MYANMAR AND SRI LANKA - II
Dileep Chandralal of Okinawa University responding to the article Myanmar and Sri Lanka: Bhikkus and others, states the following: (i) Nalin de Silva sees the struggle in Myanmar by Buddhist monks and citizens against the military government as part of a western CONSPIRACY (my emphasis). (ii) He (N de S) tries to show the voice raised by the international community in support of democracy in Myanmar as being an extension of the western policy of propagating and establishing their culture, politics and economy. (iii) He (N de S) hails the military government as a HERIOIC (my emphasis) force dedicated to the preservation of the sovereignty of the country without obeying the so called international community. (iv) He (N de S) easily forgets that Myanmar, which had one of the highest living standards in Southeast Asia before the 1962 military coup has fallen into disgrace and abject poverty under the present military dictatorship. (v) The fact that the monks sacrificed their lives for the innocent people and those who were arrested are receiving cruel treatment from the military seems to be negligible to him. (vi) What is important to him is that the military government is "a national government that has stood up to the pressure of the western powers ADMIRABLY (my emphasis). (vii) His essay clearly shows how the excessive concern for national sovereignty stands in the way the preservation of the rights of civilians. (viii) Nalin de Silva seems blind not only to the past and present of the Myanmar but also to the mass suffering of the people. (ix) He (N de S) does not show an iota of compassion for the oppressed people of that country.
I have quoted Dileep Chandralal as I did not want to give my interpretation of what he wrote. Very often people give their own interpretations when they refer to what the others had said or written and Dileep Chandralal is not an exception. Reading is also a creative activity and people read relative to their minds and cultures and many people read what they would like to see in somebody else's writing. What the so called post modernists mean by the statements "it is the reading of somebody" and "the author is dead" is this creation by the reader and it is not something very profound as claimed by some post modernists. Before analysing what Chandralal has written on my article on Myanmar and Sri Lanka: Bhikkus and others I would like to present his opinion on comparing Aung San Suu Kyi and Chandrika Kumaratunga. He states: 'Worse he tries to compare Aung San Suu Kyi, the icon of democracy in Myanmar, to Chandrika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka. In the picture he draws, Aung San Suu Kyi is the agent of "international community" or western Christian modernity in Sri Lanka. How unrealistic and superficial! Simple Mathematical calculations do not apply to complex realities. This is a case of twisting all the facts into one's desired shape while rejecting obvious truths and realities.'
Mathematics may be simple and as far as I am concerned it is the easiest subject in the world though some Mathematical calculations may be complex. However Mathematics western or otherwise teaches one to think clearly and conceptually and I have my own concepts on some of the so called complex problems in other fields. A Problem becomes less complex when one looks at it with a different conceptual baggage and westerners have made the problems look complex, including our own "ethnic problem" with their theories and concepts.
I am not quite sure whether Dileep Chandralal agrees with me on my assessment that Chandrika Kumaratunga was an agent of "international community". The heading of his article was "comparing the incomparable" but I would not go by that as it could the topic given in the process of editing. However, Dileep Chandralal has not given any reason why we should not compare Aung San Suu Kyi with Chandrika Kumaratunga, except to say that she is the icon of democracy. She may be the icon of democracy then the question arises as to whose democracy Dileep Chandralal has in his mind. There is no objective democracy as such and what most of the people educated in the western tradition have in their minds is western democracy whose "custodians" are none other than the "international community". If Dileep Chandralal can come out of the "objective shell" in which he appears to live he would be able to understand the democracy as preached by the westerners is in the interests of themselves. I am glad that he raised this question of comparability as I would be able to answer him explaining the relativity of knowledge and the interests represented by Aung San Suu Kyi.
However, before that I have to give my interpretation of what I wrote so that readers could judge (create) for themselves the differences between our creations. I have never said that the struggle in Myanmar by Buddhist monks and citizens against the military government as part of a western CONSPIRACY. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I believe that those who resort conspiracy theories are incapable of explaining certain sociological phenomena. I have also not hailed anywhere the military government of Myanmar as heroic. What I said was the following: "The military government in Myanmar, whatever its drawbacks and weaknesses may be has been trying to maintain the sovereignty of the country without obeying the so called international community". I do not deny that the military government has weaknesses and drawbacks. However, I appreciate the fact that the military government has been able to maintain the sovereignty of the country, and I must say that the sovereignty is very much important to me unlike to some others who are prepared to dance to the tune of the westerners.
I am not quite sure of the state of economy of Myanmar before the military government took over. It is wrong to say that I am not concerned with the plight of the people of Myanmar. However I am not prepared to put the blame entirely on the military government for the conditions in Myanmar. The people in Myanmar suffer due to the policies of the so called democratic west as well. This is what was said in this regard. "If Myanmar people suffer today the so called international community is also to be blamed for imposing economic sanctions against Myanmar. Imposing economic sanctions only punish the people and it is a crime to punish innocent people even if the government is at fault. The "international community" wants to topple the military government not because it is undemocratic and/or it has not solved the problems of the people of Myanmar, but simply because the military government is not for western Christian modernity."
I am concerned with the plight of the people in Myanmar but I am not going to swallow what the westerners tell us on the suffering of the masses through their media. The westerners are playing a game and the name of the game is colonialism. There are people who want to blame the Sri Lankan government for the conditions in the Northern Province. But the Jaffna people have to suffer due to the inhuman fascist LTTE that make use of the people to achieve what they want. The west wants to yes propagate and establish their culture in the entire world and the most powerful weapon they have had until recently when the electronic media took over was the educational system that they had created through which they taught the others to create a world (look at the world) using their concepts and theories.
(To be continued).
Professor Nalin de Silva
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