BURMANET-NOTES ON A TRIP TO RANGOON

[TMYINT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: BURMANET-NOTES ON A TRIP TO RANGOON -EXCERPT

Dear Dr. Christina Fink:
	Thank you very much for your compelling note. I admire your bravery to
put this note in the net. I pray for your next visa to Burma. 
	Tun Myint.

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Dear SLORC and Its Followers:
	The following piece of the article "Notes On A Trip To Rangoon" by 
Dr. Christina Fink in the Burmanet News # 192 deserves to be paid very deep 
attention from both SLORC followers and SLORC generals. After reading it, put
your hand on your forehead while you are on bed and ask yourself: "Am I doing 
the right things? Am I right to use guns and kill innocent people and oppress 
their opinions, their actions, their lives? Is is pleasure and good to hear 
news from Myanmar radio such as how many of our soldiers have sacrificed and how
many of enemies have died in battles? Aren't they all native-born Burmese 
citizens? ---By hearing news that states less numbers of our soldiers have died
; Does it mean we win? We killed innocent high school students and college 
students who just peacefully demonstrated their desire to promote the national
development of our country as other countries do: we refused to honor our 
promise - we made that we would transfer power to elected government in 1990:
we still continue oppressing and killing our own people in cities and remote 
area: Why are we doing that?" ---Please, Gentlemen SLORC followers and SLORC 
generals, think about it and ask yourself: What is wrong with our ideology?"
	I, as the original author Dr. Christina Fink who witnessed your country,
hope the following vision of your country will stimulate to enlighten your
contemplatable brain.

-------------------The Piece of Note Begins Here-------------------------------

>	Although statistics show that the Burmese economy is growing rapidly, 
>most peoples' standards of living are actually declining.  SLORC officials, 
>their relatives, and a select number of businessmen are living like kings, but
>everyone else is struggling to survive.  
>	The reasons for this are many.  Most of the foreign investment has been
>put into enterprises such as luxury hotels and gas pipelines which do not 
>directly benefit local people.  Wages have not kept pace with inflation, and 
>people in the city must work two or three jobs in order to make ends meet.  For
>instance, a government employee  might make 1200 kyat a month (roughly $12 US),
>but if he has a wife and two children, he would need almost 10 times this 
>amount to survive in Rangoon.  
>	People in the countryside are no better off.  Many people now cannot 
>afford even bananas, let alone any meat or fish to go with their rice.  They 
>are eating nothing but red chili sauce with plain rice.
>	What is really pushing people to the margins of survival is the 
>extensiveness of forced labor.  Virtually every railroad, irrigation canal, 
>reservoir, and road are constructed with forced labor.  When an infrastructure 
>project is being carried out in a particular area, adults from each household 
>must either go to work or pay a large sum instead.  Schools are closed for the 
>duration of the project, because teachers must go out and supervise the work 
>or even do the digging as well.  No food, money, or medicine is provided, and 
>for people who are living from  day to day, the loss of a day of labor means a
>significant cut in food supplies.  
>	Mothers must bring their small children with them to the project sites,
>and in some cases, these children have died of heatstroke because of the lack 
>of shade.  With teachers also forced to participate, there is no one to teach 
>the older children.   In fact, children are spending fewer and fewer years 
>in school.  Most drop out after the third standard, and only 25-30% of the 
>students complete the fifth standard.  
>	Parents see no value in education under the current system, because the
>only available jobs for the educated are in the government, but the pay is so 
>low that it is impossible to make a living.  Instead, parents are pulling their
>children out of school as soon as they are old enough to be able to work and 
>help the household. 

	        -----------------END-------------------

	Gentlemen, the vision and the reality of the country that you just read
is not what I hoped my country to be when I was in primary school; This is not
the country that I visualized in my Burmese essay "My Ambition" when I was
writing it in essay compition in a high school in Burma:This is not the country
that I wanted and my fellow students who peacefully demonstrated in 1988 for 
peace and national development wanted to see.

	Your country is something seriously wrong, Mr. SLORC Generals. Ask
yourself "WHY?"

	May you all healthy and happy. 

	Tun Myint.
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