Intolerable for electricity shortages,
demonstrators have taken the street in several towns in Burma this week,
including former capital Rangoon and ancient capital Mandalay since citizens
test the limit of democratic changes, warning the one-year old quasi-civilian
government to take responsibilities for the incompetence management.
After
standing by the protests for a few days, police cracked down a gathering in the
town of Pyi in Bago Division, at least five protesters had faced temporary
incarceration. In Mandalay, many member from the National League for Democracy
led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi were temporarily held for
questioning.
In a
Reuters news report, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said it was important for Burma (Myanmar) as a
ASEAN country to stay the course and resist any temptation to suppress dissent.
"If
a country or society aspires to open to democracy, it has to be prepared to
deal with popular participation, pressure, demand, conflicts, tension, in some
cases violence," Surin, a former foreign minister of Thailand, told
Reuters in an interview.
Burmese
people have been suffering from power shortage for more than two decades.
Although the military-dominated regime gains a large sum of hard currency by
exporting the natural gas to neighboring countries, it neglects sharing the
indispensable power supplies to its citizens for twenty years.
The
government has exploited building national development projects through
international financial assistance with no planning of national development via
from its export-incomes. Significantly the public sector (health, education,
sanitation, clean water, electricity etc) has never benefitted from the
country's natural gas export earnings.
For
instance, it obtained US$2.947 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal
year 2011-12, up about US$424.77 from US$2.522 billion in 2010-11. Natural gas
export earning stood at US$2.926 billion in 2009-10, up from US$2.384 in
2008-09, according to the Flower News Journal. But, amazingly, these natural
gas export net earnings are never transferred to the budget and never used for
social and infrastructure development, especially in ethnic minority regions.
Meanwhile,
news from Xinhua says that China will encourage its enterprises to discuss
cooperation on upgrading Myanmar's power grid in order to help ease power
shortages in the country, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at
a routine press conference Thursday.
Anti-blackout
Protesters accused the current government of selling energy resources to China,
which, they articulate, has led to frequent power cut in the resource-rich
country.
Burma's
military-backed quasi-civilian government has cautioned the protestors against
power shortages to abide by the law. Remarkably, President’s political adviser
Ko Ko Hlaing said in a press conference that whereas protests were accustomed
to a democratic country, they are required to be authorized and nonviolent.
Under new public demonstration laws, public gatherings need to get permission
from authorities and they need to apply for permission at least a week ahead.
In a
press statement dated 21 May 2012 by the Kachin Development Networking Group,
Chinese media last week revealed that the International Commission on Large
Dams (ICOLD) is currently conducting an “independent” inspection of the
Irrawaddy Myitsone dam, being built by China Power Investment Corporation
(CPI), to prove that the dam is completely safe and beneficial.
Such a
study would be a major boost in CPI’s bid to push ahead with the suspended
project. According to Xu Zeping of the Chinese Committee on Large Dams, a
member of ICOLD, the Myitsone project “is currently under third-party
inspection in order to drive out people’s doubts.” - KDNG’s statement says.
http://kachinlandnews.com/?p=21817
In 2011
September, President Thein Sein government has suspended a controversial $3.6
billion hydroelectric power project which has faced objections from various
social strata nationwide.
The
500-foot dam has been under construction at the confluence of the Mali Hka
River and N’Mai Hka River, 27 miles north of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina.
Construction at Myitsone began on December 21, 2009, led by China’s state owned
China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in cooperation with Burma’s Asia World
Company (AWC) and the Burmese government’s No. 1 Ministry of Electric Power.
Nevertheless,
China’s lobbying for Myitsone dam project may not be agreed by the majority
population of Burma since the Irrawaddy River is not only the lifeline of the
country but also it is the most important reason for environmental devastation.
As majority of Burmese citizens opposed the massive dam project, the current
president decided to suspend it. The president’s decision seems to avoid a
nationwide protest in time.
On the
other hand, Burma’s Nobel laureate and opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi
gave speeches this week at the opening ceremonies of three NLD’s Township
offices in downtown Rangoon.
“I am
fond of peaceful protest news I observed on the radio that Mandalay citizens
launched a protest holding candles,” she said.
“They
protest as they need electricity. Power shortage takes place in this country
for so many years due to policy error. However, it is impossible to revise the
situation within a short period. But, people have their right to protest for
their need. So, I support peaceful protest,” Suu Kyi said.
Some
analysts think that if the government ignored to address the issue of power
cut, it could change into a mass demonstration within a few months because it
directly interrelated with the large corruption cases in various power
development projects run by high-ranking officials.
Zin
Linn
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