As administrator of Asia Observer I feel it is time to express a warning about the tone of much of the discussion in the Burma forum at the moment. I find that too many of the postings - not mentioning any names - are dominated by personal accusations and hatred.

This is a warning that I will exercise the right of administrator more strictly. That means that improper postings normally will be deleted.

Most important: Please do not use this forum for personal accusations against other members. We like free discussions on the many important challenges facing Burma, but please do it in a decent tone showing respect for each other. Do not use the forum for hatred and personal attacks.

Looking forward to a better discussion!

John

Dear Sandvand

Thanks for the message. My believe is that “ IF YOU ARE GOOD TO ME, I WILL NOT BE BAD TO YOU”,

YES, I DO post some messages which are personal attacks, but as I said, if somebody attacks/accuse me without fact, I will do the same.

As the OWNER of this site, you have the right to do anything, anything at all. You know what is RIGHT after all.

If you think my posting is inappropriate, not only you remove my message, but also remove me from this forum.

After all, most of us participated simply, just want to see our country prosper, but if you really thinks deeply, whatever you write, whatever you discuss, THE RULER do not care a dam about it.
I know that my postings or my personal attack will not do any help to our country, will not change my country. In fact, I can be jailed and branded as an opposition for writing against the ruler. I am sure you will know what has happened to a blogger in our country.

Like any other discussion forum, this forum is also been used for propaganda purpose. I know that they even has a discussion forum just to monitor and check who and where they.

Even before your message, I even asked myself, why did I do it? Why did I write, knowingly that my postings will not even make a ripple to my country. WHY? You may write and shout at the top of voice till you died, nobody will care a dam about you or even notice that you are gone. Up to now I do not have the answer. If I said patriotism, somebody will laugh. Can I say for my love and for the sake of my country?

Any way, thanks for everything and don’t be surprise if you don’t see. Will you ever notice or care about that? I don’t think so. Ha. Ha Ha. See my point?

Truthseeker

Dear John,

It is good you made a stand but I think you should make it clearer what is consider- to be a discussion and what is consider a personal attack. Of course when ever you discuss, there will be some sort of personal attack in the discussion.

It has been sometime, I see members are posting messages attacking each other but lately, it is getting worse.

For example, if I say, “ only an stupid and idiot like you----“, “a man with no brain like you will say stupid thing” “man with no brain, ““you have no moral or no principle”. “There is no people that can be compare with your idiocy and stupidity” etc. Will it be consider as personal attack? They are not part of the discussion. Even I was personally attacked for using “luv” intead of “LOVE” but I don't care.

You did not mention anything about the usage of foul language which was posted recently. May be it is not consider as a foul language, because they put a space between the letter, are they not? Can you use it if you put a space bar between the words such as f--k, s-—t, sh-t? etc. You should define that too.
Anyhow the decision is yours and yours alone and after all I am just another member of (your) this forum.

Though I posted only a few messages, I am fully aware of the responses you received from the members after you removed some messages back in early 2007.
For me, it is either take it or leave it.
I_luv_Myanmar

Dear John,

It is good you made a stand but I think you should make it clearer what is consider- to be a discussion and what is consider a personal attack. Of course when ever you discuss, there will be some sort of personal attack in the discussion.

It has been sometime, I see members are posting messages attacking each other but lately, it is getting worse.

For example, if I say, “ only an stupid and idiot like you----“, “a man with no brain like you will say stupid thing” “man with no brain, ““you have no moral or no principle”. “There is no people that can be compare with your idiocy and stupidity” etc. Will it be consider as personal attack? They are not part of the discussion. Even I was personally attacked for using “luv” instead of “LOVE” but I don't care.

You did not mention anything about the usage of foul language which was posted recently. May be it is not consider as a foul language, because they put a space between the letter, are they not? Can you use it if you put a space bar between the words such as f--k, s-—t, sh-t? etc. You should define that too.
Anyhow the decision is yours and yours alone and after all I am just another member of (your) this forum.

Though I posted only a few messages, I am fully aware of the responses you received from the members after you removed some messages back in early 2007.
For me, it is either take it or leave it.
I_luv_Myanmar

We really want a lively discussion here at Asia Observer. It is certainly OK to disagree and express it strongly in this forum. That's the only way we may eventually reach the truth, and if not, at least a common understanding of each other's position.

But it is a big difference between attacking the opinions of other members and attacking their personalities.

Thus I think I_luv_Myanmar gives some good examples of expressions to avoid:
- Characterizing other members as idiots
- Saying others have no brain
- etc.

