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Aung Sans’ Plan for Reconstruction of Corrupted Myanmar

I hereby searched and reproduced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s articles, writtten in Japanese Newspapers, about the deteriorating corrupted state of Myanmar; and I also found out that her father General Aung San’s plans or dreams of how to reconstruct Burma_ could be considered as a remedy.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wrote: Perhaps they do not know of the poverty in the countryside, the hapless people whose homes have been razed to make way for big vulgar buildings, the bribery and corruption that is spreading like a cancerous growth, the lack of equity that makes the so - called open market economy very, very open to some and hardly ajar to others, the harsh and increasingly lawless actions taken by the authorities against those who seek democracy and human rights, the forced labor projects where men, women and children toil away without financial compensation under hard taskmasters in scenes reminiscent of the infamous railway of death of the Second World War. It is surprising that those who pride themselves on their shrewdness and keen eye for opportunity cannot discern the ugly symptoms of a system that is undermining the moral and intellectual fiber and, consequently, the economic potential of our nation. If businessmen do not care about the numbers of political prisoners in our country they should at least be concerned that the lack of an effective legal framework means there is no guarantee of fair business practice or, in cases of injustice, of reparation. If businessmen do not care that our standards of health and education are deteriorating, they should at least be concerned that the lack of a healthy, educated labor force will inevitably thwart sound economic development. If businessmen do not care that we have to struggle with the difficulties of a system that gives scant attention to the well - being of the people, they should at least be concerned that the lack of necessary infrastructure and an underpaid and thereby corrupt bureaucracy hampers quick, efficient transactions. If businessmen do not care that our workers are exposed to exploitation, they should at least be concerned that a dissatisfied labor force will eventually mean social unrest and economic instability.

(BUSINESSMEN CAN ONLY REAP WHAT THEY SOW "The Beautiful and the Ugly" Letter from Burma (No. 22) by Aung San Suu Kyi, Mainichi Daily News, April 22, 1996.)

She continued: Almost all of these vehicles are running on black market petrol. This black market petrol has gone up in price within the last month and most of it is leaked out from government departments.

Car licenses have to be renewed annually. Owners have to ask the Department of Road Transport Administration for a date on which their vehicles can be inspected and passed as roadworthy. If you do not want to go through the rigmarole of making an appointment in advance, you pay a certain sum of money to have car checked immediately. Then you go on to bribe the person assigned to check your vehicle. Otherwise, you will be sent back to change the lights, or to repaint the chassis, or to replace some part of the engine. People have been sent away as many as four or five times to undertake repairs "necessary" to make the vehicle roadworthy until they saw the light and produced several hundred kyats. It is no use complaining or getting angry, the employees in the Department of Road Transport Administration have to make ends meet. Making ends meet is the overriding preoccupation of civil servants in Burma. Their pay is ridiculously low. This is not even enough to feed a family of four, modestly, for a week. Consequently civil servants have to find ways and means of earning extra income.

It is more likely the case that all peoples who have to live under a system where following the straight and narrow path too often lead to impecuniosities learn to be resourceful. And in such situations, "resourceful" is often a euphemism for "dishonest" or "corrupt." If you happen to work in the electricity department in Burma you quickly learn that you can supplement your income by making deals with householders who do not wish to pay their electricity bills in full. And you soon find out that you can squeeze a regular, tidy sum from entrepreneurs of businesses, such as ice making, for whom an electricity cut would be catastrophic. A lineman can make a supplementary income amounting to thousands of kyats a month if he happens to be fortunate enough to be in charge of an area where a number of vulnerable enterprises are situated.

If you work in the telecommunications department too, you put your "resourcefulness" to quick use. When a telephone fails to work the owner has to appeal for repairs. And the most effective appeals are those a solid pecuniary nature. As in the electricity department, the pay-up-or-be-cut tactic can assure a regular source of supplementary income. The long waiting list for telephones also provides employees in the telecommunications department with opportunities for exercising their ingenuity. They can "cooperate" in the transfer of already connected telephones to different owners, or they can expedite the connection of a new telephone. All, of course, for a certain consideration, which could amount to a five-figure sum.

