BurmaNet News: February 5-6, 2000

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

=========== The BurmaNet News ===========
Weekend of February 5-6, 2000
Issue # 1455
=========================================

Noted in passing:

 ...state hospitals had had "enough" of these patients..."Diseases long 
since eradicated, such as elephantiasis, could be brought back to our 
country by these people" 

Korn Dabaransi, Thailand's Minister for Public Health speaking of the 
Karen people.  (See NATION: CARE FOR REFUGEES; see also GLOBE AND MAIL: 
THAILAND SECRETLY STERILIZES KARENS)


=========
Headlines
=========

Inside Burma--

ABSDF: STUDENTS PROTEST IN RANGOON

AP: HUNDREDS OF ETHNIC KARENS FLEE MYANMAR FOR THAILAND

JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE:  JOINT VENTURE TO PUBLISH ENGLISH JOURNAL IN 
MYANMAR 

===

International--

GLOBE AND MAIL: THAILAND SECRETLY STERILIZES KARENS

NATION: AGAINST ALL ODDS

NATION: CARE FOR REFUGEES 

NLM: PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE U MYA THAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO WTO D-G

AFP: UN WARNS PROTESTERS MUST BE HEARD AT BANGKOK TRADE MEET

BANGKOK POST: ELITE FORCE URGED TO TACKLE THE WA

===

Editorial--

COMMENT: D. U NE OO ON GUSTAAF HOUTMAN'S "BURMESE MENTAL CULTURE"

=========================================


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INSIDE BURMA
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ABSDF: STUDENTS PROTEST IN RANGOON

6 February 2000

The ABSDF Calls for the Reopening of All Universities and for Better 
Education

Students from the newly reopened Government Technical Colleges (GTC) 
have been staging protests in Thanlyin and Hmaw Bi (Rangoon Division) 
since Friday, January 28, calling for the cancellation of the newly 
introduced education system and for better teaching environments. The 
students are complaining about the rescheduling of their curriculum. The 
authorities closed down the GTCs in Thanlyin and Hmaw Bi on 3 February 
in order to prevent larger student demonstrations, sources said. 
Elsewhere, GTCs from Hin Thada and Ma U Bin  (Irrawaddy Division) were 
shut down just after they were opened in mid-December, after a student 
brawl which led to the discharge of 13 students from these colleges.

The ABSDF strongly condemns the university closures in Burma.  These 
closures constitute the regime?s desperate attempts to put down student 
demonstrations, instead of responding to underlying problems. The ABSDF 
therefore demands that all universities be reopened, and that basic 
student rights, including the right to assembly and the right to free 
expression, be respected.  

The ABSDF supports the students? calls for better education. ? We 
believe that education is a vital investment in Burma?s future, 
especially given the effects of globalization?. 

Under the new education system, students are dispersed throughout 30 
newly organized regional GTCs.  Degrees at GTCs will now take 4 years 
instead of 6,  resulting in a downgrade in degree status; GTC degrees 
will now be considered college degrees and not university degrees. 
According to Aung Thu Nyein, General Secretary of the ABSDF, the new 
system is designed to isolate students and inhibit  student activism.  
He explains, ?the time spent in classes is reduced and students do not 
have opportunities to hold discussions or assemble.? 

Selective universities re-opened on 16 December 1999.  All universities 
(except limited medical classes) had been closed since December 1996, 
following student demonstrations. The newly opened education facilities 
are technical colleges. All other classes remain closed. The Yangon and 
Mandalay Institute of Technology (YIT & MIT) were re-named Government 
Technical Colleges (GTCs).  The administration of these schools has been 
transferred from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Science 
and Technology. Students are not allowed to return to the universities 
they previously attended, and the regime has recommended that students 
enroll instead in the newly organized 30 regional GTCs. 

?The ABSDF demands that the SPDC make a commitment to education, and 
show their sincerity by opening all universities unconditionally.? said 
Aung Thu Nyein, General Secretary.  Partial re-openings and the 
displacement of students are merely attempts to control the student 
community and respond to international pressure.  The recent changes in 
education coincided with Japan?s decision to make the reopening of all 
universities a condition of future economic grants. 
  
