SEC gives NMSP a “pre-ceasefire relationship” ultimatum

Kon Hadae

According to reports, an April 7th meeting between New Mon State Party (NMSP) members and the Southeast Command (SEC) involved the latter placing substantial pressure on the NMSP to accept the Burmese government’s Border Guard Force (BGF) agreement, at the risk of the government’s 1995 ceasefire agreement with the NMSP.

According to an NMSP Central Committee member, who asked that his name be with held, SEC Lt. Gen. Ye Myint reportedly stated that a NMSP failure to convert its armed wing, the Mon New Liberation Army (MNLA) into a government-run Border Guard Force (BGF) or people’s militia, by April 22nd of this year, will result in the reinstatement of the “pre-ceasefire relationship” between the Burmese Government and the NMSP.

The NMSP issued a public refusal of the Burmese government’s BGF offer in August 2009, which resulted in the Burmese government’s withdrawal of the party’s taxation rights in September of that year.

The Central Committee member IMNA spoke with reported that the meeting, which was held in Moulmein’s SEC headquarters, was attended by 7 NMSP officers: Joint Secretary Nai Chan Toi, Vice Chairman Nai Rotsa, CEC Nai Htar Wara, CEC Nai Tala Nyi, Colonel Nai Layi Ka kao, CC Nai Kow Seik, and CC member Nai Chan Nai. The meeting was led by Gen. Ye Myint.

“He [Gen. Ye Myint] told us the NMSP could decide to do what it wants. But if we refuse to accept both the Border Guard Force and People’s Militia agreements, the SPDC will view us as they did before the ceasefire,” an NMSP insider claimed.

Gen Ye Myint gave the NMSP a deadline of April 22nd to submit their final answer regarding the MNLA’s fate, he added.

The NMSP agreed to a ceasefire with the current Burmese military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), in 1995 an attempt to extinguish the vast amounts of human rights abuses that were then being suffered by the Mon people. The SPDC’s “pre-ceasefire relationship” with Mon State resulted in, among other abuses, widespread forced labor, mass forced relocation of Mon communities, tens of thousands of Mon “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) living in squalid refugee camp conditions on the Thailand-Burma border, and the commencement of the construction of the infamous Yanada gas pipeline in 1991.

A NMSP spokesperson informed IMNA that the NMSP is currently in the process of gathering its members for an emergency meeting to discuss the ultimatum, at the party’s headquarters near the [Bee Ree river] in Ye Township; word of the exact nature of what the NMSP’s decision will has not yet been disclosed.

Mon State student hostel prices increase for coming academic year

IMNA

This year students who hope to increase their likelihood of passing the final year’s 10th grade exam will have to pay more then in years prior, as prices for all hostels has increased. Hostels’ are also allowing students to enrollee earlier then last year.

Last academic year, students who lived hostels in Mon State paid approximately 2 million kyat (1,953 USD) while students who attended more famous hostels, like Mudon’s Daw Than Myit hostel, paid around 2.7 million kyat (2,636 USD). Now each entering student will have to pay nearly 2.3 million kyat (2,246 USD) for a more basic hostel or 3 million kyat (2,929 USD) for a hostel like Daw Than Myit.

Student hostels are popular in Mudon township, Ye township and throughout Mon state as a means to ensure success during the crucial final exams. The hostels house and feeds students for one year, while providing them with additional study services via teachers or professor hired on after hours to tutor students in each subject they study in.

Hostels prices vary based on their facilities and the quality and number of tutors available. The best hostels are able to draw university professors who will travel and tutor for the evening before returning home.

“At a prestigious hostel the students have to pay about 3.0 million for a year, but other hostel will not charge as much like that because it is depends on the percentage [of attending students] who passed [their 10th grade exams],” a student’s mother who lives in Mudon explained. “The families who have more money can send their children to a prestigious hostel, but some [parents] can’t send them because of money problems –they just can send their child to a normal hostel.”

After students’ 9th grade exams, hostel owners begin accepting students who will want to live in hostel for the duration of the 10th grade 2010-2011 academic year.

“We finished the 10th grade exam on March 19th and the hostel owner started accepting students during that week,” said a 10th grade student. “So for students who have just taken the 9th grade exam, some are already registered [at out hostel].”

Last year at the Dar Than Myit hostel in Mudon town about 200 students registered for the year. According to a student this year its still not clear how the numbers of students will attend because they have not yet reached the deadline for registration. “If we register, the hostel owner will take half our money first and then we can give the other half at the end of year, but if we have [all of] it, we can just pay at one time,” a Mudon student explained.

According to a hostel owner increasing numbers of students and parents want to enroll in the more prestigious hostels. These schools often draw better tutors and have higher rates of students passing 10th grade exams. The hostel owner believes this is why hostel owners have been able to raise prices this year.

Last year hostel attendance was down as families struggled to pay the fees of millions of kyat due to the global economic crisis.

