A former Shan prince, whose father was assassinated along with Aung San in 1947, recently told S.H.A.N he did not think....
A former Shan prince, whose father was assassinated along with Aung San in 1947, recently told S.H.A.N he did not think there will be democracy in Burma because of the elections that are planned for this year.
“The constitution, as you know, is completely flawed,” Sao Hso Hom of Mongpawn (75), said. “If you have already reserved seats for the military, how can it be a democracy?”
The soft-spoken prince, referred to be the late Gen Newin’s trusted lieutenant Tin Pe as “the main legal brain behind” the Federal Proposal that had called for the revision of the 1947 “federal in form, unitary in essence” constitution and triggered the Army into staging in a coup in 1962, had few good things to say about the country’s present rulers:
* In Burma, there are only two types of people: one, the generals and their families, who own billions of dollars so they can build tunnels and underground command posts and two, those who don’t have enough to eat.”
* In Mongmit (where his maternal uncle Sao Khun Khio used to rule), in the old days, the thick teak forest there was divided into 30 plots. The first year, only one plot was logged followed by planting of new seedlings. So by the time, the last plot was logged, the first plot was ready for another go. But these days, all have gone.
* Burma used to be #1 exporter of rice before WWII and the generals simply thought they could become #1 again by planting two crops a year. But what they got was less rice and low quality rice.
Asked whether the ruling junta’s ‘Divide and Rule’ policy with regard to the non-Burman ethnic peoples was inherited from the British colonialists, he said, “It’s historical. They have been doing this since the days of the Burmese kings (before the British came).”
He nevertheless urged the Shans to be united. “My only message is be united and stand together,” he said. “Unless we are united, no one is going to bother about us.”
Born in 1935, Sao Hso Hom was only 12 when his father Sao Sam Tun, Minister of Frontier Areas in the cabinet headed by Gen Aung San, died. He was jailed in 1962 for his participation in the drafting of the Federal Proposal demanding that Burma Proper be a state like others, that was endorsed by representatives from other states. He now lives in exile in Australia.
