‘If the Policy to Govern Their Own [Ethnic] States Is Given, I Believe That the Road to Peace Will Be upon Us’: Kayan Student and Activist

The following interview is the fourth one in a series that Burma Link, KSNG, and KYO will be publishing in the coming weeks. This interview series is meant to give more in depth understanding into the situation of young ethnic refugees from Burma as well as refugee advocacy and Burma’s political situation. This interview is a compilation of several interviews conducted with Lay Lit over the course of the filming process. The text has been edited and some parts have been omitted for flow and clarity.

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My story: ‘I had no worries when I was young’

My name is Khun Tu Tu Lay. I am Kayan (ethnic group). I come from Karenni State and I am now studying at EIP school.

From kindergarten to 8 standard, I went to school in the village. When I was young and lived in the village, well… I should say I was very happy. I had no worries when I was young, and all I did were play, eat, sleep. The school we have in my village is only at the level of secondary. If we wanted to continue further, we had to go to high school in a city (Loikaw), over 40 miles away. The majority of students could not afford to go for it so that there were many of my friends who dropped out of school and helped the family with labors and stuff. For my parents, they encouraged me to continue studying so that I went for high-school in town. The expenses for schooling was high and as my parents were just ordinary farmers, they couldn’t afford to support me fully, but on the level that they could manage and sent me to school in the city.

At that time when I went to school in the city, I could not manage to catch up with studies because I transferred from the village school and as a new student. The students would complain if they received more lessons than they could catch up and the teachers slowed us down with their teachings. The teachers only taught us just general explanation for the lessons at school and focused mainly on tuition classes. I was getting used to it and unlike the school in the city, I failed to catch up.

So, I failed the 10 Standard. The reasons why I could not pass the 10 Standard are: at first, I thought I could not catch up with studies and felt unmotivated to go to school.

Another reason is a tuition – that I could not afford to pay for it, as well as my parents, and I was still young that I felt bad for not having money to pay for it. I thought about my future and realized that I could do nothing at this point and later I found a teacher training program and attended it.

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On my family and village: ‘I feel like guns are nothing strange for me since I saw them in my childhood’

My birth-place is Sii-Bu village. My village is located on a hill and it usually takes around 40 miles to drive from nearby cities of Dee Maw Soo and Loikaw. There are around 150 houses and it is also the central headquarters of the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP). I was born in 1994 and on the day I was born, Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) and the military government

[of Burma] had already signed a ceasefire agreement at that time. Although the ceasefire agreement was signed between the two parties… well, I heard elders talking about murder cases at where… had been hearing this kind of news all the time. How should I put this… soldiers holding their guns passed through the village. Ever since I saw the same scenarios in my childhood all the time, I feel like guns are nothing strange for me.

My parents are ordinary farmers. The main work in my family is basically farming. The main-road is better now as it was repaired last year. It is fine now to go except it is a narrow road. The electricity is run by a diesel oil generator. For every one and a half hours of every night, the electricity is available to every house. The children also study during that time and continue to study with solar lights and touch lights when it runs out.

From the perspective of education or economy or healthcare, in my opinion, electricity is necessary. As we still have not received electricity for 24 hours, it delays some people to do businesses. Even a refrigerator cannot be placed at home, we cannot store stuff longer in it with unstable electricity. Another thing is about phone line. It has been years since we did not receive communication by phone, mostly until now, there is no signal in the village. The signal tower is landed but the signal is no released yet, not until now. We have telephone stand but it is very expensive; 1 minute for 100 kyats.

Speaking on the behalf of the condition of my village, the availability of 10 Standard is now accessible in Sii-Bu from last 3 years so that youths can now go to high school.

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Problems in education: ‘When the government did not recognize the school it was nothing for them’  

Schools in town, even at the level of primary is required to pay fees. Frankly speaking, the fees are required until 8 Standard, every year – it is not free. Some parents are very poor so that they could not afford for their children to provide school fees because they are struggling for their basic needs every day, so… instead of letting their children go to school, they are more wanted to go to farm-work. Also they do not want to go to other places away from their homes. Due to different kinds of circumstances they had, they had to drop out of schools.

At school in town (Loikaw), the main focus is tuition classes.  Because I could not take the tuition class, and the teachers only taught us just general explanation for the lessons at school and focused mainly on tuition classes, … As I even was struggling for my housing fees that it was impossible to take the tuition class. I tried to study as much as I could but not as good as following up with the students who took the tuition. This is one reason why I failed exams back then.

The problem of our educational system in Burma is that, in my opinion, when students learn the texts, they only learn them by heart just to pass the exam- it is like a one-go process. When the exam is finished, they tend to forget everything they have learned and then, they can’t apply such knowledge outside the box.

