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airlana
07-11-05, 09:44 PM
Seems to Government is moving to Pyinmana, about half way between Yangoon and Mandalay.
Most news services have run the story today, even on Aussie TV
More at "The Irrawaddy" (http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5144&z=153)
which includes this gem
"The area is strategically located within easy range of ethnic frontiers and sources say the generals have already constructed anti-aircraft missiles and underground tunnels. Outside the country the move has been widely viewed as the paranoid action of a regime fearful of foreign invasion. The present capital, Rangoon, is considered vulnerable to a seaborne attack."
Do the 'Generals" know something we don't ??
airlana
The Irrawaddy article in full:
Rangoon Moves Ministries to Pyinmana
By Aung Lwin Oo
November 07, 2005
Burma’s information minister on Monday confirmed that the country’s ministries were in the process of relocating from Rangoon to a new administrative center nearly 400 km north of the capital in Pyinmana, central Burma. Speaking at a press conference in Rangoon today, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said that the transfer had started on Sunday and explained that the move is being made so that government operations will run more “smoothly.” Kyaw Hsan dismissed earlier reports of travel difficulties for civil servants, many of whom were only informed of the move last Friday, saying the government had made necessary arrangements for transportation and housing.
Pyinmana served as the military headquarters of Burma’s resistance movement, led by independence hero Gen Aung San, during the country’s Japanese occupation in World War II. The area is strategically located within easy range of ethnic frontiers and sources say the generals have already constructed anti-aircraft missiles and underground tunnels. Outside the country the move has been widely viewed as the paranoid action of a regime fearful of foreign invasion. The present capital, Rangoon, is considered vulnerable to a seaborne attack. The relocation to Pyinmana had originally been considered in 2001, when The Irrawaddy reported on plans for the state-run television company MRTV and a 1000-bed hospital to join ministry and military facilities in making the move.
“We are very surprised by this sudden development. It is very puzzling,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday. The statement said that the clarification will be sought from the Rangoon’s ambassador in Singapore.
Plus a BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4412502.stm
Burma begins move to new capital
By Kylie Morris
BBC News, Bangkok
Burma's military government has begun its move to a new administrative capital Pyinmana, in the jungle 600km (373 miles) north of Rangoon. According to sources in Rangoon, convoys of trucks laden with personnel and equipment left on Sunday morning. There was little warning for the hundreds of officials who left bound for their new workplace amid mountains and fields on the road to Mandalay.
Pyinmana has been the pet project of the military government for many years. But construction is thought to have begun in earnest only 12 months ago. It is believed the compound, which occupies 10 sq km (4.6 sq miles), is designed to include homes for military leaders, diplomatic quarters, a parliamentary building, an airport, golf course and other buildings to accommodate the bureaucrats. They have not been allowed to take along their families.
Ten ministries began the long trip north at the weekend, but many more are expected to follow.
Fortune tellers
The reasons for the move are unclear. Some analysts point to a paranoia among senior military figures that they might come under attack, potentially from the United States, and that a location further from the coast is strategically safer. It certainly puts the generals closer to their frontline forces within the Shan, Chin and Karen states. Others suggest the military leaders are simply repeating the habits of the Burmese kings in pre-colonial times who built new towns and palaces on the advice of fortune tellers.
Whatever their motivation, the construction of the new capital sends a powerful signal - that the government is centralising its authority and strengthening its control. While the military is on the move, the woman who was once its greatest threat, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest in Rangoon, with no indication of when she will be released.
Errajane
12-11-05, 05:27 PM
Do the 'Generals" know something we don't ??
airlana
I really doubted it. They're not all that sophisticated over there. :D But being paranoid about an invasion is a slight under statement. Their nightly international news bulletins are mainly news reports from the war in Iraq with a very anti USA slant to it. They use footage from BBC News, CNN and China's CCTV satellite news feeds.
Yappofloyd
25-11-05, 05:42 PM
BBC World is today showing NHK footage of Pyinmana which shows that it still appears to be a large construction site. Perhaps someone can link the footage from NHK site as not on BBC website (yet).
Wisarut
28-11-05, 07:05 PM
I just wonder abotu the railways form Yangon to Pyinmana would be look like ... since Ministry of Railways has todl the press that they DID open the daily railway services from Yangon to Pyinmana
Myint Shwe writes in today's Bangkok Post on 'The Move to Pyinmana' :-
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Perspective/04Dec2005_pers01.php
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Perspective/041205_pers01.gif
On the astrologically auspicious morning of November 7, at the exact time of 0636 hours, a long truck convoy started moving from Htaukyant, a junction town about 20 miles from Rangoon. Passers-by heard the passengers shouting "Off we go. Off we go."
On November 11, at 1100 hours, another convoy of 1,100 military trucks left the same junction town carrying 11 military battalions and 11 government ministries. The destination was the new capital-designate, 250 miles north of Rangoon.
Many Burmese believe the journeys were astrologically set by Gen Than Shwe, the 75-year-old ruler who will govern the new capital from a lavish 110-room palace on top of a hill.
The site is two miles west of Pyinmana, a sleepy small rural town on a strip of lowland between the forest-covered Bago Yoma mountain range to the west and the Shan plateau to the east. It is roughly halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay, sitting on the country's main railway line.
Ministers, directors, officials and staff of government ministries were ordered to leave their families behind for an indefinite length of time. Those who resigned or refused to go face jail sentences ranging from three to five years. The markets around Mingaladon, the military town north of Rangoon, were full of household goods, furniture, TV sets, washing machines and refrigerators sold off cheaply by the military families who had to suddenly move to Pyinmana.
In fact, officials from 33 ministries and the offices of the Accountant-General, the Attorney-General and Chief Justice of the Union have already moved into the unfinished buildings. There is electricity from a new Chinese-built hydropower plant, but there are no water resources that can supply safe drinking water to the population of a mid-sized city.
Because of the sudden population increase and rising cost of living, private land sales and property speculation in Pyinmana and its vicinity are now prohibited.
Brigadier Kyaw San, the information minister, gave a five-minute press conference in Rangoon about the shifting of the seat of government. His explanation was plain and simple: Pyinmana is a better place to control the whole country.
It may be, at least on the map. But on the ground, Pyinmana is in the middle of nowhere. It does not have an economy except for two sugar mills, which run only seasonally, and a railway timber depot. Unlike the old capitals of Ava, Amarapura, Bagan, Bago or Taungoo, it does not have a history to be proud of.
Above all, Mandalay is the centre of Burma's national heritage, and Rangoon is the entry-port and the most internationalised city. In comparison, Pyinmana sounds like a joke to everyone's ear.
But Pyinmana is not a joke. It means business.
A famous film star and director/producer in Rangoon laments because he will have to make a trip to Pyinmana, his very first, to get permits for his new release from the censor office, which is under the Ministry of Information. War veterans associations, which operate parking lots in the Greater Rangoon area, are now worried due to the decreasing revenue in the somewhat de-populating city.
Most importantly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is already there, making diplomats worried.
The diplomatic community will have to pay a price for this great move. People said they saw five-acre sites clearly marked and reserved for the US, UK and Indian embassies as well as the UN Mission in the new city. It is highly likely that embassies will be told to move because the junta would not allow them to travel by land freely from Rangoon to the Foreign Office in Pyinmana.
Currently diplomats and staff of foreign missions who want to travel beyond Bago (50 miles north of Rangoon) have to seek permission in advance, a restriction that has greatly frustrated foreign NGOs. If they were to really relocate, the diplomatic community certainly will find itself alone with the junta in the middle of nowhere, without a civil society to insulate them.
Some of them might ponder moving either to Bangkok or Dhaka. Canada, which maintains diplomatic relations with Rangoon, does business with it via its Bangkok Embassy or the Singapore High Commission.
'OUTPOST OF TYRANNY'
Although they had learned about the new capital plan a long time ago, the sudden exodus made diplomats and Burma watchers inside and outside the country bewildered. They made different explanations only to feed each other's curiosity. Astrology may explain the "how" part of the exodus, but the "why" part of it remains unsatisfactorily answered.
In his article, "Looking for the Burmese Junta? Sorry, It's Gone Into Hiding" (New York Times, Nov 14, 2005), Seth Mydans puts his judgment straight in his title. He writes, "For years they have been squeezed by economic sanctions and battered by relentless criticism from the West over their abuses of human rights, and they have responded by pulling further into their shells. In January, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice included Myanmar in a list of 'outposts of tyranny', along with North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe and Belarus."
Similar to the New York Times judgment, former Brigadier Kyaw Zaw, one of the country's legendary Thirty Comrades and a member of the underground Burma Communist Party, said in exile that Pyinmana was the headquarters of the Burma Independence Army during the anti-Japanese resistance war. The junta is just returning to this old place, assumably to wage another resistance war from the mountains, this time the "imagined" US invasion. His remark, citing the Burmese adage "a tiger changes his habitat only to meet his death," entertains the huge anti-junta circles at home and abroad.
But in the Nov 15, 2005 issue of The Guardian, John Aglionby approaches the issue from a more factual point of view. He writes:
"(S)ince Pyinmana is close to the rebellious Shan and Karen states, the generals will now find it easier to exert their control in these areas. But perhaps it is most likely that the current regime wants to divide the military from the civilian bureaucracy and so hinder any attempt to seize power as it moves slowly towards pseudo-civilian rule under its almost universally criticised roadmap to democracy." Aglionby apparently refers to Gen Than Shwe's fear of a "Burmese Ramos," who could have been Gen Khin Nyunt. In this light, the segregation of the military from the civilians in advance makes sense in the junta's logic. But the author does not venture beyond that.
