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BurmaNet News: April 12, 2001
- Subject: BurmaNet News: April 12, 2001
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 03:45:00
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
April 12, 2001 Issue # 1777
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
INSIDE BURMA _______
*BBC: Burma rejects 'EU bullying'
*Irrawaddy: Like Father, Like Daughter
*AP: Thailand sends fire trucks to quell fire in Myanmar border town
*World Association of Newspapers: "Appalling Conditions" for Jailed
Journalists in Burma
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Bangkok Post: Inside Politics
*BBC News: Indian lawyer fights for Burmese rebels
*BBC: Burmese rebels to petition UNHCR
*AP: 500 migrant workers arrested at Thai-Myanmar border
*Xinhua: China Presents Literature Title to Myanmar Poet
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Myanmar Times: Property Moves
*Xinhua: Myanmar's Foreign Trade Up 13.8 Percent in 2000
OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*FTUB (Japan): Objection letter to Japanese foreign minister on large
scale ODA to Burmese government
*The New Light of Myanmar (SPDC): Covering the carcass of an elephant
with a goat hide
FEATURE______
*Irrawaddy: Strangers in a Changed Land
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
BBC: Burma rejects 'EU bullying'
April 11, 2001
The military government in Burma has rejected the extension of European
sanctions on the country as bullying tactics.
In a statement to the BBC, the Foreign Ministry says Burma will
disregard foreign pressure, and that Burma is a dignified country which
refuses to beg.
On Monday, the European Union announced that continuing human rights
abuses in Burma warranted the extension of sanctions for another six
months.
Europe has banned visits from ruling military generals, refused arms
sales and suspended non-humanitarian aid.
The sanctions remain under review and the European Union has welcomed
signs of what it's described as meaningful dialogue between the leaders
of the regime and the pro-democracy movement.
___________________________________________________
Irrawaddy: Like Father, Like Daughter
Vol 9. No. 3, March-April 2001
by Aung Zaw
Sandar Win, 50 something, prefers to be called Dr. Daw Khin Sandar Win.
During the BSPP era, Sandar served as a "bridge" between Ne Win and BSPP
officials who wanted help from or meetings with her father. During the
1988 uprising, she was unpopular among the general public, as she was
suspected of playing a major role in the suppression of the uprising.
Sandar keeps in contact with Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, thus she is influential
and able to acquire business concessions. Outspoken former deputy
minister Zaw Htun, who last year criticized the regime?s economic
policy, was not thrown into jail because of Sandar and her connections.
Zaw Htun?s father is U San Maung, one of the Election Commissioners
during the 1990 election. The former senior civil servant is close to Ne
Win?s family.
Sandar Win is regarded as sharp and calm. A dissident leader recalled
having a phone conversation with her. He soon discovered that she was
surprisingly cool, despite his strong remarks about her father?s role in
the killings in 1988.
Sandar and her husband run several businesses in Rangoon, including the
Nawarat Hotel and the Thai-owned Bumrungrad Hospital, for which they are
national representatives.
The couple is also involved in the telecommunications business. Sky-Link
Communications Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company, planned
to install a US$144-million mobile phone system in Burma last year. A
local company, Myanmar Sky-Link, was awarded the contract to install the
system, which will eventually be transferred to the state-owned Myanmar
Post and Telecommunications. The couple has a major share in the
company.
According to a well-placed source in Rangoon, however, the launch of
Sky-Link?s global satellite phone system has been delayed due to
conflicts among share holders.
In June last year, businessman Aik Htein became a managing director of
Sky-Link, now opened at Sedona Hotel. Aik Htein is an influential
shareholder in Myanmar May Flower Bank, Yangon Holdings and Yangon
Airways. May Flower Bank?s chairman Kyaw Win is accused of being
connected to drug dealers including former druglord Khun Sa. Aik Htein
is believed to be close to ethnic Wa and Chinese businessmen.
Sandar?s sister, Kyemon Win, keeps her distance from Ne Win. Along with
other women painters Kyemon recently held an exhibition in Rangoon.
___________________________________________________
AP: Thailand sends fire trucks to quell fire in Myanmar border town
April 11, 2001
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) _ Thailand sent fire trucks to quell a nighttime
blaze in a border town in neighboring Myanmar that left 100 people
homeless early Thursday, Thai officials said.
Myanmar officials ran across the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge seeking
help after the blaze broke out in Myawaddy, where residents and the
single fire engine could not bring it under control. Myanmar is also
known as Burma.
Five fire engines and two water trucks were dispatched from the Thai
town of Mae Sot, Mae Sot district Gov. Samart Loifar said.
Three brick buildings and 12 wooden homes were destroyed. Those left
homeless took shelter in a Buddhist temple in the town, Myanmar vendors
said.
No casualties were reported.
The fire may have been started by a neglected gas stove and is
estimated to have caused 500 million kyats (dlrs 1 million) damage, said
the vendors in Mae Sot, 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok.
___________________________________________________
World Association of Newspapers: "Appalling Conditions" for Jailed
Journalists in Burma
Paris, 9 April 2001
The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have called
on Burma to immediately release journalists San San Nweh and U Win Tin,
who are to receive the Golden Pen of Freedom award at the World
Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hong Kong in June.
The two journalists both suffer health problems and are being held in
appalling conditions, the Paris-based organisations said in a letter to
General Than Shwe, head of the Myanmar State Peace and Development
Council, as the military government of Burma is known.
The imprisonment of San San Nweh and U Win Tin "constitute a deep
blemish on the international standing of Myanmar which can only be
erased by their release," said the letter, signed by WAN President Roger
Parkinson and WEF President Ruth De Aquino.
San San Nweh, imprisoned in 1994 for "anti-government reports" and U Win
Tin, who was jailed in 1989, are the winners of the 2001 Golden Pen of
Freedom, the annual WAN press freedom prize.
The award, which was made in recognition of their outstanding
contribution to the cause of press freedom, is to be presented on 4th
June at the 54th World Newspaper Congress and 8th World Editors Forum in
Hong Kong, the annual meetings of the world's press.
Dissident writer San San Nweh, 57, was editor of two journals ¡ Gita
Ppade-tha and Einmet-hpu ¡ and is a novelist and poet.
She was imprisoned for ten years in August 1994 for "anti-government
reports" to French journalists and for "providing information about the
human rights situation to the UN special rapporteur for Burma."
She is reportedly sharing a tiny cell with three other political
'convicts' ¡ forced to squat because of lack of head room, and allowed
to talk for only 15 minutes a day. She is suffering from liver disease,
arthritis, partial paralysis and eye problems.
U Win Tin is the former editor of the daily Hanthawati newspaper,
vice-chair of the Burmese Writers Association and a founder of the
National League of Democracy, Burma's main pro-democracy party whose
landslide election victory in 1990 was not recognised by the military
regime.
He was arrested in 1989, tried in a closed military court and sentenced
to 14 years in prison for allegedly being a member of the banned
Communist Party of Burma. He has now served 11 years of that sentence.