The newly organized 30 GTCs throughout Burma are regionally based, 
poorly equipped and badly managed. As one Thanlyin GTC student 
explained, there are only a few students in such GTCs.  At the Gwa GTC 
there are 7 students , and at the Taunggyi GTC there are 19. The student 
explains, ?the regime wants the students dispersed.  The colleges are 
not set up according to international standards. And at the same time, 
the regime has institutionalized systematic repression of students? 
rights. Schools are no longer schools- they?ve become like prisons.?


All Burma Students? Democratic Front

For more info, please contact (661) 8223727 

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

AP: HUNDREDS OF ETHNIC KARENS FLEE MYANMAR FOR THAILAND

Saturday, February 5 1:43 PM SGT

BANGKOK (AP)--At least 254 Karen refugees have fled fighting in Myanmar 
between the rebel group God's Army and government forces and have 
entered Thailand in recent days, officials said Saturday.
Phayakkhaphan Phothikaew, chief of Suan Phung district in western 
Thailand, said the latest group, mostly women and children, had arrived 
overnight Thursday.

They were given shelter in a temporary camp at Baw Wi, joining 1,078 
refugees already there, he said. The camp is two miles from the border 
and has been off-limits to journalists.

"All of them are civilians affected by the fighting," said 
Phayakkhaphan, adding that he had no word about the estimated 100 to 200 
fighters of God's Army. "We haven't so far sighted them on Thai soil."

Led by 12-year-old twin boys believed to have magical powers of victory, 
Johnny and Luther Htoo, God's Army had its jungle base at Ka Mar Pa Law 
overrun by government troops Jan. 27.

The fighters are believed to have split into smaller bands and are
skirmishing with larger government forces while trying to link up with 
the 4th Brigade of the Karen National Union.

But the mainstream Karen group has insisted that it will not take in 
God's Army unless the group yields to KNU discipline.

The KNU has disavowed the 10 gunmen from God's Army and the radical 
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors who seized a provincial Thai hospital 
Jan. 24, taking hundreds of hostages. The gunmen were killed in a Thai 
commando raid.

The actions have outraged Thailand and strained relations between Thais 
and refugees and opponents of Myanmar's military regime seeking safety 
on Thai soil. At least 100,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Karens, are 
sheltered in camps along the border.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE:  JOINT VENTURE TO PUBLISH ENGLISH JOURNAL IN 
MYANMAR 

February 5, 2000, Saturday 

LENGTH: 147 words 



YANGON, Feb. 5 Kyodo 

A joint-venture media company formed by a Myanmar firm and an 
Australian-owned media group will publish an English weekly in Myanmar 
from next month, an official of the venture said Saturday. 

Ross Dunkley, managing director of Myanmar Consolidated Media, said in 
Yangon the new publication, 'The Myanmar Times and Business Review,' 
will be the first international publication in Myanmar to be distributed 
both inside and outside the country. 

Myanmar Consolidated Media is a venture between Golden Future Ltd. of 
Myanmar and Australian-owned Far East Consolidated Media (British Virgin 
Islands). The joint firm plans to develop the weekly journal into a 
daily newspaper eventually. 

The new publication will cover current political, economic, social and 
cultural events in Myanmar and other countries, Dunkley, who earlier 
published the Vietnam Times in Hanoi, said. 

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

GLOBE AND MAIL: THAILAND SECRETLY STERILIZES KARENS

Ethnic minority faces extinction, leader says


Christopher Johnson in the Globe and Mail: 
February 5, 2000

MAE SOT -- In a gleaming modern hospital surrounded by palm trees, 
smiling Thai nurses and polite doctors have sterilized hundreds of 
ethnic Karen women without their consent.

The covert, forced family planning has continued at the local hospital 
since at least the early nineties, according to patients and foreign and 
local aid workers on the embattled Thai-Burmese border.

Outrage over the forced sterilization is reopening a painful argument 
among health-care workers: how to stem the world's swollen population 
without violating the human rights of ethnic minorities threatened with 
extinction, such as Myanmar's Karens.

In one case, a Thai doctor cut the Fallopian tubes of a Karen refugee 
while she was anesthetized on the operating table immediately after 
giving birth by cesarean section, said her husband, a Karen in Thailand 
who requested anonymity because of his uncertain status here.

"We were so happy when we our new baby girl.  And then we found out we 
can never have children again," he said.  "I looked at my wife.  We were 
sad but we know we can't change it.  We have no choice."

