Defiant Burmese Junta Unveils New Capital

Guardian

Monday March 27, 2006

The first major public event was held today in Burma's new capital as the head of the military junta declared there was no hurry to transfer to civilian rule.
The junta's leader, General Than Shwe, told an audience of around 12,000 troops that it was vital the country build a strong, modern army.

The speech was broadcast live on state television, giving many of the public a first glimpse of the new capital, Pyinmana, once a sleepy logging town.

Burma's junta announced abruptly on November 6 that it was moving the capital around 250 miles north from Rangoon to Pyinmana, and buses immediately started moving shocked civil servants.

In the last five months, Pyinmana, which is in the centre of the country and surrounded by jungle-covered mountains, has had its population of around 50,000 surge - some estimate it could have tripled - and has become a traffic-clogged boomtown.

The official reason for the move - which is thought to have been planned in secret for at least three years - was the need for a centrally located national "command and control centre".

But many believe that the move was a precaution against popular anti-junta protests breaking out in Rangoon, which has a population of 4 million. Some also think that the regime, which brutally seized power in 1988, is paranoid about a US-led invasion and wanted a base further from the coast. Neighbouring countries expressed concern at the move, which they fear will only entrench Burma's isolation.

Today Gen Shwe, aged 74, spoke to troops at a cement-paved parade ground in Pyinmana, marking the annual Armed Forces Day, which commemorates Burma rising up against the Japanese in 1945.

He defended a seven-step "road map to democracy" criticised by the west and regional neighbours for being too vague and too slow, Reuters reported.

"Today, the Tatmadaw [armed forces] and the people are striving together for the emergence of a democratic state and these are tasks which need time to be implemented. We have conceived a plan so that our people can avoid the danger of facing a perilous solution that could lead to the country's annihilation."

Gen Shwe said that a strong army was needed to help protect the country's sovereignty, the Associated Press (AP) reported. He said: "In order to ward off any danger befalling the country, our military, together with the people, must be strong, efficient, patriotic and modern."

In his 12-minute speech, he made no mention of the dusty new capital, which resembles a huge construction site. Dozens of unfinished buildings line dirt roads and an eight-lane road leading out of town is under construction.

Pyinmana has been given a new name, Naypyidaw Myodaw, or Royal Capital, though the country has no king.

Mya Yin, who sells preserved bamboo shoots at Pyinmana's main market, told AP: "I have never seen so many people in the town and the market is crowded. I am very happy because business is very good."

But not everybody is happy and some residents complain that they had to give up parts of their property to make way for the new roads.

Horse-cart owners are angry that carts are now banned from some main roads and motorcyclists worry that motorbikes will be banned soon - as they have for several years in Rangoon.

The price of land has skyrocketed, and consumer-goods prices are rising. Others are concerned about the social effects of rapid growth.

There are some concerns about the growing numbers of beauty-salon and massage parlours which have set up shop, staffed mostly by young women from nearby districts.

Shacks that sell moonshine to the less affluent construction workers are doing a roaring trade and residents worry about bad influences on their children.

"Some civil servants drink the whole day and some kill time gambling," said a senior commerce ministry official, who asked not to be named because his remarks could be construed as criticism of the government.

Civil servants, who received a hefty pay increase from the junta this weekend, mostly complain about the poor water supply, a shortage of transport and boredom.

Many government workers were less that thrilled at being uprooted at short notice from relatively comfortable lives in Rangoon, notwithstanding the promise of no power cuts and a modern telecommunications system.

Some civil servants, who work at the new government offices eight miles out of town, are particularly disturbed that they do not know when their families will be allowed to join them.

The military seized power in 1962, leading the resource-rich nation, which the regime calls Myanmar, toward isolation and economic ruin. Two years later after the current junta took power, it refused to hand over government when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory. She has repeatedly been held under house arrest and her current period of incarceration in Rangoon began in May 2003.

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