GRAPE VINE
Eradicating a colonial past
Source : U Aye,Sydney Herald Tribune
U Aye is Burma's ambassador to Australia.
I read with interest (Herald, April 8) the articles on the efforts that my country, the Union of Myanmar (Burma), is exerting to eradicate the menace of narcotic drugs. They would have been more comprehensive if the history of the subject had been mentioned - that this problem was non-existent in Myanmar until the opium poppy was introduced by the colonial administration after we had lost our independence.
Our country and our people suffered tremendously due to the opening of licensed opium dens, which was a means of raising revenue for the colonial authorities. The opium trade, legal under the colonial powers, spread to foreign lands through ports and harbours such as Hong Kong to neighbouring heavily populated areas of the globe - a menace that still exists.
Ever since Myanmar regained its hard-won independence successive governments have devoted vast resources to eradicating this menace. During the administration of the present government our security forces have suffered thousands of casualties, so to write that perhaps the government may be linked to traffickers in the very first paragraph was most unfair.
As this is not only a local but also an international problem, we welcome whatever assistance we receive from international organisations and foreign governments. We are determined to eradicate the drug menace and also to rid ourselves of one of the remaining legacies of our colonial past.
Recently we have had significant successes in our drug eradication campaigns, as witnessed by the unconditional surrender of some major drug traffickers and the ceasefires with armed groups.
Yet it has become apparent that the long-term solution to the drug menace does not lie with the government spraying herbicides on illegal poppy fields from the air, or by searching for and destroying these fields on the ground, or by arresting and detaining those who grow poppies. Such actions only result in our denying the growers the only means of livelihood they have known since colonial days. Such actions only turn them into insurgents.
The long-term solution lies in the Government not fighting them, but engaging them in all sincerity, learning their needs and aspirations and fulfilling them.
Hence agreements have been arrived at between the Government and the poppy growers, and with former armed ethnic groups involved with drugs. This is perhaps the reason for misunderstanding that the authorities have some "connection with traffickers". The agreements are that the growers will totally stop their illegal activities if they can be provided with an alternative way to earn their income.
If such an alternative cannot be provided overnight, they will co-operate in the program designed to eliminate the cultivation of opium poppies gradually, with the Government introducing basic human needs such as schools, hospitals, roads and bridges to help them market their substitute crops which replace their high-income opium.
The Government is undertaking to fulfil its part of the bargain and is achieving considerable success as witnessed by foreigners, diplomats and media who have visited the areas undergoing development. A whole new ministry with considerable resources has been created to develop the border regions where opium poppies had been grown.
Such activities are no secret and are open for all to observe, and judging by the photographs appearing in your newspaper, your correspondents have also been there, although the articles do not reveal the true picture.
For instance, accusations of the manufacture of illegal drugs such as methamphetamines have been made against Myanmar. But no chemicals or relevant paraphernalia is available there to manufacture such drugs.
Myanmar has never shied away from its responsibility, and as a responsible member of the international community it is sparing no effort to eradicate the menace of narcotic drugs.