http://eastasiaforum.org/2008/11/27/china%E2%80%99s-economic-reforms-pushed-by-civil-society/
Author: Yongsheng Zhang
Over the past three decades, institutional changes have been the major driving force for China’s economic development. But, as Ross Garnaut recently stated in Beijing, “many foreign analysts have underestimated the importance of institutions in economic development, and the inevitably gradual nature of successful institutional change”.
If China’s reforms prior to 2000 for establishing a market economic framework could be called the first generation of reforms, then subsequent reforms aimed at improving the market economic system could be called the second generation of reforms (2G), designed to eradicate the hardest institutional barriers incompatible to a market economy.
But the 2G reforms need momentum. For instance, it is not so easy to break the vested interests. However, proper application of the rule of law and civil society measures can provide the momentum and act as a warranty for the success of the 2G reforms and for China’s long term economic prosperity.
The recent strikes of taxi drivers in some places in China is a good example.China has always put economic development and social stability as the top priority. But in the past, stability was achieved even through times of high pressure. This kind of stability was not real stability and not sustainable. The real social stability needs to be achieved through rule of law and civil society (or, as Hu Jintao put it at the 17th congress, “socialist democracy”). When the first strike happened in Chongqing, the party chief of Chongqing, Bo Xilai, solved it in a different way to what is sometimes expected in China — to listen to the appeal of the taxi driver and reform the regulation of the government, rather than put pressure to stop the strike in the first place. These kind of examples can be seen as definite progress toward civil society in China.
Chongqing’s solution encouraged taxi drivers elsewhere to take action. In Hainan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places, taxi drivers followed Chongqing and organised strikes. In the old thinking, the strike means instability. But, actually, strikes are a sign that the Chinese society is becoming more and more open, transparent and democratic, since now the people can protest publicly, and the government has to solve problems through reforming and disciplining their own behaviour. Some western media may report the strike from a different angle and deem the strikes as the evidence of instability in China, or even the evidence of the crisis of Gongchandang’s rule. This kind of conclusion is incorrect and misleading.
Behind the strike, there are complex economic reasons. The taxi sector is a franchised sector in China and the taxi companies need to obtain the franchise from the government. The taxi driver pays a monthly fee to the taxi company: for instance, about 5,000 yuan in Beijing (the vehicle are usually owned by the taxi driver and the costs of running including repair are the driver’s responsibility). The remainder after the monthly fee is the driver’s income —- about 3,000 yuan per month, working for 13 hours a day (different places have different situations).
It is extremely hard for the individual to enter the taxi sector because of the government’s quantity control on taxi numbers. If one wants to enter the sector, he/she has to engage in a taxi company that has a certain quota. The quantity control results in a high taxi price, but the taxi company takes most of the revenue generated after that high price has been paid.
Therefore, the underground or “black” taxi appears, not paying the high monthly fee. What the drivers are protesting is the high monthly fee and the “black” taxis. If there was free entry, the taxi price would drop and the driver’s income may increase side by side. But this would not be easy to achieve, since the interests in the sector have been so distorted. The root reason is the distortion resulted from the bad regulation, not the “black” taxi. To introduce free entry is only part of the answer.
As a result of the taxi strike, the monthly fee was sharply decreased in Chongqing. At the national level, the problem in the taxi sector has drawn high attention and become a media focus in China. It looks like a national wide reform on taxi regulation is going to be started.
The taxi sector is only one example of how China’s reform is pushed by the civil society. It is expected that, as China’s economy rapidly grows, more and more reforms will be initiated and pushed by the civil society from the bottom-up. More particularly, many situations in which the farmer can defend their right on land are expected to occur after the farmer’s land use right was significantly reinforced at the 3rd Plenary of the 17th CPC Central Committee in 2008.
The most essential element for good economic performance is preventing governmental opportunism. To achieve this, the government needs to be limited by rule of law and civil society. A better institution for long-term economic prosperity can thus gradually evolve in a civil society.
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Related posts:
Reform in China: Experience with economic system reform
The market, state owned enterprises and Chinese reform
Taking a punt on political transition in China
This entry was posted on 27 November 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Economic Policy, Politics. Tagged: Chinese political transition, Chinese protest, Chinese strike, Chongqing Taxi, economic reform, taxi protest, Taxi strike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Friday, November 28, 2008
China’s economic reforms pushed by civil society
A Coup Against Than Shwe -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=14681&page=1
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By AUNG ZAW Monday, November 24, 2008
Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s hold on power in Burma is turning the country into a gulag. Even members of the armed forces, including many young officers rising in the ranks, know that Burma would be better off without him. But are they prepared to act on the growing dissatisfaction they feel as they watch the country slide into a black hole?
There is no doubt that many soldiers and officers believe that removing Than Shwe and other junta hardliners from power is the only way to end Burma’s misery. Members of the military have watched the gap between rich and poor widen to a chasm even within their own ranks, with ordinary soldiers struggling to survive while corrupt generals grow obscenely rich.
It is entirely possible that some unknown faction within the armed forces is plotting the overthrow of Than Shwe and those loyal to him. We don’t know who they are or when they will strike; but we can be sure that if they did turn on their supreme leader, many others within the military would likely join forces with them.
If some bold young officers did decide to take matters into their own hands, it wouldn’t be the first time in Burma’s recent history. In 1976, Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint, a staff officer serving under Gen Kyaw Htin, then commander in chief of the armed forces, plotted to assassinate state leaders, including Ne Win and San Yu.
Along with other young officers who graduated from the Defense Services Academy, Ohn Kyaw Myint held clandestine meetings in the War Office to discuss the assassination of Ne Win, the strongman who first placed Burma under military rule.
Burma’s secret police eventually uncovered the plot and immediately set out to discover who the ringleader was.
On the evening of July 2, Ohn Kyaw Myint decided to seek asylum at the US embassy in Rangoon. Although he appeared at the US ambassador’s residence and explained his abortive coup plan, his request for asylum was rejected. The secret police finally caught him.
When Ohn Kyaw Myint and several other officers were put on trial, they became national heroes overnight. Army soldiers and officers who were interrogated in connection with the coup plot told Ohn Kyaw Myint and his group how much they admired them. The open trial in Insein was attended by many ordinary citizens who also expressed admiration for the young rebel officers.
The accused army officers openly attacked Ne Win’s “Burmese Way to Socialism” when they were placed on the stand. They lashed out at corrupt cadres and criticized the regime’s policies, which they said were driving the country into economic ruin.
Their testimony turned out to be quite prophetic: A little more than a decade later, the collapse of the economy triggered massive social unrest and led to Ne Win’s forced resignation. (Ironically, Capt Win Thein, one of the accused officers who lambasted Ne Win’s disastrous economic policies, is now a millionaire with close business ties to the current military leaders.)
Many junior officers were apprehended and jailed or forced to resign. Hundreds of army officers at the War Office were removed from their posts and regional commanders implicated in the coup plot were forced to step down. Gen Tin Oo, the former armed forces chief of staff who is now the chairman of the National League for Democracy, was among those who were thrown into prison for having knowledge of the coup plan.
Than Shwe, who was then a colonel and a loyal follower of Ne Win, escaped the purge.
Ohn Kyaw Myint was hanged for his part in the plot, but his name is not forgotten in Burma. Many still applaud his heroic attempt to get rid of the men whose stranglehold on power had slowly squeezed the life out of the country.
Why did the plot to assassinate Ne Win fail? Most have blamed it on the would-be coup leaders repeated postponement of their plans to carry out the plot. On one occasion, they called off their mission as they drove their army jeep on A.D. Road, where Ne Win and other top leaders lived, because they saw bird droppings on their windshield. They thought it was a bad omen and decided to abort at the last minute.
Today, activists say there is no shortage of young officers like Ohn Kyaw Myint in the armed forces. But many Burmese ask: Where are they? Perhaps past experience has taught them to be cautious (although Ohn Kyaw Myint’s case would seem to suggest that an excess of caution can prove to be deadly).
It is probably fair to say that these moderate forces within the military, whoever they are, are not necessarily supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi or the democracy movement.
But they probably want to restore the army’s honor by doing its duty instead of trying to run the country.
Burmese in the past looked to the armed forces for protection from external threats, such as a possible invasion by the Kuomintang in the years after the Communists won the civil war in China, and from the multi-colored insurgents who threatened Burma soon after it won its independence from Britain.
The Burmese armed forces are now regarded with fear and contempt by ordinary people, a fact that troubles many officers who believe they are working in the service of their country.
But many Burmese know that there are still some genuine patriots within the ranks of the military, and believe that the only hope for their country is for one of them to finally break Than Shwe’s hold on power.
It may seem a remote possibility, but you can’t blame people for wanting to believe that there are still some within the ranks of the armed forces who understand the meaning of courage and decency.
No Laughing Matter -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=14703&page=1
By AUNG ZAW Thursday, November 27, 2008
Be warned—if you crack a joke, Burma’s military leaders usually don’t laugh. Instead, they send you to prison.
Burma’s most famous comedian, Zarganar, committed the heinous crime of telling jokes as he was helping people in Irrawaddy delta after they had been devastated by Cyclone Nargis.
Zarganar spent time in prison in the early 1990s for making wisecracks. In May, he and his relief team of volunteers went to villages in the delta to deliver humanitarian assistance while the UN and the INGOs sat waiting in Thailand for visas.
