| | The Burmese Military authorities continue to commit institutionalised human rights abuses through the use of gang of ruffians or the Swan-ar Shin. The people of Burma (Myanmar) have been publicly protesting against the arbitrary and dramatic increase of fuel prices since 21 August 2007. The protests that started in Rangoon (Yangon) have been spreading to other parts of Burma despite a brutal crackdown by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The junta has arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters including 88 generation student leaders and active members from the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The military authorities and their gang of blood-thirsty Swan-ar Shin have been violently cracking down on unarmed civilian protesters, who have been peacefully protesting against their desperate economic situation. More and more families are facing starvation because the price of rice has doubled, there are no public transportation services to take people to work, and worse proceedings may follow. If the SPDC continues its ferocious crackdown in reaction to the growing protests, it will drag the country into an anarchic state. The crackdown is more likely practicing state-sponsored terrorism.
Supporters of democracy around the world including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour condemn the violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists by the Burmese military junta and call for their immediate and unconditional release.
State media of Burma (Myanmar) including the Myanmar Times Journal said last week that an increase in fuel prices in Myanmar on August 15 was corresponding to a global trend among governments of withdrawing fuel subsidies to deal with the rising cost of oil. The price of petrol in military ruled country went from K1500 to K2500 a gallon, while diesel rose from K1500 to K3000. The biggest jump occurred with compressed natural gas (CNG), which changed from K10 to K50 a liter.
The officials from the Yangon (Rangoon) Division Transport Supervisory Committee said that bus fares increases in the city since 15 August was in reaction to a massive rise in fuel prices. As a result of the increases, bus fares that were previously K40 have gone up to K100, K60 fares have raised to K150, and K80 fares to K200, said the official. But, according to local passengers, K100 for just a stop to the next and from suburb area to downtown costs K400 for one way. So, it will cost K800 for a round-trip while a daily wage-earner can make K1000 in average.
An excuse to raise the fuel prices, the junta explained through its media that oil prices have reached as high as US$78.8 a barrel and several countries have taken action to the high prices by cutting subsidies to fuel-consuming sectors. The global oil market has been at an angle, as demand for fuel grows in developing countries whose governments use subsidies to keep oil prices at well below the free-market price. As a result, growing oil demand in China, India and the Middle East has driven the free-market oil price ever higher for developed countries. Egypt withdrew its oil subsidies for the electricity sector on August 14, one day before Burma/Myanmar raised its fuel prices. Egypt’s Trade and Industry Minister, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, said the reduction in subsidies would save the government £15 billion in the next three years.
The editor-in-chief of Yangon-based International Economic Journal, Khin Maung Nyo (Economy) said he thought last week’s rise in fuel prices in Myanmar had resulted from a reduction in oil subsidies by the government. “The governments of many countries are having trouble offering fuel subsidies as oil prices go up. We already saw petrol prices in Myanmar go from K180 to K1500 a gallon after the government reduced subsidies in 2005,” he said.
The junta’s Information Minister himself and the state media also highlighted that even though CNG now costs K190 ($0.15) a gallon in Myanmar/Burma, the price is still lower than the countries where subsidies are still government policy. For example, CNG is about $3.04 a gallon in Thailand and $3.86 in Singapore, says the Myanmar Times Journal.
The junta’s Information Minister failed to mention the minimum wage in Thailand is currently 191 baht ($ 5.62) per day in Bangkok and slightly less in the provinces. The Minister Kyaw San also did not talk about the minimum wage in Burma which is currently 1000 kyat or less than 35 baht ($1) per day in Rangoon and Naypyidaw. The monthly salary of a university professor in Burma is only K170, 000 ($ 130 or 4,485 baht) and it means $ 4.01 (138 baht) for a day. Currently, 2 kilos of middle grade rice is around K1200 ($ 1 or 35 baht). The real question is that there are no enough jobs providing payments in line with neighbouring countries for the Burmese people within the country. The unemployment problem of Burma is now spilling over the region. Out of 55 million population of Burma more than 5 million is working not only in the neighbouring countries but also through out the world.
The military regime always refuses listening to its general public who are only asking fair prices for fuel and commodity goods. The stubbornness of the generals pulled the country down to an abyss of starvation. The people have no other way out than a protest. The protests are the legitimate expression of dissatisfaction over the widely suffered effects of the regime’s economic mismanagement and bad governance. These peaceful protests, triggered by the junta's precipitous increases in fuel prices, are the logical consequences of many years of political repression and irresponsible administration.
Burma's economy has remained moribund in 2006-2007, as inflation is going up as much as 50 percent. According to the UN reports, 75 percent of the people live under the poverty line and 25 percent of household are below minimum subsistence level, half of rural families are landless, 2.2 percent of adults are suffering HIV positive and around 50,000 die yearly. Moreover, one-third of the children are undernourished and one-tenth of them die before five years of age. According to the UN Development Programme's 2006 Human Development Report, public health expenditure equaled only 0.3% of Burma's GDP. High infant mortality rates and short life expectancies further highlight poor health and living conditions. The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses a serious threat to the Burmese population, as do tuberculosis and malaria. In 2006, the UNDP's Human Development Index, which measures achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income, ranked Burma 130 out of 177 countries.
Due to the economic downturn caused by the military's mismanagement, there is an estimated 2 to 3 million Burmese living in Thailand. There are numerous documented human rights violations, and internal displacement of ethnic minorities is still rampant. Over a million Burmese, many of them ethnic minorities have fled for economic and political raison d'être to Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia, and Thailand to seek work and asylum. More than 150,000 Burmese live in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border and roughly 30,000 live in two camps in Bangladesh. Roughly 30,000 Burmese, most of them are from Arakan and Chin States, have fled to Malaysia.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), referring Asian Development Bank (ADB), the total public sector deficit reached around six percent of the GDP for 2004-2005. Heavy losses by the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) typically account for over 60 percent of the overall deficit. The junta's fiscal position is also weighed down by high off-budget spending on its huge armed forces. Such corollary has resulted due to the junta's draconian policies that led to economic and social downturn proved by sky rocketing commodity-prices and rates of hyperinflation.
The current raising-price in fuel sector is the junta’s dishonest policy which tends putting the overall deficit on the shoulder of the people. If the military leaders have benevolence towards the people, they should not have been done such policy. Instead, they should subsidize fuel prices for the domestic consumption to help poor majority population. The financial assistance to subsidize fuel prices may need not more than $300 million while the regime has already earned $2600 milloin from natural gas export to Thailand in 2006-2007.
It is obvious that the latest precariousness in Burma is part of a long stream of problems inflicted on the people by the foolish military regime. By systematically violating the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people and blocking genuine reforms, the junta has established itself as the main threat to national and regional stability. Political and economic oppression of the people does not go with a roadmap to democracy.
The people of Burma are hoping for a new dawn in order to enjoy basic freedom, and it is the role of the international community, especially regional players Japan and ASEAN members, to play for changes in Burma. Another two important players or the UN Security Council members, China and Russia, should also think over their vetoes on Burma issue in sympathy with the poor Burmese population who has been facing heavy taxes, starvation, diseases, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings. | |
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