected into them, and resume their real identity and take some actions. It is time for every single ethnic nationality to unite under the common cause , freedom, equality and self-determination and fight bravely under one banner until they succeed in removing the dictatorial armed forces from their homelands. If things are allowed to drag on, the junta will gain the upper-hand by having the sanctions removed, and getting the UN, US and international governments to accept that them as the legitmate government of the whole of Burma.
Let's hope the UN and the International Governments are more adept and observant than how they appear.
Good luck to all Freedom Fighters