Zarganar not only delivered aid, but he was able to speak to media groups inside and outside the country and recount what he had witnessed. He encouraged others to garner relief supplies and brought home to the outside world the horror of what had happened in the delta.
He went further than most by criticizing the UN—a name not often highly regarded in Burma. He was straightforward and truthful. He spoke about people he had seen who were traumatized, destitute and without food and water.
But while Zarganar was getting serious, the regime’s mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar spun its own version of a sick joke.
In one editorial, the newspaper said that cyclone survivors in the delta didn’t need foreign aid. It opined that those who had lost their families, friends, homes and farms could survive on fruit and fish, and even encouraged cyclone survivors to rummage around the reeds at night and hunt frogs for dinner. The editorial went on to predict that the delta would prosper again next year with vast golden fields of paddy.
When I spoke to Zarganar by telephone, he gave me his reaction to the New Light of Myanmar’s editorial.
“I have no idea whether the survivors can catch edible fish and frogs,” he said. “We renamed the Irrawaddy River and Bogalay River by the color of the water. The rivers are a chalky white color. We call it ‘Nargis color.’ There are many dead bodies and carcasses of cattle floating in the rivers. We call that the ‘Nargis odor.’ The stink clings to us when we come back from the villages. Nobody can stand it and it causes some people to vomit. How could people find edible fish and frogs in that environment?”
Listening to Zarganar on the phone in Rangoon, I feared he would be arrested soon. I was not wrong. A few days later the security forces came for him. I got the sense that he was prepared for it.
The comedian received a 45-year sentence effectively for criticizing the regime’s response to the humanitarian disaster in the delta. Then, on November 27 a special court in Insein sentenced him to another 14 years on four other trumped-up charges—a total of 59 years imprisonment for Burma's best-known comedian.
Some foreign aid workers associated with UN agencies inside Burma expressed doubts as to whether Zarganar was involved in humanitarian operations in the delta or campaigning for the opposition instead.
However, nothing justifies the harsh sentences handed down to those like Zarganar.
Despite his crucial role in assisting cyclone survivors, Zarganar and many of the local aid groups may well have been supporters of the pro-democracy movement and this has made them the target of an ongoing crackdown on activities deemed inimical to the interests of the country’s ruling regime.
To date, twenty-two volunteer aid workers have been arrested and detained in connection with their relief work in the Irrawaddy delta.
Recently, five other detained volunteers—Zaw Thet Htwe, Ein Khaing Oo, Tin Maung Aye, Thant Zin Aung and Kyaw Kyaw Thint—received lengthy prison sentences for their generous efforts on behalf of the victims of the disaster.
Activists Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, monk Gambira and Su Su Nway were sentenced on a dozen charges, including infringements of the Electronic Act, 505 b.
Min Ko Naing and eight other dissidents from the 88 Generation Students group were each sentenced on November 11 at a court in Maubin to 65 years in prison for their roles in the anti-government uprising last year.
I am sure political activists and prisoners have heard the news that Zarganar may be coming to join them. For those inmates he meets, I don’t doubt he will make their lives more bearable. He will make them laugh as he did the prison wardens during his incarceration in Insein Prison.
Last weekend, ageing dictator Than Shwe thought he could deliver a punch line of his won and leave everyone rolling in the aisles. The senior general urged the people of Burma to support the election in 2010 in his National Day message last Saturday. But no one laughed.
Now I have a serious question to ask you.
If humanitarian workers, comedians and peaceful activists are given sentences that stretch beyond their life spans for helping refugees and nonviolently asking for democratic and economic reforms in the country, how many years incarceration would Than Shwe merit if he were put on trial?
The world must act now to stop genocide in Burma!
http://aarondtaylor.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-must-act-now-to-stop-genocide-in.html
Soldiers entering villages and killing people on sight. Landmines blowing pregnant women to smithereens. There’s no way this is really going on. The world would never tolerate this. How come I haven’t heard about this before? These were the words flashing through my mind as I watched the fourth installment of the Rambo franchise 10 weeks ago. The film portrays the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign in Eastern Burma targeting the Karen people, a situation that is every bit as bad as what’s happening in Darfur (Some argue that it’s worse) though frightfully few people know that it’s happening. Little did I know that in just eight short weeks, I’d actually be standing on the same soil as the Karen people, talking with victims of the junta’s atrocities and listening to their stories.
My wife and I are freelance Christian missionaries. In a nutshell, we travel the world and look for ways to share our faith and/or help people in practical ways. About a week after I saw the Rambo movie, I met a missionary at a conference in Texas that lives in Thailand and works among the Karen people living in refugee camps along the Thai/Burma border. At the conference an invitation was given for volunteers to go to Thailand and teach an oral communications workshop at a Karen Bible School. At the time my wife and I were already scheduled to spend three weeks in Brazil in November, so we didn’t think we would be able to make it. Within three weeks the door we had to travel to Brazil was slammed shut—providentially I think—and we were able to credit our tickets to travel to Thailand instead.
While in Thailand we spent six days at a Bible School with Karen pastors in training. Many of the young men and women had been driven out of their homes when they were little children. Some told us stories about their home villages being burned to the ground. Others were too young to remember life outside of the refugee camp, but longed to return to their homeland nonetheless. The constant theme we heard over and over was that the junta troops are continuing to systematically drive Karen people out of their villages and are placing landmines in the villages to keep the people from coming back. Many of the people fear that if the world doesn’t act soon, there will be a final campaign in 2010 that will wipe their people off the map forever. That’s the year the Burmese government has given the Karen National Liberation Army an ultimatum to lay down their arms—or else.
Speculation aside, here are the facts:
• In Eastern Burma, the military regime has destroyed, burned, or relocated over 3,000 villages;
• At least one million refugees have fled the country;
• An additional million people remain inside the country as internal refugees. They face abuse in the forms of rape, torture, extortion, and murder. Many are also forced into forced labor for government projects and army
campaigns – a modern form of slavery;
• The military junta in Burma has recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world – up to 70,000;
• Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in Eastern Burma, terrorizing thousands of women and their families;
• The United Nations Security Council has remained shamefully silent in the case of Burma, even though it has passed many resolutions on other countries in similar situations;
• The longer the UN Security Council remains silent, the more people will die.
Amazingly, we were able to go into Burma and visit a camp for internally displaced people. Though the camp is comprised of 820 people, the week before we arrived 87 new Karen entered the camp after the junta attacked their village and planted landmines to prevent the people from returning to their homes. This tells me that the killing is not only ongoing, it’s worsening. History shows that when brutal regimes are denied the money and the weapons to carry out their atrocities, the people are able to rise up and take back their country. The U.N. must play a crucial role to make this happen.
You and I can make that happen. Go to http://www.uscampaignforburma.org and sign the petition to tell Ban Ki Moon to pass a resolution to stop the genocide in Burma. The clock is ticking. God have mercy on us all if we stand by and do nothing.
Posted by Aaron D. Taylor at 3:14 PM
Burma Crackdown Could be Convenient for China-INYA NET
http://arpwar.burmabloggers.net/?p=1690
admin | Daily News, Featured, Politics | November 27th, 2008
Irrawaddy News : Small countries often serve as playgrounds for powerful countries in geopolitics. Is this true in Burma’s case? Burma and China recently signed a US $2.5 billion project for the construction of oil and gas pipelines between Burma’s southwestern port of Kyaukpyu and China’s Yunnan Province. Work is due to start in early 2009.
According to analysts, Burma is important for China economically and strategically as a trading outlet to the Indian Ocean for its landlocked inland provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan and as a factor in its “two oceans” objective.
“Myanmar [Burma] is part and parcel of China’s grand strategic design to achieve its goal of becoming a great power in the 21st century,” said Poon Kim Shee, a scholar in international relations, in a paper, Political Economy of China-Myanmar Relations: Strategic and Economic Dimension.
China and Burma have had friendly relations since the Chinese Communists came to power in October 1949. Burma recognized the Chinese Communist regime in December 1949.
Following the Communist takeover in China, the Chinese nationalists, the Kuomintang, invaded eastern Burma to create resistance bases. There were numerous armed clashes with Burmese troops, and China’s Red Army eventually moved into the border area to subdue Chinese nationalist forces in Burma.
Analysts trace the rise of the Burmese military to the clashes with the Kuomintang army and the outbreak of civil war among armed ethnic groups.
From 1949 to 1962, Sino-Burmese relations were stable, but broke down after the military coup in 1962, led by the late dictator Ne Win. The Chinese regime openly supported the Communist Party of Burma militarily and financially in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1967, Chinese-Burmese riots broke out in several Burmese cities, claiming the lives of an estimated 100 people, but relations between the two countries steadily improved from the early 1980s onwards.
After the 1988 military coup in Burma, China became an important strategic ally for the ruling generals. The Chinese provided arms, aircraft and other material to the Burmese armed forces when Western countries stopped selling arms to the junta. The Chinese military also trains Burmese officers.
“The price Myanmar [Burma] will have to pay for deviating from its strategic neutrality principle might be to potentially become a useful pawn for China’s long-term strategic interests,” Poon Kim Shee said.
During Burma’s current period of military rule, China has also become one of the junta’s main business partners. Chinese migration to Burma has grown steadily since 1988 following the opening of the border to trade.
