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------------------------- BurmaNet ---------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
--------------------------------------------------------------
The BurmaNet News: 20TH JULY 1995
Issue #224
Contents:
BKK POST:BURMA TOUR BOOSTERS LAUD SUU KYI RELEASE
BKK POST:MORE DEMOCRACY URGED IN BURMA
BKK POST:REMEMBERING BURMA'S HEROES
THE NATION:AUNG SAN SUU KYI APPEARS IN PUBLIC ON MARTYRS' DAY
THE NATION:TREATY SIGNING BURMA'S FIRST STEP TO ASEAN
THE NATION:RANGOON'S SMARTEST POLITICIAN
THE NATION:FREE SUU KYI BUOYS BONN
THE NATION:JAPAN BOOST BURMA TIES
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===== item =====
BURMA TOUR BOOSTERS LAUD SUU KYI RELEASE
20 July 1995
The government of Burma cannot turn back now it has released Nobel
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from six years of house arrest, says
Lawrence Chin.
"They have to be forward-looking from now on," said the country
manager for Myanmar Airways International. He made the comment
during a recent familiarisation tour of Burma for 22 Thai travel
agents, led by Wasant Kudedakeng, executive marketing manager of Air
People Tour & Travel.
Some were making their fast survey trip to Burma, and while they
gave Burma high maeks as a tourist destination, they noted that a
lot of problems had to be overcome.
Piti Surakul, president of President Tour, was a keen promoter of
tours to Burma until the early 1980s, when the military government
adopted more restrictive policies that virtually closed the country.
The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is most encouraging, he said.
Best of all is the improved infrastructure: roads, air and surface
transport and new international-standard hotels are coming up, he
says, addtion that all this is a necessary first step to making
Burma an important destination.
But whethert it will appeal to the growing Thai outbound market for
now," said Piti. "Orices are still too high and while
foreigntourises would be impressed with the exotic sites, culture
and shopping for handicrafts and antiques, only those Thai who have
been everywhere else, would be thetarget market for now," said Mr
Piti.
Sea tours sales manager Krai Panyara, takes another view:
"Opportunitiea are boomingand it's a question of designning the
packages to fit."
For Sea Tours, business to Burma has been picking up. From 1985-90
it was specialised Thai tour groups, such as those from the Siam
Society, and European tourists, averaging about 15 people per month.
>From 1991-95 there was a definite increase, sewlled by cruise ship
extension tours, and inbound groups from the US and Thailand,
increasing the agency's total Burma business by 20%.
"For 1996, if facilities, infrastructure and the airport can be
brought up to international standards - and if the government truly
perseveres in promoting itself - we can easily double our amount of
Burma business."
The Suu Kyi release "was the right thing to do at the right time,"
he added. Nonetheless, the focus from now on will be on tailoring
products to specific markets and offering tourists more options. The
launch of Seatran Princess cruises from Pagan to Mandalay in
November, and the E&O Group's decision to bring The Mandalay on a
similar cruise routing, will help enormously, said Mr Krai.
For the near future, the appeal to the Thai market will be business
or pilgrimages. For the foreign market, it's another story. "Hapag-
Lloyd will be flying in Boeing 757 charter flights from Dusseeldorf
to Rangoon. This, coupled with more cruise ships, will result in a
big boost in traffic.
Mr Krai is quick to add a word of caution. "We can see a lot of
development taking place; hotels and shopping plazas are going up at
a fast rate in Rangoon and Mandalay, but the government should be
careful and control the environment, otherwise the depredation will
be irredeemable as it already is in many places in Thailand."
For Sawadee Holiday Tours managing director Chamnong Intarot,
looking to double turnong to 400 million baht in 1996, Burma is a
good addition to an outbound tour programme that has focused
primarily on Australia, New Zealand and europe.
Mr Chamnong sees Burma as a four-days, three-nights option for Thai
travellers who want to take in Rangoon, Pagan and Mandalay. It's a
good family destination for a long wekend.
"The flying time is short - one hour from Bangkok to Rangoon - the
food is good and the prices are comparatively low for group tours,
if you compare it with Hong Kong and Singapore, for example."
The other plus is that the culture is similar and Thais, even if
they don't speak the same language, can understand what's happening.
