Tiger Cup Defeat isn't newsworthy for Burmese media
Source : Aung Zaw (Bangkok Post)
Success was all the junta cared about in football's recent Tiger Cup. It would have provided a distraction. Defeat was not an option.
The early exit of the Burmese national football side from Tiger Cup competition in Thailand last week was a disappointment for fans, a humiliation for the ruling junta, and a headache for local journalists covering the team.
The result wasn't a surprise. Burma were drawn in the same group as regional heavyweights Thailand and Indonesia. The team lost 1-3 to Thailand in the opening match of the tournament and were then thrashed 0-5 by Indonesia to end their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
But back home the local press was banned from reporting the drubbing. Shortly after the Indonesia match, the official censorship board in Rangoon quietly issued an order: "News about the Burmese national football team must be written in constructive ways."
Faced with heavy-handed censorship, journalists working for local sports journals simply avoided writing about the Tiger Cup matches. "We know we could be shut down [if we had written about the tournament]," said an editor from one such journal.
The interesting thing is that the ruling junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), had a hidden agenda at the Tiger Cup. It secretly hoped the team would reach the semi-finals to boost national morale.
Weeks before the tournament, Colonel Thaung Htike, the head of the Burmese team, received the blessings of Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt in Rangoon. Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, Burma's feared military intelligence chief and secretary one of the SPDC, heads the Myanmar National Olympic Council.
At the meeting, Col Thaung Htike and a senior trainer vowed that the national side would make it to the semi-finals.
"If they could advance to the semi-finals, Burmese at home would be very pleased," said a sports commentator in Rangoon. The generals hoped to exploit this to divert the attention of the football-crazed population away from the economic and political problems at home.
"Football fever" has again gripped Burma since 1996. Live broadcasts of European matches are often shown on television. Sport journals have mushroomed, and many local and foreign companies have begun to offer handsome payments to football players and the national football team.
"People are crazy about football," said a football commentator in Rangoon.
The recent defeats in the Tiger Cup disappointed many football fans in Burma when they heard the results on short-wave radio.
However, sports commentators and football players say the results should have been expected. "It wasn't our fault," said one player who asked not to be identified. "Our country has so many problems; sport is also in a crisis."
Shortly after losing the match to Indonesia, the Burmese football players openly complained about the country's problems, sources said.
The Burma football federation was founded in 1947 and gained respect in the 1960s when the national team was runner-up in the Asian Cup in Teheran in 1968. "We didn't even think about the Thais as rivals [at that time]," said a senior trainer who travelled with the Burmese team to Chiang Mai.
After the defeat in Chiang Mai it seems there could be more bad news in Rangoon.
It is believed that the team's trainers and officials could be punished. They recalled the recent case of their former boss, Major-General Win Sein, which is still fresh in their minds.
The SPDC in 1996-7, then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), created the Ministry of Sports and appointed Maj-Gen Win Sein to head it. However, Maj-Gen Win Sein, hand-picked by Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, wasn't at the helm for long. The minister, also known as S. Win Sein because he is an ethnic Karen, was given the position not because he is a sports enthusiast but because he had done great works for his boss in the past. Thus the ministerial post was a reward.
In 1999, during the SEA Games in Brunei, the Thais beat Burma 7-0. Shortly after returning from the trip, Maj-Gen Win Sein, who took two of his daughters to Brunei for shopping, was fired. In the same fashion as in Chiang Mai, news of the failure in Brunei was heavily censored. Local sports commentators were asked to write about football matches in Europe and elsewhere, but not Brunei.
With little in the way of official funds but plenty of corruption and favouritism, Burmese football has suffered a great deal. However, there is some good news for the Burmese team.
"We no longer need to worry about the budget," said one high-ranking official from the team. The national outfit is now being backed by Burmese millionaire Aung Ko Win.
The businessman, who was little known in the early 1990s, is now one of the richest men in Burma.
How the former schoolteacher became one of the country's leading bankers is a mystery to most people in Burma. Not surprisingly though, his success is tied to senior officers such as General Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the SPDC. Aung Ko Win's wife, Nang Than Htwe, an ethnic Shan, is a private tutor to the general's sons and daughter.
Up until 1988, Aung Ko Win, also known as "Saya Kyaung", was a little-known schoolteacher. But after Gen Maung Aye became number two in the ruling junta, Aung Ko Win was given lucrative business concessions in Shan State.
During the initial stages of Burma's "market economy" in the late 80s, he was in charge of purchasing goods at the Shan Yoma Shopping Centre in Tachilek, opposite Mae Sai, owned by then eastern commander General Maung Aye. With the blessings of this influential figure, Aung Ko Win began his own business in the early 1990s.
He was granted an import licence for cement and also engaged in an agriculture business. He is currently president of Myanmar Billion Group, Nilayoma Co Ltd, East Yoma Co Ltd and Kanbawza Hospital in Taunggyi, Shan State.
He also is head of Kanbawza Bank, which was established early this year, and which now funds the national football side.
Aung Ko Win is reported to have contributed 50% of the bank's net profits to the national football team. He also is reported to have donated $2.85 million (124 million baht) to public projects such as the renovation of the Shwedagon pagoda.
However, sources in Rangoon speculate that the money given to the national football team is part of a money laundering scheme.
Be that as it may, for Burmese fans the defeats at the Tiger Cup were heartbreaking. They got little help from sports critics, who were effectively banned from commenting or reporting on the matches because of the official censorship.
Ironically, the losses, according to some Burmese trainers and officials including two military intelligence officers who accompanied the team, were the fault of British coach David Booth. "He is very dictatorial. Our kids were under pressure when they played Thailand and Indonesia," a Burmese trainer said.
However, the trainer and officials seem to conveniently ignore the fact that dictatorship is the only form of authority the players in the team have ever known.
If the Burmese team are beaten easily in future matches, no one should be surprised. But if they start defeating their rivals, it may be safe to say that the winds of change have started blowing through Burma.