Protect or Respect: Burma’s constitutional challenge

The wording of an oath is the pawn in a dangerous power game  in Burma as newly elected democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi flexes her muscles. Her party the National League for Democracy refused to allow its newly elected members to be sworn in at the parliamentary opening in Naypyidaw yesterday. The party made an overhaul of the Constitution one of its principal promises in the recent by-election but the ruling party is refusing to change the oath. Suu Kyi claims this is not a boycott but rather just “waiting for the right time to go” to parliament. The catch is they need to sit in parliament to have any chance of getting their reforms through and some are questioning whether Suu Kyi has picked the right issue to make a stance on. (photo: AFP/File, Ye Aung Thu)

The stand-off comes several weeks after the by-elections which saw the NLD win 40 of the 44 seats it contested. The victory was seen as a transformative moment in Burmese politics but the party remains a small minority in both the upper and lower house of parliament. The by-elections and the gradual opening of Burmese democracy have been driven by president Thein Sein who came to office in March 2011 as the former prime minister and handpicked successor of Than Shwe.

Both Shwe and Sein are military men but the US used the promotion of the latter to press for reforms. In return the US would ease its crippling sanctions and urge its allies to do the same. Sein released Suu Kyi from house arrest and released political prisoners in exchange for diplomatic relations.  Sein gave his first foreign interview in January to the Washington Post and said they not only wanted to engage with the NLD but also with the 11 ethnic groups Burma was at war with. During the interview, Sein brought up the constitution to defend the right of the president to appoint the commander in chief of the armed forces. But Wapo did not follow up with a question of the validity of that constitution.

Burma has been independent since 1947 but its original constitution was torn up the military when Ne Win who came to power in a 1962 coup. The generals orchestrated a second constitution in 1974 but even that was too liberal for the military rulers who seized power in 1988 and they abolished it with along with the offices of cabinet, judiciary and local councils. They ruled without a constitution until 2008 forced to enact new under a supposed “roadmap to democracy”. Outside observers judged it a sham, not least because it reserves a quarter of all seats for the military and prevented Suu Kyi from attaining the presidency due to her non-Burmese husband. 

But the issue Suu Kyi is most worried about now is the oath to defend that constitution.  The NLD wants the oath to be reworded from “abide by and protect the Constitution” to “abide by and respect the Constitution.”  Burmese activist Min Zin said the NPD were picking the wrong battle to fight on.  “Vowing to uphold and abide the constitution does not mean that the opposition can't try to amend it later,” Zin said. “A quick look at the texts of other countries' oaths of office shows that words like uphold and even defend are commonly used, but such language has never prevented anyone from proposing constitutional amendments.”  

The question is why Suu Kyi is making an issue out of it now. She would have been aware of the oath of office prior to the election and should have mentioned it in the campaign. A more likely reason would be to try to slow down the West’s normalisation of relations until there is more substantive progress. On the same day as the parliamentary boycott, the EU agreed to suspend most of its sanctions against Burma for a year.  

Burmese exiles say the West is going too fast. Soe Aung of the Forum for Democracy in Burma said the EU has suspended sanctions knowing that its own benchmarks on Burma have not been met: the unconditional release of all political prisoners and a cessation of attacks against ethnic minorities.  The suspension allows European companies to invest in Burma, which has significant natural resources and borders economic giants China and India. British PM David Cameron said changes were not yet irreversible, “which is why it is right to suspend rather than lift sanctions for good.” Yet it seems highly unlikely that once opened, big business would allow the door to be shut again. Only the immense counterweight of Suu Kyi’s public profile stands between the Burmese Government and Western spoils of commerce without the inconvenience of a public reckoning.

Burma buys time with sham election

To nobody’s great surprise, Burmese military rulers had a sweeping victory in last week’s election. With the last democratically elected leader of the country under house arrest for the last eight years and her party forcibly disbanded, few outside the remote capital Naypyidaw had any faith in the election’s validity. The country has been ruled undemocratically since 1962 by a military proxy party under several different names. It annulled the unfavourable result of the one free election it had in the last 48 years. It was little surprise then to hear they picked up 80 percent of the seats this time round. (picture: SOE THAN WIN/AFP/Getty Images)

But it took a while for even this news to seep out. Silent for three days after the election, State Television finally announced on Wednesday top members of the ruling junta, including army joint chief-of-staff Thura Shwe Mann and Prime Minister Thein Sein, were among those who won seats in Parliament.

We only have State Media’s word for what happened as foreign reporters are not allowed in the country. The tightly controlled local media only takes the Government’s side when it is forced to take a side at all. Yet the people of Burma are not stupid and word of mouth ensures everyone knows what is really happening. A brave few like Muang San strapped on a hidden camera as he went to vote. “I’m a journalist,” he said. “It’s my duty to show the world what is happening in Burma.”

The main opposition party led by the imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi boycotted the election. The Government retaliated by her National League for Democracy party. A breakaway offshoot called the National Democratic Front contested the election against the Government. With no press, no charismatic leader, no scrutiny of the polls and ten times fewer candidates, they were soundly trounced. “The Burmese junta hosted this election in order to whitewash itself internationally," said a banana seller at a market near the biggest city Rangoon.

This overlooks the fact that even this sham of an election has given voters the rare chance to voice their opinions and gain insights into a political culture stunted by an authoritarian government. The Government may struggle to put the genie back in the bottle. But the banana seller’s cynical analysis is mostly spot on.

The very fact an election was held, however irregular, gives the regime kudos and useful bargaining chips in its key relations with other ASEAN countries and China. Due to the repeated criticism of the US and the EU, Burma has become ASEAN’s albatross the association of south east Asian nations has survived due to its policy of turning the other cheek to member excesses but are under enormous pressure to get Burma to conform to international norms. ASEAN countries have offered guarded support for the elections. The real benefit is to give Asean an excuse to ignore further criticisms of the Naypyidaw regime.

The regime itself can also afford to ignore the criticisms. Burma spends at least 40 percent of its national budget on the military compared to 0.4 percent on healthcare and 0.5 percent on education. Its standing army of 500,000 soldiers is the largest in south east Asia. Foreign powers are queuing up to take their money.

In 2009, Burma signed a contract with Russia for the purchase of 20 MiG-29 jet fighters at a cost of nearly US $570 million and many of Burma's future nuclear military purchases may come from fellow rogue state North Korea. China is also a huge contributor as Burma’s third-largest trading partner and provides extensive military, economic and diplomatic support.

While fellow generals across Asia get cosy with the junta tatmadaw, the biggest thorn in their side remains the frail but immensely courageous activist Suu Kyi. The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, democracy activist and daughter of the country’s founder is apparently scheduled to be released Saturday from house arrest. Most observers remain sceptical this will happen as she has been in detention for 15 of the last 21 years despite repeated calls from the international community to release her. A bad sign is today’s decision to reject her appeal against house arrest by the politically motivated Burma’s Supreme Court.

