May the global society be well and in peace

Although I began my revolutionary life in the armed struggle, I have gained more political ideas and experiences as time passes by. I came to understand that besides armed struggle, there are other political means and ways to fight the military rulers.

I became one of the people who took initiatives for the change of strategy for the revolution which is to give priority to the political work plans in order to achieve our goal -- which is to get democracy and human rights and to build genuine peace in the country by ethnic nationalities.

In order for us to enable to rebuild our country to emerge a prosperous state and to be able to reach and stand tall in the international community, we have already called for the military regime to engage into dialogue and negotiation with us. We have raised the flag of national reconciliation. Calling for the dialogue doesn’t mean we have the upper-hand, or or we are afraid or are loosing the ground. Resolving the problems through dialogue and negotiation does not mean that we accept the military dictatorship, but to achieve a peaceful and smooth transition towards the restoration of genuine democracy.

To this day, however, the SPDC continues to refuse to talk to us. Why? The reason is crystal clear. Someone who uses fear as a weapon of oppression is always fearful. People of this kind do not risk to let go of power because their ability to see the truth is shuttered by their fear. In the history of mankind, people have experienced a number of dictators. In fact, it is the oppression of dictators which gives birth to a revolution, which eventually vanishes the oppression and leads to the end of dictatorship. People’s revolt and the changing world cannot be stopped by anyone in any means.

Even today the military regime is already facing the problems of economic instability, political protests, power struggle within the SPDC itself, and the international pressure. We must be well prepared and do our best.

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At this time I want to discuss the importance of the international community’s role and involvement for our struggle for democracy in Burma. Since 1988, the international community’s interest and attention to Burma has become escalated. As the regime increases oppression against its own citizens, the more pressure and resentment from the international community against the Burmese military regime elevate.

America, Canada, EU, and Scandinavian countries have used the strong policy towards the SPDC and put pressure on it by taking strong measures such as imposing sanctions. Yet the Asean countries agree that the Burmese regime should not be isolated and use the non-interfering policy of member countries’ internal affairs which is known as the constructive engagement. The reasons for this policy of Asean is firstly because there are different principles and policies within the Asean members, secondly because of the unwillingness to change deep-rooted traditional beliefs, and thirdly because Burma has close ties with China.

China has supported the military regime in Burma since its bloody coup in 1988. China abolished the communist internationalism and stopped its assistance to other communist parties. Later, the strongest Burmese Communist Party fall apart and China shifted its economy to socialist market economy. Then Burma became strategically important for China in all means. Although China doesn’t oppose the restoration of democracy in Burma, it does not want Burma become influenced by the Western countries. Both economically and militarily, Burma is strategic for China.

China policy towards Burma is that it wants to see a government with accountability and stability to run the country. It wants to improve the border trade with Burma and wants to protect the border security. It wants to see the eradication of drugs as well as a government which can maintain the good relationship with China.

In the mean time, Asean cannot take the risk in its relationship with the Burmese regime due to the Chinese government backing the Burmese regime. Even India which is the rival of China has already become to establish a stronger and franker relationship with Burma.

It seems that Japan, on the other hand, wants to cooperate with the SPDC regime as it wants to take control of the eastern part of the world for market expansion in order to become the lead of world economy.

All these individual countries practice different policies towards Burma based upon their own interest and profit only. Now I have a question for these countries’ governments. Isn’t that necessary to consider the will of the people of Burma? Shall we not assume that cooperating with the regime which refuses to transfer the power to the NLD, the winning party is already interfering our country’s internal affairs?

The truth is that there is an increase number of refugees fleeing for the border areas due to the military oppression as well as illegal/undocumented migrants working in countries like Korea due to the economic hardship. Another truth about Burma is that it is a world major supplier of drugs and the SPDC is not implementing effective and sufficient programs to stop the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS or tackle the problem. Now can we be assured that these problems will impact only on Burma?

Shall democracy and human rights for all human beings still be restricted by boundaries and demarcations?

I rather want to live in the global village which allows us to share our feelings, emotions, mutual understanding, and sympathy and better communication and networking, than the global village which is economically developed.