Anxious and groggy, Karen mothers often must fingerprint a form they 
can't read, authorizing sterilization, one source said.  "A lot of women 
don't know they're being sterilized," he said.

"One women in the refugee camp was crying a lot when she found out," he 
said.  "She failed to have a baby two times before and really wanted to 
have one.  We Karen are Christian and we believe children are a gift 
from God.

"Many children die of disease or war so we want many babies.  If we have 
10 maybe two or three will live."

"According to our traditional this [sterilization] is not good," said Ba 
Thin, newly elected leader of the Karen National Union rebels who are 
fighting against Myanmar's military government.  "We don't allow a woman 
to do that."

Squeezed between the attacking Burmese army and the increasingly
inhospitable Thai army the Karens are facing a "struggle for survival", 
he said in an exclusive interview.

With the number of Karen soldiers having diminished from 20,000 to about 
5,000 in recent years, Karens need to produce more children.  Karens 
often take arms as teenagers and become fighters for life.

At age 73, Ba Thin, a father of five, has fought the Burmese for 50 
years, enduring malaria along with most Karens, he said.  "There will be 
no more Karen people if we lose this battle." 

Thailand is cracking down on illegal Burmese migrants since Thai 
commandos killed 10 Burmese rebels who seized a hospital near Bangkok 
for 22 hours last week, holding hundreds of patients and staff hostage.

The rebels from God's Army, a breakaway Karen youth faction, demanded 
that Thai hospitals treat Karens wounded by shelling from Burmese and 
Thai armies.

During the crisis, Thai officials asked 10 foreign doctors to stand by 
to provide emergency treatment, said a doctor, but then refused to 
escort them to injured Karens on the border.

After the incident, Thailand's deputy prime minister, Korn Dabaransi 
complained of Burmese outnumbering Thai patients in border hospitals and 
spreading malaria and other diseases.  

Thai prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, a former health minister, ordered the 
arrest last weekend of more than 1,500 illegal workers -- mostly Burmese 
in Bangkok, including parents with children -- ostensibly to prevent 
terrorism at next week's United Nation's Conference on Trade and 
Development.

Despite the rise of Thai xenophobia, foreign doctors working 100,000 
refugees at four border camps stress that they cannot blame underpaid 
Thai doctors and nurses who operate on stretched budgets.

"The fact that illegal Burmese who can't pay for it receive treatment is 
a credit to the Thais," one doctor said.  "In France they would be put 
in jail."

Many Karens trek through minefields for treatment.

"We have to do this [sterilization] to protect mothers from high-risk 
pregnancies," said Dr Cynthia Maung, who runs a clinic for Karens.  
Three Thai obstetricians delivered more than 2,000 babies, more than 
half of them Burmese at Mae Sot hospital last year, she said.  More than 
30 percent of Karen births are by cesarean section because mothers are 
too young or weakened by chronic malaria, anemia and malnutrition.

"After two cesarean births, it's a policy of sterilization.  It's very 
risky for women, if they can't get to a hospital."

A British doctor said Thailand's failure to ask the patient for consent 
is still less harsh than forced family planning Vietnam or China.  Other 
doctors noted that even highly regulated Scandinavian countries forcibly 
sterilized mentally challenged mothers.

Many Karens say they are accustomed to risk and suffering.  "Our motto 
is 'better to die fighting than to slave for the rest of our life,' ' 
said KNU president Ba Thin.

Outmanoeuvering authorities is a way of life, another Karen explained. 
Thousands of illegal Karens fool Thai police by carrying Thai identity 
cards, bought for 30,000 baht, a sum in excess of $C 1,000, from the 
family of dead Thais and other sources.

But with as many as 400,000 Karens exiled in Thailand and another five 
million to seven million living under Burmese military rule in Myanmar, 
many Karens fear they're losing their language and culture, as well 
losing their land to logging companies.

'Karen culture is disappearing in the refugee camps," a French doctor 
said.

 "These are cultural black holes.  Nothing comes out; it sucks 
everything in."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NATION: CARE FOR REFUGEES 
February 6, 2000

SUAN PHUNG - The seizing of Ratchaburi Hospital two 
weeks ago by members of the God's Army may hammer 
another nail into the coffin when it comes to 
refugees and migrant foreign workers seeking medical 
treatment from hospitals close to borders.
 
