MAN MADE POVERTY AND MISERY.

[saw-aung@xxxxxxxx]

Dear friends and Burma watchers,
We all know that my countrymen, the people of Burma are very poor
compared to people 
from neighboring countries. For their poverty and misery the people of
Burma used to 
find solace in these words "Ku tho kan ma kaung loh hsin yei dai." It
means their poverty and misery are due to bad luck or misfortune or  in
other words poor merits. They hardly blame any body for those poverty and
miseries. But when you look carefully into the cause of the poverty, it
is not what they beleive of bad luck or poor merit, it is man made
poverty and mesery created by Burma Military Regime. Let me discuss some
of the facts that I beleive Burma Military Regime is the Culprit .
1/ Not long after General Ne Win took over the country, banks and
businesses were nationalized. Foreign exchange reserve were no longer
printed in the daily news paper. Even though the general public were not
affected, rich people were affected. 
2/ After that again all businesses, including stores and shops were
nationalized.
This time it affected all business people. At that time as a government
official I took 
part in the nationalizing process. I still recall seeing the grim and
sulken faces of the store owners whose stores had been robbed of all
merchandises.
3/ Then came the declaration by the Military Regime that large bills of
50 kyats and 100 kyats notes were no longer legal tender. People who own
such large bills could
exchange with small ones up to 10,000 kyats at the exchange centers where
I had 
been involved in the process as well. If you have more than ten thousand
kyats of such bills the rest became worthless. As I did not have that
much saving at that time the declaration did not affect me at all. But it
did affect people who had money but did not put them in the bank for some
reasons. To save computation and bulky notes people who have money used
to keep large bills. I still remember clearly a director of 
postal services at the General Post Office Head Quarter in Rangoon had
commited
suicide due to his loss of long time hard earned money. I beleive many
wage earners 
who were close to retirement and who had long saved their hard earned
money were 
affected by this declaration. Merchants and traders who did not put their
monies   were most affected.
4/ After making rich and well to do middle class people poor, the Regime
took over Burma's economy and all Government Departments. Military
personnels were entrusted to head all Government Departments as well as
Commercial Departments. 
Corporal and sergents became junior government officers and warrant
officers became gazetted officers. Commissioned officers such Captain
became deputy Director and Lt. Colonel became Director of the Department
which he head. Civil servants who are well experienced and with long
services were pushed aside and they seldom had a say in decision making.
High ranking military officers such as
Colonels were sent abroad as embassadors and the embassy were staffed
with  mostly Military Intelligent Services personnels.
5/ As the Military Regime tried to lead the country to Burmese way to
Socialism and isolated itself  from the World, essential commodities and
materials were no longer imported. Commodities and essential meterials
which the Regime had robbed from
the merchants and traders dwindled and eventually dried out. Then the
people had to cross the boder and brought in commodities from neighboring
countries. From then on cross boder smuggling flourished. Before the
Military Regime lenin and textile made in Burma from Monywa and Mandaly
used to cross the boder into Thailand but few years after the military
took over the country it turn out to be the other way around.
Before 1 kyat of Burmese currency equal 4 bhats of Thai currency, but now
1 bhat equal 10.55 kyats of Burmese currency. ( US $1= 36Bhats and US$1=
380kyats).
As inflation kept spiralling, Government employees with fixed salaries
suffered tremendousely. For example in l964 the cost of food such as
chicken, beef, pork and duck  is about 3 kyats per viss ( 3.5lbs.), but
it cost about 20 kyats per viss in l977. now those food  cost 400 kyats
to 5oo kyats per viss. How can you servive with that kind of inflation
while the salary range only from l,000 kyats to 2,500 kyats. To servive
you have to have other source of additional income. So some teachers
teach privately for additional income and doctors open private  clinic
for extra money. For 
those who do not have that kind of opportunity and skills, they  resort
to bribery. Even telephone services, you can hardly get prompt action
with out small kick back. One of my friends who came out recently from
Burma told me that it is cheaper to pay monthly if you have friends and
relatives abroad to communicate with. So how can you blame government
employees for seeking extra income for their servival!
6/ Farmers also suffer a great deal. They were ordered to fill in their
quotas for sale of 
their farm products at low fixed rate, failure to comply with, will land
them in jail up to l year. Farmers can barely servive because they do not
have the chance to sell 
their suplus farm products at bargain prices. Some unfortunate farmers
whose  land does not yield enough crops had to sell their properties to
buy rice from others just to fill in their quotas of sale. 
