[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Ralph Bachoes article in The BurmaN (r)



Subject: Re: Ralph Bachoes article in The BurmaNet News: July 12, 1999

Dear Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein,

Thank you for your clear, thoughtful, and passionate comments on my
original posting concerning Mr. Bachoe's article in the Bangkok Post.

The question I meant to raise is indeed a question of individual awareness,
and the moral position one takes as a result of being aware.  If awareness
of the truth is the purest state of being, then morality, the application
of truth, is more more complex, as morality depends on the circumstances in
which we find ourselves, once we become aware.  It is a descent of truth
into relativity.

Politics, an application of morality to the society around us, is more
relative still.  As morality determines our individual behavior, politics
determines our collective behavior.  And in politics, since we must deal
with others while maintaining our individual morality, decisions and
actions  become increasingly difficult.  So the honest person really avoids
politics as much as possible.

I think that most of the people in the NLD fall into this category.
However, driven by the glaring contradiction between the truth and Burmese
society under the military government, they feel that it is morally
impossible not to take collective action.

Others are attracted to politics because it is a means (a) of implementing
an ideology, (b) of securing power and wealth, (c) of seeking comfort in
association with others.  Perhaps all of us, being human, also harbor these
lesser motives to some extent.

But I had no intention of criticizing the Burmese intellectual community as
a whole.  Indeed, I would say that at least 9 out of 10 feel the same way
about the situation in Burma as you, to judge by the 1990 election.

However, there are those who, due to a limited awareness of truth or to a
flawed morality (like poor Mr. Bachoe), have gone astray.  Since he spoke
publicly, he must be countered publicly, if we are to play out this truth
game in politics.  

Those who dare to speak become the players for the rest of society to
watch, listen to, learn from, and then decide for themselves which of the
actions presented represents the best collective course to take.  In a
democracy, at least, this is the way things should work.


So dear Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein, please carry on.  As long as you strive for
awareness, you will help achieve the goal.  Our enemy is indeed not this
one or that one, but the ignorance, cupidity, and laziness that lay in wait
for each of us at every turn.  To arms!

Indiana

PS: By the way, I am an American who, drawn to the Burmese struggle for
democracy by its juxtaposition of powerful personalities representing the
good and evil in human nature, decided in 1994 to join the resistance
movement to hasten the installation of an elected parliament in Rangoon.  I
now work for the Burma Independent News Agency, and help to publish and
distribute the "Mojo" newspaper inside Burma.

Mr. Bachoe is a Burmese ex-patriate who has become a senior editor at the
Bangkok Post, and who should really know better than to print such
thoughtless trash.  He will find in the end that kowtowing to the SPDC,
expedient though it may be, was really the wrong choice.  Sorry for you,
Bachoe.

At 11:46 AM 7/14/99 +0000, Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein wrote:
>
>Dear readers,
>
>I do not know who the writer <Indiana> is, neither do I know of Mr.
>Bachoe. However, the subject matter made me write this note.
>It is 'the work of NLD and its impact on the Burmese indigenous 
>intellectual community and academics'. 
>
>RE:Indiana:>Please allow me the following comments on Ralph Bachoe's
>	> article  "Recent Ructions In The NLD Have Done Little To 
>	> Change The Status Quo" in the July 11th issue of the 
>	> Bangkok Post, as quoted in the BurmaNet News: July 12, 1999,
>	> Issue #1312
>
>As far as we see, hear and witness, what NLD has done is not little, 
>but an impossible task under extremely difficult circumstances. NLD
>members - they have no money but their own lives, time, talent, 
>will, belief, labour, cedana (Burmese word) and great love for the 
>nation and the country called Burma, or Myanmar. They sacrifice 
>whatsoever they have, paid an extremely high price and still paying 
>for the betterment of the whole population not only for their own sake.
>They died for the country, being put in the prison, having been 
>tortured and still continue having that sort of untold treatments. 
>These are not to be considered as the complete list of NLD's work, 
>only the bit that caused me think - what are they doing, why are 
>they doing and what am/are I/we doing? Or what am/are I/we not 
>doing? [We = members of the Burmese indigenous intellectual 
>community and academics.]
>
>The most relevant and direct impact is waking up our self
>consciousness. We, though some of us are political activists,
>majority Burmese indigenous academics are apolitical. Even to 
>those who are apolitical, when our consciousness is awake, 
>we speak more openly, courageously and in favour of the unserved, 
>underserved, unwanted, poorer and less fortunate people. The 
>world listen to them not to the "faint-hearted" so-called 
>academics.
>
>I think, we shall give credit to NLD for their good work that 
>has made good impression and direct impact on our consciousness.
>Please let us not speak against the Sun. 
>

>Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein
>WRTC
>.................................................................
>The Water, Research and Training Centre (WRTC) for a new Burma is 
>a non-governmental, non-profit, educational foundation, explicitly
>apolitical in nature, working for the Burmese peoples by promoting 
>and improving their access to research and training opportunities 
>and education in the water and rural sector in Burma and abroad.
>P.O. Box 118, 2600 AC Delft, The Netherlands. 
>http://wrtcburma.org
>Tel. +31-15-2151814, Fax +31-15-214 39 22, E-mail nin@xxxxxx
>..................................................................