(Part of this post is
direct translations of Op-Ed Articles from various Burmese Blogs.)
The 969
Buddhist Revival Movement in Burma is extremely popular among the Burmese
Buddhists, even though bitterly demonised by International media, Islamic
countries, and Burma’s own Muslims as a racist bigotry tethering on the
genocidal context of ruining and driving the Bengali-Muslims out of Burma.
Recently at the US Embassy-sponsored forum titled “Freedom of
Expression” held in the evening of May 8 at the American Centre the US
Ambassador Derek Mitchell launched a thinly-veiled public attack on the 969 Buddhist
Movement for inciting March anti-Muslim violence in Meikhtilar and earlier Islamic
race riots in Arakan State last year.
Delivering
his keynote speech to the sympathetic and mostly pro-American students of more
than 300 he also urged strongly the Burmese government to take punitive legal
actions against many pro-government blogs and Face book sites for inciting
anti-Muslim racial hatred among the restless populace of Burma.
Self-Censorship or Punitive Legal Actions?
At the same
forum another American diplomat Micheal D. Quinlan also pointed out the fact
that US had a movie censorship system till early 1970s and since late 1970s
that censorship system was withdrawn and only classification system has been
put in place and self-sensorship has been encouraged.
He advised
that Burmese Government should also follow US and take punitive legal actions
instead of draconian censorship against irresponsible individuals and
corporations who misuse the newly found media freedom in recently-reformed Burma.
IMHO the American diplomats in Burma are strongly and
publicly urging the Burmese to impose self-censorship themselves; otherwise Burmese
Government should punish them like what US government has been doing to its
so-called mainstream media.
Thanks God
for the First Amendment and fiercely-independent Supreme Court US still has a
public media much freer than any other western democracy where saying anything
anti-Muslims or anti-Islam is a hate-speech and treated as an act of so-called hate-crime.
So what the
Burmese government should do? Punish the pro-government websites clearly
operating on nationalist-Buddhist agenda and shut them down as the United
States is urging? To answer these questions one has to know and understand
which websites our Derek Mitchell has been referring to as the anti-Muslims agitators.
The
slightly-anti-government news media Eleven Media Group has picked out following
two pro-government internet-sites as the major culprits even though the US
ambassador Derek Mitchell has avoided naming names in his speech.
- Myanmar Express Group believed to be
controlled by a group of army officers from Burma Army’s Cyber Warfare Unit
directly under the MAS (Military Affairs Security).
- Ludu Maung Karlu believed to be
affiliated with the Shin Wirathu’s 969 Buddhist Movement Group or even directly
controlled by the devout followers of the Nationalist monk waging war against
the Muslims in Burma.
And there is
very popular Dr. Sait Phwar (Dr. Goatee)
who is now being investigated by a parliamentary committee specially formed to
discover who really is or are behind that famous pseudonym.
Cyber Warriors-Cum-Army Officers
There are
thousands of DSA (Defense Services Academy) graduated army officers studying
for their graduate degrees in Russia. Many are studying for their masters and
doctorates in Advanced Information Technology and they are part of the core
group of army officers running various pro-government and pro-army sites on the
Internet.
Many of them
insist that they are just voluntarily doing their patriotic duty to defend
their nation, religion, and race. But since they are active duty officers of an
army which prohibits its officers even from using Face book that statement is
doubtful.
I honestly
believe they are directly controlled by the Army’s Cyber Warfare Unit which is
closely linked to PLA’s Cyber Warfare Unit known as PLA Unit 61398.
Not only they defend Burmese government and their army actively
like any self-respecting army officer should do they also wage aggressive
cyber-warfare against anti-government sites and so-called prodemocracy sites.
They even retaliated and took down Bangladeshi government sites during 2012
undeclared-cyber war between Burma and Bangladesh.
Equipped
with PLA-developed Google’s Gmail-hack they frequently broke into many Gmail
accounts of anti-Burma activists like the Burmese exiles working for RFA (Radio
Free Asia) or VOA (Voice Of America) and threatened or blackmailed them with
the hacked details of their private affairs.
Face book Warriors And The Opposite Eye
Opposite Eye Exposed? |
Eventually
the army top brass might have concluded those sites were un-intentionally
giving away army’s tactical secrets to the undesirables and so they shut them
down. Only one Face Book account called “Opposite Eye” believed to have belonged to a junior boss of Cyber Warfare Unit
Colonel Aung Myo Thant of MAS (Sa-Ya-Pha) has survived and still disseminating
valuable inside information from the deeply-nationalist mindset of both
government and army.
