Promoting Peace in Myanmar

U.S. Interests and Role

By Lynn Kuok

May 1, 2014

Myanmar has made important progress toward democratic reform since President Thein Sein’s civilian government came to power in early 2011. Significant challenges, however, remain and could scuttle efforts at change. Key among these are the peace process between the government and armed ethnic groups in the border regions; communal tensions in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh and in central Myanmar; and the free and fair conduct of the 2015 general elections, which could also impact the peace process and communal relations. This report explores the United States’ interests in peace in Myanmar and offers recommendations for how Washington can best promote it.
Lynn Kuok was a visiting fellow with the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at CSIS.

Publisher CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield

ISBN 978-1-4422-2845-0 (pb); 978-1-4422-2846-7 (eBook)

Programs

Source: http://csis.org/publication/promoting-peace-myanmar 

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"รัชกาลที่ 4 กล่าวถึงบรรพชนชาวหงสาของพระองค์ - ေအကရာဇ္ေသမ္ဆီမန္"

"รัชกาลที่ 4 กล่าวถึงบรรพชนชาวหงสาของพระองค์ - ေအကရာဇ္ေသမ္ဆီမန္"

ต่อคำถามของ เซอร์ จอห์น เบาวริ่งที่ว่า "I requested the King to favour me with an account of his own dynasty, and received the following reply"

พระบาทสมเด็จพระจอมเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว รัชกาลที่ 4 ทรงพระราชทานตอบเซอร์ จอห์น เบาวริ่ง ที่เข้ามาเจริญสัมพันธไมตรีในราชอาณาจักรสยามเมื่อปี พ.ศ. 2398 ในฐานะอัครราชทูตผู้แทนของสมเด็จพระราชินีวิคตอ เรีย ตีพิมพ์ในหนังสือ "The Kingdom and People of Siam with a Narrative of the History to that Community in 1855" เมื่อปี พ.ศ. 2400 ความว่า

"In regard to the particular narrative or ancient true occurrence of the present royal dynasty reigning upon Siam, I beg to say what I knew from statement of our parents and ancestors, and other tolerable and corresponding families whom I have been present of in considerable space of time when they have been living or alive. The first family of our paternal ancestors, it is said, have been inhabitants of the city of Hansawatty (proper Sanskrit name), the capital of Pegu..."

แปลโดยเจ้าพระยาภาสกรวงศ์ (พร บุนนาค) ดังนี้

"ด้วยเรื่องราวความสิ่งสำคัญ หรือเหตุการณ์ที่เกิดเป็นสิ่งที่จริงแต่โบราณแห่งพระบรมราชวงศ์ปัจจุบัน ซึ่งครอบครองกรุงสยามนี้ เราขอกล่าวว่า ตามที่เราได้ทราบเรื่องราวของพระชนกชนนีและบรรพบุรุษของเรา และวงศ์ตระกูลที่ตรงกันและถุกต้องกัน ซึ่งเราได้คุ้นเคยมาแต่ก่อนนาน เมื่อท่านทั้งหลายยังมีชนม์ชีพหรือชีวิตอยู่นั้นได้เล่าสืบมา ปฐมวงศ์ฝ่ายข้างปิตฤกะบรรพบุรุษของเรานั้น ท่านกล่าวไว้ว่าได้เป็นชาวกรุง Hansawatty 'หงษาวัตตี' (นามสันสกฤติแท้) เป็นเมืองหลวงมหานครของกรุง Pegu ..."

นักประวัติศาสตร์หลายท่านไม่ปักใจเชื่อนักว่าสิ่งที่รัชกาลที่ 4 กล่าวว่าบรรพชนของพระองค์เป็นชาวหงสาวดี สืบทอดมาแต่พระยาเกียรติ พระยาราม นายทหารมอญที่ติดตามพระมหาเถรคันฉ่องพร้อมสมเด็จพระนเรศวรเข้าสู่สยามเมื่อปี พ.ศ. 2127 จะเป็นจริง ด้วยไม่เคยปรากฏหลักฐานอื่นใดก่อนหน้า ระยะเวลาจากเหตุการณ์ครั้งนั้นจนวันที่รัชกาลที่ 4 กล่าวถึงนี้ก็ห่างกันถึง 271 ปี

แต่หากพิจารณาข้อคิดความเห็นของ ม.ร.ว.คึกฤทธิ์ ปราโมช ที่กล่าวไว้ใน "โครงกระดูกในตู้" ที่ว่า

