BurmaNet News, January 13, 2004

[Editor]

January 13, 2005, Issue # 2635


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar opposition NLD considers helping junta draft constitution
Xinhua: Myanmar steps up reform of capital city
Irrawaddy: NLD accused of using CRPP as a weapon
SHAN: Burma reduces value of the Straits

BUSINESS
AFP: India, Bangladesh, Myanmar agree in principle to gas pipeline: report

REGIONAL
Nation: Tsunami-hit Thai villagers assault health workers aiding Burmese
labourers
Irrawaddy: Prominent Thai senator slams treatment of Burmese
Financial Times: Burma migrants fear expulsion from Thailand
AFP: Tsunamis likely to put two million more in poverty in Asia: ADB
AFP: Up to three months to draw up tsunami reconstruction plan: World Bank

OPINION / OTHER
Bangkok Post: Do our prejudices know no bounds?

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 13, Agence France Presse
Myanmar opposition NLD considers helping junta draft constitution

Yangon: Myanmar's main opposition party headed by Aung San Suu Kyi said
Thursday it wants to "start from a clean slate" with the country's
military junta and enter talks which could see it help draft a
constitution.

"We want to meet and discuss with the authorities, as we have said
earlier, and we are also interested in drafting the constitution," NLD
spokesman U Lwin told AFP.

"Why don't we start from a clean slate? We always hoped to draft the
constitution," U Lwin said.

The junta announced Wednesday that a national convention aimed at drafting
a new constitution would resume on February 17. It describes the
convention as the first of seven steps on its "road map" to democracy.

The convention was launched last May but was boycotted by the NLD, whose
leader Aung San Suu Kyi was and remains under house arrest.

Western governments and the United Nations said the convention, attended
by 1,000 hand-picked delegates, lacked any credibility without the
participation of the main opposition party.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since a 1962 coup. The NLD won a
sweeping 1990 election victory that was never recognised by the generals.

U Lwin insisted the NLD had not changed its stance regarding the national
convention. The party insists that it will join the proceedings only if
Aung San Suu Kyi and her number two Tin Oo are released from house arrest
and if NLD offices around the country are allowed to reopen following a
crackdown in 2003.

"Our position remains the same," he said.

Senior junta member Lieutenant General Thein Sein, who chairs the
convention commission, told state media that armed ethnic groups who had
signed ceasefire agreements with the regime would attend the convention.

The timing of the resumption of the convention had been thrown into doubt
by the ousting of the road map's chief architect General Khin Nyunt, who
was sacked as premier in October and placed under house arrest for alleged
corruption.

In November Thein Sein said Myanmar would go ahead with the road map
despite Khin Nyunt's ousting.

____________________________________

January 13, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar steps up reform of capital city

Yangon: Myanmar is stepping up reform of the capital city of Yangon by
undertaking a plan to replace old- aged and dangerous buildings built
before the Second World War in an effort to transform it into a city that
is in conformity with the characteristics of a modern one.

65 buildings in the capital were designated in 2004 as in danger status
requiring demolition and rebuilding, the local Flower News journal quoted
the Yangon City Development Committee as saying Thursday.

The committee has made such designations since 1986. Renovation or total
demolition for rebuilding was advised with encouragement and facilities
were provided to the inhabitants.

According to the committee, such outdated buildings are mostly found in
nine downtown municipal areas, which were built before Myanmar's
independence in 1948.

The Yangon municipal area has doubled in the past eight years. Expanding
eastward, the area has increased to 686 square kilometers in 2004 from 344
square kilometers in 1996, and its population has grown to 5.8 million in
2004 from 5.56 million in 2000.

The population density in the downtown area stands at 57,937 per square
kilometer now.

Meanwhile, the government has projected to further expand the municipal
area of Yangon by more than 77 square kilometers in the next five years to
make it cover more than 770 square kilometers by 2010.

Yangon was founded by Myanmar King Alaungpaya in 1755.

____________________________________

January 13, Irrawaddy
NLD accused of using CRPP as a weapon - Nandar Chann

Several Burmese weekly publications are carrying an identical article
accusing the National League for Democracy, or NLD, of using the Committee
Representing the People’s Parliament, or CRPP, as a “weapon.”

The article appears under the nom-de-plume Maung Pyi Thu (“A citizen”).

“Many journals were forced to run these identical reports,” a publisher
told The Irrawaddy by telephone from Rangoon.

