'Shan general' stresses the need for a national strategy

'Shan general' stresses the need for a national strategy

Thai-Burma relations

Spurning long-standing allegations that Thailand was plotting to carve up Shan State Army away from Burma, Thailand's one-and-only and retired Shan general said on Sunday (21 September) that the only way Shans could achieve equal status and dignity like others in the future was through a national strategy. 

"Thailand is a small power," said Maehongson-born Gen Pon Wanakamon, 61, to 35 leading members of the Bangkok-based Tai Union winding up the two-day Unity Workshop in Lop Buri. "It is preposterous to think Thais will help their cousin Shans to break away from Burma when they have their own volatile 5-provinces (in the south where Ravi-speaking Muslims are predominant)." 

The general, who has been president of the Tai Union since February 2002, believed without a national strategy, the Shan struggle would nor last past the present generation. 

"However, Independence cannot be our main goal, because it is not realistic," he argued. "I recommend highly that Democracy, Liberty and Self-Rule be our goals instead." 

Considering the debate ongoing among Shan political organizations: 
Whether all Shan groups should dissolve themselves and merge to form a super-party or form a coalition without having to break up one's own group, he said, "The main thing to reach an agreement on an aim common to all groups. Each group can then work in its own way to achieve the aim." 

Some of the participants however voiced afterwards that while a united front or a coalition might be the most practical solution at present, all should work to become a single party eventually. 

Pon Wanakamon, who had been deputy commander of the Third Army under the famed Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, identified 5-areas where all groups concerned should work together to create strategic blueprints: Politics, Military, Economics, Socio-culture and Technology. 

He was also perceptive to suspicions likely to come about by his revelations. "I'm not aiming for any number one job in Shan politics," he promised. "But if you trust me enough, I'll be happy to serve as a consultant." 

Currently, his Tai Union is working to have a Shan foundation legally registered in Thailand.