The junta that took power in 1988 is the reincarnation of the military dictatorship that started its life in 1962. Since the watershed of 1988 it has made a series of self-preservation measures in order to survive an historical era, which the Harvard scholar Samuel P. Huntington named "Democracy's Third Wave."
The junta has contained the democratic elements of the country by applying delay tactics. It held an election without honouring the results; it held a convention and drew a new constitution on and off for 13 years - and still unfinished; it neutralised ethnic minority rebels; it massively employed blood relatives and veterans in the state bureaucracy. The military's monopolising of the national economy by entering into various joint ventures with neighbouring countries is in a steady speed despite western economic sanctions.
On the other hand, by freely spending state budgets, the junta set up special universities, hospitals, banks and high-tech media outlets to serve the military class exclusively. The Ye-zin Agricultural University near Pyinmana may move elsewhere as the military needs its buildings to house a university for its children when they move in later.
In short, before the eventual handing over of the state power to civilians, or more likely sharing with them, the Burmese regime has built a core state inside the Burmese state.
Pyinmana is going to be the capital of this built-in mini state where real decisions will be made, or projected to be made.
Myint Shwe's 'The Move to Pyinmana' - Continued - Today's Bangkok Post:-
'EGOTISTICAL WHIM'
In her book The State within the State, Yevgenia Albats, one of Russia's leading journalists, rejects the claim that the KGB died when the Soviet Union dismembered. She claims that the group, which proudly traces its lineage to Stalin's secret police, engineered the policy of perestroika, subtly and effectively controlling the overhaul of Soviet society in order to reposition itself at the top.
Albats showed how KGB seep in every structure of civil society and every aspect of daily life; how, despite its official dissolution in the new democratic Russia, the KGB is stronger than before, transformed itself from being an instrument of state power to a state power in its own right.
Given their common socialist past, it appears that the Burmese regime is on the Russian trajectory, knowingly or not.
But a senior lawyer in Rangoon who had been sent to prison several times by the military since it came to power in 1962, said the moving of the capital is solely Than Shwe's egotistical whim.
"He is a megalomaniac who wants to copy the style of Burmese kings. In the olden days many Burmese monarchs set up new capitals - the new ones just a couple of miles away from the old ones their fathers left, or just across the river, to makes themselves glorious by entering into royal chronicles," said the lawyer who belongs to one of modern Burma's nation-founding families.
The new capital has yet to be christened officially. According to a local, the name leaked to him, which is to be announced at the astrologically correct date, is Yanlon ("safe from danger" in Burmese) in rhyme with Yangon (Rangoon, literally "end of danger").
If this tentative name is going to be real, it suggests the move is a gesture of defence in depth. It considers less of the country's 2,000-mile-long coastline and the 400,000-square-mile offshore economic zone - larger than Burma's land territory - which Burma is bound to exploit increasingly in the future. These coastal zones are more vulnerable than the hinterland Pyinmana, not only in security but also in economic terms. The junta tends to secure itself, not the country.
BUILDING A NEW CAPITAL
Construction at Pyinmana, believed to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, began over two and a half years ago in an area of about 400 square miles, and it is still incomplete. Apart from the unskilled local labour, all construction hardware was imported. Burma does not even have foundries that can produce huge metal frames for construction. In the past, the military rulers imported most of the materials from China to build the new bridges across the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers.
When completed, the new capital will house government ministries, residences of the ministers, staff living quarters, a new assembly hall meant to be the future house of parliament, a five-star hotel, a 700-bed hospital, three airports - one for civil aviation and two for the military - a reservoir, a six-lane highway connected to Rangoon and, most importantly, two golf courses.
Rumour has it that missile-proof caves and tunnels were dug in the mountains.
jpatokal
05-12-05, 01:33 PM
Surreal. I'm tempted to make a first visit to Myanmar just to see this place, but any idea when foreign running-dog capitalist espionage agents like myself will be allowed in?
Brigadier Kyaw San, the information minister, gave a five-minute press conference in Rangoon about the shifting of the seat of government.Well, 5 minutes should just about do it. After all, they're just relocating the complete government. No need to make a big fuss about it.
Tougher than Thaksin with his approved/rejected signs.....
I suspect anyone who shells out cash which ends up in the coffers of the General's leisure service industries will be welcome, as long as they don't bring up the touchy subject of ' 'er indoors'.
I note that whatever the political sentiments of those who go, they seem to enjoy it for being something that most touristy places have long ago lost. I suppose there is also that certain frisson of danger (which adulterers will always tell you is so utterly compelling).
Despite harboring a (theoretical) desire to harm the Junta in some way, I'm not really totally convinced that boycott will actually benefit ordinary Myanmese; although I'm blowed if I know what else will do the trick. It's a sad fact that I don't really think that the international community can do anything to resolve the problem; especially since it did so much to create the right conditions for the problem to occur in the first place.
Perhaps the best thing we can do is to make it obvious that we are already seeking ways to minimize the long-term effects of the inevitable violent uprising.
http://www.shanland.org/articles/weeklydiary/WD171
6 November
http://www.shanland.org/articles/weeklydiary/folder.2005-11-12.9870121062/truck%20to%20Pyinmana2.jpg
Junta moves to Pyinma, 400 km north of Rangoon. On the following day, Information Minister Kyaw Hsan says it is centrally located and has quick access to all parts of the country. There is a need for command and control center as the country develops. Some see the hand of astrology in its decision to relocate. The new capital will be officially named Yanlon which translates as secure from strife. There are no primary schools there, so families have not been commanded to move there yet. It is however close to a secret spot in the western Shan hills where Burma's nuclear program is being developed.
Kyaw Hsan's prepared statement says if there are urgent matters, one can send a fax to numbers that will be make known in due course. Much of the compound remains incomplete, without even housing for staffers. Yet a written order says the relocation must be completed before April 2006. The secret complex lies in a valley, some 20 miles from the nearest town. The whole area is more than 100 square kilometers. Homes, farmlands and paddy fields in the area known as Kyetpyay "Chicken Flees" have been confiscated to build the town. Only a small amount of money was paid as compensation.
UN officials meanwhile fear the ongoing relocation may further encroach on their ability to work effectively in Burma, as they lose touch with Burmese civil servants.
Leaving the capital at 6:37 am on 6 November and opening 11 ministries at 11 a.m. on 11 November (the 11th month) suggests astrologers have had a hand in the process. (Mizzima)
The move cements the impression that the generals are digging in for the long haul, rather than embarking on a transition to democracy as they claim. (Economist)
Numerologically, Pyinmana is surrounded by towns with the sacred #9 names: Panglawng (5+4), Minhla (5+4), Toungoo (7+2) and Tatkon (7+2).
(NDD)
10 November
Mandalay's Maha Myatmuni, the revered Buddha statue, has been turning from gold a dark, frowning face since the capital was moved to Pyinmana on Sunday, say local residents, who interpret it as a sign of the wrath of gods.
(DVB)
...but I am sure the author of the article made a mistake. That general's title must certainly be "Disinformation and Obfuscation Minister" (a rank of particular importance in all dictatorships).
http://storage.msn.com/x1pTBZnWftAqPGhVITALRuA1hrmFMz3RpBDkJYZMdhLBaEcDF8 Upi18L0nC9W7U1GACeyRGxe89fYrHvA_SaRUWVgcIPgyWWMHK-TLwV3-hu1iJEHrG8fI4MPVwubKbTlnJNhYvMMJ2hH4
It seems like the name issue isn't over just yet. And it also looks like astrology isn't so good at predicting possible seismological events:-
http://www.bnionline.net/shanupdate.php?
New capital's fault is the Sagaing Fault
Tue 29 Nov 2005
S.H.A.N.
A map produced by the US Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Centre reveals that Burma's new military and administrative centre in Pyinmana is right on top of what is known as the Sagaing fault system.
The north-south fault line runs across the country through Mandalay, Yemethin, Pyinmana, Toungoo and Pegu before dropping off into the Gulf of Martaban.
The dictionary of Environment Words, published by Images Asia, describes 'fault' as a break in the rocks that form the Earth's surface, where one side of the break moves against the other side and creates an earthquake when the rock breaks in the weakest place. A fault line is explained as a line of weakness in the rocks of the Earth's surface, where earthquakes often occur.
The US Geological Survey takes note of the Magnitude 6.6 quake on September 22, 2003 when three temples and a bridge were reportedly damaged in Taungdwingyi, 90 km west of Pyinmana. The tremors also caused minor cracks in Bangkok, 530 miles southeast of the epicentre.
Information minister Kyaw Hsan announced on November 7 that the country's military leaders were moving the capital to Pyinmana, 400 km north of Rangoon, as it was centrally located and had quick access to all parts of the country.
Five days later, the Mizzima News reported that the new capital had been named Naypyidaw "Royal Capital."
More from BNI Online. It seems there is also some internal powerplay underway.
This site tells us that 'Pyinmana' is derived from the Shan word, "Piang Markna" (Plain of Myrobalan, terminalia bellerica.). For the more horticulturally-challenged reader (& I don't claim any great expertise on these matters), a Myrobalan is a sort of proto-plum:-
http://www.bnionline.net/shanupdate.php?
Pyinmana: just what the doctor prescribed
Tue 29 Nov 2005
S.H.A.N.