Another thing is that, in my opinion, the GDP expenses for education in Burma is quite low that there are inadequate school materials and equipment; for example, having insufficient chalks for teachers to write on and inadequate numbers of teachers in village-schools, etc. This insufficiency on school supplements is quite difficult for us. Children mostly, speaking of the families with financial difficulties, they are still unable to go to school but work and pass their adulthood. Some of them are still losing the opportunity to study in my village.

According to the situation of the country Burma, when the government did not recognize the school, it was nothing for them. When this happened, villagers voluntarily taught the children or planned to hire teachers. There are villages where teachers cannot be reached so that children do not have a chance to study and the population of them not going to school raises up. When I saw them, I thought the possibility for long-term is not good that children in our country do not go to school because of this – this is a negative impact of the future of the country so that I decided to get involved in teaching.

As my memory recalls, I arrived at the village. There were only over 10 houses. There were 13-14 students at school. Since the requirement [by the government] of numbers of students was not met, teachers were not transferred to that school and we did not have enough teachers. So, when I arrived there, I felt sad about that, and the students did not have a chance to study for two years even before I arrived there. It was the very first day [of school] for them when I arrived there to teach. There was only a time a few educated people in the village who had taught the children before I arrived there – it was not like school. Even when I arrived there, they built a small temporary building for school. It took me 15-20 minutes on foot to get to the school. Sometimes, when children from other side of the village did not come to school, I had to go to their houses to call them come.

We had a problem in the village, related to inaccessible healthcare. A student’s parent became seriously ill and there was no medication nor hospitals in the village. Transportation was impossible to reach to a hospital in a city. We could do nothing, but watched the parent die from serious illness as there was no medicine to receive treatment. But not for long, it happened the same with another person – it went the same way.

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My Involvement in Politics and Human Rights Documentation: ‘The experiences made me understand what was happening’

I volunteered as a teacher for one year. After that, the Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY) opened English and Computer training for two months for the teachers who volunteered in villages as they repaid their thanks to us. When I was attending the training, I heard about a political training in Loikaw and as soon as I heard this, I was interested in it as I wanted to know more about politics. So, I went to contact them and attended it for one month. Since then, I started to become interested in politics.

It was within 2013, as I remember, the condition in the country was not imaginable to open such a training but an organization, my organization (KNGY), I contacted them to attend. Since then, I became more involved in politics and I was attending another political training for 6 months before I came here. I have been being interested in participating the trainings and I could not when I took time from my high school. As a coincidence, that teacher training was delivered in my village. With the aim of improving knowledge, I just thought so normally, I attended it. But after that, like I said earlier about difficulties in rural areas with insufficient teachers and schools, I decided to get involved in it. After the first time that I attended the political training, I kept involving in political affairs because I was interested in it and attended another 6-month training at Loikaw. I began to get involved in trainings of political affairs… such as human rights, democracy and so on, which are held in rural areas.

I mainly provided trainings about politics. Later, I worked as a record keeper of training programs, and some records of human rights violations for my organization. My main responsibility as a record keeper was to collect and keep photographs and reports from the trainings organized by the organization, and if anything was needed I recollected the data I kept and submitted them. This was my work. Because I was interested in that, I kept and collected data of records for my organization. I should say I was happy to do what I liked, but technically speaking, we did not have experience in collecting and saving documentations so that I had to run to attend trainings to learn. That was how I knew to do a bit. Another thing we did was collecting records and images of human rights violations in the villages and by doing so, I began to know about these issues before I came to my organisation. I can also say that through this I got to know more about my organization as well. Mainly they [records] were about demonstrations of farmers and other regional land issues that the organization went to resolve and I went along with them, noted down records about them in person. Having the experiences in close made me understand what was happening in the region.

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EIP: ‘We do not have to study by heart’

As I wanted to learn English more, I hoped that I would know more if I went to EIP; that I would gain knowledge to be able to serve my community. In Burma, there are some schools where English is focused on the teaching subject but mostly they target students who passed the 10 standard so … my difficulty was with the 10 standard that I did not pass, so it was difficult for me to get in with them. But EIP seeks students who either passed or did not pass the 10 standard and it does not focus on this so it was possible for me to get in.

We learn here about English and ideas about critical thinking, and cultural knowledge that I find is difficult. I have learned about communication and how to be in good relationship with local people while studying – if you say, it is a communication building practice that we have done a lot. Another thing is activities such as writing newsletters that are distributed throughout the local areas. I assume that those activities are the best for me. When I was on the 10 standard at high school, I did not have much external knowledge. Only the times I spent were studying lessons by heart and taking exams. But now that I am in touch with schools from outside the country, I have began to know more and other common issues of the country, and the English subject. Speaking of studying, we do not have to study by heart – it is free and independent learning style with no limitations in educational system at EIP.

