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BURMA RELATED NEWS - November
24, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - God's Army twins afraid to resettle in
US
Reuters - U.N. seeks more progress in Myanmar
democracy talks
BBC - New UN effort in Burma talks
Bkk Post - Speed
flowing through Laos
Bkk Post - Locals want
Burma power plant monitored
The Nation - Maneeloy to be shut next month
Xinhuanet - U.N. Envoy to Visit Myanmar
ST - Panic selling of big kyat notes in
Myanmar
Irrawady online - Ms Ma Thanegi's Rules of
Good Political Etiquette
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday November 24, 2:59 PM
God's Army twins afraid to resettle in US BANGKOK, Nov 24 (AFP) - The
young twin brothers who once led the Myanmar rebel militia God's Army say they
are afraid of moving to the United States, which is considering a resettlement
offer, a report said Saturday.
Johnny and Luther Htoo, who surrendered along with a group of their
followers to Thai authorities in January, told the Thai News Agency they were
worried for their safety in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"Im afraid of living in tall buildings," Luther reportedly said in an
interview at a Thai border police camp where they have been living. "I dont want
to go. An airplane will crash into the building."
Johnny added that he was troubled by images of Saudi terrorist suspect
Osama bin Laden he saw on television, the report said.
The ethnic Karen brothers, who are believed to be aged 13, said they would
rather live at the Karen refugee camp of Ban Tham Hin in western Ratchaburi
province, where several of their friends were staying.
"Well have friends to play with, well be able to play football, well be
able to go to school," they were quoted as saying.
US immigration officials interviewed the internationally known pair in May
and have been considering a resettlement offer, according to Thai authorities.
The boy leaders were once revered by their ethnic Karen followers who
believed they had mystical powers that made them invincible in battles against
Myanmar troops along the Thai border.
After their surrender to Thai troops in January, the Htoo brothers debunked
the myths surrounding their militia band and said they dreamed only of returning
to Myanmar and going to school like ordinary children.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday November 24, 5:54 AM
U.N. seeks more progress in Myanmar democracy talks UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N.
special envoy Razali Ismail will press for fresh progress in democracy talks
between the government and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi when he visits
Myanmar on Tuesday, the United Nations said on Friday.
The week-long visit will be Razali's sixth to the military-ruled southeast
Asian nation since he took up his mandate to promote human rights and democracy
there, in April 2000.
During his stay, the veteran Malaysian diplomat is expected to meet
Secretary One and intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, one of the most powerful
officials of Myanmar's government, officially called the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC).
He also is due to confer with senior members of the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD), including Suu Kyi, the party's leader and a Nobel
laureate.
The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide but was never
allowed to govern.
Suu Kyi has been under virtual house arrest for more than a year, despite
having entered into secretive talks -- brokered by Razali -- with the
SPDC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Friday, 23 November, 2001, 19:02
GMT
New UN effort in Burma talks By the BBC's Burma analyst Larry Jagan in Bangkok United Nations envoy Razali Ismail is due to visit Burma again next week to
renew his efforts to facilitate talks between the military government and the
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
UN sources told the BBC that Mr Razali is now definitely due to arrive on
Tuesday and spend a week meeting both military and opposition leaders.
This is the envoy's fourth visit to Burma this year.
Nearly 200 political prisoners have been released from jail since the
beginning of the year when Mr Razali made the secret talks public.
But in recent weeks there has been growing concern among diplomats in
Rangoon that the talks between the two sides had stalled. It is three months
since Mr Razali's last visit and very little has happened since then to suggest
that the process is actually entering a new phase.
Possible solution?
A top leader from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, Tin U,
says the process is still in the confidence-building stage.
Diplomats in Rangoon fear talks have actually stalled and that the Burmese
generals are now trying to spin the process out. The UN, on the other hand, is
more optimistic.
Mr Razali is believed to be working on a plan that he will discuss at
length with both the government and the opposition next week.
He wants to establish an overall framework that could be the basis for a
transition government.
This would involve both sides accepting that the elections, which the NLD
convincingly won more than a decade ago, be put to one side. The military
prevented the NLD from taking power despite its victory.
