Kanbawza Win , Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

January 24, 2004

The Junta’s “Divide and Rule” policy is paying off well these days as it has successfully crack the backbone of armed resistance, the KNU, the symbol of autonomy (ethnic nationalities) and democracy (armed pro democracy movement). Seeing the writings on the wall many of the tough resistance fighters not in the KNU group have applied for a refugee’s status is third countries. If credit is to be given to where credit is due, surely the Junta deserves it, as it was able to marginalize Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the whole Burmese pro democracy movement, a stalling tactic in order to isolate the NLD. This has been the main goal of the Junta as its media often portray Daw Suu as just one of the political party’s leader and not the leader of the mass democratic movement.

The KNU estimated to be about 7,000 men is the largest ethnic group still fighting against Rangoon. A ceasefire arrangement with the KNU is the biggest major achievement for the Junta because it paints the picture that they wanted peace and helps dampen international criticism over its failure to carry out reforms. It indirectly cajoled or forced all ethnic groups to attend the national convention. It is a key to the credibility of the convention, the first step in a "road map". But the paradox is that the Junta still continues to embark upon its scotch earth policy and since the talk started more than 3,000 ethnic refuges had run away from their homes. The simple logic is that the Junta has chosen to talk and accommodate the leaders of ethnic nationalities who have chosen a violent way of armed resistance while refusing to compromise with the genuine people’s representative the NLD waging a non-violent way.

Many lessons could be learnt of how the KNU comes to an informal verbal ceasefire agreement. The OSS based in the Signal Pagoda road in Rangoon carefully and meticulously studies the Karen situation after the downfall of Manaerplaw. Seeing that Bo Mya still retains power even after a disaster it logically draws the conclusion that he is the key man in KNU, if not the “ The Monarch of all I Survey.” The Junta also realized that KNU is something like a big warlord with only lip service to democracy. The more genuine and dedicated group are more educated and sophisticated and the Junta has a hard time matching them. So they devise a very careful “Divide and Rule Policy” of separating the fighting force from that of the political one by a sweet word of “Military to Military Agreement” and graciously deleted the pre condition that first the KNU must relinquish their arms and come to the legal fold. This caught the old senile man Bo Mya off guard and jumps at the offer. In Burmese we say “Pyar Ye Hnin Wun Cha” meaning using honey as a purgative. Even though the game is not over yet, currently the KNU delegation has come back empty handed falling neatly into Khin Nyunt’s stalling tactic of the divide and rule. For the moment it seems that Junta is silently congratulating these cease-fire ethnic nationalities in helping to marginalize the people’s representative led by NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. KNU has unwittingly added a feather in the Junta’s cap.

On the other hand Bo Mya, who has just celebrated his 77th birthday with pomp and ceremony in Rangoon for the first time, is eager to show something substantial to his people before he entered dotage. Like Moses he had led his people in the wilderness, in fact, he is more than Moses because the latter has taken only 40 years while Bo Mya is more than half a century. But the difference is that he has no Aaron to discuss with or Joshua to carry on his works and most importantly his promised land is in the hands of the Junta. So obviously he was compelled to choose those subordinates who are cockeyed to the economic sphere. He also seems to realize that most of his faithful flocks are facing with what we call struggle fatigue; obviously he has little or no choice and nobody can blame him for this decision, as any drowning man will catch a last straw.
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The Junta’s academics have not only studied the British “Divide and Rule Policy,” since 1857 when the first Indian battle of independence triggered by the introduction of cartridges containing beef and pork oil among the Indian soldiers working for the British. The Junta has bred several Kleptocrats i.e persons who can formulate a policy of divide and rule The divide-and-rule strategy is made possible by the weakness of the opposition institutions and highlights the different nature of politics between strongly- and weakly-institutionalized polities. We knew that the Junta helps kleptocratic by providing them with greater resources to buy off opponents. Kleptocratic policies are also more likely to arise when opposition (ethnics nationalities) groups are shortsighted and when the average productivity in the economy is low.