S.G. Tours managing director Thanes Channual sees Burma as a good
incentive destination for Thai companies that want to combine
something different in the way of a long weekend destination with
morale-boosting staff get-togethers.
Pavin Sachaphimukh, who took over Nancy Tours and Travel Centre four
years ago, say's Burma can be a healthy extension to a domestic
travel industry that needs reviving. Good prepaid package toursa are
one answer. "s a destination, Burma has already won international
acceptance but for the story, unless you are talking about Buddhist
Pilgrimage tours," he said.
"Most Yhais would prefer to travel overseas, but this market - and
educational incentives on I think we can captialise on Burma
For outbound-focused-focused Spree Club, managig director Sakdisan
Suebsaeng sees Burma as a whole new market's. "great as a whole new
market"'s great as seven-day, sixt-night- and 'explore Burma
holiday' for foreign expatriates living in Thailand" - his number
one target for atarget for a Burma programme. Four-days, three-
nights packeages for Thais would suffice because, uhnless they have
been everywhere else, Burma will not have much appeal them in his
view.
Air People's Mr Wasant said his company is so enthusiastic about
Burma's possibilities that it set up an inbound office in Rangoon in
1993, and another one this year in Mandalay.
"We see big possibilities here and the government is actively
signalling its wish to cooperate. That's why we have been able to
put together a complete series of 11 tour group options, ranging
from three days and two nights to nine days and eight nights
including Rangoon, Pagan, Mandalay, Maymno, Inle, Taunggyi and Heho.
Long-time Burma watcher and Businessman Robert Thien Pe, whose
newest project is the Baiyoke Kandawgyi Hotel on Rangoon's Royal
Lake, says he is so optimistic that he has upped his investment in
the project from US$10 million to $25 million. He plans a soft
opening in November and an official opening in January.
"Suu Kyi's release just confirms my earlier impressions in April
1994, when I was convinced that the changes that think we can see
that now." (BP)
MORE DEMOCRACY URGED IN BURMA
20 July 1995
"The release of the political prisoner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in
Rangoon, is good news. Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1991, had been under house arrest for nearly six years. The
next test for the regime, which changed the name of the countryfrom
to Myanmar, will be follow Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom with a
return to some form of political pluralism and with other
improvements in human rights.
"Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi National League for Democracy won elections
under her leadership in 1990. The military refused to recognise the
results, imprisoning and intimidating many of the newly elected
legislators. Burmese expatriates say torture is still routinely used
in prisons and by the military in its repression of ethnic
minorities.
"Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi's release has rekindled the hopes of many
Burmese for a return to democracy. At her first public appearance,
she struck a conciliatory note, saying she wanted to promote
dialogue with the military junta. She acted properly in cautioning
against unrealistic expectations. Nevertheless, hundreds of people
have made the pilgrimage to her home in Rangoon since her release,
demonstrating the deep loyalty of her followers.
"Bur Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi is re-entering a society in which own name
has been a forbidden word, where personal freedoms are severly
restricted and political life brutally curtailed. She refused to
make any deals with the authorities to gain her freedom, and has
made it clear that she intends to pursue democratic goals.
"Burma is eager to break its isolation and join the region's
economic boom. Japan, which covets its rich natural resources, is
already preparing to warm up relations with Rangoon. BUt Burma will
need substantial help from agencies like the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund to join the international economy.
"The end of Mrs Aung San Suu kyi's detention must be followed by
other steps toward democracy before Burma is deemed eligible for
loans from multilateral institutions or closer ties with the United
States. It is too soon to welcome Burma back into the democratic
community." (BP)
AUNG SAN SUU KYI APPEARS IN PUBLIC ON MARTYRS' DAY
20 JULY 1995
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi laid flowers yesterday at the
memorial to her father and eight others murdered here 48 years ago
as they planned Burma's independence from Britain.
The brief, three-minute appearance for Martyrs' Day was her first in
public since her release July 10 from nearly six years of house
arrest.
Scores foreign journalists, who were strictly forbidden to interview
anyone, witnessed her appearance, the first time she has
participated in the wreath-laying ceremony and the first time the
government has allowed the media to record it.
