New Mandala

23 responses so far ↓

• 1 Stu Dent // May 19, 2008 at 4:42 pm

  Your subject line makes it appear that you want all of AusAIDS to rethink Myanmar but your recommendation is to change only one thing - the way that scholarships are allocated.

• 2 Grasshopper // May 19, 2008 at 4:53 pm

  The countries that DFAT promotes are always going to have sway over where AusAID gets to spend it’s budget. DFAT is a superior department and therefore will determine the overarching Australian policy objectives in development indirectly through whatever bilateral dialogs that are occuring.

  You say that the kin of the Junta are here studying, that AusAID refuses to give money to Burmese for scholarships AND that there are legitimate concerns about AusAID sponsoring the Junta here. What? I am confused… and simple - never a good combination.

  Yes I think it’s totally beyond the Australian government to come up with a better selection process. Not only that, but there are too many variables and legal considerations to take into account, and if a more objective policy was given authority, it would make many recent deportation decisions hypocritical (ie.. the mass exodus of some Zimbabweans who had ’superior connections’ within Zanu PF.. but were expelled only in the lead up to the recent election, when Mugabe has been a DFAT certified nutter since 02…) and the Australian Ruddy government could hardly blame Howard, Downer and co because it’s been too long since they’ve been out. Not going to be a vote earner. However, I feel it is more that hypocrisy within foreign departments leads to long term bilateral damage as opposed to new policy being of particular consequence to elected officials which makes change, in what is really a small issue, impossible.

  Moreover, as a student in Australia, I think it depends on what these parituclar students are studying. Imagine if the sons/daughters of senior Junta officials are doing business degrees… or marketing… or any of those so called degrees that inadvertantly encourage turning a blind eye to morality. If they are doing BA’s then sure, they should be here. This would see your notion that these particular students would be perceptive and reflective about what is going on in Burma/Myanmar, ensured.

  p/s I would have thought that regime members who are supposedly so staunchly against the West would never send their children to Western universities?

• 3 Bangkok Pundit // May 20, 2008 at 9:07 am

  Couldn’t they get the same thing by their internet connection - where I imagine they can bypass the censors given their privileged position?

• 4 Bob // May 20, 2008 at 3:50 pm

  Andrew said:
  “Perhaps I am naive, or overly optimistic … ”

  Sorry, but yes you are.

  > Would I be willing to accept a son or daughter of a member of the Burmese junta into a course I teach?
  > Of course.

  My response … absolutely not.

• 5 jonfernquest // May 20, 2008 at 3:56 pm

  “But is this such a bad thing? …exposing members of Burma’s junta-youth to the openness, irreverence and democratic sentiments of the Australian academic scene may lead to some broadening of political and social viewpoints.”

  I agree. I know Burmese exchange students who have a rather jaded opinion of **both** the regime and the long-term failure of the opposition to affect any change at all in their country. Their original unthinking patriotism, which is pretty normal in Burma as it is in every other country, probably changed from witnessing opinions outside their country.

  “If there is a scandal here it is that many more Burmese are not studying in Australia.”

  Yes, yes, yes. The real scandal is that educational bureaucrats can’t find someway to shortcut **poor Burmese** getting a foreign education!

  It would be virtually impossible for a son or daughter of a **poor Burmese farmer** to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops, visas, expensive entrance exams, application fees, letters of recommendations, scholarship applications, etc, etc…that are required to get admission into western universities. (I even find this impossible and I’m working in Bangkok on a middle class Thai salary)

  Years ago, I employed a bright young research assistant from Yangon University (waiting for the university to reopen after one of its numerous closures) for 1.5 years whose father was a farmer near Mon Ywa. Later on he got work in a UN library.

  ***Why can’t big rich powerful western educational institutions do this sort of thing? What is it that makes them so clumsy and incompetent?***

• 6 Grasshopper // May 20, 2008 at 6:07 pm

  Holier than thou Bob, you don’t give any reasons?! Why is it wrong to teach someone? Prejudice breeds prejudice!

• 7 Bob // May 20, 2008 at 10:58 pm

  > Prejudice breeds prejudice!

  And unearned privilege breeds unearned privilege, malevolently wielded in this case.

