“The period of ceasefire is gone,” the General Secretary of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) quoted an SPDC general as saying in his article, written in Mon, recently posted on the KaoWao website, under his pen name, “Bop Dai”.

He went to say, “The Burmese military regime, or the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), doesn’t have a spirit of brotherhood or a spirit based on the equal rights of all ethnic peoples, but it just wants to colonize the ethnic non-Burman peoples in the post-independence era.”  

He added, “The Mon and Karen peoples first rose up into an armed struggle in the wake of Burma’s independence from the British in 1948, revolting against the Burman domination or Burman ethnocentric rule. Later on, many other ethnic non-Burman groups, such as the Wa, Kokang, Karenni, Shan, Palaung etc., joined the revolution and the civil war has grown and dragged on until today.”  

Equal rights among all ethnic nationalities, including the Burman, must be recognized in order to solve the age-old political problems in the country. That is why the ethnic non-Burman leaders, of both armed and nonviolent groups, have long been requesting and suggesting the Burman leaders should create a Burman state, whether big or small in size, while realizing their dreams of building a genuine federal union.  

<cutline for photo: Recently arrived Mon refugees at the Halockaneee Refugee Camp.>

The current situation in Burma sets back any progress towards  timely democratic change. The SPDC has been forcing the ethnic non-Burman ceasefire groups to transform their respective armies into “Border Guard Forces,” which will be put under the direct command of the Burmese Army.

This is not in the right direction for the country .

More than 50 years of civil war has taught us bitter lessons. With all the ethnic non-Burman groups on one side and the SPDC on one side, the age-old civil war has made Burma one of the world’s least developed countries. Neither side has been able to crush or eliminate the other with military might.  

People in Mon State now fear the civil war will resume after 15 years of the NMSP-SPDC ceasefire agreement. Some Mon people have already fled to the Mon refugee camps in the area controlled by the NMSP. Many fear being conscripted as front-line portering labor by the Burmese Army.  

An infestation of mosquitoes during the start of the rainy season  increases the risk contracting malaria for those people who have recently arrived at the Mon refugee camps. Because they have no safe place to stay, some of them, especially pregnant women and young children, have already caught the disease. They are now facing mounting trouble and suffering.

The southern part of Mon State or the NMSP- controlled area is one of the worst malaria-infested areas in the country.  

Bad water and poor sanitation are also causes for disease.

Mon leaders, of both the NMSP and the urban-based nonviolent Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), are frustrated with the SPDC’s lose/ lose approach. They want to solve the country’s problems peacefully rather than by fighting. They are still asking the SPDC for a genuine tri-partisan dialogue, demanded by the peoples of Burma and recommended by the United Nations. The NMSP, with its armed wing called the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), has no option other than to return to the jungle for guerrilla warfare.

The NMSP does want to maintain the present ceasefire, which at least gives local Mon people a respite from suffering because of war crimes and serious human rights violations committed by members of the Burmese Army.  

The SPDC, like the former British colonial power, wants to colonize the ethnic non-Burman territories by denying their right to self determination and freedom.  

The speeches made by Mon leaders on the 253rd anniversary of the Fallen Day of the last sovereign Mon kingdom of Hongsavatoi, on May 5, this year, show that the Mon people still have fresh memories of their independent homeland being invaded and occupied by the Burman people under the leadership of King Alaungphaya, or Aung Zeya, in 1757.

He was a cruel and blood-thirsty king, who cold-bloodedly exterminated tens of thousands of innocent, non-combatant Mon men, women, children and more than 3,000 Mon Buddhist monks by cruel methods. They included trampling by elephants and burning to death in several stockade-inferno holocausts, tantamount to hell.

The Burman king’s genocidal atrocities and brutalities are unforgivable and unforgettable to the Mon people. But the SPDC and the Burman people in general still respect Alaungphypa like their God.  

Hundreds of thousands of the then Mon populace fled into Siam (Thailand) for refuge.  

The Mon priest, the Ven. Akhworh, who was the most famous Mon writer of his time and who experienced the atrocities inflicted upon the Mon people by the Burman king, stated:

“His Majesty Aung Zeya was of a very fierce and cruel disposition, and took no account at all of life. He put to death many monks, and their iron alms bowls and silk robes were taken away, and the homespun robes were made into foot mats. Of some they made pillows, of some they made belts, and of some they made sails. The monk robes were scattered all over the land and water.” (Translated from Mon by Mr. Halliday)  

Most rural Mon people only speak Mon as their mother tongue. They must speak Burmese (Burman) when they are questioned by Burmese SPDC soldiers who always regard them as supporters of Mon soldiers. If they cannot speak or understand Burmese, the rural Mon people are in trouble, because the Burmese SPDC soldiers may beat or swear at them.  

The Burmese (Burman) language is the only official language in Burma. But most rural Mon people do not want to speak Burmese, as their Burmese is spoken with a strong Mon accent. They do not even want to speak to a Burmese correspondent from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who comes to interview them. Because they fear the Burmese soldiers, they hate to speak Burmese. They only want to speak to local Mon reporters who interview them in Mon.

“As a Mon journalist you can interview them in Mon but not in Burmese. If you communicate them in Burmese, they will refuse to talk to you” said a Mon journalist.  

Most rural Mon people, young and old, learn Burmese from Burmese entertainment programs such as videos, movies and songs. The ethnic Burman and non-Burman civilian people can be friends if they do not talk about politics. When talking about politics, they always tend to argue and quarrel with each other.  

