Dissidents' New Fear in Myanmar: Irrelevance

(This article by Thomas Fuller is direct from February 21 New York Times.)

Pity the Burmese dissident in exile.

For more than two decades they were symbols of defiance against Myanmar’s military dictatorship, campaigning tirelessly in foreign countries for regime change. Now that the Myanmar government is earning plaudits for its program of reforms, hundreds of dissidents living abroad may need career counselling.

“It’s becoming difficult to find things to complain about,” said Aung Naing Oo, deputy director of the Vahu Development Institute, a Thailand-based organization formed by Burmese student activists who fled Myanmar in the late 1980s.

Such exiles, as they are known, watched from afar in recent months as Myanmar released hundreds of political prisoners, media censorship was relaxed, and the icon of Burmese democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, began campaigning for elected office.

What exactly was 1962 Federal Mu (Federal Policy)?

Shan State of Burma.

Like most people of Burma, I have heard the term Federal Mu for a very long time but didn’t really know what it was exactly.

Most Burmese old enough to live through Ne Win’s Ma-Sa-La Socialist era know very well that General Ne Win’s well-publicized excuse for his 1962 Coup was to maintain the territorial integrity of our Union of Burma since the Shans were demanding their secession from the Union according to their Federal Mu or Policy declared in February 1962.  

So what exactly was that dreaded Federal Mu? To answer that question I have translated the Shans’ February 1962 Declaration or Demand to amend the 1947 Constitution of Union of Burma. That Shans’ Declaration or Demand was officially called and widely known as The Federal Mu.

Captured and Tortured by Khin Nyunt’s MIS men (1)

(Direct translation of web article “Interrogation Camp (1).” by Ye Min Tun.)

I really like to write about what I had to go through before at the MIS Interrogation Camp. Not because of my vendetta against my torturers but to reveal to the new generation the true nature of present Government now wearing a hero mask to hide their true demonic face.

The reason I was arrested and tortured by the MIS (Military Intelligence Services) men is because of the bad system of military dictatorship. That bad system is forcing them to do bad things. In my opinion our country will be really peaceful in the future without this Fascist Military Dictatorship.

The day I was captured was in April 1991 just after the Thingyan water festivals. Right on the Burmese New Year’s Day.  I was captured by MIS Captain Htun Kyi and his men from MIS Battalion-12. The place of my capture was at Thar Thar (a) Myat Htun Soe’s house in the Kyauk-myaung’s Da-mha-seindar Street of Tamwe Township in Rangoon.

KIA’s Kachin Assassin

(Ba Kaung’s article from Irrawaddy Online Magazine September 2010.)

Zau Seng was groomed since youth to be a KIA commando, and in 1985 he carried out a rare assassination of a top Burmese military commander—who happened to be a fellow Kachin.

Laphai-Zau Seng (KIA Assassin).

Late on the evening of Oct. 16, 1985, Zau Seng and three other young Kachin men entered Myitkyina, the capital of Burma’s northern Kachin State, and staked out a location beside a church on Ledo Road in the western section of town. Each man was dressed in a sarong and disguised as a vendor. Each carried a bamboo basket concealing a Chinese-made AK-47 rifle.

The four men waited patiently for Brig-Gen Lazun-Kun Hpang—a fellow Kachin who at the time was the commander of the Burmese military’s Northern Command—to pass by on his way home from a nearby golf course. When L-Kun Hpang’s black Audi turned a corner near the church, they sprayed it with bullets.

“I first shot at the wheel of the car and then shot at both L-Kun Hpang and his driver, who was an army captain,” said Zau Seng, the leader of the assassination team. “My comrades took care of the bodyguards in the front car.”

Bertil Lintner’s Master Plan for Myanmar?

Journalist Bertil Lintner.

Following is the extracts from the Bertil Lintner’s latest anti-Burma article “Master Plan for Myanmar” one of his barrage against Burma's recent reforms on Asia Times online magazine on 10 February 2012.

“One theory goes that the administration is locked in a power struggle between military "hardliners" and "reformers", and that the latter, at least for now, have the upper hand. Several Western countries have apparently taken the policy decision that every effort should therefore be made to support the "reformers" and recent reform signals to ensure that Myanmar doesn't return to its old repressive ways.

The EU and US have expressed public views to that effect. On January 31, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement after a summit in Brussels: "I welcome the important changes taking place in Burma/Myanmar and encourage its government to maintain its determination to continue on the path of reform." The US State Department said the day before that it was "encouraged " by Myanmar's recent reforms, "including its decision to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run in upcoming elections".

Daw Suu changing what, the 2008 Constitution?

(A Direct translation of Han Tin Aung’s excellent Article.)

AS the coming by-elections are gradually nearer and nearer the calls from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for the urgent needs to change the Constitution (2008 Constitution) are becoming louder and louder. 

Before discussing the possibility of changing the 2008 Constitution we really do need to consider how far NLD (National League for Democracy) can go in the coming by-elections since the only significant political parties able to contest for all 48 vacant seats in the coming by-election are the USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party) and Daw Su’s NLD.

All the vacant seats had been vacated by USDP and all are from the USDP’s well-organized constituencies. And USDP will try anyway possible (including the trickery and the dirty methods) not to let go of their once-already-won constituencies. If there will be a fair elections, NLD will definitely win most of the contested seats simply because of Daw Suu’s massive influence in the country.

KIA Confession of Bomb Blast Incident in Myitkyinar?

The owner of the Myitkyinar boarding house where an accidental bomb blast killed ten including eight young children only about ten year old on 14 November 2011 has finally confessed of his family involvement in KIA terrorist bombing operations all over Myitkyinar.

Biggest Vein of Gold in the World?

A rich vein of gold.

The biggest gold vein in the world has been discovered in Burma. The gigantic gold vein is mainly located in the Mae-wai region of Karen State but it reaches Toungoo area in the Pegu District through the Kyaik-htee-yoe region in the Mon State. About ten miles wide at some places and almost 120 miles long?

Above was the gist of what U Soe Thein, a retired Geology Professor from the century-old Rangoon University and the Managing Director of Myanmar Adventure Metal International Mining Ltd based at Pegu in Burma, proudly said of the mineral discovery of his lifetime. The vein doesn’t stop at Burma as it continues under the sea and resurfaces at Indonesia.

According to Soe Thein it took NASA’s LANDSAT-7 satellite at six orbital locations to photo-survey the whole Burma’s part of the massive vein. The conservatively estimated concentration of pure gold is 20 grams per a ton of rock ore.

Ninety Seconds With President Thein Sein

President Thein Sein in Singapore.

What does it take to photograph a president?

On 30 January, 2012, The Straits Times interviewed Myanmar President Thein Sein, at the Shangri-la Hotel in Singapore. Besides taking shots during the interview, Straits Times photojournalist Desmond Lim also wanted to make a portrait of Thein Sein.

With the help of photojournalists Samuel He and Lim Wui Liang, he set up a backdrop and three lights, an hour before the interview began. The Myanmese officials did not agree to the shoot initially, but agreed after some negotiations.

The aim was to photograph Thein Sein after the interview and make two different portraits - as quickly as possible. Samuel will hold up the beauty dish in front of the president, while Wui Liang would shift the light for the second portrait.