  There’s plenty of other tyrants whose offspring I wouldn’t teach either. The long bow that I just might do them some good is just too much of a stretch. But I can possibly deny them one of the many “rights” their parents deny their countrymen and women. That might give them pause to ponder. Or not. At least I won’t be left wondering that I’ve contributed to their countryfolk’s future misery.

  Are you not prepared to draw a line ? Is there no one you wouldn’t teach ?

  Of course I’d be happy to hear of all the examples of privileged offspring of malevolent dictators rendered benevolent by a liberal western education, to the betterment of their less privileged countryfolk.

  Finally … “openness, irreverence and democratic sentiments of the
  Australian academic scene” ?? … for any foreign undergraduate studying in Australia today, I think that’s an overly rosy view of what they absorb during their time here.

  For the kids of tyrants whose privileged position depends on the maintenance of the status quo back home, their time here is most likely directed towards gaining skills for that very aim.

• 8 Grasshopper // May 21, 2008 at 12:10 am

  Liberal education saves lives! Look at all the people with BA’s not fighting wars. They say no to war and listen to the pixies and get haircuts that are metaphors for … well I dont know, but Im sure those haircuts are metaphors.

  Maybe the biggest problem with foreign undergraduates studying in Australia is that there is little inter-cultural mixing for that irreverence to be properly soaked up. I can tell you it’s fairly irreverent when you do place yourself in the blender. On a scale of irreverence where 0% is Palestine and Israel and 100% is the Korean DMZ, I’d say Australian undergraduates are at least 50% irreverent.

  Maybe it’s this irreverence that allows for some Australian academics to be unflinching when it comes providing an educational option for whomever finds their way to whatever institution. If Hitler obtained a BA instead of dropping out to dwell on the psychology of his grandmothers irreverence, then dare I say speculatively, only one million lives would have been lost during World War 2. On the other hand, imagine where the USA would be today if Bill O’Reilly hadnt obtained an MA? That’s right, they wouldnt be at all because Bill would have killed it. The MA has restrained him.

  If Pauline Hanson obtained a BA, she was from the fish and chip shop culture by the way.. maybe we wouldnt have gone through that terrible episode of Australia possibly being dominated by a stagnating culture of protestant yocalism.. Pauline Hanson did have the option of obtaining a BA — so if your going to be admitting people from that sort of background, the department for education cant be denying people from a military junta. It would be hypocritical.

  The status quo will continue and you dear Bob, or should I say Luke Skywalker, are only one man elaborating on your elitist anti elite position. If you were in power, you’d be elite. It is the nature of power. The mistake people not in power make is believing that power is the be all and end all…

  It is hypocritical to ask for those potentially benevolent, altruistic offspring of corrupted parents to be known, as though you are assuming that they are driving around in Mercedes and living lives of luxury. You have no faith in the potential of being good spirited, but you have faith in breaking the status quo? Wouldnt a way to break the status quo for these offspring be by having the same mentality as you? You say that they shouldnt have a liberal education, but you use liberal concepts to determine that they arent liberal and say you would deny rights, which are liberal concepts, to those who arent liberal? Do you see that this is not logical? You make many assumptions — again, that’s not so liberal either. Same as the Junta really!

• 9 beth // May 21, 2008 at 10:58 am

  Education is a ‘noble’ investment so it is already relevant even when only one or two come to know what one might come to know…. I would teach all kids who have made it to my class too. All international students have to meet the admission requirements. They also have to perform up to a standard to earn their degree. You might hate it if they are children or relatives of those criminals. You have to work on that. At the end of the day, if we don’t believe in education what is there to hope for… rather idealistic, I know! I can only speak from experience. Queensland saved me! I probably would have been more liberal, had I gone to ANU

  AusAID used to have a merit scholarship program that students applied and processed with the embassy directly. Many students from rural Thailand went through this excellent program during the 90s. Some of them do have what it takes. I’d like to see more direct support for grass root level. Rather than scrap the whole thing because of their government.

  Peace everyone!

