THE BEGINNING OF UNDERSTANDINGTHE BEGINNING OF UNDERSTANDING
by K’pru Taw
K’pru is the associate editor of Nowhere to Be Home. He conducted, interpreted, translated, and transcribed numerous interviews for this book. K’pru is a twenty-one-year-old Karen man who grew up in Mon State, Burma. He is one of thousands of young people from Burma living on the Thailand side of the Thai–Burmese border in order to take advantage of educational and work opportunities. Like so many of his peers, K’Pru struggles through the daily challenge of living on his own and without legal status. Though he only started his study of English five years ago, he has worked as a teacher at a school for migrant children, as a language tutor, and in training and documentation with several nonprofit organizations. He dreams of attending university and then going back to Burma one day to work as a diplomat or peace negotiator. K’pru stresses that while he was inside Burma it was like he was “blind,” which he contrasts with the critical thinking–based education he’s received while living in Thailand. We also interviewed K’pru for this collection, and following are some of his reflections on working on this book, as well as on the situation in Burma.
I started working on this Voice of Witness project because I believe the information in the book can be very helpful for anyone who reads it. The more interviews I did, the more open I became—the more I wanted to listen. Now when I hear what another person is saying, even if I haven’t experienced the same situation myself, I can feel it.
Whenever I have free time, I read books and I try to understand other people’s lives. If I read about refugees in Sudan (Out of Exile) or about other migrant people, then I try to connect it with my experiences. I read the Voice of Witness book about Hurricane Katrina (Voices from the Storm); the people faced a lot of difficulties during the flooding. I remember how in my village we also had a flood and we lost all of our rice paddies. It made our lives even more difficult. I try to connect all of the Voice of Witness stories to my own life, and that is when and how I begin to understand new things.
When I lived in Burma, we only knew we were struggling, in the field, in the village. We didn’t think about our circumstances, because we didn’t know how to compare them to anything else. In school, I just finished my work because if I didn’t the teacher would beat me, and I didn’t want to be shamed in front of the other students. Critical thinking was discouraged—if we learned to think, then we might start criticizing the government.
The government publishes a newspaper, but they only include the good things they do, like building bridges and roads. We read that every day, but it didn’t make any sense: we were still struggling. We didn’t see good or bad, we only saw our own lives—the government bans all information from the outside world. Most people in Burma cannot judge the government and say what is right or wrong—they haven’t seen other ways of life, so they have no idea. We had brains, but we couldn’t think.
I left my village when I was sixteen because I heard that I could continue my education in a refugee camp. My friend’s brother, who used to be a KNLA (Karen National Liberation Army) soldier, came to our village, and he said young people like me could continue their schooling in the refugee camps in Thailand, where you could get support from an organization. He said I could even study to become a doctor or a medic.
I was very inspired; I wanted the chance to gain an education, then go back to my village and help people.
When I saw the refugee camp, I felt there was hope and that my dreams could begin.
It was the first time I saw many different ethnicities and religions from Burma together in one place. People were speaking different languages, and they had different ideas. It was very confusing for me at the time. At first, I hated some of the people who were different than me, but then I slowly started to understand other people, and then we were working together, eating together—living peacefully together.
For example, I became friends with people at the camp who support the KNLA, because I wanted to understand their feelings. They had these feelings because of their experiences with oppression and torture in their lives, so they wanted revenge against the SPDC. Now I understand why they want to support those fighting the SPDC. Since my village was a white zone for most of my life, the SPDC wasn’t killing villagers or doing anything severe. But in the black zones, the SPDC kills people—they’re not just doing forced labor and taking money from people. They oppress people everywhere in Burma, but they have different strategies in different areas. It made me very sad and very angry at the SPDC when I heard these things.
For the 2010 election, Than Shwe has already chosen who will be the president, but he would like to hold the election to show the international community. The SPDC always does that. They make a referendum or a conference, and they call ethnic groups to come and participate. But they never use the ethnic people’s ideas. They just call them to come so they can say to the international community, “Oh, ethnic people are coming to our conference. They are participating.” So it’s similar. They will just hold their election but they will control everything.
I want to live in a country where we have lot of ethnicities, with a government that gives power to every ethnicity. I don’t want to just have a free, separate Karen State or Mon State. I just want to have one government that shares power with the different ethnicities.
In my opinion, democracy is still far away in Burma. I think the people who have suffered in Burma need to forgive others. If you are able to forgive, the situation changes. If we are divided and in conflict with each other, then the government can control us easily—it is all part of the SPDC strategy.
You know, there are a lot of young people in the Burmese military. I would like to meet them and talk to them. I would like to be friends with them. Because one day, as the older generation passes, the young people of Burma will join together. I think the new generation will take the lead in bringing change to Burma. The ethnic minority youth as well as young Burmans, young people in the army, and young religious people will work together. They will think about all of the negative impacts that SPDC rule had on the people, and they will not just work for their own benefit. The young people will share their ideas and have common goals. I think peace is when the majority of people understand each other.
If Burmese people read this book, then they will know they are not alone in their struggles. For example, readers from another part of Burma can see that people in Karen State also encounter many difficulties, many atrocities—and see how they are the same. People in Burma should read this book because although they have their own difficulties, they often don’t know about other people’s hardship. When people read this book, I want them to learn to be tolerant, to forgive people, to learn about other people before judging them, and to try to be understanding. I just want them to be positive. I think it’s very important to have hope, because then you are determined to go onward until the end of the journey.
If people from around the world do more to help Burmese people, help them gain more education and encourage them, it will be good for Burma. It might take a long time, but I believe that through teaching the young people critical thinking, we could overthrow the government.