Foreign aid
The key immediate issue though is the question of international assistance.
Last time Mr Razali was in Burma, the opposition leader indicated her
willingness to allow limited humanitarian assistance provided it did not
directly benefit the army.
As a result many countries, particularly Japan and the European Union, have
signalled their willingness to support a new international aid programme which
was carefully monitored and had combating the spread of Aids as its highest
priority.
Mr Razali, according to UN sources, is keen to see aid resume and will be
suggesting that the way forward might be to set up a co-ordinator to oversee
both non-government and international aid.
He even has some names in mind, a UN source told the BBC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - November 24,
2001.
Speed flowing through Laos
Sermsuk Kasitipradit
Illicit drugs from Thailand and Burma are crossing Lao borders instead,
said the man running Laos' anti-drugs effort.
``Our territory is being used to send illicit drugs to our neighbouring
countries,'' Soubanh Srithirath told the 4th Lao-Thai meeting on drugs held in
Luang Prabang.
The minister attached to the Lao President's Office, who chairs the Lao
National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision, said trafficking of
methamphetamines had increased rapidly as a result of crackdowns in Thailand and
Burma.
``Thousands of our students and workers are now addicted and several
thousands are in rehabilitation,'' Mr Suobanh said.
Millions of methamphetamine pills had been sent across the Lao border with
Thailand and the Mekong river in the last year.
The minister dismissed reports in Thai papers that the United Wa State
Army, regarded as the biggest source of illicit drugs in the Golden Triangle,
had moved its drug plants to Bo Kaeo province in Laos.
Gen Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuthaya, who supervises Thailand's
anti-drugs efforts, said co-operation between countries in the Golden Triangle
had made life more difficult for drugs traffickers. ``They are much in disarray
and cannot move drugs as freely as they once did,'' he said.
Further co-operation was needed, however, to clamp down on recent drug
movements, he said.
The government would look at Laos' request that Thailand set up
detoxification and rehabilitation centres in Laos, he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - November 24,
2001.
Locals want Burma power plant monitored
Chiang Rai _ Local activists have demanded an air pollution control centre
be set up in Mae Sai if the government allows a shipment of power generator
parts to be sent across the Burmese border to a power plant in Tachilek.
Praphan Srivichai, from the Rak Mae Sai group, said the locals would allow
the shipment through if a centre is set up to monitor air quality in the
district.
He demanded the government seek Rangoon's written guarantee the power plant
in Tachilek will be safe.
Rangoon has assured that the plant would meet ISO standards.
On April 20, 14 trucks carrying generator parts was prevented from crossing
the Burmese border by Mae Sai residents who feared the power plant in Tachilek
would harm the environment on the Thai side of the border.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Maneeloy to be shut next month
Published on Nov 24, 2001
The Maneeloy refugee holding centre for Burmese students in Ratchaburi
province's Pak Tho district will be closed in the middle of next month,
Ratchaburi Governor Komet Daengtongdee said yesterday.
Residents not eligible to resettle in a third country will be relocated by
the Interior Ministry and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to a temporary
shelter for displaced persons.
"The National Security Committee has agreed to close the Maneeloy holding
centre on December 15. There are about 200 Burmese who are waiting for an
interview to be able to resettle in a third country," he said.
The UNHCR will move the remaining Burmese to a camp either in Ratchaburi's
Suan Phung district or Kanchanaburi's Sangkhla Buri district, the governor said.
The Maneeloy centre was set up in 1988 to accommodate Burmese students fleeing
brutal suppression in their home country but became embroiled in controversy
when many of its charges were suspected of taking part in hostage-taking raids
at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok as well as Ratchaburi provincial
hospital.
After those incidents in the past two years, many groups of people,
including some in Ratchaburi, demanded that the centre be closed down.
A Burmese student said most of those in the camp were worried that the new
shelter would not be safe for them, so they did not agree with the closing of
the camp.