But the general public was not allowed to attend, and she did not
cross paths with the government members who had left moments before
her arrival after paying homage at the monument. Security was very
tight, with armed men in uniform posted throughout the area.
The solemn ceremony was held at the Martyrs' Mausoleum, a sweeping,
curved red concrete monument with a single yellow star and a white
concrete bier infront.
It began at 7.50 am local time under heavy but clearing skies when
military buglers took their places on either side of the raised
platform.
Ten minutes later as the buglers played a dirge, Minister of Culture
Brig Gen Thaung Myint, on behalf of the Burmese junta leaders,
mounted the steps to the platform and was assisted by an honour
guard in placing four wreaths before the monument.
He and other members of the government bowed their heads in silence
for about two minutes, and then left. A senior military intelligence
officer told Reuters he would not comment on Suu Kyi's presence at
the ceremony.
"Not today, I have no comment," Col Kyaw Win said as he watched the
ceremony. Kyaw Win was the man who went to Suu Kyi's house to tell
her the Slorc had decided to set her free.
At 8 am precisely, Aung San Suu Kyi, wearing a black shawl over a
cream-coloured blouse and a black longyi, arrived in a sedan
provided by the ruling junta State Law and Order Restoration Council
(Slorc) at the base of the monument.
The pro-democracy leader, her face expressionless as, with the help
of four women from the culture ministry and government liaison
officer Lt Col Than Tun, she solemnly placed three baskets of white
and purple orchids in front of at either end of the bier.
She was silent as she stood in front of the memorial commemorating
her father, independence hero General Aung San, and eight others who
were assassinated on July 19, 1947 as they prepared for the handover
of an independent Burma from Britain.
Martyrs' Day is Burma's national mourning day, marking the murders
on July 19, 1947 of Aung San, six of his ministers, a secretary and
bodyguard who were killed as they held a cabinet meeting.
They were gunned down by men in uniform as they met to plan the
transfer of power from Burma's colonial ruler, Britain. Independence
came to Burma the following January.
After a brief whispered exchange with Lt Col Than Tun, the military
intelligence officer who served as her liaison officer with the
military during her detention, she got into a waiting car and went
directly back to her home without speaking to reporters.
Family members of the eight other martyrs were to lay wreaths at the
mausoleum shortly after Suu Kyi left.
Members of the public were kept well away from the site, and state
television did not have a live broadcast. A national holiday, the
Martyrs' Day was quiet, with few people in the streets and no large
crowds waiting to see the opposition leader.
U Hla Tun, news director of the Burmese Ministry of Information,
told UPI that Suu Kyi's appearance at the ceremony would be reported
in today's newspapers.
If it is, it will be the first mention of the Nobel laureate in the
official press since last year, when she met with visiting US
Congressman Bill Richardson and senior Slorc generals Khin Nyunt and
Than Shwe.
Most diplomats said Suu Kyi's presence at the ceremony was a way for
her to show she was not planning to be disruptive. (TN)
TREATY SIGNING BURMA'S FIRST STEP TO ASEAN
20 JULY 1995
Burma could accede to the Asean Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in
Southeast Asia anytime it wishes, but that is just one step in the
process of becoming an observer to the regional grouping, a senior
Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.
"Burma is a Southeast Asian country. Therefore it has the right to
accede to the document, which is open to all 10 Southeast Asian
states," the Director of East Asian Affairs, Norachit Sinhaseni,
told a press briefing.
However, Burma would have to formally apply for, and be granted,
observer status. Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea all
followed this procedure.
Burmese Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw is due to attend the 28th Asean
Ministerial Meeting in Brunei, beginning on July 29, as guest of the
host country.
The release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had led to
speculation that Burma could join Asean as a full member sooner than
previously expected.
Norachit said it would be up to the Burmese to determine when and
how they will accede to the treaty of amity. Rangoon has already
informed Asean Secretary-general Ajith Sing of its intention to do
so.
Cambodia will become an observer to Asean at the Brunei meeting.
Vietnam, which was granted observer status together with Laos in
1993, will become Asean's seventh member at a ceremony on July 28.
Observers can participate in the opening ceremony, but not in the
main session although private talks are allowed.
Asean's founding fathers envisaged the treaty as a code of conduct
for relations between Southeast Asian states and expected all the 10
states to sign.