Free computer training offers opportunities for Ye Township youth

IMNA

In over to improve students computer stills in technology deprived Burma, an abbot in Ye Township has been working to provide funding so that area students will have access to computers and a summer training before returning to school.

Recently graduated 9th standard students in Tamort-kanin village will now have the opportunity to participate in an intensive computer training course. The abbot who orchestrated the course has insured that the course will be free to all of the village’s 50 9th standard graduates, according to a Tamort-kanin villager.

“To do the training, five villagers who are currently working in South Korea, donated money,” explained the abbot, who preferred to remain anonymous for his own safety. “However, at this time we cannot buy the new computers because we have not enough money yet. I have had to borrow [computers] from other villagers I. Right now we have ten computers total. We have plan to buy the new computers for the next years training.”

The training will take place over the public school summer holiday, starting on April 9th and go till the start of the state school in the 1st week in May. The trainer for the course will come from the Myanmar Computer Company (MCC) in Moulmein.

While the training itself will be free the certificate, issued by the MCC, will not be. “To get the training certificate from the MCC, each student has to pay 15,000 kyat. If students do have this certificate of computer training, it will support them when they apply for jobs,” the Abbot said.

The students who are able to pay will be entering their last year, 10th standard, equipped with an MCC certificate, which is often considered the gold standard of computer certification in Burma, and opens the possibility for numerous job opportunities.

Even without the MCC students will still benefit from the experience the course will bring. A youth from Tamort-kanin explained to IMNA that because students have never learned about computers and some have never even seen a computer before, the training will be particularly useful for the students. He continued saying that with this training they’ll be able to understand about computers functions and how they can use one.

Burma is reported to severely lack in modern computer technology. There have been efforts by military government to increase its computer tech capacity such as the development of the Yadanabon Cyber City near Mandalay, a technology park for computer and software development. However a student who attended the Moulmein University for a degree in computer science, recounted how for their program of 500 only 100 computers were available for the 3 year course, and most of the classes were spent repairing old an broken computers.

Government decries foreign radio broadcasts at local meeting

Jaloon Htaw, IMNA

At speeches intended to promote safety during the Water Festival period, village headmen spent time decrying the validity of broadcasts by international media. The order for the media targeted speeches came from senior members of the Burmese military, say local residents.

Early in April the village headman from Chaung Zone Township, Mon State, conducted a meeting with area residents, to promote safety during Water Festival, the Buddhist New Years, a period traditionally characterized by celebration, spraying of water, and drinking.

However the only reference to safety was made when the headman advised villagers that, according to an attending resident, “Villagers should not to be dangerous with motorbikes and should drive slowly.” Members of the local Military Intelligence (MI) added that villagers should notify the township police if they have an accident or are injured.

Attending residents reported that the village headman only spent a little time of safety messages, instead focusing on security and 2010 election related issues.

Specifically villagers were warned not to believe the foreign media radiobroadcasts in to Burma. One area resident who attended the meeting quoted him saying, “Don’t believe VOA, RFA, BBC, and DVB because they are not accurate.”

The speech also touched on issues promoting the military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). One villager recounted that the headman talked about how the SPDC would take reasonability for safety during the election and work to keep it a peaceful process. He went on to tell local residents that they must also take reasonability and make sure the election is a peaceful process without violent protest or armed resistance.

However the village headman, prior to giving the speech, admitted to a close source that the topics addressed in the speech had been ordered by Burmese officers from Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 6 and a nearby Burmese Navy battalion. The Chaung Zone Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC), then instructed every village headman had to give a speech to each of their communities.

A political analyst from Caung Zone Township, who requested his name be withheld for security purposes, commented, “They should not say like that because some people listen to the foreign media radio stations. They should not go telling people not to believe foreign radio stations.”

He added that other villages had held similar meetings, and other are planed for the area, on Burmese Army orders.

Mudon Township housing tax leads to legal battle

Thus, 2 April, 2010

Mi Layi Htaw & Mi Yin Mon


100 Villagers from Mudon Township’s Hneepadaw village have just concluded a two day-long legal clash with the Mudon Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC); homeowners from the village were ordered to court following their refusal to pay a tax on recently built homes, a fee that has been threatened by the Mudon TPDC since September 2009.

The housing tax in question is a new tax levied by the Mudon TPDC specifically on homes build between the years of 2007 and 2010. The tax, proposed in September 2009, originally mandated that new homeowners would be taxed according to their homes’ sizes and construction materials. Repeated attempts by the Mudon TPDC were largely ineffectual for the next six months. Unfortunately, dismayed Mudon Township villagers reported earlier this week that their TPDC chairmen had begun visiting villages all over the township, and actively demanding the fees in question.

IMNA’s March 29th story covered the debacle; tax collection attempts reportedly were met with widespread chaos, protest, and in the case of Hneepadaw village, intractable refusal.