Economic life in Burma’s second largest city, Mandalay, and other towns in the north is now heavily influenced by Chinese businessmen, leading in some circles to an increase in Burmese nationalistic sentiment and resentment of Chinese influence.
Burmese writers and cartoonists sometimes reflect on the situation directly and indirectly. Published short stories and cartoons have noted ironically that that there are more Chinese than Burmese in central Mandalay, where the Chinese language is widely spoken and an increasing number of signs are written in Chinese.
“If you want to see and hear Burmese, you should go outside of Mandalay,” a famous Burmese cartoonist commented in one of his drawings.
Chan Tun, a former Burmese ambassador to China, said that anti-Chinese sentiment in Burma is not good for the two countries. “Burma and China are geographically neighbors,” he said. “We need each other, and we need to depend on each other.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is also trying to placate Western calls for more democracy and greater respect for human rights in Burma.
During the 7th Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, leaders of Asian and European countries urged the junta to “engage all stakeholders in an inclusive political process,” and called for the lifting of restrictions placed on political parties and the early release of political prisoners.
“I think the Chinese policy is to have good relations with the Burmese government whoever is in control,” said Ohn Maung, a veteran politician in Rangoon.
Following the landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in the May 1990 election, China’s ambassador to Burma also made his country’s first diplomatic visit to the party to congratulate it on its success.
However, the recent harsh sentences handed down by Burmese courts to political prisoners have raised the stakes for China, with many of the world’s governments expressing outrage over the lack of a fair judicial process.
One leading US newspaper, The Washington Post, suggested the courts’ crackdown and the protests it had provoked presented a convenient opportunity for Beijing.
“For China’s Communist Party, repression in Burma is not an obstacle but a convenience, enabling the exploitation of natural resources with a minimum of well-targeted corruption,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
Apart from China, another giant neighbor, India, has also reached multiple trading and security agreements with the Burmese junta. India’s external affairs sectary Shiv Shankar Menon and Burma’s deputy foreign minister Kyaw Thu signed contracts on November 23 in Burma.
“India and China simply believe that their own business interests and strategic competition is more important, which has made Burma an unwilling battleground,” David Scott Mathieson, a Burma researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, told The Irrawaddy by e-mail.
The struggle of two giants, China and India, to obtain natural gas and other valuable resources from Burma was symbolic of just what little regard both countries had for the
basic freedoms of the people of Burma, he said.
Who's behind the Thai protests?
http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2008/11/thailand-protests-elites-mass
The paradox for western observers is that, as the protests in Thailand show, these elites can have genuine mass support
Power to the people? Protesters against the Thai government include ultra-monarchists
A crowd of thousands surrounded the Thai parliament on 24 November, shutting down a joint session of both chambers. The next day they marched on the offices of the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, to demand his resignation, going not to Government House in central Bangkok - occupied by protesters since August - but to rather less salubrious quarters at an old airport north of the city, from which ministers have been forced to operate.
A welcome demonstration of the popular will, it may be thought. Do not the protesters gather under the banner of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD)? Yet as so often in Thai and south-east Asian politics, all is not what it seems. The PAD actually wants less democracy, or at least less of the one-man-one-vote variety.
Its leaders say that the rural poor who voted for Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in the army-led coup of 2006, and his successors (or proxies), are too ill-educated, their ballots too easily purchased by the highest bidder.
The PAD - ultra-monarchist, hence the profusion of royal yellow in the crowds - prefers a mostly nominated parliament and a polity dominated by the urban business classes and the army. This more authoritarian model, they say, is needed to bring stability and recovery from the excesses of Thaksin, recently sentenced in absentia to two years on corruption charges.
Thailand is not alone in having difficulties reconciling the results of the electoral process with established interests. At the imminent Association of South-East Asian Nations summit, there will, among others, be Cambodia, whose leader, a former Khmer Rouge member, stands accused of rigging last summer's elections; Malaysia, whose next prime minister has been linked to the murder of a Mongolian model who was his top adviser's lover; and Burma, where the military junta recently jailed a comedian for 45 years for criticising the generals' slow response to Cyclone Nargis.
Throughout the region, elites maintain their grip. The paradox for western observers is that, as the protests in Thailand show, these elites can have genuine mass support. If, for instance, it eventually falls to the revered king to settle this ongoing confrontation - at the time of writing, PAD demonstrators had just stormed the new international airport - no one will dispute his arbitration. For Thais, he has a mandate greater than any election could possibly confer.
Burma's government in exile condemns Mumbai attack -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/1381-burmas-government-in-exile-condemns-mumbai-attack.html
by Mungpi
Friday, 28 November 2008 21:21
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese government in exile – National Coalition Government of Union of Burma – on Thursday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed over 100 people and injured over 200, calling it 'cowardice and a foolish' act.
Dr. Tint Swe, Minister of the Prime Minister office of the NCGUB, who is based in New Delhi, said "We condemn any act of terrorism, no matter who the perpetrators are. And if the attacks are carried out for political motives it is cowardice and a foolish act."
On Wednesday evening terrorists carried out at least 10 separate attacks on India's commercial hub of Mumbai killing at least 100 including 14 police and injuring more than 200 people.
The terrorists, armed with AK 47, grenades and low intensity bombs stormed Mumbai's busiest and most opulent sites including the century old railway station Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST), the former Victoria Terminus, Hotel Taj Palace and The Trident hotel, both of which had guests including foreign tourists.
According to reports, the terrorists, who began attacking since Wednesday night, continue to be holed up at with least 30 hostages in the Trident Hotel on Thursday and have left nearly 2000 guests stranded in the Taj hotel.
While the terrorist group did not make any demands, an Islamic group 'Deccan Mujahideen' a group that was previously unheard of claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to reports. A similarly named 'Indian Mujahideen' had earlier claimed responsibility for several blasts across the country including the 21 bomb blasts in Ahmedabad in July that claimed 56 lives.
Till the time of filing the story, at least five to seven terrorists are still holed up in the Taj hotel and bomb blasts were also heard from inside the Hotel, while terrorists were said to have held at least 30 hostages in the Trident hotel, according to an Indian TV Channel NDTV.
In the course of a gun battle, up to 14 police including Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were killed, reports said. The police in turn killed at least five terrorists during the shootout.
Dr. Tint Swe said India like several other countries has its own sets of problems and conflicts but resorting to violence and conducting terrorist attacks are unacceptable.
"It is understandable that groups have diverse ideologies and countries have their own conflicts. But resorting to violence is unacceptable," said Dr. Tint Swe, extending his deep concern and solidarity towards the victims of the attacks.
While condemning the attacks, Dr. Tint Swe said terrorism seems to be spreading fast within the region and that governments including India should handle it with utmost importance.
"If we look at the past few months or even a year, we can see that there have been several blasts across India. Similarly, there were also blasts occurring in India's neighbouring country Burma and in several other south and southeast Asian countries," Dr. Tint Swe said.
"Looking at this, we can say terrorist attacks are becoming a trend these days, and that governments needs to resolve them with utmost importance," he added.
Similar to India, which has witnessed several bomb attacks in the past one year, Burma also witnessed increasing bomb blasts in the past year with perpetrators targeting mainly the former capital city of Rangoon.
The latest blast in Rangoon took place on October 19 at a house in Rangoon's suburban township of Shwepyithar, killing a man, whom the military government said was the perpetrator himself. In September alone, at least four blasts occurred in Rangoon, injuring at least seven people.
But, the military government, which has maintained a tight rule over the country since 1962, are quick at pointing a finger at opposition groups, including members of detained Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party – the National League for Democracy (NLD), and border-based ethnic armed rebel groups who are fighting for self-determination, each time a blast occurs.
Dr. Tint Swe, while condemning the terrorist attacks, praised India's freedom of press, which has enabled citizens to keep abreast of the latest situation on the ground.
"Unlike Burma, India's freedom of press has allowed the media to cover the full extent of the event unfolding. But in Burma, since the media has been blacked out, information related the blasts seems to be out of reach to the people," he added.
Thai government appeals to army amid coup rumours
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081127/afp/081127123823asiapacificnews.html
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's government asked the military to stay in their barracks Thursday as rumours spread that the army was plotting a coup to end mass protests that have shut down both of Bangkok's airports.
The army denied there was any attempt to topple Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat after months of anti-government protests, but admitted that tanks had moved through an area of the capital near parliament as part of a display for cadets.
Somchai held an urgent cabinet meeting Thursday in northern Chiang Mai city, and a minister said they were set to declare a state of emergency at Bangkok's two airports to end the unrest that has paralysed the kingdom and left thousands of tourists stranded.
"I would like to inform all military personnel to carry out your duty as usual. Do not make any movement or be on stand-by. This is to stop the coup rumours," government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar said on national radio.
Nattawut denied rumours that the government wanted to sack the army chief, General Anupong Paojinda, after Anupong urged Somchai on Wednesday to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections.
An army spokesman urged political reconciliation, saying it neither wanted to move against protesters at the two Bangkok airports nor risk a confrontation with government supporters if it staged a coup.
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"The military have moved tanks for strategic purposes but I can confirm that there is no coup and the military has not been ordered to be on stand-by," Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP.
The army has staged 18 coups in Thailand's history, the most recent in 2006 when it toppled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Somchai's brother-in-law.
Supporters of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) earlier blockaded Bangkok's old Don Mueang airport in an attempt to prevent ministers from flying to Chiang Mai, a Thaksin stronghold.
