B.RAMAN
Reports from Myanmar indicate that during his visit
to Myanmar next week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be meeting Aung San
Suu Kyi at Yangon (Rangoon) on May 29,2012. She has reportedly re-scheduled a
visit to Bangkok, her first visit abroad since her release from house-arrest,
in order to be available at Yangon for meeting our Prime Minister.
2. This gesture of hers is indicative of the
importance attached by her to Myanmar’s relations with India despite her past
unhappiness over India’s close relations with the military junta that ruled the
country till the end of 2010.
3. The Prime Minister’s visit comes at a time when
there are reports of spreading public unrest over severe power-cuts in many
towns. The unrest in the form of street demonstrations first started in
Mandalay and from there has since spread
to Pegu, Monywa and Yangon.The protesters have not taken the permission of the
Police for holding demonstrations which is an offence, but the Government has
chosen to ignore the violation of the law in order not to provoke them further.
The protesters have been using their restricted access to Facebook and Twitter
to call upon people in other towns to demonstrate.
4.It is not yet clear whether the street
demonstrations are spontaneous or have been instigated by anti-democracy hawks
in the Army to weaken the position of the Thein Sein Government which has been
steadily moving towards greater political reforms and opening-out to the world.
5. However, in an attempt to project
the demonstrations as spontaneous, the protesters have accused the former military government of selling off natural gas reserves to China
and pocketing the profits, while 75 per
cent of the local people have no access to electricity. Electricity consumption
in Myanmar averages 104 kilowatts an
hour per person—one of the lowest in the world.
6.Speaking during the opening of a local office of
her National League For Democracy (NLD) on May 22,2012, Suu Kyi said that
the power shortages were the direct result of government mismanagement and
called upon the Government to give
priority to increasing the power supply and to creating jobs for the unemployed
youth.
7.The Government announced on May 23
that it was purchasing six
generators from U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc., which will be air-freighted within
a week, and two 25-megawatt gas-turbines to be bought from General Electric Co.
The Government has blamed the Kachin insurgency for severely damaging
electricity production and distribution.
8.During his visit, our Prime Minister should offer
to help the Myanmar Government on an emergency basis to increase the power
supply and also gift a plane-load of generators of the required capacity needed
by the Government. The Prime Minister could also offer a special credit to
enable the Government to repair the damages to the power infrastructure. ( 26-5-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute
For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )
3 comments:
A very timely and good suggestion.If India gifts a few Generators even as a symbolic gift,the same should prove our good intentions of helping Burma come out of the stagnation of the last 50 years.
It can be followed by an agreement to provide substantial supply later on which may be more economical than getting them from US.
Good article! Would it be a a good time to start an Indo-Myanmar strategic partnership? Or is it too early?
Thanks for the post.
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