According to information received by WAN, U Win Tin was crippled by
prison guards who beat him severely and repeatedly when he was being
held in the notorious Insein Prison. Accused of smuggling out letters
detailing the conditions in the prison, he was transferred to a former
guard-dog kennel and kept in solitary confinement for just under a year,
until he was sentenced to an additional five years imprisonment for
possessing writing materials.
In 1997, on the verge of death, U Win Tin was transferred from Myingyan
Jail to Rangoon General Hospital. According to reports, he is still in
jail and his sentence will only expire in 2008.
WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry, has awarded the
Golden Pen annually since 1961. Past winners include Argentina's Jacobo
Timerman (1980), Russia's Sergei Grigoryants (1989), and Vietnam's Doan
Viet Hoat (1998). The 2000 winner was Nizar Nayouf of Syria.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
Bangkok Post: Inside Politics
April 12, 2001
The proof is in the actual results but there are some people who believe
Burma is willing to lend a hand in ending the flow of drugs from inside
its borders. u Success comes to those who wait, or at least are members
of political parties in which the other members are pretty unpopular. u
Also available to those who wait is a reconciliation with the nation's
police force.
More talks with Burma on working together to end the flow of drugs from
that country have been scheduled for early next month when Gen Thammarak
Issarangkul na Ayudhya, the PM's Office minister in charge of the Office
of the Narcotics Control Board, pops over to Rangoon.
A meeting at the local level in Kengtung last week made some initial
ground.
The head of the Thai delegation at that meeting, Lt-Gen Wattanachai
Chaimuenwong, commander of the Third Army based in the North, was
satisfied with the outcome, in particular Burma's expressed desire to
work with Thailand to hit the drug traffickers working along the border.
His opposite number at that meeting, Maj-Gen Thein Sein, also promised
to help destroy any drug factories found operating near the border, but
only if Thailand found them first and was able to give their exact
whereabouts.
"This is a good sign for further co-operation, especially on drug
issues," Lt-Gen Wattanachai said after the meeting. This was in marked
contrast to his earlier comments in which he said he could not imagine
Burma really helping Thailand with the drug menace.
Sensitive border issues that might create new tensions that could
disrupt this new sense of co-operation were not raised in any formal
sense at the meeting.
These include Burmese suspicions that Thailand gives covert support to
the Shan rebels fighting for independence from Rangoon and the Thai
suspicions that the Burmese military junta is collaborating with the
United Wa State Army in the production and trafficking of drugs.
Lt-Gen Wattanachai has reportedly briefed Gen Thammarak, who also is in
charge of national security matters, about the mood at the meeting.
One who loiters about the corridors of Government House said Gen
Thammarak had some ideas on how to work more closely with Rangoon on
drug matters. He will raise these at the coming meeting.
One proposal is to exchange drug officers to build up contacts across
the border.
This exchange, something never tried before, would mean posting the drug
officers at their embassy. Part of their job would be to help overcome
any misunderstandings that arise.
"We will use this bridge to continue our co-operation on drug issues
even during times when there are disputes over other border issues,"
said our man at Government House. "Gen Thammarak is quite optimistic
that Burma will respond positively to this idea that would open a new
chapter of co-operation."
___________________________________________________
BBC News: Indian lawyer fights for Burmese rebels
April 9, 2001
A human rights lawyer in India has asked a court to order the release of
thirty-six Burmese rebels who have been held without trial in India's
Andaman Islands for more than three years.
The rebels belong to the National Unity Party of Arakans and the Karen
National Union, two outlawed Burmese groups.
The lawyer Nandita Haksar, told the court in the Andaman Islands off the
east coast of India that the prisoners should be released because
India's Central Bureau of Investigation CBI had not brought any charges
against them for over three years.
But she said they should not be repatriated to Burma as their lives
might be in danger there.
___________________________________________________
BBC: Burmese rebels to petition UNHCR
A court in India's eastern Andaman islands has allowed the leaders of a
group of 36 Burmese rebels to go to Delhi to appeal for the protection
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The court said the five could stay in the capital for two months to
present their case.
The rebels, from the Arakan and Karen regions of Burma, have been held
without trial on the Andaman Islands for more than three years.
Their lawyer Nandita Haskar has asked the court to order their release,
saying no charges have been brought against them.
The rebels want UNHCR protection to ensure they are not deported to
Burma where their lives might be in danger.
___________________________________________________
AP: 500 migrant workers arrested at Thai-Myanmar border
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) _ Police arrested about 500 Myanmar migrants near
a textile factory in a Thai border town for illegal entry into Thailand,
officers and witnesses said Wednesday.
The migrants were hiding in a rice field near the Champion Knitting
factory at Mae Sot, 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok,
when they were rounded up by police late Tuesday. The migrants will be
deported, police said.
San Linn, 24, one of the arrested migrants, said the factory, that had
employed more than 3,000 Myanmar migrants, had been closed down earlier
this month after Thai residents complained it was causing environmental
pollution.
``If we had gotten our last month's salary, we would have left for
Burma, but we didn't have enough money to travel back. We're hungry. We
eat nothing,'' San Linn told The Associated Press at Mae Sot immigration
detention center.
Police said the migrants would be sent back to Myanmar, also known as
Burma. Mae Sot lies on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar Friendship
Bridge.
Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants stay illegally in Thailand,
doing manual jobs for as little as 40 baht (90 cents) a day, a third of
the Thai minimum wage. Thousands are deported every month, but many
return.
___________________________________________________
Xinhua: China Presents Literature Title to Myanmar Poet
YANGON, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Writers Association Wednesday
honored Myanmar Deputy Culture Minister and noted poet U Soe Nyunt, the
Chinese people's old friend, with a title of " Friendly Literature
Envoy". Representing the Chinese Writers Association, Chinese Ambassador
to Myanmar Li Jinjun presented the title to U Soe Nyunt in the presence
of Myanmar Culture Minister U Win Sein and guests from different walks
of life totaling over 300. Ambassador Li said at the presentation
ceremony that the "Pauk- Phaw" (fraternal) friendship between China and
Myanmar has been long standing.
Culture is an important content in the friendly exchange and cooperation
between the two countries. In recent five decades under the drive of
leaders of the two countries, China and Myanmar have achieved
unprecedented development in exchange and cooperation in the sector of
culture, he noted. He concluded that the works of U Soe Nyunt,
"Ayeyarwaddy- Yangtze Friendly Appraisal" is the outcome of impression
of his visit to China for five occasions. At the ceremony, U Soe Nyunt
said Myanmar-China friendly ties has a long history. The frequent
exchange of visits of the leaders of the two countries has strengthened
the Myanmar-China friendly ties. He pledged to make his best efforts to
continue to contribute to the friendly cause of the two countries. The
series of the poem "Ayeyarwaddy-Yangtze Friendly Appraisal" contain "The
Great Wall", "The Friendship Song in Heart" and so on totaling more than
40.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
Myanmar Times: Property Moves
April 9, 2001
ACCORDING to the level of press advertising, and news from the local
real estate world, the recession into which the Myanmar real estate
sector plunged, two years ago, is finally showing signs of having
bottomed out.Clear evidence that the property market is on the move
again is limited to the lower end of the rental market for apartments,
whose consumers are mainly middle class locals, and the mid-range market
for houses in the secluded, quiet townships of Bahan and Kamayut,
composed mainly of foreigners.There is enough reason to suppose,
however, that the worst of the real estate crisis was over by the end of
last year.Ko Aung Htet and other agents consulted by Myanmar Times still
remember the halcyon days of 1996-1997 when an agent or broker would
typically charge a landlord a fee equivalent to one month?s rent,
US$1000-2000, to get a tenant into a house.