Apart from astrological forecasts and a possible American invasion, there are more down-to-earth reasons why Burma's autocratic rulers have chosen Pyinmana as the new power centre, according to civilian officials in Tachilek, opposite Thailand's Maesai.
"The most pressing reason was the struggle between generals Than Shwe and Maung Aye to position their underlings at the helm of the Rangoon Region Command," said a source. "Each side was refusing to budge an inch. Pyinmana therefore became a convenient compromise for both."
Which appears to explain why Rangoon's ministers, during a press conference on August 28, were sidestepping questions about moving to Pyinmana. Information minister Kyaw Hsan spoke of "No official instructions whatsoever concerning shifting to Pyinmana," while home minister Maung Oo maintained, "time will decide" the question.
Prior to that, reports abounded that the number two Maung Aye was pushing for the replacement of the number one man Than Shwe's henchman Myint Swe, Commander of Rangoon Region Command and head of the newly-formed Office of Military Affairs Security, with his own underling Myint Hlaing. The whisperings died following the quarterly meeting of top commanders in October.
Other reasons cited by officials include:
- During the 1988 uprisings, the government apparatus came to a standstill, as officials in Rangoon were unable to run their offices. "What can a minister do without his secretaries," one asked rhetorically. "The military does not want to repeat the same kind of situation."
- Also during the 1988 nationwide unrest, Rangoon, the seat of the government, had become a battleground. "The generals want to have a secure command post in the rear from where they can direct and oversee the killing field," said another. It is also easier to run local affairs of Pyinmana (population: 200,000) than those of Rangoon (population: 5 million), he pointed out.
- The generals have also become uneasy about Rangoon fast becoming the hub of unregistered arms and ammunition brought in by both ceasefire and military militia groups over the years. "The whole city is like a powder keg ready to explode anytime," an officer was reported as saying. The May 7 bomb blasts that had killed and injured more than a 100 people had shaken the generals' nerves, claimed a source.
- Moreover, with Indonesia's Suharto gone, the country's leaders have been desperately looking for a new role model. "They have finally discovered it in General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who runs his country through a civilian government that he can appoint or fire at will," said one, before finally challenging S.H.A.N. "Believe me, the whole country is heading towards the Musharaf way to democracy, where Than Shwe and his successors are going to lead from Pyinmana."
Pyinmana, according to historians, is derived from the Shan word, "Piang Markna" (Plain of Myrobalan, terminalia bellerica.) It used to be a way station for ancient Shan caravans going back and forth between the Shan hills and Rangoon.
It's here (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rangoon&ll=19.743278,96.201096&spn=0.072448,0.164383&t=k&hl=en) on Google Maps.
Might put things in perspective a bit more. To big for inclusion within this post:-
http://www.goldenpagodatravel.com/images/MAPpopularW.jpg
This map will enlarge on 'left click'.
I just wonder abotu the railways form Yangon to Pyinmana would be look like ... since Ministry of Railways has todl the press that they DID open the daily railway services from Yangon to Pyinmana
Yesterday's 'The Nation' reported this in more detail, but their website search engine truly is awful!:-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051228/wl_sthasia_afp/myanmarpoliticscapitalindia_051228070627
Wed Dec 28, 2:06 AM ET
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar has launched new train services from Yangon to its new administrative capital Pyinmanar after the military government purchased trains worth 28 million dollars from India, state media said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The services started on Tuesday, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Wednesday.
Since Myanmar abruptly announced in November it was moving the government to Pyinmanar, a logging town 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Yangon, the junta has been trying to improve transport between the two cities.
Speculation about the reason for the relocation ranges from the junta's fear of a US invasion to astrological predictions and worries over possible urban unrest in Yangon.
India, the world's largest democracy, once vocally backed Myanmar's detained detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But under its "Look East" policy launched in the 1990s, it has been wooing the junta and promoting trade and investment.
Myanmar's junta brutally crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the result of national elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Last month, the junta extended her house arrest by six months. The pro-democracy leader has already spent more than 10 of the last 16 years in detention.
Featured Frontpage:
Some interesting BBC pics of the move, and the ordinary life of Pyinmana's original residents:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4647100.stm
Just south of the city appears to be the new airport:-
http://i6.tinypic.com/16lbfpi.jpg
Another article here:
Off-limits:Asia's secret capital (http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/2006/jun06/42_43_limits.php) (Chiang Mai News)
Here’s a question to stump contestants at a typical Chiang Mai pub quiz night: what national capital has no foreign embassies, appears in no guide books and is actually off limits to foreigners? One clue: if there were direct flights it would be only about an hour from Chiang Mai. If you answered Pyinmana, Burma, you’re warm, but not quite there. Naypyidaw is the name of the place. It translates as ‘Royal City’, and it’s the grandiose title given by Burma’s regime to its new administrative capital, just 13km northwest of Pyinmana. The rundown provincial city of 100,000 inhabitants was relatively unknown until the generals announced they were moving their power base to the area from Rangoon.
It’s the kind of place that might be invoked in a quiz night joke – ‘First prize: one week in Pyinmana. Second prize: two weeks.’ Marriages were reported to have been put to a severe test when civil servants announced to their wives that they would have to move there from Rangoon. The aging supremo, Senior General Than Shwe, his wife, the tenacious bon vivant, and their three daughters are said to have refused point blank to set up home in Pyinmana. Than Shwe uncharacteristically bowed to the pressure and built a mansion for them and the families of other senior generals in a theme park-like setting in Maymyo, a former British colonial hill station near Mandalay. Mandalay’s airport was given a much-needed face lift, and direct flights were introduced to Pyinmana. The area around Naypyidaw was depopulated in order to seal the huge compound off from the outside world. Entire villages disappeared from the map, their inhabitants driven off land their families had farmed for centuries. Hundreds – perhaps thousands – joined Burma’s abused army of ‘internally displaced persons’. Able-bodied villagers, however, were ‘enlisted’ to help build the new capital.
A new hydro-electric power station was constructed – a project again involving the destruction of several villages – in order to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding Pyinmana. Pyinmana’s small airfield was enlarged and modernised to take inter-city jets, a railway line was diverted and new roads driven into the area. So why is the cash-strapped regime going to the extraordinary expense and inconvenience of moving from Rangoon, which has served quite well as Burma’s capital since the end of the British colonial period, to a jungle outpost 320km to the north? Three possible reasons have been hypothesised, each quite outlandish:
*The government wants to be closer to Burma’s hotbed ethnic areas, in order to control more rigidly the escalating agitation for greater rights and autonomy.
*Than Shwe and his junta fear an outside seaborne invasion by the United States, interpreting the anti-regime rhetoric coming from Washington as direct threats of intervention.
*Than Shwe had a dream in which he was told to move his capital from Rangoon. Wild as this theory seems, the old man is known to be getting more irrational with advancing age, relying increasingly on soothsayers and omens to dictate national policies.
The United States has laughingly dismissed the regime’s fears of an Iraq-like invasion. Burma takes the possibility so seriously, however, that much of the new capital has been built underground, and a new army command centre has been created in readiness a few kilometres away. Washington has refused to move its embassy to Naypyidaw, and other Western countries are also reluctant to close down their offices in Rangoon and make the trek north. “This is sheer madness,” said one western diplomat. “We shall be reduced to diplomacy by telex and telephone.”
He’s being somewhat optimistic, though. Telex and telephone communications with the new capital are still very patchy, while mobile phones are outlawed. Although new guesthouses and hotels are springing up in Pyinmana to take an anticipated flood of visitors, foreigners are still treated with suspicion. One inquisitive westerner who arrived in Pyinmana recently found no guesthouse or hotel willing to rent him a room and when he made his bed in a monastery compound local police detained him in the middle of the night and virtually ran him out of town. Two Burmese journalists were summarily arrested for filming in the area from a bus and were later sentenced to three years imprisonment for unauthorised use of a video camera. So if you are tempted to include Pyinmana in a tour of Burma leave your camera behind.
It’s not that Pyinmana has much to offer the camera-toting visitor. It built what wealth it has on the logging business and a sugarcane refinery. The dusty (and, in the rainy season, muddy) city has little of cultural interest, accommodation until now ranged from basic to fleapit and most of the eating places featured food poisoning on the menu. This is all set to change with the construction of 10 new hotels, some of them in the luxury class. But they are going up in a specially designated zone and guests will be subject to close observation by Burma’s plain-clothes security men.
Significantly, the generals decided to set up home not in Pyinmana, but in Maymyo, a pleasant little town in the hills above Mandalay. There they built a vast compound of luxurious homes in verdant gardens, a golf course, sports centre and even an artificial beach. They also instructed architects to create a theme park containing reproductions of Burma’s main architectural treasures, including Rangoon’s Shwedagon temple compound and the temples of Bagan, as well as a full-scale model of the Than Shwe’s favourite beach resort. Larger-than-life concrete statues of three famous Burmese kings were also added to the huge parade ground in Naypyidaw, where Than Shwe officiated at an Armed Forces Day march past in April. “The man is living in a glorious past of his own creation,” said a western diplomat who attended the ceremony. “He seems blind to present-day reality and the catastrophe the future certainly holds for him and his regime.”
Yappofloyd
14-10-06, 10:02 PM
Interesting article in this months Irawaddy Mag.