• 10 Nicholas Farrelly // May 21, 2008 at 8:27 pm

  As an aside - none of the people highlighted in that SMH article were, as far as I have seen, the offspring of top leaders. This is not to say they aren’t important - it is just that they (probably) fill some of the lower rungs in the system…

  As I understand it, SPDC offspring have tended to study in Singapore. And so do the children of other really substantial regime-associated figures.

  As an example, after last year’s uprising in Burma (and the new round of sanctions against individuals), Htet Tay Za, son of Tay Za (of Htoo Trading, Air Bagan, etc, fame) had pictures of himself at his elite Singapore boarding school splashed all over the world. And there have always been rumours about the offspring of very high-ranking military figures flying their grandchildren to the most expensive Singaporean schools. It does seem that it is in Singapore (and in Thailand?) that there is a real story about education and the Myanmar regime.

  Schools and Universities inside the country are in such a dire condition that those who can afford it (and not every “regime figure” can) hope to send their children abroad. Singapore is an easy option, of course. And with so much Burma business going through the city-state it makes sense (if other members of a family need to commute for business, medical treatment, etc) that they will use Singapore as an international base. Education is just one part of the package that is available to those with $100,000s to spend avoiding the grim Burmese system.

  So perhaps the better questions here focus on Singapore. Family members from the top rungs surely end up at flagship institutions. Places like NUS?

  It would be great to hear from New Mandala readers who know more.

  Best wishes to all,

  Nich

• 11 Grasshopper // May 21, 2008 at 10:44 pm

  “Singapore Education Fair, Myanmar 2007″
  >>> http://app.singaporeedu.gov.sg/kr/asp/hig/hig0101a.asp?id=1662

  “Everything about Singapore education for Myanmar students”
  >>> http://www.studying-singapore.com/index.php

  I feel as though, reading through my reply in 8, that I should just say that Roy and HG have had far too much influence on me, and that I wish I could say I was drunk writing that, but I wasnt.

• 12 masao imamura // May 23, 2008 at 6:23 am

  This discussion is very important. Perhaps it is useful to identify several separate questions.
  (1) What should a teacher do? Can a teacher refuse to teach a student on the ground that his or her father is an evil dictator?
  Of course not. A teacher is supposed to teach everyone in his or her classroom, like a doctor is supposed to treat a patient regardless of his or her background. Students have to be treated as individuals in the classroom, and what matters is his/her performance and behavior. Family association must not be taken into account—positively or negatively—in determining the qualification. (So, a student should not be given special or preferential treatment on the ground that his/her parent is a pro-democracy activist leader either.)
  (2) Should members of the junta be strategically targeted for educational experience abroad? And should they receive financial aid? This is precisely the question that exploded in the United States when a former Taliban spokesperson was admitted to Yale for their undergraduate (non-degree) program. (The New York Times Sunday Magazine’s cover story “The Freshman” is worth reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/magazine/26taliban.html?_r=1&oref=slogin). And the Wikipedia entry is also helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayed_Rahmatullah_Hashemi) In Burma/Myanmar’s context, a question is: Should a foreign government (say Australia) give young promising officers in the Naypidaw government financial aid for study abroad because they might lead to long-term improvement of the government?
  (3) How can we better help qualified and motivated students in Burma/Myanmar who cannot afford the high cost of studying abroad? How do we design and implement a fair and workable selection mechanism for scholarship. If you work for an embassy or an aid agency (like AusAID) in Yangon and if you are hoping to have an official scholarship program approved by the Naypidaw government, then your realistic hope is to achieve a mechanism that is least unfair possible under the circumstances. You would have to make considerable compromise. I imagine, for example, that the eligibility requirement would include USDA membership. You would to reach an agreement with the junta and then you would also have to be able to explain and justify the agreement to the tax payers and others. In reality it would be quite difficult today to gain support for this sort of compromise with the Burma/Myanmar. Unless negotiation and compromise towards long-term impact becomes a more acceptable foreign policy orientation, I think it will remain very difficult to have an official financial aid scheme in the country.
  Indeed The Irrawaddy magazine reported in the beginning of the year that the junta had put additional restrictions on the state scholarship program, making it more difficult for government staff to study abroad:
  “Under the decree, no government staff member can be nominated by a foreign government for a scholarship program. Nominations must be made by the Burmese government.
  All state scholarship students who study abroad must have approval of the government. A female student is prohibited to study abroad alone; she must be accompanied by at least one female student.
  Military officials studying abroad must obtain permission of the Ministry of Defense.
  For state scholarship programs, staff members must have worked in the government for at least two years. Students’ parents and spouses must be of Burmese nationality. Also, students who study abroad and return home may not leave the country again to study abroad for three years.” (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9881)
  But it is not all hopeless and there are encouraging facts lately. Firstly, I understand for example that that it has become generally easier for a young person to obtain a passport in Burma/Myanmar (as long as he is she can pay). Obtaining a passport used to be extremely difficult for a young, especially a woman. Secondly, the spread of internet services in major cities has been extremely helpful in finding information about different scholarships. And thirdly, there have been less expensive study abroad programs now. In recent years there seem to be more financial aid available for Burmese students (who live inside the country) to study in Thailand. These are made available by non-governmental organizations. (See for example Heinrich Boll Foundation Southeast Asia: http://www.boell-southeastasia.org/en/web/index_112.html). The international (that is, English-language) graduate programs in social sciences at Thai universities today have more students from Burma/Myanmar. (Those programs should be applauded for actively seeking and supporting students from the country.) The social science programs in Thailand have been especially effective in terms of research production because the students go back to Burma/Myanmar for field work and collect rich empirical data that are impossible for foreign students to access. There have been a number of good MA theses by these students in recent years.
  Another positive effect about students from Burma/Myanmar learning in Thailand is that many of them go back to the country after completing the program. (I have observed that it is much less likely that students return to the country if they leave Asia.) They go back and work hard there to make use of the education they received abroad. (In this respect, the contributions made by the alumni of the Asian Institute of Technology have been especially significant.) In the country where the brain drain is extremely serious, these young and independent minds staying in the country play a very important role.
  Craig Raynolds wrote nearly a decade ago a short book chapter titled “The Ethics of Academic Engagement in Burma.” In there he suggests that we “find the little spaces where it is possible to speak even in the face of constraints that academics would not ordinarily accept.” This point is more important today. Rather than waiting for a political breakthrough, we should actively seek these little ambiguous spaces–“gray areas” and “sites of opportunity and possibility”–today.