But cabinet members slipped out of the city in small aircraft.
Demonstrators stormed the main Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Tuesday night and have set up a protest camp there, effectively cutting Bangkok off from the rest of the world.
Thai aviation authorities later gave airlines the green light to use the U-Tapao naval base instead, saying that several flights had already landed there including a Thai Airways flight from Los Angeles.
"It's already begun," said Chaisak Angkasuwan, director general of the Civil Aviation Department.
The PAD launched their campaign to topple the democratically-elected government six months ago, accusing it of being a puppet of Thaksin, who remains in exile to avoid a jail term imposed for a corruption conviction.
The group has the backing of elements in the palace, military and Bangkok's old elite that want to purge society of the influence of Thaksin, who is adored by the rural poor.
As both sides refused to back down, concerns deepened for the kingdom's economy, vital tourism industry and diplomatic ties.
"Several countries are seriously concerned with the incidents happening in our country now -- there is no rule of law," foreign minister Sompong Amornviwat told AFP by telephone from Germany.
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, meanwhile, questioned whether Thailand was still a suitable place to hold the regional ASEAN summit in December.
The PAD has vowed to stay at three protest sites -- Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang and Somchai's Government House offices in central Bangkok, which they seized in August -- until the premier quits.
At Suvarnabhumi, thousands of PAD supporters clad in their signature yellow clothes -- symbolising support for the revered king -- massed outside while others set up camp in the state-of-the-art airport.
Most of the 3,000 stranded passengers were taken by bus to hotels on Wednesday, and thousands of tourists are now trying to escape Thailand.
"I can't wait for the airport to reopen anymore. I have to find a way to get out of this country," said one business traveller from the Philippines who had turned up at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the hope of getting a flight.
Outbursts of violence between rival groups -- one PAD supporter was killed on Wednesday while another brief gun battle broke out early Thursday -- have raised fears of escalating unrest.
Indian commandos battle Islamist gunmen, over 100 dead
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081127/afp/081127130044asiapacificnews.html
MUMBAI (AFP) - Indian commandos were on Thursday battling Islamist gunmen who launched coordinated attacks against luxury hotels and other targets in Mumbai, taking foreign hostages and killing over 100 people.
India's prime minister Manmohan Singh said the attackers had come from " outside the country ," and also warned "neighbours" who provide a haven to anti-India militants -- seen as veiled reference to arch-rival Pakistan.
A top policeman said troops were fighting their way through the financial and entertainment capital's famous Taj Mahal hotel but told AFP "we are in the final stages of operations."
"We are confident that we'll be able to counter the terrorists," state police chief A.N. Roy said, as sporadic gunfire and explosions continued to echo in Mumbai on Thursday evening.
Some 200 people were still believed trapped in another five-star hotel, the Oberoi/Trident, the hotel group's vice-chairman said, while a Jewish rabbi was being held at an office-residential complex which also houses a Jewish centre.
Gunmen from the little-known Deccan Mujahedeen group, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, exchanged fire with commandos throughout Wednesday night and Tursday, AFP photographers and reporters on scene said.
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Eight other locations, including Mumbai's main train station, a hospital and a popular restaurant, were sprayed with gunfire and grenades late Wednesday after the gunmen reportedly landed in the city by speedboat.
The Indian navy said it was following up on suspicions that the gunman had been dropped off by a larger boat or ship.
One of the gunmen holed up in the Oberoi/Trident told the India TV channel by phone that they wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India.
"Muslims in India should not be persecuted. We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he said from inside.
State officials said 101 people were killed in the assaults, involving small groups of gunmen armed with AK-47s and grenades. The attacks began around 10:30 pm (1700 GMT) Wednesday.
Up to 287 other people were also reported wounded.
Nine foreign nationals were among the dead -- including a Japanese businessman, an Australian and an Italian -- while Americans, Israelis and Canadians were said to be among those held.
The main Bombay Stock Exchange, itself hit by a terror attack in 1993, was closed until further notice, as were shops, schools and businesses.
In the wake of the attacks, England's cricketers also abandoned their tour of India and will return home.
In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Singh appealed for calm.
"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of panic, by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners," Singh said.
"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country.
"We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them," he added.
India has in the past frequently accused arch-rival Pakistan of backing Islamic militants active in India, and has recently pointed at neighbouring Bangladesh as a possible source of cross-border militancy.
The prime minister, however, did not identify any country by name.
Witnesses to the carnage said the gunmen had been hunting for British and US nationals.
"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," said one British guest at the Taj, Rakesh Patel, who was among a dozen people herded together by two heavily-armed men and taken to the hotel's upper floors.
"They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof," he said, adding that he and another hostage managed to escape on the 18th floor.
The United States and Britain led global condemnation, with Washington describing the attacks as "horrific", and US president-elect Barack Obama pledging to work with India to "root out and destroy terrorist networks".
India has witnessed a wave of coordinated attacks in recent months.
A little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India's northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.
Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead. Those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
New Internet Censorship Plan Rattles Public
http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/australia/australia-internet-censorship-filter-7719.html
By Julia Huang
The Epoch Times Nov 26, 2008 Share: Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon
Related articles: Australia > National
A Reporters Without Borders website blocked in Beijing, 30 May 2007. The Federal Government is planning to implement a similar, if less restrictive, internet filter to be rolled out on Christmas eve. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
A pilot test of the Rudd Government’s plan for mandatory Internet filtering will begin on Christmas Eve. However, an Opposition movement, including Internet service providers and technical experts, have voiced their concerns about the effects of the plan on civil liberties.
The cyber-safety plan will use two filters, one of which is optional and aims to protect Australian children from the dangers of the Internet. The other filter will be mandatory and will also block “unwanted content”, a category which is not yet defined for the public.
Supporters of the plan believe that the Government has an obligation to protect children. The Australian Christian Lobby, Family First Senator Steve Fielding and Independent Nick Xenophon are advocates for the filtering.
“The need to prevent access to illegal hard-core material and child pornography must be placed above the industry’s desire for unfettered access,” stated Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby.
“I think we’ve got to as a society decide what is right for us and what’s not. Almost every parent in Australia is most concerned about their child and would be prepared to give up some of their rights in order to protect their children,” Mr Wallace told ABC Radio PM.
Opponents of the plan argue that protecting the public from harmful material is a social problem, not a technical problem.
“The freedom of speech implications are huge because it means that any future government can censor basically any sites, including those with differing political opinions,” said Elena Kelareva of the activist group Australians Against Internet Censorship (AAIC).
The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) blacklist stands at 1300 websites. Most of these contain child pornography, violence, terrorist-related and other illegal content.
Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, wants to add another 10,000 to the list, including sites about euthanasia, anorexia and online gambling.
The list of banned websites will not be made publicly available.
The media has compared the censorship plan to China’s Great Firewall. At present, China, Burma, Iran and Saudi Arabia are some of the countries that have mandatory Internet censorship.
“The main similarity [with China] is that it’s a secret [blacklist] that you can’t opt out of,” said Ms Kelareva.
Countries such as the UK and Canada currently have optional filtering aimed at preventing accidental access.
The issue has inspired some Australians to join activist groups such as AAIC, which formed in November. Public demonstrations will take place on December 13 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide.
“Most of us do not have activist experience. We just care very strongly about this one single issue. So we decided to organise protests and just do whatever we can to stop this legislation from happening,” Ms Kelareva said.
E Companies Concerned
Experts, including Electronic Frontiers Australia, have stated that current technology is not advanced enough to accurately filter sites. Additionally, file-sharing programs will not be censored.
The filtering systems could also slow Internet speeds by an average of 30 per cent.
Internet service provider iiNet, which has volunteered to conduct the pilot run due to begin on December 24, has expressed concerns about the plan’s viability.
“iiNet has serious concerns about the usefulness of both filtering and also a trial. iiNet does not believe filtering is the solution to the Government’s objective,” as stated on the company’s website.
International lobby group Netchoice, whose membership includes eBay, AOL Time Warner and Oracle, also opposes the plan.
A number of specialists, including iiNet, say that filtering will encourage people to learn advanced technologies to bypass the system. They believe the money would be better spent on educating parents about Internet safety.
The initial setup will cost $125.8 million over four years.
Shaolin Temple franchises out kung-fu monks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3525878/Shaolin-Temple-franchises-out-kung-fu-monks.html
Ten Shaolin monks have been dispatched to Kunming Photo: EPA
China's Shaolin Monastery, famed for its monks’ expertise at kung-fu, is to take over four other Buddhist temples in the country in a 'franchise' scheme.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 4:03PM GMT 26 Nov 2008
Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin, said he had signed a 20-year contract to manage the Tuwang, Fading, Miaozhan and Guangyin temples in Kunming.
Ten monks have already been dispatched from Shaolin, in Zhengzhou near Beijing, to the temples, which are near China's borders with Burma, Laos and Vietnam.
"The move will help to increase the influence of Shaolin," said a spokesman for the temple, which is famed for the kung-fu skills of its warrior monks and the "integration of Zen and martial arts".
The monks will introduce features of Shaolin to the Kunming temples, which have seen low attendances in recent years. They will also work to maintain and upgrade the temples. In return, Shaolin will keep all revenues from donations, tourism and the sale of religious items.
