Information Sheet A-0801 (I)

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                               MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
                                                     YANGON
                                                Information Sheet
                                    A-0801 (I)                      Feb.14
Special Feature
		This office is presenting the Editorial entitled "Reflections at New Year
1999 " of the Myanmar News Letter Vol.1 No.1, February 1999 of Myanmar Embassy
in Ottawa, Canada,  for your reading pleasure.
The View From the Embassy of Myanmar , Ottawa 
Editorial 
Reflections at New Year 1999
		For the past 51 years, the fourth day after New Year on the Julian Calendar,
permanently marked the Anniversary of the Independence of the Union of
Myanmar. Amidst all the celebration and festivities it has also been time to
pause and ponder on how far we have travelled in our Journey together as a
Union between the larger state of Bamar (from which the term Burma was
derived) with its  administrative divisions and the non-Burmese states. The
Union that was formed again on February 12, 1947 at Panglong in the Shan
State, in fact, was allowed by the British Colonial Government with the
provision that the states belonging to the nationalities may, after a period
of ten years, re-asses their desires whether to remain in the Union or secede
as independent states thereafter. General Aung San and other war time leaders
including those from the states seemed to have successfully convinced the
nationalities of Myanmar at Panglong how the national races under the
traditional name of this kingdom survived for more than a millenium despite
the onslaught of the huge foreign armies before the nation fell piece by piece
in the 19th century to the British Colonial power over a period of sixty
years. It was recalled that the country was even made a province of India and
then separated from the historically unnatural union in 1936 when a referendum
on the question overwhelmingly favoured separation. But the Colonial power saw
to it that the separation went beyond the question posed by the referendum and
the nation was further divided into divisions of Barmar (or "Burma- pronounced
Bermer") and the Frontier Areas collectively named for the states of the
national races of Shan, Mon, Kachin, etc. When the colonial government's
pretext to delay independence for the frontier area was that they required
"further development", Gen. Aung San was then reported to have angrily

retorted"if you (the colonial power) did not develop these states in a
century
of your rule, how long are you going  to take to develop them in the future?".
		To cut the long story short, Aung San accepted the colonial name of Burma
together with the provisional clause in order to get the Independence as
priority before reviving the ancient nation as "Myanmar" which has already
been subjected for a century to the "divide and rule" strategy of most
colonial  powers of the day. Despite the brutal assassination of Aung San and
his cabinet, that probably made the reunification process more tenacious, the
visionaries of the post-war British labour government such as Clement Atlee,
Arthur Bottomley, Lord Mountbatten and Hubert Rance (the last governor of
"Burma") decided to keep their pledge of independence for the country as a
Union. In appreciation for their roles, on Lord Mountbatten was bestowed the
nations' highest independence decoration and Mr. Bottomley was later awarded
the distinguished Aung San Tagun title.  
		Few people knew until recently, mainly because much of the truth over a
period of 50 years was officially classified by the British as top secret,
that a group in Britain called "Friends of the Hill peoples of Burma" with
affiliation to some elements of the war-time conservative government not only
stage-managed the assassination of Aung San and his colleagues but also for
the Karen National Union to rise-up in arms immediately after independence for
the creation of "Karenistan" as conceived by these so-called friends with
ambitions to retain their hold on the resource-rich areas of the country.
However elements of luck, patriotism and organizational capabilities of the
war-time leaders of the Burma Independence Army were not to be taken lightly.
They, including Karen patriots, first overcame the mercenaries by arresting
such British military luminaries as Campbell, Tulloch, Bingley, Vivian and
convicting them in open trials and later extraditing them to Britain. Then,
with great difficulties and sacrifices they gradually restored the elected
"Rangoon government" to once again become  "government of the Union". This
insurrection spreading all over the union in different forms, under different
ideologies and with different foreign patronages ravaged the nation for nearly
fifty years, which extracted a price of immeasurable proportions in terms of
lives, disabilities and most of all socio-economic development  of the
country.
		Now that peace has finally returned after half a century, a great progress
in the country's infrastructure rebuilding is visible to anybody willing to
keep his eyes on such endeavours. This has caused some well-meaning officials
in the international financial institutions to take a serious look at the
Union of Myanmar where even without financial assistance from them, such
projects to benefit people at the grass roots have been successfully
implemented.  Even more important to realise is how empty and callous are
arguments from politicians, within and without, that such aid would not reach
the  people. Such contentions most of the time can be seen to emanate from the

few remaining insurgents and their supporters who are themselves yearning for
power by any means. Within the Union, their  above ground allies certainly
risk the wrath of the people suffering from the negative effects of their
political manoeuvres, especially their calling for cessation of development
aid, trade sanctions and bans on tourism. It is now a simple question of
whether these financial institutions will continue to stay with or break out
of the political pressure to display their truly noble intentions and show the
world that they exist simply  to help the people especially when the
commitment of a government  to developing the country is glaringly clear. The
world now is in dire need of visionaries who will view the human needs  and
development on a long term basis and it is fervently hoped that the
International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF will
prove that they are not short of such precious human resources. Their image
will then attain lofty heights in the eyes of all human beings who inhabit the
developing countries and who make up over three-fourths of the population of
this planet. This should in turn contribute towards further stabilisation of
the global political situation.
		Progress in the Union of Myanmar made for its people in material terms are
measurable. In the last 5 years many new bridges can be seen spanning over
large rivers, scores of large dams are irrigating millions of acres of rice
fields in the dry season, 95 new hospitals opened in the past ten years, 72
hospitals upgraded, 56 rural health care centres, 20 regional health centres
and 76 clinics opened, and over a thousand new schools are serving the people
throughout the country.
		As of January 5th, all medical universities and institutes have resumed the
undergraduate classes (all post-graduate courses had never been suspended) and
others are expected to follow suit in the very near future.
		Although it is something that can be measured only in abstract terms but far
more precious than any material gain is the very survival of the Union despite
the onslaught of many ideological, military, economic and political
adversaries over half a century. Since its inception at Panglong, much
consolidation has taken place already since the return of 17 former armed
insurgent leaders and their armies with only a few militarily insignificant
groups remaining along the Thai-Myanmar border. However, the latter's access
to the foreign media in Thailand and beyond have enabled them to make
"mountains out of mole hills" in western countries where their " friends" who
created their cause are still struggling to keep them alive. They do not seem
to realise how much the present day problems are caused by these ill-designed
manipulations of the past.
		For these reasons it is so important for Myanmar people within the Union to
realise that while material assistance can hasten our economic development, it
must come in such a way that the hard-earned unity of the national races must
never again be compromised and the survival of the "Union"  never ever
threatened.


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