The hall mark of the Myanmar Tatmadaw (armed
forces) on embarking the ethnic cleansing policy has been rooted in the Myanmar
philosophy of “The policy of a great nation” where one race could completely
wiped out the other and in its place a new race appeared either by killing the
other ethnic and by intermarrying the latter.
No doubt this policy of a great nation was
the carbon copy from the Anglo-Americans, where history has it that when
William the Conqueror of Normandy of France (1066-1087) conquered the Saxons of
England, they not only killed the men but married their women and become a
strong nation, England, in as much as the European Caucasians killed the
aborigines (Red Indians) married their women and become a great nation of
America and Canada.
So also now the Myanmar are doing the same to
the other non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities of Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen,
Karenni, Mon and Arakanese (Rakhine) including several smaller ethnics and
tribes and what more prove is wanted, when every non Myanmar ethnic race have
no choice but is being forced to rebel against the maraudingTatmadaw. The
atrocities of the Myanmar Tatmadaw implementing on the Rohingya is the carbon
copy of what the Myanmar king Bodawpaya (1782-1819) has done to the Arakanese
as one can enquire in any old Arakanese records or read the Arakanese history.
History has proven that the Myanmar
ultra-nationalists including Ne Win made short work of its founder Aung San
followed by a reign of terror, from 1962 up to this day. First they targeted
the Karen, then the Mon and the Karenni (Kaya) followed by the Shan, the Kachin
and lastly the Chin who were mercenaries and now back to the Arakanese. What
more the Myanmar Tatmadaw is against the very grain of Democracy and the Union
Spirit. That is why it is obstructing every chance it has with the ethnic
freedom fighters.
The ABC of ethnic Cleansing
No doubt, the Union of Burma was founded by
consensus in 1947, in a small Shan village of Panglong (Myanmar endeavour to
replace with the Burmese word of Pinlon) next to Loilem in Southern Shan
States. Even in that historical agreement, the Arakanese and the Mon
representatives were not invited, being treated as a conquered race, which is a
small part of the Mahar Myanmar race.
By these actions, the Tatmadaw has reinforced
the hegemonic claim that the Myanmar have ruled the country continuously apart
from the colonial period, and imagine themselves to be a historically cohesive
nation, whose organizational integration with the ethnic nationalities on the
peripheries only needs to be completed either democratically or by force. This
is the main rai·son d'ê·tre for the difficulties encountering the 21st Century
Panglong Conference, now underway.
The Myanmar administration stimulates slyly
to achieve their objectives of having a monolithic country of one race (Burman)
one religion (Buddhist) one language (Myanmar) by indirectly encouraging the
extremist Buddhist groups led by Ma Ba Tha, as authenticated proof can be seen
in the mammoth statues of the warrior kings at Naypyidaw, and compelling the
armed forces to adhere to the 3Asmethod i.e. Annihilation of the ethnic
leaders, Absorption of the ethnic nationalities into the mainstream Myanmar and
Assimilation of the weaker ethnic cultures. To implement this policy they use
the 3Bs methods of Bribing the ethnic leaders (like the Mu Tu Say Po gang in
Karen) Bullying those whose resistance is weak (like the Southern Shan) and
Bombing (of the Kachin and Arakanese armies).The Tatmadaw has made a carbon
copy of Paul Joseph Goebbels of the Nazi principle that “when one lies, one
should lie big, and stick to it” changed all the ethnic names including the
country’s original name from the Union of Burma into Myanmar, proving to the
world that dictators can change the name of the country without the consensus
of the people, and what more compelling is it can forced the international
communities to accept it, while dragging the country to the bottom rung of the
world community, and today the repercussions are still felt such as “Amending
the very concept of truth,” as all their actions indicates. What more proof is
wanted when all these 70 plus, years these Myanmar generals cannot move beyond
their traditional modus operandi of 3Cs i.e. Command, Control and Contain,
World Guinness Book of Records
The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Case was
soon followed on the ethnic cleansing of the Arakanese proves that Niccolò
Machiavelli theory of “the end justified the means” was true as the following
illustrations indicates of how the Union of Burma was changed to one major race
of Myanmar
In March, this year the civilian government
attempted to reform the illegal 2008 Nargis constitution which is a key pledge
of its 2015 campaign. One of its main proposed amendments would have lowered
that bar to two-thirds of legislators, removing what is essentially the
Tatmadaw’s veto power over changes to the constitution without knowing that the
crafty Tatmadaw has worked to strengthen its reputation and ultimate hold on
power among the electorate. The tricky Tatmadaw has increasingly used spurious
pretexts—from defamation to blasphemy to crack down on individuals who
criticize them, and now, COVID-19 had given the generals additional pretext for
silencing critics, particularly that the Tatmadaw would be able to grant itself
even greater powers. All indications points that the Myanmar Tatmadaw whose
unwritten motto is “Lying the very concept of Truth,” is determine to carry on
the civil war and this time concentrates on the Arakanese which according to
the Myanmar saying is worse than the viper. Hence, the big question will the
civilized international community especially the West will let this ethnic
cleansing of Myanmar over the non-Myanmar carry on without any immunity, now
that Burma is squarely in the pockets of China?
Intent on dividing the non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities
the Burmese government has urged armed ethnic opposition groups to accept cease
fires, allowing them not to interfere with the trafficking of heroin and
amphetamines in exchange for ceasefire agreements however, the Tatmadaw still
rejects decentralization and power- sharing and the emergence of a culture of
tolerance, lasting peace will continue to elude Burma.These cease-fire
incentives are just a bid to draw the border regions closer into the orbit of
the government and Tatmadaw. The investment projects and cease-fire
negotiations are also viewed locally as an effort by the current administration
to appease China, christened by the people as Tatmadaw’s Step Father.
Obviously, Beijing has ample of economic interests in resources along the border,
including minerals and timber, and is busily making Burma a key cog in its
regional Belt and Road Initiative.Xi Jinping had visited the country to
finalize dozens of new investment deals worth billions of dollars, mainly for
infrastructure projects connected to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Lamentably, we discovered that even Daw Suu
herself have not study well the history of Karenni state, that it was an
independent state since the days of Burmese kings and the British
administration, so last year, protests broke out in Karenni State against the
government’s decision to build a statue of Aung San who happens to be Suu Kyi’s
father, an action not so augers with the Union but a Mahar Bamar Spirit.
Hence, the ethnic nationalities grievances
toward the Myanmar-dominated government is not so conducive to the Union Spirit
and she seems to forget in one of he “Letters from Burma” (Japan's Mainichi
newspaper Feb. 3, 1997), “Our ethnic nationalists still harbor a deep feeling
of mistrust of the majority Burmese, a mistrust natural to those who have not
been accorded justice and fair play. In trying to build up a strong union, our
greatest challenge will be to win the confidence of those who have only known
repression and discrimination.” So far what has she done to close the gap or
just doing the opposite in lieu with the Tatmadaw?
Now with Covid 19 pandemic and the
demonstrations in the world, it seems that the Burmese problem will be shoved
aside by the international community and the people of Burma especially non
Myanmar ethnic nationalities will continue to suffer silently.
Source:
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