Behold a New Empire By Aung Zaw Irwaddy Magazine October 2006 http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6248&z=102
Burma’s former monarchs frequently relocated their capitals to mark the advent of a new empire. Perhaps the new “royal city” of Naypyidaw is Than Shwe’s attempt at formalizing a new dynasty. Many ideas have been floated about the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s decision to relocate its administrative capital to the country’s central plains. Was it a calculated choice based on projections by military, political, or economic strategists? Or was it a product of the whimsical superstitions of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the country’s astrologically-minded leader?
Whether reasoned or irrational, the decision has significant implications for the future of Burma and merits closer examination. Michael Aung-Thwin, a Burmese-born American academic and professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii, and regarded by some as being sympathetic to the SPDC, has made a recent effort to frame Burma’s administrative relocation in the context of a return to the country’s ancient cultural roots.
In an article published in the English language daily Bangkok Post, Aung-Thwin suggests the move was an about-face from Burma’s colonial past. “Pyinmana [now effectively absorbed by Naypyidaw] is in Myanmar’s traditional heartland, where its most important sacred sites, ancient capitals, and repositories of culture are to be found,” he wrote. “Whereas Rangoon is a symbol of colonialism—a political center imposed by foreigners on an indigenous society, Pyinmana is not,” he says, referring to Burma’s former British colonial masters.
The move to Naypyidaw, therefore, is neither mysterious nor surprising, in his view. “This is where the country’s Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and urban cultures were located,” he adds. In terms of history and culture, Naypyidaw more closely reflects the cultural heart of Burma. Furthermore, the central Burmese hinterland was once the “rice-basket” of Burma—“the nucleus of the most extensively irrigated regions”—which sustained for centuries the majority of the country’s population. It was also the focus of the country’s best religious and literary traditions—and still is, according to Aung-Thwin. “The dry zone [central Burma]…in other words, is the ancestral home of the Burmese people, and it is very much part of their psyche.”
And what of Rangoon? He dismisses the former capital as merely a colonial city built to serve British economic interests and one that lacked any indigenous culture. Seen in this light, the move to Naypyidaw represents an attempt to relocate Burmese identity from one imposed by foreign invaders (Rangoon), to one that reflects a correct understanding (according to the generals) of the country’s history. Whatever the merits of such an argument—and those in Rangoon who view the Shwedagon Pagoda as the country’s holiest religious site may well dispute it vigorously—Aung-Thwin is not the only academic to find a certain logic in the move to Naypyidaw.
Thai scholar Sunait Chutintaranond, the director of Thai and Southeast Asian Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, says the moving of capitals in Burma—and Thailand—is a historical tradition. Such moves have been linked to perceived cultural or moral crises, and the traditions that shaped such thinking have passed down through the generations and perhaps continue to resonate.
King Mindon, who moved Burma’s capital from Amarapura to Mandalay in 1857, is said to have consulted astrologers before the relocation. He justified his decision by citing the legend that Lord Buddha once visited Mandalay Hill with his brother Ananda and said that a future king would establish a capital there.
British historian V C Scott-O’Connor noted in his book Mandalay and Other Cities of the Past that Mindon had grown tired of Amarapura, and associated it with the disastrous reign of his half-brother, King Pagan (1848-1853). “He was anxious to make a better beginning, he was avid of fame and he wished to draw the attention of his people from the disasters that had overtaken his dynasty,” writes Scott-O’Connor. “The hereditary temptation to migrate to a new capital must have become almost irresistible.”
Other historians see it differently, arguing that Mindon was primarily concerned with the British, who had captured Lower Burma during the second Anglo-Burmese War and had their sights set on the north. Adolph Bastian, a German traveler, wrote in his 19th-century memoir, A Journey to Burma (1861-1862), that King Mindon resettled in Mandalay because he had seen British envoys coming upriver by steamboat to his capital in Amarapura and recognized that he would be in easy range of British artillery.
Historical precedents for capital relocation are plentiful. Three of Burma’s former kings began their dynasties from new capitals: King Anawrahta (1044-1077) in Pagan, central Burma; King Bayinnaung in Toungoo, in the northeast; and King Alaungpaya in Shwebo, central Burma. To understand why the country’s current rulers have decided to follow suit requires an examination of their rhetoric and the subsequent pageantry that accompanied the inauguration of the administrative center in Naypyidaw.
Before the relocation, the junta emphasized—not for the first time—that it had restored peace, stability and law and order in Burma. Among the earliest pictures of Naypyidaw were images of three enormous statues of Anawrahta, Bayinnaung and Alaungpaya overlooking the military parade ground. Three of Burma’s most celebrated kings stand watch over Naypyidaw, the “royal city” where Than Shwe presides over what might be called a new empire. What lies in store for him, and the kingdom he is carving out of the dusty hills of central Burma, will undoubtedly remain a topic of speculation for politicians, pundits, and perhaps even the country’s many soothsayers. The question remains: Is a fourth Burmese dynasty in the making?
And another in-depth article from the Irrawaddy, touching on issues like financing and the labor force:
Naypyidaw: A Dusty Work in Progress (http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6249&z=102)
It's the good ole BBC once again:
Burma's new capital city unveiled (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6498029.stm)
In pictures: Burma's new capital (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6498475.stm)
More from BNI Online. It seems there is also some internal powerplay underway.
This site tells us that 'Pyinmana' is derived from the Shan word, "Piang Markna" (Plain of Myrobalan, terminalia bellerica.). For the more horticulturally-challenged reader (& I don't claim any great expertise on these matters), a Myrobalan is a sort of proto-plum:-
http://www.bnionline.net/shanupdate.php?
it's ironic that it has similar meaning to Bangkok (Bang Makok - place of wild plums) :)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IE25Ae01.html
Slow train through a forgotten capital
By Dylan C Williams
YANGON - It's monsoon season in Myanmar's forgotten capital of Yangon, a time when flooding overwhelms sewage canals, infectious disease festers, and the already impoverished population's misery intensifies.
The slow commuter train that circles Yangon's outlying townships passes through a vast landscape of clapboard shanties situated in and around trash-strewn pools of untreated black sewage.
Public-health experts say infectious diseases run rife in these areas, including high rates of tuberculosis, malaria and chronic diarrhea. Recent independent assessments indicate that malnourishment among children over the age of one runs as high as 35%. [1]
Ill-health is readily apparent in the inordinate number of young commuters with distended bellies and unsightly untreated growths hanging from their faces and appendages. While this correspondent took the three-hour journey, a woman holding a rash-covered infant spontaneously broke down in tears.
She and the train's other riders represent some of the most disadvantaged people in what is one of the world's most mismanaged and poorest countries. And recent political and economic developments indicate that their plight is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Over the past four decades, Myanmar's uninterrupted line of military-run regimes created these decrepit townships, forcibly relocating masses to relieve population pressure on the green and leafy capital city, where senior generals and their family members maintain posh spacious residences behind razor-wire-strewn high walls.
With the ruling State Peace and Development Council's sudden move in 2005 to a newly built capital at Naypyidaw - 400 kilometers north of Yangon and replete with plans for four new golf courses - the reclusive junta has apparently abandoned its responsibility for maintaining Yangon's declining townships.
There is a palpable sense in traveling through these semi-urban areas that the old capital is teetering on the brink of social collapse. In 2005, Myanmar ranked among the bottom 10 countries for health spending, earmarking less than 0.5% of gross domestic product. Now, Yangon-based expatriates say that the sanitation situation in the townships has deteriorated markedly since the junta pulled up roots and moved north that same year.
Yangon-based World Health Organization representatives declined to comment on the current public-health situation in the city's outlying townships; a WHO representative based outside of the country who recently visited Yangon would only say that local health workers are doing the best they can with "close to zero resources".
When the WHO presented its global list of health-care performances recently, Myanmar ranked 190 out of 191 countries surveyed. Local WHO-affiliated doctors receive the kyat equivalent of about US$7 per month and are required to pay their own travel expenses when called to combat outbreaks of disease, according to one Myanmar medical professional.
Senior junta members, meanwhile, frequently fly to Singapore for their personal medical treatments.
Misery, woe and corruption
Endemic corruption [2] has long hobbled social-service delivery, and there are indications the situation has worsened since the junta moved north. A Yangon-based expatriate researcher contends that municipal workers frequently sell off a proportion of the gasoline they are rationed to run garbage trucks and that refuse is now seldom if ever collected in the poorest townships.
One local woman working with a multilateral aid agency told Asia Times Online that municipal officials had turned off the furnaces of the crematorium halfway through the incineration of her deceased grandmother. She said they only agreed to reignite the flames when her family agreed to pay a bribe. A free funeral service run on public donations had emerged to fill the social-service gap, but municipal authorities recently refused to renew the body-collecting outfit's operating license.
To be sure, misery, woe and corruption are nothing new to Myanmar's township residents. Their lot worsened in 2003 and 2004, a two-year period over which the national economy contracted and inflation hovered around 20%, according to independent assessments. [3] Yet the present deterioration in the townships' already abysmal standard of living is taking place amid an economic mini-boom that the junta has monopolized for its own benefit.
The Commerce Ministry this week reported that Myanmar's trade volume had jumped 40% to $7.9 billion on the just-ended fiscal year. That growth entailed a record trade surplus of $2.1 billion, led by substantially higher natural-gas exports, according to the ministry. It said it expects foreign trade to exceed $8 billion in the fiscal year that ends in March 2008.
A large proportion of those energy resources are being sent to China to fuel that once-poor country's extraordinary economic growth. There are bigger plans in the works for building a massive new pipeline to pump Myanmar's natural-gas resources directly into southern China's Yunnan province - overtly bypassing dire local energy needs.
