Today marks the 63rd anniversary of Armed Forces Day, and the second occasion which sees the ceremony take place in the junta's new administrative capital of Naypyitaw.
The date, however, does not coincide with the founding of the national army per se, widely regarded as taking place some four years previously, but instead denotes the date in 1945 when Burmese armed forces, under Aung San, turned on their heretofore Japanese cohorts and joined British and allied forces in driving the remnants of the Japanese war machine from Burma.
The intervening 63 years have proven turbulent times for Burma's armed forces.
Failing to incorporate ethnic armies and militias upon its founding, the armed forces, today, continue to wage a violent struggle against some ethnic-based armies while maintaining a tenuous network of ceasefire arrangements with others. And of course there was the violent suppressing of mass protests against the shortcomings military rule in both 1988 and 2007.
Nevertheless, today's English language daily – The New Light of Myanmar – affirmed, "The Tatmadaw with bravery, military skill and patriotism has been safeguarding the interests of the people sacrificing a lot of lives and blood."
However the occasion is not awarded front page headlines, those instead go the likes of letting the country know that Senior General Than Shwe sent his felicitations to the new Prime Minister of Belgium as well as a feature article on the opening of a new Zoological Garden in Naypyitaw, just down the road from today's festivities.
A cartoon in the paper, depicting a soldier uttering the words "In interest of state and people", chronicles the military's justification for intervention in the internal affairs of the state. In 1948/49 the military is said to have responded to "a danger of multi-coloured internal insurgency." In 1962, the year in which the present military dictatorship assumed power, the armed forces are described as reacting to the danger of secession by various ethnic states. And while recognition is given to the dispelling of riots in 1988, there is no mention of the violence inflicted on civilians and monks alike last year.
A further item in the daily gives notice to the reader of the army's current position. A poem, entitled 'Armed Forces Day resolve' and accredited to Dr. Shwe Pyi Soe, contains the stanzas: "With secure Road Map, March we in unity" and "Skyful of lies and slanders, Low-breds overseas, And foreign-relied traitors." Clearly, whatever the international community has to say of the upcoming constitutional referendum and the junta's road to "disciplined democracy", the military intends to keep on pushing straight ahead.
In addition to senior members of Burma's armed forces, ceremonies today in Naypyitaw are to be attended by various representatives of the foreign community in Burma.
