Once I was very anxious and lost patience on the then LONG LASTING BURMA SOCIALIST PARTY’S RULING and openly talked about that to one of my colleagues. My colleague is a wise guy and politely answered my grudge. What he said was “If you look in to Lord Buddha’s Dhamma, NOTHING LAST FOREVER. One day, sooner or later when the time is due, the mighty Burma Socialist Party will also collapse and gone too.” He was absolutely right. As you are aware of during the wake of Democracy uprising, once very solid and very well structured Burma Socialist Party was demolished. (Hopefully No Resurrection )

In fact the party leader Ne Win himself not fully worshiped (believed) and followed the so called Burmese way to Socialism. He just wickedly created the SINGLE PARTY RULING and picked the term SOCIALISM for the name sake to take advantage and rule the country at his own will. Once I was at Mingalardon Central Political University, what I learned is all Socialist Ideologies written in Burmese version and even very notoriously long motto of “OUR BELIEF “( KYANOTE TOE EI YONE KYI CHET ) was directly translated from the writing of Foreign socialist party. To my knowledge there is NO single Burma Socialist Party member who truly understood and believed that stupid idea of Burmese Way to Socialism. The Socialism didn’t work in Burma because it is impractical to apply into Burmese life style. Somehow late NE WIN was smart but he is not an Ideologue (He wrongly adopted socialism) to become an absolute leader, so was his predecessor THAN SHWE. If you carefully look into the world history all great leaders are ideologues. They have their own VISIONS of how to build their country, how to lay plans for the political and economical structures as well as social works. Now let me ask THAN SHWE what is his vision for present and future Burma? What plans did he lay and did he explain any of his idea to the public? (Please don’t tell me what you have written on every first pages of the Burmese magazines and journals published in Burma ).

Obviously Than Shwe is not ideologue and he is UNFIT to lead the nation as Head of State.

As a nation’s leader (even though no one appointed him as a leader constitutionally) he is responsible to answer all these questions but he failed to do so and seems never bothered or may be he is afraid of addressing to the public. What a shame??

THAN SHWE enjoy to be a “HEAD OF STATE” (that is what he used to present himself to his followers) but he looks more like self appointed STATE’S MAN. He even spread lies as he was a descendant from KING THEBAW’S DYNASTY .His foolish one cent short of a dollar wife is enjoying to be presented as Royal Queen by the junior Generals’ wives. It is like an old Burmese proverb, “When you cheer the fool he will likely swallow the shit”.(AYUU BONE MYAUK, CHEE CHOUT KAUK SAAR)

Now let look back to the past, GENERAL NE WIN was once the most fierce and powerful person, but what really happened to him at the end? He didn’t even get a grand funeral when he died (No Gun Salute, no Horse Drawn Coffin for the once very powerful General who led (misled) the Tatmadaw. Anyway, I don’t think he deserved this kind of honour either. Even his very closed associates were afraid of paying him last visit when he was terminally ill. Yes! Happily but not sadly he was buried like an animal at Ye Way Cemetery. (He deserved what he did to the late U Thant, former United Nations Secretary General) What a pity!!

[Please read Henry Soe Win’s article in this week’s Burma Digest to learn more about the tragic uprisings after U Thant’s funeral]

How about Senior General Saw Maung, Than Shwe’s immediate predecessor? In my opinion he is a little better soldier ( I hope I am not pulling punches) than Than Shwe. Gen Saw Maung bitterly avoided many cabinet meetings by knowingly that ousted Ne Win and his group of thugs are trying to orchestrate dirty games. Actually by that time during uprising Ne Win asked Saw Maung to take part in his game plan but he refused. When the whole situation went out of control and Gen Saw Maung eventually has to take control. That is why he declared State of Emergency and promised the nation “The fair and square election would be held.” Gen Saw Maung in fact seemed to have had brave gut to go ahead what he promised and was willing to transfer the power to the elected parties. But may be you are aware of what he did at the Defense Golf Club by wielding his pistol and screaming , “I am KYAN SIT THAR”, meaning he is the only true soldier left in the entire Army.

Because Ne Win, Than Shwe and Khin Nyunt could not agree with Saw Maung’s idea of transferring the power to the elected parties and forming the Democratic Government_ obviously these guys never honoured their obligation to the Nation_ Saw Maung openly brought up his idea to Junta and said ‘This is the time to go back to our barracks.’ But as we all knew Gen Saw Maung also did not have a Good Ending. He was side lined and removed from power eventually. When he died NO Army Personnel was allowed to pay last visit. But it is a shame to the Military Government, all Ambassadors and Military Attaches to Burma paid their visit even though they were not officially invited by the Military Junta.

Look what happened to Gen. Khin Nyunt? Once very powerful and seemed to be the rising Number One. But he also was politically assassinated in the midst of power struggle. Khin Nyunt was supposed to be very intelligent as Chief of Military Intelligence but he was not intelligent enough to stay one step ahead of the wicked Than Shwe. One day Khin Nyunt will be ended up in Ye Way quietly in the same way as his step father, former socialist dictator Ne Win.

Actually Than Shwe is very dangerous. May be he could be the worst leader for Burmese people. His education level is very low ( sixth grade is the highest education level he achieved in his life ). But he pretended like he is very smart and telling his followers that educational qualification is not important to run the country as long as you can make executive decisions. (I will write more stories on that later). Than Shwe followed Ne Win’s steps and styles and he even successfully eliminated his own former Boss Ne Win and was also able to crush his possible rival Khin Nyunt. Forming KYANT PHUT, the militant pro-military semi-political organization, is his own idea and I doubt he got that idea by reading Adolph Hitler’s books on forming Nazi organizations. Late Ne Win practiced NO RELIGION AND NO ISM. But Than Shwe seems to enjoy copying Fascism and applying Nazi methods in his ruling. Even Ne Win called for National unity and he did not openly practice” Divide and Rule “like what Than Shwe is doing right now to disintegrate the once united Union of Burma .

If you carefully look into Ne Win’s history he always practiced “One single bone and a group of dogs” method. He held absolute power, he picked his own trusted boys, and then he cunningly eliminated his own picks when they became Rising Stars. But sadly the new military rulers are not learning anything from the past. Let me openly ask you Generals, “Have you ever seen any one survived as long as Ne Win did in Burma’s political arena?” The answer is a definite NO. Than Shwe is practicing the same method as Ne Win did hoping to stay in power as long as Ne Win did. So I have no idea of why these foolish Generals keep on their loyal to this old goat_ why don’t they think about putting down this old goat. This is the same people who always said “YES” to Ne Win and Khin Nyunt.

This is the same people who are saying “YES” to Than Shwe. And they seem to be still enjoying the single bone and keep fighting among themselves without realizing their uncertain future.

Let me remind you as soldiers what you are saying everyday,

“For my Nation, for my Nationals, for my Tatmadaw (Arm Forces), I swear to sacrifice (forfeit) my life.”

What a beautiful words, but sadly you are not defending your Nation, you are not defending your Nationals and even you are not defending your Tatmadaw as well. What you are foolishly doing is defending Than Shwe and his group of thugs to be able to prolong their Rein of Terror.

I have written in another article “Now is the time for the ruling Generals to save the face of once beloved TATMADAW, and also it is still not too late to save our Nation”. Mind you, otherwise your days are numbered too.

Tein Gyar Min Gaung