Su Kyi had never functioned at a professional level before she stumbled into politics in Myanmar; can we expect her to have SAMADHI for the well-being of Myanmar and its people? Whoever the president for the moment of Myanmar is, he or she is simply serving the whims of Su Kyi, because the NLD party rule dictates she is above the president (above the law also?). There are no constitutional safeguards for her kind. A person who is highly wayward should not be freely allowed to jerk around a president who must have the power to protect the rights of all the people. Since this is actually happening with the NLD government, it should not be reelected, otherwise the same kind of dictatorial misrule will be perpetrated for further 5 years.

To understand something of Rhohingyas, a short background history around the Rakhine/ Bangladesh border is needed.

The Bengal famine of 1943 (Bengali: pañcāśēra manvantara) was a major famine in the Bengal province in British India during World War II (WW2). An estimated 2.1–3 million, out of a population of 60.3 million, died of starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care. Millions were impoverished as the crisis overwhelmed large segments of the economy and social fabric. Historians have frequently characterized the famine as "man-made", asserting that wartime colonial policies created and then exacerbated the crisis. A minority view holds that the famine arose from natural causes. The British rulers undertook horrendous draconian economic and military measures to stop the Japanese to reach India, no matter how many millions of Indians perished. To a large extent, the famine crisis was also exacerbated by the uncaring and insensitive mindset business culture of the Indian rice merchants of Bengal. The details of this event of 1943 can be read in Wikipedia.

The reason for bringing out this matter is, currently the Anglo-American media, in conjunction with the Islamic media are accusing the Myanmar government of genocide of the so-called Rohingya Islamic ethnic group, supposedly native to Myanmar, situated at present time Arakan-Bengal border, and precisely where the British and Japanese savagely fought during WW2. The British never mentioned then and could not have mentioned about the existence of Rohingyas, for they had never existed on the Burma side. Had they ever existed they would never have survived the British scorched-earth actions, and the mega famine that followed.

In 1971, East Pakistan was defeated by India and Bangladesh got Independence. Initially, the Pakistan Army was beating up the Bengalis, and the refugees streaming into Myanmar were Bengalis. When India joined the war, the Pakistan Army was getting beat up and entered Rakhine as refugees. Both group of refugees after that war, did not stay behind in Myanmar, unlike 1.5 million out of 10 million Bengalis who entered Assam in India.  Assam already declared that those unwelcomed refugees will never get citizenship (see Web). The Bengalis claimed 3 million of them died, whereas Pakistan gave as only 26,000 (see Web). There are absolutely no records of any dealings with the Rohingyas within Myanmar during those events.

A few Bengalis who regularly did some kind of cross-border trading since 1948 were called Khortaws. They could speak a limited amount of Bamar language with some characteristic accent and easy to be spotted by the locals. On the other hand, the so-called Rohingyas simply cannot speak a word of Bamar (Rahkine is a Bamar language dialect) and could not get along with the locals. The population of Bangladesh in 2017 was 164.7 million, larger than the Russian Federation. Bengalis since WW2, have perished by the millions due to wars. Any Bengalis calling themselves by any other name (such as Rohingers) who strayed into a neighboring country and got unwelcomed treatment, and if that become an issue, it need to be considered as only between just two countries, and simply cannot be considered as international genocidal (should be in millions, in Bengalis historical context) matter. It was unfortunate some illegal Bengalis died on Myanmar soil, but is miniscule in comparison with millions of their deaths previously, and yet no global media fussing regarding against the perpetrators for those previous deaths.    

With the military government in Myanmar, economy was going so bad many Myanmar villagers moved out of the country and set up villages in Buddhist countries of Laos, and Thailand, starting about nineteen eighties. Many agriculture workers from Rakhine also left, and acute shortage of farm workers created a crisis throughout Rakhine, the same as for the rest of the country. The well-off land and farm owning Rakhines with the help of bribable Border Security forces smuggled Bengalis for agriculture work (not as migrants) and very soon villages sprouted up. The illegal immigrant population grew and spread and problems started to erupt with the local Rakhines. The fact that they were not Buddhists did not help them to assimilate with the locals. Myanmar political system was changing and who was and is lying (both military and civilian authorities) and who was and is telling truthfully (anyone?) about the Rohingyas after that, became very hazy for all the Myanmar authorities. Entered Su Kyi; invited Kofi Annan ex-UN Sectary General (God Sake what for?) and escalated the internal local matter into an international crisis. She seemed well adapted to create bigger and bigger mess, and is still continuing.