He said that he had raised the issue with UNHCR staff, who had told him
that the mothballing of the centre was a decision of the Thai government.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.N. Envoy to Visit Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2001-11-24 05:49:26 UNITED NATIONS, November 23 (Xinhuanet) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
Special Envoy to Myanmar is scheduled to visit the country at the end of this
month to help facilitate the talks between the government and opposition
leaders, a U.N. spokesman announced Friday.
"Razali Ismail is expected to meet with government leaders, including
General Khin Nyunt, and senior members of the National League for Democracy...
on democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar," U.N. spokesman Fred
Eckhard told reporters in New York.
According to the spokesman, Ismail is slated to visit Yangon, the capital,
from November 27 to December 4 for his sixth mission to Myanmar since he was
appointed special envoy in April 2000.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times - November 24,
2001.
Panic selling of big kyat notes in Myanmar Despite govt moves to ease the situation, the value of the currency has
plunged and inflation is serious
By Larry Jagan IN YANGON THE latest indication that Myanmar has not escaped the economic fall-out
from the Sept 11 attacks on the United States and Washington's ongoing war on
terrorism is the panic selling of the country's large-denomination kyat notes.
'No one wants to hold 1,000- or 500-kyat notes for fear that the government
was planning to withdraw them from circulation,' said a Myanmar
businessman.
Decades ago, Myanmar had withdrawn large-denomination notes overnight,
devaluing many people's savings instantly.
But the government has been quick to intervene.
'As long as the military government is in charge, there will be no
withdrawal of the official currency notes, be it the 1,000-kyat note or the
500-kyat note,' the country's deputy chief of military intelligence,
Major-General Kyaw Win, said recently.
While the government's intervention has stopped the panic selling of the
large kyat notes, it has not stemmed the fall of the value of the kyat on the
open market.
'It's been sliding downwards for several months now,' said a Yangon-based
analyst. 'It's virtually in a free-fall against the dollar.'
The exchange rate is now more than eight hundred kyat to US$1.
Money changers in Yangon expect it to fall even further in the next few
weeks.
'Residents in the capital are continuously complaining about rising
prices,' said an Asian diplomat.
The prices of eggs, vegetables and peanut oil have more than doubled in the
past two months.
'One egg now costs more than thirty kyat,' complained a resident.
Although meat prices have increased only marginally, many families have
given up eating meat to be able to afford essential foodstuffs whose prices have
increased astronomically.
Rice has remained relatively stable because of government intervention to
control its price.
The military authorities have long feared that large increases in the price
of rice would provoke food riots.
Privately, UN officials fear a massive humanitarian crisis is
looming.
They estimate that one child in three is already malnourished.
If the economic crisis remains unchecked, they fear that this could double
within the next 12 months.
The situation is particularly critical in the countryside, they say.
Bus and taxi fares have also increased dramatically since May when the
government stiffened petrol rationing.
'The buses are less crowded now,' said a Western diplomat. 'And fewer
people are taking taxis, so there are lots of cabs and drivers sitting idle
waiting for customers.'
The prices of cars have also more than doubled in the past three
months.
Moreover, the fall in the kyat is forcing the prices of imported goods like
medicines and cosmetics to rise.
With the economic slowdown, analysts also estimate that Myanmar's tourist
revenue will fall by more than 50 per cent in the next six months. Many foreign
businessmen have also chosen to leave the country.
The military government is increasingly worried about the country's
spiralling inflation and the falling value of the kyat.
Analysts believe Myanmar is starting to realise that economic recovery will
come only when the country has solved its political problems, including
agreement on some form of power sharing with opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irrawaddy online
Ms Ma Thanegi's Rules of Good Political Etiquette By Dr Kyi May Kaung November 23, 2001—On October 29 Ms Ma Thanegi, former trusted companion of
Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and now one of Suu Kyi's most
vocal critics, came to Washington DC to participate in a panel discussion at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was scheduled to speak on what
she said were her own views of Burma.
Many dissidents inside and outside Burma consider Ma Thanegi to be a
spokesman for the regime. At the presentation, however, she was introduced, by
moderator Dr. G John Ikenberry, as a close associate of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
that Ms Ma Thanegi had been imprisoned because of her closeness to Suu Kyi.