It's an irony not lost on even Yangon's downtown residents, who consistently suffer from rolling power blackouts. Nor is it lost on China, whose Foreign Ministry this week released an uncharacteristically critical report expressing dismay over how such a "poor" country could afford such an "expensive" move to its newly built capital Naypyidaw.
How much of the country's billion-dollar energy bonanza is being diverted to build new ministry facilities, military installations, golf courses and private residences at Naypyidaw is altogether unclear. The reclusive regime has not publicly released financial figures related to the new capital's construction costs - though officials have been quoted in the state-controlled media saying the massive project would not dent the national coffers.
There has been much debate inside and outside Myanmar concerning what really motivated the junta abruptly to move the national capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw. Some have speculated that fears of a preemptive US invasion, similar to its armed intervention in Iraq, drove the junta to its inland, mountain-covered redoubt.
But the slow train that snakes through Yangon's hangdog townships suggests another possibility: the junta's more legitimate fears of a social revolt among the once nearby, now distant, old capital's woe-begotten citizens.
Notes
1. See Christopher Len's and Johan Alvin's "Burma/Myanmar's Ailments: Searching for the Right Remedy" published by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Silk Road Studies Program, March 2007.
2. Global corruption watchdog Transparency International in its 2006 global survey ranked Myanmar as the second-most-corrupt country in the world, lagging only Haiti.
3. Official statistics indicate an average GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate of 12.6% over the six-year period from 1999-2005, which if accurate means Myanmar would have been the fastest-growing economy in the world.
Dylan C Williams is a Bangkok-based correspondent
The linked thread below has reports on the junta's possible nuclear plans, but the latest post also reports diplomatic distaste at the move to Naypyidaw from the Chinese amongst others. Are the Chinese beginning to realize that their relationship with Myanmar might actually be rather more constructive if it enjoyed a form of government that wasn't so eternally controversial? :
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=14761#post14761
But seriously! Can anyone say why I have been getting "Server not found" messages for The Irrawaddy since Friday. Has there been a little junta-to-junta tete-a-tete of late?
Major shame!
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
Don't know about the last days, but I currently have no problem accessing the site?
And you still get an error message?
I'm glad to report that I now find it working too. Staff were probably having a well-deserved weekend off.
The site has disappeared several times in the last few days. At one point it reappeared with a bit of an interesting new look, so it might be an upgrade gone wrong.
But this evening I'm getting this redirect to a suspended page message:
http://www.irrawaddy.org
http://c2p.hostingzoom.com/suspended.page/
We're still here and have not gone anywhere. Please excuse the mess and check back shortly. Thank you!
Webmaster: Contact support as soon as possible
Server maintenence:
http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/
At the usual address:
http://www.irrawaddy.org
Interesting article about the Generals starting on a Cybercity project called Yadanabon Naypyidaw:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=7393
A cyber-city is being built close to Maymyo, also know as Pyin U Lwin, where Burma’s ruling generals have built a luxurious residential area for themselves.
The new center, called "Yadanabon Naypyidaw," is arising o*n 7,000 acres of land confiscated from its owners by the Burmese army.
As always, land confiscations are involved. And so more landless people will migrate to the now rather neglected Yangon:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=7449
Plans for Burma’s High Tech City Raises Eyebrows (Business)
By William Boot/Bangkok
June 12, 2007
The renaming of the Burmese regime’s secretive “information city” development as Yadanabon Naypyidaw may be intended to give it a high tech image in keeping with the country’s new administrative capital, but communications and electricity connections remain more 19th century.
Despite reported plans to invite high technology Internet companies to set up shop in the dusty development project adjacent to the old town of Maymyo, Burma remains a very unconnected society for most of its 52 million citizens, according to a recent report by Reporters Without Borders.
“This project is a joke. A few companies will be maybe interested because of low costs, but they all know the situation of the Internet [in Burma],” Vincent Brossel, the Asia spokesman for the Paris-based freedom of speech watchdog told The Irrawaddy. “Who will take the risk to go there to set up business?”
Also known as Reporters Sans Frontiers, the group labeled Burma o*ne of the world’s worst Internet “black holes.”
“The Burmese government’s Internet policies are even more repressive than its Chinese and Vietnamese neighbors,” according to the 2007 report o*n media freedom in Asia.
And given the problems that major US companies such as Google have in China it seems highly unlikely many reputable foreign Internet developers would want to be associated with Yadanabon Naypyidaw, Brossel said.
Burma watchers and analysts say the location of the development, in central Burma, is commercially odd. Not o*nly is it 70 kilometers from the nearest established city, Mandalay, it is 300 kilometers north of the new capital Naypyidaw, after which it now takes its name, and 600 kilometers from Burma’s chief commercial center, Rangoon.
“It all seems to have more to do with the regime’s pre-occupation with maintaining control,” said a Western embassy commercial attaché in Bangkok. “Isn’t there a major military training academy and an army technical school in Maymyo?”
Ironically, Maymyo has associations with the colonial military era so despised by the junta. It takes its name from a British army officer named May who established a garrison there in the 19th century.
The new city has been variously called an “information city,” a “silicon valley” and “technology city.”
The new official name, Yadanabon Naypyidaw— replacing Yadanabon Myothit—was the original name given to Mandalay by King Mindon Min. It is said to mean “Treasure Heap City.”
More than 5,000 acres of land has reportedly been seized from farmers for the first-phase development of Yadanabon Naypyidaw.
Reporters Without Border’s Brossel said the tight Internet control in Burma by the junta has two purposes: o*ne, to prevent access to or distribution of information critical of the regime and, two, to maintain the monopoly of Myanmar Teleport, formerly called Bagan CyberTech, which monopolizes both telephone and e-mail links with the outside world.
No figures, official or otherwise, have been put o*n the cost of creating Yadanabon Naypyidaw literally out of fields and forest.
The closest comparison to such a project is Malaysia’s much-hyped Cyberjaya, which analysts have said could cost as much as US $15 billion, although the Kuala Lumpur government has refuted this figure without giving o*ne of its own.
Cyberjaya has been in the making for eight years and is still not complete. Seven years after the ground stone was laid by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian government in 2006 ordered a review to “expedite the development of Cyberjaya.”
Unlike the remote location of Burma’s wannabe cyber city, Malaysia’s Cyberjaya is in a relatively busy hub between the capital Kuala Lumpur and a major sea port o*n the west coast. Some government ministries have been relocated there to give the project impetus and gravitas. But even so, critics of the project have cited poor communications and transport and a lack of high-tech investment—problems Burma’s new capital Naypyidaw now faces, let alone the “intelligent city” o*n the drawing board.
And while the regime is busy creating expensive new cities, the fate of Rangoon languishes.
Just this month, the Minister for National Planning and Economic Development, Soe Tha, established a committee to reconsider the “strategic development plan” for the former capital.
Ironically, perhaps, redevelopment proposals for Rangoon were drawn up by two Malaysian companies— including the state-owned Industry-Government Group for High Technology which advised o*n Cyberjaya— several years ago. These included revitalization of transport infrastructure, electricity, water supply and port development.
But today, the planning ministry is just talking about an auction of some of the grander buildings being vacated by government employees who have been transferred 300 kilometers north to Naypyidaw, the new capital.
Yandanabon Cyber City to open in September
Aye Mya Kyaw
Yangon , 11 August
http://www.myanmar.com/news/images/yadanarpone_cybercity.jpg
Soft opening of the Myanmar's largest information and communication technology (ICT) park, Yadanabon Cyber City, will be held at the end of September according to an official who is involved in the project. The grand opening is scheduled to take place in January next year when all the basic infrastructure projects have been completed.
When the new IT city becomes operational, investors who manufacture computer parts there will be allowed to export their products directly to other countries, the official says. Necessary offices for foreign trade such as One Stop Services (OSS) Centers, Customs and Excise offices and banks will be opened at the new cyber city in order for the manufacturers to sell their products overseas.
In addition, investors and their enterprises will be allowed to operate freely with minimal restrictions on their economic activities like in India’s IT capital Bangalore.
Yadanabon Cyber City will be linked up with high-speed ADSL connections, Triple Play (VOIP, Internet, IPTV) systems utilizing CATV (cable TV) and Wi Max wireless internet access to facilitate the web access for the entrepreneurs working in the city. Currently, works are underway to for the infrastructure projects for the availability of water, electricity and fibre optic cable networks.
A computer expert comments that internet connectivity at the new city will be excellent as it is located at a place where the hub of the new internet lines connecting China, Thailand and India is positioned. At the newborn silicon valley of Myanmar, local entrepreneurs will be permitted to purchase land while foreign investors can lease land for the businesses.
The city, located only 40-minute drive from Mandalay, will be served by its own airport where local and foreign airlines will operate and the export products can be sent directly to other countries.
A number of foreign IT companies, that have proposed to invest in the new cyber city, can start their businesses from January 2008.
Source : 7Day News Journal, 16 August 2007
http://www.myanmar.com/news/index.html
Perhaps the previous post was not too wide of the mark in calling this prestige project a bolthole for the Junta:
New Light of Myanmar
Logo invited to construction of Yadanabon Myothit
NAY PYI TAW, 5 Sept � The Teleport building is under construction in implementing Yadanabon IT City Project in PyinOoLwin Township.
