SLORC: New Light Editorial, July 19

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Subject: SLORC: New Light Editorial, July 19, 1996

Status: RO

THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR  - Editorial, July 19, 1996  (p. 6)

 As recalled by the entrepreneurs themselves at the Visit Myanmar [Burma] 
Year and Myanmar Development Forum the other day, speaker after speaker 
endorsed the good work the State Law and Order Restoration Council had 
done in jettisoning the centralised economy and substituting it with the 
outward-looking market economy.
As Mr Joe Peng, one of the principal speakers, had noted, he came to 
Myanmar in 1985 and found his hands tied.  Nonetheless, he went away, 
vowing to come back for he believed he could work out something viable.
He, and many other goodwill ambassadors came back and found the 
conditions conducive to investment.  They had high praise for the people, 
specially those in working age, their industry, honesty and the will to 
learn.  They were working for mutual benefit.
However, it was not to be.  The publicity these garment manufacturers 
obtained through visiting Western media later turned sour because the 
contractors like Liz Claiborne, Eddie Bauer, Macy's and suchlike received 
the brunt of the protests over dealing with Myanmar.
Understandably, and as the venturers had pointed out, it was Daw Aung San 
Suu Kyi and the NLD [National League for Democracy] behind the mischief.  
They would rather let their fellow citizens suffer when they should be 
encouraging foreigners to do business here.
They played into the hands of the foreign destructionists and 
obstructionists so well that instead of the entrepreneurs getting more 
orders, they were having to cut them.
Does it please the NLD and its leader, Daw Suu Kyi, to make the job 
holders jobless?  Does it also please them to have no aid coming our way? 
 No loans?  Investments, international banking and loans are intertwined.
The West threatens us with sanctions just because it cannot succeed in 
its machinations to wrest power for Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD.
Yesterday, this paper carried a thought-provoking article -- The 
Unforgettable 19th July -- which is a page from history and which is 
worth reading side by side, so to say, with today's developments.  [ed. 
note:  this "thought-provoking" article conjured an image of Aung San 
murdering his own daughter and spitting in her face.] The waters of Inya 
Lake which touch Daw Suu Kyils shore and that of U Saw's cottage bear 
witness to the cached munitions destined to retard our regaining of 
independence and today's machinations handin-glove with neocolonialists 
designed to make Myanmar poorer and shove it under colonialism again.
Laws in any country are made to serve the needs of the time, to be 
obeyed, whether they are strictly enforced or not, specially those that 
are meant for preservation of public order.
It is seen that while there are those who champion nonconformity, there 
are also those who goaded by their distant cohorts willingly flout them.  
A case in point is the State Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC] 
Law No 5/96, namely, Law Protecting the Systematic Transfer of 
Responsibility and the Successful Performance of the National Convention 
against Disturbances and Opposition.
In the public interest and that of preservation of public order, this 
law, plus observations at the Forum should be respected.