Not all the regime’s enemies are in prison. In the hills, army forces still fight with ethnic groups that don’t want to be a part of Myanmar. Karen separatists are causing havoc on the border with Thailand. Thailand is concerned not because it wants to see a new Karen state, but because unrest at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing is causing economic losses estimated to be in the region of 10 million baht (almost $400,000) this year. The Karen National Union has said it will now join up with five other ethnic rebel groups: the Kachin Independence Army, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Mon New State Party and the Shan State Army-North.

Burma, for all its half a million strong army, is unable to crush these six ethnic revolt. Neither can the compliant media stop the grumbling on the streets of Rangoon. Like any Government that rules by fear, the Burmese junta philosophy is driven by desperate fear it will be overthrown. It has to prove the election victory is not pyrrhic, otherwise its enemies will strike stronger than ever. But at the very least it buys them more time to plan the counter-attack. The paranoid tragedy that is Burma’s politics still has a few acts to go before the curtain falls.

From Burma to Brisbane: A tale of Rohingya resilience

Sujauddin Karimuddin apologised unnecessarily for being late meeting me for a coffee. He was delayed next door at the Mater Hospital where a woman was having complications after the birth of her baby. The woman was a Burmese refugee and it was Sujauddin’s job to translate symptoms and orders between doctor and patient. All in a days work for a remarkable young man who himself was a refugee for many years.

Both Sujauddin and the woman in the hospital are Rohingyas, a mostly Muslim people that have been persecuted for decades by Buddhist Burmese military rulers. The notorious 1982 Citizenship Act stripped them of their right to be Burmese. At a stroke of dictator Ne Win’s pen, a people who had lived in north-west Rakhine (formerly Arakan) province for centuries were declared unpeople who had no right to jobs, land, marriage or travel papers.

Sujauddin went to High School in the early 1990s suffering under this injustice. As he admits, he was one of the lucky ones. His father was a wealthy businessman in the sugar town of Kyauktaw and could bribe his way out of most problems. But even he had been arrested on several occasions for minor misdemeanours. Sajuaddin became involved in Rohingya support groups at school and wrote complaint letters to school and government authorities. He was arrested by military intelligence and charged with raising funds for armed groups in Bangladesh. His father came to the rescue and bribed authorities to get him out. But his mother could see the writing on the wall. She advised her son to get out while he could.

Sujauddin left his home town in 1998 and has never been back. Travelling without papers, he made the dangerous journey to the capital Rangoon by boat and truck. Hundreds were arrested on this known refugee route and Sujauddin was picked up at a military checkpoint 100km from Rangoon and sent to a prison camp. Here he had a stroke of good fortune. A new commander from up north was unaware he was a Rohingya and asked him why he was travelling without papers. Sujauddin told him he was just a poor person looking for a job in Rangoon. The commander admonished him and then freed him with a note saying “this boy is respectable”.

The respectable boy’s father had business interests in the capital. The plan was for Sujauddin to stay and manage the business. But he was defeated by Rangoon’s repressive laws. Citizens must report visitors on a daily basis with a penalty of two years imprisonment for non-compliance. After six dangerous months moving from friends to friends, Sujauddin admitted defeat. He hired an "agent” (what Australians pejoratively call “people smugglers”) and took a bus to Thailand. He arrived in Bangkok and sold roti on the streets to survive.

Inevitably he was caught and sent to an Immigration Detention Centre. Here they served him rice and pork. As a Muslim, Sujauddin could not eat the pork, but as there was no other food he starved. He had no energy to walk and was eventually dragged into a truck and deposited on the Thai-Burmese border with orders not to return. He ignored the order. Instead he contacted a cousin in Malaysia and asked him to send him money to come south to Malaysia. He got back to Bangkok where he contacted another “agent” to take him south to the Malay border. After an all night walk across the jungle, Sujauddin arrived in Malaysia in November 1999.

He took the train to Kuala Lumpur where he found a factory job. Because he was illegal, the conditions were pitiless. He earned just 20 ringgits a day for 12 hours work. He worked seven days a week and hid for a year. Eventually every Sunday he managed to escape to the university where he found a Rohingyan professor who taught him English. He would study for three hours before returning to work. He got a better job in a shopping centre but lasted just two months before being arrested for a third time in a third country.

Once again he was taken to a detention centre. On arrival he was ordered to strip naked in front of two thousand inmates. Sujauddin refused. “I am a Muslim,” he said. “I have my dignity”. The prison officers beat him up but he refused to obey the order. Fellow prisoners shouted out for him to obey but despite the kicking and the bleeding, he refused obstinately. “I would rather die,” he said. He did not die, but he did not take off his clothes either. The camp foreman ordered he be dragged away.

After three months imprisonment he was put on a bus with other detainees and driven to a river on the Thai border. The prisoners were loaded onto a boat and pushed off shore with orders not to come back. On the other side they were picked up by Thai gangs who worked with police. They demanded 200 ringgits or else they would sell them for 200 ringgits to local fisherman. Those that were sold into slavery rarely made it out alive. Sujauddin promised to ring his cousin in the morning to pay the ransom. In the middle of the night he escaped his captors and led them on a scary chase through the jungle. Sujauddin could hear his pursuers following on motorbikes but eventually found a highway petrol station where a couple helped him escape back to Malaysia.

He made his way back to Kuala Lumpur where he got another job. This time he struck it lucky and got a job with a fashion designer. He used his English to good effect and gradually made himself indispensable to his employers. Finally having some fixity of tenure, he resumed his activism and helped found the National Council of Rohingyas with his former English teacher. They succeeded in getting the UN High Commission of Refugees to issue a document to allow Rohingyas to get medical treatment in Malaysia. But while doctors recognised the document, the police would not. 12,000 Rohingyan refugees in Malaysia remained vulnerable to arrest at any minute.

In August 2005 Sujauddin arrived in Sydney on a 6 month 309 spouse temporary visa. He then applied for a refugee visa which took another 9 months to process. In the meantime, Sujauddin was keeping himself busy. He joined the local Rohingya support group and became secretary of the Sydney branch. He also became involved in wider Burmese issues. He joined the Burma Campaign Australian and also worked with the Burmese Democratic Movement Association. During the Saffron Revolution he organised support rallies in Sydney.

He moved to Brisbane where he now provides new Rohingyan refugees with cultural and language support. The love for his Rakhine homeland still shines brightly in his eyes and his biggest task now is to be re-united with his family who are now in refugee camps in Bangladesh. He wants the Australian Government to do more to help his repressed people. “I want them to put pressure on the Burmese Government and raise the issue in the UN Security Council,” he said. “Enough is enough. Australia is the western country closest to Burma and should take more responsibility to solve the problem. It’s bad enough for the half million Rohingya in the camps but its worse for the several million still in Burma. It’s our job to provide awareness to the international community so that people know what’s going on”. With that, Sujauddin apologised once more and disappeared into the Brisbane rain. I cycled home, oblivious to the wet, pondering on what it meant to live in a world where freedom could not be taken for granted.

