The Nation - February 28, 2001
The Forgotten People
BY SUBHATRA BHUMIPRABHAS
THE ethnic minorities like Shan, Mon and Karen have been struggling to gain recognition for decades now. But not too long ago, they were groups who were looked upon to ensure peace and prosperity in the region.
About 3,000 Mon monks were killed when King Alongphya attacked and burned Hongsawadee in 1757. At least 200 Karens died in December 1948 during their uprising against the Burmese government while thousands fled into Thailand. In 1962, Ne Win killed many Tai princes (chao fah) and Tai leaders in his coup, which replaced an elected civilian government with an authoritarian military one.
These are just a few examples of the stories passed down by the Mon, Karen and Tai. These events and many more reflect the often troubled past between these and other groups with the Burmese, who have long held the upper hand over the many peoples of Burma. Since the 1962 coup, Burma has been ever tightening its control over these various nations.
One group is known as the Shan, but prefers to be called Tai, as "Shan" is a Burmese corruption of "Syam" or "Siam", with which the Tai are associated with, having much more in common ethnically and culturally with the Thais than the Burmese.
"In the past, there were 33 provincial towns in Muang Tai and each town was governed by chao fah," said Chaiya Khongchuen of the Tai Union, a group working to promote rights for Tai peoples and share with the world the plight of Tai under Burmese control.
"Burma was directly colonised by Great Britain, but Muang Tai [the Shan State] was just a Protectorate State. It was clear that people of Burma and Tai were in different areas. We aren't the same race or the same nation," Chaiya said firmly.
Chaiya was one of many speakers at the recent seminar called Ethnic Minorities: Struggles Along the Thai-Burmese Border organised by the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.
He noted that Burmese independence hero General Aung San waged his fight to win freedom from British colonial with the support of Muang Tai leaders.
"Two Tai leaders, Tin Aye and Htoon Mying On, were once Aung San's classmates in a school in Rangkoong. Aung San visited Muang Tai to persuade Tin Aye and Htoon Mying to join the fight for independence," said Chaiya.
In 1946, General Aung San made his second visit to Muang Tai, during the conference held in Pang Long. The Burmese leader announced to representatives of the ethnic groups attending the conference that Burma would soon be free. Indeed in January 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee and Aung San signed an agreement stating that the United Kingdom would give independence to Burma, with one condition being that Burma hold an election in one year's time.
"But Aung San told the ethnic groups that independence would mean nothing for Burma if Tai, Chin and Kachin hadn't gained it," said Chaiya.
Aung San then persuaded, Tai, Chin and Kachin leaders to join Burma in gaining freedom from colonial rule, when the national leaders signed an agreement to a union of states. The Pang Long agreement of February 1947 states that the ethnic groups would join together in such a union. After ten years, the Shan State and other ethnic groups would be allowed to live independently if they desired.
Burma gained independence in 1948, but the Pang Long was not adhered to.
"Therefore, on May 21, 1958, Tai leader Saw Yanda announced that he was waging war against the Burmese government. The Tai peoples have been guerrillas living along the border ever since," Chaiya said.
Three year later, Tai people had to shed their tears once again when Ne Win had many Tai leaders killed during his coup.
Wut Boonlert, coordinator of the Karen Network for Culture and Environment, explained how a similar stateless predicament befell the Karen people of the
Salawin Basin. "Karen people came from the Gobi Desert, and then went away to Yangtze Basin. The we came to Khong River, to the Chao Phya River and the Irrawaddy Basin," he began.
"The Karen have no country, no kingdom because we knew that we cannot build a kingdom without the loss of human life," Wut continued.
"We don't have heroes like King Anoratha, King Tabinshweti, or King Alongphya of Burma, King Rajathiraj of the Mon Kingdom, or King Naresuan of Siam. That's why the Karen have always been a passive group, divided by history, " he added.
Though some Karen legends tell of tense relations between Thai and Karen, others tell of Karen enjoying close ties with Thais ever since Siam began a policy to use Karen as buffer state more than 200 years ago.
"A long time ago, Karen people realised that we are inferior in the eyes of the powerful nations," Wut said.
He told of how after the Burmese were expelled from the Lanna Kingdom in 1783, Phra Chao Kawinla of Chiang Mai wanted to create a closer relationship with the Karen in order to bring people from the land controlled by Karenni to Chiang Mai.
With support from the new Chakri Dynasty in Bangkok, Chao Kawinla succeeded in making friends with the Karenni, one of many sub-groups of the Karen.
"Chao Kawinla held a ceremony to celebrate the new diplomatic relations between Chiang Mai and Karenni on the banks of the Salawin River." Wut said.
Later Chao Luang Setthi Khamphan of Chiang Mai married Chao Nang Kham Paeng, daughter of Chao Mahawong who governed Muang Pha Poon. Chao Nang Kham Paeng was later sent to govern Muang Kantarawadee.
"But the Chao Muang of Chiang Mai dared not to tell about an ancestor who came from the land of the Karenni. Chao Nang Khampaeng was the great-grandmother of Chao Dararassamee, a wife of King Rama V," Wut revealed.
Pisanh Paladsingh explained that the land of the Mon was another buffer state, and that over the centuries Mon needed to be mindful, living between the two larger nations of the Burmese and the Thais.
"Most Thais know only Mons in Thai society and only in terms of culture, such as the celebration of Mon people during the Songkran Festival," he said, adding that ancestors of these Thai-Mon people have lived for centuries in what is now Thailand.
Pisanh is also proud of his Mon ancestors, who were also building kingdoms in what is now Burma.
"Our history records that before the Buddha achieved Enlightenment, Alika and Tapusa, two Mon merchants, had presented khao tu [sweetened rice] to him. The Buddha in return gave his eight hairs to the two Mon merchants. Alika and Tapusa then brought the hairs to their Mon king and the king put the Buddha's hairs in a pagoda.
"That pagoda is called Shwedagon, and has become a symbol of Burma today. But all Mon and Burmese know that Burmese didn't built the pagoda. Mon people built it," Pisanh said with pride.
On three major occasions in history, the Mon lost their kingdom to wars with the Burmese, most devastatingly in 1757 when King Alongphaya of Burma attacked the Mon capital of Hongsawadee. Ten years later the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya was also destroyed by the Burmese.
"Fortunately, Thais had King Taksin Maharaj and Phraya Chakri [King Rama I], who brought liberty and freedom to Siam. If Thai kings failed in their war with the Burmese, Thais would have shared the same fate as Mons, Karens and Shans today," said Pisanh.
"There are around four million Mons living in Burma and groups of Mon armed forces have been fighting for independence like Shans and Karens," he added.
Pisanh criticised the Thailand's policy over the past ten years, the effects of which, he said, were tantamount to helping Burma to suppress Mons and other ethnic groups.
"Thailand itself has learnt nothing from the past, despite that through history, Thailand recognised the role Mons, Karen, Shan and other ethnic groups can play as buffer states [between the Thais and Burmese]," Pisanh
said.
Today, battles continue between Burma and the ethnic groups along the Thai-Burmese border, and as recent weeks have showed, direct military conflict between Burma and Thailand is not unknown.
"It would be a mistake to believe that Thais and Burmese will live peacefully together after all ethnic groups are suppressed," Pisanh said.
"Thailand should relearn their ancestral policy of using the ethnic groups as buffer states. Please look back to the history, and at what happened to Ayutthaya after the Mon Kingdom had fallen," he said.