Source : Japan Today / Nov 14 2002
Japan Today Discussion

No Lasting Solution without Non-Burmans
Saihukkhur (Nov 14 2002 - 00:27)

While Aung San Suu Kyi's trip to Shan State and the reorganization of it party NLD could be hailed as progress along the line of "confidence-building" between the NLD and SPDC, the Shan Nationalities' League for Democracy (SNLD) and other non-Burman political parties still have to be given the same right to reorganize themselves and start their political activities.

It goes without saying that Burma is a multi-ethnic state and the stakeholders include the non-Burman ethnic nationalities and the parties that represent them, apart from the NLD and SPDC.As such, trying to find settlement excluding the ethnic nationalities will never be successful, let alone a peaceful or lasting one.

No testing political waters without these success
naydun (Nov 14 2002 - 12:27)

Construction of Roads

Since the SPDC (Myanmar Government) assumed multifarious duties of State in 1988, it has striven for construction of new roads with a view to ensure smooth and secure transport and regional developments all over the country. The SPDC could manage to restore peace to the regions and to build roads and bridges which are playing a crucial role in the transportation sector. Therefore , in so short a time, commercial activities of the national people in the country will be enhanced. It is necessary for all regions throughout the country to have easy access to each other and to extend social relations among them. That is why such regional development works as building roads and bridges are being under-taken. In building the roads, no outside technical or financial aids or no assistances are being taken.

Construction of Dams and Reservoirs

Under the leadership of the SPDC , the Tatmadaw (Armed Forces) Government is making all-out efforts for the development of the national races according to the political, economic and social objectives. Tatmadaw Government, today, is striving for the emergence of a peaceful, modern and developed nation utilizing internal resources as much as possible. Myanmar being an agriculture country requires dams and reservoirs in order to meet the increasing demand of grain production both for increasing domestic consumption and for foreign exports. As the Government is trying to boost the agriculture production , it has extended the sown area to more than a million acres of vacant and virgin-lands for a double and triple crop production. No foreign aids are sought in the construction of Dams and Weirs.

Construction of Railroads

The new railroads, an important infrastructure for the development of a country, are built in many area reaching out to the remotest parts of the land for the smooth flow of goods and commodities and public transportation as well. In building the railroads, the Government has utilised the technical knowhow of the local technicians and its own financial resources. No outside financial aids or technical assistants are being taken.

Installation of Communication Facilities

As for as communication sector is concerned, new developments and improvements, in order to keep abreast will other developed nations, are being done in all over Myanmar. In this respect, the government is spending large sum of money to ensure people for better and easier communication. As regards telephone communications, auto-telephones are already being installed. Now, one can make telephone contact inside and outside of Myanmar quite conveniently. Since the communication sector plays a real until role in all-round developments, the necessary improvements such as installation of microwave telephone exchanges in many townships and introducing of cellular phones via satellite communication offered people and easy access to the linked with each other. In other words, it becomes an easy access even to the remotest areas in Mandalay.

Construction of Bridges

Building bridges is, in compliance with one of our three main National Causes, a smooth and secure transportation the Tatmadaw Government has promised to the Nation. In this connection, the Government isbuilding bridges and roads in the entire Nation in order to narrow the development gap between States and Divisions and ensure proportionate progress in all regions. Roads networks, which are the base for regional advancement are being implemented to hand down good foundations to the posterity. In building the bridges, the Government has utilised the technical knowhow of the local technicians and its own financial resources. No outside financial aids or technical assistants are being taken.

Health

Health is the wealth of the one Nation. In building a countrry, the healthy work-force is a prerequisite. To ensure a healthy Nation, the Government had drawn a National Health Plan which includes amongst others, building of hospitals and dispensaries as required all over the country especially in the most deprived remote area.

Education

Youths are the investment for the future. They are the most basic strength of human resources which is considered the most important force for a country. It is also important to give them proper training in schools with all the required facilities to meet the needs and challenges of their time. In building the schools, the Government has utilised the technical knowhow of the local technicians and its own financial resources. No outside financial aids or technical assistants are being taken.