The franchise is only the first step in an ambitious expansion plan which Abbot Shi outlined to Sohu.com, a Chinese news website. He said the "advanced management skills" of the 1,500-year-old Shaolin Monastery will be rolled out to more temples over the coming years in order to promote Zen Buddhism.
Abbot Shi's hard-nosed management of the temple has led to the nickname "the CEO monk" and has led to frequent accusations that the Shaolin temple is run more as a business than a spiritual concern.
In 1994, Shaolin was the first temple to register its name as a trademark.
Since then, it has established centres in Germany and Italy and sends it monks on world tours. In April, the monastery came under fire for spending three million yuan (£300,000) on two luxury lavatories for the monastery, complete with LCD television screens and team of smartly dressed cleaners.
At the same time, a company with close ties to the temple opened an online shop.
Sun Yuchun, a neighbour of the monastery who now lives in Beijing, alleged in the China Daily state newspaper: "The monks at the Shaolin Temple no longer practice real kung-fu, they just do it to make money."
However, a spokesman at the Buddhist Association of China said there is a long tradition of senior monks going to smaller temples to help them spread Buddhist teachings.
Letter from JAC-JAPAN TO Mr. Ban Kimon-2008-11-26
Ban Kimon
Secretary General
The United Nations
November 25, 2008
Horourable General Secretary,
We are pro-democracy activists who are resding in Japan and comprising the 26 groups and representatives concerned with the Burma’s affairs.
As you know, the current situation in Burma cannot be said that it is heading to the path to the democratization. The Burma’s problem is very unique and the international society have tried to solve the problem. The United Nations has urged the military regime in Burma to dialogue with the the winner of 1990 elections and ethnic minorties. But no significant dialogue has been emerged among the political stake holders in Burma.
There are about 2000 political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi , 88 Generation Student leaders such as Mm Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, ethnic minority leaders such Khun Tun Co have been detained for prolong by unreasonable accused. They have demanded the military regime to start genuine dialogue to solve the county’s problems and the differences on the political
issues. The military regime has never responded with the constructive rather than the arrest of them.
Inrecent weeks detained 88 Generation Students leaders, members of the National League for Democracy, human rights activists, sanghas, lawyers and other activists were sentenced to long prison terms without fair trials and defences by the Burmese military regime. We strongly
believe that this kind of activitie of the regime shows that they will crush anyone who oppose its way to hold power forever.
The students leaders and other activists are not extremists. They are moderate, liberal, nonviolent activist who have demended to hold genuine dialogue to solve the Burma’s
problems. They are important for the democratization and consolidation of the democracy in the future Burma. They had launched a campaing, Open Heart Letter Campaign , that the people of Burma can express their feelings, desire and the difficulties that they have to face in their
daily life from January 2007 to March 2007.
The Burma Fund published the report “the findings in the Open Heart Letter campaign in 2007” on November 22, 2008. We are sending a copy of the report accompained with this letter to let you know how the people of Burma have suffered under the military dictatorship.
The 88 Generation Students leaders and other activists have dedicated to democracy and
human rights selflessly. They had already served long prison terms but now they once again sentenced by the military regime.
We would like to request your excellency to use your capacity effectively to release the political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, the 88 Generation Student leaders and the ethnic
minority leaders, other activists.
Your Faithfully,
Joint Action Committee
Tibetan Exiles’ Meeting Produces Comparisons with Burma -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14686
By WAI MOE Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The week-long meeting of Tibetan exiles in Dharmsala, India, has inevitably drawn comparisons with the activities of Burma’s own exiled opposition community.
Tibet and Burma each have a government in exile. But some Burmese exiles and Burma scholars claim that while the Tibetan opposition in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, shows cohesion, the same cannot be said for Burma’s.
Criticism of the Burmese opposition in exile has grown recently, with complaints that it lacks unity and a united strategy, providing for dialogue between all groups.
One leading Burma expert, Mikael Gravers, associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, said there were naturally differences between opposition groups who have to act internally under constraint and those who can act more freely in the diaspora.
“They literally live in very different worlds,” he told The Irrawaddy in an email interview.
“In Burma, the repression is now as massive as ever seen,” said Gravers, author of National As Political Paranoia in Burma: An Essay on The Historical Practice of Power.“Thus, I think critics should consider if it is the failure of the opposition alone or the result of the repression which has silenced and split those who struggle for a change.”
In the late 1990s, there was a significant change in the Burmese exile movement with the formation of a Burmese government in exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB). Aung San Suu Kyi’s cousin, Sein Win, has led the NCGUB from the start. Observers say the NCGUB has yet to find a leadership role for the democracy movement in exile.
Apart from the NCGUB, there are several umbrella organizations within Burma’s exile movement, such as the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), the Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), the Members of Parliamentary Union (MPU). They fall out from time to time—most recently when the NCGUB failed to cooperate with the NCUB in its action against the Burmese junta seat at the United Nations.
A NCUB secretary, Aung Moe Zaw, said the Burmese exile movement played a supporting role in the pro-democracy struggle, while the Tibetan opposition was centered in exile. “The nature of Burma’s democracy movement and Tibet’s one are not the same,” he said.
Although different Burmese exile groups were working under a collective leadership for democracy, the movement as a whole had failed to engage the participation of all Burmese exiles, Aung Moe Zaw said.
Despite the impression of unity given by the Tibetan exile movement, the Dalai Lama’s strategy for Tibet, calling for autonomy and not independence, came in for criticism at the Dharmsala meeting.
Critics questioned this so-called “middle way.” Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, told The Associated Press ahead of the meeting: "We need to have a strategy. It's the middle way right now. But that has been a failure.
"We have history on our side; we have truth on our side. We know the Chinese—there's no way we can live under China.”
The Dalai Lama claimed at the end of the meeting that he had majority support for his “middle way path to the Tibetan issue."
The meeting left open, however, the options of demanding independence or self-determination if China fails to grant Tibet autonomy.
China has occupied Tibet since 1950 and brutally suppressed a Tibetan uprising in 1959. The Dalai Lama fled to India and formed the Tibetan exiled government in Dharmsala.
In March this year, five months before the Beijing Olympics, Tibetan protestors, led by Buddhist monks, challenged Chinese rule. The uprising was crushed by Chinese troops—with the kind of brutality employed by Burmese security forces to suppress Burma’s own uprising in September 2007.
Obama's Foreign Policy: Buying in at the Bottom
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811u/obama-hillary-kaplan
In the spring of 1977, Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel and surprised everyone by choosing as his foreign minister not someone from his own Likud Party, but a star of the opposing Labor Party, Moshe Dayan. It proved a brilliant choice, as Dayan helped direct the peace process with Egypt that culminated with the Camp David accords.
In the fall of 1968, Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States, and rather than choose as his secretary of state someone from among his own supporters, he chose Henry Kissinger, a supporter of Nixon’s arch-rival, Nelson Rockefeller. Again, that proved a fortuitous choice, as Kissinger helped orchestrate a rapprochement with China, as well as accords in the Middle East and with the Soviet Union.
President-elect Barack Obama has now done something similar, picking a rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to be his secretary of state, rather than someone from among his own supporters. It could also end up a fortuitous choice. Clinton may not be as steeped in foreign policy expertise as a Dayan or a Kissinger, but neither is she a neophyte. Moreover, she will build a strong team at State from among her own supporters, notably former United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.
But the real reason that Obama and Clinton might enjoy success is something that goes barely mentioned in the media. Obama and Clinton are buying into a bottomed-out market vis-à-vis America’s position in the world. It is as if they will be buying stock after the market has crashed, and just at the point when a number of factors are already set in motion for a recovery. For President George W. Bush did not just damage America’s position in the world, he has also, over the past two years, quietly repositioned himself as a realist in foreign policy, and that, coupled with a bold new strategy in Iraq, known as the “surge,” has poised America for a diplomatic rebound, which the next administration will get the credit for carrying out.
Consider the following:
Iraq is on the mend, with local and national elections scheduled for 2009 and 2010 respectively, which could well solidify our withdrawal under better-than-previously-expected circumstances. Afghanistan is not on the mend, but Obama will have the benefit of moving more troops there from an improved Iraq, as well as putting into place the new strategy of Army Gen. David Petraeus, who has just taken over Central Command, giving Petraeus responsibility not just for Iraq, but for the Greater Middle East. Moreover, Al-Qaeda may be on the run, thanks to a quiet agreement that President Bush negotiated recently with Pakistan for aerial strikes against enemy targets inside Pakistani territory. Then there is Iran, perhaps about to become more reasonable, given the collapse in the price of oil. Syria has been subtly re-engaged by both America and Europe, and may be about to inch away from Iran’s orbit. And Arab-Israeli peace negotiations have been making a little headway over the course of 2008, even as there has been almost no coverage of it. Here, too, Team Obama is poised to get the credit for break-throughs.
Indeed, the Middle East may just possibly be on the brink of a positive rearranging of pieces over the next few years, thanks to a new American president with the clout derived from high approval ratings both domestically and internationally, that will, in turn, affect decision-making in places like Teheran and Damascus, whose citizenries likely have a higher opinion of Obama than they have of their own leaders. Do not underestimate the importance of a popular American president coupled with increased stability in Iraq, which will be progressing from one democratic election to another.