Aung San Suu Kyi: death by the tatmadaw’s thousand cuts

Burmese military have banned media and diplomats from attending the farcical trial of Aung San Suu Kyi who is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest. The move is the latest in a string of outrageous measures to shut down the greatest thorn in the military's dictatorial side. An American Mormon named John Yettaw gave them the excuse when he was caught spending two days at her house after he swam across the lake to visit her last week. Authorities seized the opportunity to charge the Nobel Peace Prize winner with violating the terms of her house arrest. She and her housekeepers could be jailed for five years (Yettaw himself faces six). On the third day of the “trial” yesterday, the government allowed outsiders observe her in court. Pictures of Suu Kyi in good health appeared on Burmese TV and newspapers. But censorship resumed today and the prospects are not good for the 63 year old woman. Aung San Suu Kyi has now spent 13 of her last 19 years in detention since she won Burma’s last democratic election in 1990.

The irony is that the tatmadaw (Burmese military) was the beloved creation of her father Aung San. He was not just her father; Aung Sun was a war-hero and the father of Burmese independence. The date of his 1947 assassination by political enemies is still preserved as a sombre holiday in Burma. The room in the government building where he was shot is now a shrine.

His aura was used to good effect by the Ne Win military administration after the 1962 army coup. But commemorations have been drastically reduced after the SLORC junta declared his daughter’s NLD party electoral victory invalid in 1990. Since then photos of Aung San have disappeared from public circulation and he is rarely quoted in the press. By downgrading his image, the army also attempted to eliminate the nationalistic identity of his daughter.

Aung San Suu Kyi was born two years before her father’s assassination. Burma became independent from Britain a year after his death. In 1956, the 11 year old girl was enrolled at Rangoon’s Methodist English High School. Here she met children from Burma’s best families and topped her class. In 1960 her mother was appointed Burmese ambassador to India and the family moved to New Delhi where they lived for the next three years. In 1962 General Ne Win launched a coup against the democratic government and Burma began to shut its doors on the rest of the world and descend into poverty.

Safe in India, Suu Kyi studied there until 1964 before enrolling at Oxford to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics and graduated with a BA in 1967. She went to work for the UN in New York before returning to Oxford in 1972 where she married the Himalayan studies academic Michael Aris. They had two sons. Though Burma was never far from her mind, it seemed she would never return there.

Her life was changed forever in March 1988 when she got a phone call to say her mother was ill in Rangoon after a severe stroke. Suu Kyi began to pack at once. Arriving home in April she found life in Burma had changed very much for the worse since she left as a child. The country that used to be the rice basket of Asia now could not feed itself.

A protest movement was growing against the tatmadaw and her status as Aung San’s daughter meant she was a natural focus of opposition attention. In August she addressed a mass rally at Burma’s most prominent shrine, the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. A half million people gathered to hear her speak. She quietly told them she supported multi-party democracy and called for a minute’s silence to honour those who had died in the struggle. She spoke not of vengeance but of reconciliation and healing.

Suu Kyi’s eerie performance electrified the crowd and touched a raw Burmese nerve. Her mother died in December 1988 and huge crowds lined the streets in her honour. When the SLORC surprisingly called an election for 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi was the obvious choice to lead the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Embolded by the scale of her support, she threw caution to the wind and denounced Ne Win's government. This was the excuse the army needed to lock her up and they placed her under house arrest. She was still in jail when she heard the news she had won the election. It was a landslide, the NPD won 392 of the 485 seats. The army were horrified and renounced the results, There were bland claims that the NPD was manipulated by outlawed Communist parties and interfering foreign embassies.

Having re-established control, the tatmadaw crushed all internal opposition to its political and economic power. They arrested all the opposition leaders and destroyed most of the NLD's political infrastructure. But what they left was Aung San Suu Kyi, she was a powerful figurehead in jail whom the government knew they could not martyr. And foreign media got interested. Aung San Suu Kyi was an attractive, poignant and brave victim ready made for Western media consumption.

But SLORC ignored all appeals from the US and the UN for her release. Scandinavia showed its support for the prisoner by awarding her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The committee said she was “one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades…She has become an important symbol of the struggle against oppression [using] non-violent means to resist a regime characterised by brutality”. Her son Alexander accepted the award in Oslo on her behalf. Though Burmese media ignored the ceremony, most people found out through radio broadcasts from abroad. Demonstrations broke out at the University of Rangoon in support of her, but were ruthlessly suppressed by the government.

In 1995 Suu Kyi was released from house arrest under pressure from Japan which threatened to withhold aid. But if the Burmese government thought that release had bought her compliance, they were drastically mistaken. She quickly reorganised the opposition and held gateside meetings every Sunday outside her house to large crowds. In return, the Burmese media continued its relentless attacks against her. The tatmadaw stymied her attempts to visit local party chapters, occasionally leaving her stranded in the countryside or at Rangoon train station ahead of planned monster meetings.

In 1999, the SLORC (now renamed SPDC) refused a Burmese visa for Suu Kyi’s British husband Michael Aris who was terminally ill with cancer back in Oxford. Because Suu Kyi could not trust the government to let her back in the country if she visited him, she did not see him again before he died. She was re-placed under house arrest between 2000 for another two years, and after twelve months free, they arrested her again in 2003. Since then, the government have found excuses to extend the detention on a yearly basis despite it being against Burmese law to confine someone for five years without a charge.

Just before Yettaw made his fateful swim across the lake last week, Suu Kyi was treated at home for low blood pressure and dehydration. While she was believed to be recovering, she could not get access to her usual doctor who had been detained for questioning. Her subsequent detention in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison could have done little for her health. It is not difficult to believe that Burmese authorities are imposing the equivalent of death sentences by a thousand cuts on one of the world’s most courageous leaders.

Fiji has a long way to go to be as bad as Burma

Last week the journalism watchdog group Reporters San Frontieres slammed Fiji's censorship saying the island nation was heading dangerously towards a Burmese-style system "in which the media are permanently subject to prior censorship and other forms of obstruction". However as bad as things are in Fiji and they are very bad, they would have to get a lot worse to compare with the terrible conditions Burmese media workers have had to put up with for the last 47 years.

To understand the nature of Burma’s media, it is important to understand the nature of Burma’s governance. Buddhism has long been at the heart of Burmese political culture and in pre-colonial times religion informed people’s belief that government was an evil to be endured and that kings were unaccountable to the people. A more secular polity emerged in the 19th century under the influence of European colonisation. Lower Burma was established as a British colony after the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 and the northern part of the country was assimilated 10 years later.