These type of personal attacks set the wrong tone in the forum.

If you really think you have to use such expressions you should ask yourself whether it is because you actually lack good arguments. Because good arguments and facts work much better to convince other people that personal attacks. Speaking for myself I tend to ignore the opinions of people who use those type of expressions.

For me it is important that we show respect for each other. That will lead to a much better discussion - which will benefit all of us.

Frankly speaking: The situation in Burma deserves a much better discussion that we have seen here recently.

John

Dear John,
Thanks for your quick response. You did not answer to my question and I-luv-Myanmar second question.

On the second question, he asked you whether it is permissible to use foul language if you type the space between the letters. You never answer to that question, may be his English is not good enough for you to understand.

Let me be frank and ask you with the sample posted in this forum recently.
Thunderbolt has posted the following message of course with the space in between and everybody knows that he is referring to me if you go through his mail. Please let me have your answer on the message so that I know where I stand.

“”If that itself is the truth, nobody have a chance to f - - K this world, and everybody in the world, the world to be like this f - - - ing world , the world and the people of the world are being f - - - ed, by the f - - kers . Where is that f - - king GOD or DOG? What the F - - k is he doing?”””
If you think the above message is correct and appropriate, kindly delete all my messages and take my name off as your member.

Thanks and hope to have your response.

TRUTHSEEKER IS ALWYS SEEKING THE TRUTH AND BELIEVE IN THE TRUTH.

Truthseeker,

From experience I don't want to get into a discussions about individual postings in the past, just say how I will try to practice in the future.

But of course vulgar language rarely adds value to any meaningful discussion. That also applies to Asia Observer.

Let us all keep a decent tone here!

Cheers,

John

Dear John,

As my name has been mentioned by others, here. I feel I am obligated to appologise to YOU and some other menbers for my usage of some words which are seen by some, as vulgar language.

You mentioned of personnel attacks, I understand thoroughly, what you mean. Normally I stayed away from those kind of things and words against mem,bers.

These words I am using sometimes are the daily usage of everyday life in this world . I am only pointing it out, but it is not my excuse. To be honest, sometimes I am carried away.It is due to my experience in this forum.
I think it is worth mentioning here regarding, " My Experiences ". If you go back to old AO, and give a very good look, you will see and understand my reactions. Accept it or not is another matter. Younwillknowm who started it. I am not going to rub it in here either. Some people know what I am talking about , especially concernd people.

In my view, and in my opinion, it was more then vulgar language that I am accuse of using. I am not here to cry like a baby. I take responsible for my part. With due respect to you John at the time of tracnaition from Old AO to New AO in 2007. I felt that I have been robbed, I felt that I have been raped , if I may use the words, because, there were some robbers and rapists in AO. If you know what I mean. If you realised why, my pen name has to be changed to Thunderbolt from similar Myanmar name. And why it has to be changes to Thunderbolts,with " S " or shows as Thunderbolt2. It is the past , I am not going into details now, I leave it in the past.

Isaac Neweton was right, he said , " every action has its equal and opposite reaction.". When Budha said, " there is a cause for every effect."

I realised that it is best some of these so called discussions are to be ignored. Just to concentrate on what one wants to say, wants to do for Myanmar and its people, ideas, views opinions etc. It should confine to , issues, affairs and matters of Myanmar and its people. I know and I agree.

John , I have had some discussion with you. You may remember that one of them is that I suggested to charge at least Euros 15, amonth to cover your costs of providing us this AO. Don't get me wrong John, I don't mean to pay to swear. It was for many reasons that you may have thought of why you should charge accordingly.

Anyway, I am not going to tell you what to do or how to do your job.

I am going to do my best to make you happy, for you to be worthy of providing us this wondeful forum. After all, this is a great opportunity for me to speak about my country , to speak for my people, to speak for my country. To let everyone see what's on the other side of the coin.

There will be con and pro, as long as we live John, till the end of the world.

Thanks for you intervention, John, and its timely as well. Because I was about to puiblish my replies, which I now have a second thought, they can wait I have to change a few wordings.

Thanks again John, with respects,

Thunderbolts.

Dear John,

We all thank you for starting this forum. As far as I am concerned (I do not know about others), this is the only forum on Burma/Myanmar where some people are engaging in serious discussions (and many die-hard, so called activists may not like it, it is their right so we respect their opinions).

