Editorial: Disproportionate military expenditure in Burma

 

_ By Taisamyone

Burma is a relatively rich country.  It has rich seams of gems and various metals, abundant land for agriculture and increasing finds of offshore gas.  The gas dollars roll in, but where does it all go?  The average person in the street does not get it.  It goes, not just on a lavish diamond encrusted lifestyle for the country’s rulers and their cronies, army officers and government toadies siphoning off the cream into their back pockets in corruption, but absurdly extravagant expenditure on the armed forces, a useless new capital costing billions, hydroelectric power to illuminate the empty streets of NayPyiDaw whilst Rangoon suffers daily power failures, development projects designed to keep the population subjugated, and grandiose plans for nuclear weapons.  Everything that Burma does not need.

Based on income per person, Burma is one of the poorest nations in the world, suffering from decades of stagnation, mismanagement, and isolation. Burma’s GDP grows only 2.9% annually -- the lowest rate of economic growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion.  As an aside, the junta claim a staggering growth of over 12% - but then these figures are conjured up by the ministries to satisfy the generals’ desires and bear no relation to reality at all.  Getting any ‘hard’ facts and statistics about government expenditure that approach the truth is almost impossible.

Based on income as a country, Burma’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranks around 64th of 194 countries, but as with statistics the catch is that the GDP/person means that on income Burma ranks at 154th.  Burma is rated as 29th out of the 30 countries in the ‘far east’ region in the 2007 Index of Economic Freedom – North Korea being at 30.  The ‘2007 Index of Economic Freedom’ measures and ranks 161 countries across 10 specific freedoms - things like tax rates and property rights. The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington’s pre-eminent economic think tank, have tracked the march of economic freedom around the world with the influential ‘Index of Economic Freedom’ for some years, and calculated these figures for Burma.  Burma gains a relatively high score as there are considerable ‘freedoms’ for foreign investors in the lack of government interference and financial controls that strict communist regimes and other even more corrupt countries impose on investors.  Burma falls down on several issues:- Burma's lack of legal and regulatory transparency virtually impedes creation of new businesses. Corruption is perceived as widespread. The labour market is controlled and distorted by the state. The positive factors (moderate tax rates, relatively low government expenditure) may of course be the result of the junta’s attempts to encourage foreign investment and maybe because they lack any sophistication regarding financial and economic management.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the junta's military expenditures account for over 40 percent of national budget while Burma's health and education spending is 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. Hence, it is no surprise that the health and education of Burma’s people falls woefully behind the rest of the region and the rest of the world.  Burma’s Human Development Index is calculated at 130 (of 171) and rates in the bottom ten for the region.  The junta are not developing the country’s capabilities and hence the future economic prospects for Burma – they are selling off Burma’s natural resources as quickly as they can to fund the construction of their fortress to keep the rest of the world out, and their prison state to keep the people of Burma in slavery. 

Although official figures for Burmese military spending are not available, the ‘Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’, in its annual rankings, ranked Burma in the top 15 military spenders in the world. The country imports most of its weapons from Russia, Ukraine, China and India.  Whilst we can dangle statistics and criticise the nature of the junta’s financial management, there is no real justification for this level of expenditure for a country which has no hostile enemies, in a region that is relatively peaceful and has been for many years.  The military expenditure is for equipment that is mostly not aimed at fighting the insurgents and freedom fighters, but the armoury required for offence as well as defence against a strong external military enemy.  The junta are building an arsenal either because they are paranoid about being attacked from outside (very likely), or because they have long term plans for conquest of their neighbours (quite possibly as likely).  Whichever scenario seems appropriate, the result is that desperately needed resources are being diverted for frivolous and Machiavellian purposes.

The result?  International NGO ‘Save the Children Fund’, who undertake humanitarian work in Burma, spell it out succinctly in their country profile:

“Children in Burma face some of the worst poverty in Asia. Government spending on health dropped from 1 per cent of GDP in 1990 to 0.2 per cent in 2000 and public investment in education is also declining. Nearly 75 per cent of families live in rural areas where many homes lack clean water and sanitation facilities, despite the fact that most areas of Myanmar have abundant water resources. Rates of child mortality are high – mainly caused by preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, which claims the lives of some 28,000 children under five every year. An estimated 35 per cent of children under 5 years old suffer from malnutrition.

There are one million internally displaced people in Myanmar and just over 100,000 refugees live in the border areas. Trafficking of children is a big problem, particularly across the eastern border, and many end up being involved in prostitution, begging rackets or other forms of child labour. In addition to the humanitarian crisis that prevails across the country, Myanmar also faces a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The political situation in Myanmar means that it has the lowest international aid allocation of any poor country in the world. Although ostensibly heading towards democracy, in practice the country is led by a junta while opposition leaders are under house arrest [or imprisoned]. Few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are able to operate within Myanmar and those who do are required to work within strict boundaries”

RESOURCES

¨       Save the Children UK Country Brief for Myanmar

¨       Myanmar

¨       2007 Index of Economic Freedom - Burma

¨       International Institute for Strategic Studies

¨       Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

¨       MYANMAR (BURMA): Economic Policy Analysis

¨       Gas Discovery Will Benefit Junta, Say Dissidents

¨       ‘Save Our Schools’

¨       Malaria and drug-resistant TB flourish in Myanmar