Shan State and Union of Burma
(Feb. 07, 2006)Editorial Message on The 59th Anniversary of Shan National Day
(S.H.A.N. & Burma's News Published by Burma's Chinese)
It is interesting to note that the linkage and emergence of the modern Shan State, its national day and the formation of the Union of Burma are so intertwined; it is almost impossible to discuss the making of this historical formation separately.
The date 7th February 1947 is a defining moment in the record of the Shan history as a modern nation. On that day, Shan princes and the people's representatives of the Shan States demonstrated their newfound unity to declare it a "national day" which were followed by the resolutions of "Shan National Anthem", "Shan National Flag" and the formation of "Shan State Council" on the 11th and 15th of February, 1947 respectively. These had been done without reference to the British colonial overlords, who claimed protectorship over the Federated Shan States since 1886-87 (one year after the fall of the Burman kingdom and the Alaungpaya or Gonbaung dynasty).
The formation of the Shan State Council by Shan leaders autonomously of the British represents a declaration by the Shan that they are a sovereign, free nation. This bold action constitutes a Shan declaration of independence from foreign rule, and the date, 7th February 1947, marks the entry of the Shan people onto the world's historical stage as a modern nation.
The people of Shan States and leaders decided in this very year later at Panglong, on the 12th of February, to join with U Aung San and the AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League) and leaders of other nationalities, to live together under one flag as co-independent and equal nations. This marks the birth of a nation-state now known as "Union of Burma".
It is not an exaggeration to state that without Panglong Agreement or Accord, signifying the intent and willingness of the free peoples and nations of what could be termed British Indochina, there would have not been born the Union of Burma in 1948.
Failed Cohabitation
As all know, the experiment to live together in harmony within the Union of Burma has been a disaster. In 1962, the Burmese military sized state power in a coup and declared the Union Constitution abolished. In so doing, the Burmese terminated the only existing legal bond between them and the other ethnic nationalities. The declaration of the suspension of the Constitution was in effect a self-denunciation that Burma had overnight become an aggressor-nation instead of partner. Since then, Shan State has been treated as a de facto colony and occupied territory by the Burmese army. Its forced assimilation and Burmanization policies to subdue our national identity have devastated the Shan homeland and make the people homeless and refugees. Looking at the contemporary situation, one could only term the Shan nation as a downtrodden and battered one, reeling under the occupation of the oppressive Burmese military regime. Gross human rights violations, genocide and cultural genocide, population transfer designed to make the Shan a minority in their homestead, and robbing them of their birthright sovereignty and self-determination are glaring injustice, which push the Shan into the category of sub-human or slaves, especially in the eyes of their occupiers.The same situation also applies to the Karenni, Karen, Mon, Arakan, Chin and Kachin States.
But even under such circumstances and after more than four decades of brutal suppression and occupation, the Shan sense of "national identity" and the aspiration to be the master of their own faith have not diminish but have grown stronger. The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy's (SNLD) victory in 1990 nation-wide election in the whole Shan State; the continued political activities of the Shan State Army North within the limited political space provided by the Burmese military junta; the active armed resistance of the Shan State Army South, together with the bulk of Shan State National Army; and the highly self-conscious Shan civil societies in keeping the national identity alive under intense pressure of the Burmese military junta; are indications of a nation, which refuses to be cowed.
Given such a backdrop, it is not at all surprising that the majority of the Shan people wants to opt out of the now-defunct union for good. The question also arises as to why the mainstream Shan organizations are endorsing the notion to rebuild a new Federal Union - together with all the other ethnic nationalities, Burman included - instead of an outright total independence and clean sweep secession.
There are two essential, important factors, which need emphasizing regarding this issue, at least from the mainstream organizations and Shan leadership point of view. One is the ever changing global perspective in relation to the issue of self-determination and the other, the constant transformation of needs and value system or aspiration of a people at a given time and space.
Changing Global Perspective
In 1945, the United Nations member states count was 41 and by 2002, it has reached 191. Up till 1990, most emerging new states, with a few exceptions like Bangladesh and Singapore, are the product of decolonization program of the United Nations based on the so-called salt-water doctrine. However, the break-up of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in the early 90s has added up some 19 more new states, which raises hope that the disintegration of the existing states will continue. But this expectation was short-lived and with the end of the cold war, the pro-status quo stance gained acceptance again and the disintegration of existing states subsided. During the period of 2000 to 2006, only one new state emerged, which was a mixture of decolonization trend as prescribed by the United Nations and liberation movement or disintegration of an existing state from the point of view of the Indonesian government.
The global trend seems to be moving towards integration than disintegration, as can be seen by the expansion of European Union, now numbering 25 states. At the same time, the international community's wariness of having to deal with failed states, such as Somalia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, have prompted to reject disintegration and push for more integration.
