The Karen National League, as a non-armed Karen organization, seeks to uplift the lot of the Karen people and bring about the rule of law and true democracy to Burma. It engages in any and all lawful activities incidental to the foregoing purposes.

Speech delivered at the International Karen Dinner in Perth, Australia. July 17, 1999

A New Generation's Time: Toward A Karen Society of Pluralism by Saw Kapi

Ladies and gentlemen and the special guests of honor,

I am proud of all of you for today?s event. I am also honored to be invited to speak to you briefly about political development in Karen society and Karen National League. For those of you who do not know me yet, my name is Saw Kapi and I am a former teacher from Huaykaloke refugee camp. I now live in the U.S and, as part of my career, I work for the Burma Project of an NGO in Washington DC. But I will be leaving my job soon in order to pursue graduate studies in economics. For the Karen National League, I am the Secretary for Political Affairs.

Tonight, I want to start out with the development of political activism among younger Karen generation first. As you all might know, since the early 1990s, a sizable number of Karen youth from the Thai-Burma border, along with a much larger number of Burman students, have left their homes and villages and found themselves opportunity to continue their education in developed countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Although some of us find ourselves again in another kind of tough struggle for survival and have yet no time to return home, a number of us remain politically active and find our ways to continue engaging in the struggle of their people.

The formation of Karen youth organizations in the U.S., Canada and Australia, and their cooperation with their compatriots back home are gleaming examples of growing political activism among Karen youths studying and working abroad. As part of preparation for the next generation, it is very important that his development in political consciousness of young Karen should be encouraged as well as nurtured by the current aging Karen leadership, and by all of us.

The first Karen youth international conference was organized for the first time in Sydney, Australia in 1995, and two years later, the second conference of such kind was held in Ottawa, Canada. Karen Youth Organizations in respective countries hosted these conferences, and it was at the Ottawa conference in December 1997, that we combined ourselves and formed a larger and coordinated entity, the Karen National League (KNL). This marked for the first time the establishment of a unified political front abroad by a new Karen generation. The KNL is a coalition of five Karen organizations, which maintain their bases around the world, I should say. They are:

1. Karen Student Network Group - based in the Thai-Burmese border

2. American Karen Agency

3. Karen Youth Organization - Australia

4. Karen Youth Organization - Canada

5. Karen Youth Organization - U.S.A

The KNL defines itself as a movement for national development with a political objective of creating pluralistic Karen society within a genuine federal union of Burma. We see the recent mushrooming of Karen organizations all over the world, after the fall of Manerplaw in 1995, as a positive development as long as we cooperate with one another for a common goal.

We the KNL, aim to play a major role in long term leadership planning for our future generations, in educational development for Karen youth, and most importantly, in effectively inserting our Karen political voice in the international community. The KNL will also strengthen its Research Division in order to make sure that political issues related to the Karen are sufficiently studied especially from Karen perspectives. By doing so, the KNL hopes to serve also as a think-tank organization for the Karen struggle by providing independent analysis and reports to our leaders, policy makers and other Non-governmental Organizations.

In our endeavor to raise international political awareness on Karen issues, we do have regular consultation with our leaders both in and out of the country in terms of our strategic goals, but performs tactical tasks independently.

With the establishment of KNL and several other Karen organizations, it would not be wrong to say that political pluralism has gradually developed in the Karen society, both at home (mainly along the Thai-Burmese border area) and abroad. And there are reasons to believe that it is a positive and powerful development that a healthy society requires if unruly political split such as the braking away of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) is not to happen again.

With the emergence of KNL, many young Karens have become more interested in the politics beyond Karen politics. We have learned to examine where the Karen struggle fit in to the Burmese politics as a whole. Some of us have even participated in international conferences, lobbying and speaker forums. Their participation in international events have justly raised the voice of Karen people and their struggle. This new political dynamism by fresh and educated young Karen may give hope to currently standstill Karen freedom struggle which has been firmly led by the Karen National Union (KNU) for more than fifty years.

Particularly in this treacherous time for Karen, the movement of these young people may well prove to be a signal of change in strategy for national survival, and a new style of identity preservation. Just to mention a few, with assistance from some religious and non-governmental organizations, Karen Youth Organization in Australia could have managed to developed a scholarship program for their refugee brothers and sisters along the border to peruse their study in Thailand. While this program is only on a small skill and may not be big enough to sustain all the young Karen students, it should be noted that this is the first education program ever undertaken for young Karen. Saw Victor of KNL?s Project and Planing Department recently returned to Kawthoolei and joined the Karen National Unity Seminar, maintaining ties and understanding with our leaders back home. Other Karen organizations such as the Vancouver Karen Community Organization in Canada, Australia Karen Organization (AKO) in Australia and the American Karen Agency (AKA) in the U.S. are also active in many social and cultural events, playing a key role in maintaining Karen identity and cultural root intact for their next generation.

Since its formation, the KNL has made Karen presence on several occasions in international events. For instance, in corporation with the exile Burmese government, Naw May Oo, as a Karen student activist and also within her capacity as the president of KNL, has been representing Karen voice in several international conferences and political lobbying. In fact, along with the emergence of the KNL, the role of Karen students and youth in the struggle of Karen people has become much more broader and definitive. It would not be wrong to say that now is time for our new generation, and we really need to be politically active, and take control of our own affairs.

In conclusion, I would like to say that it is indeed encouraging to see that many educated young Karens are politically motivated and, with a sense of duty, carrying on the struggle in their own ways. In the past, either in international conferences or other political events in foreign countries, if KNU representatives were unable to attend for any reason, there was no Karen representation at all. But it is no longer true today. As more young Karen find their ways to internationalize the Karen struggle, we can make more and more representation in the international community. One must see this as an assertive political activism that gradually transforms our Karen society from a somewhat restricted and isolationistic to a pluralistic one.

Thank you.

 

Released by: Communication and Information Division P.O Box 320 518 San Francisco, CA 94132 U.S.A. Email: KNLcomm@aol.com

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