Japan attempted a return to the old monarchical tradition when it ruled Burma during World War II but this idea was quickly swept away after the war. Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948 with a democratically elected civilian political leadership. In 1962 General Ne Win staged a coup under the pretext of preventing ethnic breakaway states and installed a military regime that remains in power to this day. Under his junta, Burma outlawed all other political parties and adopted a central planned economy he called the “Burmese way to socialism”. The effect was disastrous and by 1988 Burma was one of the poorest countries in the world. In 1988, the government violently suppressed a peaceful revolution. Two years later Aung San Suu Kyi (the daughter of a murdered independence hero) led the National League for Democracy to overwhelming victory in free and fair elections only for the military to declare it invalid. They created a new ruling body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) which later metamorphosised into the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SLORC/SPDC continues to rule with an iron fist and violently put down the Saffron Revolution in 2007.

Burma remains beset by major issues today. The SPDC continues to string out Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest on a year-by-year basis. Major ethnic groups such as the Shan and the Karen continue insurgencies against a central administration implacably opposed to a federal style of government. All sides of the conflict use unregulated commerce including the thriving opium trade to finance their operations. And Burma is also a geo-political pawn. China wants Burma’s access to the Indian Ocean shipping lanes while both China and India covet Burma’s abundant oil, natural gas, uranium and minerals.

But the Burmese media are unable to report on any of these issues. According to Aung Zaw “the plain fact is that most Burmese have no clue what is happening in their country”. It wasn’t always this way as Burma has a long and rich tradition of journalism. Within ten years of British colonisation of Lower Burma the first western-style newspapers appeared in both English and Burmese. By 1919 Burmese language agenda setting nationalist newspapers such as Myanmar Alin (New Light of Burma) were agitating for change. At the time of independence, Burma had a vibrant network of over 30 newspapers which operated with considerable freedom in a country of much natural wealth and widespread literacy. Until 1962 the Burmese people enjoyed political and civil rights protected by the constitution, a free press and national secular education.

After 1962, the military junta clamped down hard. The new regime installed a system of press licensing that required the registration of all publications. The rulers also issued a warning that seditious news was not to be published. Ne Win soon began to act as a “tyrannical king”. In 1963 the junta closed down the prestigious Nation and began to publish its own propaganda in the Working People’s Daily. By 1966, they banned all private newspapers and expelled Reuters and Associated Press correspondents. In 1993 there remained just one permitted newspaper, the Government run Working People’s Daily, printed in Burmese and English.

Similarly, the broadcast media of radio and television remain tightly controlled by the Government. Radio was a wartime legacy and the Burmese followed the British model when they set up the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) after independence. Programmers on the BBS operated with similar freedom to the press until it too was abruptly ended by the military takeover in 1962. Myanmar TV began in 1980 and was supplemented by a military channel in 1990. Both channels are owned and operated by the Government and the military. But the Government doesn’t totally control the airwaves. While foreign stations such as STAR TV are officially available only to high ranking officials and five-star hotels in Yangon (Rangoon), enterprising citizens in northern towns have smuggled satellite dishes across the border from China.

In the so-called Saffron Revolution (2007), the government did not restrict the flow of international news but instead concentrated on crushing the watch-dog function of local media by censoring news sources, reporters and editors. The Reporters San Frontières report on Burma for 2006 confirmed the military had not released its grip on the military. The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division check every article, editorial, cartoon, advertisement and illustration ahead of publication. Burma also insists that all fax machines be registered and journalists can earn a seven year prison sentence for having an unauthorised fax, video camera, modem or a copy of a banned publication. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists describe Burma as one of the most repressive places for journalists, trailing only North Korea on their “10 Most Censored Countries” list.

Censorship is not the only major impediment facing Burmese journalists. Even minimal attempts to report the facts are ruthlessly crushed. Reporting on detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is banned as is debate about Government policy. In 2006 two journalists were imprisoned for attempting to film outside the country’s controversial new capital at Naypidaw and at least seven journalists were behind bars, making Burma the world’s fifth leading jailer of journalists. Burmese journalists cannot report on diverse activities such as natural disasters, plane crashes, student brawls, regional turmoil and activities of opposition political parties lest they lead to criticism of authorities. Last year a blogger was sentenced to 45 years in jail for daring to report on Cyclone Nargiss. In short, journalism in Burma is not so much about agenda-setting as agenda-avoiding.

Burma’s media regime is a good example of an authoritarian communication model in that the authority of power exists and limits, suppresses and attempts to define its people’s thought and expression. The Internet remained tightly proscribed as of 2002 with just 14,000 email accounts for a population of 50 million people. Yet news is stilling getting through despite intense repression. Because government news sources are unreliable, Burmese people tune in to foreign shortwave radio services from the BBC, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. Burmese are also turning to older technologies such as videos, tapes, facsimiles, photographs, and printed materials to get messages across. Uncontrolled ideas do get out as the 2007 Revolution showed, even if it was eventually brutally suppressed. While the prognosis for Burma is not good in the short to medium term, the military can never fully defeat the power of communicable ideas.

ASEAN ignores Burmese Rohingya refugee crisis

There seems little likelihood that the plight of Burmese Rohingya refugees will be discussed at the ASEAN leaders Summit this week. Rohingyas are victims of racial discrimination in their own country and their plight came to international attention after Thailand admit they had towed a thousand refugees out to sea. Vitavas Srivihok, Thai director of ASEAN Affairs Department, said talks about Rohingya would at best be marginalised to the “sidelines” of the conference and even then expects little by way of concrete outcomes. The conference’s contempt for Rohingya shows yet again ASEAN’s disinterest in human rights issues.

The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim community, with a long history, inhabiting Arakan province of Burma. Their ethnicity and religion has made them a target of oppression by Burmese military rulers. In a move reminiscent of Nazi discrimination against Jews, a Burmese 1982 law stripped them of their right to citizenship. Rohingya also endure restrictions affecting their movement, education, and freedom to marry. They are often forced into slavery, have their land confiscated and suffer arbitrary arrests, torture, and extra-judicial killings. Today the Rohingya have become increasingly landless and jobless forcing many to flee the country.

The Rohingya refugee issue is now an international problem affecting Burma, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia. One thousand of them set off for Bangladesh in December and were detained and beaten when they landed in Thailand. But Thailand decided to export the problem. The refugees were forced back to sea in boats without engines or food. Hundreds died but hundreds more were rescued in Indian and Indonesian waters after several weeks at sea. On 7 January, 198 of them were found by Indonesian fishermen adrift at sea off Aceh, in northern Sumatra. Indonesian authorities say they have now rescued about 400 Rohingya migrants while Indian authorities at Andaman Islands have said they have also rescued hundreds of refugees. India plans to deport them back to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Thailand initially denied claims that its security forces abused the refugees. However in an interview with CNN last week, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva admitted Thai security forces towed away the boats. Vejjajiva gave the unconvincing answer that he could not pinpoint which government official approved the practice, but claimed he was working on fixing the problem. "All the authorities say it's not their policy, but I have reason to believe some instances of this happened, said the PM. “If I can have the evidence as to who exactly did this I will certainly bring them to account."