During these period, with the support of friendly neighbours and regional organizations, the Government of Myanmar was able to resist certain unfair and undue pressures at various international foray and even reached an understanding with the International Labour Organization. While there is no doubt that much more needs to be done, especially if further political transition is to take place under conditions of peace and tranquility, it is important to realize that it has been patience, understanding and cooperation that have made the present progress possible and that tactics of hostility, hypocrisy and intimidation will only stifle this process and deny the fifty million people of Myanmar, further human development that they have richly deserved for so long.

Reference :
New constructions in the time of Tatmadaw Government
http://www.myanmar.com/build/build.html

And guess how many of those roads, dams etc have been built? At gun point:
Oyaji-san (Nov 14 2002 - 13:07)

Myanmar still using forced labor: U.N.

GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN)-- Forced labor is still widespread in Myanmar even though it was officially abolished last year, says a U.N. labor group.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has urged the military government to accept a permanent monitoring group with a view to stamping out the practice.

The ILO, expressing "profound concern" in a recent resolution, says it wants to put monitors in place by March if the military government agrees.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has long battled international criticism for forcing people to do unpaid labor on construction sites for roads, railways, military installations and tourism, as well as serve as army porters.

Recently the world labor body passed a resolution saying that not enough was being done to stop forced labor, a practice the ILO says is still widespread especially in areas under direct military control.

A high-powered ILO mission, after returning from a three-week visit to Myanmar, recommended that a special ombudsman with powers to investigate allegations of continuing abuse should be set up.

Myanmar rarely allows such international delegations into the country and this time the ILO says that if the military rejects the request for monitoring then it would take "further action."

This further action could involve pressuring its 175 member governments to impose sanctions, limit relations and review their dealings with Myanmar and its military government to ensure forced labor ceases.

According to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, more than a million people in Myanmar have been subjected to forced labor.

James Leander Nichol's Death
Oyaji-san (Nov 14 2002 - 13:28)

"As for as communication sector is concerned, new developments and improvements, in order to keep abreast will other developed nations, are being done in all over Myanmar."

This is too funny. Only a few years back James Nichols (who was a Burmese citizen) was tortured to death in a Burmese jail for owning a FAX MACHINE without a license! For the junta do improvements in communications now mean owning a fax machine is not a crime punishabel by death?

Imprisoned For Owning an Illegal Fax Machine in Burma
Rangoon (AP)

The death of Scandinavian consul James Leander Nichols shows the fatal consequences of the military's repressive policies. Nichols, a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi, was imprisoned by the military for owning a fax machine which is a criminal offense if the machine hasn't been registered with the authorities.

It is widely believed that Mr. Nichols was tortured to death in prison. Although the Scandinavian countries demanded to send investigators to Burma, the dictatorship would not allow this. Instead, the military announced that Mr. Nichol's death was likely caused from eating too much rich food in prison. This event played a significant role in the European Union's decision to impose visa restrictions and other punitive measures against the Junta.

The HIV/AIDS Crisis
Oyaji-san (Nov 14 2002 - 13:44)

"To ensure a healthy Nation, the Government had drawn a National Health Plan "

Nearly 50% of the government's budget goes to the Burmese tatmadaw (military). Meanwhile, here's the real health the picture bedhind Naydun's propoganda and lies:

Myanmar: The HIV/AIDS Crisis 08/04/02 -- The International Crisis Group

HIV prevalence is rising rapidly in Burma/Myanmar, fuelled by population mobility, poverty and frustration that breeds risky sexual activity and drug-taking. Already, one in 50 adults are estimated to be infected, and infection rates in sub-populations with especially risky behaviour (such as drug users and sex workers) are among the highest in Asia.

The National AIDS Program is woefully under staffed and under funded and struggles beneath the weight of its tasks. It gets a little help from international NGOs and more from the United Nations system but the major donors are largely absent.

AIDS Hidden in Myanmar, Expert Says 06/25/02 -- New York Times

At today's UN special session on AIDS, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health epidemiologist Chris Beyrer presented a study concluding that 3.46 percent of adults in Myanmar are HIV-infected, and that the nation's military government is falsifying statistics to hide the epidemic. It would make Myanmar's epidemic the second-worst in Southeast Asia.