Ma Thitsa, a former political prisoner who was detained in Insein prison
and is now a student in Boston, said that when she was in prison during 1990-91,
she and Ma Thanegi were held in the same building. Ma Thanegi, she said, was
actually incarcerated for having been Suu Kyi's personal assistant. However,
according to Ma Thitsa, due to the strict rules of Insein prison and the fact
that Ma Thanegi was given a cell all to herself, whereas the other political
prisoners were forced to share cells, the two were never able to discuss
politics.
While introducing Ma Thanegi, John Ikenberry said that she had evolved her
own ideas after being released; to the dissident community, this translates as
"selling out" to the military regime in Burma. One dissident noted that it was
ironic that even a critic of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi sought to legitimate herself
to the international community by establishing her former close association with
the democracy leader.
Jeremy Woodrum, Director of the Free Burma Coalition, was among those
demonstrating outside the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace while Ma
Thanegi spoke inside. Woodrum told Radio Free Asia's (RFA) Sein Kyaw Hlaing in a
broadcast interview that David Steinberg of Georgetown University helped arrange
Ma Thanegi's visit through the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He added that she is a
contributing editor to the Myanmar Times, an English-language paper widely
believed to have connections with the regime.
During the small reception prior to the beginning of the panel, I had a
chance to talk to Ma Thanegi briefly. She is a small woman with black hair
stylishly cut short and flipped upwards away from her face. She has smooth brown
skin and a pixie face with an outjutting jaw that seemingly never cracks a
smile. It was easy to spot her among the milling guests. She was wearing a black
blouse that looked hand-tailored in Rangoon, a red longyi and matching bright
red lipstick. She told me that she had gone to Methodist English High School in
Rangoon at the same time that I was there and mentioned the name of a relative
of hers that I could not recall. She also said that she knew some of my extended
family still living in Burma.
I noticed that several important people in the Burmese democracy movement
and the international donor community attended the event and Voice of America
(VOA) and RFA reporters were in attendance. As Ma Thanegi was the featured
speaker she spoke first on her topic, which had been announced ahead of time:
The Culture Clash and Political Breakdown: Relations between the United States
and Myanmar. The title is dense and almost incomprehensible and later on I found
out I wasn't the only one who didn't understand this title. Brian Joseph,
another speaker on the panel, also said he did not understand the meaning of her
topic.
The main points she made were as follows:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Bogyoke Aung San, the leader of
Burma's pre-war Independence movement and the founding father of the nation, and
because of this association she received an elitist education overseas. Ma
Thanegi said Suu Kyi is naturally idealistic in her beliefs and that because the
international press has continually reported on her and subsequently pushed her
into a corner that she has become even more idealistic than before. Ma Thanegi
also added that the international press has taken a liking to Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi because she is "so beautiful and charming".
In regards to the timing of the reconciliation process and the transition
to democracy in Burma, Ma Thanegi advocated patience. She said that there is no
reason to get frustrated about the process "as it depends on the two sides and
should be secret".
On the issue of sanctions she mounted quite an emotional argument compared
to the beginning of her presentation where she spent a great deal of time
talking about her interpretation of Burmese culture. She accused United States
foreign policy of "economic terrorism". She then referred to US Senate Bill 926
and speculated that it could cause "100,000 women and children" to lose their
jobs. However in an interview with RFA’s U
Sein Kyaw Hlaing that was broadcast the next day, the figure became
"200,000 to 300,000". In response to questioning from RFA about this difference,
she said that she got the numbers from "some garment industry association".
During the evening’s question and answer session she returned to this
"women and children" point, which seemed to be an attempt to appeal to the
audience’s softside. By then it must have been obvious to her that her talk had
not received a good reception from the forty to fifty people who attended, all
of whom had been required to pre-register.
After Ma Thanegi's talk there was complete silence in the room, with no one
making a move towards even a semblance of polite applause. After a few seconds
of obvious surprise, she seemed to regain her composure and the moderator
introduced the next speaker.