The rate has not changed, but the regularity with which it was earned
plummeted post-1998.?Business was going so well in 1996-1997 that we
could rent 20 houses a month,? Ko Aung Htet said.?Last year I was moving
one house a month, but since the start of this year I have been renting
out about seven a month.? One of the reasons for the subtle shift,
according to local agents, could be the cooling of activity in other
business sectors: Nearly one-third of property buyers now stepping into
the market ? and boosting general demand for housing stock ? are doing
so because their other business, such as the automobile trade, are
experiencing a lull.Another factor cited by local brokers is the arrival
in the Yangon housing market of successful businessmen from states
including Kachin and Shan and from other major cities like Mandalay and
Myitkyina. The lowest housing prices seen in the capital in five years
are also attracting both buyers and lessees, and pushing the sluggish
market into action.
?Houses which previously (two years ago) went for US$1000 are now only
about US$500 per month,? said Ko Aung Htet, an established agent at the
top end of the rental market. ?We can say that what was previously the
high market is now the middle-market, and what used to be the middle
market is now the low-end market.?The Aung Myin Thu General Service
Company entered the market six months ago, and expects the sector to be
?wide-awake within about two years?, said managing director U Soe Hla
Tun. Most of his customers are Japanese, Korean, and Chinese expatriates
looking for houses in the US$500-US$1000 per month range.He also deals,
although rarely, with big companies that want to rent a house and land
package and will ?pay up to US$3000 to make it their office as well as a
residence?. He sees demand for top-of-the-line rental homes as being
still depressed, with prices about half what they were in 1999.
And he has found that tenants extending leases are frequently winning
reduced rates ? often about two-third of the original contract ? on
their new agreements.But Ko Aung Htet said there was little basis for
rental tenants to push for lower prices because ?on the side of the
house owners, they should get at least house maintenance charges out of
the rents?.Declining demand for properties, which reached its lowest ebb
late last year before showing recent signs of consolidation, was
influenced by the fact that ?late last year, some companies reduced
their workforce?, he said.?Now the houses they rented are sitting
vacant.? In recent months, however, the prices for mid-range houses had
begun to rise.?Last month, a house that was normally US$500 was rented
for US$700,? Ko Aung Htet said. ?I think one of the main factors might
be that some new garment factories from Asian countries like China and
Korea have opened up in Myanmar, and their staff rent the mid-range and
low-market houses,? he said.
?Another thing is that some foreigners who have been living on the
outskirts of Yangon, at places like Thuwanna and the nine-mile area are
now moving to Yangon?s most preferred suburbs like Bahan and Kamayut
townships.?They have become able to afford to rent in those previously
expensive areas,? he said.U Thet Oo, Managing Director of the Aye Yar
Myae Company, said his company most commonly let mid-range houses around
the seven to eight-mile areas to foreigners whose work required easy
access to the industrial zones on the city fringe.Location, location,
location is the golden rule of the real estate sector, in Yangon as
elsewhere. Areas close to the breadwinner?s workplace, schools,
recreation centres and markets are most popular.Some of Yangon quietest
streets in the hamlet of Golden Valley carry the city?s heftiest rental
and sale price tags; Golden Valley Rd, Inya Rd, Inya Myaing Rd,
University Avenue Rd, Than Lwin Rd, Kanbawza Rd and Dhama Zedi Rd are
favourites for the well-heeled.
The reliability of the power supply was another key consideration for
potential tenants, Ko Aung Htet said, and another reason behind the
continuing popularity of areas like Golden Valley. ?You are more likely
to get a regular power supply closer to the city, as opposed to out in
the suburbs.? But that guarantee came with a price tag of about US$1000
per month, he said.Houses rented for diplomatic and United Nations
foreign staff typically attracted prices in the range of US$1500, and
sometimes more than US$2000 per month, Ko Aung Htet said. The latter
often included the best facilities that Yangon lifestyle had to offer;
tennis courts, swimming pools and frontage of peaceful Inya
Lake.Foreigner teachers and lower-ranked staff from non-elite foreign
companies usually tended towards houses ranging from US$300 to US$1000,
he said.
___________________________________________________
Xinhua: Myanmar's Foreign Trade Up 13.8 Percent in 2000
YANGON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's foreign trade, including the
border trade, totaled 4.086 billion U.S. dollars in 2000, up 13.8
percent from 1999, according to the country's Central Statistical
Organization (CSO). Of the total trade volume, imports were valued at
2.567 billion dollars, increasing by 6.51 percent, while export amounted
to 1. 519 billion dollars, rising by 28.94 percent. However, the trade
deficit stood at 1.048 billion dollars, the CSO said in its latest data
released for 2000. During the year, the import value of consumers goods,
capital goods and intermediate goods accounted for 44.2 percent, 28.2
percent and 27.6 percent of the total imports respectively. Myanmar
mainly exports agricultural products, timber and marine products. The
figures also indicate that Myanmar's private sector is playing a leading
role in the country's foreign trade. During the year, the import value
of the private sector made up 76.8 percent of the total imports, while
its export value represented 68.5 percent of the total exports. The
import and export value of the government sector during the year
accounted for only 23.2 percent and 31.5 percent respectively. Myanmar's
main foreign trading partners are Singapore, China, Thailand and Japan.
_______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________
FTUB (Japan): Objection letter to Japanese foreign minister on large
scale ODA to Burmese government
(Please see the following letter)
To:
Mr. Yohei Kono
Foreign Minister
Ministry Of Foreign Affairs (Japan)
Tokyo
Subject: Objection for considering to grant large scale ODA to
Burmese
government
Dated '2001 April 10
Dear His Excellency Foreign Minister,
His Excellency made a commitment to visiting Burmese Deputy Foreign
Minister
Mr. Khin Maung Win on April 9, yesterday, that Japan is considering
offering
Burma's so-called SPDC (State Peace & Development Council), military
regime,
a grant to repair aging Baluchaun hydroelectric power station. It will
be
executed, as grant-in aid ODA, within the year and total 3.0 billion yen
to
3.5 billion yen (US $24 millions to 28 millions.) It will be the largest
aid
since the beginning of Japanese sanction against Burma in 1988. That
news
was mentioned by several news agencies around the world.
Under the circumstances of Burma and international current situation
while
keeping close watch on Burma's political climate, we'd like to urge His
Excellency that Japanese government would carefully consider the timing
of
granting ODA for Burma.
We would like to suggest your esteemed Japanese government to verify
Japanese assistance to Burmese military junta. It would be held Japan's
responsibility if Japan's premature and untimely attempts resulted in
hurting any political developments of Burma.
