CPTC2

Many Burmese citizens are reluctant to boycott their favorite products

New Campaign to Boycott Burmese Businesses
By MIN LWIN AND VIOLET CHO
Friday, February 8, 2008.

Despite the fact the United States government imposed additional sanctions on the Burmese military junta and its cronies recently, underground activists have initiated a campaign to boycott any goods believed to be linked with the regime.
Anonymous leaflets were spread around Rangoon this week calling on Burmese citizens to boycott businesses belonging to cronies and supporters of the regime. The leaflets accused the military authorities of bullying the ordinary people of Burma and making them slaves of the junta.
The proposed items for boycott include Myanmar Beer, Dagon Beer, London Cigarettes and Vegas Cigarettes, the state-owned Aung Bar Lay Lottery and all donut shops believed to be owned by relatives of the military leaders.
Myanmar Beer, Dagon Beer, London Cigarettes and Vegas Cigarettes are monopolized by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Company Limited (UMEH).
UMEH is a military conglomerate. Shares in the holding company are held by members of the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces. Its board of directors is comprised of senior military officers.
J’ Donuts coffee shops are a popular chain in Rangoon and are believed to be owned by Kyaing San Shwe, the son of Snr-Gen Than Shwe. The usual suspect on all sanctions targets, Htoo Trading Company Limited, is also on the boycott list. The Chief Executive Officer of Htoo Trading Company Limited is the notorious Burmese businessman, Tay Za. Three companies and two individuals that have close connections to Tay Za were also added to the list for targeted sanctions.
Other persons singled out for targeted sanctions include the spouses of senior officials of the military junta.
Interestingly, government newspapers The New Light of Myanmar, The Mirror and two privately run journals, Nan Myint and Snaphot, were on the boycott list. Snaphot is owned by publisher Myat Khaing who is a close associate of Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the minister for information.
Despite the bold moves, reaction from people in Burma has been mixed.
The Irrawaddy spoke to residents in Rangoon, Arakan State, Kachin State, Sagaing Division and Mandalay to sound out their opinion on the fresh boycott call by an underground group in Burma.
A beer shop owner in Sagaing who had not seen the leaflets said: “Burmese people don’t dare take part in this recent boycott campaign.
“We can’t even boycott Chinese products because we depend on Chinese toothpaste every morning,” he explained.
The general manager of an employment agency in Rangoon said, “It is not possible for Burmese people to boycott these products. If you don’t want to smoke London cigarettes, do you have any other choice?”
“I don’t think it will have any effect,” said Ko Ye, a tourist guide from Rangoon. “We don’t have anything to replace these products if we boycott them.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone on Friday, a businessman who runs an oil and diesel retailers in Rangoon said, “We have no other choice for beer and cigarettes in Burma. We have long been using these products to relax and release tension.” He added that it would be impossible to boycott these products “if we are left with nothing.”
A writer and critic in Rangoon said, “I don’t think the boycott will be effective, because all the listed products are used by people around the country.”
He also said that it was difficult to find business and companies that have no connections with the military authorities.
A senior editor who publishes a monthly magazine in Rangoon said, “It is a good idea as a people’s movement, but it’s not practical. I think more people will join the boycott movement if it is beneficial to the people.”
However, a Kachin man living in Lai Zar, along the Kachin-Chinese border, backed the boycott campaign.
“I agree that we have to boycott these companies and firms that are close to the military regime,” he said. “Supporting them keeps the regime in power.”

Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Friday, February 8, 2008.
Since the bloody crackdown in September, the regime in Naypyidaw has become increasingly isolated. However, they are not sitting idly. They are buying time while ignoring the international community’s calls to reconcile with the democratic opposition and initiate a genuine dialogue.
The Western governments have tightened sanctions on the junta, since constructive engagement is so obviously doomed to failure. This, we believe, is the correct approach.
In this respect, the United States government has led the way in punishing the generals and cutting them off from their aspirations. The US is also the main player in keeping the spotlight on Burma. Recently, the Bush administration increased targeted sanctions on the regime leaders, their families and cronies, and leading Burmese businessmen. We welcomed the decision and hope the sanctions are expanded to hurt all powerful businesspersons who have strong connections to the military leaders. They deserve no less.
But more needs to be done. The generals know that the world’s attention is shifting and its attention span on Burma is short. The regime’s wrath is unyielding and the crackdown on dissidents continues.
Recently, a young man named Nay Phone Latt was arrested for blogging. He could be charged under Burma’s draconian Emergency Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Burmese security forces have also stepped up surveillance on Internet cafés in Rangoon and those who visit them in the wake of hundreds of images and photos being sent out during the carnage in September.
The regime is fighting against a new enemy—cyber dissidents and citizen reporters, armed with cell phones, digital cameras and memory sticks.
Therefore, for the sake of change in Burma, it is vitally important that the lines of communication remain open at all times.
And so to New Zealand, where, last Monday, debate flared in parliament over the contracting of state-owned telecommunications company Kordia to install cell phone towers in Burma.
Kordia chief executive Geoff Hunt was quoted as saying that the firm had installed mobile base station equipment for Myanmar Post and Telecommunications.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had denounced the Burmese regime in the past, was caught between a rock and a hard place. She defended her government’s position saying the contract would probably help democracy.
The Green Party, with six members in New Zealand’s 121-seat parliament, issued a press release criticizing the government for giving the green light for a public company to work in Burma.
The party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Keith Locke, said, “It is shocking that our government should be encouraging a state-owned company to help the Burmese regime, one of the most ruthless in the world.”
Clark countered by stating that there were no economic sanctions on Burma. The small contract that the state-owned Kordia signed was a joint venture with Thai firm ALT Inter Corporation, and was worth about NZ $80,000 (US $62,400).
“Quite frankly, I think that's probably an aid to democracy [in Burma], not a step backwards,” she said. “Because one of the ways of getting news out to the world and photos and images out to the world is precisely through that technology.”
In fact, she is not wrong. However, we’ve heard these lame excuses too often in the past.
Some years ago, the Australian government provided a series of human rights training courses to Burmese officials in the naïve assumption that the regime would see the light and start respecting the rights of its citizens.
A few years later, in May 2003, a gang of thugs trained by the regime attacked democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her motorcade. Where were the human rights trainees that day?
The junta is a lingering leopard that will never change its spots.
Nevertheless, we believe that the lines of communication between Burma and the outside world must remain open. It is essential that the citizens of Burma be able to purchase cell phones, SIM cards and other IT devices freely and at reasonable prices.
The state-controlled cost of US $1,500 for a SIM card alone is certainly not reasonable.
However, ultimately, more cell phones, cheaper Internet access, a higher computer literacy and unknown future gadgets will inspire a young generation who want to share stories and news with the rest of the world.
We look forward to seeing more and more ordinary folk in Burma chatting on mobile phones, exchanging photos by e-mail and researching news on the Internet. Burma should be flooded with cell phones and Internet cafés.
In the meantime, we must keep pressure on the regime to stop arresting cyber dissidents and citizen reporters who conform to Prime Minister Clark’s image as messengers of news, photos and images to the world.