"คนโบราณนั้นท่านรู้กันและนับกันถูกว่าใครสืบเชื้อสายมาจากไหน ที่พูดกันเช่นนี้ก็เพื่อลูกหลานจะได้ระลึกว่า อดีตกับปัจจุบันนั้นเชื่อมโยงกัน..." อีกตอนหนึ่งยังกล่าวว่า การประชุมออกขุนนางสมัยก่อน อาลักษณ์ผู้ทำหน้าที่จดบันทึก ไม่ได้นำสมุดดินสอเข้าไปยังท้องพระโรงด้วย แต่ใช้การจำและกลับออกมาจดภายหลังการประชุมเสร็จสิ้น จริงอยู่ว่าอาจมีการคลาดเคลื่อนตกหล่น แต่ก็เชื่อได้ว่าถูกต้องเป็นส่วนใหญ่ เพราะความจำเป็นที่จะต้อง "จำ" ดูตัวอย่างใกล้ๆ กรณีผู้เขียน (และอาจจะอีกหลายคน) ที่เคยจำเบอร์ของใครต่อใครได้เป็น 10-20 เบอร์ แต่ภายหลังการเข้ามาของมือถือที่สามารถบันทึกเบอร์ของผู้คนได้หลายร้อยเบอร์ ผู้เขียนจำได้เพียงไม่กี่เบอร์เท่านั้น ดังนั้นจึงน่าเชื่อได้ว่า รัชกาลที่ 4 ก็คงได้จดจำสิ่งที่ได้รับการบอกเล่าต่อกันมาในสายตระกูลไม่ผิดเพี้ยนนัก

อย่างไรก็ตาม หากแม้ว่าเรื่องที่รัชกาลที่ 4 กล่าวอ้างนั้นไม่เป็นจริง แต่ก็น่าสงสัยว่า เหตุใดพระองค์จึงอ้างเป็น "มอญ" (แสดงว่าชื่อเสียงความเป็นมอญขณะนั้นสามารถ "ขาย" ฝรั่งตะวันตกกินได้) จึงไม่อ้างว่าเป็นจีน และอินเดีย ชาติโบราณของอุษาคเนย์อย่างพยู จาม และเขมร หรือโกอินเตอร์อย่างโปรตุเกส และอังกฤษ จะได้เชื่อมโยงสายสัมพันธ์เข้ากับนักล่าอาณานิคมที่กำลังสยายปีกเข้ามายังอุษาคเนย์ในเวลานั้นเสียเลย    (Credit to: รามัญคดี - MON Studies )

"The reign of the 4 mentioned book people of his native Hong-ေအကရာဇ္ေသမ္ဆီမန္"

The question of Sir John waring light that says "I requested the King to favour me with an account of his own dynasty, and received the following reply."
King Mongkut Rama King Rama IV Royal answered Sir John waring light that came prosperous partnership in the Kingdom of Siam when 2398 (1855) as Ambassador representatives of Queen Victoria published in the book "The Kingdom and People of Siam with a Narrative of the History to that Community in 1855 when the 2400 (1857)
"In regard to the particular narrative or ancient true occurrence of the present royal dynasty reigning upon Siam, I beg to say what I knew from statement of our parents and ancestors, and other tolerable and corresponding families whom I have been present of in considerable space of time when they have been living or alive. The first family of our paternal ancestors, it is said, have been inhabitants of the city of Hansawatty (proper Sanskrit name), the capital of Pegu..."
Translation by Chao Khun passakorn (porn Bunnag). As follows:
"With stories of important events or as the real thing, but historic Royal dynasty, which includes we ask for sayam khrongkrung said, as we know, the story of our ancestors, and ethnic chonni and matching family and thuk. Which we have been familiar, but before too long. When ye have life or live it tells the successor. Genesis house party alongside our ancestors shift pitri thee, that it was Hansawatty ' innovative courses Hong beat ' (real name riti Che Tong) is the capital city of Bangkok of Pegu ...
Many historians do not believe that more firmly convinced and confident that the reign of 4 of his book, said a young man hung people as well. But the Prince inherited the honour Phraya RAM Batman tracked Mon thon two-fold mirror with Siamese King naresuan in 2127 access to be true with any other evidence appeared no earlier than. Period from the date of the incident until the reign of the mentioned 4 apart to 271 years.
But if you consider the opinion of the comment M.R.W. pramot Khuekrit mentioned in "the skeleton in the cupboard" that.
"He knows that ancient peoples and is counted as one descended from whence that talk like this, so the offspring will have in mind that the current associated with the former ..." Another one also said a meeting of Britain and Ireland past ancient Thai notes agent. Do not bring God into the pencil, book, holiday, but used to remember and get back out to write after the Conference finished. The fact that there may be a fall off, but they believe that the most accurate because of the need to "remember." See, for example, just in case the author (and probably many others) ever remember who's who: Halle Berry is 10-20 Harbour, but after the coming of the mobile phone that can fit hundreds of people harbour. The author has a few Harbour. So it seems to believe that the reign of 4 would have to recognize what has been spoken in the family line of succession is not distorted investor.
However, even if the matter is not referred to the reign of the above 4 is true, but it was suspicious why he was referred to as the "Mon" (indicating that the reputation of the "sales" as it happens. The West Caucasian ...) do not claim that it is China and India. Southeast Asia's ancient Khmer and Cham phayu. offerings, to find English or Portugal, and will be linked with the RapPort that hunters are to spread out the wings into the Southeast at the time it was broken. (Translated by Bing)

