I do not claim to be an expert on Burmese history but what I do know having visited the country in 2006 is that Aung San Suu Kyi is very popular with ordinary people there and that the government is deeply unpopular. There is a reverence in their voices when they speak of ''the lady''.

I went to Burma knowing nothing of the country and I left with it occupying a place in my heart. I am now one of those silly Western internet campaigners.

Writeoff (are you Writeon in a new guise?) the ordinary people call the country Burma. I'm going with them.

Buckskins - is that comment really necessary? I assume from your use of the word ''ya'al'' you are American. In which case I advise you to look at your own country's imperial history and use of proxies in other countries. If you are so concerned about shame perhaps you could lobby the US government to pay the billions in reparations it promised Vietnam in 1973.

Rich Mookerdum and Myanmar Patriot 4 UMPF appear to be rather bitter pro-junta individuals. How they can make reference to Aung San Suu Kyi in that tone is disgusting.

The woman has spent 14 years under house arrest. She is free to leave at any time - provided she leaves Burma and does not return. She sacrifices her own freedom for that of the struggle.

The reference to 'Mrs Aris' is particularly sick and racist - first of all because it seeks to discredit her based on her choice of husband - a British man, and secondly because of what happened when Michael Aris was diagnosed as having cancer. The junta told Aung San Suu Kyi that she could go to Britain to see her husband before he died but that she could never return to Burma. Again she put the struggle for democracy first and so never saw her husband again.

If the people do not support her why did the monks and protesters make the point of visiting her during the Saffron uprising? Why do UN Secretary Generals seek to meet with her and why does ASEAN call for her release?

These charactesr going under the name of Myanmar Patriot 4 UMPF n Rick Mookerdum is paid mouth
pieces of the Burmese Junta, that is why the postings
are so long ALL lies.Don't be fooled by the slang they are using to make themselves sound like Americans British or Australians. They are actually Burmese scholars selectively send abroad on foreign funded scholarships on condition to be used as pro-junta mouthpieces. And paid handsomely from the sale of Burma's natural resources in billions that Junta stole n stashed away in foreign banks like Singapore, Macau Dubai and many other countries.They are merely translating lies concocted by the Junta. Daw Su is a beacon of hope for all
Burmese people, and U Win Tin, U Tin U, U Nyan Win
U Ohn Kyaing and all members of NLD has sacrificed
n risk their lives to set our people free from this
horrible diabolic government. Over 2200 political
prisoners are tortured and is going thru hell and
are dispersed in faraway prison making it impossible
for their love ones to visit them. These characters
with no conscience or integrity has sold their
souls to the devil. While majority of Burmese are
going thru tremendous suffering and economic
hardships, Junta their mouthpieces and cronies
are basking in luxurious surroundings, and the
people are desperate and helpless ruled under
the gun. All those who are bought by the stolen
billions, and countries like China, India, Russia,
Asean who are practicing economic opportunism
will let them get away with all kind of atrocities
committed by Junta. What goes around will
come around, no one can get away, they will
get their just deserts one day. If the likes like
Mooker dum and MP4 can sleep in the night
without their soul haunting them, then there
is no God on this earth. The Evil Rules, but
those of us who can distinguish the Good
and Evil, Right and Wrong will keep on
believing there is a God and continue
fighting for justice for the down trodden.