Union of Myanmar may be somewhat considered as similar to a federal country like United States or Canada because it is an amalgam of many states, and very importantly, with several different ethnic people and many of them minorities within minority within these states. Myanmar definitely is not a Confederation of States because none of these states has sovereign independence. There are some people who get mixed up in their understanding of what Confederation (something like European Union) and Federation means. The Constitutional Laws of Myanmar essentially are for a Federal like State. There is no single country in the world that as a single state is a Confederation (Switzerland only on paper is a Confederation as per its codified Constitution about 300 years ago, but is presently, essentially a Federation). United States went through a deadly Civil War in 1861 to suppress the formation of Southern Confederated States.

Not all nation states have codified constitutions, for example like the United Kingdom -- Brits, a country with a long history of political evolution, has good laws for the powerful, but unforgiving laws for the underlings especially when it was an empire up to just after WW2. It is not easy to codify a credible just and fair caste system Constitution. Dictatorial states of unprogressive political evolution usually need no codified constitution although some do have for odd reasons. Their people have no say and are to obey as commanded. Otherwise life, limb and poverty threatening possibilities can become too real and too fast. That kind of government tend to exist in third world or lower achievement level countries especially with poor education standards. Today, with the internet, it is much more difficult to keep a population isolated, ignorant and unable to organize anti-government activities against bad government (think about what Ne Win in his times did to the Myanmars). Then there are states that would like to appear progressive and modern by having good Constitutional Laws. For such countries, Constitution documents can usually be found in special glass show cases written by renown experts, but often not put to practice in the outside real world (see John F. Cady, American historian's books, re. southeast Asia).

For those countries which can manage economic well-being and are quite free for its people to travel abroad, even with a somewhat phony Constitution, or with a somewhat dysfunctional democracy, may not be a heavy political issue as long as the people and its government somehow sufficiently get along with one another and the economy sufficiently flourishing. Then there are the super powers who want to rule the planet. They would like other countries to believe that they value being very democratic, being just and that their Constitution principles are so very good, and need to be worshipped like Holy Cows. Maybe good on paper, but in order to dominate whenever deemed necessary, those "holy" documents are simply ignored as needed, and then proceed to murder, sometimes in their millions, of those who got in their way, no different from the Romans -- the super power of two thousand years ago, and since then also other super powers and wannabe super powers.  

Above paragraph is a very brief information about what Constitutions means in the real World and how it may be used, or exploited. Good Constitutions exist for the benefit of the country and its people, and possibly planet Earth. Less than good Constitutions are fabricated by those holding or influencing power for self-serving purposes.  Dictatorships usually need no Constitutional Laws. The lesser than good, the poorer the Constitution will be codified for the people. Less precisely codified, the more room for interpretation. and if the civil servants have positive ethos and are capable to do good work, they still can accomplish much good for their own kind.

During the dictatorship era, the Judiciary branch of government was subservient to ruling generals. Now with a highly questionable democratic government of NLD, it appears to be also subservient to ruling NLD executives. The twisted judgments got handed down time to time from that branch on behalf of Aung San Su Kyi's or NLD's are aplenty. Whenever these corrupt judgments were made, one may wonder of whether clowns and monkeys are running the Legal Courts.  Are the Myanmar people to kowtow before these shameless vile characters? Are they absolutely sure that they will nor reap the Nuremburg type of judgment (YouTube video: [1]Nuremburg Trails Explained; Nazi Judicial System) for their Crimes Against Humanity? This kind of criminality is to be made accountable by the perpetrators and there are international courts like The Hague to take care of such traitors.