7/ The Burma Military Regime not only made the people of Burma from all
walks of life 
poor they further created sufferings and agonies for the whole
population. The people
have been enslaved systematically as porters, unpaid construction workers
in all kinds of infrastructure works, building of railway lines, roads
and gas pipe lines. You can hardly find any Government project being
carried out with out forced labored. In the country side the soldiers
used execution and even masacre so that the people will not dare to
disobey them. Forced laborers include women, elderly  people and even
children of under aged. Among them women suffer most. They were subjected
to rape and some were even killed after rape. The situation has become so
unbearable that hundred thousands of the people flee their home land and
took refuge in neighboring lands. Those could not flee were faced with
forced relocation close to the military camps to serve the soldiers in
various ways. When they ran out
of food they have to obtain pass from the camp commander to go back to
their old village to get food. Some times they encounter soldiers who
accused them of helping
resistant groups and they were tortured and even executed. 
In very remote areas with difficult terrain, the local Army commander did
not even care 
to relocate the people any more. Instead, they bombarded the village
first and then entered the village. They shot on sight any villagers who
were found in the village. During their occupation soldiers shot live
stocks of the villagers and feasted on them.
Before the soldiers left, they torched all the buildings, including the
rice barns. After the soldiers left the villagers came back to see what 
they could salvage from the ruings. When I watched the tape showing the
villagers trying to salvage some of the rice at the bottom from the
burning rice heap my heart sank with much grief. In this way many small
villages and hamlets in Papun district in Karen State had been destroyed.
No body know how many villagers died of gun shots wound and motar
shells and how many died of starvation while fleeing and hiding in the
jungles. 
8/  The Burma Military Regime not only terrorized the people inside
Burma, they also 
used the same tactic to intimidate and destroy people out side  Burma.
Burma Army
Bombarded refugees camps in Thai land last March ,entered the camps and
sprayed
their Automatic weapons indiscreminately  killing some of the refugees
and wounding scores of them. As the refugees camps are accessible to the
world media, the news  of the terrorist acts of the Burma Army spread
through out the world and the whole world community condemned the Burma
military Regime for Its terrorist acts .
On the other hand the same kind of terror which the villagers from Papun
district have gone through were not well known by the world community
because those places are not easily accessible by the world media. Only
few  people who had been sent out by 
Karen human right group could go to document  atrocities at the risk of
their lives. 
9/  The SPDC not only create  sufferings and agonies through out  the
minorities  areas, they also suppress the opposition party members in
various ways. They 
inprisoned thousands of opposition members and parliamentary
representatives 
with made up crimes and arrested hundreds more recently. .Scores of them
died in captivity for ill treatment and torture. The world wil never
forget
the masecre of the peaceful demonstration of the people of Burma from all
walks of life in August, l988. 
10  Recent press release of report  by  ILO Commission of Equiry reveal 
human right abuse and wide spread and systematic used of forced labor
through out the country.
There is no better proof and concrete evidence than the press release of
th ILO report regarding human right abuse committed by the Burma Military
Regime. 
The Commission was appointed by governing body  in march l997 under 
Article 26 of
ILO constitution and composed of Right Honorable Sir William Douglas,
former cheif 
justice of Babados, Chair person of commission Mr. Prafulla Chandra
Natvatal Bhagwate, former Justice of India and Miss Robyn A. Lagton QC
(Australis),Barister  at Law.
11Thirty years ago, Burma was haven for people from neighboring countries
who entered Burma illegally and sought greener pasture. To day under the
Burma Military 
Regime life has become miserable and so unbearable that  people flee
their home
land and take refuge in neighboring countries. There are about 30,000
Rohinjas  muslin from Arakan State in Bangaladesh  refugee camps,  about
40,000 minority Chin nationals in Mizoran State in India and unspecified
number of Burmese students  in India. Beyound  the eastern side of the
boder there are about  200,000 
minority  refugees  from Mon, Karen, Karenni and Shan States and
unspecified number of illegal migrant workers in Thai land, Malasia and
Singapore. Those are 
undeniable facts that SPDC create man made poverty and misery through out
their entire
rule over the people of Burma.
12/  Dear friends, let me further discuss my point of view  why the value
of kyats plummet so deep. After declaration of  50 kyats  and l00 kyats
bill were no longer legal tender, the Burma Military Regime started
printing its own currency. I beleive
they  kept printing paper money so that they could buy more and more farm
products
