Kornzurng His Last Will

Kornzurng His Last Will

On the 9th anniversary of the death of the late resistance leader, S.H.A.N attempts to explain what went wrong with Kornzurng's plans.

In 1985, Kornzurng, President of the Tai Revolutionary Council, defeated the Kuomintang, much scorned by the Shan people for their excesses, "without having to fight.

"In order to stem the advance of the People's Army of the Communist Party of Burma, which was enjoying full-scale support from Mao Zedung, Kornzurng had, against the express opposition of many, formed an alliance with the KMT in 1969. By this single act, he not only won a stable base along the Thai border, where the KMT was serving as a watchdog for Thailand, Taiwan and the CIA, but also received some material support for his Army. At the same time, he won eternal wrath from the very people whose support he sought. His vice-president, Sao Noi, the first resistance leader, left him. The Shan sangha, a powerful public opinion determinator, never really forgive him. Which hurt because he was a zealously devout Buddhist i.e. one who really believed that he was acting in accordance with the Great Teacher's instructions. He also had to wage an unwelcome war with Shan groups that bitterly opposed the KMT.

Outwardly, he was unperturbed by attacks on himself as a drug baron and Chinese lackey. However, Gunjade, his long time follower and military chief, told S.H.A.N he once saw his boss weeping like a child and saying, "History is going to misunderstand me.

"The tide turned in his favor when Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao, terminated material assistance to the CPB in 1980. In the meantime, Khun Sa had begun renewing his military campaign against the KMT along the border. It appeared that the KMT had exhausted its usefulness to its clients.

However, it was the KMT itself that brought about its own downfall. In 1984, communist troops escorting opium and "huangpi" heroin base arrived at a KMT camp, some 10 kilometers north of Pang Maisoong, the Shan headquarters. The Tai Revolutionary Army's attack and subsequent capture and display of drugs together with the prisoners to the international media totally exposed the KMT's involvement with their erstwhile enemy in the drug trade. A surprise raid by the Thai army in February 1985 resulting in the capture of the KMT's top drug operater, Chu Hung-yuan, finally sealed its fate.

The TRA, a hitherto ally of the KMT, to the surprise of several observers, was left untouched by the Thai operation. The event highlighted Kornzurng's highly skillful brinkmanship. As a result, his followers, apparently impressed by his handling of the KMT, did not argue with him much when he proposed that Khun Sa and his Shanland United Army (SUA) be accepted into the ranks.

This new merger was markedly different from the former one. Whereas the alliance with KMT had been just a marriage of convenience based on "anti-Communism," the merger with SUA was based on a political commitment to "Independence." Khun Sa became his Vice President, as well as military and finance chief.

To Khun Sa, it was a cosy arrangement. By virtue of his wealth as well as clout, he became second to Kornzurng only in name. This was in line with the famous Chinese saying: "Yu Ming Wu Shi, Yu Shi Wu Ming" (A name without reality, and reality without a name). For all practical purposes, Kornzurng, whom he called "Zao Pi" (Elder Brother), was only a figurehead and he was the one who ran the show.

Kornzurng, to all appearances, was also satisfied with the arrangement. He began devoting himself more to his favorite pastime- religion. To all those who complained to him about Khun Sa's extravagances and blamed him for joining hands with the "devil-in-disguise", he would simply respond with his patient and winning smile. 

To close aides, however, he merely said: "Those that have yet to achieve meditated clairvoyance, will not understand why I did it (accepted Khun Sa)."

To S.H.A.N., he said confidently that his time would come.

But it was not to be so.

Early in 1990, he went to see his doctor about his incessant coughs. He was diagnosed to be suffering from throat cancer and underwent surgery that resulted in loss of the ability to speak. He consequently had to deliver all his speeches in writing until his death on 11 July 1991.

On 5 July, six days earlier, he was entreated by Khun Sa to name him as successor. He replied by writing down laboriously: 'A collective leadership.

"However, Khun Sa, while praising his late rival: "No one can match my elder brother in patience, magnanimity and far-sightedness", chose not to heed this advice. Free at last from somebody looking over his shoulder, he only complied by setting up an executive council, whose primary responsibility was to take care it did not step on his toes.

Inevitably, his free-wheeling and highly personalized style, ended up in defections and mutinies that finally spelled his end less than five years later.

Could Kornzurng, were he alive, have done anything during the crisis brought about by Gunyawd's 4 June "D-Day" mutiny? This is one question S.H.A.N. hears quite often among old colleagues.

The best S.H.A.N. can do is speculate that he appeared to have been anticipating that eventuality. If he were still alive, he surely would not have failed to see through Khun Sa's plan to seek amnesty from Rangoon and, with a rallying call, could have prevented the shame that all the Shans shared when Khun Sa surrendered on 7 January 1996. He could also have been pivotal in the post-Khun Sa reconciliation process among the Shans as well as non-Shans as a whole.

At least, the Free Territory would now still be in the hands of the Shan resistance.

All in all, it would have been the opportunity that he had been waiting for to exercise his brinkmanship once more.Were it not for his fatal illness...

Of course, being human, S.H.A.N. might be wrong. It has been. Plenty of times.

N.B. Kornzurng's tomb is located near Fa Wiang Inn Temple, right on the border, in Piangluang village, Wianghaeng District, Chiangmai. It was renovated by the Kornzurng Memorial Society in 1997..