While this may be seen as evidence of the limits of MIS hegemony within the SPDC, it appears for the time being that Khin Nyunt’s position remains all but unassailable. But critics insist that the powerful general cannot expect to keep the forces of discontent at bay forever.
There will be a time
Whether or not the SPDC chooses to respond to calls for dialogue with the democratically elected opposition, events—possibly originating from within the military— will eventually force their hand once again, as they did in 1988, say observers.
“They (the military) will reach the point where they have to decide for the country (and stop) following the MIS directives,” warned Khin Maung Nyunt. “There will be a time.”
“The regime must have enough patience to work with democratic elements and forces to work out a durable solution to the national crisis,” he added.
The former captain said that Tatmadaw leaders should not be left out of the national reconciliation process. “We must include the military but they must not be in decision- making positions.”
As reasonable as this sounds, however, in the context of present-day Burma, these words from an old soldier would undoubtedly be condemned as treachery.
On the evening of July 27, 1977, Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint was taken from his cell to the main Insein jail in Rangoon. Ohn Kyaw Myint asked his warder Chit Maung, “Am I going to be killed soon?”
No answer came from Chit Maung but the warder shook his head. A few hours later two colonels from the War Office arrived with a judge. Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint’s time was up. He was hanged.
The crime committed by the captain was to attempt to assassinate state leaders including Gen Ne Win. He and his fellow coup plotters were opposed to NE Win’s Burmese Way to Socialism, which they felt was leading the country to ruin.
They had vowed to hand over power to respected politicians and professional soldiers but the plan was leaked out.
Ohn Kyaw Myint was arrested along with a dozen other army officers before the plan could be carried out. Burma’s political history could have been very different if they had accomplished their task.
Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint, who was a personal secretary to then Army Chief of Staff Gen Kyaw Htin, had a chance to meet all of Burma’s top leaders, including NE Win.
The Captain and his group kept postponing their date to assassinate NE Win. Analysts at that time suggested that that was their greatest mistake. The Captain was also superstitious. One day, as they drove their army jeep on A. D. Road, where NE Win and top leaders lived, they saw bird droppings on the jeep’s windshield. They thought it was a bad omen and they postponed their plan.
While they were choosing their “lucky date”, one of Ohn Kyaw Myint’s close friends who was also an army officer had told the plan to Than Tin who was also a senior official in the NE Win government. Learning about the plan, Than Tin rushed to NE Win’s house and informed him.
Many junior officers were apprehended and jailed or forced to retire. By now, many have been released and have settled overseas or live quietly in Burma. But Ohn Kyaw Myint, the mastermind, was not so lucky.
Before Ohn Kyaw Myint there was another attempt on NE Win’s life.
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