The ethnic non-Burman peoples have already suffered too much for too long under the chronic ethnocentric Burman rule. Therefore, not only the SPDC but all the Burman people must change their political stance towards the ethnic non-Burman peoples.

To be loved and trusted by the non-Burman peoples, the Burmans must show their sincerity and spirit of brotherhood towards the non-Burman peoples, who still see them as their colonizers.  

Ethnic non-Burman leaders showed their sincerity towards the Burman students who fled from the country after the Burmese military seized state power under the name of State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and violently cracked down on the unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988. The ethnic leaders warmly welcomed those Burman students and suggested and assisted them to form a Burman revolutionary political body.  

However, until now, Burman pro-democracy leaders have not tried to draft a Burman State Constitution, whereas the ethnic non-Burman groups have drafted their respective State Constitutions. Burman democratic opposition leaders should also regard this political process as important.  

For the first time in Burma’s history, ethnic non-Burman leaders and Burman representatives elected in the 1990 general election reached an agreement on the establishment of a Future Federal Union of Burma. This historical agreement was signed on the Burma-Thailand border, at Manerplaw, in the early 1990s. It is known as the Manerplaw Agreement.  

In preparation for the future Federal Union of Burma, a Mon State Constitution has been drafted. Not only NMSP and MNDF leaders but the representatives from more than 20 civil Mon groups participated in the drafting of the Mon State Constitution, in a Mon National Conference sponsored by the NMSP.  

For the first time since Burma’s independence from the British in 1948, the ethnic non-Burman groups have prepared their own State Constitutions, as opposed to the military-dominated Constitution of Myanmar (Burma) written by the SPDC.  

The successive Burmese military governments, including the SPDC, used the notorious tactic of “Four Cuts” in their ambitious attempt to annihilate the ethnic non-Burman armed opposition groups in the past – namely cutting money, food, recruits, and information. But because the “Four Cuts” military campaign was not successful, SLORC and the SPDC offered a ceasefire deal to the ethnic non-Burman armed groups during the 1990-1995 period. Over 15 ethnic armed groups have entered into separate ceasefire agreements with SLORC or the SPDC over the last two decades.  

A Mon scholar, in the United States, conducted a survey of the opinions of Mon people regarding the levels of sovereignty for future Monland. Most of the Mon people surveyed say that they want an independent Monland rather than a Mon State within the future federal union.  

Most Mon people do not believe any Burman/Burmese political leaders because the Mon history has taught them otherwise.  

The Mon people have the longest history with the Burman. The so-called First Burman Empire established by the Burman King, Anawratha, the so-called Second Burman Empire established by the Burman King Burinaung, and the so-called Third Burman Empire established by the Burman King Alaungphaya or Aung Zeya were all established by sheer force of arms and at the cost of the independence of the Mon kingdoms. The Mon people experienced and suffered unprecedented genocidal atrocities and a bloodbath at the time of King Alaungphaya, in 1757.

The post-independence Burman leaders in power have all denied the right of self-determination, to not only the Mon people, but all other ethnic non-Burman peoples.

If civilian Karen people living in the jungle or war zone shout “Payaw! Payaw!”- meaning “Burmese! Burmese!”- that means  Burmese soldiers are coming to destroy their village and they must be on full alert to run away.  

Likewise, if rural Mon people shout “Bamear! Bamear!”- meaning “Burmese! Burmese!”- that means the Burmese troops are coming and all the men in the village must prepare themselves for running away to escape being conscripted as “porters” by SPDC troops.  

As the NMSP rejected the SPDC’s offer of the “Border Guard Force” in the recent weeks, those Mon people living in the refugee camps in the NMSP-administered area have now been reminded of their past memories of “Bamear! Bamear!”- when the Burmese troops burned down the Mon refugee camp of Halockhanee, situated on the Burma-Thailand border, in 1994, before the NMSP-SPDC ceasefire agreement.

They have not forgotten their nightmare experiences from several decades before. They have a saying: “Burmese soldiers beat you three times before and three times after asking you a question.”  

One educated Shan woman told me recently that her Shan people have suffered more than other ethnic non-Burman peoples under SPDC rule. I told her that my Mon people do not think so. We, the Mon people, have suffered more and longer than other ethnic peoples under Burman rule because the Mon people also suffered the genocide committed by King Alaungphaya in 1757.  

After the Burmese military seized power in 1988, many educated Burman activists arrived at the Burma border areas and worked together with the ethnic non-Burman armed groups for democracy and racial equality in Burma. After some time of working together with the ethnic non-Burman leaders, the educated Burman activists realized their political aspirations and have sympathized with the common struggle for self-determination and freedom.  

The ethnic non-Burman armed groups have only been fighting for a democratic Federal Union of Burma. They are not separatists who want to secede from the Union and who want to disintegrate the Union as propagandized by the successive Burman-dominated military dictatorships in Burma.  

Democracy is aspired to by all the Burman and non-Burman opposition forces. But experience has shown that democracy alone is not enough. Only the establishment of a genuine Federal Union, which guarantees the equal rights of all ethnic peoples, including the Burman, will end the age-old civil war and will bring peace, prosperity and tranquility in the country.  

Now, there is a strong possibility that the civil war will resume on a full scale after two decades of ceasefire between the warring parties, because the SPDC has forced the ethnic non-Burman ceasefire groups to put their respective armed groups under the command of the Burmese Army, which is totally unacceptable to them.  

There is no more hope that the age-old crises facing the country will be resolved peacefully through dialogue in the near future.