By Ko Sala

Under the neon lights of a glitzy restaurant in Rangoon, a jeweler deemed to be one of the top richest men of the country explains his success. He is adored and spoken by many for his wealth. In the absence of gossip magazines like OK and Hello, people love gossiping about top-nosh elites. At times people come up with bizarre stories of how these rich and famous of the capital have acquired their wealth. My host, the jeweler is rumored to have close connections with drug king-ping Khun Sa and also alleged to have made money by swindling a Thai businessman.

I never made an effort to discuss the above allegation with the man himself. I rather listen to his self admiration and took the privilege to have sneak preview of his factory. I was not allowed to interact with young craftsmen and they are believed to be kept in the staff dormitory without privilege to wonder unescorted in the streets. The craftsmen or artists are slaving away in order to escape poverty of their rural villages. A downtown democracy activist described it as prison within a country which is believed to be prison. The abuse of the poor and destitute seemed to me is the secret of the jewelers success.

My next stop turned out to be the recruitment consultant’s for domestic servants. The head consultant convivially offered us tea and bites. We were then given a photo album with pictures of underage children with their personal descriptions and their ethnic origins. The album contained pictures of children from entire ethnic nationalities including Burman. The recruitment consultancies for jobs abroad are also springing like mushroom across the capital. An increasing number of candidates are defrauded with no money back service. Yet, the aspiration of young and needy to escape poverty is undeterred and the fee for foreign job search is ever increasing exponentially. A young man tells me his tales of lack of opportunities and drying affects of the economy which leads him to leave the country.

Indeed, businesses are thriving rapidly by banking on poverty. The capital is guzzling with shops and consumers with a whiff of putrid smell from sewage which stretches all the way to shanty towns where poverty stricken souls live. The super rich will continue to thrive by swindling and abusing the poor even if democracy is established tomorrow. Making money by deceptive means is becoming a fashion or a norm when the resources of the country are drying up. The businesses are costumed to conduct their businesses and thrive in uncertainties. The future democratic government of Burma would need to change the ethos of conducting businesses for the wellbeing of the country’s economy.

The irony is that the “pistachio chewing” academics on Burma in abroad talk about lifting economic sanction in way that the foreign garment firms would be able to employ the entire country. They fail to recognize that the country has nothing to offer apart from opportunities to blood sucking Chinese garment firms to set up their factories with their Stalinist management structure. The generals have learned to abuse the population in collaboration with rich and famous and blame the economic sanction for poverty in the country with the help of “pistachio chewing” herds. The Mayanmar Times’s reporter once asked the generals in the press conference how would the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi help the country’s economy. It would be interesting to know if he is still employed by the Myanmar Time.