A villager from Hneepadaw explained to IMNA that the Mudon TPDC has attempted to collect the tax from house owners 3 separate times since September 2009. When council members arrived in the village for the third time, on the 25th of March, and met with widespread refusal yet again, the 100 villagers were ordered to travel to the township’s Justice Department in Mudon town, in order to discuss the issue in court.

“They didn’t choose of kind of house [to be taxed more than others], one house is taxed 4 million kyat [regardless of building material], and they never taken the house tax [from us] this year, they have been trying to collect the house tax since September until now. This last time, ‘those that aren’t giving the house tax should go to the law courts’, that’s what someone from the TPDC said to me,” a second Hneepadaw resident explained.

According to reports, the villagers arrived at the Mudon town court on March 31st, after 2 days deliberations, the 100 villagers were sent home to Hneepadaw, without receiving fines or prison terms; the dissenters were however severely reprimanded, and informed that any failure to pay the housing taxes when the TPDC returns next month will result in harsher reprisals.

“Mon Working Committee” splits over 2010 election registration

IMNA

April 1, 2010

5 dissenters from 15 members “Mon Working Committee” formed in 2009 have split from the group, following a March 30th meeting where the majority of the committee’s members voted that the committee boycott the 2010 elections. The 5 rogue members have decided to register as a separate private political party.

The committee met earlier this month on March 15th, to discuss registering and running in the upcoming elections. IMNA’s March 18th coverage of the event shared how the meeting was inconclusive, as a large faction of the party refused to support Burma’s 2008 constitution, a mandate for registering as a political party. A second meeting was rescheduled for March 31st. IMNA’s reporter learned that the date for the second meeting was bumped ahead, after Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) announced its decision not to run in the 2010 elections.

IMNA’s reporter learned that the 5 individuals planning to register as a party in the 2010 Burmese elections are: Dr Min Nwe Soe, Nai Hla Aung from the Mon Literature Organization, university organizer Nai San Tin, former New Mon State Party (NMSP) colonel Nai Myint Swe, and Dr Banya Aung Moe.

“Our committee members have disagreed with the 2008 constitution since the beginning and they could not go ahead with the 2010 elections. In the March 30th meeting, we decided not to organize a political party, certainly” a member of the committee, who voted against political party registration.

IMNA’s reporter learned that the 5 members of the nascent political party are in the midst of the political registration process and are busily drafting their new organization’s political platform; however the group refused to release its platform’s details at the present time

According to one of the 5 dissenters, who asked to remain anonymous, the quintet has decided to join the elections in order to represent the Mon people; he claimed that without their party, voters in Mon state would be entirely devoid of any party from their ethnic group to vote for in October.

Unfortunately, the Mon politicians that IMNA spoke with are dubious that the party will gain any real interest from the Mon people it seeks to represent, as the 5 individuals involved are not particularly well known within Mon State.

The original 15 member working committee was founded in July 2009, after the 14th anniversary of the NMSP’s ceasefire agreement with the SPDC, with the publicly announced goal of working towards party membership, and Mon participation, in open elections.

Mudon town educators make a profit off of 10-standard exams

Yin Mon, Lai Mon

The going rate for passing 10-standard examinations for the 2009-2010 school year in Mudon town, Mon State, starts at 100,000 kyat, student in the city claim.

Parents and student from the town explained to IMNA that teachers and high school principle are offering 10-standard students a chance to access their exam scores early, before they are official announced, for the fee of 100,000 kyat. Changing a failing score to a passing one is also possible, for the price of an additional 100,000 kyat each of the 6 exams taken.

Burma’s annual 10-standard examinations are an extremely important test within the country. Passing the exams is required for all students seeking to graduate from high school, and exam scores are also used to determine the caliber of university a prospective student will attend.

“If you want to know your children’s results [pass or fail] before the educated department announces the results, I have a contact. You have to pay me 100,000 kyat, and I will try [to get the test results] for your son” a Mudon town’s mother quoted a local educator saying to her.
A second student’s mother explained that following the exams, educators from her son’s school checked the unreleased exam grade, and them visited the homes of students who had failed exams, like her son, to straightforwardly offer exam changes for 100,000 kyat


“Believe it, you have to pay, but you will know if your children can pass or not” this woman quoted the local principle saying.

Exam extortion is a long-tolerated practice in Mudon Town, and in Mon State in general, students and parents complained to IMNA. A student who took 10-standard examinations for a second time this year explained that following his examinations in Mudon town last year, a teacher visited his home and offered to change his exam grades. His mother refused to pay the fee required, and resultantly he failed his examinations.

Sources explained that parents often refuse to pay bribes to educators; a teacher frequently will accept funds but will later refuse to change failing exam grades.

A second Mudon town student who retook his exams this year told IMNA,

“The teacher said to me, if I paid about 300,000 kyat, she will help me [pass], I gave that money to my teacher, because I believed her, but when the results came out, I have failed, I lost my money.”