By: Banya Hongsar, Canberra, and September 2010 : Ethnic minority based political organizations who failed to surrender their armed wings to the Burmese military government have been categorized as illegal since September 1st, after the leaders of many cease-fire ethnic minority organizations refused to register their organizations as candidates in the upcoming election. The Burmese ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) warned these ethnic armed forces not to disturb the process of the upcoming elections by any means. The ruling junta publicly announced that 17-plus ethnic armed organizations are listed as ‘illegal associations’ in Burma. The question is now, what is a legal or illegal association in Burma?
Ethnic armed organizations have been the enemy of the Burmese State since 1947. The ruling junta initiated gentleman’s agreement cease-fire talks in late 1990s with ethnic armed forces in pursuit of peace and development in the country, but lasting political agreement were never truly addressed. However, the ruling junta manipulated the good wills of these ethnic armed leaders for over 20 years by claiming that the country was stable, that civil war was over, that the Burmese military junta had paved the ways to democracy under its ‘seven roads map’ plans. The ruling junta used every avenue, from the UN assembly to the ASEAN summit, to prove that the road map plan was a durable political solution in Burma.
On the question of legal or illegal associations under the new or old Association Acts, all ethnic-based armed forces and political organizations have been placed on the ‘black list’ of the Burmese ruling party since 1947. Community-based language and cultural associations have been banned from freely running training courses in major cities like Rangoon, or in Moulmein in the case of the Mon ethnic people. Mon youth associations have been banned from making connections with Thailand-based Mon communities in recent years. Mon writers and the Mon Journalist Association has not been formally approved by the ruling junta to be an affective a civil society group in Mon State. It is not a surprise that the SPDC has now again blacklisted the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) and its mother association, New Mon State Party (NMSP) after rejecting the government’s offer to transform the MNLA into a Border Guard. Historically, both the NMSP and its armed wing, the MNLA were formed with the popular support of the entire Mon population from 1940s, up until the present date. The government troops attacked them over sixty years ago, but they remain a strong and vital force in the discourse about democracy and self-determination for the Mon people in Mon State.
Has the SPDC been elected by the Burmese people to run the country? The answer is clearly ‘No’. The SPDC seized the power from the previous government in 1988, but it never honored the winner of general election in 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Once again, the NLD was disbanded by the ruling junta after it rejected the unfair electoral laws that barred its leader and all political prisoners from participating in the new election.
There are over fifty new political parties in 2010 who are prepared to contest in the upcoming elections. The urban-based political leaders have short visions, and believe that this election is the first step toward democracy in the country. However, ethnic armed leaders, who have over sixty years of experience and vision in politics, are not convinced that the new constitution and the election process can pave the way to democracy and federalism in Burma, while the country is under the strict control of the military-backed representatives in the assembly.
The ruling junta banned the former urban-based Mon political party, the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), in 1992 accusing it of connections with NMSP. In fact, the NMSP reached a cease-fire agreement with the ruling junta in 1995 and become so called ‘peace partner’ with the military government. The Mon veteran politicians from the MNDF have been marginalized by the cease-fire process from 1995 to the present. However, the SPDC turned against its ‘peace partner’, the NMSP, by naming and shaming it as an ‘illegal association’, and instead allowed new urban-based Mon politicians to form a new political party under the name of All Mon Regions Democratic Party (AMRDP). This was the turning point in what role the three key Mon political parties could put forward as their policy in the post election period. A new Mon umbrella organization, the Mon Affairs Union was formed in Mon State in 2006 to illustrate a wide representation of social, political and human rights activists during this turning point. This was a wakeup call by the Mon leaders and politicians, that the SPDC had successfully exploited the cease-fire process for over fifteen years by dividing the foundations of the Mon national movement from its ultimate goal to attain self-determination under the federal system in Burma.