We realized that Japan will be very cautious toward implementing the
package
of renovation on an aging power plant based on the genuine humanitarian
concerns. Even though, let us allow unveiling our grievous concerns of
probably sending a wrong signal to the Burmese military junta by this
Japanese assistance while dealing with democratic opposition. It can
make
miscalculation for SPDC that it can achieve Japan's support without any
serious concession for the reconciliation processes.
It sounds nice for making the benefit of the people of Burma regarding
having electricity, by repairing an aging power station. But the true
situation in Burma is far from the actual humanitarian ground.
We'd like to explain His Excellency some other factors as follows:
(1) The rehabilitation of Baluchaun Power Plant would be implemented by
very
high forced labor. It is quite sure especially considering the current
ILO
resolution that there is no transparency or accountability in the way,
carrying out projects in Burma. It can't be guaranteed that -- forced
labor
won't be involved in renovation of superannuated Baluchaung
Hydroelectric
Power Plant that extended as part of wartime compensation in 1958.
(2) The figure, 3 - 3.5 billion yen, is quite a large sum especially for
grant-in-aid. Repairing Baluchaun Power Plant was conducted once in 1986
with Japanese (Overseas Economic Cooperative Fun) OECF loan amounting to
3.53 billion. It should be reconsidered why such a big amount is
necessary
to repair again. It's jeopardy in the region out of day-by-day
increasing of
Burma's military might. It's also can't be guaranteed that 3 - 3.5
billion
yen (US $24 millions to 28 millions) won't be used for Burma military
regime
's other purposes. It will be contradictive for chief Japanese ODA
policy,
not to assist military establishment by ODA.
(3) Large Scale Landmines Planting by Burma military around the
Baluchaun
Power Plant shouldn't also be ignored, as Japan has already signed the
International Anti-Landmine Treaty, a few years ago. Burma military did
it
at the power plant since 1981 for security cause and several regional
people
deceased due to accidental landmines bursting. Not only casualties,
regional
people were also punished for accidental bursting landmines -- in terms
of
money payment for each landmine bursting. Such incidents are always
mentioned in annual reports of United Nations' Human Rights Watch, every
year.
(4) As an economical point of view, Japan has just granted 1.7 billion
yen
in debt relief upon SPDC, Burmese military regime. After the relieving
of
the debt, the SPDC is supposed to make same amount of purchasing goods
from
Japan for repairing the aging power plant. It is wondering why does
Japan
need to assist 3 - 3.5 billion yen (US $24 millions to 28 millions) as a
grant for SPDC, on top of 1.7 billion yen in debt relief. If Baluchaun
power
plant is so high a priority for SPDC, it should be able to cover a
significant amount thru the debt relief system.
(5) One more contradiction of humanitarian ground, regarding Japanese
ODA
for the renovation of such power plant, is -- regional Karenni ethnic
people, one of the poorest people in Burma, in Kaya State where the
Baluchaun Power Plant is located, do not have access the electricity
from
Baluchaun Power Plant, at all, since the establishing of the power
plant,
1960. Unfortunately, it becomes the irony of Japan's reason for helping
the
poor in Burma by granting ODA for repairing the Baluchaun Power Plant.
(6) Regional farmers who usually irrigated their fields from Baluchaun
River
upstream of the power plant, were strictly prohibited for irrigating by
military order since 1998. As there is no rain in some years, regional
farmers are facing the drought in order to lack of irrigating from
Baluchaunh River. SPDC makes ensure that water is not diverted for
agriculture so that enough water can flow to
the Baluchaun Power Plant to provide electricity to big cities only.
It's
one of the examples of SPDC's thwarting policy of humanitarian efforts.
(7) There are also many military factories and military plants under
Defense
Industries Department, Ministry of Defense and Heavy Industries Corp.,
Ministry of Industry (2), all over Burma. Quantity of such factories and
plants is more than civilian owned and other state-owned ones. It's also
wondering how much is this a factor in the SPDC's wanting to fix
Baluchaun
Power Plant, as an another humanitarian argument.
(8) Japan is politically saying that giving aid to SPDC can encourage
dialogue between SPDC and opposition of Burma. "Secret Talking" between
Aung
San Suu Kyi who represents National League for Democracy (NLD),
opposition
party, and SPDC's Secretary (1), Lt. General Khin Nyunt, can't be
defined as
DIALOGUE. Both sides haven't released any official announcement yet.
It's
just still in Secret Talking only. On the other hand, Japan had recently
granted US $1.85 millions for Rangoon General Hospital and US $5.13
millions
for a rural drinking water supply project in Shan State. But there are
not
enough concrete signs of commitment on SPDC to justify increasing aid.
If
Japan intends to signal a hint to SPDC for the dialogue, then granting
aid
SPDC should be enough from now on. Large-scale development assistance to
Burma would flow after democratization in Burma.
(9) Even after repairing the Baluchaun Power Plant, no one can guarantee
that electricity would be distributed in fair and square by SPDC in
Burma.
We would like to urge His Excellency that please restrains any kind of
Japanese assistance to Burmese military regime until the consensus is
emerged by the whole international community regarding with substantial
political developments.
With best regards,
Federation of Trade Unions - Burma (Japan)
___________________________________________________
The New Light of Myanmar (SPDC): Covering the carcass of an elephant
with a goat hide
Sunday, 8 April, 2001
Aggression means the act of launching an armed invasion against
another countryÆs territory. As the invaders (especially Thai or
Yodaya intruders) had entered Taninthayi, Mawlamyine, Mottama and up
to Oktha Pegu (Bago), during the respective periods of Myanmar
history, we only have a history of Myanmar kings Anawrahta Min Saw,
Tabinshwehti, Bayintnaung, Alaung- phaya and Hsinbyushin crushing the
intruders in the Myanmar territory and pursuing them till reaching
Ayudhaya, the capital of Thailand (Yodaya). Myanmar has never
launched invasions for no reason. It can also be seen in the history
of Thailand (compiled by Thais as well as westerners). The ancient
Myanmar kings launched historic battles against the invaders in
crushing and driving them out of the country.
And throughout the successive eras of the modern history, Myanmar has
never launched any acts of aggression, against any countryÆs
(especially the neighbouring nationÆs) territory. The nation drove
out KMT nationalist Chinese troops who intruded upon Myanmar in the
early 1950s. In every crisis, Myanmar has acted with restraint,
control and consideration. Myanmar had to experience sufferings as it
always acted with restraint and avoided confrontation to the most
possible degree. Recently, the SURA drug bandits under the charge of
Ywet Sit in collusion with some units of the Thai army fired on
Tachilek.
Thai army camps stationed at Loilan region in Myanmar territory
The Thai army stationed troops at 34 camps nine on the borderline and
25 in Myanmar territory ignoring the many complaints filed by
Myanmar against the intrusion. Myanmar is patiently holding official
meetings of the border committee to discuss the matter. Thus, Myanmar
is a country, which never intrudes into anotherÆs territory, but has
to face and solve the problems of incursion into its territory.
