Aung Zaw’s editorial would have packed more punch if he said whether he agreed or disagreed with the Burma-based aid workers who “believe that money earmarked for HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases will never reach those who desperately need it.” (bolding mine)
And in his list of first beneficiaries he has not listed those who benefit first from increased funding: Burman and nonBurman Burmese who are employed by aid agencies.
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‘It’s the military, stupid…’
Aung Zaw
Irrawaddy
1 November 2006
Video footage of the extravagant wedding of junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s daughter has angered many Burmese at home and abroad.
The July 2006 ceremony, sarcastically dubbed the “wedding of the year” by some Burmese, was attended by top junta leaders, their cronies and many of the country’s wealthiest business leaders.
Some observers have suggested that the footage was deliberately leaked to the public by a family insider. The motive for such a leak is difficult to determine, but one result is quite clear. The video images remind many of the rise and fall of Burma’s previous “khaki” leaders.
Political observers in Rangoon recall the late dictator Gen Ne Win’s 90th—and last—birthday in early 2001. He was accompanied to a gala event at Rangoon’s plush Hotel Sedona by his favorite daughter, Sandar Win, his son-in-law Aye Zaw Win and his grandsons.
Video footage of the event subsequently made the rounds in Rangoon, and general opinion held that members of Ne Win’s family engineered the leak to show the public that the old general was still going strong.
One year later, Ne Win and his daughter were placed under house arrest, and his grandsons were charged with treason—actions green lighted by the general’s protégé Than Shwe. Sandar Win remains in custody.
Could history repeat itself? One theory suggests that moderate members of the regime—if such people actually exist—might be trying to damage the image of Than Shwe and his family.
The video footage certainly does that. Such mindless indulgence—smiling, well-fed guests wrapped in their finest clothing and most expensive jewels—is an affront to the millions of Burmese suffering under the incompetence and brutality of the country’s military leadership, and the millions of Burmese migrants trying to scratch out a living on foreign soil because no proper employment is available at home.
Photographs and video of the opulent ceremony—held at the Zeyathiri government guesthouse in Rangoon—show the bride, Thandar Shwe, virtually encased in strings of precious gems, most of them diamonds, with her more casually attired groom, Maj Zaw Phyo Win, dutifully by her side.
The display has given rise to a new nickname. Thandar’s surname has changed from Shwe to sein, which means “diamond” in Burmese. Some of her many diamonds are thought to have been imported from Belgium, Switzerland and South Africa.
Prominent Burmese tycoons and former drug traffickers-turned-businessmen—now claiming to operate legitimate enterprises in the construction, transportation and tourism sectors in Burma—are thought to have provided most of the funding for the ceremony and reception.
Guests showered Thandar Shwe and her bridegroom—a deputy director at the Ministry of Commerce—with such lavish gifts as luxury cars, houses and precious stones, said to be worth as much as US $50 million.
This vulgar and wanton display of a dictator’s—and his daughter’s—wealth illustrates well the unbridgeable divide between Burma’s ruling tyrants and the innocents under their heels.
The money spent on this senseless spectacle might have saved the lives of HIV/AIDS patients dying in the thousands because of the regime’s ignorance and denial. Thousands of Burma’s children might have had the opportunity for a better education, or adequate healthcare.
Burma remains one of the world’s poorest nations, and while the junta blithely proclaims its goal of building a “modern and developed nation” with a “discipline-flourishing democracy,” its true intentions are much different. The military’s capitalist entrepreneurs are building multi-million-dollar empires on the backs of Burma’s most vulnerable citizens.
More than 1,000 political prisoners languish and die in the Burmese gulag, while hundreds more seek refuge in neighboring countries. Thousands of villagers in Burma’s ethnic areas hide in jungles or flee across the Thai border to escape escalating military offensives, particularly in Karen and Shan states.
Sadly, the junta has no shortage of friends and sympathizers—in the region and beyond— who can look past such trivial details. China, India and Thailand continue to fund Burma’s extravagant and vicious regime with soft loans and military hardware, despite its excessive red tape and fly-by-night trade policies.
Rangoon-based diplomats and well-paid UN staff also make substantial contributions to the regime’s coffers, while turning a blind eye to its corruption and violence. They even criticize opposition groups in and outside Burma for advocating a tougher stance—regionally and internationally—against the junta.
Attempts have been made to discredit Burma’s democratic opposition and to paint those who advocate sanctions against the country as hurting ordinary Burmese. In fact, some Burma-based aid workers believe that money earmarked for HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases will never reach those who desperately need it because project money will first be used to cover overhead, consultant fees and expatriates, who will undoubtedly be the first to benefit.
It’s crucial—and right—that Burmese people benefit from international aid and foreign investment. But they never do. Their sufferings continue, while the generals line their pockets.
This is why reporting on a wedding in a far corner of the world is worth the trouble—and worthy of further discussion in addressing a solution to the many problems facing Burma. It might even warrant mention at the upcoming Wilton Park meeting organized by the British government.
Perhaps then, the international community might finally uncover the reason for Burma’s decades of strife—one that has been hiding in plain sight.
It’s the military, stupid.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6327&print=yes&c=e