The article accuses the NLD and the CRPP of being unreasonable with the
government and warns that CRPP could be closed down for operating as an
outlawed organization.

The warning was described as a “threat” by Fu Cin Sian Thang, chairman of
the Zomi National Congress and an ethnic member of the CRPP.

“The NLD is using an unlawful organization like the CRPP as a weapon,” the
article charges. The CRPP’s attempt to get a parliament convened and to
organize an interim government is “irrational”, the writer says.

The CRPP has been calling for a parliament to assemble and to work as a
legislature until it is properly convened.

The CRPP was established by the main opposition group, the NLD, and by a
number of smaller, ethnic-based political parties in September 1998, after
the ruling junta continued to refuse to recognize the results of the 1990
general election.

The CRPP has the support of 251 elected members of the parliament that
should have been convened after the election.

_____________________________________

January 13, Shan Herald Agency for News
Burma reduces value of the Straits

The Straits of Malacca's importance to China as well as India has now been
significantly reduced by Burma's agreement to allow its neighbors the use
as well as the improvement of its land routes, according to a senior
government official in Rangoon.

"In the past, the Straits had served as a lifeline to both counties," the
official who wished to remain unidentified elaborated, "For China, the
Straits was its access to the Middle East oil and for India, the doorway
to its Fareast markets. But now that Myanmar has opened its doors to these
countries for passage, their future has inescapably become intertwined
with ours."

Thailand, India and China have already signed agreements with Rangoon to
develop its dilapidated motorway, railway and waterway systems, he said.

In addition, while India is planning to rechannel its merchandise to
Thailand through southern Burma by building a deep sea port in Tavoy
(Dawei), China will also be constructing a corresponding one at Arakan's
Kyaukhpyu.

"It can therefore be concluded that we will be able to withstand the
sanctions from the West for another 4-5 years," he said confidently. "And
now that we are on board together with our neighbors, when they get
richer, so will we."

Jose Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, according to Bangkok
Post, 30 August 2004, had said: Without India and China's cooperation and
partnership, no amount of sanctions by the European Union and the United
States will alter the situation on the ground in Burma.

Gangantah Jha, security expert and professor of Jawarharlal Nehru
University's International Studies, also claimed, "No country in the
region can afford to wait for democracy to happen in Burma," according to
Irrawaddy, October 2004 issue.

The late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, Shan scholar and leader, however, had
offered a different slant on the question of sanctions:

"What the SPDC wants is not removal of sanctions, simply because it knows
they are totally ineffective. What the SPDC wants is the resumption of
bilateral government to government assistance and multilateral assistance
from the global financial institutions."

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

January 13, Agence France Presse
India, Bangladesh, Myanmar agree in principle to gas pipeline: report

Yangon: India, Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed in principle to
cooperate in a gas exploration and overland pipeline project that would
send gas to energy-hungry India, state media reported Thursday.

A meeting of ministers from the neighbouring countries took place
Wednesday in Yangon.

"The responsible energy ministers of the three countries agreed to
cooperate to explore, drill and develop the offshore natural gas field in
western Myanmar as well as to pipe the gas to India through Bangladesh,"
the official New Light of Myanmar reported in its local language edition.

On Tuesday, India's Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer said signals from the
other nations suggested "there should not be much problem in arriving at
an agreement."

A petroleum sector analyst in Yangon familiar with the discussions said it
could take up to two years to finalise contracts for the project, with
pricing, right of way, and environment issues the key concerns.

India, which last week struck a 25-year deal to import 7.5 million tonnes
of liquefied natural gas a year from Iran from 2009, is looking for more
fuel as demand soars with rapid economic growth.

India is predicted to require 400 million standard cubic meters of gas per
day by 2025, up from today's 90 million standard cubic meters.

The pipeline was one of several options India has been considering to
bring gas reserves from the Shwe Field's Block A-1 site.

India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has a 20 percent stake
in Myanmar's A-1 and A-3 Blocks, while the Gas Authority of India has a 10
percent stake in the two sites.

The Press Trust of India news agency has said Bangladesh was likely to
earn about 125 million dollars annually in transit fees from the proposed
pipeline.

The pipeline would run through Arakan (Rakhine) state in Myanmar via the
Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura before crossing Bangladesh to the
northeastern Indian city of Calcutta, it said.

Myanmar earns some 400 million dollars per year from its annual gas sales
to neighbour Thailand from its Yadana and Yetagun gas fields in the south,
the analyst said.