Ma Thanegi spent about 30 % of her panel time lecturing the audience
on
"Burmese culture," that is, on Ms. Ma Thanegi's view of Burmese culture,
which incidentally coincides with the junta's view. According to Win Min, an
activist in exile, this frustrated and annoyed the audience. Right at the
beginning of her talk she announced her political affiliation and sympathies
none too subtly by announcing that she used the term Myanmar and not Burma which
she said was the term used by the English (colonialists). The Burmese dissident
community who refuses to recognize the use of Myanmar sees this to be evidence
of her support for the military regime. Ma Thanegi said Burmese politics is an
internal affair and foreigners should not get involved in it.
On the whole she spoke calmly but at times she stuttered a bit as she tried
to formulate what she was trying to say and to buy time after some of the
audience’s questions, which on the whole were very confrontational and
aggressive. She came across, at least to me, as a careful and polished but
rather opaque speaker, who goes back to the Burmese military line every time she
is in a bind. At times she sounded like an old record running along in the old
groove of the Burmese military's mindset. Some of her statements contradicted
each other. For example in her emotional pitch using "the women and children
will lose their jobs" rhetoric, at first she said that 100,000 will lose their
jobs and "it's so unfair, it's so cruel." She then later said in response to a
question that S926 would "make no difference to how the government acts." This
seemed more like bluffing and saving face than anything else. !
I had a chance to talk to some democracy advocates in private and some of
them felt that the junta must be in quite a crisis to be sending advocates to
America in a public relations campaign. In September of this year Dr.Win Naing,
based in Japan, gave a speech at Human Rights Watch in Washington DC. A DC-based
analyst told me that "as Win Naing had not done his homework, and was not well
prepared, his presentation more or less flopped". Analysts feel that Ma Thanegi
was sent on this tour because of that recent failure. Win Min, who heard Dr Win
Naing’s speech, said that although Ma Thanegi was better prepared she still was
not adequately prepared to handle the tough questions from democracy activists
and former political prisoners.
In a recent interview with the Myanmar Times Lt Gen Khin Nyunt pleaded for
withdrawal of sanctions. Myanmar Times also ran interviews with local
businessmen on the possible impact of S926. The Myanmar Chamber of Commerce also
sent pleas to President George W. Bush. The junta seems desperate to prevent
S926 from being passed and Ma Thanegi's trip looks like it is part of an
orchestrated lobbying strategy by the junta.
The other two speakers on the panel were Brian Joseph, of the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Burmese analyst David Steinberg of Georgetown
University who helped organize the event.
Brian Joseph's speech was a strong and clearly in favor of democratic
change in Burma. He stressed the point made by Aung Din and Free Burma Coalition
members that if the release of political prisoners were to continue at this
rate, it would take a decade for all 2000 political prisoners to be
released.
David Steinberg, the evening’s third speaker, did not take a clear side in
the debate, something he is known for, but he appeared more supportive of the
democratic majority in the room than he has been in the past. One well- known
academic said in private that Steinberg has "fire on one shoulder and water on
the other" a famous Burmese saying. Others feel that Steinberg remains neutral
in hopes of eventually becoming the US Ambassador in Myanmar.
Steinberg did agree with one comment from Ma Thanegi's Far Eastern Economic
Review article about sanctions. He said that it is quite naive to think that
economic assistance alone would automatically lead to political changes. He
cited examples of East Asian authoritarianism and suggested a well-rounded
approach for Burma.
Some young activists, however, expressed to me in private that "on the
panel there were two people for the junta and only one (Mr. Joseph) speaking for
a speedy transition to democracy". One senior Burma watcher observed that the
seminar organizers had carefully calculated even the selection of Mr. Joseph as
a panelist. He said, Mr. Joseph is a strong supporter of democracy in Burma but
he has on occasion publicly criticized the democracy movement.
I asked Ma Thanegi who she spoke for when she made sweeping comments such
as "the Burmese people are conservative, Burmese parents hate MTV, and ahnarde
is a problem in Burma." (Ahnarde is feeling bad or embarrassed to say or do
something, something said to be a problem in Burmese culture). I also asked how
Ma Thanegi could be absolutely sure that economic sanctions alone and not the
years of mismanagement and misguided policies of the military government caused
the unemployment numbers that she gave. She said simply that she knew because
she was a writer and had been all over the country.