Though the aggression mainly means the act of launching an armed
invasion against other countryÆs territory, interfering in or
disturbing other nationÆs internal affairs or meddling in the
economic and social affairs is also an act of encroachment upon other
nationÆs sovereignty. There might be opposition, anti-government
opponents or armed insurgency in every nation of the world. But such
oppositions, disagreements or insurgencies are only the internal
affairs of the respective nation. No foreign country should interfere
in the internal affairs, should not have the right to say which side
is right and which side wrong and should not give unfair support or
encouragement to any side.
Every nation should respect these codes of conduct. The world will
never be a peaceful and stable place if foreign nations interferen
and meddle in the internal affairs of a country whenever there occurs
opposition, disagreement or rebellion in it. Concerning the morals of
international relations, Myanmar is a nation which can be put to test
every where and any time. But Myanmar has never accepted,
accommodated, encouraged or supported any of the opponents,
oppositions or insurgents of the neighbouring countries China, India,
Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand.
However, opponents, armed insurgents, expatriates, absconders and
opium bandits of Myanmar have been permitted to take refuge in
Thailand conveniently throughout the successive eras. These
trouble-maker terrorist drug bandits have been branded as (1)
democracy activists, (2) human rights activists, (3) refugees and (4)
ethnic freedom fighters, and provided them with all necessary aid to
launch opposition, terrorism and armed insurgency against Myanmar. In
reality, all these groups, whatever they are called, are national
traitors trying to destroy the Union of Myanmar under the influence
of foreign instigation.
At the end of 1969, a group of rightist politicians of Myanmar arrived
at Thailand as expatriates. Openly staying in downtown Bangkok, they
were sending terrorists into Myanmar to plant and explode mines and
to commit arson and murders in the nation. The then Thai officials
denied accepting Myanmar expatriates. The expatriates were enjoying a
luxurious life in the lanes of Sukhumvit Road at the city centre in
Bangkok. A cartoon was featured in Myanmar dailies during the time.
In the cartoon were the Thai ministers sitting at the round-table and
pointing at the table surface said "There is not a single expatriate
in Thailand." But under the table was a crouching expatriate leader.
(To be continued)
Author : Sein Lun
_____________________FEATURE_____________________
Irrawaddy: Strangers in a Changed Land
March-April 2001
Returning to Burma after a four-year absence, a visitor discovers that
change has brought only a deepened sense of estrangement, not optimism,
to ordinary Burmese.
by Thalia Isaak
It is the beginning of February 2001, and the first time I?ve been in
Mandalay for over four years. I ask the trishaw driver to take me to
such-and-such a street at the corner of such-and-such a street. I am
excited to be returning to a place still vivid in my memory.
But when we arrive there, it is the site of a huge empty building and a
wide, new road not yet being used by cars. A shantytown has sprung up
along the remains of the construction site; on low-slung chairs and on
mats on the ground, people doze through the heat of the mid-day sun. I
look up and down the road. The trishaw driver, working under that same
mid-day sun, does not show his impatience. What I am looking for is not
here. Did we take wrong turn? I ask, "Where is the Chinese market?"
Leaning over conspiratorially, the driver says in a faux-dramatic voice,
"The Chinese market is everywhere." Then he laughs out loud. Obviously
he is referring to the great, government-assisted influx of Chinese
citizens into Upper Burma. With little or no prompting, many people
complain of the increasing Chinese presence in the city. He begins to
pedal again, until we are coasting along the dusty, pot-holed road.
Suddenly he brakes the trishaw, wipes his forehead and spreads his arms
wide. "All Mandalay is the Chinese market. But the old Chinese
marketplace, what you?re looking for, that is gone." He points to the
still-empty building. "This is the new railway station."
I spent so many hours in that market, returning day after day to wander,
practice my Burmese, take photographs. There was a young couple who sold
thanaka wood; they?d just had a baby girl and were already worried about
how they would educate her. Their today involved a very focused struggle
to make enough money for their tomorrow, but they were determined,
despite poverty, despite "the situation," to give their daughter a full,
rich life. Their conviction in this regard, and their sense of humor,
about almost everything, was inspiring. We laughed a lot together,
sometimes to the point of breathlessness and tears. Our connection was
not about politics. We enjoyed each other?s company, the whole elaborate
yet simple Burmese ritual of talking and talking over cups of sweet tea.
Now I have come back to Mandalay, for just a few busy days. I?ve been
hoping to meet these good people again. I?ve brought a small gift for
their four-year-old girl.
But the entire marketplace is gone.
I feel curiously bereft.
In an attempt to understand Burmese friends on the Thai-Burmese border
and in Western countries, I extrapolate this minor experience of
dislocation, this failed attempt to return to a place which no longer
exists. After so many years in difficult and often dangerous exile, what
will it be like for Burmese people to go home? The towns and cities
where they grew up will no longer be the towns and cities of their
memories. So many things have changed, both within Burma and within
their own lives.
Of migrant workers, the novelist John Berger has written, "[His family]
talks of his final return. The final return is mythic. It is the stuff
of longing and prayers. It gives meaning to what otherwise might be
meaningless. But it is also mythic in the sense that, as imagined, it
never happens. There is no final return."
These words ring in my mind as I walk around Rangoon and Mandalay,
seeing things as they are now, remembering things as they were when I
left, trying to comprehend the passage of time, and the human lives, in
between. How much does a cup of tea cost now? This is a question people
will ask when I go back to Thailand, back to North America, when I visit
London in the spring. It is impossible to think or to speak or to write
only about Burma, one country at the convenient end of a plane ticket. I
am compelled to refer to Burmese people on the border, on many borders,
to think back to them, to address them in my mind as I write. It is
strange to enter freely the country they were forced to leave.
December 1996 was the last time I was in the capital city. I departed
shortly after student protests climaxed at Hledan Junction, when the
military charged the onlookers and rounded up the remaining protestors.
I spent that night, very gratefully, in a Burmese family?s house with a
group of young men who had also run away from the soldiers.
By all accounts, it was a very tense month. While moving across the
city, Daw Suu Kyi?s car was attacked by a group of armed men. Tanks and
battalions of gun-toting soldiers filled the streets of the inner city.
University Avenue was a barbed-wired no-man?s land equipped with Bren
guns and thirsty soldiers. The riot police descended upon protesting
students in many different areas of Rangoon. Before the protest at
Hledan Junction, I watched a military commander savagely beat a
protester?or perhaps just an innocent observer of the protest?with a
wooden truncheon. It was the first time I witnessed the violence so many
people had told me about. The image and the sound of that unarmed man
being beaten to the ground haunted me for a long time.
By extraordinary contrast, downtown Rangoon of February 2001 presents a
different facet of its personality. The streets are filled with busy
people rushing to work, busy people laughing and talking as they set up
their wares on crammed sidewalks. There are a lot more cars now, and an
astonishing array of plastic stuff, even red, yellow, green, blue
teashop stools. During the two weeks I spend visiting friends and
acquaintances here, it becomes a running joke. Writers, political
observers, teachers, healthcare employees, artists, and a few students
without overt political connections all agree that modern development
has come to the Golden Land in the form of CPN: Cars, Plastic, and
NGO?s.
