Feathers Fly Over Use of Fighting Peacock Image

By Ko Htwe (May 7 2010)

Feathers are flying in Burma over the use of the fighting peacock emblem by two newly registered political parties in their election campaigns.

The emblem—famously associated with the now disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD)—has served as a national symbol since the days of the Burmese monarchy and was a rallying image brandished by student activists in colonial times.

“It's not appropriate to use the student movement's flag as the symbol of a political party,” said prominent journalist Ludu Sein Win, one of a group of about 40 people in the Burmese media world who signed a letter of complaint to the Election Commission.

“The fighting peacock symbol is not the property of a certain organization and it is associated with all Burmese nationals,” said Ludu Sein Win.

The Election Commission has ruled that it will accept objections against the use of flags or symbols by registered political parties.

The fighting peacock symbol is being used by two newly registered parties, the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP) and the 88 Generation Student Union of Myanmar (GSUM), led by two brothers who are former political prisoners. The two are the subjects of unsubstantiated suspicions that they are collaborating with the regime.

Objectors point out that the fighting peacock symbol adopted by the two new parties is similar to the one used by the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), which played a key role in Burma's independence movement against British colonial rule.

Since the 1962 military coup, the ABFSU has been viewed by successive regimes as an illegal organization. Its building on the Rangoon University campus was destroyed in a bomb attack in the year of the coup.

The ABFSU objected to the use of the peacock symbol when it was first adopted by the the now-defunct NLD and used in its party flag, but later dropped its objection.

“The ABFSU flag is being used only in the movement led by students, handed down from one generation to another,” said Myo Myint Nyein, of the Rangoon-based weekly journal The Ray of Light. “I don't agree with using it as the image of a party.”

GSUM chairman Ye Tun said his party and the UMFNP were only trying to trying to preserve the image of the fighting peacock.

The group of objectors agreed in their letter to the Election Commission that the symbol was “crucial for the history of the nation” but said “it should not be the property of any political party.”

Among the signatories of the letter of complaint was Maung Wun Tha, a veteran writer and editor who was a member of the ABFSU before 1962.

Reference:

Htwe, Ko. Feathers Fly Over Use of Fighting Peacock Image . The Irrawaddy. May 7 2010. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18419