I have read the sections on Burma (report and
evidence) in the recently released FAC report under your chairmanship
with great interest and appreciation. I think the Committee has
done an excellent job, though their conclusions on Burma have
been rather hyped up in some media reports:
"Stop Burma aid, government urged"
reads one report, which wasn't what the Committee concluded at
all. See: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7GN8TK?Open
Document
If I might just make one comment of minor detail,
it is that the immediate spark for the protests in August and
September was indeed the massive hike in CNG prices by 500%, but
that affected only a small part of the population, mainly lower
paid bus commuters in Rangoon and Mandalay who were already spending
up to a quarter of their wages just getting into work, and when
private bus companies decided to double fares because of the 500%
increase, it simply made no sense going into work by bus at all.
This resulted in the protest marches in mid August which were
soon snuffed out and the 88 Student Generation activists who were
supporting the protests were arrested and have ever since been
incarcerated.
Curiously, a 500% increase in the price of CNG
in Burma means that the price is now—believe it or not—still
only one-twentieth in purchasing power parity of the price of
CNG in Thailand, and in Burma, as I found out when I visited in
January, the doubling of fares has already been generally rescinded
under Government pressure. However, the price of diesel oil, essential
to businesses, was doubled at the same time causing problems for
smaller enterprises who need diesel to generate electricity because
of the frequent power cuts. The petrol price was also at the same
increased by 66%, which was perhaps no more than an irritation
because those who run cars get two gallons a day which they mostly
sell on the black market.
My point is that the doubling of fares only
affected a small section of the population, for whom it was the
last straw, and all might have passed off quietly if a number
of monks had not been beaten up in the monastic town of Pakokku,
and the authorities had then refused to apologise for this insult
against the Buddhist religion. From that point on wards, the protests
escalated until in late September they were ruthlessly suppressed,
though not after the regime had tolerated them for several days.
If you have not done so, you might care to glance
at our website www.networkmyanmar.org. We have put a link to,
and extract on Burma from the FAC Report at the top of the Main
Menu item "Humanitarian Aid" and I hope our readers,
over 90% American (!), will take time to read through the Burma
sections.
Our website, incidentally, is read regularly
by readers in Burma, according to our web statistics. Who these
readers are I would not know.
