Burmese Fairy Tale by Ma Thanegi

(This article originally appeared on now-defunct FEER on 19 February 1998.)

Prominent Burmese Writer Ma Thanegi.

Like many Burmese, I am tired of living in a fairy tale. For years, outsiders portrayed the troubles of my country as a morality play: good against evil, with no shade of grey in between -- a simplistic picture, but one the world believes.

The response of the West has been equally simplistic : It wages a moral crusade against evil, using such "magic wands" as sanctions and boycotts.

But for us, Burma is no fairy-tale land with a simple solution to its problems. We were isolated for 26 years under socialism and we continue to lack a modern economy. We are tired of wasting time. If we are to move forward, to modernize, then we need everyone to face facts.

That may sound like pro-government propaganda, but I haven't changed since I joined the democracy movement in August 1988. I have lived most of my life under the 1962-88 socialist regime -- another fairy tale, this one of isolation.

In 1988 we knew it was time to join the world. Thousands of us took to the streets and I joined the National League for Democracy and worked as an aide to Aung San Suu Kyi.

Indonesian Islamic Hard-Liners Vow Jihad against Burma

(This post is direct from the The Jakarta Globe on 14 July 2012.)

Islamic Protest in front of Burmese Embassy in Jakarta.

Hundreds of Islamic hard-liners protested outside the Myanmar embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Friday to “stop the genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in the wake of deadly communal unrest.

Around 300 hard-liners from organizations, including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), threatened to storm the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta as some 50 police officers guarded the building.

“If embassy officials refuse to talk with us, I demand all of you break into the building and turn it upside down,” a leader on a loudspeaker told protesters, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest).

Fake Rohingyas from Bangladesh Arrested!

(Enhanced Translation of news articles from Narinjara News Agency WWW site.)

Arrested fake-Rohingyas in Chittagong.

Forty eight Bangladeshi nationals and two human traffickers were arrested in the early morning of July 8 by the Bangladeshi Police’s Special Crime Suppression Squad in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

According to the Bangladeshi Police the arrested men were found staying at four hotels in the Chittagong’s Kadamtali Ward just before on their way to Malaysia on a motorised fishing boat arranged by a criminal human-trafficking organization.

“As per the intelligence received our No-7 Rapid Action Battalion raided the hotels on early morning Sunday and nabbed the fifty individuals,” said Major Reckkibul Armi.

Japan Makes Up for Lost Time in Burma!

(First part of this post is direct from the FT on 11 July 2012.)

After the debt, the deluge? Three months after Japan agreed to waive much of the money owed to it by Myanmar, clearing the way for normalised economic relations after a 25-year lending freeze, Japanese companies are beginning to make up for lost time.

On Tuesday Marubeni, Japan’s fifth largest trading house, said it had been awarded a contract to overhaul a gas-fired power plant it built seven years ago, before tighter Western sanctions took hold.

Marubeni described the award to upgrade the creaking Ywama plant as the first infrastructure order to a Japanese company since the government of president Thein Sein took over in March 2011, ushering in democratic reforms.

Investing in Burma by Derek Tonkin

Former British Ambassador Derek Tonkin.

British oil and gas companies currently visiting Burma include British Gas, BP and Shell. Premier Oil, who originally had a stake in Yetagun which they sold to Malaysia's Petronas, have also maintained their interest. British companies offer more advanced and cleaner technology than Russian, Chinese or Indian companies, and are likely to much more transparent  and responsible in their operations. A delegation from the Extracting Industries Transparency Initiative Secretariat is due in Burma later this month - Suu Kyi herself announced this pending visit in her speech to the British Parliament last month. MOGE and the Government are expected to sign up soon to the EITI Convention.

Total's contracts with MOGE were made public some time ago. Meanwhile the Ministry of Energy has included all their expected off-shore earnings in the National Budget 2012-2013 (See Item-14 of Table-5 at http://www.burmalibrary.org/KN/6_2012_Union_Budget_Law_2012_303newsm.pdf  which shows revenues of Kyats 2,639,705.580 million converted at the new floating rate at the time of Kyats 800 = US$1 to provide US$ 3.299 billion) but expenditure is estimated to reach 1,643,553.802 million or US$ 2.054 billion which would be government investment in the pipelines to China and offshore installations.

Hate Mails From the Bogus Asylum Seekers?

Just four days days ago on 7 July I translated a very interesting article, written in Burmese, called “Come to UK to get Asylum” from an anonymous Burmese blog called “SimpleViewOnMyLand” and labelled it “Burmese Asylum Industry in London” and posted it on my blog.

And shit hit the fan! That post has so far attracted thousands and thousands of hits and quickly reached the Most Popular Post of the Week within three days.

I think the reason was a very influential Burma-related site the Network Myanmar has picked that post and made it their front page post on 8 July and the result is many other WWW sites and Burmese Facebook Accounts found the post and relayed among them.

Even the British Immigration too has supposedly found that post from my blog. Right now I am famous or infamous among the people of certain circles in London without stepping on the land of British not even once in my 56 years life.

This Could Happen In Future Muslim-Arrakan?

(This post is direct from the 7 News Australia WWW site.)

A man armed with AK-47 prepares to fire.

Internet footage of an Afghan woman being executed in front of villagers by a suspect Taliban gunman is being investigated by authorities in Kabul amid international outrage.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “shocked and disgusted” by reports of the execution. The British Government condemned the “deplorable” action and called upon Afghanistan's rulers to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“I am shocked and disgusted by (the) reports,” Mr Hague said in a statement. “Such deplorable actions underline the vital need for better protection of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.”

The 22-year-old woman from a village in Parwan province, north of the Afghan capital where there is little government control, was reportedly accused of adultery.

Burmese Asylum Industry in London!

(Translation of “Come To UK To Get Asylum” from SimpleViewsOnMyLand Blog.)

I started this post just after the meeting of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese community in UK especially London at the very end of her well-celebrated Euro-trip, but I couldn’t finish it for all sorts of reason. Only now I decided to finish this critical article as I really want people back home in Burma to know about these so-called Burmese political activists here in London, especially their well-run Asylum Industry here.

I got to London naively few years ago and this is my simple view of what’s going on here.

The group most active in Burmese politics here in London is the NLD-LA. We all know what NLD is but the LA tail is quite mind boggling. The Liberated Area tag was sort of okay for the KNU’s long-lost Manerplaw but here in London, I hope they are not implying they a bunch of Burmese miscreants, intentionally displaced, have liberated London. From whom, the much-hated Burmese army? Funny, ha ha ha.

Burmese Kyat Depreciating 10% in 2 Months!

(Most of this post is the direct translation of news article from the Eleven Media Group.)

Exchanging Kyats to US$ at Thein Byu Centre.

Many business-people in Burma are now fearful that the Kyat is fast becoming unstable as it has depreciated more than 10% since freely floated two months before in April.

Since the Kyat has been floated under managed-floating-exchange-rate-regime on April 1 this year the Kyat to US$ exchange rate has gone up from about 812 kyats/dollar to nearly 900 kyats/dollar as the Burmese currency has depreciated nearly ten percent.

The exchange rate was only about 819 kyats/dollar at the highest in April after the new exchange-rate regime was put into action and it was trading at the range from 817 to 840 kyats/dollar in the whole May. But the rate shot up constantly in June and touched the highest 900 kyats/dollar on June 27.