To The Wahington Times

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

To The Wahington Times

An articles written by The Washington Times' staff writer Richard Slusser "The
way things were - and still are"  
disturbed me so much. If Richard feels Burma is safer place to live than
Washington DC, why doesn't he move to Burma to work for Mr. Moon as he is
working for the times now. 

Let me clarify some points from the article. In Rangoon and through out the
Burma, hundreds of thousands undercover secret police known as Military
Intelligent agents (MI) are patrolling 24 hours a day. That was why Mr.
Slusser did see many uniformed policemen in Rangoon. No Burmese talks about
politics in public because the secret police arrests anyone at anytime when he
or she speaks about politics. That was why Mr. Slusser  did not heard much
about the regime in Burma.
 Let me explain why Burma is singled out among the human rights abuses as
following.

 My a little sister asked me before I left home in 1988, after the SLORC-SPDC
took over power, to buy a Mickey Mouse watch when I was coming back home. She
was about 12 at that time. Eight years later, I got a bad massage from Burma
that my sister was arrested by the regime in December 1996 when she took parts
during the students' protest. I do not know she is whereabouts. I again wonder
how long she can be waited in the notorious prison for her favorite Mickey
Mouse watch. 
That kind of family separation problem effects not only on me but also
uncountable numbers of people in Burma. Just look at Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's
family. She is still missing her sons. At last, I cannot imagine how many of
my young and talented brothers and sisters will be left in Burma when I
reunite with them.   Pray and Hope is my becomes by daily business. 

Editor of The Rangoon Post

888888888888888888888888888888888888888
News World Communications, Inc.   
                              The Washington Times 
 
                     April  19, 1998, Sunday, Final Edition 
 
SECTION: Part E; TRAVEL; Pg. E4 
 
HEADLINE: The way things were - and still are 
 
BYLINE: Richard Slusser; THE WASHINGTON TIMES 
 
DATELINE: MANDALAY,  BURMA  
 
    MANDALAY,  Burma  - At 10 a.m., our bus bumps along a road of potholes 
beside the Irrawaddy River.  In soft, innocent tones, a Southern lady speaks: 
"Can somebody tell me, please, what all these boys in robes are carrying bowls
for?" 
    "It's lunchtime, lady," comes the answer from another American on the bus.
     "Ohhh," says the woman, immediately aware of her faux pas, that the boys
are
from a Buddhist monastery and that they, like the older monks, are begging for
their one meal of the day. 
     Most of the Americans I talk with in  Burma  seem to have read something
on 
the history and culture of  Burma  and are aware that the monks beg for food 
daily and take what they are given to the monastery for the common meal. 
    Many also know that all males are expected to spend some time in a 
monastery, and some have heard that often men return to the monastery briefly 
after the death of their mothers or on other occasions for devotion and 
introspection. 
 
    The military-controlled political reality of  Burma  occasionally is
touched
upon in conversations between travelers and at times with some of the Burmese 
people.  Usually the Burmese say nothing about politics, at least to
foreigners.
I don't ask; I am not here on a mission but because I want to see this
country. 
   In Washington, I hear more about the Burmese government than I do in 
 Burma.  
    When I told people in Washington that I was coming to  Burma,  their 
reactions usually were questions such as: 
   * Is it safe to go there? 
   * Are you taking out special insurance? 
   * How can you go there with  Burma's  human rights record? 
    In  Burma,  I am reassured about my answers.  As for safety, I never feel 
threatened, something I cannot say about Washington, where I have survived, 
unharmed, gun and knife threats.  As for insurance, no, nothing special. 
    As to human rights, I answer that I do not see why  Burma  is being
singled 
out when Americans still go to China, that during apartheid Americans still
went
to South Africa and that before the Berlin Wall was demolished Americans
eagerly
visited Moscow, Prague and Berlin.  I am not a political traveler. 
     I notice much more police presence in Washington than in Rangoon (now
called
Yangon), except that on the morning when we leave for a flight from Rangoon to
Pagan, soldiers are stationed at intersections along the main road to the 
airport.  It turns out that this is the route a foreign dignitary is to take 
from the airport - which is closed to all air traffic for about an hour
because 
of the VIP's arriving flight. 
     So I have come to  Burma,  and I don't want to leave, for there is so
much I
haven't seen.  To come back, I'm sure I could be ready in no time at all.  It
is
a fascinating country, and I rank my trip with a safari in Zimbabwe five years
ago. 
      Burma  is a series of surprises and wonders, a land of disarming beauty
and
hard work, where today is as much yesterday as it is tomorrow, where the old
way
of doing things is still the way they are done. 
     I am surprised to see everybody wearing sandals and what we roughly group
as
flip-flops, and I am amazed that about 99 percent of the men and women wear 
longyis, the ankle-length skirt fashioned from a tube of fabric and tied at
the 
waist in front - in the center for men and at the side for women. 
     The exception seems to be construction workers and children, but I notice
quite a few construction workers wearing longyis, sandals and hard hats. 
     On one evening outing we stop by a small store that has a big selection
of 
longyis in silk as well as cotton.  The clerk says she has one large enough 
for me. 
     I select a gold-and-black-check longyi, try it on and tie it (a technique
I 
have mastered through observation), and my colleagues say it is fine.  I buy
it.
     When we return to our boat, the Road to Mandalay, I try on the longyi
again 
and look in the mirror.  "Oh, no," I say to myself.  "Take out the seam, and 
this will become a tablecloth." I accept this mistake calmly. Perhaps a little
of  Burma  has rubbed off in one week. 
 GRAPHIC: Photos (color), A lone boatman moves his goods on the Irrawaddy
River. 
Young Buddhist monks (right) carry native lacquerware bowls on their rounds
near
Mandalay as they ask for food for their only meal of the day., Both By Richard
Slusser/The Washington Times