Then there's China, India, and Russia. China and the United States may be about to move closer together, thanks to the world economic crisis, which now increases the degree to which each of these two great powers will depend on the other. In India, Bush has left a legacy of improved relations, thanks in no small measure to the recently concluded nuclear pact. And Obama’s promise to engage Russia, while perhaps calling a halt to NATO expansion - even as Russia is weakened by falling oil prices and a negative international reaction to its adventure in Georgia – could signal improved ties on that score. And improved ties with Russia could mean more Russian pressure on Iran.
In South America, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has become measurably more unpopular according to recent polls, even as he, too, is weakened by falling oil prices. Obama can also look forward to the end of the Castro regime in Cuba and that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe over the next four years. Burma may be edging towards a transition away from its aging, implacable dictator, Than Shwe. North Korea is a dicey call, as Kim Jong Il continues to manipulate negotiations, but the overall trend there is in the direction of a comprehensive agreement.
So, yes, this may be a market where buyers are once again starting to trickle in, signifying that a bottom has been reached. Good timing for Hillary.
Robert D. Kaplan is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Japan’s Capital Spending Will Avoid ‘Collapse,’ Nabeyama Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aMVaLEWscCGY
By Toru Fujioka and Tatsuo Ito
Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese companies will keep spending during the recession to remain competitive, according to the chief economist at the Development Bank of Japan.
“I’m not expecting a collapse in business investment,” said Toru Nabeyama, head of economic and industrial research at the state-run bank that provides loans to Japanese companies. “Given that some investment is unavoidable for companies to survive at home and abroad, a drop in capital spending won’t be drastic compared with the past recessions.”
Outlays on factories and equipment will fall around 1 percent this year, the first decline since 2003, because of the global credit shortage, Nabeyama said. That’s about a tenth of the pace of declines six years ago, when Japan was emerging from the previous downturn.
Businesses will keep replacing aging equipment and exploring ways to reduce their dependence on oil for power, the 49-year-old economist said, citing an investment plan by Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan’s largest retailer.
Seven & I said last month that it will install light emitting diodes in its new convenience stores, cutting the use of electricity by 13 percent and reducing carbon emissions. The Tokyo-based company owns more than 12,000 convenience stores nationwide.
Japan’s spending cutbacks will be the least among major economies also because companies have spare money, Nabeyama said. The Development Bank of Japan’s index of cash flow among all companies is hovering around a record 130 from 100 in 1994.
Spending Not Enough
Still, he added, corporate investment won’t be sufficient to prop up the world’s second-largest economy as the credit crunch slows output worldwide.
“The lack of funding is creating a kind of extreme anemia in the economy,” Nabeyama said. “The recovery will take about three to five years.”
Japan slipped into the first recession since 2001 last quarter as the global financial crisis prompted companies to pare spending. Nissan Motor Co. and Canon Inc. are among the exporters that have since announced cutbacks.
“Japan will have no base for growth for a while,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo. “Waning overseas demand, squeezed profits and a deepening financial crisis mean capital spending will keep slowing.”
Japan’s largest companies surveyed by the DBJ in June said they will increase spending 4.1 percent in the year ending March 2009. Those plans will be revised as earnings of manufacturers are likely to decline by almost a fifth, Nabeyama said.
Canon last week postponed building a plant to make printer cartridges in Oita Prefecture, southern Japan, citing weak demand because of the global downturn. Nissan, Japan’s third- largest carmaker, said last month it will reduce capital spending by 11 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Tatsuo Ito in Tokyo at tito@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 25, 2008 22:37 EST
War on drugs takes a hit
http://www.russiatoday.com/features/news/33728
November 25, 2008, 14:05
War on drugs takes a hit
The USA has spent billions in South America fighting the war on drugs. After 37 years, narcotic production is rising while drug prices in the US have fallen dramatically. So, is it time to give the battle against drugs a shot in the arm?
The green fields around the sleepy little town of Chulumani in Bolivia’s semi-tropical Yungas region are dominated by one crop: coca. Where once the plant sacred to the Andean people grew alongside fruit and vegetables, now it alone remains – the base ingredient of cocaine.
November 25, 2008, 14:05
War on drugs takes a hit
The USA has spent billions in South America fighting the war on drugs. After 37 years, narcotic production is rising while drug prices in the US have fallen dramatically. So, is it time to give the battle against drugs a shot in the arm?
The green fields around the sleepy little town of Chulumani in Bolivia’s semi-tropical Yungas region are dominated by one crop: coca. Where once the plant sacred to the Andean people grew alongside fruit and vegetables, now it alone remains – the base ingredient of cocaine.
The record-high coca price and the removal of production limits means this is boom time for the cocaleros (coca farmers). Every night convoys of trucks laden with the green leaves take the dangerous dirt road through the breathtakingly beautiful mountains. The cargo will be sold, chewed, made into tea or refined into cocaine.
While Bolivia’s cocaine travels to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Europe, rather than the USA, Bolivia is the world’s third-largest producer of coca and should be a crucial battlefield in the USA’s global war on drugs.
However, this month, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was expelled from Bolivia, accused of espionage and financing the political opposition.
The US State Department described the accusations as “false and absurd”. Nonetheless, the DEA was given three months to leave. As a result, the US’ role in Bolivia will be severely curtailed. It has lead President Bush to blacklist Bolivia with Venezuela and Burma as “failing demonstrably” in the war on drugs.
Coca farmer president leads anti-cocaine fight
Evo Morales, ex-cocalero and president
Bolivian President, Evo Morales, was always an unlikely ally for the USA in its coca-eradication programme. While the official policy—“Coca, sí. Cocaine, no” —could hardly be simpler, the reality is more complicated. Morales is a former cocalero and headed a union of coca producers. Assisting the States in coca eradication without upsetting his natural constituent was always problematic.
Bolivia claims it will wage its own anti-drugs war without US support. President Morales points to successfully eradicating 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres) of illegal crops — achieving this year’s goal. In the first 10 months of this year, 24.5 metric tons of cocaine were seized, 7.5 tons more than the whole of last year.
How vigorously Morales’ government goes after his illegal former cocalero colleagues and current political supporters remains to be seen. Without the US’ resources, policing production will be difficult even if the will is real.
It seems likely that following the DEA’s expulsion and the animosity between the two countries, Bolivia will be responsible for more of the world’s cocaine. Whether it ever produces as much as Colombia — the USA’s closest ally in South America — is less likely.
Colombia: cocaine capital of the world
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer. It is in the grip of a national drugs emergency. The corrupting influence of drug money is felt everywhere. When nationwide pyramid-selling schemes collapsed this month, it was revealed that traffickers were using them to launder money.
Since 2000, the States has been working with its ally on Plan Colombia, aimed at halving illegal coca production. The US$ 5 billion initiative has seen coca rise by 15%, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Despite the vast military, security and economic assistance, 90% per cent of the cocaine and a large proportion of the heroin in the USA still comes from here.
Critics say Plan Colombia focuses too heavily on military investment and poisoning crops at the expense of rural development. The military aerially sprays vast quantities of land to destroy coca plants. In the process, the spray poisons the soil and kills fish in rivers.
The Colombian drug trade is controlled by armed groups, such as the Farc, which are involved in a decades old conflict with the government. Defined as “narco-terrorists” by the USA, their origins were politically inspired.
There are signs that there has been some success against these paramilitary drug networks with fewer kidnappings, murders and acts of terrorism. A price has been paid: human rights groups and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights report “widespread and systematic” killings of civilians by the military.
Soldiers’ kill rates were used to qualify for bonuses and promotion, until it was discovered that 11 innocent men had been executed and passed off as combatants.
Peru’s Shining Path marches again
Coca production is also rising in Peru, the world’s second-largest producer. Another strong ally in the war on drugs, Peru destroyed more than 10,000 hectares of coca fields last year despite violent resistance from cocaleros.
As in Colombia, violent political groups control the production of coca. There are signs that the Shining Path, once a formidable group of Maoist guerillas, is making a resurgence. Last month, they killed 15 police officers and soldiers, and two civilians in remote coca-growing areas they control.
Peru, like Bolivia, defends the legal use of coca. Its indigenous Andean population has used coca for centuries in religious ceremonies, for making tea and to chew. For generations, coca’s alkaloids have relieved hunger and provided energy.
The last staging post
Confiscated drugs at the Mexican-U.S. border
(AFP Photo / Omar Torres)
Mexico provides the last defence in the USA’s war against drugs. Its border sees drugs going north and guns coming south. Mexican gangs are the largest movers of illicit drugs into the USA. Their trade is incredibly lucrative and the routes north are highly prized and heavily defended.
In parts of Mexico, the drug smuggling culture has become so ingrained that they even have a revered unofficial patron saint of traffickers, Jesús Malverde.
Extensive bilateral cooperation between Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his US counterparts has lead to 83 extraditions in 2007. The government has increased spending by 24% from 2006 to US$2.5bn to raise security and quell the drug-related violence.
More than 12,000 Mexican troops have been brought in, conducting joint investigations with the DEA.
However, there have been problems. The former drugs czar was arrested (21.11.08) accused of taking a bribe of US$450,000 every month from traffickers. From 2006 until this August, Noe Ramirez Mandujano was responsible for the attorney general’s office that fights organised crime.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora admitted last month that five members of his office had been spying for the Beltran Leyva cartel. One of his staff even claimed to have fed information about the DEA back to the cartel from the US Embassy in Mexico City.