• 13 jonfernquest // May 23, 2008 at 12:41 pm

  Thank you Masao Imamura and Beth for that valuable information. I also remember encountering many Burmese studying and teaching in Thailand. Australia does seem to be the forefront in providing education to the poor in Southeast Asia.

  When you mentioned that people who study near their own country (e.g. Thailand is near Burma) are more likely to go back home in the end, that immediately raises the question of what people can feasibly do with their education once they are done. For most people in Thailand and Burma an education in business provides them more opportunities on this front, that’s why I focus on entrepreneurship, SMEs, and small business, in learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP). In fact, preparing a book on that right now.

  It would also be productive to see more informal contacts between prestigious western universities like ANU and the informal education scene and therefore affordable to Burmese with little money in Southeast Asia. The Thai government has a whole informal education department and then there are also places like Midnight University, although its Marxist orientation rather ironically, does little to take care of the immediate subsistence needs of poor people.

• 14 Bob // May 24, 2008 at 1:12 pm

  masao imamura wrote:
  > Perhaps it is useful to identify several separate questions.
  > (1) What should a teacher do? Can a teacher refuse to teach a student on the ground that his or her father is an evil dictator?
  > Of course not.
  etc etc

  OK, in the spirit of trying to break these issues down ….

  Can you separate the granting of a privilege to an evil dictator (ie an elite foreign education for their offspring) from their offpring’s
  right to equality in education ? No you can’t. You effectively grant
  both, or you grant neither . You have to decide which causes the least
  potential harm.

  If teaching that offspring had no possible connection to their
  countryfolk’s future misery, then I might judge them on their merits
  alone, despite their unfair course to my classroom door. Unfortunately, that connection cannot be ruled out. As I said, show me the examples of foreign-educated elites using their privilege for the benefit of their countryfolk, rather than perpetuating the misery inflicted by their parents.

