Kanbawza Win ( Oct 12, 2003 )

It is already one and a half decade and half a century that the epic struggle for democracy and a fight for autonomy had been waged respectively by the Burman and the ethnic nationalities. Yet the Burmese military under different façade is as entrenched as ever. The good, the bad, the ugly, the handsome, the rich, the poor, the strong, the weak, the clever, the dumb, the brave, the timid, the opportunist and the genuine etc are all lump together and it is estimated that more than three million people of Burma found themselves outside or in the peripherals of Burma. But lamentably, up to this day these two groups are unable to find a common platform to repel this atrocious regime. Every one seems to be frustrated.

The word "Unity" so crucial in our struggle has been used repeatedly only with the lips and not by the heart by several factions while extremist both from the Maha Barma group (for the prevalence of chauvinist ideas) and the other ethnic nationalities (for the prevalence of racism) made the matters worst. Federalism and Democracy was a catchword coined by the latter in as much as the former uses Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy. The regime sensing the cracks widened it and fully exploited the situation and the end result was that it can hold on to power to continue its atrocities.

The philosophy of the pro democracy movement in Diaspora is "leave our argument with federalism in the cold storage as we can sort out later and let us concentrate on the demise of the Junta." The authenticated proof was that they are not happy whenever the ethnic nationalities rear their head of Federalism. Obviously the Burman group endeavour to marginalize the ethnic intelligentsia and tend to pick out those leaders whom they can influence. On the other hand the ethnic nationalities version is that "the root cause of ethnic rights must be solved first before we can do anything to prevent the rise of another dictator". For the attainment of this goal the ethnic nationalities are ready to make a pact with the devil and hence they have compromise with Khin Nyunt's road map without making any decision of who is the driver to drive down the road map.

In other words, by their actions it seems to indicate that both sides are willing to see the perpetuation of the Junta in power rather than come to terms with each other and find a common position to fight the common enemy. A house divided cannot stand against the common enemy is well known.

We are all exiles, though no fault of our own and are stranger to one another because we are different people, different mindset, and different perspectives. The only common feature is that we have a shared outrage against the Burmese military. Obviously like any exile we harbor our likes and dislikes or love and hate couple with jealously to each other. There will be mutual resentment and recriminations, mutual denigration and like any exile community of the world we are not a perfect society as Dr Chao Tzang has beautifully coined it, "Every one is to blame for failure to make it to the promised land as envisaged."

But in the arena of Burma politics we cannot avoid each other as somehow or other we are bound to run into each other because we belong to the same family of the people of Burma. In other words we are like belonging to the family of fowls in a poultry farm where there is a cock family and the duck family, if they can exist side by side together why we try to marry a cock with the duck, as it will produce either a chicken or a duckling that can neither scratch nor swim? This means that the aim of the Burman led pro-democracy movement is compatible and can co exist with the aim of ethnic nationalities of democratic federalism. After all it is just two sides of the coin. If they can find a common ground then when the fox (Junta) come to devour them they could all unite and fight the common enemy. Even though we speak different languages we should speak with one voice only.

The point is if there are diverse umbrella groups, whether it will be UBs (gone insane) group or the ethnic nationalities or the vigorous Burma group or whatever, where there are a lot of capable thinkers cum doers, why can't they meet? But the problem is that they seldom try to venture out of their own group and engage with one another in an intellectual and political honest fashion. It seems that they would rather prefer to stay in their our own cliques with "a monarch of all I survey attitude" resulting in a lot of misunderstanding, misinterpretation and mistrust among the groups. If the advisors, strategists, and coordinators could ever find time to meet and thrash out, exchange ideas, then more brains, more intellectual resources and more energy can be poured in to building initiatives and narrow the differences to fight a common enemy. Now it seems that each group is paddling their own canoe as the Burmese saying goes "Nga Hle Nga Hto Sagaing Yauk Yauk, Nga Myin Nga See Pa Goe Yauk Yauk" meaning I row my own boat to Sagaing and ride my own horse to Pegu which is non of your business. This lack of coordination and cooperation between the groups is a cardinal sin in our fight against the common enemy. We still cannot comprehend of why are we harboring Burmese army mentality of " We alone can do it, while the rest does not have a pale of patriotism"? It seems that this mindset is very much engrained by the successive military regimes in our sub conscious mind.

On the other hand there is no towering figure like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the Diaspora to organize the much diverse groups but still this should not deter us from attempting to contact each other. Unlike, the people inside the country we are residing in free countries where there is no hindrance and we should take this opportunity to find out about each other. Obviously each group has its strong and weak points e.g. the Burmese community residing in North America with their farang friends are proficient in lobbying and the ethnic nationalities in the peripherals of Burma are united in their approach for federal autonomy and are the only ones that dared to speak to the Burmese army in their own language and so on.

We would like these so-called leaders, advisers, and strategists to meet and talk to each other with a common denominator that democracy and federalism is indivisible and non- negotiable. If these two categories can ever meet leaving aside their rank, race designation, age, and work as comrades against the common foe with con amore we are quite positive that soon we can visualize a free and Federal Democratic Republic of the Union of Burma and go back to our Home Sweet Home.

St. Paul USA

(This Feature Articles was printed in the Khit Pyaing Journal (NEJ) Issue 125 which has a circulation of 13,000 copies and distributed world wide)

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