Naming the NMSP and its armed wing as an illegal association is just a form of public propaganda used by the SPDC to further manipulate internal politics among Mon leaders and within the Mon community at large. The Mon community who is linked with the NMSP and MNLA will be punished and accused under the laws imposed by the ruling junta in September 2010. However, according to Nai Hong Sar, General Secretary of the NMSP, on a public Burmese program radio this September, the NMSP does not desire to be either legal or illegal under the laws of military government; as long as the Mon people support the party’s discourse, the party will function and its army will be protect the lives of the Mon people who are oppressed by the government’s policy.
Regardless of the size of the Mon population, or its membership capacity, the NMSP will be marked as an illegal association by the ruling junta, but it will never yield or surrender to the Burmese military government without a durable political settlement, and until the Burmese government officially forms a ‘Rehmonya Mon State”, according to the constitution drawn by 120 Mon representative in 2004 at the Mon National Conference held at the headquarters of the NMSP. The NMSP’s leaders had a vision of unity within the Mon social and political forces in the early 1990s. The party called a People’s Congress in 1994, prior to agreeing to the cease-fire talks with the ruling military. Nai Haw Mon as Military Commander in Chief warned the congress that without constitutional power for the Mon people in Mon State, the Mon people would not prevail or receive any political gain unless a united force of the Mon people was in place. This congress formed a new Mon umbrella organization under the name of the ‘Mon Unity League’ with equal representatives from the armed forces, and community leaders from all Mon social and cultural associations, including from the Buddhist monk community and human rights activists. This newly formed umbrella organization has represented the common goals of the Mon people for over ten years both nationally and internationally. This body was reformed in 2006 under the new name of the ‘Mon Affairs Union’ with an absolute mandate from the Mon People’s Congress held in 2006.
The ruling junta will accuse this new umbrella organization as either being illegal or a western puppy as per its ‘divide or rule’ policy. However, the Mon leaders from all sides of politics have come with a grand strategy under the new mission of the Mon Affairs Union that a united force of the Mon people from all walk of lives will be considered as National Movement by both actions of militarily and politically. The Mon leaders could no longer tolerate further assimilation and oppression of the Mon social, cultural and political institutions in the heart of Mon State by the ruling junta. It is a matter of time and circumstances that a durable political solution will be met if the ruling junta respects basic human rights and the rights of self-determination of the ethnic people in Burma.
The ruling Burmese elites lack a grand political vision in the new era of people’s liberation from political oppression within its own citizens. The ethnic people who have been natives of the country for centuries are national assets in terms of social, linguistic and cultural influences. Historically, the Mon and other ethnic groups only demanded social and cultural rights in the early day of Burma’s independent, but the ruling Burmese elite utterly rejected these requests.
Furthermore, the ethnic groups acknowledged the roles of the Burmese leaders in the movement to gain independence from the British. It is not the ethnic leaders who against the peace and unity of the nation, but it rather the ruling Burmese elites who have utterly rejected the ethnic groups. The Burmese elites and new military officials have reinforced the policies of assimilation and oppression over the last sixty years through all means. Ultimately, the ethnic leaders and people have no alternatives but to hold arms and defend themselves.
The upcoming elections on the 7th of November are another misstep away from building peace and unity in Burma. The 17-plus cease-fire organizations remain with their armies, and continue to maintain that Burma must be transformed into a truly democratic state under a workable federal system like other countries. It is needless to mention that these ethnic leaders have been seeking for equality under a constitution of Burma that paves the way for peace, unity and progressiveness in Burma under a federal system. The ruling junta accused the ethnic leaders of damaging the unity and peace of the nation by waging war against the state. Rather, the main actors in damaging peace and unity in Burma is the Burma’s ruling elites in modern times. In brief, unless the ruling junta holds a national dialogue with representatives of ethnic groups and leaders from the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma will remain under the power of military-backed government in the post-election period. Regardless of their statuses of ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’, the ethnic leaders and their armed forces will be for self-determination and federalism by all means available.