Here, the main focus is on community development. Although we are students here, there are some activities such as giving trainings to local people. In our school, we have an activity every month to give trainings to nearby villages, and we invite them to come. The villagers also take part in these activities, as well as in the trainings. By seeing us and them working together, the relationship between the school and the villagers is in a good standard.

Last weekend, in school we divided into two groups and gave trainings in the village (Mae Talah Kee). My group was ENO, Ethnic Network Organization, and we went to villages and provided parenting knowledge trainings. In that village, as I see there is no government school, but only a self-providing school where they send their children. After doing the parenting knowledge training program, in my perspective, I believe that the parents can now open their minds about their children going to school.

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Learning in Burma and on the border: ‘After finishing this school, we know how to live and work together with other ethnic groups’

As my classmates come from around different cultural backgrounds, the discussions among us in traditional beliefs are different and there can be some misunderstandings and arguments among us. Here we have many ethnicities. Before that, I had lived among different ethnicities but it wasn’t like having lived among them for some years. I began to know more about Karen tradition and see more about their condition of living as I am living in Karen State that I began understand them more and more. In my country Burma, problems among ethnic groups are endless until now, and we, ethnic groups, if I have to say honestly, are divided with hate and still alive in conflicts. But in EIP, we of different ethnic groups live together and we try to live together without any conflicts among us. I have to say, the school practices us to be this way so that after finishing this school, we know how to live and work together with other ethnic groups. Here in EIP, I was able to learn about viewing politics from different perspectives and make the best solution to put onto it.

When I was in secondary and high-school [in Burma], I learned about history but had no knowledge in conflicts among ethnic groups; for example, the 88 demonstration – I did not know anything about it. But later, I began to know more about it. The history of my Kayan culture, the subject of it, I did not have a chance to learn about it in my life, should I say. Even until now, it is a struggling situation for us to present our own cultural language and to learn it in schools. So, I cannot fully understand or speak my own language, and I cannot write it because I did not have a chance to learn about it at school when I was young.

Personally, I think the important subject is mainly the English subject, as I would like to speak fluently and this is my goal. Another thing that I expect is the critical thinking of different perspectives on how we think, and the feelings that we control. These are my emphasis than other subjects. If you cannot think critically and control your emotion, it is useless despite having many other skills that are fundamental. Here I hope to learn more about writing proposals and reports because when I go back to my region, these skills are essential to pursuing and receiving other organizational support. After finishing this program, when I go back to my region, I believe I can apply the skills I learn.

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Youth Involvement: ‘They need to always be learning’

The condition of our youths in my country is that not many are included in decision making processes, but for participation in community organizations. The power of youths is strong and I know it because I, myself, am working as a part of it. More young people should be included in the political decision making for peace at the national level.  As for young people, in my opinion, they choose their own ways of their interest. If they are interested in politics, they should be working on it. It is not just that, if they want on social activities such as on educational section that is weak at the moment, it is important for young people to participate in it actively.

Regarding the transition of the country, as the section of youth participation in it, in my opinion, they should work actively on issues of democracy, and should be able to speak out. They need to be active and be always learning. Some youths are knowledgeable in federal, human rights and democracy issues, and by sharing their knowledge to other young people, the level of youth participants could likely grow in Burma. Young people mostly tend to decide something sharp and are courageous to do something so that they need to apply this kind of skill very carefully, especially in politics. In my perspective, young people in this generation are well-trained for the future development of our country, and they are, one day, likely to take responsibilities so that youth at nowadays should be sharp and intelligent.

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Refugee education: ‘Students who finish refugee education status will be recognized’

Youths who are staying at refugee camps, I think, have good access to qualified education because there are schools supported and trained by the international NGOs along the border. So, these schools can contribute many educated young people who are likely to serve the country in their expert fields. Not only these types of schools are required along the borders, but also the kind of free schools in the country as well. I expect the students who will finish the refugee education status will be recognized to receive government jobs and youths are also to be able to continue universities in Burma; the government should recognize them.

I hope the [government] shall recognize the refugee education and the free and independent schools that will likely be founded in Burma shall also be recognized. If the youth who have finished schools here want to continue to study at universities in Burma I think the government should accept and recognize them. For the students and youth who have finished schools with refugee education standards and want to study at government universities the government must accept them based on their qualifications. If the government does not accept those terms then the students who finish schools of refugee educational standards and want to work or continue studying in Burma will face a lot of difficulties. For those students who can’t go to universities abroad it is very important for them to have the chance to go back and study and work inside the country. This is why I strongly believe that Burma’s government should carry out these conditions under any circumstances.