"Opening the market to the west (India) would significantly increase
earnings from gas which is already Myanmar's number one foreign exchange
earner," he said.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 13, The Nation
Tsunami-hit Thai villagers assault health workers aiding Burmese labourers

Three officials from World Vision, an international health organization,
were roughed up and caged for seven hours in Phang Nga's Tap Lamu fishing
village because locals were afraid that they were there to take back
Burmese migrant workers.

Another World Vision official, a Thai, who had intervened on the behalf of
the three officials, all Burmese, was beaten up by about 30 people,
eyewitnesses said.

The fishing village, which was devastated by the tsunami, has many migrant
workers, most of whom are Burmese.

They are preferred over locals because they accept lower pay and are less
demanding.

The World Vision officials were working with the Labour Ministry on the
resettlement of the Burmese workers, who wanted to leave the
tsunami-devastated area for employment at a different location. They were
afraid that they would not receive any pay because most of fishing
trawlers the Burmese work on were destroyed during the tsunami.

Lt-Col Akachai Phuekmanee, an inspector at the Tai Muang Police Station,
said the villagers were frustrated and confused over the identity of the
officials.

He did not name Thawee Paeyai, chairman of the Tap Lamu Fishery Federation
and also kamnan, as the instigator.

But an aid worker on the scene said Thawee and his assistant, who were
armed and feisty, were behind the order for the attack.

Thawee could not be reached for comment but his wife told The Nation by
phone that he had passed out because of the commotion. She would not
confirm or deny the accusation.

"These Burmese (World Vision officials) are troublemakers. They're here to
take away our Burmese workers," she said.

One eyewitness said Thawee had scolded the three Burmese while they were
caged. "If it weren't for the sensitivity of the locals, I would piss on
you. You don't have any right to take them back," Thawee was quoted as
telling the Burmese.

The Burmese aid workers had their documents and mobile phones taken.

Akachai said the dispute stemmed from a misunderstanding and concern from
trawler owners that they would be left without Burmese seamen.

The Labour Ministry had collected 3,000 baht per migrant worker from the
village businesses for the work permits. Many employers felt that they
would not be properly compensated if the workers left, Akachai said.

The three aid workers were taken to the police station after being locked
up in a cage for seven hours and were still being held when The Nation
went to press.
_____________________________________

January 13, Irrawaddy
Prominent Thai senator slams treatment of Burmese - Punnisa
Nimmanahaeminda and Aung Lwin Oo

A prominent Thai senator on Thursday criticized the treatment meted out to
some Burmese tsunami survivors by officialdom.

“Thai law enforcement should not take all Burmese as criminals,” said
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Kraisak Choonhaven.
“The situation is not normal at all.” Kraisak noted that a number of local
figures in areas hit by the tsunami had also prevented Burmese from
receiving disaster aid.

His comments followed media reports that Burmese tsunami survivors in
southern Thailand who were unable to produce registration documents were
being detained and deported.

“The government’s policy is not a double standard. We treat them all
equally whether they are Thai or not,” claimed Minister of the Interior
Bhokin Bhalakula on Thursday. “We do not have any policy to suppress or
arrest them [Burmese tsunami survivors].”

However, police have taken a harder line against Burmese in the southern
disaster zone since a January 8 story in the mass circulation Thai
newspaper Khao Sot headlined Maung Thieves (maung is a Thai pejorative
term for Burmese). The article stated that at least a thousand Burmese
looters on pickups were stripping Khao Lak bare.

Somyos Leetrakul, center, a worker for World Vision an international
Christian relief and development agency is taken by Thai villagers to a
police station near Phang Nga, southern Thailand on Wednesday, January 12,
2005 after being beaten by an angry mob.

Strangely, the paper claimed that the “Burmese” looters had tricked local
people into thinking they were southern Thais by learning to speak fluent
Southern Thai dialect (apparently in anticipation of the tsunami). The
publication provided no substantive evidence to back up any of its claims,
which were repeated on television.

In contrast to forced repatriation, some Burmese workers who want to
return to Burma are prevented from leaving by their employers. “They [the
Burmese] wanted to go back to Burma but employers refuse to grant their
wishes,” said Kraisak.

The situation reached farcical proportions on Wednesday when six World
Vision relief workers were accosted by a mob in the fishing village of Ban
Thab Lamu, Phang Nga Province. World Vision coordinator Somyos Leetrakul,
a Thai national, was beaten by the crowd. The six were then driven to the
police station at Tha Muang and detained, but not formally arrested.