Arrangements are being made to hold the logo contest for Yadanabon IT City. The portrait of the teleport building based on electronic basic facts must be included in the entry for the contest. The contestant is to send three entries measuring 24 inches by 12 inches each to the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, Office of Yadanabon Myothit Construction Project Supervisory Committee, Office Building-2, Nay Pyi Taw, Tel: 067-407242, not later than 18 September.
The contestant must describe name, Citizenship Scrutiny Card, qualification, address, telephone number and experience in creating logos attached to the entries.
Prizes will be presented to the prize winners. For further information, may visit the Khitlunge website.
jpatokal
07-09-07, 11:28 AM
I'm sure you'll be shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- to hear that the Japanese beat Myanmar by about a decade when it comes to building teleports:
http://www.tokyo-teleport.co.jp/
And the cool thing is that you can even take the TWR subway line to it:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%9D%E3%8 3%BC%E3%83%88%E9%A7%85
Reports from the Myanmar Times, the newspaper that still contains precisely zero on the unrest in its country. Not even pro-government propaganda!. Doubtless, the teleport building - with its Russian and Malaysian technology - will be instrumental in ensuring that no more negative blogs and photos manage to make it out of the country::rolleyes:
Yadanabon Cyber City slated for soft opening this month
By Ye Kaung Myint Maung
THE first phase of the multi-billion kyat Yadanabon Cyber City being developed near Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Division will be ready for a soft opening later this month, a senior official said last week.
U Zaw Min Oo, the chief engineer at the Information and Technology Department of Myanma Post and Telecommunications in Nay Pyi Taw, said the soft opening would take place soon after September 25, the deadline for completing construction and infrastructure work.
An MPT report has estimated the cost of the first phase of the cyber city project, involving a three-storey teleport building, three incubation centres and roads, at about K3.8 billion.
The teleport building has nearly 82,000 square feet of floor space, the incubation centres about 23,000 square feet each, and the cyber city has 12 miles of roads, being built to a width of 24 feet.
The soft opening was expected to be attended by national leaders, ambassa-dors from ASEAN countries and countries involved in the development of the project, guests and the media.
“Yadanabon Cyber City will be a new source of national pride,” said U Zaw Min Oo, adding that the grand opening would take place next January to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Independence Day.
U Zaw Min Oo said approval had been given to many international companies to invest in the cyber city.
They included C-BOS, a Russian company that specialises in software development and is establishing a presence at the cyber city in cooperation with Myanmar conglomerate, Htoo Trading, he said.
Another foreign investor is Malaysia’s Maxi Net company, which specialises in network solutions as well as software development, said U Zaw Min Oo.
Many global ICT companies have also shown interest but a list of confirmed investors has yet to be released.
The MPT report says the master plan for developing the cyber city covers 4400 acres, of which half will be allocated to software firms and the other half to hardware companies.
The Yadanabon master plan provides for the site to be expanded to 10,000 acres, the report says.
As well as the teleport building and three incubation centres, the master plan provides for the construction of facilities for international and Myanmar software companies, convention centre, research and development centre, training centre, commercial and services facilities and residential accommodation.
The plan also provides for the development of indoor and outdoor sporting facilities, a cinema, police station, post office, bank, clinic and market.
According to a recent report by the Department of Human Settlement and Land Development under the Ministry of Construction, the city is targeted to house 50,000 people.
Water will be supplied to the site from two dams northeast of the cyber city and the Ministry of Electrical Power (1) will be responsible for providing power, with consumption estimated at 50 megawatts.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no385/n001.htm
Pyin Oo Lwin was formerly known as Maymyo. It already seems to be a sort of Burmese version of Chiang-Mai in terms of its semi-rustic tourist resorts. See the following link for further background on the town:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyin_U_Lwin
Amusement park to open in Pyin Oo Lwin
By Thein Win Nyo and Aye Lei Tun
AN amusement park currently under construction by Htoo Trading Company at the National Landmark Garden in Pyin Oo Lwin will open next month, said an official from the company.
“The amusement park will have five entertainment centres. We plan to finish three by next month and open them to the public,” said U Wai Myo Aung, the deputy general manager of the company.
He said the amusement park, which has been under construction for about two months, is located on four acres of land on the southern end of the 54-acre National Landmark Garden near National Kandawgyi Park.
He said the construction crew is working to finish the entrance gate, indoor game centre and merry-go-round by next month for the opening.
“The entrance resembles a castle and looks like a gate from Disneyland,” said U Wai Myo Aung.
“Chinese experts surveyed the ground and drew plans for the amusement park. Game machine suppliers and an engineering group also came to the construction site from China. But the overall design was made by our architect, U Thaw,” he said.
“We plan to gradually expand the park in future,” he added.
The National Landmark Garden opened on December 15, 2006, and has brought in more than K80 million in entrance fees up to the end of last month.
“We plan to celebrate the garden’s first anniversary like the Yangon Zoological Garden but details of the celebration have not been confirmed yet,” U Wai Myo Aung said.
With three bunkers on an entire 18-hole course, one supposes that they must actually be airraid shelters where the golf-crazy junta generals can hide out the next US bombing raid. the more I read this, the more it seems that way!:
New Light of Myanmar
Secretary-1 Lt-Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo attends opening ceremony of Nay Pyi Taw Golf Course
Nay Pyi Taw, 2 Dec - Secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo attended the opening ceremony of the City Golf Course constructed by the Ministry for Progess of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs and the golf tournament in commemoration of the opening ceremony.
Also present on the occasion were SPDC members Lt-Gen Maung Bo and Lt-Gen Aung Htwe of the Ministry of Defence, Commander-in-Chief (Air) Lt-Gen Myat Hein, Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Adjutant-General Maj-Gen Thura Myint Aung, the ministers, the Attorney-General, the Auditor-General, deputy ministers, senior military officers, the Director-General of the SPDC Office, departmental heads, the Secretary of Nay Pyi Taw Development Committee, members of committee and guests.
Minister for PBANRDA Mayor Col Thein Nyunt, Deputy Minister Col Tin Ngwe and Director-General U Myo Myint of the Development Affairs Department formally opened the golf resort.
Next the Secretary-1 unveiled the signboard of the golf resort.
At the golf tournament to mark the opening ceremony of the golf resort, the Secretary-1 teed off tracer ball.
Lt-Gen Maung Bo and Lt-Gen Aung Htwe of the Ministry of Defence and Commander-in-Chief (Air) Lt-Gen Myat Hein also teed off tracer balls. The City Golf Resort in Nay Pyi Taw was constructed by the Ministry of Progess of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs. It is located between Chaungmagyi Dam and Ngalaik Creek. The 18-hole golf resort is 365 acres wide. One Club House, one driving range measuring 300 feet by 100 feet where 38 golfers can be accommodated, car parking, the half way shed, canteens and three bunkers include in the golf resort.
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html
Yangon (Rangoon) country's only megacity, and the Junta's geriatric generals are far more interested in investing in their palatial golf courses in the smalltown new capital sometimes called Naypyidtaw. (Pyinmana):
Yangon growing into ‘megacity’
By Kyaw Hsu Mon and Khine Thazin Aung
THE mayor of Yangon has said the biggest urban area in Myanmar should be regarded as a “megacity” because it was home to about 6 million people, compared with Singapore’s population of about 4 million.
“In my opinion Yangon can be regarded as a megacity like Singapore. The population of Yangon has recently exceeded that of Singapore,” he said.
The term megacity is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a total population of more than 10 million people, a criterion met by only 25 cities worldwide.
In a recent briefing for journalists, the mayor also said the maintenance costs for Yangon were much higher than those of any other city in Myanmar, with the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) spending K15 billion on road and water supply upkeep in 2007.
Brig Gen Aung Thein Linn said that as the number of people migrating to Yangon from various regions of the country increased year by year, the committee had to divert more resources into water supply and clean drainage system projects.
“In coming years the majority of our budget will be used on road, drainage and water supply projects to keep up with the demands of the growing population,” he said.
He said the committee planned to repave all the roads in the Yangon municipal area by the end of 2009.
“We will rebuild all the roads in the city as international-standard concrete roads,” he said. “To do this we will import 80,000 tonnes of tar for the project.”
Brig Gen Aung Thein Linn said the committee will build a concrete factory in Pinnyaung in Mandalay Division and use the concrete for roads in Yangon.
“We will start using the concrete from this factory in early 2009. It will produce 500 tonnes a day, so we will also be able to export the concrete to foreign countries,” he said.
Although the YCDC was committed to upgrading Yangon’s infrastructure, the main challenge that the city will face in the coming years will be finding space for the growing population, he said.
“There is very little open space left in the Yangon municipal area and there are no more areas to add new satellite townships,” he said.
There are 33 townships in the area administered by the committee and 45 townships in all of Yangon Division.
“The population is already dense in suburban areas such as North Okkalapa, South Okkalapa and Thaketa townships, established in 1958, and in satellite cities such as North Dagon, South Dagon and Shwe Pyi Thar, which have been established since 1988,” he said.
“We have no more land to add so our main focus will be on finding ways to increase accommodation, water and electricity supplies as more people move into the city,” Brig Gen Aung Thein Linn said.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no398/n002.htm
See also thread on the Junta's new capital of Naypyidaw and its so-called cybercity project:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=18951#post18951
http://www.myanmar.com/news/index.html
Nation’s first cyber city takes shape
By Ye Kaung Myint Maung
http://www.myanmar.com/news/images/yadanarpone_cybercity.jpg
[Photo: New Light of Myanmar - Yadanapon Cybercity's Teleport Building during construction.]