  People lose their right to a decent education everyday, mostly by
  poverty, exam failure, expulsion due to misbehaviour, etc. Unfortunately being an ordinary Burmese citizen is also on that list, by virtue of their leaders’ decisions. So adding being the spawn of a
  leader who perpetuates such denials on illegitimate bases to that list is hardly an extreme position.

  As I asked previously, “Is there no one you would not teach ?”. If you were a doctor (your other example), “Is there no one you would not treat ?”. Adolf Hitler ?

• 15 thetwinaung // Jun 26, 2008 at 7:13 pm

  Dear,
  I hope that AusAid will reconsider again the scholarship for burmses citizens who are struggling for development of health and livelihood sector in the country.Otherwise prospect of country development will be delayed again and again.During these periods,due to the NArgis Cyclone,impact on the human resources and national development again.

• 16 burmaeconomicwatch // Jul 6, 2008 at 4:04 pm

  There are many others associated with the regime studying at Australian universities and colleges than were named in the SMH articles. There is one point that I would like to made that has been missed in the above discussion.

  Where do these people get their money from to pay for courses in Australia? They have stolen it! Many of the families of the regime are very wealthy. They are wealthy as they have used their positions to steal from the state and the people of the country. The minister of say forestry gets rich by selling the resources of the country. The minister of fishing (or whatever long winded title taht ministry has) gets rich from selling concessions or from having monopoly access to resources in certain areas. Commanders in areas, also grap access to resources. The funds from the sales or control do not go into the government budget where it is used to finance health care and eductation. It goes into the bank accounts and assets of individuals in the position of power.

  Where is all the money from gas? WHere is all the money from the timber? Where is all the money from gems and jade? Where is all the money from fishing concessions? Where is all the money from pearl concessions? It is not in the governments budget. It has gone elsewhere. Guess where? Maybe it was used to build that stupid new city Naypidaw.

  Some of those studying in AUstralia are here also from drug and weapons money. There are people studying here whose parents come from the Wa and Kokang areas. One of these students stated “My father did not make his money from drugs. He made it from weapons.” It was obvious that a so called liberal education had not made much of an impact on his poor brain.

  When someone is convicted of a criminal activity in Australia, say drugs, theft, weapon sales, prostitution, then their assets are seized. We dont say OK your family can keep all that ill-gotten wealth. Hey spend it on your children. Send them to very good private schools and the best universities, then they wont be criminals like their parents.

  ALso many person convicted of criminal activites and in some cases not convicted but suspected are not let into Australia, even on a tourist visa. Who is saying oh gee let them come and see how wonderful, people who are not criminals live their lives. Albeit the off-spring do not inherit the sins of the parents, but they should not benefit from their sins. Is anyone going to tell me that the funds paying for regime students to come to Australia are not ill-gotten that they came from hard work and entrepreneurship?

  I am not against people from Burma coming to Australia. I am not against wealthy people from Burma coming to study at Australian universities. I am against anyone from anywhere, whose parents have amassed wealth by theft, crime, corruption from coming here to study. This is a form of money laundering. I dont care if they are from Burma or anywhere else frankly. An ordinary criminal with substantail ill-gotton assets i.e. one who is not in charge of the state have much less opportunities to launder their funds via the australian education system. Why should criminals in charge of the state be allowed to launder their funds?

  Let them go to Singapore and launder their funds!

  Burma is not going to develop by letting in the off-spring of the regime. Education is necessary for any country to develop. This is not the same as a few off-spring of criminals getting an education in AUstralia, Singapore or anywhere else. Burma needs an education system for those in the country. It needs first and foremost a system and a situation where the majority of kids can complete a primary school education, where they learn basic literacy and numeracy skills. The focus on university education for a few overseas is misplaced and will have no impact on development in the country. The main job for education that will promote development is for kids to finish at least 6 years of primary school. This does not happen in Burma, because many people are too poor to be able to afford to send their kids to school. There are not enough well trained teachers, who are paid enough to bother teaching well. (This is not to insult the many teachers who work hard each day). There are virtually no resources being invested in the country’s primary school education system. Many children do not have enough to eat to concentrate on school. They are anemic and malnourshed. They do not have pencils, they do not have writing paper. They probably dont even have a candle to read by at night. They have to work to help their parents. The stupid statistics of the regime aside. This is the educational problem for Burma, not educating the over-indulged off-spring of the regime.

  there are also plenty of young people still languishing in refugee camps, who might like to go to any university.