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Types of Papers: Argument/Argumentative

While some teachers consider persuasive papers and argument papers to be basically the same thing, it’s usually safe to assume that an argument paper presents a stronger claim—possibly to a more resistant audience.
For example:  while a persuasive paper might claim that cities need to adopt recycling programs, an argument paper on the same topic might be addressed to a particular town.  The argument paper would go further, suggesting specific ways that a recycling program should be adopted and utilized in that particular area.
To write an argument essay, you’ll need to gather evidence and present a well-reasoned argument on a debatable issue.
How can I tell if my topic is debatable? Check your thesis!  You cannot argue a statement of fact, you must base your paper on a strong position. Ask yourself…

• How many people could argue against my position?  What would they say?
• Can it be addressed with a yes or no? (aim for a topic that requires more info.)
• Can I base my argument on scholarly evidence, or am I relying on religion, cultural standards, or morality? (you MUST be able to do quality research!)
• Have I made my argument specific enough?

Worried about taking a firm stance on an issue?

Though there are plenty of times in your life when it’s best to adopt a balanced perspective and try to understand both sides of a debate, this isn’t one of them.
You MUST choose one side or the other when you write an argument paper!
Don’t be afraid to tell others exactly how you think things should go because that’s what we expect from an argument paper.  You’re in charge now, what do YOU think?

Do…	Don’t…
…use passionate language	…use weak qualifiers like “I believe,” “I feel,” or “I think”—just tell us!
…cite experts who agree with you	…claim to be an expert if you’re not one
…provide facts, evidence, and statistics to support your position	…use strictly moral or religious claims as support for your argument
…provide reasons to support your claim	…assume the audience will agree with you about any aspect of your argument
…address the opposing side’s argument and refute their claims	…attempt to make others look bad (i.e. Mr. Smith is ignorant—don’t listen to him!)

Why do I need to address the opposing side’s argument?

There is an old kung-fu saying which states, "The hand that strikes also blocks", meaning that when you argue it is to your advantage to anticipate your opposition and strike down their arguments within the body of your own paper. This sentiment is echoed in the popular saying, "The best defense is a good offense".
By addressing the opposition you achieve the following goals:

• illustrate a well-rounded understanding of the topic
• demonstrate a lack of bias
• enhance the level of trust that the reader has for both you and your opinion
• give yourself the opportunity to refute any arguments the opposition may have
• strengthen your argument by diminishing your opposition's argument

Think about yourself as a child, asking your parents for permission to do something that they would normally say no to. You were far more likely to get them to say yes if you anticipated and addressed all of their concerns before they expressed them. You did not want to belittle those concerns, or make them feel dumb, because this only put them on the defensive, and lead to a conclusion that went against your wishes.
The same is true in your writing.
How do I accomplish this?
To address the other side of the argument you plan to make, you'll need to "put yourself in their shoes."  In other words, you need to try to understand where they're coming from.  If you're having trouble accomplishing this task, try following these steps:  

1. Jot down several good reasons why you support that particular side of the argument. 
2. Look at the reasons you provided and try to argue with yourself.  Ask: Why would someone disagree with each of these points?  What would his/her response be?  (Sometimes it's helpful to imagine that you're having a verbal argument with someone who disagrees with you.) 
3. Think carefully about your audience; try to understand their background, their strongest influences, and the way that their minds work.  Ask:  What parts of this issue will concern my opposing audience the most? 
4. Find the necessary facts, evidence, quotes from experts, etc. to refute the points that your opposition might make.
5. Carefully organize your paper so that it moves smoothly from defending your own points to sections where you argue against the opposition.

