Mandalay Different Perspectives Newsletter July 13, 2008

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Dear Patrons:

Dear Patrons,
Welcome to our news letter. The Staff at Different Perspectives try to bring a clearer picture of current events effecting China and Asia .

Although we believe the international media driven primarily by western world's interests, is bringing the public events as they happen, we at Different Perspectives are independent and non biased without an agenda for prestige or monetary profit.

We simply feel the western world may be somewhat isolated from news that is local to our office here in Beijing, China .


Thank you
Different Perspectives Staff
Edward


This News letter is a series of edited copyrighted published articles as well as essays on the conditions in South East Asia countries from an eyewitness perspective.

Recently I have returned from a 9 week tour of South East Asia and am reporting on my perspective and personal experience. Currently our newsletter is focusing on my 24 day trip through the country of Myanmar .
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My first morning in Mandalay started with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Most guest houses and hotels in Myanmar include breakfast in the room charge. Breakfast was usually fruit, eggs, toast and coffee. Although this hotel had no ac and not a very good fan, it was well run, clean and family owned for $9 USD/ night. The environment in Myanmar was so laid back that most people I asked for help from were willing to spend as much time with me as I needed. So I hit the breakfast man up for some orientation of the city and suggestions on what to see. After a more than informative friendly chat I had my plans for the day. First I would find a cafe that served hot coffee and read my guide book for an hour, while acclimating myself to the city streets and the Myanmar people. Once primed with my caffeine, I set out for a full full day on the hot streets of downtown Mandalay.

Heading east into the sun I noticed a wooden tower in the distance, some 100 feet high, reminiscent of a lookout tower that one would see on the front line of a battle field. Curious I made my destination the tower on the horizon a few km directly east on the major boulevard I was walking on.

Sun reaching a high spot in the sky, shade was hard to find. I stopped as I had frequently at a local street side vendor for a cold drink. Sitting down on a stool in front of a very small plastic beach table I ordered a bottle of cold water and decided to strike up a conversation with the cafe owner. Parked in front of the cafe was a vintage 1950's US Army Jeep. In perfect condition, I'm told owned by a local man and left over from World War II. Funny to see a US Army Vehicle in downtown Mandalay, a city partially devastated by years of United States and western economic sanctions, making it impossible for the economy to benefit by from any tourist trade.
I was one of very few tourists in this city of wonderful humble generous people.

Continuing my conversation with the cafe owner we talked about the economic conditions in the country and the government. Although open to discussing with me, he suggested I visit the "Mustache Man, He'll talk to you" who had been arrested a number of times int he last 20 years and jailed for as long as 7 years at a time. An activist to this day "The "Mustache Man" was next on my agenda in hopes of getting a clearer
picture of peoples feeling toward the present government.

Heading off down the boulevard in the direction of the wooded tower, I was walking toward The Mustache Man's neighborhood also. Approaching the tower i stopped in to inquire the meaning of the structure to which it was pointed out to me a building of 6 garages as the Mandalay Fire Department. It was a fire tower.

Introducing myself to a friendly city firefighter, he was open enough to express his somewhat uncomfortable feeling for the future of Mandalay and it's people under the current government. Before long a boisterous figure entered the scene seeming to scold the fireman for talking to me about "politics". Mostly a ta bu subject to discuss in Myanmar, there are reports of incarceration if your witnessed talking politics anywhere in the country. Not wanting to implicate my Myanmar fireman friend, I moved on to see if I could find "The Mustache Man".

On through the city and into the hot mid day sun I inquired at street side vendors as to the where about of "The Mustache Man". Although Myanmar is a country where English is spoken more than in other south east Asian countries, it was not enough to get me a good fix on where "The Mustache Man" might be. Even if my inquirers understood me there might have been an element of paranoia is talking to me about politics. So I headed
back the 6 km to my ET Hotel to get ready for dinner with a Myanmar woman I met earlier in the day when I got out of the hot sun and slipped into a shaded Buddhist temple. After a pleasant conversation we made plans to walk around the National Palace at dusk and get a have dinner.

Hnin Hnin Yu a young Registered Nurse with a BS from Myanmar Technological University south of Yangon and I walked the 3 km long east side boulevard flanking the National Palace. Surrounded by a moat 300 meters wide the palace inside is boarded in a square of north, east, south and west boulevards, each side 3km in length. After a pleasant dinner at an upscale palace neighborhood restaurant with slipped down an alley way to find a motor bike taxi to give us a lift back toward the temple and my guest house. 3 to a bike me behind the driver and Hnin Hnin side saddle off the back of the seat we took the slow steady ride with the palace on the horizon into the Mandalay night.