Burmese history did not start at the point of second world war. It started as a monarchy 3,000 years ago at a place called tagaung and Burma had evolved as a unitary kingdom despite that there were dynastic struggles as in all other monarchies.
Why do you fail to mention the repressive colonial rule.Your reporting is so very selective and unobjective. Your understanding of Burmese history is kindergarten standard. Myanmar means 'Burmese'. As a sovereign state, whoever is poower can decide when democracy should be ushered in.
Oliver Cromwell was a military dictor, against King Charles, for the Parliament. When did Britian become a democracy? How long ago was that? Not very long, was it? When did the women get the vote in Britain?
Stop interfering in our internal affairs!
As for the 1990 elections, they were never meant ot transfer power to that woman, Mrs. Michael Aris. They were meant to form a national assembly that would write a constitution. And then there would be ballots and a majority would be given 'executive power'. Because that woman, who had jumped on the bandwagon in 1988 having done not so much as lifitng a finger for the Burmese people during the 26 years under the military usurper ShuMaung, who was feted by Britian; what hypocricy!
She could not wait for the power and started playing tantrums. English media tell lies: many people in Britain still believe that they cannot travel to Burma, ublelievable. Common people suck up to it whereas the upper class people keep going to Burma and enjoy the beautiful culture and gentle and hospitable welcome of Burmese people.
Going back to 1990 elections, have you checked the results? There was ample evidence of double or triple voting for NLD;just look at the ratios of votes to seat. Pro-junta party cried fowl and the world did not pay any attention. Yes, if you have more than two brain cells, analyse the votes to seat ratio and you will understand our point. In any case, we do not have to recognise the results of the 1990 elections.
Burmese people have been living in a big prison druing the 26 years under BSPP.
Sen.Gen ThanShwe had done a great job in putting ShuMaung under house arrest. He and Mrs. Aris were both nuisances. Because Burmese people hated the BSPP and did not really understand democratic political processes - particularly the need for the separation of the powers, they wrongly went for that woman SuuKyi. She is finsihed! No use giving her kiss of life.
Who lives by the knife dies by the knife. Who rose by internet will fall by internet. You get the point?
It is her brother AungSanOo, who should have been leading Burma.
SHAME ON YOU ENGLISH MEDIA. Stop being neo-colonialists.
Burma will emerge as a democratic nation.

Burmese Daze

The Burmese are sick and tired of the ignorant remarks by outsiders who have little or no knowledge about the former British colony. And, the media’s drivel is nothing more than hypocrisy at its finest.

Just for the record, here are some inconvenient truths about Burma.

Following independence from Britain in 1948, the Burmese embraced liberal democracy in the face of communist and ethnic insurgencies raging across the newly-independent nation.

For fourteen years, life was good in democratic Burma, where the government of the day led by Prime Minister U Nu was on the British Road to Socialism and practicing “socialism with a human face,’’ and borrowing ideas from the UK Labour Party to build a “happy land” for the care-free people.

In March 1962, the country slipped into darkness after General Ne Win, in league with pro-Moscow communists, overthrew U Nu’s government and set out on the Soviet Road to Socialism -- and ruin.

Instead of condemnation, the West swiftly recognised the regime and Gen Ne Win would be feted by heads of state.

While the Burmese dictator wined and dined with US President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in 1965, U Nu and his entire Cabinet was languishing in jail. The president of Burma died in custody shortly after the coup.

In 1964, General Ne Win’s communistic regime nationalised the entire economy and thousands of “capitalists” jailed.

One Fleet Street newspaper condemned the sweeping nationalisation of private businesses as “daylight robbery”.

Nonetheless the Queen granted two audiences to Dictator Ne Win at Buckingham Palace, which resulted in full compensation for all nationalised British assets in Burma. But Burmese-owned enterprises along with other foreign companies never received a pya (cent).

With money back in their pockets, London and Fleet Street would ignore Burma – until the popular unrest in 1988.

The nationwide uprising was, above all, about economic freedom. And the people won, only to see Jenny-come-lately Suu Kyi and her communist allies in the National League for Democracy (NLD) beg the ignorant West to impose economic sanctions on the poor in Burma.

Suu Kyi, who never spoke out against Ne Win’s harsh rule from her comfortable life in Britain until 1988, seemed oblivious – or in denial -- of the fact that the regime of Gen Ne Win had exploited her father General Aung San’s political legacy to impose authoritarian rule.

An admirer of Hitler and Communism – and a rabid Anglophobe -- Aung San wrote: “The Burmese temperament demands always a strong, capable leadership and does not want merely a figurehead. There shall be only one nation, one state, one party, one leader. There shall be no parliamentary democracy, no nonsense of individualism. Everyone must submit to the State, which is supreme over the individual.”