from the farmers and then sold them abroad to earn hard currency. The
Regime even
had to please General Ne Win by printing 45 kyats note and 90 kyats
notes. General
Ne Win  used to consult Astrologer in governing the country and decision
making in other State affairs. When he learnt from the astrologer that
number 9 was the lucky one  45 (9 multiplied by 5) kyats and 90 ( 9
multiplied by l0) kyats note bills were introduced. I remember when I was
a boy during the Japanese Military occupation of Burma, there was rumour
that the Japanese Military officers carried money  printing machine with
them so that they could pay the worker on the spot. I  do not know how
much the rumour was true, but what I knew  at that time was just before
the reoccupation of the allied troops, the Japanese dollars had become so
bloated that 
its value became worth less. Some people even decorated the coffin  at
the funeral of their loved one with the Japanese dollor. I am not 
econmist  and  neither  am I a business man.
As ordinary  person I can think of only simple thing that my brain can
comprehand. I understand that printing money is based on  visible or
known assets. When I look at the assets which Burma Military Regime has
at present, there  are  450,000 soldiers and armaments ranging from 
small arms to air planes, Arms factories, drug factories,  gas pipe lines
and still some forests. Analysis estimate that  the Regime owed its 
Chinese creditor more than Two billion dollars for the purchase of arms.
By the time
the debt is paid up,there will be no teak log in the Burma's forest  any
more. The gas pipe
line do not yield  as much  yet  but the major customer Thai  already
talked about  reducing  its contract of purchasing gas. Drug trade is
wanted by only those countries
which get involved in drug trafficking. No country in the world to day
wants the regime major assets which are soldiers and arm factories,
because soldiers are expensive to keep and to feed.  That is why I
beleive that  the value of kyats plummetted  from
6 kyats  US$l  to 380kyats US$i. within 36 years tenue of the Buma
Military Regime.
As I have disscussed in the above, the poverty and misery of the people
of Burma are not caused by their own misfortune or poor merits but by the
Burma Military Regime.
13/  Is there no way out from the povert y and misery for the people? I
think there is. But it also depend on the attitude of the Burma Military
Regime to adapt to changing world. Let me discuss first how the Regime
missed the opportunity when it made negociation with the K N U. I beleive
SLORC had pre meditated plan before negociation to show the world that
they have offered olive branch and extended their sincerity but the
insergeants exclusively reject their kind offer. Before negociation,
Deputy foreign minister made remark to the reporters after meeting with
his Thai
counter part Mr. Kra Chana Wonge. " It is not nacessary to have Thai
mediater in negotiation and warned the Karen and opposition not to play
politic."  As I was not so optimistic about that particular negociation,
I wrote to Burma Net expressing my openion on April 23, l995.
14/  During negotiation SLORC demanded that K N U to reject arm
resistance and to enter into legal fold. Then to form legitimate
political party and take part in  drafting of
New Constitution. When asked about solving political problem, SLORC
replied that  
they are Military Government  and the problem should be tackled by future
Government after drafting of New Constitution is completed. SLORC talked
about 
confident building during the negotiation, but never stop massing its
troops near K N U bases and eventually mounted major offensive to
anahilate K N U and the Karen
population. Further Investigation revealed that neither K I O nor  N M S
P  had seigned
any agreemet with SLORC to reject arm resistance and enter into legal
fold, By  examining  these facts one can easily conclude that  the Burma
military Regime is not cincere in making negotiation with KNU. The Regime
had premeditated plan to make negotiation unsuccessful but to have little
trace of rationale to blame the other party. Had the Burma Military
Regime taken the opportunity and used it wisely, I beleive the 
refugees and illegal migrant workers will no longer linger in neighboring
countries and the country will be heading to catch up with the modern
world. The regime missed the First opportunity.
l5/  K N U had been fighting for just cause, but tecnically it is not
legitimate organization. So it is not well supported by the world
community. On the other hand N L D  is legitimate body and its
charismatic leader Daw Suu is the most world known figure in the world to
day for struggling for democracy for her country. The Regime could bully
K N U but I do not think  it can bully the N L D anymore even it
continued arresting  opposition members. So it is time for the Burma
Military Regime to start 
thinking about seriousely how to help out with the transition  of power
to its legitimate owner and winner or l990 general election. I
prayerfully hope that the SPDC  will not be too stupid to stall
negotiation with N L D  leaders and minority leaders...

Best Regards.

                               
                         SAW AUNG KHIN.












       .
Saw Aung Khin
(206)244-1938
saw-aung@xxxxxxxx
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