18.02.2007
For Democracy & Prosperity in Our Union
_ By Amyotheryei U Win Naing
I would like to present some of the facts that are the main causes for present economic depressions.
We are now in the candle light age since we all have daily power cuts and mostly have to live by candle lights at nights.
I want you to imagine yourself in a dark room with out power, using candle light to search for a needle that you have accidentally dropped on the floor. You would have to use extra effort to be able to see the small needle on the floor. In the same way you would have to try real hard in finding the achievements, true achievements and accomplishments in Myanmar that have been claimed as won by some.
I am not happy with the finger pointing at some persons and countries, putting blame on others for Myanmar's poor economic performance. I do not believe this putting blame on others or finding scapegoat, would help us to get out of economic failures.
I would like to point out four main factors as the causes of the economic problems in this country.
- Miss-management
- Corruption and graft takings.
- Nepotism and
- Opportunists businesspersons
One of the examples to give about miss management in the official sector is about what has been known as "deep water paddy cultivation project". It happened about four years ago. Billions of kyats were loaned out to many bogus companies who failed to cultivate anything and never repay their loans. This and other miss-managed projects caused economic losses for the state and the people.
Now no body dared to warn the generals that those projects were not feasible.
That is where we want to go in.
We want to have the opportunity to talk about these things - to warn the officials whether such and such government' projects are feasible or not, so and so that, mistakes could be corrected and saved millions of kyats of revenues or people's money.
As long as we were refused to have the opportunity to talk about these mis-management and mis-appropriations, Myanmar economy would fail with out doubt.
We just want to report freely about wrong policies and wrong economic plans and want to check whether any action has been taken to correct the mistakes.
There is an official committee called Price control committee. This committee is supposed to make sure the commodities prices are at the lowest. My proposal to the SPDC government is to expend the existing “Price control committee" by adding new members representing political parties. I strongly urged the de facto government to take this kind of initiative because, this could be the important first step in setting up mutual understanding and cooperation leading towards the final goal of political settlement.
I do not think I have to present the details on wide spread graft taking and corruption in Burma. The fact that Burma is on the top of the list of most corrupted countries in the world says itself.
So also is the family eco policy or nepotism. We all know very well that nepotism is the favourite practice in nations under dictators. Therefore, I am not going to elaborate on that too.
The fourth cause of Myanmar's economic depression and people' poverty is the emerging new class of opportunists business people. These opportunists use their personal connections with government officials to gain special advantages to do many, both legal and illegal businesses in the country. The gains from the businesses are shared between the sponsored officials and the opportunists. Official sponsors make market conditions favourable to their protégé. These kind of, favour giving and favour takings result in high consumer prices and make the people suffered.
Therefore, Burmese people must be aware of these business opportunists and get rid of them.
After pin pointing the four main causes of economic depression, all we have to do is, work hard to get rid of these four evil causes, namely
1. Miss-management
2. Corruption and graft takings.
3. Nepotism and
4. Opportunists businesspersons.
I hold the de facto government as the most responsible faction for people's poverty and we, politicians as the second most responsible ones. Of course the people must also realize that they must work hard with us to help themselves get out of the miseries.
Based on this presentation, I now proposed to the SPDC government to work on a new directive of “Work in consultation with the politicians". We need that initiative most urgently to solve poverty problems in our country.
Now I would like to direct my speech to fellow democracy activists. The word "Unity" is an age old usage among men all over the world. Unity is like a soap bubble, never last long. Unity has been achieved and unity has been broken apart umpteen times. It never lasted for long because it is its natural characteristic, and because it is fragile.
Still when unity is achieved it produces energy and a kind of force that no other action could match. By using that force and energy we can win almost anything. Therefore I am appealing to my fellow politicians and pro-democracy activists to unite under one flag, a democracy flag and let us win our freedom.
Also let me warn most sharply that no single leader or a single party could lead the people to victory.
The last group I would like to speak to is non-other than the Burmese people.
To day, I have a special suggestion to make to the people. I want them to copy the unique behaviour of the bird, the black crow, not jackal but crow.
You throw a stone at a crow and it will momentarily fly away to a distance but not out of sight and it will begin shrieking at you circling above your head. Any crow that heard it cries would swoop down out of nowhere and join the first crow. Soon there would be dozens of them. You throw more stones at them, the more crows will come and even you kill some, more would continue to come upon you.
This is unity, this is loyalty, crow's unity and crow's loyalty of which we human being should copy and I am asking my fellow Burmese to practice this kind of unity and loyalty to each other.
If we do, I can guarantee that we would certainly win in our fight for our freedom.
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