http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/argument.html 

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The “Wages of Burman-ness:” Ethnicity and Burman Privilege in Contemporary Myanmar

The “Wages of Burman-ness:” Ethnicity and Burman Privilege in Contemporary Myanmar

Ethnicity is one of the primary lenses through which scholars view conflict in Burma/Myanmar. In this paper I examine the dominance of the majority ethnic group in Myanmar, the Burmans, and the ways in which Burman-ness functions as a privileged identity. I draw from the theoretical framework of Whiteness and White privilege in critical race theory to argue that, although there are important analytical differences between race and ethnicity, we can conceptualise Burman-ness as a form of institutionalised dominance similar to Whiteness. I support this argument by documenting the ways in which Burmans are privileged in relation to non-Burmans, while still, in many cases, seeing themselves as equally subject to government repression. This analysis of Burman privilege (and blindness to that privilege) is particularly relevant given the fact that the political reforms implemented by Myanmar's new, partly civilian government since 2011 have opened new opportunities for (mostly Burman) activists while c. 
  

အခွင့်ထူးခံဗမာနဲ့ တိုင်းရင်းသားပြဿနာ

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 10:29 သျှမ်းသံတော်ဆင့်

အမေရိကန်မှာ လူဖြူကြီးစိုးပြီး အခွင့်ထူးခံစားရသလို မြန်မာပြည်မှာလည်း ဗမာလူမျိုးကြီးစိုးပြီး အခွင့်ထူးခံ ဖြစ်နေပုံကို လေ့လာဆန်းစစ်ထားတဲ့ အမေရိကန်နိုင်ငံ George Washington တက္ကသိုလ် နိုင်ငံရေးသိပ္ပံ ပညာရှင်၊ Dr.Matthew J.Walton ရဲ့ စားတမ်းကို အကျဉ်းချုံးတင်ပြပါမယ်။ ------- (ဦးအောင်ခင်ရဲ့ စာအုပ်စင်)

http://www.burmese.panglong.org/2008-08-01-03-24-54/87-2008-08-01-03-23-29/3908-2013-02-27-03-34-47.html   