These are not the only changes. Somewhere in the city, a meeting is
taking place between representatives of the ruling junta, the State
Peace and Development Council, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
democratic opposition. Soldiers are still stationed around government
buildings, but they look very bored, and?this amazes me, because it is
so different than 1996?they are not averse to exchanging a few pleasant
words if I begin by explaining that I am lost, will you help me? This
morning, by happenstance, I share a cab with a German tourist who
remarks, "For a military dictatorship, there certainly isn?t a lot of
military around." She sounds vaguely disappointed.
I do not repeat her comment to the man I am going to visit, because I
know it would irritate him. Having spent many years in prison, several
of them in solitary confinement, he understands only too well that the
presence or absence of machine guns in the streets is only a small part
of living under a dictatorship. Besides, anyone who pays serious
attention to the situation in Burma knows that the military has been
stockpiling weapons for use, and using them, against their own populace
for many years.
Dangerous weapons do not have to be made out of metal. My friend begins
our meeting by talking about the disappointment of the young men and
women who have not gone and probably will never go to university. The
military has kept most universities and some high schools closed since
1988. "Uneducated people are easy to fool. It doesn?t matter that some
schools are open now. They have become like every other public
institution in Burma: corrupt to the point of uselessness. We used to
have fine universities?remarkable places of learning. Now, like
everything else, they are sub-standard. Each new generation of young
people is more and more cynical. How can they not be cynical?"
"Are you cynical?" I ask.
He smiles brightly. "Oh, no. I am just very realistic. I know this
regime very well. You learn a lot in prison! I know they will not give
up their power. Though I truly support and admire her, the problem with
The Lady is that she is truly a lady. She talks like a gentlewoman. But
the generals are not gentlemen. They only know the language of violence.
She is a great believer in non-violence, like Gandhi, but Gandhi was a
populist leader. He agitated the people to struggle, to march, to
demonstrate. He relied on the masses, he didn?t tell them to be quiet.
He understood that he was nothing without the masses acting beside him."
Over a glass of plain tea, his eyes glitter and his voice jumps nimbly
from one topic to another. We talk for a long time. At one point,
discussing Rangoon, I venture, "But it does seem different this time."
There is an openness and an energy that was not possible in 1996. This
is a very subjective observation, I know, based on a few days of
wandering around and listening to people gossip and expound. But the
news in Burma is very subjective. Unlike the last time I was here, no
one in mirrored sunglasses has followed me around or ripped film out of
my camera. Subjectively, I think this is a very good thing.
My friend moves his glass of tea out of the way and leans over the
table. He is frowning ever so slightly. "Just the other night, I stood
at my window and watched a policeman slap a civilian?s face and start
screaming at him and beating him right there in the street." Rising from
his chair, he goes to the window and points to where the incident
occurred. He hurriedly explains the details, then finishes the story by
sitting down and looking at me with a tired expression.
A moment passes. All that can be heard from the street now is the
growing clamor of traffic and voices, people hawking things below the
window, water-sellers banging their aluminum cups. "But don?t you think
the dialogue between Daw Suu Kyi and the regime is a positive sign?"
He shakes his head. "What kind of dialogue do you have between a jailer
and a prisoner? The generals are trying to cheat the world community,
and the world community?well, the business community?wants to get into
Burma as much, as deeply, as they can, so they are very anxious for good
news. Now the generals are being congratulated for softening their
stance. What softening? She is still not allowed to move. Most of the
MP?s are still in prison. And every day there is torture and violence in
those prisons. The entire judicial system is corrupt. We still have no
free newspapers or organizations. It is still against the law to
establish a private library."
His voice has fallen almost to a whisper, but it is an intense, sharp
whisper, the most quiet way of yelling. He emphasizes certain words with
the movement of his hands. "Every day there is murder and rape in the
ethnic areas. Last year, I visited Moulmein, the Mon state capital. I
couldn?t find people speaking Mon there anymore. Just recently, a friend
visited Taungyi and came back with the news that the whole Pao area of
the city is gone, only Chinese from China live there now. Our ethnic
groups are endangered species. They are being exterminated by this
military government, the same one that is now being commended for
talking with The Lady and letting NGO?s into the country!"
Listening to him, I feel like a member of the world community, which is,
of course, exactly what I am, anxious for good news. Perhaps reading my
mind, he continues, "A lot of Western media, a lot of foreigners, are
falling into the trap of this military regime." He stands up again in
agitation. "Those NGO?s have become the pawns of the generals. They?re
always being mentioned in the paper as an example of how open the
country is, how the generals have allowed them in to help the people.
Help the people they are crushing every day! It?s just theatre. Where is
all that money going? Into the pockets of the generals and into the
pockets of the white people who come here to do the aid work! Aid money
from the West is not going to topple this military government. We need
moral and political support. We have enough theatre in Burma already. We
are sick of it."
The next day, a friend who is a doctor picks up where he left off. She
believes the junta is getting very good at dissimulation. "They hired
Western media consultants. Now they understand how important it is to
look nice." She laughs. "Our nice dictators. Have you seen a copy of the
Myanmar Times? It?s in color, edited by foreigners. Some profiles
portray the generals as misunderstood men who are working hard to
improve their country." She pauses. "People who have suffered under the
regime cannot read that sort of thing without feeling very bitter."
She describes losing a patient to an unnecessary wound infection after a
successful minor surgery. Due to lack of money and equipment, even the
operating rooms in the major hospitals are not always properly
disinfected. Complications due to wound infection are a serious,
recurring problem, and the cheap antibiotics most readily available to
treat infection are of an inferior quality. Another patient from a
satellite town died because he did not have enough money to come into
the city for treatment. "Some NGO?s have helped with money to treat poor
patients. But the problem is not just treatment and medication. Poverty
prevents them from traveling into the city." The number of tuberculosis
diagnoses continues to rise. People will take drugs for a week, two
weeks, until they feel slightly better, until they can work again. Then
they will stop their treatment. "I asked one of our patients why she
stopped taking her medicine; she said it was more important to feed her
children. What could I say to her? How do you make a choice that is not
a choice?"
It is true that there are no articles in The Myanmar Times discussing
the critical situation of healthcare in Burma. I?ve seen only the latest
edition of that nicely laid-out newspaper. It gives a distilled,
one-sided version of the news, but I was surprised to read an article
about HIV/AIDS, and how a group of local businessmen in Rangoon are
trying to address the problem of discrimination against people with
AIDS.
When I mention this to the doctor, she replies, "Yes, that is a good
thing. Though we don?t know if they?re doing what they say they?re
doing." She gives me a sly smile. "I hope you don?t believe everything
you read. The Myanmar Times is a Western act of propaganda, designed to
make foreigners think they are reading real news. Burmese people are not
fooled because we are accustomed to lies, but Westerners read it and
think, ?Oh, this is very good, things are fine here.? If the government
is genuinely interested in stopping the spread of AIDS, it would be
helpful to allow writers and journalists to use the word ?condom? in
their articles and stories. That word is still consistently censored."