Bloody battles are fought between the various gangs for supremacy of the trade and the army sent to enforce peace. This year there have been 4,300 killed in the violence, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. This is 1,600 more than in the whole of 2006.
The war on drugs on the home front
When Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1971, it was a five-year plan to bring the problem under control. It shows no sign of being won 37 years later.
On the domestic front, the States is fighting hard concentrating on reducing supply and law enforcement.
The USA incarcerates a higher proportion of its population than any other country on earth. Its prison population of nearly 2,200,000 (Source: International Centre for Prison Studies) is testament to the government’s readiness to imprison offenders. The US Justice Department reports that 20% of them are inside for drug offences.
War on drugs is far from being over in the US
The financial investment and loss in this battle is vast; in 2004 the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy put the cost of illicit drugs at US$181bn.
The federal government spent more than US$19bn on the war on drugs in 2003, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
This extraordinary effort has shown precious little result in either the supply of or demand for illicit drugs. Prices are down an inflation-busting 80% since the 1980s, while drug use remains at about 8% of the population, relatively constant for 10 years.
And so, the war on drugs drags on seemingly without any possible conclusion. Whether Chulumani’s cocaleros, Mexico’s traffickers or the USA’s prison population will see a different approach from the new administration remains to be seen.
While vice-president elect, Joe Biden, came into power on a platform promising change, he is an architect of the modern war on drugs. It seems a revolution in approach is unlikely and the war is set to continue.
Jonathan Stibbs for RT
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Myanmar faces 24,000 AIDS deaths for lack of ART drugs
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-51439.html
Bangkok, Nov 25: An estimated 24,000 people will die of HIV/AIDS in Myanmar next year unless the international donor community is willing to provide funds for antiretroviral drugs (ART), a medical group warned Tuesday.
"Myanmar has about 240,000 people with HIV/AIDS, and of them about one-third need antiretroviral treatment without which they cannot survive," said Frank Smithius, the head of Medecins Sans Frontier, which treats patients with ART in Myanmar.
The groups is providing ART to 11,000 patients while the Myanmar government, the UN and other non-governmental groups are supplying another 4,000.
"It's not enough, when 75,000 people need ART," said Smithius. "It is estimated by the UN and Myanmar government that 24,000 people will die if nothing is done in the next year."
Myanmar, which is run by a military junta that is condemned in the West for its atrocious human rights record and failure to introduce democratic reforms, is the second-lowest recipient of overseas development aid worldwide at three dollars per capita.
The Myanmar government spends a estimated 0.3 percent of its gross domestic product on health, one of the lowest rates worldwide.
In 2008, it allocated the equivalent of $0.7 per person on healthcare, of which about $200,000 was allocated to treatment of HIV/AIDS patients, an MSF report released Tuesday said.
The health care organisation has been operating in Myanmar since 1993. It said it spends about $300 per patient for ART in Myanmar, or about $3.3 million to treat 11,000 patients.
Smithius said it had no additional funds to treat the remaining 60,000 HIV/AIDS patients and called on the international donor community to assist in dealing with the pandemic.
An estimated $18 million will be needed to treat the HIV/AIDS patients currently deprived of antiretroviral treatment.
International donors are often reluctant to send aid to Myanmar for fear the funds will be diverted to the government, which faces strict economic sanctions from both the US and Europe.
"If we can guarantee that we have been able to deliver medicines directly to the patients, then there is no reason to not provide aid to Myanmar, and at MSF we can make that claim," said Smithius.
He said the group runs 25 HIV/AIDS clinics inside Myanmar and has government permission to import antiretroviral drugs tax free.
--- IANS
US shifts policy on Myanmar
http://www.bt.com.bn/en/opinion/2008/11/26/us_shifts_policy_on_myanmar
Nehginpao Kipgen
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
IN AN apparent shift from the policy of traditional sanctions, the US Congress created a post for policy chief for Myanmar to increase pressure on the military junta.
In response to this unprecedented action, the White House announced the nomination of Michael Green for the post on November 10. Whether this manoeuvre brings vigour to the Myanmar's democratic movement is a question remains to be seen.
Green, who has served as a senior director for Asian Affairs under the Bush administration, should have noticed the quandary over the Myanmar's political imbroglio, especially the futility of conflicting approaches by the international community.
According to this legislation, the policy chief will consult with the governments of China, India, Thailand and Japan, members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and the European Union to coordinate international strategy.
Years of sanctions after sanctions, this is a new birth in the American policy toward Myanmar. Sanctions, however, still remain the popular way of punishing the rogue regimes and governments around the world.
When it comes to Myanmar, sanctions have little impact on the military regime due to engagements by neighbouring countries, notably China, India and members of Asean.
A solution to Myanmar's problems greatly lies in two possible ways: Popular Uprising and Intervention. Popular uprising have been tasted twice in 1988 and in 2007. Both events were brutally crushed by the military with force.
The word intervention can be engagement or sanction. There is no doubt about the US sanctions hurting the military generals and also the general public. Had there been a coordinated international approach, Burma could have been different today.
It must be difficult for the US government to abandon its traditional policy of isolating the Myanmar's generals and start engaging with them. But they have to realise that sanction alone is not effective in resolving Myanmar's crisis when there is engagement on the other end. While sanctions are in place, the new envoy can start initiating a "carrot and stick" policy by working together with key international players. The one similar to the North Korean six-party talk model should be given emphasis on Myanmar.
The six-party talks involving the United States, European Union, Asean, China, India, and Burma should be initiated. In the beginning, the military generals and some other countries might resist the proposal, but we need to remember that the North Korean talk was also initially not supported by all parties.
The hard work of the US in North Korea is now paid off with North Korea being removed from the State Department's list of terrorists, and in return, North Korea promised to shut down and dismantle its nuclear facilities.
It was not only the sticks that worked but also the carrots. The US offered energy and food assistances to the North Korean leadership. A similar initiative could convince Myanmar's military generals to come to the negotiating table.
Now that the UN Secretary General is heavily involved in the process, the US can garner stronger support from the international community. Without such move from the US, Ban Ki-moon's "Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar" will yield little. The most effective UN intervention would happen when the Security Council decides to take action. This scenario is bleak with China and Russia vetoing the move, and likely to do again if Burma issue comes up in the Council's agenda.
The creation of US special envoy and policy chief for Myanmar is a widely welcome move. With this new position coming into place, the US should start moving beyond imposing sanctions.
Nehginpao Kipgen is the General Secretary of US-based Kuki International Forum (www.kukiforum.com) and a researcher on the rise of political conflicts in modern Burma (1947-2004).
The Brunei Times
China postpones summit with EU over Dalai Lama visit
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081126/afp/081126115621top.html
BRUSSELS (AFP) - China has postponed a summit with the European Union next week over a visit to Europe by the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.
Workers riot in south China over job losses: government
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081126/afp/081126073618asiapacificnews.html
Wednesday November 26, 3:36 PM
Workers riot in south China over job losses: government
GUANGDONG, China (AFP) - Hundreds of workers sacked from a toy factory in China clashed with police and smashed buildings, authorities said Wednesday, in the latest bout of violent unrest linked to rising unemployment.
The riot occurred Tuesday in Guangdong province, southern China's export heartland where similar protests have flared recently, after about 2,000 workers gathered to demand severance pay, according to the local government.
The workers smashed offices at the factory where they used to work and overturned police cars, with the violence leaving six people injured, the government of Zhongtang township where the unrest occurred said in a statement.
"(Rioters) smashed one police vehicle and four police patrol cars... fought with security guards... and entered factory offices breaking windows and destroying equipment," the statement said.
The riot occurred at the Kaida Toy Factory, a company owned by a Hong Kong firm in Zhongtang that is in the process of laying off workers, the statement said.
A Zhongtang policeman surnamed Huang told AFP that 19 people had been arrested.
"Our investigation is continuing as not all of these people were employees of the Kaida Toy Factory," Huang said, adding that the situation was calm on Wednesday and authorities were looking to ensure there was no more unrest.
The Zhongtang government said that up to 500 workers were responsible for the riot, while 1,500 others "looked on."
The factory has been operating for more than 20 years and employed up to 6,500 workers, according to the government statement.
One worker surnamed Hu told the Guangzhou Daily the factory laid off over 380 workers on Wednesday last week, giving more severance pay to workers who had been employed for more than seven years and less to other workers, it said.
"Many workers thought this was unfair and negotiations between the factory and the workers did not reach a resolution on the issue," the paper quoted Hu as saying, adding more job losses were expected this week.
Southern China has enjoyed an export-driven boom in recent years supplying the world with cheap toys, gadgets and clothes.
But amid the downturn in the global economy, coupled with rising labour costs, expensive raw materials and the appreciation of the Chinese currency, factories have found it difficult to make ends meet.
Up to 7,000 laid-off workers staged a similar protest in Guangdong last month after another Hong Kong-owned toy factory, one of China's biggest, closed down.
China's social security minister, Yin Weimin, last week described the employment situation across the country as "critical", as the nation's police chief warned his deputies that this could lead to unrest.
"(You) should be aware of the challenge brought by the global financial crisis and try your best to maintain social stability," Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu told his deputies.
China's economy has slowed sharply in recent months amid the global crisis, and the World Bank has forecast growth of 7.5 percent for next year, which would be the nation's slowest expansion in nearly two decades.
