RE: a pitfall in UTN11 Myanmar Encoding Standards.

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Wed Sep 26 2007 - 09:01:41 CDT

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    Isn’t it time to refer back to the Burmese script, instead of the infamous
    (and definitively broken!) “Myanmar” script? Given the very damaging policy
    applied in Burma by the current Myanmar military government to the culture
    of the country, the production by the Myanmar Language Commission seems to
    be now very suspect and destructive.

     

    The concept of “Myanmar” was a disguised attempt to reflect several cultures
    (including minorities like Karens) in the name of the country (by reusing
    the name of a small extinct civilization that has lived the region in the
    History), but all seems to demonstrate that the Myanmar government has made
    exactly the opposite: a massive destruction of minority cultures, and even
    of the majority Burmese one (against the religious majority, perceived there
    as a political threat to the current military power), to create a new
    artificial “Myanmarese culture” based on arbitrary military decisions and to
    be used by a “purified” Burmese ethnic society!

     

    Aren’t there any other reliable sources than official Myanmarese
    governmental sources about the Burmese culture in other countries (notably
    in Thailand where many Burmeses and Karens have fled the massacres and where
    they are installed now since several decennials, much enough time to create
    cultural Burmese centres there)? Isn’t there now some official support for
    the traditional Burmese culture by the Thai government and cultural
    institutions, or other international cultural organizations like UNESCO,
    SIL, and so on…?

     

    Of course, the Myanmar government has some legal right to vote about how its
    legal “Myanmar” script works (even if it is really appearing as being
    inconsistent, and then destructive), but other countries also have the right
    to vote in favour of another system that better respects and protect the
    living Burmese culture still supported by millions of Burmese migrants.

     

    Well, I know that this message is not politically neutral (and that
    political points of view may not be well received by official representants
    of Myanamr at ISO), but who decided that the Myanmar government had the
    definitive competence for working in the script, and forced other countries
    to adopt its point of view?

     

      _____

    De : unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] De la
    part de Wunna Ko Ko
    Envoyé : mercredi 26 septembre 2007 07:08
    À : Keith Stribley
    Cc : Ngwe Tun; Martin Hosken; mhosken@gmail.com; michael.everson@gmail.com;
    unicode@unicode.org; mcf; Zaw Htut; tun; sun toon; burmeselady@gmail.com;
    victorlin21@gmail.com; Victor San Kho Lin
    Objet : Re: a pitfall in UTN11 Myanmar Encoding Standards.

     

    Hi Ko Ngwe Tun,

    Could you please show us that usage in latest Myanmar writing system, the
    writing system allowed by Myanmar Language Commission meeting in 1978?

    If there is no, better not to make it complex.

    Regards,

     



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