THE opening ceremony of Yatanarpon Teleport building, the centrepiece of Myanmar’s first cyber city project, was held on December 14 at the building site 44 kilometres (27 miles) northeast of Mandalay.
The ceremony was attended by a number of high-ranking officials, including Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe.
Following the unveiling of the building’s signboard by General Thura Shwe Mann using a palm print scanner, the Minister for Communications, Post and Telegraphs, Brigadier General Thein Zaw, gave a presentation on investment in Yatanarpon cyber city.
He said that in addition to the teleport building, four of the seven proposed “incubation” centres have already been built, with a number of companies expressing interest in utilising them to offer services.
He said the government preferred investment from local companies or foreign companies that are cooperating with local companies, rather than enterprises that are solely foreign-owned.
Brig Gen Thein Zaw said that so far proposals have been received from the following companies:
1. Myanmar Teleport Company, to move into an incubation centre to provide outsourcing, in-sourcing, research and development services;
2. Myanmar World Distribution Company, to acquire four acres of land for WiFi, WiMax and other communication services;
3. Fortune International Company, Myanmar Teleport Company and ZTE Company from China, to form a joint venture and acquire four acres of land for GSM and mobile communication facilities;
4. Value Standard Wire and Cable Company, to acquire six acres of land for power cable, fibre cable and communication cable facilities;
5. Alcatel Shanghaibell (ASB) Company and Htoo Trading Company, to acquire four acres of land for GSM BTS services;
6. CBOSS Company from Russia and Htoo Trading Company, to acquire an incubation centre for pepaid software;
7. Fisca Company, to acquire eight acres of land for auto exchange and digital metre facilities using Taiwanese technology;
8. IP Tel Company from Malaysia and Yadana Sein Company, to acquire four acres of land;
9. General Myanmar Group of Companies, to manufacture of budget PCs;
10. Myanmar Computer Company (MCC) group, to acquire an incubation centre to establish ICT training centres;
11. Myanmar Info-Tech Company, to invest $1 million and acquire an incubation centre for outsourcing, research and development services.
Brigadier General Thein Zaw said that all the proposals were now being assessed by the ministries concerned and approval and implementation would begin as soon as possible after this process was complete.
In his opening remarks Brig Gen Thein Zaw said the three-storey Yatanarpon Teleport building, which will serve as the internet service provider for the cyber city, is equipped with a technical equipment area, conference room, IT exhibition area, meeting room and service area.
The city will have direct transnational com-munication links to India, China and Thailand via fibre optic cables and additional satellite connections, and will also provide internet access using WiFi and WiMax wireless communication technologies, he said.
He said that in addition to the Yatanarpon Teleport building and the four incubation centres, 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) of concrete roads and 16 kilometres (10 miles) of dirt roads have also been completed.
According to a report from the Ministry of Communications, Post and Telegraphs, the city is intended to house 50,000 residents. The city has been equipped with a 200,000-gallon water supply tank, which will be filled with water piped from two dams northeast of the city. The cyber city’s electricity is supplied by a 50-kilovolt power station.
Construction on the cyber city began in June 2006, with the first phase covering 10,000 acres of land divided into nine zones: the teleport building, seven incubation centres, local and international software zones, a park and convention centre, a commercial and service zone, a research and development zone, a training centre and a residential area.
The opening ceremony also kicked off the Sixth Myanmar ICT Week exhibition that ended on December 20. The exhibition, held in the Yatanarpon Teleport building, featured 115 booths where 60 local and foreign companies showcased software, hardware, computer peripherals, network equipment, communication services and electronic devices.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no398/n001.htm
See also:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=17353&postcount=36
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=16917&postcount=35
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=16914&postcount=34
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=16845&postcount=33
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15174&postcount=32
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15050&postcount=31
Always some delightful property in this Myanmar Times Business Section:
http://www.mmtimes.com/no402/business.htm
Governor’s House rebuilt in Pyin Oo Lwin
By Htar Htar Khin
http://www.mmtimes.com/no402/pic/011.gif
http://www.mmtimes.com/no402/pic/012.gif
[Photos: Myanmar Times - The original Governor's House (above) and the reconstruction (below).]
THE Governor’s House resort in Pyin Oo Lwin is a close reconstruction of the original governor’s summer residence of colonial times, a difficult task since it is being undertaken from a few documentary photos because the original architect’s drawings no longer exist, the principal architect said last week.
The two-storey building, occupying 2340 square metres, is situated in a substantial 100-acre estate. Eight British governors and seven vice governors used the house from 1905 to 1948.
The building was destroyed during World War II and work on a reconstruction based on documentary photos from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism and the British Council library in Yangon began in late 2004.
“To get the structure of the original building using only old photographs as a reference was rather difficult, especially recreating the many roof levels and getting them to meet at the right places,” said principle architect U Thaw from Architect M Thaw & Associates who produced the drawings and who supervises construction.
He said there was a big difference between freely creating from the imagination and having to deal with the restrictions involved when designing from photos.
“This is not the design that comes from my own thinking and creation. Taking photos as a reference requires great care and attention to every detail,” he said.
Most of the photos are of the exterior and only four are of the interior.
“We look at the photos to judge how wide the entrance is and the position of the staircase, and also to gauge the height of each floor: the ground floor is 19 feet high [5.7 metres] and the first floor is 16 feet [4.8m],” he added.
U Thaw added that engineering and geometry calculations are necessary, especially for designing the roof.
“It has taken a lot of work to develop an understanding of the structure of the original building and apply it to the reconstruction. The roofing is particularly difficult as it is at several different levels,” he said.
The ground floor of the Governor’s House consists of an entrance hall, reception hall, dining room, swimming pool, kitchen, store room and toilets. The first floor consists of five large master bedrooms.
To be as faithful to the original house as possible, the same types of building materials have been used.
“The original building had brick walls, wooden columns and teak shingle in the roofing. And also in this reconstruction we have used the same brick and teak but we have applied white marble on the ground floor although the upstairs floor is still teak, like in the original,” he said.
U Thaw added that another building under construction near the house is going to be a museum to display artefacts used by the governors, along with old photos and other documents.
Also situated on the estate is the Aureum Palace spa and resort consisting of 34 bungalow-type rooms and an outdoor dining area and swimming pool which opened in December 2006.
The reconstructed Governor’s House is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no402/b007.htm
The haves and have-nothings
January 25, 2008
http://ratchasima.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/rangoon-mansion-500.jpg
[Photo: The Rule of Lords - Rangoon Mansion
Within the last decade, the cost of a bus trip across Rangoon, a cup of tea, or a bottle of peanut oil has risen tenfold. One sack of the lowest quality rice in Burma today sells for around US$12: half a month’s wages for a construction worker; an unimaginable amount for the children picking over rubbish heaps in search of a cabbage leaf or some discarded grains.
Persistent acute increases in the cost of living across Burma have been spurred on by the rise in fuel prices of last August, which precipitated nationwide protests the following month.
But while the spreading poverty has been documented and raised by international groups, the contrasting displays of extravagant riches by its small elite have attracted less attention abroad. In the country, they are increasingly hard to ignore.
Small fleets of luxury four-wheel-drive vehicles and sedans now navigate Burma’s pockmarked highways and byways alongside the ubiquitous battered Japanese busses and decades-old passenger vehicles.
In parts of Rangoon, up-market boutiques full of the latest electrical products and European cosmetics huddle close together against a backdrop of dimly-lit general stores and market stalls.
The property pages of the Myanmar Times buzz with excited chatter about the size and cost of mansions (such as the one pictured above) that are filling empty spaces or taking over from older, less ostentatious houses in the few parts of the city with a regular supply of electricity. Much of the paper’s remaining contents consist of features on the people who occupy these columned monoliths, whereas no mention is made of those who build them or the conditions under which they live.
This gap between the haves and have-nots has grown so wide in the last few years that there are now said to be only two classes in Burma: “htarsaya mashitelu” and “sarsaya mashitelu”; those who have so much stuff they have nowhere to put it, and those who don’t eat.
Around the world, statisticians and social scientists have debated the extent to which relative financial inequality undermines the effective working of a country. Some have argued that whereas a wealth gap has a strongly detrimental effect in some it makes little difference in others.
Burma seems very far removed from all this. The reason is that the wealth gap there is not relative at all. It is a gap between those who switch on the lights at night and those who cannot, those whose children study and those whose children work, those who get medical treatment — preferably in Bangkok — and those who stay sick; those who eat and those who do not. It is a radical division between haves and have-nothings. There are no grounds for talk of relative difference.
It is important to bear in mind that this gap also exists within the army. Historian Mary Callahan has observed that whereas the difference in living conditions between higher and lower military personnel was a decade or so ago quite modest, it is now both dramatic and highly problematic. And although it has not yet caused a split within the armed forces of the sort that may threaten the junta’s hold on power, it is exacerbating tensions and undermining the ability of senior officers to manage their subordinates.
Extreme poverty and extreme luxury together make a heady mix. So far, the protests against worsening economic conditions in Burma have been concentrated on the former, and have been admirably restrained, even in the face of uncompromising violence. But if the regime persists in denying legitimate complaint about its abject impoverishing of millions while at the same time blatantly enriching itself and its minions, then public displays of resentment may soon become more vociferous and less tolerant, more pointed and less generous.