His ideology would become state policy after the 1962 military coup, replacing Buddhist tolerance with Fascist and Marxist thought.

Meanwhile, along with several million exiles that lost everything – friends, family, money, a way of life and a country -- during the 26-year Marxist socialist revolution, from 1962 to 1988, I cannot but rejoice when learning that the duplicitous NLD won’t be contesting the forthcoming elections in Burma.

But I wish the NLD would run so that the party can be thrashed at the polls, now that the truth is out in Burma as to who’s who in the pseudo “democratic” party. But the NLD leadership is too scared for obvious reasons.

The former communists and rogue army officers – Gen Tin Oo, Brig Aung Shwe, Communist Thakin Tin Mya et al -- who founded the NLD fear a voter’s backlash for dragging the once-democratic and prosperous nation to the bullock-cart age.

These despicable gunmen once dominated the now-defunct Burma Socialist Program Party that made life hell for ordinary Burmese. Their harsh rule was characterised by enforced food rationing – in a land of plenty – sudden cancellation of banknotes, confiscation of private property. Early dawn raids on homes to arrest “economic saboteurs”. Malnutrition and disease wracked the minds and bodies of people, once the best-fed in the region.

With the private sector all but destroyed consumer goods from across the Thai border became illegal. Possession meant prison time. Tens of thousands of citizens, including the oldest and youngest members of my family, were sent to “Moscow” -- the notorious Insein Jail in Rangoon. Their only crime: buying and selling “contraband” for a living in the stifling Soviet-style economic system. The list of crimes committed by the current NLD leadership is endless.

What’s the big deal if 25% parliamentary seats are reserved for the military? Burma's neighbours such as Indonesia did the same, even more during their democratic transition. Thailand’s current government is backed by a junta. And it still gives 25% of parliamentary seats to the military. I say better 75 per cent civilians than none at all.

After duping the world for 20 years, it’s a bit rich of Suu Kyi to label the election laws as “unjust”. Suu Kyi was never elected. She could to run in the 1990 elections because her late husband was a foreigner, and because of the British citizenship of her children. Ironically, this chauvinistic law was the legacy of her father.

Since the Burmese nation had never asked Suu Kyi to play martyr or fight for them, it’s time for her to go back to her comfortable life in the UK and play grandma. It would be even better if she donated all the prize money – including the huge sum from the ignorant Nobel committee – to build much-needed modern women’s hospitals in Burma.

Janus-faced Suu speaks of democracy, yet she embraces the thugs who destroyed freedom and imprisoned a nation.

Suu Kyi should be dead or dying today if not for the ruling generals who opened up the economy and rehabilitated the private sector after the 1988 uprising for economic freedom.

Earlier, Suu had hysterectomy at a private hospital in Rangoon which was non-existent during the revolution. Pity my friend who died of AIDS after a similar procedure at a state hospital. Yet, Suu continues to hurt the Burmese people by begging the West not to invest, and isolate, Burma.
Suu’s name and face have become so numbingly familiar to outsiders as in effect to obliterate Burmese history. Foreign correspondents were awed by her command of the English language -- and lies. History will be less admiring.

It’s a shame the international media cannot identify the vile personalities in Burmese politics. It’s shocking that the United Nations – and Western governments in particular – is no wiser. This is another glaring example of ignorance and bias that saturates reports on Burma. Pity the readers.

It can be argued that Burma was once more democratic than some Western nations. When the Burmese voted in a true parliamentary fashion in the 1960 elections, “African-Americans” in the US and the Aborigines in Australia were denied the right to vote.

Hold back the (crocodile) tears, commentators, save it for the million dead Iraqis.

It's time hypocrites should stop preaching the Burmese.

Rich Mookerdum
Burmese-born journalist
Email: richm009@gmail.com

Why insist on calling it Burma, the old British imperialist title? It's the Union of Myanmar isn't it? It's a sovereign state, however objectionable the present government might be, so why deny its name?