If one looks around the conflict spectrum in Asia-Pacific region, most opposition movements against the existing states have toned down their secessionist tendency and are now accommodating autonomy solution or federal system arrangement, rather than secession. The Tamil Tiger of Sri Lanka and the GAM of Ache/Indonesia are good examples, which have grasped the changing international mood in relation to their aspiration of self-determination.
Christian Hillgruber, in his " The Admission of New States to the International Community " writes:The integration of a new state in the international community does not take place automatically, but through co-optation; that is, by individual and collective recognition on the part of the already existing states. By the procedure of recognition, these states exercise their prerogative to determine in advance whether the newcomer, in their judgment, is able and willing to carry out all its obligations as a subject of international law, whether it will be a reliable member of the international community.
Shan State is situated between China and Thailand and also shares thousands of kilometers borderline with both states and couldn't expect recognition easily, even if the Shan could throw out the Burmese occupation forces, for both countries view the conflict as an internal one. Furthermore, while China has adopted an Anti-Secession Law on 14 March 2005, Thailand is bound by it commitment in ASEAN to view Burma as a sole political entity and fellow member of the bloc, not to mention the principle of non-intervention and territorial integrity, which are cornerstones of the organization.
Transformation of Needs and Value System
According to the unpublicized survey conducted by the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), the majority of the Shan people would opt for total independence, if given the chance to choose. It is also not surprising that the people would prefer secession, under such immense rights violations and oppression by the Burmese occupation forces. It couldn't be otherwise.
Again, it boils down to the point if the people's desire could be achieved in the foreseeable future, given the unfavorable international mood on such goal setting. Practically, the Shan are faced with a dilemma to choose between secession and genuine federalism. But it is also important to note that the Federal Proposal of 1961, before the military coup, is the brainchild of the Shan leadership at that time, which was aimed at changing the Burman dominated unitary system into a genuine federal structure with equal status for all ethnic nationalities. All non-Burman ethnic groups endorse this as a balanced and acceptable solution until today. Meanwhile, this proposed arrangement also find acceptance among most of the Burman opposition camps as a way to resolve the conflict as a whole.
In this connection, it is also important to look at the ever-changing needs and value of the concerned population at a given space and time. The Kurdish people's participation in the recent Iraq federal setup, the undecided faith of the Albanian people in Kosova, the conflict management in Ache/Indonesia, and the ongoing talks between the government of India and Naga people indicated that they are ready to cut a deal less than the originally aimed goal of secession or total independence. This is perhaps lowering the aspiration to a certain degree but nevertheless, a pragmatic approach and in line with the international mood. But this is not to say that the global trend will stay forever in favor of status quo. The people concerned would eventually adjust their needs and value system, according to the prevailing international norm and structure of the time.
Pragmatic Approach
Finally, if the Shan wants to be heard and advance their aspirations, they would need to seriously think globally and act locally. It would need to sell the idea that it is part and parcel of a viable force, in collaboration with all non-Burman ethnic nationalities and Burman opposition groups, to replace the illegitimate military junta. To do this, "broad coalition-building" among all the opposition is essential, even those within the rank of the enemies, who are ready to reform, embrace justice, equality and democracy should not be neglected.
The Shan cannot win this fight alone and it is crucial that the " multi-pronged" approach is employed, coupled with the motto of "diverse actions, common goal”, as urged time and again by the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe.
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SHAN STATE In 2005
The National Convention
One of the details that has been mostly overlooked is that the military-run National Convention's first session of the year (17 February-31 March) was boycotted not only by the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy and Shan State Army 'North', whose most active leaders were arrested on 8-9 February, but also the Kokang Democratic Party. Peng Jiafu, who had headed the Kokang ceasefire delegation in the 2004 session, also failed to show up.
But most of the ceasefire groups continued to participate to see if the organizers would allow them any space to speak more in support of their “more rights to the states” proposal. They found no chance to do so. Others in the Convention's Other Invited Delegates category, the bulk of which is filled by members of ceasefire groups, had their own reasons. “At least we will have a constitution,” says one of the prominent figures from Shan State. “One of the existing problems is that there is no law the people can refer to.”
In fact, many, including Shans, have expressed satisfaction with some of the resolutions passed by the Convention, especially with regards to the establishment of 6 Self-Administered zones and divisions, 5 of which are in Shan State: Danu, PaO, Palaung and Kokang Self-Administered zones and Wa Self-Administered Division. (The remaining one is Naga Self-Administered Zone in Sagaing Division.)
However, if one is expecting Senior General Than Shwe to keep his word to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in May, that the Convention will be wrapped up by the end of the year, one is bound to be disappointed. “The ongoing session is expected to adjourn by the end of January,” said a source close to the delegates from Shan State, “and they have just completed only 8 out of 15 topics.”