The Constitution is now a big serious point of contention from Aung San Su Kyi with respect to the upcoming 2020 General Election. After more than four years in power, her track record of un-accomplishments is overwhelming.  Her track record of accomplishments is underwhelming. Her excuse of what happened badly for the country during her watch is because of the unworkable Constitution of General Than Shwe, that is inhibiting to do doing good. Therefore, the fault is totally that of General Than Shwe. And therefore, she deserved to be reelected. Of course, how she will overcome the problems created by General Than Shwe if she got reelected, like to get rid of the 25% military representatives in the legislative branches, she seemed to have no better idea how to accomplish that than just badgering.   

General Than Shwe needed to meet a few objectives when designing his Constitution.

Firstly, to have the certain amount of coercive power over any political force that won in the upcoming elections of 2010 and especially 2015 and onwards. The arrangements are to protect the military senior generals, their henchmen, and their cronies from retribution for their ill-gotten gains.

Secondly, If any government dare to prosecute them, the military was to reserve the right (written into the Constitution) to dump the Constitution and grab state power anytime it feels like needing to do without providing any reason.

Thirdly, the Rule of Law apparently is the responsibility of the elected government. But the military itself is above the Law established for civilians, and it will have its own laws to command the military. It is also OK by the military if the civilian government itself likes to break the Law to enrich themselves. That way, the civilian government cannot claim any holier than thou attitudes toward the military. All governments throughout planet Earth have to contend with corruptions, and although the heads of governments ought to be accountable to respect the Law, in the real world, plenty of corruptions habitually occur.

Excerpt from “Common Sense Understanding for the Myanmar Constitutional law and how it impacts, or otherwise, Myanmar Political Realities since 1948” by Aung San U

Aung San Su Kyi for herself and NLD's un-accomplishments direct blame to the zombie like Constitution of General Than Shwe, that prevent her team to be successful of anything meaningful. Those who have read the article "Common Sense Understanding for Constitutional Law and how it impacts, or otherwise, Myanmar Political Realities since 1948", know that is simply pure lies. There are many positive endeavors that can be accomplished even if the Constitution is barely breathing and alive. The real reasons are that Aung San Su Kyi herself, in her personal life was totally unaccomplished. She had never functioned at a professional level in her entire life before she stumbled into Myanmar politics. She was mainly a house wife. Occasionally children school teacher. Aung San Su Kyi's foreign backers before NLD won the 2015 elections bestowed upon her many accolades, awards and prizes, including Nobel Peace Prize (see Web). Just about all the awards except the Nobel Peace Prize have been revoked when they finally realized the kind of limited person Aung San Su Kyi is. There were even serious talks of revoking the Nobel Peace Prize also, but that would generate much more problem and damage to the Peace Prize givers for not knowing who they were really dealing with.

Excerpt from “Common Sense Understanding for the Myanmar Constitutional law and how it impacts, or otherwise, Myanmar Political Realities since 1948” by Aung San U

This article is written for those who still considered themselves to be Myanmars. It is to provide a basic common sense understanding regarding the Constitution that would be suitable for Myanmar. Constitution can successfully exist only if the political leadership and the people (including the military) believe in the ideals for justice, for unity, and that they will defend it as needed. That also means the people must have the capability to defend the Constitution. If the majority of the people are below the poverty line, and also poorly educated, democracy will be a wishful thinking for them. The Constitution cannot defend itself, or cannot be defended by ignorant people without means.  

Excerpt from "Living a Life with Values" by Aung San U

Watching how Su Kyi performed the peace negotiations was like watching someone not capable of construction work, but trying to build a housing complex. Any construction work should begin with a clear set of requirements. Then step by step, construction to commence according to the necessary planned sequence. Foundation requirements to be constructed first and then build upwards toward the roof. There should be a clear enough plan for the foundation of the central government and also for the foundations of all other local governments and plan for integrating all the foundational aspects. Su Kyi appear incapable of taking responsibility of the central government by not coming up with any reform program, and then with nothing more than blowhard sessions with regard to her peace plan. Only the loonies may take her seriously of her peace initiatives. Building a roof system without knowing the foundation layout or the supporting columns plan makes no sense. Not surprising, all her negotiations kept failing thus far, and she have yet to promulgate any idea that may have the slightest chance to succeed.