At the Brunei meeting, Asean foreign ministers are expected to
discuss a planned informal gathering of all 10 Southeast Asian heads
of government later this year.
The Brunei Ministerial Meeting will be followed immediately by a
meeting of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) and then a meeting of
Asean and the seven dialogue partners the European Union, the United
States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia ands New Zealand. (TN)
REMEMBERING BURMA'S HEROES
20 JULY 1995
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday attended a
quite Martyrs' Day ceremony in commemoration of people who died for
Burma's independence. Anuraj Manibhandu looks at her understanding
of her father and his life's work.
Before making her first public appearance in six years at
yesterday's Martyrs' Day ceremony in Rangoon, Burma's pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi received journalists in her home, seated in
front of a portrait of her father.
The faded photograph of Burma's independence hero, Aung San, who was
only 33 when he was killed on July 19, 1947, was as memorable to the
beholder as the words of his daughter were to listeners.
After answering questions from a group of journalists including the
Bangkok Post,Voice of America, World Television News, and a
Norwegian newspaper she went around the small room describing every
picture in it.
Before the last, she paused at some length. "That's the last
photograph of my mother, it was taken outside this house."
It was to look after her ailing mother, Daw Khin Kyi, that Mrs Suu
Kyi came home in 1988, and became inextricably engaged in her
country's popular uprising for democracy.
Mrs Suu Kyi, 50, was taken under house arrest on July 20,1989 for
"endangering the safety of the state". She was released on July 10.
The work of Gen Aung San and six others who died fighting for
Burma's independence from Britain, which was won on January 4, 1948,
is remembered annually on July 19.
Born February 13, 1915, in the central Burmese township of Natmauk,
Aung San had been active in Burma's struggle for independence since
he was 25, according to a biography written in 1981, in Oxford, by
his only daughter. (Aung San of Burma, the book, was first published
in 1984.)
Mrs Suu Kyi's elder brother, Aung San Oo, lives in America, and
represented the family at Martyrs' Day ceremony last year. Another
brother, Aung San Lin, drowned some time ago. Their mother died in
late 1988.
Soldier Aung San's pro-independence determination drew him into
pacts with the Japanese, as well as Allied forces, and some deep
differences with his own countrymen.
In 1940, the then 25-year-old Burmese, who had been a politically
active student, went to China in search of support for Burma's pro-
nationalists. He failed to make contact with the Chinese, but
instead met a Japanese agent, and subsequently went to Tokyo.
In the following year, together with like-minds who later came to be
known as the "Thirty Comrades", and the core of Burma's pro-
independence soldiers, Aung San underwent what his daughter
describes as "rigorous military training" on Hainan island.
Soldier Aung San became chief-of-staff and eventually commander-in-
chief of the Burma Independence Army (BIA), which was launched in
Bangkok in December 1941, initially under Japanese command.
On August 1, 1943, the now General Aung San was named War Minister
of a Burma Japan had declared a "sovereign independent nation" and
"co-equal member" of the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
By November of the same year, Mrs Suu Kyi writes, it was well known
that Aung San was planning resistance to Japanese rule, a move that
actually took off nationwide on March 27, 1945.
Less than two months later, on May 15, the soldier for independence
met with Slim, commanding officer of Britain's Fourteenth Army, an
event that led to joint operations against the Japanese army by
Burmese and Allied troops.
That same month, the British government issued a White paper on
Burma, which provided for three years of direct rule by the British
Governor, elections, and the restoration of a Burmese Council and
Legislature. Only after this would all parties take part in the
drafting of a constitution which would provide the basis on which
Burma would be granted dominion status, Mrs Suu Kyi notes.
The hill and frontier areas would be excluded from this arrangement
unless the people of these area asked to be merged with the rest of
Burma, She adds.
During negotiations in London in January 1947, Aung San, who three
months previously had been named deputy chairman of the Executive
Council in charge of defence and external affairs, made clear that
the wanted complete independence for Burma, not only dominion
status.