However the Zhongtang government maintained that the layoffs at the Kaida toy factory were not directly linked to the global economic downturn, rather an expiration of labour contracts.
Kaida's mainland operations were not immediately available to comment.
Thai army chief calls for elections
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest
By CHRIS BLAKE, Associated Press Writer Chris Blake, Associated Press Writer – 43 mins ago Play Video AP – Thai protesters take to streets, block airport
Slideshow: Thailand Protests Play Video Video: Thai airport protest strands thousands AP Play Video Video: Thai army chief steps in, tells PM to call elections AFP AP – A stranded Western tourist listens to an explanation of issues by a supporter of the People's Alliance … BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand's army commander urged protesters Wednesday to leave Bangkok airport and called for elections to end the country's political crisis after a day of chaos in which thousands of travelers were stranded.
All flights were canceled and frustrated passengers bused to hotels, as protesters shut down Suvarnabhumi Airport in a major escalation of their four-month campaign to oust the prime minister.
"The government should give the public a chance to decide in a fresh election," Gen. Anupong Paochinda said at a news conference after meeting with high-level government officials, academics, economists and security officials.
Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protesters, said the group would not abide by the army chief's plea to leave the country's international airport.
"Right now, our demand remains the same. If the government does not quit, we will not quit," he said.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat returned to Thailand on Wednesday from a summit in Peru, but there was no response from the government to the army chief's call for new elections.
However, government spokesman Nattawut Sai-gua said, based on the prime minister's previously stated positions, "it is unlikely he will change his position by resigning or dissolving Parliament."
He stressed that he had not spoken to the prime minister since Somchai landed.
The protest group, the People's Alliance for Democracy, known as the PAD, appears intent on forcing the military to intervene and bring down the elected regime.
"We sympathize with the passengers but this is a necessary move to save the nation," top protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul said on a makeshift stage at the besieged airport amid resounding applause. "If he doesn't resign, I will not leave."
By late afternoon, most of the 4,000 travelers, some who had been camped out since the night before, had left, a Thai tourism official said.
That left the protesters, a sea of matching yellow shirts, and they appeared to be settling in for the long haul.
They spread blankets on the floor, used luggage trolleys to carry boxes of water around the sprawling terminal and set up stands selling food and the plastic hand-clappers they use at rallies.
There was no word on when flights might resume. The U.S. Embassy advised Americans to stay away from the airport, while the Philippines and Singapore recommended that nonessential travel to Thailand be canceled.
Tempers frayed at sprawling Suvarnabhumi Airport, a major hub in Asia that averages 700 flights a day.
"I understand nothing, nothing, nothing," said French tourist Denis Hapard. "We don't understand what's happening. We're really upset."
Among those stranded were Americans trying to get home for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.
Cheryl Turner, 63, of Scottsdale, Arizona, had asked neighbors to pull an 18-pound turkey from her freezer a day ahead of time to defrost so she could cook it for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
"My turkey is sitting in the sink at home," she said.
Protesters distributed flyers trying to explain their action.
After reading the flyer, Clay Judd, 30, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said he didn't know what to make of the situation.
"For us to be upset because we can't have a huge turkey dinner — so what?" Judd said, waiting in a crowd inside the terminal to get bused to a hotel.
Support for the protesters has been waning, and the group appears to be edging toward bigger confrontations — involving fewer though more aggressive followers — to challenge the government.
Early Wednesday, assailants threw four explosives at anti-government demonstrators, including one targeting a group about a half-mile (one kilometer) from the airport.
A second was tossed into a crowd of anti-government supporters gathered at the domestic Don Muang airport, injuring three others, police said. Two other explosives were thrown in Bangkok, but no one was injured. It is unclear who staged the attacks.
The bold takeover — carried out while the prime minister was abroad — raised the stakes in a standoff that has seen a spike in violence in recent days and has given the tourism-dependent country a massive black eye.
Airport director Serirat Prasutanont, who had tried to negotiate with the protesters to allow passengers to fly out, said the takeover "damaged Thailand's reputation and its economy beyond repair."
The airport, the 18th-busiest in the world, handled over 40 million passengers in 2007.
Demonstrators had swarmed the international airport overnight, breaking through police lines and spilling into the passenger terminal.
Group Capt. Chokchai Saranon, a control tower official, said 50 masked protesters armed with metal rods demanded to enter the control tower Wednesday, seeking the prime minister's flight schedule. Three were allowed in, but with flights canceled, there were no controllers to provide the information and the protesters eventually left.
The People's Alliance for Democracy has been trying to topple Somchai, accusing him of being the puppet of a predecessor, billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who was convicted of corruption and other charges. The alliance said protesters would keep the airport closed until Somchai quits.
The alliance has staged a number of dramatic actions in recent months. It took over the prime minister's office in late August and twice blockaded Parliament — one time setting off street battles with police that left two people dead and hundreds injured.
The airport blockade is a fresh blow to Thailand's $16 billion-a-year tourism industry, already suffering from months of political unrest and the global financial crisis.
"We don't have an estimate of financial loss, but it is greatly damaging," said Vijit Naranong, honorary chairman of Tourism Council of Thailand.
___
Associated Press writers Ambika Ahuja, Jocelyn Gecker and Michael Casey contributed to this report.
ဒါေတြလြတ္လပ္ေရးတိုက္ပဲြလား-ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း
၁၉၄၇ ခု၊ ဧျပီလ ၂ ရက္ေန ့တြင္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္းသည္ ရခိုင္ျပည္ ေျမပုံျမိဳ ့သို ့ ေရာက္ရိွသြားသည္။
ည ၈ နာရီခန္ ့တြင္ အလံနီ ကြန္ျမဴနစ္ ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးစိႏၱာ ႀကီးမႉး က်င္းပေသာ လူထု အစည္းအေဝးသို ့
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ ေအာင္ဆန္း တက္ေရာက္ စကားေျပာႀကားေလသည္။ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း၏ ေျပာႀကားခ်က္
အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳပ္မွာ ေအာက္ပါအတိုင္းျဖစ္သည္။
ယခု ကၽြန္ေတာ္ လာရတာဟာ ဦးစိႏၱာ က ဖိတ္လို ့ လာတာျဖစ္တယ္။ ဒီညီလာခံမွာ ကဲြေနႀကတာကို ေစ့စပ္
ညီညြတ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ဖို ့ ဆိုျပီး ဖိတ္တဲ့အတြက္ တျခား အေရးႀကီးတာေတြကို ေရႊ ့ဆိုင္းျပီး လာခဲ့ရတယ္။
ဒီက်ေတာ့မွ တရားေဟာရုံေလာက္ ရိွတယ္ဆိုတာ သိရတယ္၊ လြတ္လပ္ေရးအတြက္ေတာ့ အရင္ကလဲ တိုက္ခဲ့တယ္၊
ေနာက္လဲ တိုက္မွာဘဲ၊ ဒီလာတာဟာ ညီညြတ္ေအာင္လုပ္ဖို ့လာတာ၊ မညီညြတ္ယင္ အလကားဘဲ၊ မညီယင္
လြတ္လပ္ေရး မရနိုင္ဘူး။ လြတ္လပ္ေရးအဓိပါၸယ္ကိုလဲ နားလယ္ဖို ့လိုတယ္။ လြတ္လပ္ေရးကို ေတာင္းယူလို ့မရ၊
တိုက္ယူမွ ရမယ္ဆိုတာ သေဘာတူတယ္၊ ဒါေပမဲ့ လြတ္လပ္ေအာင္ လုပ္နည္း လိုတယ္။ လြတ္လပ္ေရးဆိုတာ
ညီညီ ညြတ္ညြတ္နဲ ့ အင္အားရိွမွ ရနိုင္တယ္။
သူပုန္ သူပုန္ ထထ ေအာ္ေနရုံနဲ ့ လြတ္လပ္ေရး မရနိုင္ဘူး။ အလုပ္လုပ္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာ နားလယ္ဖို ့ လိုတယ္၊
တကယ္နားလယ္ျပီး လုပ္ယင္ လုပ္တတ္ယင္၊ တနွစ္အတြင္း လြတ္လပ္ေရး ရနိုင္တယ္။ ယခုေတာ့ နယ္ခ်ဲ ့ သမားကို
ညီညြတ္စြာ ေပါင္းျပီးတိုက္ရမဲ့ အစား ဗမာအခ်င္းခ်င္း တိုက္ေနႀကတာက ခက္တယ္။ အခ်ိဳ ့လူေတြက ျပည္သူ ့ရဲေဘာ္
တပ္ဖဲြ ့ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ကိုသတ္၊ ဖ၊ဆ၊ပ၊လ အဖဲြ ့ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ကို သတ္၊ မီးရထားကို ေမွာက္ေအာင္လုပ္၊ ဒီလို
လုပ္ေနတာဟာ လြတ္လပ္ေရး တိုက္ပဲြထင္ေနတယ္။ လုပ္ပုံ မဟုတ္ေသးဘူး။ ေသေတာ့ ဘယ္သူေတြ ေသသလဲ။
ဗမာေတြ ေသတာဘဲ မဟုတ္လား၊ နယ္ခ်ဲ ့သမားကေတာ့ လက္ပိုက္ျပီး ႀကည့္ရယ္ေနတာဘဲ။ ဒီလိုဆိုရင္ ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ
လြတ္လပ္ေရးရမွာ မဟုတ္ဘူး။
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