A few weeks ago I wrote 'Women in Burma must act as an Agent of Change' but I don't mean to say that women are more able than men. As we require many points of view to recreate new ways of moving into a better future, we need the opinion and experience of both men and women. Women will bring different perspectives not because women are more warm hearted and care, naturally, but because women have different life experience.

Biologically, people are said to be social beings and flourish only when living amongst their own societies. They require rules for interacting with each other and this leads to their survival. These rules are transmitted through the interaction of our genes and social learning. Thus, we develop basic rules about truth, consideration and compassion for others, justice and fairness and right and wrong etc. A happy society is built on two foundations: love and kindness towards our fellow human beings and a moral principles of impartiality.

A happy and contented society also depends on the quality of a government. In democratic society citizens are able to vote for the type of government they want. Human beings, if they have not been brain-washed and indoctrinated by others are quite good at choosing who can be trusted and who cannot. In genuine democratic countries citizens take for granted two factors that are lacking in a country like Burma, personal freedom and peace of mind. The Burmese military dictatorial regimes obtained power by force, using weapons, and then self-elected to become an illegal government.

In 1947, when the Union of Burma was formed the peoples of the Union adopted the 'Panglong Agreement' agreed by representatives of all members. They hoped that they might have a government whose members would work together for the benefit of all its peoples. Instead of implementing the Panglong principles signed by Bogyoke Aung San and leaders of the non-Burman ethnic nationalities, the military regimes completely ignored it. They not only dishonoured the Agreement but also destroyed the 1948 Constitution.

Civil societies are also civic societies, that is as citizens, we must take some responsibilities to change what we do not like. Civil Society is the arena of collective action around shared interests, purpose and values. A strong and powerful campaign can bring a change in society. A collective mass demonstration can bring down a government, as in Romania. In a civil society, we need to recognise the importance social connections which include tolerance to sustain difference and debate.

The Myanmar military regimes, for more than have half-a century made it a crime for citizens to demonstrate or even to talk about politics and have severely punished those who disobeyed. As a result many have stayed away from politics completely, and politics as a debate is non-existent in Burma, especially in non-Burman ethnic states. Yet politics is such an important issue for people because it determines the quality of their lives.

By staying away from politics completely citizens are leaving the way open for the power mongers like the generals, and other rogue groups to make decisions for them and mould society into their image, or make them into a brainless machine without any reasoning ability, only the capability to obey.

Politics is a process by which groups of people make a collective decision for the benefit of the country and its citizens. Not to participate in politics is to surrender a part of their power. To be apolitical is to go against their interest and duties as citizens. This, of course, is advantageous to the dictators as their ambition is to hold absolute power. All citizens should have a freedom of choice to vote for whoever they think capable of governing the country with integrity.

For the past fifty years the citizens of Burma have had a terrible life living under the Burmese dictatorial governments, who ruled by brutal force, using gross violence in order to fulfil their political ideology of absolute power over a nation of one Bamar race, one religion, one culture and one language. For this, they committed heinous human rights violations against other ethnic nationalities including ethnic cleansing, genocide and gang-rape.

Now, the generals seem to have realised that their political method is a failure, and so decided to adopt democracy, which is also a ploy, used to convince Western governments, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, and to give them time to re-enforce their armed forces in the Shan, Kachin and other ethnic states.

Although the Thein Sein Government has signed a cease-fire agreement with the ethnic resistant armed forces, the Burmese dictatorial army has not ceased attacking the Kachin and the Shan armies. This shows that the Government is still being powered and driven by the generals, who have no intention losing a tight grip over other ethnic groups and their homelands.

No doubt recently there are some changes in big towns and cities, but there is no change in the interior of the Shan States, where members of the Burmese armed forces are still committing crimes against the villagers. Countless Burmese army battalions are already stationed along the border towns and villages of the Shan State, many more are continually being enforced. There is great anxiety and pessimism that war will be declared any day, causing the villagers to flee again.

The state constitutions and political processes have direct effects on the lives of all citizens, not only the present but also of future generations. If a state constitution is to be legal and meant for the benefit of the whole population then it has to be a Constitution devised and agreed by representatives of all groups of people. It is also important that basic human rights, the autonomy of individual member states and their citizens are well defined and entrenched in the Constitution.

Civil Society clearly matters as it allows coordination of interests to maintain free flow of information, discussion, and association. These elements are an essential part of the political freedom necessary to allow a democracy to exist, by holding the army accountable to the government; and the Government to the people and not visa -versa.

The Burmese dictatorial government has been in power for too long; it is time that Burma has a strong civil society and demand the type of government they want to govern their country, and the type of life they wish to lead. It is time for the people to enjoy good governance, based on freedom, justice, equality and transparency, and not have the dictatorial army controlling their every movement in their own homelands.

If the military keeps declaring war against the other ethnic nationalities, there will never be peace and genuine democracy in Burma. All citizens of Burma should make it their responsibility to make great effort to prevent this happening, and monitor that the flow of reform continue into all parts of Burma, and that it does not stop short of a genuine democracy.

The contributor is the daughter of the ruling prince of Lawksawk and the author of “My Vanished World”.