When the primeval human mind first conceived of concepts and emotions like "authority," "control," "superiority" in a collective setting, probably the policy of the "Divide and Rule" evolved as an instrument to conquer and control the other fellow humans and satisfy the designs of the controlling fractions. This is exactly what happens in the minds of the Burmese Generals. There were numerous instances where the policy of divide and rule have been applied effectively in the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Greco-Roman, and classical Indian civilizations to bring different ethnic groups and followers of varied ideologies under imperialistic controls. However, with the progress of human civilization, complicated parameters of religions, competing social philosophies came into existence, introducing new dynamics into the political life; the application of the divide and rule increasingly caused violent upheavals and bitter animosities among the rival fractions and groups. The classis example is the KIA, where there are attempted coup and counter coup, and very lately has arrested a prominent Christian pastor confiscating his cell phone because he has spoken the truth (taking a leaf out of the Junta’s book in lying the very concept of truth) while an ordinary Kachin continue to suffer silently. We just hope and pray that Karen will not be in the same position in the coming years and wish that old comrades who are on the wrong side of 65 should gracefully retire and give place to the younger more educated, energetic and sophisticated, dedicated Karen.

Up to this day there is no such thing as ethnic problem in Burma for unlike Yugoslavia each ethnic nationality will not fight the other ethnic nationality. The KIA does not fight the KNU and the Shan does not fight the KNPP nor the CNF fight the ALP and so on. The military dominated rogue Myanmar that is practicing the Maha Burma policy exacerbates the problem. Now that the Junta’s” Divide and Rule Policy” was able to implement cease-fire with most of the armed resistance groups including the KNU, there is every possibility that it will soon decipher another follow up policy of “let the national ethnic minority fights another national ethnic minority”. There were several precedents e.g. the Burmese government mechanized the Chin and the Kachin soldiers to sacrifice their lives in the defense of Rangoon and the Burmese government in 1949, how the Wa were rewarded with narcotic industry to fight the Shan and it was often the DKBA that lead the Junta’s soldiers to attack the KNU soldiers, etc.

The Junta has hoped that its cleverly craft domino theory will succeed since the betrayal of the KIA, followed by17 armed resistance groups but the bulk ward of the fighting force the KNU have remain true to their conviction. Now, that the KNU has reached a cease-fire indicating that Achilles heel has been hit, it will be just a matter of time that other smaller and weaker groups follow suit. This is the tactics of the Junta. Only when the ethnic nationalities are in their pocket they will be in a position to tackle the NLD led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The other area where the Junta’s “Divide and Rule Policy” makes its presence felt is in the Burmese in Diaspora. It could easily organize those who come for greener Pasteur by allowing, if not encouraging them to visit Burma. Surprisingly via the multilateral corporation and business minded people could also win over several of the 8-8-88 generations especially and neutralize them. However, the crowning success of the Junta policy was that it could easily instill Burmese chauvinism to the overseas Burman intelligentsia. The FBC (First Betrayal’s Catcall) leader can be heard in his attack on the ethnic thinkers probably because he has become a Kyar Nar (a Burmese version of wounded tiger) with no nationalist Burmese accepting his position of supporting the Junta’s road map. Of course one could not expect too much from a son of a Burmese military officer but the troubling aspect is that this cancer has spread to the other people who have contact with him. The point is, in as mush as the Junta is sore afraid of the student’s demonstration inside the country so also we must be afraid of this “Divide and Rule Policy” of the military clique and must be on the look out of his crafty and cunning and reckless ideas.

Hence, in this scenario how can we free ourselves from the burden of the past practice by the successive governments of Burma? How we should set ourselves free from the legacy of "divide and rule?" A strong leadership is needed, as it requires a more cohesive and well-integrated society where the policy of "divide and rule" is virtually powerless. It is important to mention that democracy itself has not been the cause of this state weakness, but a relative strength in the coming decades. All the ethnic nationalities must show their loyalty to the country they dearly love. Mass education has been the fundamental tool deployed by modern states for national integration.

In a way it can be considered as a blessing in disguise for it weans away those who are not mentally and morally strong. The stronger the fire, the purer the gold will be. Those who have come out of this mess still dedicated to democracy and real autonomy of a federal state and genuine national reconciliation has nothing to fear as one can read in between the lines of the President Bush State of the Union speech and an unwavering support given by the European Union. In other words even though our heads are very bloody yet we remain unbowed.