But while the world should rightly judge Thailand harshly for its conduct in this shameful affair, Burma’s role should not be forgotten. Ye Myint Aung, the Burmese Consul-General at the Hong Kong consulate exposed what authorities really think of their minority in an extraordinary letter (pdf) addressed to the peninsula’s consular corps and media. In it, Aung denied Rohingya were Burmese. The Burmese, said Aung were good looking with “fair and soft” complexion. Rohingyas, by contrast had “dark brown” skin and were “ugly as ogres.”

Unfortunately, as New Mandala points out, the racism Ye Myint Aung shows against Rohingya is not unusual in Burma. New Mandala blames academics for stoking up “institutionalised chauvinism and historical memories built around communal conflicts from the last century”. Spurious research questioning their heritage gives people an excuse to distrust Rohingyas even though most have never met one.

But there are still groups around who are working to improve the Rohingya's lot. The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation wrote an open letter to the heads of ASEAN on the weekend which said that Burmese persecution of Rohingya people was a violation of the ASEAN Charter to respect human rights and international law. They called on the leaders to address the root cause of the Rohingya refugee problem and boatpeople crisis, pressurise Burma’s rulers to end human rights abuses and also urged Thailand to pay compensation to the families of Rohingya boatpeople who drowned.

The international peak political body for Burmese ethnic groups is also calling on the Australian government to push for the case for democracy in Burma. The Ethnic Nationalities Council represents seven ethnic Burmese groups Burma comprising 40 percent of the population. The Council's vice chair, Dr Lian Sakhong, told Foreign Affairs and Immigration officials that Australia should call for multi-party talks on Burma “to put pressure on the military regime so that we can have a dialogue.”

Sakhing said the talks should lead to a negotiated settlement to return Burma to democratic rule and also end ethnic oppression of Rohingyas and other groups affected by the 1982 citizenship laws. "We need to review the constitutions that are adopted by the military, so that we can have a compromise,” he told ABC’s Connect Asia. “If we don't do that, then the result will be another 50 years of civil war.”

Burma sham referendum takes place in the shadow of Nargis

According to the Bangkok Post, early results from Burma’s charade of a referendum is showing overwhelming support for the new pro-military charter. With widespread heavy intimidation of its citizens, and civil servants ordered to vote yes, the vote is a complete sham. A government source told the Post that almost 100 percent of voters in one Rangoon township have voted for the new constitution while districts in Mandalay and Shan State recorded over 90 percent votes in favour. The military junta rejected calls to delay the vote due to Cyclone Nargis which struck a week ago killing tens of thousands and leaving 1.5 million homeless.

Aid is slowly trickling in. UN aid flights resumed on the weekend, with three planes and a delivery of trucks. This came a day after the UN halted aid flights after the regime seized an initial delivery of high-energy biscuits and relief equipment. An International Red Cross plane also arrived with medical supplies and 35 tonnes of equipment intended to provide prisoners with clean drinking water. The Thai Royal Family also chartered a plane with 18 tonnes of aid. However the Burmese micro-management of the relief effort has stretched to placing aid in boxes plastered with names of top generals. Local TV made a big deal of top General Than Shwe handing out aid packages to survivors at elaborate ceremonies.

Nonetheless Shwe and his confreres refused to countenance delay of the referendum in order to help the cyclone victims. The exiled National League for Democracy was one of the many groups aghast at the government’s appalling insensitivity. Spokesman Soe Aung speaking from Bangkok pleaded in vain with the international community to pressure the regime to defer the referendum in order to address the devastation caused by the cyclone. The only action taken so far is to delay the referendum to 24 May in the Irrawaddy Division and some parts of Rangoon. Meanwhile with the delta region mired in a massive humanitarian tragedy and aid groups kept frustratingly out of the country, the Burmese Government has pressed on in the rest of the country with its change to the constitution aimed at codifying the military’s role as the pre-eminent power in the country.

There is little doubt that the referendum is more important to Burma’s generals than the relief effort. State-run television ran songs from young cheerful women urging citizens to forget the catastrophe and go to the polling stations. "Let's go to cast a vote . . . with sincere thoughts for happy days," the women sang. The government diverted soldiers and military vehicles from relief work to ensure that the referendum went smoothly. Instead of delivering aid, trucks roamed the streets for days, blaring constant messages on loudspeakers telling people to vote.

The generals have much to gain from getting out the vote. Victory will set their power enshrined. Under the new constitution, the military would gain a permanent 25-per-cent share of all seats in the upper and lower houses of parliament - enough to veto any changes to the constitution. No president could be chosen without consulting the military. There is also a clause which bars anyone who has been married to a foreign national from holding political office. This is directly aimed at Aung San Suu Kyi who married a British academic and is therefore disqualified.

In February, Human Rights Watch declared the referendum a sham, calling it “a hollow exercise in the military’s sham political reform process”. HRW said the referendum lacked credibility as it did not have the support of opposition political parties, did not involve public debate and did not allow the media to report on the process of drafting a new constitution. “Burma is a dictatorship that lacks the safeguards needed to ensure a free and fair referendum,” said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director. “Unless there is a fundamental change of course by the authorities, a referendum in this environment will have little credibility.” With more than a million citizens on the verge of starvation and disease, Burma’s rulers show no indication this credibility is in any way important to them.

Cyclone Nargis devastates Burma

The official death toll for Burma’s Cyclone Nargis is likely to triple in the next few days. While current rough estimates are that over 15,000 people are dead, there are still another 30,000 people missing and a million more left homeless. Burma is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the cyclone with serious power shortages, lack of drinking water and the threat of disease all hampering rescue efforts. Large areas of the country are cut off with no communication to the outside world.

The director for the World Food Programme in Burma, Chris Raye, said information about the destruction in the low lying Irrawaddy Delta was still scanty, but it was clear it was a disaster on a very large scale. Raye said that unless the region had quick access to shelter, water and sanitation, the situation would deteriorate further. "We have a major humanitarian catastrophe in our hands,” he said. “The numbers of people in need are still to be determined, but I'm sure we're talking of hundreds and thousands.”

Several coastal villages were completely destroyed by the brunt of the storm and a sea surge. Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win said that 10,000 deaths alone (two thirds of all reported casualties) occurred in the coastal township of Bogolay which bore the brunt of the cyclone’s onslaught. Casualties also numbered in their thousands in nearby Labutta. The coastline was inundated by 3.5 metre waves which swept away most of the houses and gave their residents to chance to flee.

Despite government misgivings about admitting foreign organisations, a massive multinational rescue operation is now underway. International and local Red Cross teams were distributing essential supplies and bringing in more from Malaysia. "We're distributing supplies for those who need shelter, plastic sheeting to cover roofs, water purification tablets,” said a spokesman. “We are currently procuring 5,000 litres of water, cooking items, bednets, blankets and clothes for those in most need."

