| |
| |
 |
| |
Two Myanmese Buddhist monks walks under a huge billboard advertizing the National convention. |
Myanmar’s manual to deal with riots dates back to when the British ruled Burma.
“There are three lines drawn on the ground. Each time the protesters cross a line, there will be a greater response from the soldiers. When they cross the third line, the troops will move in,” a senior government official told this visiting journalist.
And as far as Myanmar’s military rulers are concerned, the protests by the monks were anti-democratic. Just one of the controversial points of view the junta stands by.
Asked about the death of the Japanese video cameraman shot at point blank range during the crackdown, he said: “We are now reviewing the manual on our rules of engagement, which came from the British.”
This matter-of-fact reply ended a long and fascinating day in the country’s mysterious capital Naypyidaw, organised as part of an Asean Journalists Visit Programme sponsored by the Asean Committee for Culture and Information (Coci).
It was a visit signposted by strong views. Moving the capital to Naypyidaw was necessary. It is not the “jungle capital” it has been dubbed by many Western media.
Naypyidaw is spread out over 4,600 sq km and encompasses three townships. It is something of a work-in-progress version of Putrajaya or Islamabad, with some government departments yet to move in.
Here, the generals operate within their realm of reality, surrounded by rice fields and villages, quite divorced from the rest of the country.
Not so well known, perhaps, is that for visitors there are six resort-like hotels that could rival those found in Bali or Phuket.
One catch: Telecommunications are prohibitively expensive in the middle of the country. Myanmar has no international mobile roaming. At hotels in Naypyidaw, a phone call to Singapore costs US$4 ($5.80) a minute.
Internet access cost US$8 an hour, compared with US$1 in Yangon, the former capital, and it is proxy-filtered. There is no access to popular email sites like Hotmail and Yahoo.
The result: A sense of isolation. A disconnect from being in a place cut off from the real world — a fast-changing, globalising, interconnected world — that was literally leaving Myanmar in the dust.
Not surprising, the 18 journalists and government press officers on the trip were escorted by minders. Surprising to some, however, they were polite, friendly and helpful – preferring to chaperone with a light touch.
Journalists were asked to participate in all scheduled events, only interview people at those events and not stray too far from the hotel without informing their efficient hosts, all staff from Myanma (sic) Radio and Television, an arm of the Ministry of Information.
The visit started with an early morning flight from Yangon and 45 minute road trip to the first stop, the Education Ministry.
We had been scheduled to meet the Minister, but Deputy Minister for Basic Education, Brigadier-General Aung Myo Min, appeared instead and apologised that his boss was busy preparing for a trip to Yangon.
Asked if sanctions had hurt schools, he said in a booming voice: “Sanctions imposed upon us by the international community … We always overcome these difficulties. We always try to be self-sufficient … We have a lot of intellectuals in our country serving in education, so even if sanctions are brought down on us concerning education and any other sector, we always succeed in overcoming these difficulties.”
Over at the National Planning and Economic Development Ministry later, another minister echoed a similar message.
“Since 1988, there has been no official development assistance from all international organisations,” said Deputy Minister, Colonel Thuyain Zaw with a smile, through an interpreter. “The sanctions don’t affect our economy much.”
Myanmar’s military leaders have crafted an extensive bureaucracy across all sectors in the 45 years they have held power. It may fall severely short in many places, but civil servants soldier on despite a desperate shortage of funding and international assistance.
At the four ministries — Education, National Planning and Economic Development, Health and Information — the country’s top civil servants lined up alongside respective ministers or deputy ministers to take questions, for which they were fully prepared.
“Foreign media portray the recent incidents as democracy activities. Actually, they are anti-democracy movements to slow down our implementing the (seven-point) road map and for anti-government elements to grab power through shortcuts,” said information czar, Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan.
But when it comes to democracy, Myannmar is still a country where the brutal, fear-instilling tactics of its military and house arrest of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi overshadow all other developments, milestones, and any road-map by the junta.
“If you’re aiming for the generals to give up, throw up their hands and say “Aung San Suu Kyi over to you, democracy now”, that’s being overly optimistic — sort of pie in the sky,” said Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay, when asked for his view on whether the government-organised visit for Asean journalists indicated some degree of opening up. “So, what we’re hoping to see are graduated steps to something like a solution, which frankly, no one knows the shape of.”
Little surprise, all eyes will be on Myanmar at the Asean Summit in Singapore. Back-to-back with the regional grouping’s 13th Summit next week will be the East Asia Summit, which will bring to the table China, Japan and India. All three Asian powerhouses have a deeply vested interest in events currently unfolding in Myanmar.
“To my knowledge, this is quite unusual and unprecedented in Asean’s diplomacy — reaching out to other important Asian members,” said Assoc-Prof Tay, noting Asean’s new attitude and belief in human rights.
Member countries
Home
|