Another wonderful day in a country of humble friendly people. To travel in a place that has been the ridicule of the western world and media, I had the gift of experiencing a people of unlimited generosity of their time and friendship and the beautiful Buddhist culture.


Again Welcome to our news letter. As is common with our objective the following articles are of interest in upholding the purpose of our newsletter to offer a different perspective.
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(italics text by Different Perspectives staff)



Prominent political prisoner freed in Myanmar
Tue Sep 23, 12:55 PM ET
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner was among more than 9,000 inmates freed Tuesday, days before the first anniversary of the junta's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.
Win Tin, a journalist-turned-activist and aide to pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was held for 19 years. He was one of at least seven political prisoners released, Amnesty International said.
The rights group said there are an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar, which has been under military rule for 46 years and is one of the world's poorest and most authoritarian nations.
A longtime journalist and poet, while in prison Win Tin would write poems on the walls of his cell with ink made of brick powder and water, according to supporters who visited him. He said he would keep wearing his prison blues as a sign of protest against the military rulers, and he vowed to keep pressing for more freedom.
"I have to continue with my unfinished task of trying to achieve democracy in Myanmar," he said from a friend's home in Yangon after being released from Insein Prison.
While incarcerated, Win Tin had two heart attacks, a hernia operation and suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and spinal inflammation, according to international media groups. Now 78, he appeared alert and healthy despite recent reports of being ill.
Asked how it felt to be free, Win Tin replied, "I will be happy only when all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi are released."
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention, mostly under house arrest. In 1990, her party won a landslide victory that the junta refused to acknowledge. Instead, the regime stepped up arrests and repression of dissidents.
Suu Kyi has called Win Tin "a man of courage and integrity" and said he was instrumental in Myanmar's democracy movement. Human rights groups rejoiced at his release.
"We are immensely relieved that he has finally been freed," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "It is unacceptable that he was made to serve 19 years in prison for peacefully advocating democracy but today his release is an historic moment."
The amnesty granted to 9,002 prisoners around the country was believed to be one of the largest the junta has approved.
It came days ahead of the first anniversary of the military junta's brutal crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks. The U.N. estimated at least 31 people were killed when the army fired on peaceful protesters Sept. 26-27, sparking global outrage.
Analysts suspect the junta timed the release as an attempt to fend off international criticism on the anniversary.
"I am certain that it is part of a political strategy," said Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers University professor and Myanmar expert. "The military did not come off well in attacking the monks last year and that attack has not been forgotten."
The junta "is determined to get the world to forget and just take note of the military's 'favorable' action," he added. Sound Familiar?
Win Tin served as a close aide to Suu Kyi and helped found her National League for Democracy opposition party in 1988. He was arrested on July 4, 1989, along with other opposition politicians. Authorities initially kept him without food while interrogating him about his role in the democracy movement, Suu Kyi wrote in 1996 in a newspaper article.
Tried in a military court, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly being a member of the banned Communist Party of Myanmar. He was most recently sentenced in 1996 to an additional seven years for writing to the United Nations about prison conditions and for writing and circulating anti-government pamphlets in prison.
Amnesty International called Win Tin's release "the best news to come out of Myanmar in a long time," but said the seven political prisoners "don't even represent 1 percent of the political prisoners there. There are many, many more who should also be released."
The United Nations and international rights groups had long called for Win Tin's release and referred to him as Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner.
State-controlled media said the amnesty was granted to prisoners who exhibited good "moral behavior." Analysts said the vast majority of the prisoners were likely petty criminals. The government often grants amnesty to people convicted of low-level crimes to mark important national days.

EU parliament seeks tougher sanctions against Myanmar
24 April 2008, 15:44 CET
(STRASBOURG) - The European parliament on Thursday called for EU sanctions against Myanmar to be increased to include an embargo on commodity imports, thereby threatening the regime's key oil revenues.
The parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, called too for restrictions for junta generals and their families to "access to personal business opportunities, health care, shopping, and foreign education for their children."
The European Union's current sanctions against Myanmar leaders, adopted last November, include an embargo on the import of timber, gems and metals from Myanmar. It also extended the list of Myanmar leaders and their relatives subject to a travel ban and assets freeze.
However the current EU measures do not touch the energy sector, leaving companies like French group Total free to operate in Myanmar.
The European parliament called the EU arms embargo on Burma "ineffective", as "the military government purchases its military goods in China, Russia and India."