Their efforts will need reinforcing. The first cyclone of the 2008 season was a devastating one for Burma. Cyclone Nargis made landfall late Friday with sustained winds of up to 210kph and gusts of 240kph, the equivalent of a strong category three hurricane. Nargis came ashore across the Mouths of the Irrawaddy and followed the coastline northeast flooding the entire coastal plain. The fallow agricultural areas were especially hard hit. The capital Rangoon and its population of four million are almost completely surrounded by floods.

Eyewitness accounts at Birma News report that entire communities near Rangoon have been washed away. One resident said rooftops have been blown away and people have nowhere to live and nothing to eat. Another said all the trees have been uprooted, power lines are down and all the pagodas in the city are closed. A third said the uprooted trees have made most city streets impassable. Burmese TV footage on Youtube shows the extent of the damage in the capital:


With telephone lines out of order in the entire Irrawaddy delta region, eye-witness accounts are the only way of assessing the scale of the damage. In the delta township of Day Da Ye, 40km south of the capital, one man reported hundreds of bodies littering the streets. He saw firsthand the bodies of humans and animals along the main road through Day Da Ye while on his way to Rangoon.

The cyclone will have serious impact beyond the immediate region. Food prices in Rangoon and elsewhere have soared by up to 100 per cent since the storm, adding to the burden of millions of the country’s poor. The delta is Burma’s main rice-producing region and large areas of cropland were destroyed. Burma is a key rice exporter and the UN has questioned whether it will now be able to meet commitments to supply the staple to neighbouring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, warning of "potentially serious effects". The price of rice has trebled across Asia this year, hitting a record $25 per 50 kilos in the week before the storm. Nargis will pile more misery on the poor of Asia.

Buddhist monks lead Burma democracy protests

Two thousand Buddhist monks have staged a third day of protest against Burma’s repressive military rule. Four monks were arrested in Tuesday’s protest though the military has so far refrained from opening fire. But a violent confrontation may be inevitable as the protests spread countrywide. 300 monks marched through Rangoon in the rain to Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's most sacred landmark, while chanting Buddhist prayers. Another 500 monks demonstrated in Burma’s second city Mandalay while in Sittwe, 560 km west of Rangoon, more than a thousand monks staged a sit-in outside a police station. “It was raining hard all day but the monks marched without umbrellas,” said one protester. “Some of them collapsed because they were so tired from walking.”
Eyewitnesses said the monks were joined by thousands of civilians and high-school students who walked ahead of and around the monks to ensure they were not harmed.

According to the Democratic Voice of Burma, several monks taking part in the Rangoon protest waved placards calling for UN action on Burma as Security Council members in New York prepared for a briefing on the situation. The UN secretary general's special adviser on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, will brief the Security Council on the recent wave of political unrest in the country.

Plainclothes security officials stood guard on the protests but there was no violence or any arrests. For the first time onlookers outnumbered the monks and formed a protective human chain around the monks as they prayed at the Sule pagoda in the centre of Rangoon. Those watching offered support to the marchers, in the form of drinks and alms. An unnamed diplomat told AFP that "today marks definitely an escalation."

This protest is the longest display of dissident behaviour in Burma in two decades. The cause of the protests was a sudden hike in petrol prices in August which caused an initial wave of street protests from ordinary citizens. Then on 5 September security forces fired warning shots over a demonstration of clergy members in the holy city of Pakokku. Buddhist leaders retaliated by briefly taking hostage security officials at a monastery.

The monks demanded an apology from the government by 17 September or else rallies would resume. When the government failed to apologise by Tuesday, the protests resumed. The ruling junta’s problem is that arresting Buddhist monks is a difficult proposition in this deeply devout nation. "The monks are the only ones who really have the trust of the people," says Khin Omar, an exiled dissident now living in Thailand. "When they speak up, people listen."

The monks have demonstrated their seriousness by refusing to take alms from the higher echelons of the military. Almsgiving is a crucial part of Burmese culture and their refusal is a threat in a country where people believe they cannot reach nirvana without recognition of good deeds. The Rangoon-based Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks are advising monks not to accept alms from soldiers and are now telling their followers that the ruling generals are a force of evil. At the South Dagon Nikal Ngar Yat monastery, which is sponsored by the wife of junta leader senior general Than Shwe, 200 monks staged a protest and marched to a nearby pagoda with their alms bowls upside down, to indicate that they would not be accepting any donations.

Burmese media trying to cover the story have faced arrest and censorship. Three journalists covering Tuesday’s demonstration in Rangoon were arrested and questioned by the police who took their equipment. A photojournalist, Win Saing, was arrested while trying to photograph a pro-democracy group making offerings to monks in Rangoon. Saing remains in custody. Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association have called on ASEAN (which includes Burma) to put pressure on the Burmese government to stop media censorship. The government has meanwhile stepped up its propaganda by portraying the protesters as violent agitators mobilised by the opposition and foreign governments. The pro-government media have also accused the foreign press of creating unrest. No foreign journalist has obtained a visa to enter Burma since the start of the protest. Reporters Without Borders have described the Burmese military as using a “detestable strategy” aimed at preventing reports from doing their job.

Burma: media snapshot

This essay will offer a snapshot of the state of journalism in the Union of Myanmar, more commonly known as Burma. It will examine the roots and evolution of press journalism, the current situation in broadcasting, and will conclude with the examination of difficulties facing Burmese journalists such as censorship and threat of imprisonment.

Burma has a long and rich tradition of journalism. Lower Burma was established as a British colony after the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 and within ten years the first western-style newspapers appeared in both English and Burmese. By 1919 Burmese language nationalist newspapers such as Myanmar Alin (New light of Burma) were agitating for change. Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948 with a democratically elected civilian political leadership. At the time Burma had a vibrant network of over 30 newspapers which operated with considerable freedom in a country of much natural wealth and widespread literacy. Burma’s international reputation was honoured by the elevation of U Thant as Asia’s first, and until the incumbent Ban Ki Moon the only, UN Secretary-General in 1961.

All that changed one year later, when General Ne Win staged a coup and installed a military regime that remains in power to this day. Under his junta, the country outlawed all other political parties and adopted the “Burmese way to socialism”. For the press, that way meant a system of licensing that required the registration of all publications. The new military rulers also issued a warning that seditious news was not to be published. Through the 1960s, Ne Win became more tyrannical and further press freedoms were eroded. In 1963 the junta closed down the prestigious Nation and began to publish its own propaganda in the Working People’s Daily. By the end of 1966, they banned all private newspapers and expelled Reuters and the Associated Press correspondents. In 1993 there was just one permitted newspaper, the Government run Working People’s Daily, printed in Burmese and English.

Similarly, the broadcast media of Radio and TV remain, for the most part, tightly controlled by the Government. Radio was a wartime legacy and the Burmese followed the British model when they set up the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) after independence. Programmers on the BBS operated with similar freedom to the press until it too was abruptly ended by the military takeover in 1962. Myanmar TV began in 1980 and was supplemented by a military channel in 1990. Both channels are owned and operated by the government and the military. But the government doesn’t totally control the airwaves. While foreign stations such as Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV are officially available only to five star hotels in Yangon (Rangoon) and high ranking officials, enterprising citizens in northern towns have smuggled satellite dishes across the border from China.