I have said it many years ago that all people from Myanmar, and all those people who are the true sincere friends of Myanmar (I do not include in this category all those who have ulterior motives and only cry crocodile tears, they have their own agendas and they know who they are)that we should be able to discuss important things on the internet because this is the only opportunity for free speech at this time. Even when we have a parliament one day, I don't know when (according to the SPDC it will happen in 2010, according to the opposition they don't even wish to hear about these forthcoming elections, we still need to discuss matters of importance in a polite and civil manner so that laws that would be beneficial to all will be legislated.

A parliament by its very name is a place were the true representatives of the people come to discuss matters of state, for the ultimate good of their country (leaving aside petty differences and party loyalties).

After all the main aim of setting up a political party is to be able to mobilize the people for the development of the country in all spheres of human endeavor - social, education, health, welfare, politics, ethical behavior, freedom of religion etc.

First of all we need to put our house in order.

I think it starts with developing a spirit of "live and let live", having self-respect, self-confidence, self-restraint and respect for others as human beings and fellow citizens who eat the same rice, breathe the same air and drink the same water.

I think all Myanmar should learn to be more objective about what they hear from their friends and enemies and keep their eyes and ears open so as to see "things as they really are" and not "see things as they wish to see them".

That is the true test of being objective and being subjective.

Myanmar has a long way to go. The older generation will soon die off and the country will be left in the hands of the younger generation.

Don't even talk about catching up with the developed countries. We still need to work very hard, in unity and harmony even to catch up or be on par with countries in South-east Asia.

At this crucial time in history, it is time for all Myanmar to unite, I don't care what they call their country - we all know who we are and where we came from. We all know our bad habits and good habits. So the main thing for us as individuals to try as hard as possible to reduce our bad habits and increase our good habits.

We should observe and learn from all countries and all peoples and have the knowledge and wisdom to know what is good and what is bad.

So the bottom line is this.

Even if we have to disagree, let us disagree like gentle people. If we can agree on certain things, let us find more things on which we can agree on.

That is the only way for Myanmar to prosper and develop.

People of our generation will soon die off so while we are still in good health to write things on this forum, we will continue to do so.

If any member chooses to attack me on this forum, I am prepared to show forgiveness.

Compassion and forgiveness has to be practiced and not only talked about.

It is only through daily practice that we can hope to develop our character or spirituality.

Km

As a Burma forum user, I would like to jump into this topic and debate about pros and cons of personal attacks or indecent usage or indecent proposal or indecent posts. I know in majority of websites there are more restrictions applied but this particular website is extremely unique. Why unique out of millions of website? Because the founder had a unique personality and insight and freely conduct a very flexible and understanding mode. Using foul language or sarcastically rubbing or indirectly downgrading other members is as guilty as blatant actions. In the court of law, those who involved indirectly is as guilty as the culprit itself and be judge as “guilty”.

“Thunderbolts” may use indirectly sometimes don’t even use the name but his intentions are as loud as an atomic bomb. Religiously (Christianity) speaking and in the court of justice/law, it is the “intent” that makes a person guilty just as its actions are. For example, when there is a car accident and a human is dead because of the accident, the court finds out whether it is the driver’s fault or the pass by person’s fault in his death. Did the death occurs because of the driver’s “intent” or just an “accident” by the dead person‘s mistake. If it is driver’s intent, he/she will be charge of murder and if it is just an accident done by the dead person’s mistake it is man slaughter. My point is the INTENT of a person’s action or the one who ignites the cause, directly or indirectly. It is the INTENT that will be decided in the court of judgment/justice.

That’s why conspiracies are spawn where the true culprits are the ones that hide behind the curtain.
Now don’t take me as siding with “truth seeker” for in my insight I go deep to the root cause. My question is what makes “truth seeker” so mad? What are the reasons and causes of his anger? In true justice, the intelligent judges never look the surface. They dig deep (under the surface) and find the truth nothing but the “whole” truth in deciding decisions or making sentences to the guilty. The ROOT CAUSE is the key!

In short “thunderbolts” sometimes use indirect insults (rubbing, his own words) while "truth seeker" use direct (boldly and bluntly) insults and create exchanges of anger with BOTH as guilty as ever. If one decides to take action on one side, it is fair to take action on the other. In other words if take action take action on both. Please don’t be unfair/unwise by taking action on one side only and ignore the other which in my view both are guilty in their perspective (different) ways. If not…………………let it (both) go free and clear. I am not here to judge but this is my stand and this is my insight and I let out of my chest as my expressions of justice from my point of view. Of course the final decision lies with the Administrator or the Owner of this site.