Excerpt from (Development needed for Myanmar Political and Governmental Systems)

Military dictatorship ended in Brazil in March 1985 after about 21 years’ rule (see Web). The new civilian government immediately set out to reestablish democratic institutions that any current Myanmar pro-democracy government should find out how they go about reestablishing democratic reforms. Countries like China has minorities, and minorities within minorities, but did not adopted Federalism. So Federalism is not necessarily the only approach for governance wherever minorities exist. China and Myanmar in some cases even have the same minorities across their common border. Container Rail Systems to China and Vietnam have very important geo-strategic values, and therefore their construction cannot ordinarily be considered based upon cost pricing, but must be in terms of value pricing. Myanmar should receive the most revenue for the operation on Myanmar territory, and paying the least in terms of investment. The Think Tank and Parliamentary people can work out for new government policies and operating processes to be considered, even if the government is a formation of small and mini parties.

The important Mundaings (Pillars of Principles) to consider for a government are for rule of just and fair laws (justice), equitable sharing of wealth, pragmatic educational programs, health and fitness programs, conservations of wildlife and ecological protection programs, conservation of natural resources, understanding of advance and modern civilizations (elimination of cultural disorders and deficiencies), understanding of pragmatic spirituality (minimize loonies, flunkies, LCD, and all of the above hybrids), anti-corruption methodologies (cyber based systems), monitoring the practices of the various branches of government (executive, legislative, judiciary, bureaucracy), freedom of expression and of the media, etc. It is important to explicitly know these Mundaings, as necessary fundamentals for establishing of Democratic Institutions; considerations for Federalism or alternatives; construction of Container Rail Systems to China and Vietnam from Indian Ocean side (neighboring countries issues), etc. These latter broad base "Upper Level Structures" (utilizing the support of hopefully very sound Pillars of Principles) related topics need to be understood very clearly in Myanmar context), after thorough interactive thinking about them. In many ways, the Think Tank organization should be considered as another branch of government needed within developing countries. 

The Cultural Disorders that impacts Myanmar in many ways are political and civil rights. During the rule of Bamar kings, the people had absolutely no political or very little civil human rights. That was also true for many other Asian countries of the previous similar centuries. During the time of the British Raj, there was a legal system that supported many codified rights for the ruled, but kind of rights were selected by the ruler. That legal system had a high standard of civil justice for its time and purpose. Dictatorship started in 1962. Many Myanmars were against it, and tens of thousands of Bamar nationality ended up in prison. Dictatorship lasted till early 2011, and followed by a quasi-democratic government of President Thein Sein (ex-military). One of its important purpose is to serve as a shield from retribution for illegal acts (by civilize standards) the senior generals and the judges of the previous regimes committed. Any illegal acts committed by President Thein Sein regime is apparently shielded (not taking any corrective action) by the succeeding regime. The only way to shield the illegal acts committed by the current regime is to get itself reelected (fair or foul) and shield itself for the next 5 years with the help of toady or corrupt judges. This kind of justice related cultural disorder can be traced back to the days of the mindset of the Bamar kings and the dictatorships after independence, and the current Myanmar populace need to rapidly culturally cultivate zero tolerance toward any political leadership practicing cultural and character disorders, and to vote it out of office. This type of disorder appears to be prevalent in third and fourth world countries that are educationally and politically backward. 

The quasi-democratic form of government should only be transitory and during that period, it is very important that the judges legal practices are of the highest standard to facilitate and not to impede, in moving quicker toward fuller evolution of democracy, regardless of less-than-ideal constitutional laws. Let it be known that this article and those like it is going to hold the judges to ethical practice with full integrity. Payback time will surly come for the lawless and those who consider themselves to be above the law, and especially crooked judges. Only by ridding these entities effectively, can the kind of cultural disorders they propagate, can be effectively vanquished.