• 17 War Monger // Jul 7, 2008 at 2:06 am

  Well Andrew, I for one agree with you. Perhaps you are naive. While there is no doubt quality education yields fantastic potential. You are suggesting these children have never had time for “self-reflection”? They are well past that age when they get to you, despite what you may conclude by observing college age behavior.

  While education CAN lead to a higher sense of moral justice, it has never stopped the corrupt and those seeking to exploit others more informed about how to go about doing just that.

  But than again, if you think yourself such a fantastic instructor that you can overpower such family influence (you do know we are talking aout the Burma junta right?), by all means - why aren’t you healing the sick and raising the dead?

  Sorry, perhaps that went too far. But seriously, please enlighten us who know a little about education on just how you could pull such a feat off.

  I’m a little lost for words that you would public with such a statement.

  I do in deed share you faith in education, perhaps you should have left it at that.

  Besides, I fully agree with burmaeconomicwatch. No university should accept blood money. But we are a long way from getting to a sense a moral justice when it comes to that aren’t we? We still separate ourselves from the realities of globalization - including the most educated among us.

  You have touched upon the beginning of a vast topic. I’m stopping here.

• 18 Daniel Pedersen // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:31 am

  Karen State, Burma

  On Sunday (June 29) at dusk rebel fighters of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) unloaded guns from the back of a pickup.
  The guns were destined for Burma and were leaving Thai territory.
  They will be used to fight soldiers of Burma’s ruling military junta.
  The guns were run in a two-pickup convoy from south of Mae Sot to north of Mae Sariang.
  One of guerilla group’s lieutenants spoke of his army’s desperate bid to stop construction of three major hydropower projects along the wild and untamed Salween River.
  “We have to stop construction of these dams, we must stop them,” said one of Colonel Nerdah Mya’s aides, Timu.
  Timu is a soldier of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union political bloc formed in 1947 and holding out against the overwhelming military force of Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
  The SPDC troops number about 500,000, the KNLA about 10,000.
  The dams will create vast reservoirs that will inundate lands the KNLA calls its own.
  Building the dams is a win-win scenario for the SPDC generals.
  The hydropower that is produced will be sold across the border in Thailand, generating revenue for an incredibly rich elite military class.
  And territory friendly to the rebels who fight their soldiers will be rendered impassable.
  As the Salween bloats lands friendly to the rebels, weeks of walking will be added to journeys traversing thick jungle paths that now take a day.
  The Salween River is home to more than 7,000 species of plants and 80 rare or endangered animals and fish.
  UNESCO says it “may be the most biologically diverse temperate ecosystem in the world”.
  It was designated a World Heritage Site in 2003.
  Slave labour is being used to build the dams.
  Maps from the Thailand Burmese Border Consortium (TBBC) show locations of forced relocation encampments where terrified and displaced villagers have been corralled.
  They are all clustered around major infrastructure projects the generals oversee as they gather wealth incomprehensible to just about any Burmese citizen.
  At gunpoint, the population of these camps is forced to labour, working to build dams that will flood their former homes and possibly drown their aspirations of independence.
  The TBBC’s Leonard Buckles believes the Salween dams may well be the end for the Karen and their fight.
  “The political wing is dead,” he said, in the Thai-Burma frontier town of Mae Sot.
  Mr Buckles believes his organisation’s donors are more likely to support action inside Burma, dealing directly with the generals to try and force political and military reform while still providing humanitarian aid to those who need it most.
  Australian Chris Clifford, a field worker for the TBBC, sighs as he speaks of ‘donor fatigue’ and the reduced calorie counts being allotted to displaced people seeking refuge in Thailand.
  He says funding is gradually being withdrawn from the camps and one day soon there will be nothing to sustain people who have languished in the camps for almost a quarter of a century.
  Mr Buckles speaks of exit strategies for donors, tired by the intransigence of the SPDC generals.
  Yet some of the refugee camps’ residents were born in limbo, and have known nothing else other than boredom and pregnancy.