The Aung San-Attlee agreement was a "compromise", Mrs Suu Kyi quotes
a member of the Burmese delegation as saying. Aung San did not (rpt
not) obtain the "legal transfer" of responsibility of government to
a Burmese Government pending the election of a constitution
assembly, Tin Htut notes. But he effectively obtained the "actual
transfer".
Two members of the Burmese delegation, including a former prime
minister, refused to sign the agreement. On returning to Burma, Saw,
and another former Burmese prime minister, joined others to form a
National Opposition Front.
Aung San was "not unduly troubled", the daughter records. Days after
the delegation's return from London, he moved to address the issue
of the future of frontier areas, which the agreement with Britain
had left open for decision by the people concerned.
The Panglong conference, in February 1947, produced an agreement
acknowledging that freedom would be more speedily achieved by the
Shans, the Kachins and the Chins by their immediate cooperation with
the Interim Burmese Government, Mrs Suu Kyi quotes a work published
in 1961 as saying.
Immediately after the Panglong conference, Aung San left on a cross-
country tour to campaign for the AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's
Freedom League) in elections set for the following April.
The party won "an overwhelming majority," in the polls, Mrs Suu Kyi
notes.
"Aung San was constantly searching for ideas and tactics that would
provide the answers to the problems of Burmese independence and
unity," Mrs Suu Kyi writes. His public meetings were "always
peaceful, well-disciplined affairs," she points out.
"He was not afraid to change his mind if the needs of the time
warranted it. He would explain his views and motives openly to the
public," she adds.
"But he made no facile promises of easy victories or utopian
vistas," she says. In the final paragraph of a book she notes was
written mostly from published materials, Mrs Suu Kyi remarks:
"Aung San appeal was not so much to extremists as to the great
majority of ordinary citizens who wished to pursue their own lives
in peace and prosperity under a leader they could trust and
respect." (BP)
RANGOON'S SMARTEST POLITICIAN
20 JULY 1995
After six years on ice, Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged a more seasoned
politician. Before being locked away, she called Burma's junta
"fascist" to the Voice of America, and condemned its shadowy
dictator, General Ne Win, by name. Understandable, yes;
operationally shrewd, no.
If admirers were hoping Aung San Suu Kyi would come out with her
rhetoric blazing, they're disappointed. She's a cooler politician
now.
Suu Kyi will have leverage over Western donors and investors, who
want her blessing for their projects. An open question concerns what
role the practitioners of "constructive engagement" will play in
promoting compromise.
Asian governments tout her release as their victory but also make
ambivalent noises about whether the incumbents should be asked to
surrender power.
Japan, which seems to have played a role in her release, straddles
the Asian and Western positions; on Monday she met privately with
the Japanese ambassador.
Suu Kyi may have been on ice, but she has kept up with the debate on
Asian political values. She says she seeks not "Western democracy"
or "Asian democracy", but "Burmese democracy."
That bow to Asian notions of political correctness should relieve
some of their terror at the prospect of the Nobel Prize-toting
democracy heroine showing up one day at an Asean meeting as leader
of the Burma delegation. Asian Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong. (TN)
FREE SUU KYI BUOYS BONN
19 JULY 1995
The head of the German Federation of Small Business (ZDH) said
yesterday the release of dissident Aung San Suu Kyi would encourage
German firms to participate in Burma's long-isolated economy.
"We're relieved about the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi from her
house arrest," Secretary-general Hanns-Ebrhard Schleyer told
Reuters.
"We feel that it is the beginning of a new development in Burma and
as such, we are very much interested in participating in this
development," he said.
Schleyer said at a seminar ZHD planned to team up with Singapore
business association to promote trade with Burma as well as other
Asian countries.
For example, ZHD and Singapore Federation of Chambers of Commerce
and Industry could work together to provide training for Burmese
managers and businessmen, ZHD officials said. (TN)
JAPAN BOOST BURMA TIES
19 JULY 1995
Japan's trade ministry, moving to promote investment in Burma, has
made it easier to obtain insurance covering trade with that Asian
nation.
The move came despite an appeal from Burmese pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, freed last week from six years of house arrest,
that countries wait for real improvements in democracy and human
rights before improving relations with Burma's government or
committing investments there.
In March, the Japanese government granted 1 billion yen (US$1.4
million) in what it said was humanitarian aid to the Burmese
government. (TN)