In that event, we will have only the regime itself to blame.
http://ratchasima.net/2008/01/25/the-haves-and-have-nothings/
Zoo's denizens relocated to new capital
Mizzima News
February 13, 2008
Rangoon, Burma – About half the animals at Rangoon Zoo are to be moved to new quarters located in the nation's administrative capital, according to an official source.
Commencing Tuesday evening, animals – including hippos, elephants and tigers – are being sent to the newly built Naypyitaw Zoo, sources said.
An eyewitness told Mizzima that the zoo in the new capital has little vegetation and residents are concerned that without proper facilities the lives of the animals will be threatened. Naypyitaw is hotter on average than Rangoon.
Though over 100 years old and poorly equipped, Rangoon Zoo has lush tropical trees, lakes and a large population to support the animals' needs.
Burma has three official zoos, in Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw, and one wildlife park 16 kilometers outside Rangoon.
http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2008/Feb/36-Feb-2008.html
Rangoon Zoo Animals Relocating to Naypyidaw
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, February 16, 2008
First, the civil servants were trucked to Burma’s newly built capital in Naypyidaw. Now, it's the rhinos' and elephants' turn.
Using cranes and trucks, the military government this week began relocating scores of animals—including elephants, monkeys, birds, rhinos, bears and deer—from Rangoon’s Zoological Garden to the new capital, Naypyidaw, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the north, zoo officials said.
Some animals will remain in the facility in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city.
Fourteen trucks filled with animals, many stuffed into small cages, were preparing to depart Friday evening for Naypyidaw. Among them was a bear that zoo officials acknowledged had been in its temporary cage for the past few days. Another batch left Tuesday.
"It is very sad to see some big animals being crammed into small cages," an onlooker said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.
One zookeeper, Thiha Zaw, said some elephants howled and refused to eat after their herd was split up and three were sent Naypyidaw. It was not immediately clear how many elephants were being left behind.
"It was a very emotional and sad scene to see the elephants cry when their young friend was taken away from the shelter," the keeper said.
The junta moved its ministries and offices in November 2005 from Rangoon to Naypyidaw, a hot, dusty town surrounded by mountains and forests.
The Rangoon zoo houses 150 species of mammals, birds and reptiles.
Officials gave no reason for the move. A Burma magazine, Snapshot, said it was a matter of pride that a nation's capital should host a zoo.
The Rangoon zoo has been chronically short of funding to feed the animals and has fallen into disrepair.
The animals moving to Naypyidaw will be housed in an 80.9-hectare (200-acre) facility that opens to the public March 27, Snapshot reported, citing unidentified zoo officials.
While Burma’s ruling junta has claimed the new zoo will be world-class, some critics have expressed concern that it lacks the infrastructure and lush vegetation the animals need to survive.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=10425
Article collection �Think and feel freely� in circulation
NAY PYI TAW, 18 March-The collection of articles �Think and feel freely, and other poems� by U Maung Maung Soe Tint (Retd Ambassador) came out today.
The book consists of eight chapters, featuring religious, education, Myanmar, love, youth and social affairs and feelings. The bilingual work (English and Myanmar) is published and distributed by Pyae Sone Books Centre of No 78, Hledan Street, Lanmadaw Township, Yangon, (Tel: 224375).
Mr Ambassador has obviously lived too long outside Myanmar/Burma to have a firm grip on home realities. ;)
Non-specific link:
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html
I'm rather surprised that the NLM hasn't categorized as dangerous drivel!
She offered her honor. He honored her offer. And all night long it was 'honor & offer':
Graduation of OTS 111th Intake held
Tatmadaw put in fore wishes of people and ward off any danger to nation
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/images/Apr26.1.jpghttp://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/images/Apr26.3.jpg
[Photos Courtesy of: The Tatmadaw Men@NLM]
NAY PYI TAW, 25 April-The following is the translation of the address delivered by Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Commander-in- Chief (Army) Vice-Senior General Maung Aye at the graduation parade of the 111th Intake of Defence Services (Army) Officers Training School in Bahtoo Tatmyo today.
Comrades
Today is the graduation ceremony of the 111th Intake of Officers Training School.
The course was attended by trainees each of them holding a degree in law, economics, agriculture or other subjects and servicemen who were permitted to attend the course as their qualifications met the required standard. You all have been trained to become competent Army officers who are able to skillfully command a platoon in a battlefield, and this is the aim of the course. As you are going to be commissioned as army officers I will explain all what you should know in all seriousness.
Comrades,
As Tatmadawmen have handed down the Tatmadaw’s twelve fine traditions, the Tatmadaw has been able to stand tall with dignity.
Therefore, you will have to uphold the twelve fine traditions of the Tatmadaw such as being patriotic, being disciplined, being loyal, being united, being capable, etc. To uphold these fine traditions, every Tadmadawman should be endowed with five basic qualities - morale, discipline, loyalty, unity, and three capabilities.
Moreover, only if you are endowed with the ten strengths of the Tatmadaw including loyalty, obedience, diligence, good discipline, qualifica-tion, combat skills, fitness, camaraderie spirit and daring spirit and determination, you can carry out the three main tasks of the Tatmadaw successfully.
Comrades,
The three main tasks of the Tatmadaw are
- defence, training and social welfare tasks.
Regarding the defence of the State, I would like to say that military affairs are related to the politics, and so the Tatmadawmen should have the political outlook.
Similarly, the politics and economy are also related, and so Tatmadawmen should also have the economic outlook. Besides, if an administrative system of a country deteriorates, its political and economic systems can collapse.
Therefore, the Tatmadawmen should also have the administrative outlook. The outlook for defence can be drawn only after the combined review of the political outlook, the economic outlook and the administrative outlook. Therefore, Tatmadawmen are to try to have these four outlooks and to review them properly.
It is only the training that provides the servicemen with necessary skills and help them gain self-confidence. As you have already received training at the training school, you will have to get practical experience in a battlefield. As the training is the first task of the four organizing tasks of the Tatmadaw, you will have to train yourselves and to train Tatmadaw members continuously.
Only then, will you all be on alert for military awareness and must be ready for combat.
Regarding the social welfare task, you should uphold the fact that the Tatmadaw stands by the people. Therefore, you will have to observe the ten codes of conduct including loyalty to the people, safeguard the life and property of the people and placing in the fore the duty in the interest of the people. After taking the responsibilities of the State, the Tatmadaw has carried out social welfare tasks in the interests of the people and to satisfy the desire of the people by building infrastructures which are necessary for transition to the multiparty democratic system.
The Tatmadaw is making efforts for ensuring the transition to favourable situations which can be adaptable to the time and the system while implementing the development tasks with the aim of improving the living standard of the farmers who make up 70% of the population of the country.
As part of efforts for equitable development of the country, the Tatmadaw has been implementing the project for development of rural areas and national races, the project for development of 24 Special Regions and the project for development of rural areas. Therefore, you are to actively participate in implementing the projects and especially, you are to regard the people as your parents and to serve their interests.
Comrades,
As you all come from the people, you are already loved-ones of the people. You will have to observe the military codes of conduct without fail and observe military disciplines, and the people will have deep attachment to you.
Our Tatmadawmen have to abide by both civil and military laws. Without discipline, the Tatmadaw, an armed organization, will be in disarray and fall into ruin.
Discipline is the lifeblood of the Tatmadaw. Hence, you are to be explemnary in discipline in order to not only uphold the traditions of the Tatmadaw but also to win the wholehearted support of the people. By doing so, you will also win leadership over your subordinates to an extent.
Since you are to be commissioned as junior leaders, you are to firstly equip yourselves with the characteristics of a leader; to be explemnary in abiding by disciplines, to be endowed with the sprit to constantly serve the interest of the Tatmadaw, to always make sacrifices whenever there is a privilege, to be equipped
with the spirit of a good commander and a parent and to be endowed with physical and mental prowess. Likewise, you are to fulfill ten duties to the superiors, five duties to subordinates and ten duties to other comrades. Moreover, you are to have the three capabilities to win the trust and reliance of subordinates. This is the nature and basics of leadership and you are to continue to learn to be able to sharpen your supervisory and control power in line with your rank. Therefore, you need to undergo further trainings such as platoon commander course, company commander course and commanding officer course. However, I would like to urge you to build yourselves to become good officer as one has to build oneself to become a good leader. Only then, will you become good sons on whom the State and the Tatmadaw can rely.
Comrades,
It is the Tatmadaw that is constantly striving for the emergence of a constitution capable of shaping the multiparty democracy system. Therefore, the National Convention was held with the participation of over 1000 delegates of eight delegate groups including delegates of political parties, representatives-elect, delegates from organizations that had returned to the legal fold and delegates of national races from states and divisions. The draft constitution was drawn according to fundamental principles and detailed basic principles laid down by the National Convention. The Commission for Holding Referendum will organize the national referendum in a systematic and fair manner for approving of the draft constitution on 10 May.
It is safe to say that the process of implementing the seven-step Road Map is nearing completion when the constitution has been approved.
Some dissidents at home and abroad are making attempts to undermine the process of the systematic hand-over of the State power by the Tatmadaw. However,
I would like to assert that the Tatmadaw will put in the fore the wishes of the people and ward off any danger to the nation joining hands with the people.
In conclusion, I urge you
- to uphold the 12 fine traditions of the Tatmadaw at the risk of your lives
- to discharge dutifully the three major tasks of the Tatmadaw
- to strictly abide by the military codes of conduct, respecting and following the civil and military laws and
- to strive to become good sons on whom the State can rely..
Non-specific link:
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html
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