During her talk Ma Thanegi had many prescriptions as to how people should
talk and act in this normative "Burmese culture" that she was condoning. This
portion of her presentation amounted almost to a harangue and judging by the
title she gave to her talk and the amount of time she devoted to this, it seems
this "culture clash" was her over-riding argument and theme. One of the elected
Members of Parliament commented later that if culture and the ahrnade concept
were of such importance as Ma Thanegi made them out to be, then democracy leader
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have titled her book
"Freedom From Ahnarde" rather than "Freedom From Fear."
I also asked Ma Thanegi about the patience issue as she had said she was
willing to wait for the outcome of the secret talks between the National League
for Democracy and junta. I said for people like her and myself, living in the
relative comfort of middle class neighborhoods in Burma and the United States,
perhaps we could afford to wait; but what about student leader Min Ko Naing who
had already served his sentence and was in poor emotional and physical health
because of being incarcerated. When I got carried away and said, "I'm asking you
a rhetorical question, you need not answer it." I heard a ripple of cynical
laughter behind me in the room. A co-worker who is a close friend of Min Ko
Naing told me later it was very difficult to keep a cool head and not be
emotional when confronting Ma Thanegi. "As I was asking her a question, I began
to feel as if I were talking to a Burmese general," the man sai! d.
Former political prisoner Ko Aung Din, of FBC and Association for
Assistance for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPPB) asked two questions of Ma
Thanegi and one of David Steinberg. The first question was if she was aware of
the number of political prisoners in Burma. Also as she spoke of "economic
terrorism" was she aware that the Burmese government in fact sponsored terrorism
under which she and he had all lived. "Then why," he asked, "do you say that
sanctions are the culprit in all this." As Steinberg in his talk spoke of the
military government donating to the pagodas, which was a method used by the
Burmese kings, Aung Din asked him if he knew how the junta was pressuring the
monks including Kya-Khat Waing Sayadaw. He also asked Ma Thanegi if, as she had
special contact and access to Gen. Khin Nyunt and had interviewed him once for
Myanmar Times, she would go back and ask him to do what the dem! ocratic
opposition and dissident groups are asking. Ko Aung Din asked her, "Why not ask
Khin Nyunt to follow these directions if you are really sorry for the women and
children of Burma." He then went on to talk about S926 and its conditions that
state the release of all political prisoners, un-reversible and positive results
from dialog for reconciliation and more aggressive participation in
anti-narcotic efforts.
If these conditions are fulfilled the President of the United States can
ask Congress to withdraw this Bill. Aung Din said these conditions come
originally from the people of Burma and so if she, Ma Thanegi, "has such good
connections then she does not need to come halfway around the world but can ask
Khin Nyunt" directly.
Then the "surprise attendee" Ma Thitsa, mentioned before, who had come to
DC specifically for this occasion rose from her seat to ask questions. Ma
Thitsa's two questions, asked in a soft voice, can be viewed as a coup for the
Burmese democracy movement.
Ma Thitsa is a quiet, soft-spoken and rather shy woman. She had been
secretly brought to DC by Bakatha, the Burmese student union from Boston where
is going to college. During the reception before the talk, Ma Thitsa sat quietly
in a corner, obviously composing herself for the confrontation to come with a
former friend, which was likely to be at the very least highly emotional.
Ma Thitsa delivered each of her questions in Burmese and Ko Hlwan Moe of
the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) translated each
question into English. Ma Thanegi was visibly surprised when Ma Thitsa stood up.
Ma Thitsa said she did not need to introduce herself to Ma Thanegi as they had
been in jail together. The gist of the questions were,
a. As far as I understand there is no freedom of _expression_ in Burma. Won't
it be difficult for you when you go back to Burma?
b. I can accept Burmese culture in the sense of going to a monastery. But
forced labor, is that Burmese culture?
After the presentation Ma Thitsa told a close friend that it was good that
she had not been noticed by Ma Thanegi prior to the talk. "Otherwise Ma Thanegi
might have worked her charm, and then it might have made it difficult to ask
tough questions," she said.