Public Health Minister Korn Dabaransi, who visited 
Suan Phung Hospital yesterday, said that state 
hospitals had had "enough" of these patients. 
The budget spent on treating them comes to Bt200 
million each year, while there were also worrying 
public health implications, he said. 

"Diseases long since eradicated, such as 
elephantiasis, could be brought back to our country 
by these people," Korn stated. 

"We still face budget and manpower shortages to treat 
our own people, yet we still have to help these 
foreign patients for humanitarian reasons," he added. 
Korn said that even though there were organisations 
such as the Medicine Sans Frontieres, which helped 
with medical bills for some patients, there was no 
agency to help Thailand when it came to re-emerging 
diseases, he said. 

Korn said he had already consulted with Interior 
Minister Sanan Kachornprasart to "close all the 
refugee camps" and "move the inhabitants to a third 
country". 

Health worries and budget shortages have long been 
used by the authorities to encourage the repatriation 
of migrant workers and refugees. 

Staff working at the Suan Phung Hospital, however, 
insisted that their policy towards all foreign 
patients will not change. 

"We will strictly adhere to the principle that as a 
hospital we will provide assistance to all patients 
regardless of their nationality," said Dr Supan 
Sritanma, a Ratchaburi health chief. 

Supan insisted that all health officials at district 
centres within five to six kilometres of the border 
have the desire to stay where they were and continue 
helping people who were sick or wounded in the 
fighting. 

For Karen rebels who needed medication and treatment, 
Supan said that "we are willing to treat them, but on 
the condition that they carry no weapons and are on 
Thai soil". 

He insisted that during the hostage situation, the 
hospital staff who were there were in high spirits 
because they felt that they would not be hurt by the 
gunmen. 

"Some of those held hostage quoted the gunmen as 
saying that they would not hurt them because they 
have been given treatment by the staff in the past," 
Supan said. 

The hospital take-over has again brought to the 
surface the decades-old problem of medical personnel 
and budget shortages for hospitals near border areas. 
According to available data, there are several 
hospitals with only one resident doctor. 
Korn yesterday promised to allocate more money and 
medical needs to hospitals near borders. He also said 
he planned to redefine Suan Phung Hospital as one 
situated in a remote area, thus providing more 
incentives to doctors to work there as the job comes 
with a Bt10,000-a-month hardship allowance. 

The hospital siege also led to several parents of 
students studying there calling and urging the 
management to scrap the procedure of sending trainees 
to Suan Phung Hospital because of the potential 
danger. 

"Currently, we have three full-time doctors and one 
who works on a rotation basis, meaning he works at 
other hospitals as well. But in April we will lose 
two because they aim to continue their studies to 
become specialists," said Suan Phung Hospital 
director Dr Chutchai Tungtam. 

"I am not sure if I can find replacements as no one 
wants to go to border hospitals," said Chutchai, 
adding that he was also worried that doctors 
presently working in hospitals in remote areas might 
think twice about staying. 

Many nurses at the hospital said they did not feel 
threatened by the Karen patients. 

"The ones we know are not involved in anything 
unsavoury; they are nice people," said Yupa Piemprom, 
a 27-year-old nurse. 

Yupa added that the take-over had had no effect on 
her perception towards the Karen in general. If there 
was anything to be scared about, she said, it was 
seeing local police and soldiers roaming around the 
hospital area with their guns. 

"I think they are more scary then the Karen," she 
said tongue-in-cheek. 

However, Lance Corporal Sa-ard Tinwongdaeng, 30, of 
the Border Patrol Police's 137th Company in Suan 
Phung, said his company's duty was only to maintain 
security. 

BY MUKDAWAN SAKBOON 
The Nation (February 6, 2000)



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NATION: AGAINST ALL ODDS


February 6, 2000
An all-out offensive by Rangoon troops against rebel 
positions in Burma's southern Karen State, and a 
surprise change of command within one of the largest 
rebel groups in the north, have once again put the 
Karens' struggle for independence in the spotlight.

After years of fighting uphill struggles against 
great odds, the Karen National Union is hoping that 
new leadership will inject some life into the 50-
year-old conflict, in a bid to inject more diplomacy 
into their movement. Command of the troops, however, 
still remains under Gen Bo Mya, who has led the Karen 
National Union for more than two decades.