His site
Myanmar Express is basically operating like any raunchy tabloid newspaper one
could easily find in New York or London or Sydney. By reporting the raunchy
stories about the bastard teenage daughter of Aung San Suu Kyi to the gruesome
slaughter of Muslims in Mikhtilar and Arakan the extremely popular Myanmar
Express has attracted more than 25 million hits so far in just two years.
Runaway Parliament & Recalcitrant Dr.
Sait Phwar
Dr. Sait Phwar? |
Following is
SEAPA (South East Asia Press Alliance) statement on Burma Parliament’s
persecution of the pro-government blogger Dr. Sait Phwar.
“MYANMAR’s Hluttaw (Parliament) approved on 8
February a proposal to investigate a blogger for writing a critical article
that “dishonored” the legislature.
A 17-member bicameral commission was formed
to determine the identity and take action on a blogger who wrote under the
pseudonym “Dr Sate Phwar”, who wrote a 17 January 2013 article entitled “Is the
Hluttaw (Parliament) above the law?”.
Dr Soe Yin Calling to investigate who the hell is Dr. Sait Phwar. |
His motion was passed on the same day by a
347 to 157 vote in favor of the investigation, with 42 abstentions. A
commission was formed to be headed by U Mya Nyein, deputy speaker of the
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union, the bicameral parliament) and U
Nanda Kyaw Swa, deputy speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of
Representatives), and 15 other members from both houses.
According
to state-run Burmese language Kyaymon (The Mirror) newspaper, the Commission
will investigate: whether the article defames the Parliament and its members;
whether the facts contained can mislead the public; whether it violated the
Electronic Transactions Law governing facsimile, email, internet, intranet and
similar communication technologies; or whether Dr. Sate Phwar’s exercise of
freedom of speech violates other laws related to national security, rule of
law, peace and morality or if he was within his rights as a law abiding citizen.
The Commission is also given authority to
give orders and consult with concerned government units to determine the
identity of Dr. Sate Phwar.
The article, which was published on Dr Sate Phwar’s blog
Voice of Myanmar, criticizes recent attempts by the Parliament to amend the
Constitutional Tribunal Law, saying that such moves was intended to gain more
control over the judiciary and was thus in breach of the 2008 Constitution.”
Recalcitrant but fearful Dr. Sait Phwar has now completely disappeared from the Internet and just a couple of days back the Parliamentary Commission chasing Dr. Sait Phwar relentlessly has announced that they had discovered the real identity of the man behind their hated-Dr. Sait Phwar.
Strangely the Commission hasn't revealed the real identity of Dr. Sait Phwar yet for some unexplained reason. But the reliable leaks from Nay Pyi Daw are that Dr. Sait Phwar is none other than Colonel Ye Htut the Deputy Minister for Information and the Government's Spokesperson.
Colonel Ye Htut the Presidential Spokesman. |
Strangely the Commission hasn't revealed the real identity of Dr. Sait Phwar yet for some unexplained reason. But the reliable leaks from Nay Pyi Daw are that Dr. Sait Phwar is none other than Colonel Ye Htut the Deputy Minister for Information and the Government's Spokesperson.
969-Buddhist Monks Gone Offensive On Internet
Many 969
anti-Islam Buddhist movement monks have been actively running various blogs and
Face book pages. The most outspoken, aggressive, and popular is “Ludu Maung Kar Lu” which is basically
attacking any pro-democracy, pro-federal, pro-left, and so-called progressive
political groups like ASSK’s NLD and Min Ko Naing’s 88-Generation Students.
Daily
occurrences of the successful rescue of young Burmese-Buddhist girls from the
evil clutches of rich Muslim men are regularly reported in such melodramatic
way the site is a magnet for extreme Buddhist-nationalists all over Burma.
The monks
defended their actions by claiming that they are rather reinforcing the severely-deteriorating
fences of Buddhism than attacking Muslims. Segregation or building a solid wall
between Muslims and Buddhists is their main purpose they said.
They said
they do not tell their followers to burn down Muslim businesses and kill Muslims.
They just ask them not to do business with the Muslims and not to socialize
with them evil Muslims.
So what’s the Burmese Government gonna do to please the
Americans? Shut up their own people and punish them or just ignore them till
the Americans take a severe action like extending American financial sanctions
one more year like US has just done last week!
A KIA officer and Colonel Ye Htut (1996). |
Colonel Ye Htut in 1996 KIA peace talk at Myitkyinar. |
Dr. Sait Phwar's offending article "Is Parliament Above the Law?" in Burmese. |