The Inland Revenue Department, as might be expected, is a section of the civil service where employees can earn "on the side" sums many times larger than their regular salaries. The best customers of this department are businessmen who have no inhibitions about evading taxes. But that does not mean honest businessmen who wish to declare their incomes correctly are safe from the resourcefulness (or capacity, if you wish) of the personnel of the department. Their taxable income is arbitrarily assessed at a rate far higher than the correct one until they decide that honesty is not, after all, the best policy in dealing with such matters and agree to cooperate with the officials concerned.

The corruption of the civil services is not just an urban phenomenon. Farmers have to sell a quota of their harvest to the government at stipulated prices well below the market rate. The state employees who weigh the grain at rice depots manage to put aside a substantial amount of rice for themselves. This rice they sell at the market price to those farmers who have had bad harvest, so they can produce the necessary government quota for which, of course, the poor farmers are only paid the state price. It is no wonder that civil servants are generally viewed as public predators rather than public benefactors.

(CORRUPTION LURKS BENEATH SERENE SURFACE, "Uncivil Service 1")

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi continue in another week: Even more than letters about the unsavory conditions in our hospitals, I receive letters about the disgraceful state of our education system. Education, like health care, is ostensibly free in Burma but again, as with health care, the contribution exacted from the community is getting higher by the day.

Inadequate school funds are supplemented by "donations" collected for various purposes: sports day, new buildings, school furniture, teacher-parent association funds, and religious festivals. Underpaid teachers supplement their incomes by giving tuition outside school hours. The fees range from 1,000 kyats to 10,000 kyats for each pupil, depending on the grade in which they are studying and the number of subjects in which they are coached. The poor quality of teaching in the school forces all parents who can afford the fees to send their children to such tuition classes.

Examinations provide teachers as well as employees of the education department with opportunities for lucrative business. Examination questions, advance information on grades achieved and the marking up of low grades can all be obtained for price.

There was a time when civil servants in our country were seen as an elite corps: well educated, well-trained and well-paid, capable of giving good service to the community. Now they are generally regarded with fear and revulsion, or with pity. State employees, who have not become part of the syndrome of daily corruption, either from a matter of principle or from lack of opportunity, are unable to maintain a standard of living appropriate to their functions. They are the nouveau poor of Burma. (CORRUPTION WHITTLES AWAY AT STATE SERVICES "Pay as You Go" by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)

General Aung San’s concepts to rebuild the future (First) Independent Burma, which is still good for our Second Independent Burma:

“I want to address the Indians and Chinese residing in this country. We have no bitterness, no ill will for them, or for that matter for any race and nationality in the world. If they choose to join us, we will welcome them as our own brethren. The welfare of all people of this country irrespective of race or religion has always been the one purpose that I have set out to fulfill. In fact it is my life's mission.”

I recognize both the virtues and limitations of pure nationalism, I love its virtues, I don't allow myself to be blinded by its limitations, though I knew that it is not easy for the great majority of any nation to get over these limitations. In so far as nationalism encourages us to love our people and love others. In so far as nationalism inculcates in us a sense of national and social justice which calls upon us to fight any system that is oppressive or tyrannical both in our country and the world, there I am completely with nationalism.

I believe in the inherent right of a people to revolt against any tyranny that people may have over them. History has amply demonstrated the right of a people to its own freedom, and that once it is denied to them, even in the case of the peoples who belong to the same stock. There is therefore nothing wrong in the aspirations of a nation if it wants to regain the freedom that is its birthright and attempts to have it. Every nation in the world must be free not only externally (i.e., free from any foreign rule) but also internally.

We cannot confine the definition of a nationality to the narrow bounds of race, religion, etc. Nations are extending the rights of their respective communities even to others who may not belong to them except by their mere residence amongst them and their determination to live and be with them. I am glad to know that you regard yourselves as nationals of this country. So far as I am concerned, I am perfectly prepared to embrace you as my own brothers and sisters.

Some of us have been going still about the same old way of ‘dirty’ politics. But is politics really ‘dirty’. It is not politics which is dirty, but rather the persons who choose to dirty it are dirty.