Their crime? Helping Burmese migrant workers return home to Burma. Somyos
is currently in Phuket Hospital. The whereabouts of his five Burmese
co-workers, three of whom are doctors, are not known.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee suggested to the government that
centers be set up in Khao Lak and Ban Namkem, Phang Nga Province to
provide relief to Burmese tsunami survivors in Thailand.

_____________________________________

January 13, Financial Times
Burma migrants fear expulsion from Thailand: Following the disaster, many
are hiding in the hills - Tony Cheng and Amy Kazmin

Soe, a 24-year-old Burmese migrant worker in Thailand, was setting tables
for lunch at the Khao Lak beachfront resort where he had been employed for
a year when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the hotel - its force knocking
him unconscious.

Badly injured, Soe awoke to find himself in a rubber plantation 100m away,
surrounded by bodies. After dragging severely wounded survivors towards
the main road, he ran to his hillside shanty to search for his wife and
one-year-old daughter, whom he found unharmed.

Yet Soe, his family, 14 other Burmese migrant workers - and three Burmese
children whose parents disappeared in the tsunami - are now in desperate
condition. They are hiding in the mountains - unable to find essential
food, clean water, or doctors - fearing Thai authorities will deport them
back to impoverished Burma.

"We're afraid of the police," said Soe, wincing in pain from an untreated
leg injury. "I feel very bad for those who are with me, especially those
who are going hungry, but there is nothing I can do. The authorities won't
let the aid get to us. If I go and complain, they'll accuse me of
something."

Wealthy Thailand has long depended on an estimated 1m migrant workers from
its poorer, military-ruled neighbour, Burma, to carry out jobs too dirty,
dangerous, or poorly paid for local people. In Phang-nga - the Thai
province hardest hit by the tsunami - social activists say as many as
50,000 Burmese were working on construction sites, hotels, and fishing
boats before the wave struck. Around 30,000 of the labourers were
officially registered, an expensive process supposed to give them basic
legal protection.

But many of southern Thailand's Burmese workers are believed to have
perished on December 26. UN officials and activists say their true number
may never be known.

While ample aid has been provided for western tourists and Thai tsunami
victims, immigration authorities have launched an intensive crackdown on
the Burmese survivors and their families, forcing them into hiding and
cutting them off from humanitarian relief.

"The Thai government has made commitments that people will be treated
appropriately and with compassion, but there doesn't seem to be much by
authorities at the local level," said Debbie Stothard, an activist with
the Alternative Asean Network on Burma.

"People who have already suffered from losing friends, relatives,
belongings and their jobs are now being subjected to harassment and
intimidation."

Thai authorities, who say they began rounding up Burmese migrants after
discovering that some had looted damaged hotels, admit they have deported
around 1,000 Burmese so far, but insist that only those without proper
working papers were sent back.

But Pramon Somwong, an activist with the Chiang Mai-based Migrant
Assistance Programme, said the papers of many Burmese workers at Khao Lak
beaches were held by Thai employers, some of whom had perished in the
tsunami. Ms Pramon says immigration authorities are seizing Burmese
indiscriminately, with little effort to determine individuals' true
status. To avoid such round-ups, many Burmese are hiding in the province's
jungle-covered mountains.

Yet the deportations have hit a few roadblocks. Burma's military rulers,
who apparently fear a return of political dissidents, closed the border
crossing near the southern coastal town of Kawthaung. Thai employers,
anticipating rising demand for labour, are also resisting, with one Thai
construction company reportedly using firearms to demand the release of
its workers from police custody, as demolition and reconstruction projects
get under way.

As for Soe, he plans to remain hiding in the mountains a while longer.

_____________________________________

January 13, Agence France Presse
Tsunamis likely to put two million more in poverty in Asia: ADB

Manila: The earthquake and resultant tsunami that devastated Indian Ocean
countries last month will likely throw nearly two million more people into
poverty in Asia, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Thursday.

In Indonesia, worst hit in the December 26 disaster with more than 106,000
dead, nearly one million people are likely to be plunged into poverty by
the lingering effects of the tsunami's devastation, the report said.

According to the ADB's key indicators for the region some 111 million
people in Indonesia now live on two US dollars a day.

In India the number of poor was estimated to increase by 645,000, with Sri
Lanka's estimate at 250,000, it said.

About half of the houses in the Maldives were affected and about half the
population of around 287,000 could fall below the poverty line, it said.

