Forging New Bonds

The following story is made possible from the team behind Breaking Brainwashed.

“We warmly welcome those true soldiers that will stand with the people and truth.”

I want to tell you a story that took place in the frontlines of Karen during my time there.

I was a newbie personal assistant to the commander of two columns positioned at Thit Tapin Kone base when there was a severe food shortage. There was no place for us to buy supplies, not even a village. We had to wait for this little gourd to grow bigger before we could eat it.

The rice and chickpea supply we had were so worm-eaten that only half of it was left when we washed. Eating it wasn’t nutritional at all! We were starving, simply put. After inspection, we were assigned base defense preparation duties in the morning. Then, I put on my sports trousers, carried a basket and took my knife to find food. I cut bamboo shoots and picked mushrooms, nuts and fiddleheads. I took everything we could eat. I had to gather enough for the whole base myself. Because there was a lot of mines in Karen State, this was quite dangerous. My subordinates have families. They have people wishing them to come back safely. “Bogyi, please bring back your subordinate home safely,” their wives told me so many times, and I valued their words. So, I don’t want them to get hurt. I had already lost my parents then, and had no wife at the time. So, I had no one that would mourn my death. I decided only I will risk my life to get us food, as our senior officers weren’t supplying anything at this point.

I was a wistful fellow. One day, I dropped a letter on the route the local EAO used. I wanted them to contact me. Radio frequencies and codes were written in the letter. They contacted me. We become close communicating through the radio. They were friendly. They even played songs on the radio!

I told them to meet me one day. They agreed willingly. I only had this bad rice and worm-eaten chickpea supply. In return, they offered me better quality mountain rice, pork, betel nut, cigarettes etc. We were like brothers!

Being friends with them benefits my people as well. If I wanted supplies, I ordered from my new friends instead of my backline base. Ordering from my backline cost more, took longer and we got less. On the other hand, not only did I get my things faster from my new ethnic friends, they even gave me extra! And I gave them my supplies every time I met them. Finally, they told me, “My brother-in-law, you can stop giving us your supplies. We can’t eat them anymore. Just accept ours.” It was that generous.

After befriending them, they removed their mines on our normal route. It was much safer for my soldiers now. At night, they told me, “Don’t ring your alarm bell. It is noisy. We will tell you if we are ordered to attack you.”

And they sure did contact me if they get their orders. “Brother, we will shoot left. You shoot right,” they said. And after the battle, they report back to their seniors that they had attacked us and suffered no casualties. I also did the same, “They came and attacked us but we had no causalities.” We could show our work! How convenient is that?

Their belief was to protect their people and mine was to protect my subordinates and bring them back safely to their families. So I had to use everything in my power to do that.

We don’t hold any grudges against each other. Why be enemies when we could be friends.

The point is, that the skills of a leader affect his followers in many ways. Commanding officers on the ground must decide. The lives of his people and their families are in his hand. Not only for them, but they also must decide for their subordinates. It is time to do what is right.

And finally, we warmly welcome those true soldiers that will stand with the people and truth.

Htet Myat