"Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! As everyone knows, three members of the Northern Alliance launched attacks on five places and the Defense Services Technological Academy in Pyin Oo Lwin on Aug. 15. Fighting ensued and the Muse-Lashio Road was blocked. Some experts viewed it as a security breach. I will discuss with Dr. Min Zaw Oo to what extent the military and the government are lacking cooperation, and to what extent the ongoing clashes are worrying to the people of Myanmar. It is nearly 70 years that civil war has been ongoing in Myanmar. There are nearly 20 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. In Southeast Asia and South Asia, Myanmar has experienced a serious armed conflict with a large number of armed groups fighting over territorial disputes, and the latest attack carried out by three members of the Northern Alliance on the military academy has shocked many people. How worrying do you think the situation is? It is not that difficult to launch an attack on the Defense Services Technological Academy with rockets. It is not that the rebels came into the town and launched attacks. Though the attack in Goke Twin can be called a security breach, the place is not a stronghold, but a soft target. What is worrying is the attack that has blocked for ten days the Mandalay-Muse Road, the lifeline of Myanmar’s trade. They launched the attack with the intention of cutting off the economic lifeline. The ambition is not just a military one, it is intended to cut off a strategic route for trade and commodity flows, and therefore this will impact various strata of society. The road is a strategic route and the impact is strategic, so this led to a question—how much our leaders had thought about this and prepared in advance? Rather than responding only after attacks on strategic places, we should have—there is no national security policy that identifies places critical to the interests of the whole country and the people, that outlines how to protect those interests and how to solve problems and how to connect peace and security. Because of the lack of such a policy, certain things that should be done based on such a policy can’t be carried out. I think the political rivalries and political problems resulting from the 2008 Constitution have impacted national security..."