Politics means your everyday life. It is you in fact; for you are a political animal as Aristotle long ago declared. It is how you eat, sleep, work and live, with which politics is concerned. You may not think about politics. But politics thinks about you. You may shun politics. But politics clings to you always in your home, in your office, in your factories. There, everyday you are doing politics, grappling with it, struggling with it. The worker works for his wages, the peasant tills for his living, the clerk and the official toil for salaries, the trader and the broker struggle for decent incomes. It is, all, the question of livelihood. The worker wants to have higher wages and live in better conditions. The peasant desires to improve his land and his lot. The clerk and the official want something more than the drudgery of office, something more secure, more complete, and more independent. The trader and broker want fair opportunities for trading and business. Thus you have to live and get certain things that are yours for your living, and this is your politics. This is your everyday life; and as your everyday life changes, so changes your politics. It is for you to have such opportunities for your livelihood and better life that we say there must be freedom, freedom to live, freedom to create and develop nationally, and individually, freedom which can raise your and our standards without affecting others. And this is politics. Politics then is quite human! It is not dirty. It is not dangerous. It is not parochial. It is neither magic nor superstition. It is not above understanding.

They say politics is dirty. They say politics is religion. They say these all in contradiction with each other in one and the same breath. Politics is religion! Is it? Of course not. But this is the trump card of dirty politicians. In this way, they hope to confuse and befog the public mind, and they hope to slur over and cloud real issues. Theirs is the way of opportunism, not politics. Religion is a matter of individual conscience while politics is a social science. Of course, as a social science, politics must see that the individual also has his rights, including the right to freedom of religious worship. But here we must stop and draw the line definitely between politics and religion, because the two are not one and the same thing. If we mix religion with politics, this is against the spirit of religion itself, for religion takes care of our hereafter and usually has not to do with mundane affairs which are the sphere of politics. And politics is frankly a secular science. That is it.

Reverend Sanghas! You have a tremendous role to play. This is the highest politics which you can do for your country and people. Go amongst our people, preach the doctrine of unity and love; carry the message of higher freedom to every nook and corner of the country, freedom to religious worship, freedom to preach and spread the Dharma anywhere and anytime, freedom from fear, ignorance, superstition, etc., teach our people to rely upon themselves and re-construct themselves materially, spiritually and otherwise. You have these and many more noble tasks before you.

Every student of social and political science knows very well that such slogans as race, religion, language do not alone constitute nationalism. There are one or more races in almost every country. Nowadays, we have different religions being embraced by members of the same nationality.

What then constitutes nationalism? The main factor is the having to lead together one common life sharing joys and sorrows, developing common interests and one or more common things like racial or linguistic communities, fostering common traditions of having been and being one which give us a consciousness of oneness and necessity of that oneness.

Race, religion, and language are thus by themselves not primary factors which go to the making of a nation but the historic necessity of having to lead common life together that is the pivotal principle of nationality and nationalism.

Nowadays, with the increasing mutual intercourse of nations, there is such a provision in many of the constitutions of the world for naturalization of foreigners. But it is in history that opportunist political leadership taking advantage of the strong national sentiments of the people may try to exploit the nationalism of the people for their selfish individual or group interests. We must be careful of such exploitation of nationalism. For then racial strives and bitterness will be fomented and fostered among us by interested parties in order to divert our attention from the main objective.

There is no denying the fact in all quarters that the greatest things Burma needs now are relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Now in these eras of mounting inflation these prices will be fixed. I quite agree that we must fix the prices of such basic products from the point of view of world market and the consumers.

But before we fix such prices, we must tackle the problem of inflation first. Without doing that, the control of the prices of the agricultural produces can mean only one thing-squeezing the throats of our farmers and peasants. And what will be the consequences? We see these in widespread robberies and clandestine dealing in military goods (which is an open secret).

We all know that one of the first things which we must do about inflation is to make immediately the free flow of commodities possible inside and from outside, and whatever steps are necessary to do that, production, transport etc., for the moment, must be done; while government, if it is not prepared to take the whole burden, need only to watch that there are no economic excesses, so to speak. Now here comes the question of exports and imports too.

Inflation in our country is assuming ominous proportions. Many are unemployed. People have no money. These and many others form a string of portentous economic factors operating in Burma now.

