Junta’s economic suppression disables ethnic groups’ political capability

Junta’s economic suppression disables ethnic groups’ political capability

By: Sai Lao Leng

A traveler recently returning from the Sino-Burma border recalled his experiences that the Burmese junta’s economic suppression of the ethnic people serves its political interests. The ethnic activists in small towns have been unable to organize the local population to support recent monks’ popular movements although moral support among the population was very high.

The ethnic population in frontier towns has long been paying for the cost of the regimes’ economic mismanagement. Commodities prices in these towns have always been outrageously higher than the rest of the country and black market rules the day. People in these areas have been struggling to cope with the ever rising commodities prices.

People of Nam Kham and Muse in Northern Shan State strongly supported the monks' movements, however, there was no young people left in the towns to mobilize the population into the streets, said an activist from Nam Kham. Nam Kham used to be a strong Shan political resistance centre but this tradition has perished. Under the economic pressure, most young people in recent decade, has left the towns for big cities or other countries such as Thailand for jobs. "In the 1988 democracy movements, we were able to organised thousands of people in the streets but now we no longer have the capability to do the same," remarked the activist.

Adding to the economic pressure, drug and gambling have been a problem among young people. With no employment and education opportunities, many young people have turned to drugs and gambling. The regime has turned blind eyes on drug abuses and gambling in the areas.

When the demonstrations intensified in Mandalay and Rangoon, the army, being afraid of local monks to join the movements, moved in quickly. All five monasteries in Nam Kham were sealed off by the army and people were warned to stay in their houses. The towns were under martial laws. The abbots of some monasteries were called to Rangoon for a meeting by the regime although the purpose of the meeting was not revealed.

An activist reported some twenty meditationers at a monastery in Nam Kham refused to obey the army’s order to return home and continued to practice meditation at the monastery. However, their fate is not yet known.

A local resident explained there were not many young monks in Nam Kham because most Nam Kham’s young novice monks were in Mandalay and in other big cities. Young Shan novice monks usually spend some years learning at monasteries in Mandalay and other big cities before returning to reside in their native monasteries.