Talking about HIV/AIDS leads to a discussion about the growing presence
of NGO?s inside Burma. In 1996, when there were few NGO?s working on
projects in the country, their work was not a common topic of
discussion. But now many people I meet with want to talk about them.
There are over a dozen foreign-based non-governmental organizations
doing aid and development work in healthcare and agriculture.
Just a week ago, before leaving the Thai-Burmese border, I listened to
several debates about whether or not foreign NGO?s in Burma lend
legitimacy, and give money, to a corrupt and brutal regime. Inside the
country, there is no debate: it is an acknowledged and accepted fact the
SPDC is using the non-governmental organizations in every way they can.
But this is the price most people are willing to pay for access to even
the possibility of change, of education, of contact with the outside
world. To quote the doctor, how do you make a choice that is not a
choice?
In The Myanmar Times and the local tourism and culture magazine Today,
the aid organizations are listed conspicuously as "foreign missions."
Some of the big ones are here: UNICEF, World Vision, International Red
Cross, Save The Children, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the United Nations
High Commission for Refugees. The doctor does not condemn their work,
though she is realistic about what they are able to do. She knows both
foreigners and Burmese people working for several different NGO?s. "In
the tradition of the SPDC, first you have to pay. Then you can do some
small, good thing. And then, of course, you have to pay again.
"The NGO?s are learning this. Some of them are able to do good work,
particularly outside of the cities, where they have more freedom.
Condoms are being distributed free of charge up and down the Irrawaddy
Delta, with an explanatory pamphlet about how to use them properly, and
information about HIV/AIDS. Most people in the countryside don?t even
know what AIDS is, so this is a big step, an important step. If the NGO
wasn?t here, this work wouldn?t get done. But everything depends on the
military commanders in the area. If they don?t want work done in a
certain town or village, they have the power to stop it completely, and
sometimes they do."
Our conversation swings back to the news being discussed on both sides
of the border. "The talks?" Like most people I will speak to in the next
few days, the doctor is skeptical. "How can you have a dialogue with
just two sides in a country full of ethnic groups and political parties?
I think Daw Suu Kyi?s in there alone. This is just a continuation of the
intense isolation she is forced to struggle against. She has become
isolated from the people because she is not permitted to have normal
contact with them. Despite this, the people continue to believe in her.
She is the image of their hope.
"I wonder what the dialogue is about. Daw Suu Kyi and the military are
so far away from each other. They can only be approaching each other,
circling around each other. It could take six months, a year, two years,
before real exchange begins. The generals will have to give a general
amnesty for all the political prisoners before we will believe in their
sincerity. Will they do that? I don?t know. Who knows? I like to believe
change is possible without violence. There is so much emotion when we
discuss politics in Burma, because we have suffered for a long time
under this government. But solving our problems will not happen with
emotional thinking. We blame the military and the military blames us. We
have to get out of this cycle."
There is other news, too, stories and photographs from Thailand, from
the border. She is very curious about the work of a colleague she
greatly admires, but has never met: Dr. Cynthia Maung. I show her
pictures of the Mae Tao Clinic and of the gentle, tough woman who has
worked so hard to build it, aided by a burgeoning clan of helpers and
medics and other doctors. My friend has never seen a photograph of Dr.
Cynthia; she looks at the pictures for long, careful minutes. "I would
love to meet her some day. She has done such great work. More and more
of us know what she is doing, and we support her. We support everyone
who is working on the border. You will tell people that, won?t you? They
are our brothers and our sisters in this struggle. We know they will
come back. And then the real work will begin. It will take so many years
to rebuild our country. But we won?t give up. We are all citizens of
Burma."
Who speaks the words I quote here? Is she really a woman, a doctor? Is
the first friend I mentioned really a man? I cannot resist the cautious
impulse to confuse their genders, their professions; to suggest that
perhaps they live in Pegu, or Mandalay. A measure of how much things
have not changed is the anxiety people continue to have over protecting
their identities. Friends who know I will not use their names cannot
stop themselves from adding the customary, "And you will not use my
name, will you? Not my real name." Of course not, I assure them.
Preferring not to write down people?s names, I assign my notes a
specific order, a kind of code. In December 1996, several journalist
friends were picked up and interrogated for long hours; video cameras,
address books, notebooks, tapes were confiscated; a young political
protester who did an "anonymous" interview for a Western news program
was quickly identified, arrested, and sent to prison.
Still, because the situation is calmer now, there is almost no chance of
my notes being read by anyone but me. Yet how can I be sure? I cannot
be. Days into my stay, fighting unexpectedly begins in Tachilek. Live
fire is exchanged between the Thai and the Burmese military. Within
forty-eight hours, the price of rice increases by seventy-five percent,
reportedly doubles in some areas. The American dollar is suddenly worth
over six hundred kyats, not three hundred and ninety.
In my guesthouse, people become nervous. On the third day of the
fighting, one of the young employees stops me in the narrow stairwell to
report the news in an excited whisper; last night he listened to Radio
Free Asia. Then he explains how worried his parents are about the rice;
he is fed by the guesthouse, but there are little brothers and sisters
at home. The price of rice is like the blood pressure reading for the
entire country; if it rises, there is danger ahead.
For those who are already hungry, this danger is a literal, physical
one, as it is for those who are being watched by the Military
Intelligence. Someone I have traveled very far to talk with sends a
message just before our meeting: it is better to cancel our appointment,
the situation has changed. The price of rice is too high.
To think you can be sure here is a mistake born of naivet? and
carelessness, encouraged by the smiling faces of the people you see on
the street every day.
This has not changed. They are still here in abundance, those faces
which turn to your face as you cross the street or sit down in a teashop
or walk into a market. The eyes look at you so directly; their aliveness
is shocking. In most Western cities, people rarely meet eyes in public.
If they do, their glances are furtive and fleeting. And they do not
allow their mouths to break open into brilliant smiles at strangers.
More remarkable than these dazzling smiles are the stories the mouths
will tell, if there is time. If you are able to slow down the rush of
the exchange and pause, begin to talk, if you know where to scratch,
hardly a touch at all, the gold flakes off the Golden Land and the
stories come out. Their truths have a natural tendency to rise to the
surface. They no longer surprise. I have spent several years collecting
them, writing them, rewriting them, trying to fathom them. The father
dead in prison, or at a work camp in the north. The husband, son,
sister, brother in prison. The young man who struggles to make the money
to buy the food and the medicine for the sick uncle in prison. The
cousin disappeared for a decade. "But I believe he is still alive. Maybe
in India."
So many families here are broken. Several people I meet send greetings
back with me to the border, for brothers and sisters and cousins and
friends they have not seen for over a decade. Many Burmese people I?ve
met have been in prison themselves or had family members or close
friends in prison. It is difficult to imagine the psychological effect
of this on an entire nation. The outer system of repression calcifies
into internal paralysis, the self-censorship that several writers and
artists describe in great detail. The wide-open circle of the mind
begins to close, gets ever smaller, becomes an image of the shackle, the
handcuff, the rope tightening, or simply the mouth closing, shut tight,
unwilling to speak.