It is always a difficult thing for the accused to prove threat, coercion or undue influence by the police. In the hands of unscrupulous, investigating police officers who want to have convictions to their credit, these are dangerous powers. It will be only the accused’s word against that of the police.

Our people constantly exposed to unscrupulous police terror as well as to the tyranny of vindictive judges. And we are not unaware of many instances in the districts of interferences by the executive side in judicial matters.

We will reconstruct our country with the help of our people and we will reconstruct our way to freedom. We must begin with basic things such as relief, supplies, transport, communications, law and order, education, housing and public health on a progress scale. And we must for our success apply principles of co-operation wherever necessary and practicable.

The dynamic people’s strategy and tactics which is far superior to the Atomic bomb, for once our people are organized and fully mobilized conscious of their creative power and historic destiny then no dead material force, however great, can stand this people’s general offensive.

This leads me to come to the task of organizing and mobilizing our entire people in the country for our common national objective. Of course the first thing before us is national unity.

But here I want to discuss what we mean by national unity and what form it should take. By national unity; we mean the unity of the entire people, irrespective of race, religion, sex and sectarian and party interests, in action and not in words for national takes and objectives.

As for the form this country is to take, there are some views that all parties should merge their identities completely with the national organization. Those holding such views are genuinely concerned that the existence of parties may undermine the strength of the national movement. But we must face this question as a practical one.

Parties will exist even after their formal abolition if I understand by ‘Party,’ it means an organization of people holding more or less the same view on questions of the day and representing definite interests whether they are the interests of workers or peasants or others. What is important is not exactly that they exist or do not exist but that they will engage in partisan activities detrimental to national interests.

On all national questions, they should and must come together and work together without any sectarianism in the affair. Their role as parties should be confined to such as persuading the greater bulk of such representative body of the national organization as this conference to their school of thought. In other words their role should be educative and not partisan. If this is so, the existence of parties will not be a source of weakness of our organization. In this way we can develop dynamically to a higher and higher form of unity till we have the best we can have. This is our primary task.

Next we must tackle the many questions of propaganda, organization and reconstruction. To be able to do all these, we must have the personnel to carry out these things’ personnel prepared to work for the love of work for the nation, and qualified to do it, those who will plan and execute and train people who will execute. In other words, we must have a well-established General Headquarters, planning, directing and executing political and economic tasks. In this respect we need many volunteers from those qualified sections of the people prepared to place their services at the disposal of the nation. I therefore send out this call to those who will, to come out and serve in our organization and for that purpose to come and register their names and say what and how they can do to help us in our tasks. Their services will no doubt be gratefully received and remembered by the nation.

But this is not enough. This general headquarters must be equipped with up-to-date technique and apparatus and facilities for propaganda, organization or any other task. We must have Funds. Of course we shall devise ways and means of getting it in a self-supporting way, but first and always the public must come forward to finance this organization which is after all their organization.

So then, these are the tasks before all of us. I say then to you: come and let us do them and achieve them, for it is in our power to make or mark our destiny. Above all, have no doubt about your creative power which can move mountains and even Heaven. And what Heaven on this earth can stand before the united will and wisdom of our people conscious of their strength and power and harnessing it firmly to the chariot wheels of history? We are out for ordered progress and we will, with your hearty co-operation, win our freedom peacefully and speedily.

But our Bogyoke had rightly reminded us. He had hit the nail on our forehead by warning us with the straight forward blunt words. His prediction and warning of that if we could not change our corrupt practices, lazy works and inefficiencies we could lost our Independence even if we got one was sadly true. He warned that if we could not change our moral values and refused to work hard, our country would become a ‘prostitute country’.

Yes Bogyoke, now we had lost our Independence you had fought and given to us. Many of our women folks are also degraded into prostitution. Our country’s dignity and name is also in the mud. Sorry Bogyoke, we have not learnt yet. Our opposition parties and various Ethnic Minorities are also divided like chicken without mother. Worse of all almost all the citizens whether from the Myanmar Military rulers, Government servants, opposition parties, rebels up to the ordinary citizens’ moral values are deteriorated very badly. Our country’s pillars are badly damaged by the corruption termites.

SAN OO AUNG 

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