Immediately after the talk, people said that Ma Thanegi came over to Ma
Thitsa and warmly greeted her. To one person who knew her in Burma that is a
sign of Ma Thanegi's "heart," but this same person also said that he found it
difficult to talk to her as he saw her as a symbol of the regime. To me it seems
a strange coincidence that Ma Thitsa's name in Burmese means Truth or
Loyalty.
Win Min asked about the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) statements
about the lack of independence of the English language Myanmar Times where Ma
Thanegi is a contributing editor. Win Min then read a quote from the CPJ about
Myanmar Times.
Min Zaw Oo of the University of Maryland asked what other methods of
protest outside dissidents had besides asking for sanctions. He said that if the
junta "will stop pressuring us, we will stop pressuring them".
At this point the facilitators were starting to run out of time and had Ma
Thanegi answer all the questions at the same time. This gave her time to demur
on some of the answers some of which were - To Ma Thitsa's question about danger
on going back, "well, I have to survive by talking carefully between the tigers
and the crocodiles." In response to Min Zaw Oo's question, she repeated again,
it's so unfair.
Ma Thanegi is apparently what one would call a very cool customer. She has
the ability to talk calmly even if she is not exactly answering the questions
but is rather dodging and evading them and defending the junta.
The questions were all posed aggressively but she kept emotional distance.
Maybe she was able to do this because she is not deeply involved emotionally
unlike the dissidents whose emotional engagement and political commitment came
through in the questions. Ma Thanegi pretty much kept repeating the Burmese
culture theme in her so-called arguments but as one of the democracy leaders in
exile has stated, she herself seems very much ingrained in the junta culture of
"father knows best".
Still it was a good thing that dissidents overseas had a chance to talk to
someone at the other end of the political spectrum. "Otherwise we would all be
talking to each other all the time," said one dissident.
He went on to say, however, that it was curious that such a person as Ma
Thanegi or the junta wanted a fair hearing internationally and seemingly wanted
the right to sit at table and talk as equals while themselves denying similar
rights to the Burmese people, the ethnic groups and the democracy advocates
within Burma.
Eyewitnesses of the panel that was in Berkeley, CA reported that it was an
even greater debacle for Ma Thanegi and her cohorts than the one in Washington
DC had been. Prominent dissidents such as Dr. Zarni, founder of the Free Burma
Coalition, and Min Zin, one of the leading intellectuals in the Burmese
democracy movement attended. There were reports that dissidents got up and said
they wished to comment, not ask questions. The pro-democracy faction in the
audience were reported to have booed those who applauded Ma Thanegi's position,
and that she had to be hustled away by the organizers before she could finish
speaking.
Although throughout her US trip, Ma Thanegi spoke on "Burmese culture,"
Brian Joseph of NED said at the DC session that in a totalitarian country it is
impossible to know what national sentiments are. Even in an open society people
do not necessarily answer questionnaires truthfully so with no scientific study
of any sort, Ma Thanegi's opinions will remain only her opinions and those of
the people around her. They cannot be presented in a more general light.
Jeremy Woodrum of FBC said that, "It is ironic that Ma Thanegi claims that
more money will help the Burmese. Actually the exact opposite is true. In the
early 1990s, when millions of dollars of US investment money poured into Burma,
there was a massive increase in forced labor, which many refer to as slave
labor. In fact, more money meant more repression. Investment and trade doesn't
happen in a vacuum. If you pump money into an abusive system you get more abuse
not less."
Since 1988 the NLD and democracy advocates have been calling for a system
change.
As I am writing this article the WTO Ministerial Meeting is winding up in
Qatar, after having admitted both China and Taiwan as new members. Sales to
China alone are estimated as being worth two billion dollars a year to the
United States. On November 5th, the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) put out a statement that the persistence of forced labor on a
large scale in Burma, which has been confirmed by the International Labor
Organization, should prompt all member states to impose binding trade sanctions
on the Burmese regime.
Kyi May Kaung holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of
Pennsylvania and currently works for the Burma Fund in Washington, DC as a
Senior Research Associate. The opinions expressed here belong to K.M. Kaung
alone and not to any organization or other
individual. |