AIDS Runs Rampant in Myanmar 26/8/99 -- Earth Times

Prison conditions are reported to favor the spread of HIV in Myanmar. According to one former prisoner, a single needle may be used by up to 200 patients, with a new needle costing too much for the majority of inmates. According to United Nations statistics, there are 440,000 HIV-positive individuals in Myanmar; however, some health workers estimate the number is higher. Last year, 29,000 people in the country died from AIDS. Seventy-two percent of the country's intravenous drug users are reported to carry the virus, with infection rates among IDUs reaching as high as 95 percent in some areas. Burmese prostitutes have a 21 percent infection rate, up from 4.3 percent in 1992.

The Failing Health of Burma's People 15/6/99 -- Boston Globe

Burma's health status has deteriorated since a military junta in 1988. Furthermore, the World Health Organization estimates that half a million people in the country are infected with HIV--nearly 1 percent of the population. Some experts believe the actual number of HIV infections is much higher.

Opium Puts Myanmar in Crisis Over AIDS 3/5/98 -- New York Times

Myanmar, the world's leading exporter of opium, is also seeing skyrocketing rates of heroin use within its own borders. With many of the addicts sharing the same syringes for their injections, the country--formerly called Burma--has also seen soaring numbers of HIV infection and AIDS. While the government reports only 60,000 addicts--including 17,000 who have AIDS--foreign medical experts estimate the number of addicts is closer to 500,000, with several hundred thousand infected with HIV. Some estimate that Myanmar has the highest injection drug-associated HIV/AIDS rate in the world. The World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS has reported that by 1994, 74 percent of drug users in Yangon, 83 percent in Mandalay, and 91 percent in Myitkyana were infected with HIV.

BURMA: Myanmar's secret plague Aug, 23 1997

AS IF life in Myanmar was not grim enough, with its poverty and its brutal government, it now turns out to have an AIDS epidemic. Thousands of young adults have died without ever having heard of the disease that killed them, let alone of ways to prevent it. In parts of Myanmar, funerals of people in their 20s or 30s are an everyday occurrence.

Crisis: The Education Breakdown in Burma
Oyaji-san (Nov 14 2002 - 13:50)

'Youths are the investment for the future."

And here's the truth about education in Burma:

Crisis: The Education Breakdown in Burma
Jean-Michel Archambault-Cyr, The McGill Daily

RANGOON, MYANMAR (BURMA)-After being closed down for four years, Burma's military junta loudly announced this summer that the country's universities would re-open. The regime pledged the construction of new campuses, in line with its supposed policy of prioritising higher education.

The catch? They picked a convenient time-the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations were meeting in Bangkok. So while Burma was busy attempting to improve its reputation among other countries, in reality, the new policy has done little to stabilise an education system in ruins.

Perceived threat

The state completely closed down all the country's universities in 1996, when students took to the streets to protest Burma's ruling military regime. It wasn't the first time. Since 1988, the year the military junta began bloodily putting down student demonstrations, the nation's universities have been open for a total of just 30 months.

The student movement has a long standing reputation as a catalyst of change. Aung San, the father of Burmese independence, was educated before World War II in the anti-colonial student movement. Current student leaders suspect he is still viewed as a threat to the regime. Military generals are notorious for constantly opening and closing educational establishments in a bid to destabilise students and prevent them from organising and demonstrating.

Pho Kan Kaung was a second-year student at the Rangoon Institute of Technology when the government closed the institute's doors in 1996. Kaung was recently informed through the press that universities were re-opening. With just a few days notice, he had to prepare for and take a readmission exam, four years after lectures had suddenly stopped.

"Now, apart from the increased cost of registration, the main problem is getting to the new campus," Kaung says, adding that the government has forced him to study chemistry because he got high marks in the subject at school. But he sees no possibility of finding a job in this field.

Kaung has been transferred from the Rangoon Institute to a new campus he says is "built in the middle of a rice field."

The school is a two-hour bus ride from Rangoon, Burma's capital. As well as the prohibitive cost of transport, most students find the exhausting four-hour daily roundtrip on jam-packed buses too grueling a prospect. Sometimes, however, the students find clever ways of getting around their obstacles.

"Often we delegate a student in our group to go to attend lectures, and then everybody borrows the notes," Kaung says.

Manipulating students

Instead of aiming to advance education, student leaders say the new campuses have been built to meet the regime's objectives-to manipulate students.