The latest session that began on 5 December drew very few complaints from its 1,000 plus delegates at least in terms of accommodation. The food is good, according to a Shan delegate who used to be a teacher in northern Shan State. “Every morning and evening, we turn on to the news broadcasts from BBC, VOA, RFA and DVB and no official is there to say our listening pleasures are causing displeasure to the generals. Our daily allowance, 200 kyat until the last session, has also been increased to 500 kyat (almost 0.5).” Of course, he adds, the delegates have the right to “support the SPDC's proposals and provide suggestions” but not to voice disapproval.
Unclean Sweep
The year is marked by successive crackdowns on Shans, a phenomenon unseen since 1962:
More than 30 taken into custody on 8-9 February with ten of them, including Hkun Tun Oo, leader of the largest winning party in Shan State, Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and Maj-Gen Hso Ten, leader of the Shan ceasefire groups. After nearly 9-months of interrogation and trial, where the defendants were permitted to resort to legal counsels appointed by the court, Hkun Tun Oo received a 93-year jail sentence and Hso Ten 106.
In April and May, the Shan State National Army(SSNA) and the Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA) both of which were based in northern Shan State, were forced to hand over “arms for peace”.
On 24 August, the Shan State Army 'North' (SSA-North), was ordered to pull out its Third Brigade from its areas north of the Mandalay-Lashio highway, that comprised several townships: Hsipaw, Nawngkheo, Mongmit, Kyaukme and Hsipaw.
Following the Shan New Year celebrations on 1 December, several organizers were taken into custody. The shocking reason, said sources, was that this year's festivities, unlike previous years', had been permitted by the authorities without the organizers having to submit a formal request. “He (Maj-Gen Myint Hlaing, head of northern Shan State) had allowed them to celebrate so he could find an excuse to arrest them later,” charged one. By the end of the year, most of the Shans' top leaders in the political, ceasefire and social sectors, except for a few, had been effectively silenced. The main problem with the SPDC way of riding roughshod over everybody, says one disgruntled ceasefire leader, is that it only helps to fan the flames of violence instead of resolving problems.
No Peace and Quiet for SSA 'South'
All through the year, the Shan State Army 'South' and its political wing, the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) that had been known for their energetic public relations since 1998, have been atypically withdrawn.
Its busy websites in Shan, Thai, English and Chinese were left un-updated. Freedom News, its print publication that used to come out every few months disappeared without prior notice. A few statements that appeared, as one reporter remarked, were “without punch” All these in spite of a horde of sensational news that surrounded this one and only active Shan armed movement against Rangoon, which included: continued fighting inside Shan State, both east and west; its successful stand against the joint Burma Army-Wa offensive, March-April; the Thai Army's order for 200 Shans taking refuge with the SSA to move out on 18 May; its delicate relationship with a commander that had switched allegiance to the newly-formed 'Interim Shan Government'; the merger with the Shan State National Army; and not least the Burma Army's 4-month chase of one of its commanders that eventually led to his surrender on New Year's Day Plus One.
The people, both supporters and opponents alike, and the media were full of questions. But only a few answers were made available.
One explanation for its out-of-character reticence, according to Thai security sources, is that a warning had likely been served by Thailand, on whose goodwill its existence rests, to maintain a low profile, especially after two men were caught on 3 March on drug charges. One of the men was a resident in Thailand contracted by the group to bring in supplies to Loi Taileng, its main base opposite Maehongson, and another with an ID card issued by the SSA. Although it is highly doubtful that Loi Taileng, hemmed in on all sides by armies from Rangoon, Wa and Thailand, can run a refinery on the premises, suspicions persist.
The groups' members, in the meanwhile, have urged its sympathizers not to lose their faith. “We know our reason to exist depends almost solely on our ability to keep our publicity machine rolling,” one officer told S.H.A.N. “In addition, we need to go on practicing what we preach and go on preaching what we practice. That is the only way to manage the damage. And we are going to bring the point home at the next annual meeting.”
Shan Women Honoured
“I can't quite believe she is the same girl I used to know almost twenty years ago,” a 41-year old grandmother remembers.” She and her younger sister were each seated in a pannier (one of a pair of baskets on each side of a mule's back) with my son (who was of the same age) perching in the middle, as we crossed the border into Maehongson. The mountain trails were so narrow we thought a sudden misstep made by the mule might send all of them hurtling down to the gorge below. It was only after we reached the foot of the hills we could breathe easy.” She was of course talking about Charm Tong, then six years old, who was to emerge during the year as the most talkedabout Shan woman.
After attending school in Chiangmai's Wiang Haeng district, where she learned Thai, English, Shan and Chinese (one of her essays appeared in a Chinese language newspaper), she arrived in Chiangmai in 1997, a gangling 15 year old girl who had just finished her junior high school. From there she was sent by her friends to Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean), where she learned her first serious lessons in social activities under the no-nonsense tutorship of the group's lady boss, Debbie Stodhart.
