- By Dr Tint Swe

World is politics and politics is money. This is what majority of ignorant Burmese people have to discover lately. What are more they also have to be patient to let foreign governments and organizations come to comprehend a bit about true disposition of the military junta. Burmese dissidents are categorized as immature folks just telling and yelling how bad the generals are. So America imposed the first sanctions in 2003 after an American diplomat was allowed to examine where Aung San Suu Kyi was deliberately attacked. EU took one more year to adopt the Common Position on Burma. Australia took 3 years to terminate controversial human rights training for military officers. Canada waited till 2007 to impose some sanctions after monks were cruelly crushed. But other governments seem to be waiting forever.

Burmese pro-democracy movement was not equipped with useful tools to prove the world of 3,000 deaths during 1988 uprising. Thanks to absence of BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera and no visa for any journalist. But mobile phone cameras became useful in the monk-led movement in 2007. However media is still ineffective to influence most of the governments. Unfortunately some media cores work in line with the grand strategy and pay-off by the rich and the power.

At the highest international forum UN Security Council, it was visible when Russia and China exercised veto power on Burma resolution. However there are many other hidden powers pulling the strings.. Business interest, energy security, arms sale and drugs trade are much superior to moral stuff – democracy and human rights.

The occasional visitors who will spend less than two weeks at tourist spots like Pagan, Inlay and beaches of Burma come back and report how sweet the smiling people of Burma are and how nice the picturesque views are. Average listeners and readers quickly interpret business as usual in Burma. Those commentators have had no access to dining tables of the people living in satellite towns and the hardships of long rangers who are traveling from home towns to the remotest jails where their beloved ones are being held for the cause of democracy. No question about a glimpse of the most helpless ethnic peripheral areas.

Once the rice bowl of Asia and still has abundance of god-given natural resources, Burma is unable to come out of the least developed countries (LDC) list after two decades of so-called open market economy which captivated billions of foreign direct investment (FDI), millions of soft loans and millions of Official Development Assistance (ODA).

In effect a high share of overall FDIs went into capital-intensive sectors. There was little investment in the productive and labor-intensive sectors that can generate a positive spillover into the economy. Investment-led growth potential is thus lacking. Moreover Oil and Gas sector got massive 33.55% while Agriculture got tiny 0.44% of FDI. But Burma is a country of 59% of employment in Agriculture, 5% in construction and 1% in mining sector. So what an open market economy under this regime is all about? Evaluating that state of Economy, the 59% of Burmese population will say no thanks to foreign companies and investments.

Please watch the “Diamond Wedding” video of the first daughter (2006), look around unnecessary 5-star constructions around Naypyiday, and listen to Burmese language radios, BBC, VOA, RFA and DVB. The true story of Burma is the country desperately poor and the regime extremely rich. The military junta spends 40 cents per citizen each year on health care as health budget (3%) is the minimum and defense allotment (40%) is the maximum. Those who really need the valid first-hand news should have facility to translate the RSS feeds of Burmese language radios. Maybe your newspapers will naturally defend the policy and approach of your government and you can be half-blind.

10 years ago, Chinese and Indian security officials might have drawn an imaginary line over the map of small Burma that will divide the country for respective influence. Now two pipe lines made of steel will be running across Burma – one from Yadana field of the Gulf of Martaban to western Thailand and one from Shwe field off Arakan peninsula to Yunnan province of China.

In the battle for gas from Burma the three neighbors have been contending. As per the world natural gas proven reserves, the 15th China and the 39th Thailand are getting gas from the 40th Burma while the 24th India lost the bid. This also shows that rulers of Burma will not use gas reserve for domestic public utilization while the electricity consumption rate of Burma is only 5% of that of Thailand. In July this year the state-own Myanmar Electric Power Enterprise (MEPE) announced that electrical power will be rationed to six hours a day in Rangoon. At the same time, every day is Diwali season in Naypyidaw, the new capital.

The Shwe Gas Project is a project of the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) in partnership with the Daewoo International of South Korean (60%), the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India (20%), the Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) (10%) and the Korean Gas Corporation (10%).

The Yadana Gas Project is operated by Total SA of France, Chevron Corporation of the USA, PTT of Thailand and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) of Burma. The gas projects made giant companies richer and moneyed Burmese generals to build secret projects. “Yadana”, apart from religious sense means jewels and “Shwe” means gold – jewels and gold for others but not for the people of Burma.

Lack of democracy is not a concern for the non-sanction governments because the generals are regarded as agreeable guys who can not only do business with but also can conceal the secret deals. The outcomes are drug money laundering, nuclear establishment, secret tunnels construction and billion dollars concealment.

The report recently released by the Earthrights International (ERI) about $US 4.8 billion generated for Burmese junta by Total and Chevron is a good case in point. It is understandable that the CEOs will deny at first. Multinationals like Total where public campaigns can play a role has paid compensation for forced labor and violations of labor standards. But there are more companies from other countries where neither democracy nor public opinion can help. Banks in Singapore and companies from South Korea are a few examples.

Leave alone Chinese and Indian companies because both countries ignored epidemic of forced labor practice and readily voted for Burmese junta at the International Labor Organization (ILO). It will also be wrong if Burmese people expect any face saving payment for forced relocation, forced labor and malpractices of labor standards from them because public interest in these two democracies is too low.

Daewoo International projects net profits of US$86 million every year while the junta takes in up to US$3 billion annually. But in 2006 more than 20 South Korean NGOs and trade unions, have urged the Seoul government to investigate Daewoo International Corporation for allegedly sending weaponry technology to military Burma.

In the US, there are coordinated attempts by politicians, media outlets and campaigners who are to make profits out of Burma for American companies. History tells us that the covert actions and invisible hands have being playing for business and security interests. After secrets are declassified the world comes to know that not all clandestine operations were profitable and or sensible. Forget about morality. Poor Burmese people have to wait for a couple of decades then.

Tint Swe

14-9-09