Primacy of Universal Norms over Particular Norms: Critical Consideration on National Security in Myanmar

Abstract

*Yin Myo Thu

International politics is changing by giving priority from sovereign state with national boundary to the global village without national boundaries. It is clearly seen that the international legal personality of the States seemed to minimize whereas the roles and norms of non-state actors become maximize in many aspects. The particular norms namely “sovereignty”, “state rights”, “national security” and “self-determination” which are important for a sovereign state, are now set at the back of the universal norms such as “humanitarian intervention”, “human dignity”, “human rights”, “collective security” and “preventive diplomacy”.  Similarly, the precedence of taking legal actions on the states’ leaders against universal norms and conventions is at the alarming rate and many leaders who prioritized their national security started to quit from universal agreement. Myanmar, as a member of the family of nations, observes strictly universal norms as crucial for human beings. It is dilemma for Myanmar, especially in the case of  Rakhine State when Myanmar government and its people prioritize state rights and citizen rights within the realm of national security and sovereignty. Humanitarian interventions as universal norms are negatively harmful impact on citizen rights or particular norms of Myanmar. The primacy of universal right over particular rights is difficult to prevent as the impact of globalization forced on all countries. When insistence on universal norms over particular norms is serious for Myanmar in every corner of its international relations, it is just like a creation of unsafe environment for Myanmar community at their back door. When Myanmar held its first democratically election in 2010 in line with universally accepted democratic norms, she was applauded by international community. It was not long for Myanmar when communal clashes broke out in the Rakhine State in 2012. Also right of self-determination and autonomy claimed by some ethnic nationalities, serious articulation on formulation on federal army by some ethnic armed groups (EAOs) are now a serious threat to national security and national interests. Although Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong shad-lights the importance particular norms, peace, unity, equity and equality to reach to sustained peace agreement, some EAOs strongly opposed the integrity of state and importance of national security, the vital interests of a state, which is more concerned with wider scope of particular rights. The research question is to answer why Myanmar is important to consider its national security in the course of initiation of universal norms by international organizations in critical domestic national security concerns.

Key words: universal norms, particular rights, national security, self-determination, human rights.

 

*Dr., Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Yangon.


A Study of the Use of Parallelism in the Novel A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens

Abstract

∗ Su Khine Oo, Dr

Parallelism is a literary style of writing which is used to convey related thoughts in a line or in successive lines. Parallelism is commonly found in the bible and proverbial prose. This research shows that parallel structures can also be seen in literary works such as poems, proses, novels and short stories. The use of a wide range of parallelism can be found in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This paper highlights the use of parallelism in the novel with focus on how parallelism highlighted the elements of novel such as plot, setting, character, point of view, theme, symbol and allegory, and style and tone. Ten types of parallelism – synonymic parallelism, antithetic parallelism, synthetic parallelism, clarification parallelism, progression parallelism, intensification parallelism, repetition parallelism, semantic parallelism, Janus parallelism and parallelism of numbers proposed by different scholars – were used to prove that parallelism is used not only in the poetic writing but also in the novel. According to the results of the research, the most frequent types of parallelism in the novel were clarification parallelism and semantic parallelism and they were mostly used to highlight plot and character.

 

Assistant Lecturer, Department of English, Yangon University of Foreign Languages


The Common Types of Errors Occurred in the Myanmar Print Media

Abstract

∗ Moe Yin Nyeinn

∗∗ Sandar Htay

This research studies the common deviant form found in Myanmar Daily & Weekly newspapers, and Journals. The aims of this research are to find out these forms found in Myanmar print media and to find out the way to avoid them. The data are collected from news and advertisements  from nine Myanmar Daily & Weekly newspapers, and journals (ကြေးမုံ၊ မြန်မာ့အလင်း၊ သံတော်ဆင့်၊ သူရိယနေဝန်း၊ စံတော်ချိန်၊ Weekly Eleven, 7 Day Daily, Auto World, News Watch from 2013 to 2015 June). Both qualitative method and quantitative method are used to analyse the data. It is found that most of the deviant forms and errors occur due to the author’s grammatical unawareness and carelessness. This research paper will be helpful in teriary level Myanmar language teaching and learning process.

 

* Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Yangon University of Foreign Languages

** Assistant Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Yangon University of Foreign Languages