  After delivery of the guns on Sunday night, the Karen soldiers sang sorrowful war songs as we made our way home, safe on Thai territory.
  Less than four hours after our arrival in the Thai frontier town of Mae Sot, at about 1am, to the south all hell had broken loose.
  A pitched battle lasting all of this week (from June 30 until July 6) between soldiers of Burma’s ruling military junta and the Karen National Liberation Army had left scores dead.
  There has been a significant escalation in fighting between units of Burma’s State Peace and Development Council and soldiers of the KNLA opposite the northern Thailand province of Tak.
  A major push by the SPDC to take a long-standing base camp of the KNLA, the headquarters of its Sixth Brigade 201st battalion has been thwarted, for now.
  The SPDC offensive to take Wah Lay Kee, launched from Thai territory, began at 5am Monday (June 30).
  That the SPDC soldiers were prepared to intrude on Thai sovereignty is an indication of how determined they were to take the KNLA camp.
  And they did.
  But by evening they had lost it again, and 200 SPDC soldiers had been surrounded by four KNLA units of between 10 and 30 men.
  The KNLA dug in close in heavy jungle, one group about 20 metres away from their enemies.
  Both sides have taken heavy casualties as a result of landmines.
  The fighting took place around a peninsula of Thai land that juts into Burma known as Phop Phra.
  Phop Phra is an eccentricity of border demarcation between these two Southeast Asian nations.
  The KNLA on Wednesday (July 2) seized a 50-calibre Browning machine-gun, the type usually mounted on top of armoured vehicles.
  A 50-calibre Browning can cut buildings to pieces.
  Yesterday there were 50 SPDC soldiers dead, including the commander of Light Infantry Battalion 410, Aung May Zaw.
  While the SPDC took responsibility for Monday’s initial assault, light units of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a slave militia, eventually backed them.
  Mae Sot General Hospital, on Thai territory, is today full of casualties from all sides.
  Yesterday morning (Friday, July 4), three DKBA soldiers stepped on landmines and two SPDC soldiers were shot, but not killed.
  All sides in this protracted conflict use landmines extensively
  There were dead on both sides just hours after the SPDC launched the offensive against Wah Lay Kee on Monday morning (June 30).
  By the next day 16 SPDC soldiers were dead, 13 had fled to Thailand and were in the hands of the Thai military.
  A KNLA soldier was dead, two wounded and soldiers of the DKBA and KNLA soldiers were lying in beds close to one another at Mae Sot General Hospital, eyeing each other off.
  One porter, seized at gunpoint from a nearby village by SPDC troops, had his leg amputated in the same hospital, another innocent victim of the world’s longest-running insurgency.
  This latest battle, the heaviest of recent months, constitutes a major diplomatic incident.
  On Wednesday evening (July 2), senior Thai army officials attempted mediation between the KNLA, SPDC and DKBA, but to no avail.
  On Thursday night (July 3) Aung May Zaw, the overseer of a mortar unit essentially rendered useless because KNLA guerillas were so close to the SPDC units, was killed by KNLA snipers using AK RPDs.
  This does not augur well for mediation.
  On Friday (July 4) afternoon the KNLA were re-supplied with M-79 grenades and RPGs for their ageing weapons and were preparing to defend their precarious position in their bid for independence that began in 1949.
  ENDS

• 19 Moe Aung // Jul 7, 2008 at 9:50 am

  Daniel Pedersen, what’s that got to do with the price of fish? Have they signposted you wrong? It wasn’t the first battle and it’s not gonna be the last.

  Back to topic, anecdotally albeit this involved the former first family, Sandar Win, under house arrest and the favourite daughter of the late strongman Ne Win, also an army doctor herself, failed her English language exam to get into a UK postgraduate programme. She was the one who tried to step into her father’s shoes whereas the others did not. Two other daughters, also doctors, not by the same mother, had settled in the UK, and Sandar’s brother Phyo left to live and work abroad for Schlumberger even earlier. Maybe it was the difference in experience, maybe just their personalities differ. They certainly were all privileged.

  Even the so-called boat people may be regarded the lucky ones since they can afford a passage thanks to their savings or a loan, unlike the majority. It could all end in tears however like the Chinese who suffocated in a truck at Dover, the Burmese en route to Thailand more recently, or the Chinese that drowned in Morecombe Bay picking cockles.

