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On 56th anniversary of Mon Resistance Day

Mon Revolution and My Perspective

(By Nai Hongsawatoi)

According to our Lunar Calendar, the Mon Revolutionary Day will fall on 12th August 2003. It is necessary for all Mons to pause and reflect upon the Mon Revolutionary Movement. The Mon Revolutionary journey has been a long and sometimes tragic ride. Many individual people and organizations emerged to be replaced by people with new strength and ideas to carry the Revolution Flag forward to free our people of oppression.

This is the natural law of any revolution. The older generation must pass the revolution flag to the new generation. It is the obligation of every Mon to participate in some way so that we can reach our destination and goal: Freedom. So, I would like to bow my head to all those who have sacrificed their lives in the fight to uphold the ideals enshrined in our Revolutionary Flag.

When the revolution drags on it is understandable to see some who want to run or escape from the revolution due to many reasons. We also have to expect to see some opportunists among the people. We can see these persons in many different guises and under many camouflages. We must overcome these people otherwise they may undermine the party and destroy the revolution. These people are:

(1) Those who wrongly proclaim themselves as peacemakers because they loudly shout for negotiation with the enemy and pretend to be persons who love peace more than anybody else.

(2) Some appear as warriors only when they are given enough weapons to hide behind, otherwise they say nothing about the Revolution. Their revolution is absolutely depended upon violence and a killing machine. They don't realize that the real weapon for a Revolution is a true ideology or a true spirit shared by all Mon people that represents or reflects our true desires or the will of our people.

(3) Some will go the opposite direction of their own people. When the whole people walk to the east they will walk to the west and when the whole people stand up they will sit down. When the whole people wake up they will sleep. They will never respect the will of their own people. When the whole people of the country get up and revolt against the oppressive dictator, these people will approach the regime for negotiation and make friends and shake hands with the oppressor. When the people of the whole country cry and appeal for peace they will shout for a battle and blindly refuse to hear the word of peace.

(4) Some will always appreciate and praise the strength of the enemy in terms of arms and ammunition and soldiers, they will never try to see their own strength within the party. They complain about the weakness of the party and applaud the strong points of the enemy. They always compare their own members to the strength of the enemy rather than to encourage their own soldiers through true revolutionary spirit. They will never trust the power of the people.

Arms and ammunition are not the decisive winning factors in a revolution; the revolutionists should see these things (weapons) as only a tool to protect their people. Even though a party has so many soldiers and weapons it cannot exercise its rights of freedom and protect the properties of its own people through soldiers and arms alone. The real strength of a revolutionary party is its own people.

If we look at the present situation of Burma today we see that the whole country stands up against the military regime in defiance. Including monks, students, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD and all members of the indigenous people, including the Mon National Democratic Front. All of these forces are in one way or another supporting the Revolutionary Parties. Today, as opposed to the past, these are the real factors upon which the revolutionary forces have to rely upon rather than arms and ammunition.

The power of people to speak out against repression in the information age has become stronger and more powerful than ever before. In the past a military regime could oppress its own people and commit atrocities without anyone's notice. It could kill, arrest, persecute, confiscate, loot, etc. Nowadays it is not possible for a military regime to do this to its own people. We can collect information and inform the world and raise the awareness of the world communities within seconds.

I very sadly like to mention here that there is a Mon revolution party which has knelt down in front of the military regime in Burma and bowed its heads to the guns and ammunition. It seems that this party could not carry on the Mon Revolution Flag in good faith anymore and has dashed the dreams of revolutionaries. So on the Eve of Mon Revolution Day I, on behalf of the Mon People, would earnestly urge this party to step aside and pave the way for a new group to emerge.

Nai Hongsawatoi

Mon National Council

The views expressed here are solely the opinion of the author. (Editor)

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One year in the history

In his 55th anniversary of Mon Resistance Day message, the late President of the New Mon State Party Nai Shwe Kyin said there has been no political development after seven years of the cease-fire agreement with the ruling Burmese military junta.

The BBC radio conducted an interview with Nai Hongsar, the Joint-Secretary General of the NMSP from the liberated area, who claimed that many lands have been confiscated by the military leaving civilians destitute and without just compensation from the army.

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