The idea of writing this paper is to encourage the Karen people, both young and old, to open their minds and hearts to gain higher education. Parents and national leaders will also be encouraged to support their children and young people to see the moral values and power of education within the Karen community. The protagonist of education is to develop a lifestyle towards socio-political transformation.  

To educate is that not only adults pass on knowledge and skills, but also, they teach youth wisdom and virtue.  

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, once noted that “Nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.”

Mark Twain said, “Out of public schools grows the greatness of  nation.”

True education educates both mind and spirit. It teaches both technical disciplines and ethical disciplines. National education builds up the citizens' knowledge foundation and intellectual foundation. National education promotes national spirit, a sense of belonging, public service, civic values – the indispensable virtue for a nation to exist. Successful nations minister their national education, not letting their education systems be run by business organizations or humanitarian organizations.  

Critical thinking, the ability to reason and think logically, and make independent decisions, is the heart of education. Rote learning, dictating learners to memorize, does not represent true education. Likewise, argument by textbook is not critical thinking.  

Education can liberate a nation from the bondage of captivity, exile, individual laziness, sloppy character, weakness, and oppression. One who is educated with the right knowledge and mind cannot be easily cheated and tempted by dirty business. With critical thinking that promotes sound judgment, educated people should be able to think clearly and act effectively to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations. An educated person is respectful towards others regardless of power or status while assuming responsibility for the results of their actions. They are also resourceful in getting what they need for themselves, their family, their organization, and community. Thus, educating the people is a first step toward community transformation.  

Critical questions to be addressed are: how to educate the people in a community? How to develop the lives of the people in the community? What would be the qualifications of community leaders? These questions deal with the issue of education, which is most important in a human’s political realm. Education is always a great word to learn. In synonymous terms, it is considered as instruction, schooling, and learning. Education training implies discipline and development by means of study and learning. It is also the development of a mind’s abilities to learn to know. Therefore, education is good and significant; indeed, it is the main source of life that can educate both old and young individuals because education is for all ages.  Education is the essence of tranquility, prosperity, and flourishing life as it provides the living standard for the people in a community. Everyone wants to experience freedom along with internal and external security, and to live in peace, love and unity within a community.  

To obtain this sphere of harmony and desirable community the people deeply need to have a proper education. Why education? Because it can change life into an appropriate level as it enables the poor to get out of poverty. Education can lead people onto the right path of enjoying beautiful and meaningful life within society. Finally, education enables the layman to be educator and to become an educated socio-political leader. Therefore, the man must embrace and love education to become a wise person, educated layman, educated teacher, educated officer, educated politician, educated minister in bringing social transformation to a community.  

Socio-political transformation essentially requires the cooperation of religion, health, education, economy, politics, engineering, media, legislation, music, carpentry and sport etc. in the political realm. All of these categories require education because of their ability to teach, discipline, understand, communicate, authorize, implement, organize, and nourish people. When educated people can change and transform their lives at the same time, they rebuild the community.  Education facilitates peasants to improve their livelihood and living standard within society. In fact, the functions of personal and spiritual growth require education and the knowledge of God.   On the other side of transforming a community are individual values that transform a life within a community. As I already discussed, transforming a community totally depends on the lives of the people in the country. Transforming community is seen as emphasizing self-help, mutual support, the building up of neighborhood integration, the development of neighborhood capacities for problem-solving and self-representation, self- awareness, and the promotion of collective action to bring a community's preferences to the attention of political decision-makers. 

Education is the most important instrument for developing a country. Educated men and women are the key persons who can transform a community. Looking at a Peruvian educator, Gutierrez first strove to educate oppressed Peruvians before starting an actual liberation movement in Peru. He educates the oppressed people to bring about liberation from poverty. Here Gutierrez emphasizes on identity because Peruvians' culture, education, religion, economy and political values have been totally manipulated and washed away by the ruling of capitalism. An educated life is the essence of one's personal identity.   It is a vital necessity for human beings to liberate themselves from personal foolishness, selfishness, and laziness. The field of education can liberate people from being slavery minded and build foundational ground for developing a nation. Education enables people to attain meaningful personal identity within the community.  

True education promotes self-awareness, self-management, and self-respect. Among these three, for a nation, self-respect is the greatest of all.  

To reestablish political values inside the Kawthoolei, we must provide support for community education. Community education will encourage subsequent adult education and learning, generally outside the formal education sector, and aim to enhance learning, empower people and contribute to society. It will promote personalized learning and flexibility within the learning group. Participants will be involved as equal partners in identifying needs, designing and implementing programs, and making adaptations on an ongoing basis. The goals of the educated sector within the community will include not just individual development but also community advancement, especially in marginalized communities. Community Education Facilitators will work within the community and give support to local community groups. This includes giving technical and administrative help, supporting the development, maintenance, and coordination of community education groups and strengthening links between the formal and non-formal education sectors. They also assist and support the development of new community-based educational initiatives. 