Aung Swhe, a member of the executive committee of Burma's National League for Democracy, says the military built the new campuses to keep an eye on students' activities, not to make post-secondary education more available.

The campuses offer no student accommodation, he says, nor any areas allowing students to meet. As a result Aung Swhe says there are fewer students in university today than in 1996. With the amount of time spent on public transport, university students complain they have no more time to organise demonstrations. Even if they managed to do so, they fear the military could simply hold them up under observation in their lecture halls, or block a few rural roads, impeding them from getting to lectures in the first place. Coincidentally enough, the new university campuses are all situated near military bases.

Declaring allegiance

If that weren't enough, before re-admission to university, each student has to sign a declaration of loyalty to the junta, and the student's parents must countersign the document. By signing the declaration, students agree not to get involved in any political activity, under threat of expulsion. Lecturers also signed a similar declaration.

Once inside the classroom, conditions are no better. Books are rare. Those available are obsolete. At one campus, a group of 400 medical students shared six manuals dating from the 1960s.

The military regime insists that all students currently at university will graduate with a degree to demonstrate "progress" to international organisations and obtain the loans it so desperately needs to stay in power. Lecturers are therefore answerable to authorities for the academic success of their students, meaning many only teach the answers to end-of-year exams, and do not try to go beyond that.

According to the junta, there are currently 60,000 students enrolled in university. Other estimates put the student population at half that number. With the constant closing and re-opening of universities since 1988, very few students have been able to start their university careers.

Everyone currently enrolled in university was there four years ago, during the last shutdown. Anyone who received a secondary school diploma between 1996 and 2000 has to wait for upper-year seniors to graduate and spaces to open, which is expected to take several years. Burma is home to an estimated 16 million people under age 17-an extensive waiting list for higher education.

Underground education

In an attempt to alleviate the backlog of aspiring freshmen and provide quality schooling, an alternative, underground education network has been set up outside the reach of official censorship. This has been highly risky for those who have participated in the illegal system-some lecturers have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 50 years.

Graham Bailey, a South African academic who took part in a recent forum in Burma on education, compares the country's situation to the apartheid era of his own country. "The regime uses education as a political tool," Bailey says. "The authorities do whatever they can to stop people from thinking."

According to Aung San Suu Kyi, Aung San's daughter and the leader of Burma's democracy movement, the re-opening of the universities is just a public relations stunt and the junta has no intention of providing students with a quality education. She points out that more than 40 per cent of the national budget is spent on the military while less than seven per cent goes to health and education, even though Burma is under no threat from any foreign aggressor.

The current crisis affecting the Burmese education system is a direct consequence of the corruption and incompetence of the generals who rule the country, Suu Kyi says. Only a concerted effort can rebuild what was, at independence in 1948, the most developed nation in South East Asia, but now figures among the world's 10 poorest countries.

The United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all condemned the Burmese government for the slaughter, imprisonment, and torture of political dissidents and the forced relocation of thousands of members of ethnic minorities. Burma is also under serious threat of being banished from the ranks of members of the International Labour Organization for its practice of imposing forced labour on its citizens.

"An educated citizenry goes against the interests of this regime," Suu Kyi says. "First, we need democracy in Burma. The rest will follow."

"Construction of Dams and Reservoirs"
Oyaji-san (Nov 14 2002 - 14:04)

Speaking on the junta's watery endeavors:

"Large-scale forced labor has been reported on several major tourist development projects, including the rebuilding of the moat surrounding the Golden Palace in Mandalay, the construction of a new dam at scenic Inle Lake in Southern Shan State, the laying of a railway line near Pagan's temple complex, and the building or upgrading of airports around the country to accommodate passenger jets for tour groups. The United Nations and human rights organizations have documented the harsh conditions and often brutal treatment that accompany forced labor in Burma today.

The junta's efforts to attract tourists "is responsible for a lot of forced labor," Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has observed, ". . . for building up facades that will look impressive for the tourists." A 1998 International Labour Organization report provides evidence of forced labor on tourism development projects and goes on to conclude, "There is abundant evidence…showing the pervasive use of forced labour imposed on the civilian population throughout [Burma] by the authorities and the military…"