  I’d say the devil’s spawn deserve no benefit of the doubt so long as their own people are denied a decent basic education - a fundamental right, let alone other life opportunities.

• 20 Daniel Pedersen // Jul 8, 2008 at 3:41 am

  I was just trying to give you firsthand information that, as self credited Burma experts, you might like to consider.
  I know it’s not the first battle and I know damn well it’s not going to be the last.
  Why don’t you put your life on the line instead of tapping away at your keyboard in comfort?
  And what is the price of fish at the moment mate?
  Or salt?
  Or petrol?
  You wouldn’t know would you, because you’re not here.

• 21 Moe Aung // Jul 8, 2008 at 9:43 am

  Gee thanks, Dan, for putting your life on the line and telling us like it is. I’m not worthy. When’s your book coming out BTW?

• 22 Hla Oo // Jul 21, 2008 at 12:52 pm

  There is one respected regional university which accepts bright Burmese students and provides scholarships to them without any consideration to who their parents are or what their political aspirations are.

  The only criterion the university considers for the admission are the prospective student’s undergrad academic qualifications and his or her work experiences in the related fields.

  The university is called Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and she has been providing hundreds of young Burmese free post-graduate education for over four decades now.

• 23 Catherine // Aug 18, 2008 at 4:40 am

  I just cannot leave the web site without adding a comment. BTW, I am a more Social thinker rather than a Political one.

  I am a Burmese who hates Military regime from my guts. I simply hate them for their injustice towards Burmese citizines, for their selfishness and for their cold heart.

  Yet, regarding the main issue in this reality, I still think their generations still deserve the Aus education.

  Let me quote this one from the web.

  “Getting them up close and personal to the disgust that their parents generate among thinking Australians may encourage some self reflection.”

  Well…….though it is hopeless to open up the eyes and the hearts of their brutel parents, it is still hopeful to those who have not been practised to cruelty.

  Let them EXPERIENCE the prosperity of other countries, Let them THINK, Let them REFLECT, and Let them MAKE A CHAGE.

  Remember, not all are “like-father-like-son” for neither all your personalities nor your thinkings are Genetic, they can be greatly influenced by the Environment you are in.

  At the same time, we cannot allow them just to have only PRIMARY EDUCATION LEVEL as their parents do.

  In addition, I can never accept that “WE-Burmese” do not deserve the Aus AID only because we are under Military Regime.

  What’s the point here? What has going on? Where has Mr. Rudd farsighted vision gone?

  Come On! We need you more than others do!

  We are just ruled under unfortunate military regime, yet, remember that we are not all militaries.
  We are just ruled under unfortunate military regime, yet, remember that we still in the list of the Third-World countries.
  We are just unfortunate enough to belong to “Bangladish or Bhutan”, yet we still belongs to Burma.

  Aren’t we deserve the equal opportunity too?

  There are also (non-military) many prospective good leaders in Burma, who are hungry for the chances.

  Don’t we need (non-military) HIGHLY-EDUCATED burmese young generations, just in case, there are_ like-father-like-son inherited INHUMANE leaders, who you cannot proclude from your expensive universities? How will we make a challange to those HIGHLY-EDUCATED, INHUMANE leaders, if we do not have enough HIGHLY-EDUCATED Burmese Young Generations who cannot mainly effort your expensive education, unless your Scholarship.

  Don’t we need the same level of education if we want to make a Challange? Who will listen our Voices attentively in these days if we do not hold a degree from a Country like YOU, Oz?

  It is out of the question that those Wealthy Military will surely buy the degrees for their children from the Wealthy Countries like you.

  So, I will insist that since YOU cannot stop the Military’s sons-and-daughter naurished from your Advanced Education, should not YOU invites more talanted, prospective and non-wealthy ordinary Burmese students to get the same nourish from YOU, if YOU really want to see the Bright Future of Burma.

  Humbly, We need YOUR HELP to step out from gap and won’t it be a dignity to You to make such a POSITIVE CHANGE.

  May there be Justice and let the Judged rules the Nations!

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