Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

I have no intention of questioning your ethics. But for one to be able to lead a moral life the standard of ethics must be set in accordance with 'Visuddhamagga' (the Buddhist Path to Purification) at the top and living strictly in accordance with the 'five precepts' at the basic or layman level.

I could understand when I was told about the saying, 'amya-nyi e-ko kywei-phat' (if the majority has the say then white should be read as 'black' but living under a dictatorial regime, I know the meaning quite well.

I know what you mean by not going with the flow and drinking 'bitter rain' as most would but it's a life that most would scorn on. For me, I always reminded myself of my mother's words, "let a thousand men scorn on you, they can all be redeemed by the praise of one good man".

We have deveiated or side-tracked from our original discussion of 'the qualities we wish for in a leader'. According to Abhidhamma, 'cetana' is the most crucial factor in a person doing what is good or bad. For example, look at Daw Suu's prime intention or cetana for the country. She wanted to set up chain of libraries throughout the country. Everyone know that 'education' is the silver bullet in fighting poverty.

She could have lived a luxurious life in the West with her family unlike being in detention for years with no release in sight. Gaining power as a way to accumulate wealth is out of the question for her.

Unlike her, Than Shwe and his company has destroyed the country for the sake of accumulating wealth by illicit means. I cannot imagine how well they sleep with that kind of guilt or they may have become immune to guilt.

They have destroyed the country in many aspects. Without a good education how can we ever hope to rebuild when we are going to have generations of people with little or no skills. The skills they have are not the one we will need for nation building. Even in a wealthy country disinvestment in education proved fatal a few years down the track.

Like Sayar U Kyaw Htut said, " In Abhidhamma, a person cannot be good or evil all the time. It will depend on the person's 'cetana'. They used to say that a person cannot be regarded as 'human' just by being borned out of human beings. Unless that person have a clear understanding of what is good (kusala) and what is bad (akusala) that person may never be regarded as a 'human'.

What can we say about those 'who ordered to shoot the monks (which is in Buddhism one of the three gems - it was never mentioned that the gem has to be a real one or a monk has to be bogus) or those who shoot just because they were just 'following orders'?