Burma's Junta Untroubled by EU Sanctions
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Mar 11 (IPS) - Economic sanctions imposed by the European Union on Burma are unlikely to have any effect on its military junta, a former Singaporean diplomat has said.
After Burmese authorities used force to break up peaceful protests by Buddhist monks in the capital Rangoon in late 2007, EU governments decided to ban imports of gemstones, timber and metal from the country in October.
Barry Desker, Singapore's chief negotiator in international trade talks during the 1990s, suggested the sanctions are primarily designed to salve the conscience of some European policymakers.
Speaking to IPS, he said the measures will probably not have any impact on the military, which has ruled Burma since overthrowing a civilian government in 1962. This was because EU leaders have decided to grandfather the most important investment" in the country, he added, referring to the contracts signed by the French energy giant Total to exploit the Yadana gasfield in southern Burma.
Although French president Nicholas Sarkozy announced in 2007 that there will be no fresh investments by companies from his country in Burma, contracts already signed by Total are unaffected by sanctions.
Desker, now dean of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, claimed that the strong public stances on Burma of the EU and the United States were largely taken for what he described as "feel good" reasons. He also dubbed Burma an "easy target" for the West.
In terms of respect for human rights and democracy, "you would probably see Saudi Arabia, ranking lower than Myanmar," he said. "Yet nobody is taking action against Saudi Arabia."
The reality, he added, is that foreign countries, including Burma's fellow members of the Association of South-east Asia Nations (ASEAN), have little influence as "the Myanmar leadership is suspicious of the world outside", yet has been able to cushion itself against external pressure.
"Foreign exchange reserves (in Burma) are the highest they have ever been since 1950," he said. "There is a myth that Myanmar has banked money in Singapore, Liechtenstein and Hong Kong. In reality, most of its money has been invested back in Myanmar. Once - in the 1980s - there was a shared poverty between the leadership and the rest of the population. But today, there is a gap emerging between a small elite and the rest of the population, which has become poorer and poorer and is on the lowest rung within South-East Asia."
Desker took part in a seminar here in Brussels on Monday, addressing the main challenges that ASEAN, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2007, faces. The seminar was hosted by the European Policy Centre, a think tank based in the Belgian capital with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
Seamus Gillespie, head of the European Commission (EC)'s department for relations with South-East Asia, took issue with Desker's claims that sanctions against Burma are proving ineffective. Gillespie said he would be "very surprised if the (Burmese) government is 100 percent insensitive" to international criticism. "I do feel that some message is getting through, even if it might not be with sufficient force at the moment to change things," he added.
Gillespie argued that punitive measures against Burma were warranted because of the continued arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a huge majority in a 1990 election that the junta decided to annul.
On human rights, he said, the EU "often has different approaches to different situations".
"This allows questions to be raised about inconsistency of approach. But few countries have democratic elections held and then put the leader in prison and house arrest for many long years and brutally suppress their own religious people. This is something quite unique."
Still, he maintained that "sanctions are just one instrument in the toolkit of a more balanced policy".
"We are trying to engage with the authorities in Burma-Myanmar. This is not just a question of sanctions, though it may be that for some decision-makers sanctions may make them feel good," he added.
The question of Burma overshadowed the most recent summit of ASEAN's 10 leaders, held in Singapore in November. During that meeting, the governments endorsed a charter designed to strengthen the body's institutions. The charter will put its summits on a more formal footing and require each member state to send an ambassador to liaise with ASEAN headquarters, based in Jakarta.
Desker acknowledged that Burma's acceptance of the charter, which contains a commitment to promoting human rights, will give "the region a credibility problem when seeking to address humanitarian concerns around the globe''.
Although the European Commission does not give official development aid to the Burmese authorities, it approved a package of humanitarian assistance worth 15.5 million euros (24 million dollars) in 2006 aimed at meeting some of the population's medical needs. Its move followed a report by the World Health Organisation that - in per capita terms - Burma has the third lowest rate of health expenditure in the world, after Congo and Burundi.
David Fouquet, director of the Asia-Europe Project in Brussels, said that such humanitarian aid is "very useful and appreciated". But Fouquet added: "Many people in ASEAN are not comfortable with the relationship with and the presence of Burma-Myanmar as it is now."
In February, the Burmese authorities announced that a referendum on a new constitution will be held in May, paving the way for a general election in 2010. These steps will be part of what Burma calls a "roadmap to democracy", though the government's critics have expressed doubts about whether opposition figures will be allowed contest the election.
Fouquet contended that there is a "lot to be done" in ensuring that the announcement leads to tangible reforms. "ASEAN should be more engaged in a positive way, assisting without becoming an accomplice to the roadmap to guided democracy," he said. "That would be extremely helpful." (END/IPSAP/0308)

Next time on Different Perspectives we will visit Mandalay hill and my first encounter with a cobra. Then we'll go to the other side of the city to the shores of the Ayeyarwady River and experience the Ayeyarwady River Families.

We hope you can join us. Until then

"Those who accept that we all die someday settle their quarrels"
Dhammapada
Peace

Edward
Different Perspectives Staff

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