In restoring community, educated politicians are also required. Education is the necessity for a politician to build a strong country. An educated leader thinks, understands, and makes his decision. He can make his views and ideas and express them independently. An educated leader tries to open his eyes and ears to look and hear the problems of his people. An educated leader knows the value of hard work. The main aim of a good, educated politician should be people development. If a politician is an educated person with an aim to uplift his country, he can do it more efficiently. Before an appointment for a ministry, there should be a credential of knowledge in the specified field of politics.  

  Aristotle states that “Education is the best provision for all ages.”  Politicians should be selected on the basis of education.  It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. In today's generation politicians are only there to earn money and struggle for power. They know how to cheat and dominate people. A good, educated politician can shape the mind of a country. Education makes a man broad-minded, enhances his personality and grooms him. Such is education, which makes a man thoughtful. There are some other qualities which make a good human being are honesty, diligence, Sincerity, freedom from corruption, selflessness, and most importantly strong leadership. We need educated leaders but not uneducated, corrupt leaders who become a stumbling block for restoring and transforming a community. So, it is better to have a good and honest, outstanding leader who can be a good model for the people. He must also be admired and selected by the people. To make the country corruption free, we need a politician who can represent the common man. This is only possible when our leaders are educated at least to a certain extent, as well as honest and thinking for the country's welfare.  

As I have discussed above, education is needed for persons such as politicians, ministers, pastors, teachers, soldiers, officers, and laymen. Education is never old, late, and useless for those who want to learn and study. I do indicate community in this paper very often in referring to the family, people, school, village, place, land, office and country of Kawthoolei. If we look 50-65s years back, education did not play a vital role in politics. Hence, today our country is still an undeveloped country and unable to solve the present-day ethnic problems. To solve such a socio-political crisis, we badly need educated people who can speak, and play political roles wisely both black and white on and under the table. 

If we look at other countries' growth and want to see Kawthoolei level up with those developing countries, firstly we need the power of education, the power of Karen unity, and the power of democracy to drive Kawthoolei. This can be possible only through politicians with educated minds and broader administration skills and forms. Of course, only educated individuals will become representatives for the people to lead them into a healthy community. Karen people need educated political leaders who will run the country effectively and wisely in order to attain development in the country. The Karen educational group needs to approach and provide enough education for the oppressed Karen people in both biblical knowledge and socio-political science to wisely respond to social and political changes. It is certain that the people will not be liberated or transformed from discrimination or from any other kind of oppression unless they have proper education. My main concern here is for my Karen people to have a right education and to know the value of education in order to be liberated from their scandalous poverty; new conditions must be created in which the regime groups will no longer be able to act as oppressors, and new relationships will be made possible in a community in which all can share.  

My people, if they are well educated and want to be trained well, will be able to express themselves freely and creatively in society as the Karen people as well as the children of God. Now is the right time for Karen people to stand and yell out in a loud voice for freedom and justice and to declare and reclaim our independent Karen State (Kawthoolei); now is the time to create a new and desirable community, which presents Karen identity as a nation. By achieving and fulfilling these objectives, I urge the people of Kawthoolei who are living in Burma/Myanmar, the Karen in Kawthoolei, the Karen in Thailand, and the Karen in the third countries. Let us combine our mind and heart and create mutual respect, mutual love, mutual understanding and mutual recognition as we work together hand in hand to make a new thing in the Land of Kawthoolei. Let us restore national SPHERES, which are Spiritual, Political, Historical, Education, Religion, Economics, and Social. These are the essential elements and pillars needed for the building of our nation. The NGOs have been constantly supporting Karen people.  

However, I would appeal to you to kindly look into the safety and justice of the Karen people as well as provide adequate education for them. We long to dwell in our land and to be there, cultivate, build a house and raise our children. We are all free, we are no more slaves as the Bible says, we want our homeland, and we desire to be ruled by our own leaders KNU government and KNLA. Therefore, I would like to call for the attention of the UN – United Nation, and internal communities as well as the NGO groups to see the struggles of the Karen people. We need your support; we need you to speak on behalf of the Karen people and we need you to advocate to the world the truth, circumstances or political conditions of Myanmar. We pray and hope God will speak to your hearts and open doors for us to be in our homeland, build new churches, new buildings and new homes once again. Now I would like to invite everyone to decide and begin working for the nations’ interest, for the stability of the union and the good of all the people. When working for the national interest, we Karen must not demonstrate loyalty to a particular people or short-term objective but rather to our loyalty for the nation. Let us continue with our life journey in genuine sympathy and a clear mind in order that we may rebuild, renew and restore the political realm of our community in the Karen State - Kawthoolei. 

Saw Alwyn