Kao Wao News Letter No

We invite comments and suggestions on improvements to Kao-Wao newsletter. With your help, we hope that Kao-Wao News will continue to grow to serve better the needs of those seeking social justice in Burma. And we hope that it will become an important forum for discussion and debate and help readers to keep abreast of issues and news. Above all, we hope the newsletter will be used as a vehicle for those who want to share their views and experiences. We reserve the right to edit and reject articles without prior notification. You can use a pseudonym but we encourage you to include your full name and address.

Regards,

Editor

kaowao@hotmail.com, kaowao@shaw.ca

www.kaowao.org

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I would like to ask if you could put stories or tales told by our ancestors. When I was young, I listened to the tales told by the elderly Mons at home but not many. Sometimes, I wondered if I could listen to it again. From cultural and literal points of view, I wonder if you can post such Mon stories, at least one for every issue.

Sincerely

Min (Mudon Township)

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Kao Wao Editor,

I like the content and format of your article "Should we forget the past? By Lawi Weng". The answer is definitely NO. But we should learn from the past while maintaining and strengthening what was good. What do we want to leave to our children and posterity?

Thanks,

Richard Aung Myint

Fremont, California

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On Obstacles to Information Communication Technologies in Burma: By Cham Toik

This is a wonderful presentation and there are many laws that prohibit and criminal actions against culture, but with no definition. All laws need to be scrutinised and these sections at least removed, if the law is worthy of keeping at all.

An excerpt from the charter of legal reform article in BLC journal that I prepared, "Three areas of law described in the following provide a sketch of a model that is used to frame laws. These three areas are all commonplace areas in modern life and in a nation that wants to operate a market economy."

Burma's Computer and Science Development Law 1996 despite its commentary has the effect of stifling rather than encouraging any development in this area. This law in fact typifies to a large degree the SPDC's approach to law-making in their clumsy attempts to introduce market reforms and modernise. They introduce a 'law' firstly by a simple announcement. The Computer Science Development Law No. 10/96 SLORC 20th September 1996 provides a clear example of this desire to create law in a developing and modern area, but it is framed in such a way that any attempts at development in the said area are 'straitjacketed' from inception. So reform is both promoted and stifled in the same statute.

The Television and Video Act of the same year 1996 is based on the same premise and "prohibits and bans decadent video tapes which will undermine Myanmar culture and Myanmar tradition;" Again the question has to be put:

How is Myanmar culture and Myanmar tradition defined, so as one can know what one is breaching? It implies that Burma is a mono-cultural and mono-traditional state, whereas it is a state of wide cultural and traditional diversity. Law is a very blunt instrument to bring to heel so to speak all cultural and traditional values and in fact undermines the
respect for diversity of culture and tradition, which in turn fosters resentment by those not from the dominant cultural and traditional background.

Another common and popular source of public information is via the internet, a medium made illegal in the first instance, with some permissive categories of persons. In July 1999 a training workshop on the internet was, we understand, organized or supported by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where General Khin Nyunt presided. This was a good development. However the introduction of the internet is very restricted and whilst some have email access it is all through a government server. In itself this is not a bad thing, if the government is facilitating communications by the provision of infrastructure. However, it is not just that. Foreign missions will tell you that their email is intercepted and ostensibly read by the SPDC authorities, probably the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) headed up by General Khin Nyunt. The regulations for internet users were issued by the Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) in 1999 and they are as vague and prohibitive as provisions in the Computer Science and Television and Video Law.8"

Regards

Janelle A Saffin (Australia)

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