Besides losing their stronghold in 1995, the union 
has also suffered a number of other setbacks, 
including the breaking away of the Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army, as well as the departure of some of 
its senior leaders. The new batch of leaders is 
looking to win them back.

The fall of the Karens' headquarters in Manerplaw in 
1995 effectively forced the group to abandon 
conventional warfare and adopt guerrilla tactics.

But time doesn't seem to be on the Karena' side. In 
the past weeks, southern Karen State has been 
bombarded with all-out offensives by the Burmese 
troops, forcing some 2,000 villagers to flee their 
village for Ratchaburi and other provinces nearby.

The attack has jolted the Karen Union and its 
splinter group, the God's Army, along with its ally, 
the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors. Thai military 
on the border said the Karen had abandoned their 
Villages, broken up into small units to fend off the 
government's offensive.

Three weeks have gone by and the rebels are still 
holding their ground. They showed no sign of giving 
up in spite of the fact that nearly 2,000 of their 
people have already fled over the border into 
Thailand. Surrendering would amount to the end of the 
rebels' existence, and retreating across the Thai 
border would be just as fatal.

Offers to have the God's Army retreat on to Thai soil 
so that they could be "contained" were rejected as 
the group no longer trusted the Thais. Indeed, they 
have every reason not to.

For the past few weeks, the Thai Army First Region 
has been shelling the God's Army positions opposite 
Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district. Boxed in from both 
sides, some in the group teamed up with members of 
the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, hijacked a bus 
two weeks ago and went to the heart of Ratchaburi. 
They took hundreds of medical staff and patients 
hostage at gunpoint, and demanded that the Thai Army 
stop attacking them. The armed group claimed that 
hundreds of innocent villagers had been slaughtered 
as a result of the Thai shelling.

Their calls fell on deaf ears. In the end the ten 
hostage-takers were killed by Thai commandos, 
reportedly after their surrender. And so, the 
struggle for an independent Karen homeland continues.

The Nation (February 6, 2000)

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NLM: PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE U MYA THAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO WTO D-G

New Light of Myanmar

YANGON,4 Feb- U Mya Than, Permanent Representative of the Union of 
Myanmar to the United Nations presented his credentials as Permanent 
Representative of the Union of Myanmar to the World Trade Organization 
to His Excellency Mr Michael Kenneth Moore, Director-General of the 
World Trade Organization, on 25 January 2000, in Geneva Switzerland .

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

AFP: UN WARNS PROTESTERS MUST BE HEARD AT BANGKOK TRADE MEET
Sunday, February 6 2:40 PM SGT

AFP: UN WARNS PROTESTERS MUST BE HEARD AT BANGKOK TRADE MEET

BANGKOK, Feb 6 (AFP) -

The UN's trade and development chief, Rubens Ricupero, warned on Sunday 
that protests must be allowed at the world body's global trade meet 
starting in Bangkok next weekend.

The warning comes amid a security crack-down by Thai authorities eager 
to prevent a repeat of violence by anti-globalisation activists which 
marred World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle last year and the more 
recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Ricupero, United Nations Conference on Trade and Developmentsecretary
general, said it was vital dissenting voices be heard and that the 
Bangkok meeting be used to heal old wounds.

"I hope that our conference will provide them with a public space, 
because I think it is dangerous to confine the protests to the street 
level," Ricupero said.

"It is necessary to take their concerns very seriously and try to 
identify what the reasons are behind all those manifestations, and what 
we can do in international organisations to channel those feelings 
towards a constructive cause."

He said the UN had "full confidence" in Thailand's security arrangements 
for the conference to be held between February 12 and 19.

"We trust that they will do what they find is necessary," he told 
reporters at a press conference after arriving in Bangkok Sunday 
morning.

Thai police chiefs Wednesday promised to permit anti-globalisation 
protests during the meeting, but have banned demonstrations near the 
venue.

"As of now we haven't found a suitable venue for demonstrations, but we 
are looking for potential places," National Police Chief General Pracha 
Promnog said.

Security in the capital has been stepped up, with police already on 
alert following last month's seizure of a hospital west of Bangkok along 
with hundreds of patients and staff by Myanmar insurgents.

Thai authorities insist a current round-up of illegal immigrants in 
Bangkok follwoing the hostage crisis is unrelated to UNCTAD security 
preparations.