Burma has a very active culture of censorship. The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division check every article, editorial, cartoon, advertisement and illustration ahead of publication. Censorship affects the reporting of such varied issues as political opposition, the UN and even the bird flu epidemic. Burma also insists that all fax machines be registered and journalists can earn a seven year prison sentence for having an unauthorised fax, video camera, modem or a copy of a banned publication.

There are other major impediments facing Burmese journalists. The Committee to Protection of Journalists (CPJ) describe Burma as one of the most repressive places for journalists, trailing only North Korea on their “10 Most Censored Countries” list. Even minimal attempts to report the facts are ruthlessly crushed. Two journalists were imprisoned for attempting to film outside the country’s controversial new capital and at least seven journalists were behind bars, making Burma the world’s fifth leading jailer of journalists. The situation is symptomatic of what Human Rights Watch calls “the dire state of human rights in the country".

Red Cross denounce Burma's human rights record

The Red Cross publicly denounced Burma’s military junta for its human rights record last Friday. The move represents a rare departure for International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which prefers quiet diplomacy to open attack. ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger criticised the military regime for violating international humanitarian law by murdering civilians, forcing prisoners to serve as army “porters” in combat areas strewn with landmines and destroying village food stocks.

Burma has blocked the ICRC from independent visits to detention centres and prisons to check on conditions for the past two years, and the Red Cross says its staff faces increasing difficulty in delivering aid. Normally this would result in a private complaint to the relevant government. But the ICRC has run out of patience with Burma. Kellenberger’s rare public denunciation was prompted by the consistent refusal of the military junta to enter into a serious discussion of human rights abuses.

ICRC’s findings were based on observations made by their delegates as well as numerous allegations of abuse they collected during private interviews with thousands of civilians and detainees between 2000 and 2005. Systematic abuses against detainees and civilians are the primary source of serious concern. Burma has set up a prison system which forces thousands of detainees to support the armed forces by serving as porters. These porters have been exposed to armed conflict as well as abused, exhausted, malnourished and sometimes murdered.

Civilians along the Thai-Burmese border have also suffered at the hands of the military. A large-scale military offensive in northern Karen state during 2006 displaced an estimated 27,000 civilians, and destroyed over 230 villages. The army also destroyed their food supplies and means of production. The state is the home of the Karen National Union (KNU) which has been fighting to establish an independent Karen state (Kawthoolei) since 1956. Since the KNU called off a ceasefire in 2006, the army has severely restricted freedom of movement, making it impossible for villagers to work in their fields. This has had a significant impact on the economy, aggravating an already precarious humanitarian situation.

The worsening of relations between the ICRC and Burma is due to a change in the junta’s power structure. In October 2004 then 65-year old General Khin Nyunt was sacked as Prime Minister by senior junta leader Than Shwe. Shwe had become increasingly irritated by Nyunt’s “liberal” policies. Nyunt had made the mistake of announcing a seven-point "road map" to democracy, plans for a new National Constitutional Convention and "free and fair" elections. Nyunt was also responsible for a peace deal with the KNU. However since he was summarily dismissed for “health reasons”, human rights abuses have increased.

The ICRC attack came after a UN special representative finished a five-day trip to Burma. Radhika Coomaraswamy met with several top junta officials on her visit. She discussed the possibility of setting up a UN task force to verify information about the use of children soldiers by the Burmese military and insurgent groups. The report will be prepared for the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict which meets in November this year.

Burma’s has been under military rule since 1962 and has one of the world's worst records in human rights abuses. Its isolationism has increased in the last 12 months. The army junta known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) have suppressed the Burmese democratic movement since they declared the 1990 election null and void, while Aung San Suu Kyi and other political activists continued to be detained or imprisoned. The SPDC also forcibly moved thousands of civil servants to the anonymous new capital Naypidaw in 2005 due to a fear of a foreign military intervention and to lessen the impacts of civilian protests in Rangoon.

According to the ICRC, Burma's military have created "a climate of constant fear among the population and have forced thousands of people to join the ranks of the internally displaced, or to flee abroad”.

The Also-Rangoon

Last Sunday the military rulers of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Union of Burma, held a ceremony to lay a foundation for a pagoda. The pagoda will be in their controversial new capital city Naypyidaw. It was breaking ground for a Buddhist temple that will be a replica of the golden Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. The timing of the ceremony was determined by a mixture of astrology and numerology. The head of Burma’s military Junta General Than Shwe started the mystical ceremony by striking a gong. They finished by sprinkling scented water on a hillside overlooking the new capital Naypyidaw. When complete, the 98m high pagoda will match the size of Rangoon’s one. It is designed to be visible from all roads in the capital.

The ceremony commemorates the first anniversary of its November 2005 sudden announcement that Burma was to have a new capital city. The newborn town would be in the centre of the country; 320km north from Rangoon. It was a remote rural area near the town of Pyinmana. The new greenfields township was officially named Naypyidaw in a ceremony in March this year. The name means "seat of kings" in Burmese. State television footage of the ceremony showed only the marching troops but none the construction-site capital itself. Few outsiders have been allowed to visit the site which lacks most of Rangoon's advantages. The official government position is that the new administrative hub is more centrally located than Rangoon, and therefore better able to serve the nation. Analysts say the real reasons are more likely to be a combination of fear of foreign attack, ease of dealing with border insurgents or even the advice of fortune-tellers.

The new capital is surrounded by mountains and dense jungle. Although construction had already been going on in secret for two years before the 2005 announcement, Government staff found out about the move at the same time as the rest of the world. Civil servants disgruntled at the prospect of moving out of the city were warned that they would face treason charges if they refused to relocate. The junta moved swiftly. They began moving government ministries immediately after the announcement. And because astrology plays an important role in the Burmese politics, they appointed a committee of astrologers to help draft policies and decide on what date a festival should be held.

Military experts say Pyinmana's central location will make the government better able to monitor the rebelling border regions such as ethnic minorities of Rakhine and Chin in the north-west, Kachin and Shan in the north and the Karen people in the east. The Karen National Union (KNU) has been fighting the Rangoon government since 1948. General Sarki of the KNU said there are two reasons for moving the capital: firstly, if the US did invade, the junta could seek refuge in the mountain forests; and secondly, Naypyidaw’s geographic location makes it easier for the military to control border regions inhabited by ethnic minorities such as the Karen.