In stead of having more multinational corporations and more efforts to mimic trade tariff, I rather want to have the chance to help a wounded child get out of the bombarded area in Bosnia. I want to be able to send a meal to an elderly woman in China who suffered from the flood. And I rather console the girl who is beaten up by the Taliban. I rather have the chance to be able to travel across the world with an ID card, but not needing a visa or passport. This is the global village I want to live in. For this genuine “Peoples’ Global village”, Burmese, Korean and the whole world community will have to work together with the best of our abilities.

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It was in 1998 that I had a chance to visit Korea as I came to attend the FDL-AP Youth Conference. During that brief time, I was able to have a little touch on Korea.

Korea is full of historical experiences. And I believe these creates the political alertness and political awareness of Korean people. It also is encouraging for me to learn about the Korean people’s experience in the struggles against dictatorships. I think the most progressive forces in Korea are students and workers. Civil society in Korea seems to be quite strong, especially the social movement carried out by the religious groups.

Nonetheless, I was surprised to learnt that the Korean people are not actively involved in the international affairs and movements.

I met President Mr. Kim Dae Jung at the FDL-AP conference. I was inspired by his calmness, peacefulness, high level of political knowledge, and wisdom. FDL-AP was actively involved in the Burmese situation. However, it was before Mr. Kim became the president that the FDL-AP position was strong and firm towards the military regime in Burma. Now I think the FDL-AP’s position towards the regime is softened. Besides the Asean countries, Korea and Japan can also play important role for Burma. I understand the reunification of north and south Korea is the most important of all for Korea. Yet I think it is still important to consider the regionalization factor and to establish closer ties between the South East Asian and Asia Pacific countries in order to balance the globalization between the East and West.

My visit to Korea in 1998 was short and I did not have time to get to know the people. Yet there is someone who has helped me and my colleagues to know more about Korea and has introduced us to the Korean public. He is Jeong. I have got to know him very well over the years. He is one among those who know ABSDF very well. He is progressive in politics, kind and people-oriented.

Many of our members have been to Korea. We like Kimchi and Korean barbecue. Nowadays, there are Korean barbecue places are mushrooming in Thailand and we are very happy about this.

I want to see a closer relationship and communication established between Burmese people and Korean people. When we say bi-literal relationship, it needs to be built based on the benefit of the people of these two countries. If the two countries want to engage one another constructively, it should only benefit the two countries’ people, but not the two governments or the two organizations. I would like to request the people of Korea to convey this message to the Korean government.

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At the time of this writing, we are having the central committee meeting. We have just made perhaps the most important and challenging decision for our organization. That is to separate the ABSDF into two parts. One part is to work on the political activities with a new name and the other part will continue the armed struggle by primarily doing the armed activities. We have arranged to use our strength under two categories to enable us to work effectively for the revolution by opening two frontiers. For the present time, the new political group will carry on the task to end the military dictatorship by implementing empowerment and capacity building programs for the movement. For the long run, it will prepare to pave the way and build a platform to stand as a political party for the new generations.

In this most important change of ABSDF, I will take responsibility for the new political organization. This is, in fact, we are taking one step forward from the student politics. The following is an excerpt from my last speech to ABSDF as its chairman and member of the organization. “Back in Burma, I did not feel that I had achieved the adulthood and maturity. Now I feel them and enjoy them. It is ABSDF which allowed me to learn about myself and about politics and gave me so much experiences and I thank ABSDF for all these. I also thank the organization for giving me the chance to show my leadership and also following my leadership. I salute those colleagues who gave their lives during my leadership. I want to promise one thing to the colleagues who passed away and to those of you who are continuing the struggle. I will continue to take my responsibility and work for the movement until the military dictatorship falls down and democracy is restored in our country. I will work closely and hand-in-hand with ABSDF. I will never let go of my spirit of comradeship to and with the ABSDF comrades. I pledge to promote the flag of ABSDF and its commitment to the struggle wherever I go. May the ABSDF be successful.”

Now we have made a new step forward. We have to work the hardest we can and do our best to fulfill our goal. While trying to find answers to the remaining questions from the past and at present, we will have to face with new questions in future and have to be prepared for the challenges waiting for us ahead.

May the global society be well and in peace.