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Queen Chamadevi

The Story Of Queen Chamadevi

SEE RELATED IMAGES @ PICTURES FROM HISTORY

According to the chronicles and legends of Lanna, Chamadevi was a strikingly beautiful woman who nevertheless enjoyed a fair measure of personal misfortune. To begin with, she was apparently pregnant but unmarried at the time she was appointed Queen of Lamphun - indeed, this unfortunate condition may have been one reason her father, the ruler of Lopburi, sent her away.
Legend recounts that Chamadevi had at least one other serious personal problem. In her childhood she had stepped across a burning lamp placed in front of a revered Buddha image in her father's city. In punishment for this sacrilege, fate cursed her with a serious - but really serious - body odour problem. To be specific, though gorgeous to look at, Chamadevi's distinctive odour could be detected over a distance 'measured by three elephant trumpets plus seven beatings of a gong'. The chronicles are very specific about this, calculating that an elephant can be heard over a distance of three miles, whilst the sound of a gong "of medium size" travels for about one mile. Hence, Chamadevi's offensive odour could be detected from a distance of sixteen miles!
Chamadevi's journey upstream from Lopburi via the Chaophraya and Ping Rivers took about three months. Unfortunately, most of the sites associated with her journey in legend have now been submerged by the waters of the Phra Bhumibol Dam above Sam Ngao. At one place on the Ping, later known as Ab Nang (Lady's Bathing Place) she stopped for a day to bathe in a waterfall. As the legend has it, the odour of the queen polluted the waters and attracted a number of vultures which mistakenly thought an elephant had died in the vicinity. These vultures perched on a high rock overlooking the fall, and were later turned into stone, becoming a permanent feature of the Ab Nang skyline.
Tradition notwithstanding, Chamadevi's personal odour cannot - surely - have been as bad as is recounted. After all, she had managed to become pregnant before she left Lopburi, and no sooner had she arrived in Lamphun than the local Lawa chieftain, King Luang Viranga, fell in love with her. We are told that Viranga was a widower who lived on the slopes of nearby Doi Kam, a small hill in the vicinity of the present-day Chiang Mai International Airport. Viranga, attracted by the queen's beauty, sent emissaries to Lamphun requesting her hand in marriage.
At this time, again according to legend, the Lawa were a fierce nation of head-hunters as well as being - by some accounts - cannibals. Moreover, they were dark-skinned non-Buddhists. Chamadevi, the beautiful, pale-skinned (if malodorous) representative of Mon civilisation and Buddhism, could not tolerate the thought of marriage to the Lawa chieftain. Fortunately, at this stage she was still pregnant, so she sent a message to Viranga that she would accept his suit only after the birth of her child, and when that child had been weaned.
In the event, Chamadevi gave birth to twin sons, both "healthy and handsome". She named them Anantayot and Mahantayot. In course of time they reached eight years of age, but still the wily queen declined to wean them. Eventually Viranga lost patience, and calling together his Lawa subjects he stormed Lamphun, determined to possess the object of his desire.
The Lawa forces, who were stronger than those of the Mon, managed to cross the defensive moats and climb the high walls of the city. Once within the inner fastness, they wasted no time opening the main gate for King Viranga to make his triumphant entry, mounted on a war elephant.
At this point Chamadevi's twin sons appeared, riding an extraordinary elephant with blackish-purple skin and green tusks which - not surprisingly - rejoiced in the name of "Blackish-Purple". At the command of the twins, this prodigious beast forced back Viranga's elephant, causing the terrified animal to bolt through the northern gate. During this debacle, Viranga was caught between his elephant and the city wall, as a result of which his leg was broken. From that time forth, Lamphun's northern gate was renamed Pratu Chang Si, or "Elephant Crush Gate".
Unfortunately for Chamadevi, "Blackish-Purple" soon died, and when news of this reached Viranga, he determined to renew his assault on Lamphun. In a further attempt to fend off the Lawa chieftain, the queen requested a truce at which she promised to marry Viranga if he could throw a javelin from the top of Mount Pui, near Chiang Mai, to any place within the walls of Lamphun - a distance of about 30 kilometres. Viranga, 'whose lust for the queen's beauty had grown stronger', readily agreed, and summoning all his supernatural powers climbed to the summit of Mount Pui to try his skills.
By the agreement worked out at the truce, Viranga was allowed three attempts to throw his javelin to Lamphun. On the first attempt the Lawa chieftain hurled his javelin at the heart of the city, but it fell just short of the walls, creating a huge crater known today as Nong Sanao, or "Javelin Swamp".
This amazing feat so terrified Chamadevi that she determined to sap Viranga's strength through trickery before he could make any more attempts. Accordingly, whilst the Lawa chieftain was resting on Doi Pui in preparation for his second throw, Chamadevi sent him a gift of a hat she had made with her own hands. Of course, this was no ordinary hat. It was made from the cloth of the queen's petticoat, embroidered with gold and silver, and dyed a delicate shade of red... Viranga should have sensed trouble - but, of course, he didn't!
In the words of the chronicler: 'as is well known throughout Southeast Asia, the dignity and spiritual power of a man is particularly concentrated in his head. A dishonour to his head will cause him to lose his spiritual strength. And the most potent threat to masculine power is the petticoat or other undergarments of a woman, particularly a menstruating woman'.
No sooner did Viranga see the hat than he rushed forward and proudly put it on his head. Immediately his supernatural powers began to melt away. His second javelin failed to get anywhere near Lamphun, landing a mere five kilometres away at the foot of Doi Suthep, where its impact created another "Javelin Swamp" near the settlement of Ban Tindoi. In despair, the ailing chieftain threw his third javelin high in the air, tore open his clothes to expose his chest, and allowed the falling weapon to pierce his chest.
Defeated by Chamadevi's wiles, Viranga was laid to rest on the summit of a nearby peak with his face towards Lamphun, so that even in death he would gaze towards his beloved. With him died the spirit of Lawa independence. Never again would his people attempt to subdue or expel the Mon - or, later, the Thai. Instead they came gradually to embrace Buddhism and to acknowledge the authority of Lamphun, becoming loyal subjects of Haripunchai. And this is what the legend of Queen Chamadevi is really about - the triumph of guile over strength, of city over the forest, of settled rice-growing peoples over the hunter-gatherers of the wild.
SEE MORE QUEEN CHAMADEVI IMAGES @ PICTURES FROM HISTORY
Text by Donald Wilson; Photos by David Henley & Pictures From History - © CPA Media

 Source: http://www.cpamedia.com/article.php?pg=archive&acid=120510162540&aiid=120606164020

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