At 17, she became a co-founder of Shan Women's Action Network, to which she has referred to as the reason for the successes gained since the group's 2002 blockbuster report, License to Rape. Indeed, all her efforts, she admits freely, would have come to nought without the unfailing support and coaching given to her by other cofounders such as “the highly vocal” Hseng Noung and “the writer” Lao Liang Won. “The credit should also go to Nang Hseng Hurng who started the work on License to Rape,” she told S.H.A.N. Indeed, it does take more than one to win your spurs.
Chronology
28 March 1999 Shan Women Action Network(SWAN) formed
20 June 2002 License to Rape launched December 2004 US-based women's magazine, Marie Claire, chooses Charm Tong for its 10 Women of the World awards
11 May 2005 Charm Tong awarded Reebok Human Rights prize
19 September 2005 SWAN and WLB (Women's League of Burma) become joint winners of Peter Gruber Foundation's International Women's Rights Prize
31 October 2005 Charm Tong meets US President George W. Bush
A Government yet to Govern
Charm Tong may be the Shans' sensation of the year, but no one, not even its most vocal critics among whom are Shans themselves, is unable to deny that the ISG, which stands for Interim Shan Government, has been the rage of the year ever since it popped into the media headlines on 17 April with the declaration of Shan independence from Burma.
Its origins may still remain obscure to most informed Shans, but this fact has done little to stop many ethnic Shans, reeling under the relentless suppression of the Burma Army and the arrests ofleading Shan figures who had been calling for a return to the founding principles of the union in 1947, from taking it up as a choice to reconsider after years of neglect. “So long as the non- Burmans are being treated on equal terms, I don't believe they will break away,” Hkun Tun Oo, leader of SNLD and spokesperson for the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), had assured everyone who posed to him the question of possible Shan secession.
But with his arrest and forced surrender of two ceasefire armies, “anything but living with the Burmans”, as one Shan businessman had put it, had become an inviting option. S.H.A.N.'s survey conducted during the year in 25 townships shows that given a choice of joining Burma, China and Thailand, none had opted for Burma. (In contrast, 53.5% had chosen Federal Democracy over Independence, 26.7%) Caught between the Shans, the majority of whom appear to be all out for independence and the military junta that had outlawed the ISG outright and offered Self-Administered zones and divisions to them, the non-Shans of Shan State, whose combined population rivals with that of the majority Shans, are naturally reticent. “Of course, the leaders of the ISG have guaranteed a federal system for the future Shan State,” said a Palaung friend to S.H.A.N. “But no one outside themselves have assured us that Shan State independence is dead certain. And also, what about our neighbors, especially China? Are they ready to recognize us?” (China adopted an Anti-Secession Law on 14 March 2005)
Which is what the ISG, through its ever optimistic and tireless “Foreign Minister” Khun Hom, 72, has been working for. However, the results so far have been debatable at best and hopeless at worst, according to insider sources.
The ISG is also facing indifference from even other Shan groups. A S.H.A.N. survey during the bimonthly Shan Community Exchange in May discovered that although most participants (50%) had supported the idea of Independence, 63% had adopted a stance of wait-and-see on the ISG. “We want to be sure whether the S in the ISG stands for Shan or Sham,” said one young activist.
One positive result was the formation of a Shan Representative Committee, a 13-group coalition, on 18 June. The spokesperson, who was quick to point out that the ISG was not among its members, had called for unity with indigenous non-Shan groups in Shan State and to resolve political issues by political means.
Profile
Hkun Tun Oo
Born of royal blood at the palace of Hsipaw on 11 September 1943, he was active in the Tai (Shan) Youth Association when he went to school in Taunggyi. In 1984, he set up the Burma branch of the Japan-based Overseas Courier Service. A co-founder of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy on 18 September 1988, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Hsipaw township in 1990, beating his former mentor Sai Aung Tun from the military-backed National Unity Party (NUP). He has been an outspoken critic of Burma's present rulers. Commenting on his speech given at the National Convention, National League for Democracy members had praised him for 'speaking not only for his party but for the whole of Burma.'
Maj-Gen Hso Ten
Born of a Burmese father and Shan mother in Hsipaw in 1936, he was a recipient of the scholarship program set up by the prince of Hsipaw, Sao Kya Seng, in 1955, when he went to study at Rangoon University. He had been a prominent member of the Shan resistance from 1959 to 1989, when he led the Shan State Army-North to a ceasefire pact with Rangoon. With his arrest, the untouchability of ceasefire groups has been thrown out of the window forever, said a Kokang ceasefire officer to S.H.A.N.
(Pulished by Burma's Chinese)
(boxun.com)
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