By- Zin Linn
September 4, 2007 - The people of Burma have been publicly protesting against the massive increase in fuel prices since the middle of August 2007. The spontaneous protests that started in Rangoon have been spreading to various parts of Burma despite a brutal crackdown by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The junta has launched a big manhunt and has been detaining hundreds of peaceful protesters including 88 generation student leaders and active members of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The state-owned media of Burma (Myanmar ) said last week that the increase in fuel prices in Myanmar on August 15 corresponded with the global trend among governments of withdrawing fuel subsidies to deal with the rising cost of oil. The price of petrol in the military ruled country went up from Kyat 1500 to Kyat 2500 a gallon, while price of diesel rose from Kyat 1500 to Kyat 3000. The biggest jump was for compressed natural gas (CNG), which rose from Kyat 10 to Kyat 50 a litre.
Officials from the Yangon (Rangoon ) Division Transport Supervisory Committee said that bus fare increase in the city since 15 August was a fall out of the massive rise in fuel prices. As a result of the increase bus fares that were previously Kyat 40 have gone up to Kyat 100, Kyat 60 fares have risen to Kyat 150, and Kyat 80 fares to Kyat 200, said the official. But in some instances, passengers have to pay more.
Justifying the increase in fuel prices, the junta explained through its media that oil prices have touched US$78.8 a barrel and several countries have resorted to raising the 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 even higher in 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 saw petrol prices in Myanmar go from Kyat 180 to Kyat 1500 a gallon after the government reduced subsidies in 2005," he said.
The junta's Information Minister and the state media also highlighted that even though CNG now costs Kyat 190 ($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 $3.86 in Singapore, says the Myanmar Times Journal.
The junta's Information Minister failed to mention the minimum wage in is currently 191 baht ($ 5.62) a day in Bangkok, Thailand and slightly less in the provinces. The Minister Kyaw San also did not talk about the minimum wage in Burma which is currently Kyat 1000 or less than 35 baht ($1) per day in Rangoon and Naypyidaw. The monthly salary of a university professor in Burma is only Kyat 170, 000 ($ 130 or 4,485 baht) and it means $ 4.01 (138 baht) a day. Currently, two kilos of middle grade rice is around Kyat 1200 ($ 1 or 35 baht). The real question is that there are not enough jobs providing payments in line with neighbouring countries for the Burmese people. The unemployment problem in Burma is now spilling over the region. Out of a 55 million population in Burma more than five million are working not only in the neighbouring countries but also through out the world.
The military regime always refuses to listen to its general public who are only asking for fair prices for fuel and essential commodities. The stubbornness of the generals has 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 has gone 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 households are below minimum subsistence level, half of rural families are landless, 2.2 percent of adults are suffering from 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 percent 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 two to three 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 resulting in sky rocketing commodity-prices and rates of hyperinflation.
The price increase in the fuel sector is result of the junta's dishonest policy which tends to put the overall deficit on the shoulders of the people. If the military leaders are benevolent towards the people, they should not have resorted to such a policy. Instead, they should subsidize fuel prices for domestic consumption to help the poor majority population. The financial assistance to subsidize fuel prices may not be more than $300 million while the regime has already earned $2600 million from natural gas exports to Thailand in 2006-2007.
Instead of listening to the voice of the people, the military junta continue to commit institutionalize human rights abuses through the use of gang of ruffians or the Swan-ar Shin. The blood-thirsty Swan-ar Shin have been violently cracking down on unarmed civilian protesters, who have been peacefully demonstrating because of 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 like state-sponsored terrorism.
Supporters of democracy around the world including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour condemned the violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists by the Burmese military junta and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the arrested. Even the United States President George Bush has strongly condemned the ongoing actions of the Burmese junta in arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations. He also warned that the junta should heed international calls to release the detained activists immediately and stop its intimidation of those Burmese citizens who are promoting democracy and human rights. President Bush also called on the junta to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to lift restrictions on humanitarian organizations that seek to help the people of Burma.
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 have a dream of a new dawn in order to enjoy basic rights of freedom, and it is the role of the international community, especially regional players Japan and ASEAN members, to act for changes in Burma. Last August in the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) that was held in Kuala Lumpur, Charles Chong, and a Singaporean Member of Parliament made a prediction. "All of us—ASEAN, China and India —will suffer if Myanmar's [ Burma's] situation continues to deteriorate," Chong said at a gathering of more than 20 national legislators from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore to discuss Burma/Myanmar's politics. Problems sparked by the Burmese military's grip on power have hurt the region, sending refugees to Thailand and Malaysia, producing illegal drugs that spill over to China and wrecking ASEAN's efforts to be seen as an influential grouping, Chong said.
The governments of the ASEAN countries should take into account Mr. Charles Chong's far-sighted opinion. The UN Security Council members, especially China and Russia, should also think over their vetoes on the Burma issue in sympathy with the poor Burmese population who has been facing heavy taxes, starvation, diseases, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings.
http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/EdOp/2007/Sep/04-Sep-07.html
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