While talking with a very polite young man employed by an NGO, I notice
a strange look come over his face. I am beginning to recognize this
strained expression of contrary impulses. The lips are pursed, sometimes
rolled inward, betraying a reluctance to speak, but the brows are
furrowed and the eyes beneath filled with thoughts. Often accompanied by
a moment of weighty, almost awkward silence, this look means, There is
something else I want to say, but I am very unsure, it is nowhere in the
script?
Quiet patience is the only reply. The young man begins to talk again,
his voice slowly growing louder, more confident. "I am learning a lot
with the NGO. It is a very good job for me. I am very grateful for this
job. But there are problems with some of the people we work for. They
don?t really understand how dangerous things are for us, because things
are not so dangerous for them. They forget where they are. There are
other things, too. It can be very difficult, you know?"
I nod encouragingly, with an inkling of what might be coming.
"Sometimes it?s very hard to work with them."
I nod again.
"For example, when we go out to the villages, they think they know
everything. They want to continue with their usual way of talking and
lecturing. But it doesn?t work for village people. Sometimes it doesn?t
work for us, either. Collective decision-making, empowerment, capacity
building, many of these words don?t make sense in Burma. Sometimes they
are just absurd. Or they are like the plastic and the cars: imported
things from rich countries." He cannot stop himself from smirking. "How
can we implement the project when there is no rule of law in our
country? But when we talk about politics, they tell us it?s not
realistic. Often they don?t want our opinion, even about the things we
know. It?s true we are not educated like they are, but we know our
country. We have lived here all our lives. We know how things work." He
pauses. His face relaxes. "Well, we know how things don?t work, which is
the same thing." We both laugh out loud.
Two weeks ago, I listened to similar comments from Burmese dissidents
and doctors in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son and Mae Sot. "People on the
border are talking about the same thing. They need funding from abroad
to keep working, even just to keep eating. So they are beholden to their
funders. And like you, they?re grateful to the NGO?s who help them, but
they?re also critical of Western experts marching in for week-long
seminars to tell them how things should be done. It?s funny that you
mention the word empowerment, because just before I left the border
someone said to me, ?Sure, they talk a lot about empowering us, but as
soon as we start asking hard questions and disagreeing with them, they
tell us to shut up. It is empowerment up to the point they want us to be
empowered.? It?s insulting. At a deeper level, it?s also racist, but no
one wants to use this word."
"Of course not, because how can the people who are helping us be that
way? A lot of discussions are about money. We accept that they will make
more money than we will, but if they really want to help our country,
they have to employ us as expensive labor, not cheap labor. In Rangoon,
you need at least 20 to 30,000 kyat per month for basic, personal
necessities. Our office had a cleaner working for only 10,000 kyat per
month. I suggested his salary be raised, but my boss said, ?Oh, no, we
don?t want to spoil him, it?s enough money.? The assumption is that the
really poor people are used to being really poor, and don?t mind it.
That man had a family, too.
"When a raise for a colleague was being discussed?they didn?t want to
give him more money, either?one of the directors took me aside and gave
me a lecture about how much he had sacrificed in the West to come and
work in primitive, underdeveloped Burma. He lives here like a rich man!
How could I respect him after that?
"In my last job, we were doing a project on HIV/AIDS. We had an extra
room in the office for people who were traveling through the city. I
found out that one of the directors kept a prostitute in the guestroom
for a whole weekend. In our office! I was very shocked. And the women in
the office were very upset. It made things very difficult for every
Burmese person working for him. If the wrong people had found out, it
would have jeopardized the project, too. But we couldn?t really say very
much because this man was our superior
The young man repeats how grateful he is for his job, and the chance it
provides him to begin helping his country. Despite the accounts of
questionable behavior and attitudes among certain individuals, he says
that most foreign aid workers are trying hard to improve the lives of
Burmese people. It?s true that their work is tightly controlled, but
some NGO?s are actively pushing against the rules and restrictions laid
down by the SPDC. The young man admires this. But his job has led him
into a maze of concerns about the meaning of development, and what it
will do to his culture.
Before we say goodbye, he asks, "Burma is changing, right?"
"Yes. Even since the last time I was here."
"We want the country to change, of course. We desperately need education
and development. We need to get out of our isolation. But who is
changing Burma? That is my question."
"Oh, that?s so complicated. It?s not just one question, so there isn?t
just one simple answer."
"I know. But many of the answers I come up with worry me."
The day before my departure, I return to a teashop I used to visit
almost every morning. The children who worked here before are mostly
gone; new ones have replaced them. I ask about one boy in particular; he
was very clever, very funny. After the mohinga and the morning rush was
finished, he would teach me words which I would usually forget within a
minute. His most lasting gift was colors; he used the checkered table
napkins as a teaching tool. Now the other young servers rush around
asking each other where he is and when he left. Unrealistically, I hope
to hear that some special circumstance has befallen him, that he has
gone to school or found more promising work.
He is working at another teashop across the river. Some things do not
change at all.
Though I have come very late, past five, the teashop itself is exactly
as I remember it. A new coat of paint perhaps, and new children?s faces,
but the essence of the place is the same. I regret not coming in the
morning; the boys inform me that the sweet tea is all gone. There are
only two tables still set out, and one of them has no stools. The far
table is occupied by a group of older men, probably office mates.
I try to say that I don?t want to make them do more work, they?re
cleaning up, closing, I?ll be going now. But they?ll have none of it.
Someone comes running out, heroically, with two stools. I am glad. I
love this teashop and I want to rest here for a while. The boy who is
the teashop spokesman?he is fifteen or sixteen? takes it upon himself to
make sure I stay. "Do you want coffee? We have coffee. Do you want
sugar?" He throws up vigorous shouts for coffee. I sit down. For a while
there is a crowd of boys around, chatting and laughing, but one by one
they return to their evening chores. Gratefully, I sit at the wooden
table, on the wooden stool, and watch the children of the teashop wash
dishes, load crates, and stack tables.
Without words, they speak of the great generals. All children raised in
poverty communicate in a language filled with silences and omissions, as
though their vocabulary were written with an eraser. What they do not
have dictates who they are and who they can become. Like most of the
child-laborers working in the tea and noodle shops of Rangoon and
Mandalay, their relatives live far away and are very poor. They send the
children to the cities to work. The lucky ones have attended school for
three or four years; the unlucky ones have not, and probably never will.
Though I use the words lucky and unlucky, none of this happened by
accident. The narrow lens of the children?s existence can be turned to
focus very clearly on the corrupt wealth of their rulers.
The smallest boy washing dishes, perched on an overturned stool, is
seven or eight. When he gets up to drag in another load of cups and
plates, I notice he already has the gestures and jaunty swagger of the
older boys. His suffering is understated, not yet embittered with anger
or condemnation. But as he grows, he will understand more than he does
now about why he has so few options, why he cannot read, why he is
trapped this way and who has trapped him. He is only one of hundreds of
thousands of poor children.
My coffee is finished. The first darkness of evening has come. After I
say goodbye to the boys?they are all smiles and laughter?there is
nothing I can do but leave.
Thalia Isaak is a writer based in Europe.
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