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U Shwe Ohn's "Towards the Third Uni



Subject: U Shwe Ohn's "Towards the Third Union of Burma" 

U SHWE OHN'S "TOWARDS THE THIRD UNION OF BURMA" 

a book for Burman Politicians 
	
This critic is not an accomplished critic. In fact, he has never written a
review on any books. The fact is of little help. But he thinks this book is
a must for all those who wish for a new Burma, and so here goes. 

When I say Burman here, it is in the same sense as when you say American
for all citizens of the United States of America regardless of their
origins. I sometime even think we had better start thinking of ourselves
collectively as Burmans and for the Bama people as either Burmese or Bama
or even Myanmar. Maybe it wouldn't hurt anybody to start using these terms:
Burma for the country and Burmans for its peoples. But I won't press
anybody to use it like the junta has been doing with everyone else. 
 
U Shwe Ohn was born in Yawnghwe in 1923 at a time, as he says, when
politics was something worthy of being asked whether or not it had horns on
its head. He graduated from Rangoon University as a Bachelor of Arts,
Bachelor of Law and DMA whatever it was. 

He was an active member of the Shan People's Freedom League since founding
although admittedly not as well known as some of the SPFL's big shots like
Tin E and Htoon Myint. 

He worked for 17 years as lawyer. He submitted a Federal Proposal for the
1974 Constitution during the period of its drafting. Although most people
reportedly liked his ideas, it finally went into the trash can as "only
alone individual's opinion". Instead, a unitary one-party state
constitution was adopted by the ruling junta. Luckily for him, he was only
ignored but not harmed in anyway that time. 

However, he was not as fortunate in 1993 when he submitted another
suggestion paper to the so-called National Convention which was called to
draft a "lasting, permanent" constitution. He was thrown in jail and,
consequently, his name went into the Amnesty International's report and
protest. 

So what did he write to make the junta so mad? That was a big question. And
I went through the book looking for an answer, concluding even before
touching the book I knew it already. The result was I was pleasantly
disappointed. Of course, I wasn't wrong about his conclusions. Only I was
completely mistaken about how he came to these conclusions. He showed me
that there were still many things to learn about Burma's past, present and
future. And I greedily devoured the contents wishing the Burma Lawyers'
Council and the National Council of Burma that has already drafted yet
another constitution had read it before they did it. 

So if anybody's interested in buying and reading it, please send B-100 to
S.H.A.N., P.O. Box 15, Nonghoi P.O., Chiangmai 50007 , THAILAND or write to
SHAN <shan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, for I think I've already said enough for the
present. But who knows, I may yet write another commentary after reading it
the second time. 

My last message:

Just buy it, you won't regret a bit. Even if you do, it'll be only because
it's not written in your language. It's in Burmese. That's all.

Apprentice Reviewer
from
S.H.A.N. 

// END //.