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My future hope: ‘Youth will bring a potential benefit for the country’

I think so that education is necessary for a person. When you are not educated, there are many difficulties you will have, so seeking out education and being an educated person expands a variety of perspectives. Education is very important for everyone. It is important that youth in this generation will be educated. Then they see more and learn by themselves so that they are to be of service of the country. In my view, if they are educated, they will have a broader mindset and critical thinking skills. By having more education, I believe youth will bring a potential benefit for the country.

In my region, many young people do not complete their schools. Although some may finish, they have less to access another knowledge. My focus is mainly on educational system and I really want to focus on working in education so that youths in the regions can access education more and more. And I have decided that I will try my best in any ways to promote education so that they can learn.

I want to try to create an environment where youths can study English so that after finishing my school (with EIP), I want to plan to implement it. If I could implement one thing, it is not just English but with other areas of knowledge such as politics that I would like to teach them. In order to implement it, I think that receiving international aid is a kind of important because it is difficult to reach the goal by myself. If international aid is to be received, I am sure this will become a possibility. Now that I am studying English at EIP and after I finish it, I dream of implementing my goal in my village. I am now saving for skills and knowledge here so that I should be ready when I go back. I hope I will do this for about 2-3 years and after that, I have a plan to continue my education, in a way I find it easy for me and go for higher education.

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On the current situation: ‘‘The peace’ we long for is impossible at present’

If I can live peacefully, it is called peace. If I cannot live peacefully and be afraid of and worried about something on when to run away, when I would hear bad news, this is not called peace. In my opinion, to view from the point of Burma, the military is the main group that since they are marching out to start wars on ethnic areas and something like that, the ethnic groups have become responsive to their action. If Tatmadaw [Burma Army] could handle the situations, the civil wars would be less and less.

Here we have the ethnic conflicts – the demands for federal countries for their states is the main focus but this is mainly limited by the 2008 Constitution, so that if the constitution could be amended, and if the discussion on the demand of ethnic groups for federal countries is on the table, I assume that the condition of the country would likely to improve. To reach reconciliation of Burma it takes years because currently, the main 2008 Constitution cannot be amended, and wars are continuously broken out. So, to obtain the real peaceful Burma, I think, it will still take a decade.

Among our ethnic societies, inside the country, fear is lessening rather than the past situation. But in our ethnic societies, I can still see that it is because of the great impacts of civil wars – that in some regions and the condition is unstable, there is always fear among the ethnic people who live those war-affected places so that they are still worried about their lives because of wars and conflicts. Everyone is trying to reach for the cease fire agreement. Every citizen desire peace but because of the political conflicts we have today and that are unable to be agreeable, we have civil wars breaking out so that the ‘peace’ we long for is impossible to be reached at present.

If I were in government, I would call all ethnic groups to a meeting and find out a solution to the root of problem and I would suggest a new constitution, agreed by all of us. This is my opinion. If we could do that, I think we could have potential peace for the country if I had the power to do so.

It is important to be united among the citizens of the respective groups. When having a dialogue on national level with the respective ethnic groups, it is important for us to stay connected and work for it. If we could do it, a faster transition is likely to happen for the country. Only when the government can actually change for the road to democracy that we want, and also when everyone has a full contribution to the ceasefire agreement will Burma achieve this kind of peace.

In the future, to say for Burma I want to see is unity – that instead of discriminating each ethnic group and trespassing territories, we should be like, ‘we are One’ – for Burma. To be like this, all ethnicities should be in harmony. It is about Federalism, if the policy to govern their own states is given, I believe that the road to peace will be upon us.

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Message to the world: ‘International support is needed for the schools’ educational system’

I think some refugees want to come back and I know that the government is now planning for them but currently it’s not possible for the refugees to go back to their home country because wars could break out any time and there is no guarantee for them yet. … I address the fact that even if they go back, when the wars break out again they will still be in difficulties, if they are displaced again. It is important for them to have perspectives of participation and even if some people resettle in third countries, they should contribute something to help their country in some way.

It is necessary to invest more for education. If people are not educated in the country, it is a negative sign of possibility. For youths of today to become educated, investment for education should be given more so that it will be a positive possibility for the future of Burma. There needs to be more of independent schools so that I think, educated young people like us have in mind to support in these kind of schools, that the possibility of good educational system, a possibility to receive it for young people should be there… I think that international supports should be more focused on those as the government cannot. International support is needed for the schools’ educational system. What I mean is not in the government educational curriculum but in the schools existing along the borders and inside the country. So when these schools are not supported by the government, and if no international supports is received, they will likely be shut down because they are not receiving any support from the government.

(Speaking English) I would like to say to international community: We need your help. Please don’t stop supporting Myanmar because without your help we cannot do a lot. So keep giving your support to Myanmar. Thanks.

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