[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

BKK POST,FEBRUARY 08,1998.>BURMA LA



BURMA LACKS QUALIFIED CIVIL SERVANTS
INTERVIEW: U Ba Thaung , a farmer burma foreign service offical, talks about his days as a civil servant,  about tripartite talks involving the military ,NLD and the ethnic minorities , and describes the character of strongman U NE WIN.



  The bureaucracy in  Burma is a shambles, say U Ba Thaung ,  who joined the  foreign service after burma gained independence from Britain in 1948 and rose to the highest echelons.                                                           U Ba Thaung had been responsible at the time for establishing embassies and consulates in Paris, Moscow and British Singapore, Malaya, Borneo and Sarawak.  As head of the Burma Foreign Service, he later went to Egypt on the same assignment and met dignitaries such as gamel Abdul Nasser and Anwar Sadat.
 His last assignment was in the United States, where he worked at the embassy in Washington and served with the United Nations Burmese delegation.  U Ba Thaung, now in his 70s, defected in 1969.  He now lives in Washington DC.
 "In 1969 U Thi Han, the foreign minister, hinted to me that he would be leaving soon because of the dangerous situation for people like us.  That was when 1 decided to desert and not return to Burma," he said.  'All this took place in New York while 1 was with the United Nations."
 U Thi Han became foreign minister when Ne Win took over in 1962 but was asked to resign after he helped U Nu get a passport to travel overseas for medical treatment,.  However, U Nu went to India and from there fled to Thailand in 1970 to set up the Parliarnentary Democracy Party in the Thai-Burniese jungle to fight the military government.
 U Ba Thaung said the foreign ministry structure is very different now, with military personnel, some as junior as captains, employed in the foreign affairs department.  He recalled a recent incident when one of them complained to him in Washington that the department lacked efficiency in carrying out its work.
 The former diplomat talked about the days when it was very difficult to enter the foreign service.  All applicants had to be graduates and pass a competitive examination.  'Even political -guys could not join," he said.  "No one could influence the foreign service."
 Ba Thaung describes U Ohn Gyaw, the present foreign minister, as a "yes man" who repeats "his master's voice".  Another "yes man'in the present administration is Brig-Gen David Abel, Minister in the Office of the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

 Ohn Gyaw, who had been U Ba Thaung's assistant, was nominated to his present post by Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the powerful military intelligence chief.  U Ba Thaung said the foreign minister was good in a way because he was meticulous in his job and served his superiors faithfully.
 But what he dislikes about Ohn Gyaw is his penchant to repeat a lie.  He cites the 1988 democracy uprising, when millions of Burmese from all walks of life took to the streets.  He said, Ohn Gyaw told a television documentary that of the millions, only 20 percent were demonstrators and the rest were looters.  "This is a blatant lie," said U Ba Thaung.
 In another incident, Ohn Gyaw told the foreign minister of a former Japanese administration that no National League for Democracy (NLD) members were arrested. Then the very next day he admitted NLD members had not been detained but "invited to the state guest house for food and drinks".
 Today he says, none of the civil servants has the right trainee background.  And that is one of the biggest problems facing a new democratic government.  "Amateurs," he says, "cannot become civil servants."
 U Ba Thaung says it is important the younger generation, the students who fled overseas after the 1988 uprising, be trained to become good civil servants.  "That's the heart of a democratic government." During his time, Burma had a good civil service in operation, whether they were Indian Civil Service members or otherwise.  "They were the core of the administration."
 He has advice for the NLD leaders: "You must be careful to train the younger generation to join the administration so that they would be ready when they take over. Time is running out."

 What peace?: U Ba Thaung calls the State Peace and Development Council, formerly Slorc, a joke.. What peace? he asks.  "There is no peace in the country, no peace on the frontiers, except peace for them but definitely not for others." And he likens the military government to the omnipotent dictatorship of Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984.

 To escape from the Orwellian nightmare, there must be primary dialogue between the military and the NLD followed by tripartite talks involving the ethnic minorities.  Without the participation of the minorities, Burma's problems cannot be solved either in a, democratic or any other form of government.

 This has been the stand, he says, taken by the National Council of the Union of Burma, and the UN General Assembly in a resolution to that effect.  The NCGUB is the parallel Burmese government set up by parliamentarians elected in the 1990 general election that Slore lost and pretended never happened.
 The Burmese people know what democracy is.  There is no such thing as an Asian or a Western concept of democracy.  People who say that there is are talking nonsense, says U Ba Thaung.

 He said it is coming to pass what Burma's independence architect and father of the military had once had to say about this country.  Gen Aung San said: "If we do not go about things the correct way, Burma will soon become a land of prostitutes." Gen Aung San warned that the country, without proper governance, could again be colonised.