Another Cultural Disorder is the "(I) WIN-(You) LOSE" attitude. It is very satisfying for the winner. The winner gets one hundred percent, and the rest get zero. This kind of attitude was taught at school when I was young as though it is a fact of life, at my Bamar language class. A verse by Amutgyi Anandathuriya containing that meta message was to be learned by heart. In the real world, the WIN-LOSE choice is destructive and is simply an illusion, an unreal choice for the long run, and subsequent failures will show it was really a NO WIN, or even a LOSE-LOSE situation for everyone involved. This kind of cultural disorder from the days of Bamar kings should long be gone.

The ability to think and act WIN-WIN is the power of cooperation.  Without this power, the scope and scale of an organization is very limited when compared to an organization that has this power.  History is full of cultures that disappeared or were relegated to a minor stature because of their inability to peacefully work out deals within themselves and with neighboring ethnic groups. Hopefully, as we become older, we also may become smarter and more mature; we gain greater relevant experiences and knowledge, and consequently become better at finding the correct solutions for working with challenging projects as well as with many types of people.  As our ability to understand different realities improves, our flexibility should increase, enabling us to find the right balances or compromises, without being unrealistic and avoiding wasteful work. That means to be fully mindful of between value added work and wasteful work. With the WIN-WIN mindset, and by regularly performing value added work, bigger and more numerous "pies" (products, produces) can be outputted. Sharing the rewards equitably should become easy.

There are also cultural disorders at the community and family levels that may be functions of ethnicity but are not going to be discussed here. But they definitely should be subjects of interest for the Think Tank group to be mentioned in Part 3.

The ability to think and act WIN-WIN is the power of cooperation.  Without this power, the scope and scale of an organization is very limited when compared to an organization that has this power.  History is full of cultures that disappeared or were relegated to a minor stature because of their inability to peacefully work out deals within themselves and with neighboring ethnic groups. Hopefully, as we become older, we also may become smarter and more mature; we gain greater relevant experiences and knowledge, and consequently become better at finding the correct solutions for working with challenging projects as well as with many types of people.  As our ability to understand different realities improves, our flexibility should increase, enabling us to find the right balances or compromises, without being unrealistic and avoiding wasteful work. That means to be fully mindful of between value  added work and wasteful work. With the WIN-WIN mindset, and by regularly performing value added work, bigger and more numerous "pies" (products, produces) can be outputted. Sharing the rewards equitably should become easy.

I did my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E.) and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (M.S.E.E.) degrees in UK. I worked for a couple of years at telecommunication laboratories of ITT (International Telephone & Telegraph). I had job offer with ITT in USA in the field of microelectronics and moved to Florida. Back in the early seventies, the microelectronic technology was evolving very rapidly and competition was fierce. Moving from company to another company, and from state to another state as the jobs demanded was quite normal. My working experiences included employment with a few Fortune 500 companies. I had publications regarding R&D results with top rated science and technology journals. I got married to a Myanmar in California and settled there. She is Lei Lei Nwe Thein, a well known writer in Myanmar.  My beginning job with the US Navy was at the Materials Engineering Lab, North Island, San Diego, an aircraft carrier base. I received Employee of year award for 1991 from my department. For my last project before retirement, I was involved with the CMM (Capability Maturity Model, see Web for details) training program that the US Defense Forces were instituting for their software development programs, capable of supporting up to their highest space and nuclear technologies. Since 1995, they have spent billions of dollars to implement that methodology. Essentially, it is to ensure to the highest order of SAMADHI for their software for super critical tasks,      and using giant spreadsheets to make things happen. Their aims were for zero error, zero defects for their systems.

Video file

Myanmar need to be fully aware that they are at an extremely critical cross-road -- The elections of 2020. Thoughtful people of Myanmar are watching, the military community is watching, the Taing Yin Tars are watching, the poor people who has to eke out a living are watching, people who are concern of the rule of just laws are watching,  people who cares of the sovereignty of Myanmar are watching, international groups interested in Myanmar are watching, people with positive sense of Spirituality are watching, students who are very concern of being able to grow up within a progressive and humane Nation are watching, of whether the next so called pro-democracy government will have more vision or greater sense of justice will be in state power after the 2020 elections.