The good thing about it is that handouts explaining about how census commission/committees are organized, the regulations they have to follow and how census is to be taken were distributed, which just came into our eager hands. Understandably, we lost no time hungrily wolfing them away.

One good news is that citizens who are residing abroad will also be taken into account without having to return home in order to stand and be counted on 29 March-11 April 2013 when the actual count will be done. (Informed sources coming from Burma however say while exiles who have relatives in urban areas may not need to go back, those coming from the rural areas, especially those who don’t even have household registers, may need to go back.)

The household where you come from will answer on your behalf: your name, gender, the year you went abroad, the name of your host country and how you are related to the family.

The following details are also stated as necessary:

• Age
• Marital status
• Religious faith
• Race
• Category of card (pink, blue, green, three-fold, white, Foreign Registration Card (FRC), passport)
• Health and disability
• Reason for translocation
• Education
• Children
• Occupation/ work force

These are of course very proper and vital for a government that will have to draw plans and implement them for the good of its people:

• How many schools/ hospitals are needed
• Water supply system
• Amount of electricity needed
• Roads/ bridges to be built
• Jobs to be created
• Regional security requirements
• Socio-economic conditions
• Care needed for the disabled, elderly, women and children

Of course, as plans go, there might be a joker in it, especially when the people were not consulted before hand.

Among the handouts received by SHAN was an article written by “Myan Pyi Tha” (son of Myanmarland) once again asserting that there are 135 races in the country, when the count by experts is only around 50, give or take.

For instance, it claims there are 12 races in Kachin State:

Kachin
Tro
Dalao
Jingphaw
Gauri
Khakhu
Duren
Maru
Rawang
Lashi
Atzi
Lisu

However, experts have found that Kachin is not a separate race but a collective designation for its 6 main races: Jingphaw, Maru, Rawang, Lashi, Atzi and Lisu, while the remaining 5 are but clan names.

The same is true for other states, according to Gamanii, a Thai-based researcher.

So we hope no more such mistakes, either deliberate or dumb, are made in the upcoming 2014 census taking.

If the military is really needed to keep the country together, it must be based on hard facts, not false allegations.