"There is no direct connection between the delegates from the countries 
who are coming to the conference and any kind of round-up based on 
countries of origin," said Kobsak Chutikul, director of the foreign 
ministry's economics department.

"The press reports perhaps are reporting over-enthusiasm and a sense of 
concern by those who have been entrusted with the responsibility of 
making security arrangements."

More than 6,622 police officers will be deployed across the capital 
during the week-long conference, while thousands of delegates, including 
a number of heads of state, from more than 100 nations are expected to 
attend.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

BANGKOK POST: ELITE FORCE URGED TO TACKLE THE WA
Feb 6, 2000.

'Situation is critical, decisiveness needed'

Wassana Nanuam

Army commander-in-chief Gen Surayud Chulanont will be asked to approve 
the formation of a special military force to pursue drug traffickers 
operating along the Burmese border.
"We need to act decisively to root out drug trafficking," Gen Boonlert 
Kaewprasit, head of the army's drug prevention and suppression 
committee, said.

"The situation now is quite critical and decisive action inevitable."Gen 
Boonlert, an army special adviser, was speaking after a three-day visit 
to the Third Army Region, which is responsible for border drug 
suppression.

Proposals to be presented to Gen Surayud would include the formation of 
a special force to deal firmly with drug traffickers.
"It could be similar to the special force formed during Gen Prem
Tinsulanonda's administration in the early 80s, when drug warlord Khun 
Sa used the border area for the production of illicit drugs," another 
committee member said.

Gen Boonlert was briefed at Third Army headquarters in Phitsanuloke by 
senior officers including Maj-Gen Chamlong Phothong, the chief-of-staff, 
who emphasised his belief trafficking activity in the area would get 
worse unless decisive action was taken.

Gen Boonlert was told about 50 factories were still producing illicit 
drugs along the border, opposite Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Many areas 
were under the influence of the United Wa State Army, widely recognised 
as the biggest drug producer in the Golden Triangle area.

Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuengwong, Third Army commander, said earlier the 
UWSA's main income came directly from the drugs trade. He totally 
rejected the Wa's claim its earnings derived from trading of natural 
resources. "The trend is worrisome," noted a senior officer. The Third 
Army forecasts that production of methamphetamine will increase from 200 
million pills last year to 250 million this year.

"We were able to seize only 40 million tablets last year. That means 
around 160 million pills could have found their way to the local 
market," an intelligence official said. Lack of cohesion between 
different state agencies tackling the drug problem
was also raised during Gen Boonlert's inspection.

If left unresolved it would undermine drug suppression efforts, he was 
told. Lt-Gen Wattanachai, a cavalry officer, recently sought support 
from the National Security Council for the formation of another powerful 
administrative body which would be empowered to handle all security 
problems, including drug trafficking, in the upper northern provinces. 

The idea was rejected during a meeting of leading security officials who 
were optimistic that the restructuring of the Internal Security 
Operations Command would resolve the problem.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

COMMENT: D. U NE OO ON GUSTAAF HOUTMAN'S "BURMESE MENTAL CULTURE"

POSTED SUN 6-FEB-2000; 9:00AM

INVITATION TO COMMENT ON BURMESE MENTAL CULTURE, A
BOOK BY GUSTAAF HOUTMAN--NOW PREPARING FOR SECOND EDITION.

An invitation is extended to all our friends on the net, especially  
Burmese compatriots, to give input/comments on above book. The book is 
available on-line at URL:

	http://homepages.tesco.net/~ghoutman/index.html

Gustaaf Houtman  is an anthropologist form Britain. About his book on 
Mental Culture in Burmese Politics, he appears to guage the influence of 
Buddhism in current & historical Burmese political events. Admitting, I 
cann't be certain on this judgment because I've managed to read only 
first 3-chapters to date, and my reading still haven't covered the 
breadth or depth of the whole book. The book has 21 large chapters (250K 
size/chapter).

The most interesting part of the book, so far I have read, is the
author's view of how Burmese people's political thinkings were shaped up 
over the century. 

IT'S NOT A WASTE OF TIME

I encourage my Burmese compatriots to especially read this book and give 
comment to Mr Houtman (Burmese name San Maung and can also speak Burmese 
too!!). Of course, there will be some factual mistakes and philosophical 
errors in his writing. In the case of Burma, you are the expert and you 
-- the Burmese -- are to comment what is right/wrong. Mr Houtman said he 
welcome comments from wide-ranging Burmese exiled community. He would 
make use of these comments in preparation for the next edition.