 Based on what Gen Aung San said, U Ba Thaung referred to the influx of Chinese from the mainland who now have more or less taken over the ancient royal capital of'Mandalay.  The Chinese have purchased land and property and have even gained national identity cards in the city now known as "Burma's  Little Hong Kong".  Their influence is overwhelming.

 While the Chinese invasion of Burma  continues, the  educated and non-educated Burmese have fled to foreign  lands to seek sanctuary and eke out a living.  The more than one million  Burmese along the Thai-Burmese border bears testimony to this .                                                        In Bangkok more 
than half of the  teaching staff at Assumption business  and Adminstration College ,or  Abac, also known as Assumption University, are from Burma. There are  nearly 1,000 doctors practising in the  United States, about 100 are spread out in South Africa, Canada, England and Germany.  An estimated 80 are in Jamaica.

 The sad part is, he said, these academics and physicians have decided not to return to practies in their place of birth and help country.However, are they too being unpatriotic? The answer is no. They 1ove their country but have found it impossible to live under the boots of military dictatorship. U Ba Thaung, however, is convinced that these " Jews of Asia " would return home if and when they are asked by people such as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. 

 Talking about the most popular and loved lady in Burma, the veteran diplomat said Aung San's daughter has no intention or ambition to be come prime minister or president. As far as he understand,Daw Suu is a person of discerning culture who may  either take up teaching or even go into some sort of missionary work ".                                                                                   But U Ba Thaung says she has to take the lead, as least for the time being.  "After all, she is loved and respected all over the world ."Continues U Ba Thaung, "If she really leads the administration, Burma well get all the support it needs, both technical as well as financial."

 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was named the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1991 for non-violent opposition to the military regime.  She was placed under house arrest in July 1989 and released six years later.

 U Thant funeral: Talking about the  early 60s, U Ba Thaung recall the year when U thant was named acting secretary-general of the United Nations and of Gen Ne win's reaction to the appointment.

 The whole of Burma he said ,with the exception of Gen Ne Win,took pride when U Thant was honoured by the UN appointment in 1961. he later served at secretary-general for two consecutive terms from 1962 to 1970.

 Ne Win, then commander-in-chief  of the armed forces, was said to be  against the idea because Burma,being neutral, should no accept the post.  But Premier U Nu tbought otherwise.  The late premier said: "It was a great honour for Burma and also for  Asia" because it was the    first time in UN history that an Asian was asked to become head.

 From then on , Ne Win had it in for U Thant to the extent the former UN secretary-general was denied a state funeral when his body was flown back to rangoon on Nov 29,1994 after his death in New York.

 This angered students, who hi-jacked the body on Dec 5 from the  Kyaikkasan Race Course where it had lain in state.  They took the body  to the Rangoon University and placed it at the Convocation Hall and began building a tomb on the site of the Students Union building demolished by the military in the early 60s.
 The military retrieved the body at  midnight on Dec 11.  U Thant was  eventually entombed next to Thakin  Kodaw Hmaing's grave, one of the  freedom fighters against British rule, on Shwedagon Pagoda road.

 In 1966, Ne Win made a state visit to Washington at the invitation of president Lyndon Johnson.the reason being that Burma acted as a gobetween North and South Vietnam. The US was finding it very difficult and made Rangoon a venue for meeting of the two Vietnams and the United States.  Because of the facilities provided by Burma, the Americans  thought they would invite Ne Win on a state visit.

 At that time Bo Set Kya, one of the  Thirty Comrades, was in the United States. The Burmese foreign mission in Washington was informed by Chit Khin, the Military Intelligence Chief.  who was asked to contact the  Burmese foreign mission in Washington to request the US deport Bo Set Kya before Ne Win's arrival.

 "We passed on that message to the US administration who in return replied that this was impossible because Bo Set Kya had a lot of influential friends in the US Congress and assured that Bo Set Kys would not harm Ne Win in anyway," said U Ba Thaung.

 However, the US government did send the former general to a luxury hotel in New York for the duration of Ne Win's visit.  But, When Ne Win arrived in Washington he told the US government that he would not mind if his former comrade was given political asylum.  "This 1s typical of U Ne Win, he is alway chopping and changing.  He can never make up his mind " said U Ba Thaung.
 Commenting of he latest sentiments expressed by some dissident groups who, in desperation, are looking to the "Old Ma " to intervene to restore peace and eniocracy to the country, U Ba Thaung says this will not happen.  At one stage he said, knowing Ne Win,he believed that the general could convince the junta to come to terms with the opposition and other democracy groups.

 "But 1 don't think U Ne Win can change anything now as the Slorc [SPDC] leaders fea for themselves." They have benefitd  too much  from what they have done and they don't want to lose this, including their families, he added.  Besides, he said, Ne Win's days are numbered.  "It is the end of U Ne Win' days, he is now about 85, and he is dying."