ORIGINAL SOURCE: BURMA LIBRARY

Ne Win’s Speech, on 8 October 1982 (Regarding 1982 Citizenship Law)

“Comrade Central Committee members: What I am going to speak today is about an important law, the Burmese Citizenship Law. If this law must be explained, what has happened in the past must necessarily be recalled. I have no desire to hurt anybody in recounting this recent history. However, the truth might perhaps hurt somebody sometimes. but I do not wish to hurt anyone and I will try not to do so.

I would like first to explain about conditions that prevailed in Burma as a subject nation. After a part of Burma had been annexed by foreigners in 1824, one war after another was fought and the whole of our country subsequently became a subject nation. After becoming a subject country, we officially regained independence on (more…)

by Phanida   

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Xenophobia is not nationalism and patriotism, opposition leader Daw Aung Suu Kyi has said.

“She said nationalism is good with good intentions for the welfare of one’s own nationality and with Metta (love) and Cetana (benevolence). But it should not hate and hurt other nationalities,” the National League for Democracy (NLD) party spokesman Nyan Win quoted her as saying.

The detained leader spoke to her advocate and party spokesman this morning at her home on University Avenue, Rangoon.

Today is the 89^th anniversary the ‘National Day’, which falls today on the Burmese lunar calendar Tazaungmung 10^th Waning Day.

This again marks the first boycott of university students of the University Act enacted and promulgated in 1920.

The National Day address delivered by junta supremo Senior Gen. Than Shwe was published in today’s state-run media the ‘New Light of Myanmar’. (more…)

 Tokyo’s policy toward the junta is ripe for review.          SOURCE

 By BENEDICT ROGERS AND YUKI AKIMOTO

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will have much on his agenda in his first few months in office in Tokyo. One particular area crying out for change is Japan’s relationship with Burma.
No country has a bigger historical responsibility to Burma than Japan. Aung San, leader of the Burmese struggle for independence from British colonialism in the late 1930s and 1940s, was given military training by the Japanese. In World War II, Japan occupied Burma and cruelly oppressed the ethnic groups who sided with the British. More recently, Aung San’s daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, studied in Kyoto before returning to her country in 1988 to campaign for democracy. Yet Japan has extended political and financial support to Burma’s military regime to protect its own short-term economic interests, safeguard relations with China and pursue a misguided view that appeasement will bear fruit. (more…)