As for the books on social studies on Burma, I saw few books around 
1950-60, and seems quite flawed and outdated. Also, there haven't been a 
great deal of understanding in international community about Burmese 
people and their culture. To our Burmese compatriots, your input on the 
book is certainly not a waste of time: this kind of book will help 
open-up Burmese culture/mind to the world. On the one hand, because of 
rich discussion of historical background were included in the book, we 
can learn a lot about ourselves (Burma) too.

The Houtman will not come online to Burma political lists, but he can be 
directly contacted at <ghoutman@xxxxxxxxx>. If you consider relevant, 
please also forward to Lists about your comment/discussion with Mr 
Houtman, which might be of interest to all of us.  

With best regards, U Ne Oo.
-----------------------------------------
MY COMMENT ON CHAPTER-1:
***********************
31-Dec-99
Dear Mr Houtman:

I have recently visited your website 
and the book on mental culture. Thank you, firstly, for researching on 
and writing about Burma and Burmese people and their politics. We need a 
lot of those kind of research, I suppose. I am reading through your 
writings, with a rate of Onechapter per 3-4days, and with much pleasure, 
would like commenting few things I tend to disagree.

In your book, first chapter, following paragraphs talk about Gen Aung 
San and his reference to LOKA NIBBANA:

"The nibbana that Aung San describes is in the popular imagination often 
represented as ?the city? and as ?the country? of nibbana in prayers 
accompanying the water libation ceremony at the end of an act of 
Buddhist charity.  Though this is popularly believed the equivalent of a 
?kind of indestructible country or city? and some believe that it is a 
place where ?those who have passed into it lived happily with mind and 
body free of old age, sickness and  death?, it in fact represents 
successful accomplishment of a complete and permanent transformation of 
the mind by  arahat and Buddhas in their last existence, with the 
consequence that there is no longer a next existence, since there has 
been annihilation of all ignorance and its related mental defilements.

Loka nibbana, however, is but one  kind of nibbana. Lokuttara nibbana, 
is another kind, where additionally also has occurred the extinction of 
the five bodily factors (khanda), so that there is no longer any 
physical existence ? this involves the complete ceasing of being.[109]

          Going as far back as the Pagan Period, it has long been part 
of Burmese political tradition for royalty to pray for the attainment of 
nibbana at the end of their grand acts of charity. Furthermore, out of 
compassion for the world, it  was not uncommon for political leaders to 
take the vow to become a Buddha (i.e. as bodhisattvas) out of mercy   
for their subjects, the inhabitants of this world; they aimed to remain 
in this world longer to achieve some political  objective. They would 
postpone their personal entry into nibbana so as to eventually build up
the strength to take the masses across the threshold of samsara into 
nibbana. If this was the prerogative of aristocracy in the past, in 
Burma of the 1920s and 1930s a transition was gradually made which 
democratised the concept of nibbana as being within reach of every 
person. This culminated in the democracy period of U Nu, where vipassana 
centres  were sponsored all over the country."

MY COMMENTS: Firstly, Gen. Aung San and, later Burmese political leaders 
and writers, usually use the word 'loka nibbana' synomymous with a 
country which is prosperous, peaceful and is free of oppressions. In 
that sense, you are quite right to interpret that word with some analogy 
to 'Lokuttra nibbana', but it will be misleading to take that meaing far 
too literally in Buddhist religious terms or conceptions.

The other thing is that in U Nu's Government in 1950s as a routine
promote 'vipassana' centers. But it is for mere promotion of Buddhism as 
a national religion-- the PM U Nu was a truly religious person. But this 
aim, actually, has nothing to do with Burma as a country to achieving a 
'Loka nibbana'. In otherwords, these Burmese political leaders appear 
frequently borrowed the term 'loka [NIBBANA]' from Buddhism for reason 
of easy explanation of political objectives to the Burmese population.
But there has been no such attempt -- and there has been no religious 
means-- to attain that objective by the use of Buddhism.

That all I've got comment on at the moment. Please, if you have some 
time, visit my home page also and help contribute to our struggle for 
democracy. Your continuing interest in Burma is most appreciated.

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Email: strider@xxxxxxx
Voice mail:  +1 (435) 304-9274
Fax: +1 (810)454-4740 

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