The new capital will contain military headquarters, diplomatic quarters, a parliamentary building, government buildings, mansions for officials, national headquarters for ethnic groups, an airport, a military hospital, a golf course, bunkers and secret tunnels. What the city does lack are schools, housing and other critical services. An anonymous government official who fled the country said “those who are not able to go abroad have no choice, but if the government allowed resigning most of them would have gone.”
Those civil servants who were forced to move first are living as refugees in the concrete shells of unfinished buildings, mostly without running water or electricity. The major roads remain unpaved and malaria is rampant. Military headquarters will be separated from the government ministries, and civilians will be banned from entering either compound. Vendors will be restricted to a commercial zone near the government offices. The usage of mobile phones and satellite television will be curtailed.

Political analysts say the move is designed to further isolate Burma’s democratic opposition and limit the influence of Aung San Suu Kyi. In Rangoon, roadblocks remain in place outside her lakeside house. She remains a thorn in the side of the generals and her continued arrest has been condemned by many in the West. Burma is suffering tough US sanctions on textile exports and the banning of all new investment. Ever since the change in US foreign policy since 9/11, the generals have feared a foreign invasion. And because they are military men, they have been making serious contingency plans. One of the first bits of infrastructure built was a battery of anti-aircraft artillery and missile silos.

Astrology has played a large role in the decision to relocate. The current leader General Than Shwe is known to be extremely superstitious. The move was planned for a particularly auspicious date and a soothsayer recently proclaimed that Rangoon was on the verge of collapse. Than’s predecessor, General Ne Win, was equally superstitious and he once insisted that every denomination of the country’s currency be divisible by his lucky number nine.
Burmese exiles in Thailand have also claimed the new capital will be located conveniently close to a secret spot in the western Shan Hills. Here is where Burma’s nuclear programme is being developed with help from China and the A Q Khan network. This area is frequently shrouded by mist and is difficult to monitor by satellite. Burma may also have sought to buy nuclear weapons from North Korea.

Whatever the reason for the new capital, the move is hugely expensive in lives and money. 80,000 workers have toiled in miserable malarial conditions at a total annual labour cost of $32m. Meanwhile the ordinary people of Rangoon are cursing the disruption to their lives. "The government's crazy. Everybody hates this idea," said Soe an anonymous Rangoon man to the Washington Post. His cousin is a military officer who has been transferred to the new capital. "This Pyinmana, I wish I could blow the place up."

Suu Kyi house arrest extended

Aung San Suu Kyi is the world’s most famous political prisoner. She has spent 11 of the past 18 years under house arrest in Rangoon, the capital of Burma. Last month, the country's military rulers decided to extend her house arrest when her confinement order expired on May 27, 2006. May 27 was sixteen years ago to the day when Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a crushing 82 per cent of the vote in a general election, a majority that could not have sent a clearer message to the ruling military junta about what the nation thought of its 28-year dictatorship.

Nonetheless the government have ignored the world and indefinitely extended her detention. This was despite pleas such as the one from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "I'm relying on you, General Than Shwe, to do the right thing," he said, in a direct appeal to the country's senior leader.

Now Annan is saying “despite this setback, the international community cannot abandon the search for improvements in the difficult situation in Myanmar.”

In 1989 the ruling junta renamed the English version of its name from Burma to Myanmar to denote the majority Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar was already the name in Burmese. The West has been slow to embrace the change and organisations such as the BBC and the New York Times still refer to it as Burma.

Burma was a series of independent kingdoms that evolved through the centuries. The Konbaung Dynasty ruled in the 18th and 19th century and fought a series of wars with British India. By the time of the third Anglo-Burmese war in 1885, the British had conquered the whole of the country and turned it into an Indian province. Burma was split from India and set up as a separate colony in 1937. When the Second World War broke out, some leaders such as Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi) called for a national uprising against the British. He fled to China but fell into Japanese hands. The Japanese offered him support to form the Burmese Independence Army (BIA).

The Japanese invaded Burma in 1942 and they allowed the BIA to form a provisional government. But the Japanese didn’t like how truly independent they were becoming. They disbanded the BIA and replaced it with the Burmese Defence Army still under Aung San. The Japanese trained this army and they appointed Ba Maw as puppet head of state. A disillusioned Aung San formed an anti-Japanese group and they rose up in rebellion in March 1945. The Japanese were routed and left the country in defeat in May. The British reinstalled a governor who convinced the hugely popular Aung Sun to join a ruling council. In 1947 his party won a landslide victory in Burma’s first election. Unfortunately for him, he and six of his newly formed cabinet members were assassinated on the orders of a conservative politician U Saw.

Despite the assassinations, Burma transitioned to become a democratic republic in 1948. The republic lasted until the military coup of 1962. General Ne Win took over. Ne Win was a contemporary of Aung Sun and one of the leaders who travelled to Toyko for wartime training. He cemented his reputation in the 1950s when he put down the Karen rebellion. Having taken power, he dissolved parliament and ruled alone for the next 26 years. In 1990, free elections were held but the landslide victory of the NLD, the party of Aung San’s daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi was voided by the military, which refused to step down.

Aung San Suu Kyi was only 2 years old when her father was killed. She was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma. Her mother Khin Kyi was appointed as Burmese ambassador to India in 1960, and Suu Kyi followed, graduating in New Delhi in 1964. She then went to Oxford when she got a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1967. She went to work for the UN in New York and married an Englishman, the Tibetan scholar Michael Aris, in 1972. She returned to her native country in 1988 to care for her ailing mother. In that year, the long-time leader General Ne Win stepped down among democracy demonstrations which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power. Suu Kyi entered politics, influenced by Ghandi’s theories of non-violence. She founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) and was placed under house arrest in 1989. She was offered freedom in exchange for leaving the country but she refused.

The junta called elections in 1990 which the NLD won easily. However the military refused to hand over power which resulted in international outrage. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights". She was released from house arrest in 1995 but told she would not be allowed back in if she left the country. Her dying husband was not allowed an entry visa. They never saw each other again as he died in an Oxford hospital in 1999. She was repeatedly prevented from meeting with her party supporters, and in September 2000 was again put under house arrest. The UN negotiated for her release in 2002 and she proclaimed "a new dawn for the country". This dawn was short-lived. In May 2003, her entourage was attacked in a remote northern village by a government-sponsored mob that killed and wounded many of her supporters. Suu Kyi fled the scene but was arrested shortly after. She was imprisoned in Yangon and was again placed under house arrest in Yangon after a hysterectomy in September 2003.

The United Nations has continued to lobby Burma for her release. She is the subject of a high-profile international campaign by the US government, dignitaries and such musical artists as U2, REM and Coldplay. Nonetheless she remains imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial.

General Than Shwe remains implacably opposed to her release and with the support of China and the leadership of ASEAN, he is confident his position is strong enough to ride out the international condemnation. Drug money from the Golden Triangle is widely suspected of keeping the Burmese economy afloat. Shwe’s regime has profited from the flow of drugs across the border into Thailand. Most local investment in that country is laundered drug money. Some five-star hotels, many finance houses and a large percentage of all tourist facilities are built by money from druglords.

And while Suu Kyi remains locked up, none of that is likely to change any time soon.