The increase in poverty from the disaster, which killed nearly 160,000
people in Asia and Africa, will be "enormous" but the economies of the
region should cope, the Manila-based bank's chief economist Ifzal Ali
said.

"As devastating as the disaster is to the people in affected areas, Asia's
resilience to external shocks will play a role in minimizing the impact
the disaster will have on the region's overall economic growth," Ali said.

"This is a profoundly tragic event for the region and for the millions who
are suffering. But the economies of the affected countries except Sri
Lanka and the Maldives should emerge with minimal damage," he said.

In Indonesia, India and Thailand the damage was largely confined to rural
areas rather than key economic and densely populated urban centers and
industrial hubs that drive regional growth, the report said.

In Indonesia, the damage is concentrated in Aceh province, which accounts
for two percent of Indonesia's overall GDP.

The report said the oil and natural gas facilities in the area appear to
have survived intact.

In India, the economic impact should be minimal as well due to the huge
size of the country's economy. The macroeconomic impact is also expected
to be minimal in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Myanmar.

"In Thailand, the damage was centered on southern resort areas that
contribute about three percent to the country's GDP," the report said.

"The greatest risk to the country's economy comes from the possibility of
tourists perceiving Thailand as an unsafe destination.

"The rest of the country should not be affected unless there is some sort
of negative perception about the country's safety that leads to a domino
effect," the report said.

The report noted the region is well positioned to withstand such economic
shocks.

"Following strong growth from 2001 to 2004, the economies of India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand should be in a strong position to
overcome the tragedy.

"For these countries, recent growth has been strong, fiscal positions have
improved, and external reserves are high, with the shock absorber of the
disaster coming from the government's fiscal position," the ADB said.

It noted that the tragedy could also provide a surge of economic activity
in the region that could have positive long-term effects.

"Reconstruction from natural disasters requires new investment that should
have a positive impact. And investment should translate into jobs.

"The aid process has already increased demand for a range of domestic
goods and services, including food, water, medicines, building materials
and clothing, as well as transport and communication services, which will
benefit a number of domestic businesses.

"Therefore, it is possible that the overall impact could well end up being
somewhat positive," the report said.

"From an economic standpoint, the tsunami disaster should be seen in the
context of other disasters that have hit Asia, the report noted.

"Historically, Asia has been subjected to regular shocks and its countries
have always responded swiftly and pragmatically.

"Asia has always been characterized by resilience in the face of
turbulence," Ali said.

"With the passage of time, the wounds from the tsunami disaster will heal
and the affected countries will emerge stronger to face future
challenges."

_____________________________________

January 13, Agence France Presse
Up to three months to draw up tsunami reconstruction plan: World Bank

Washington: World Bank President James Wolfensohn said Wednesday it would
take up to three months to draw up a detailed reconstruction plan for
tsunami-hit nations, cautioning against rushing through with the massive
effort.

He said communities ravaged by the December 26 earthquake and giant tidal
waves along the Indian Ocean coast needed time to "heal" from the disaster
before working together with the authorities to devise rehabilitation
programs.

"To hurry the process without getting the people involved is probably not
going to work," Wolfensohn said on his return to Washington after touring
devastated areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

They were among a dozen countries -- including Thailand, India, Malaysia
and Myanmar -- hit by the disaster, caused by an undersea earthquake off
Sumatra that unleashed towering waves, killing more than 156,000 people.

As many as five million people were thought to be homeless or without food
and clean water.

"I think (it will take about) a month or two or even three to fill in the
details (of a comprehensive reconstruction plan). This is not a trivial
disaster. This is something where they're starting from ground zero," said
Wolfensohn, whose bank would spearhead the reconstruction programs.

He said one-half or one-third of the civil servants in areas hit by the
disaster had perished, making it more difficult to rapidly draw up such a
plan.

Each country, he added, would take about two weeks to complete a
preliminary assessment of the destruction that could give a "broad" view
of requirements.

Wolfensohn also said the World Bank would introduce a cash grant program
for many of the families reeling from the disaster.

"We have done this in certain other areas, and I have no doubt that we
will be doing it in Sri Lanka and Indonesia as well, to try and get people
something so they can buy clothes or food or whatever it is they need," he
said.

The United Nations said it would require the biggest humanitarian aid
operation in its nearly 60-year history to cope with the disaster and had
appealed for 977 million dollars in immediate aid.

In Geneva on Tuesday, donors pledged 717 million dollars, including 250
million dollars from Japan, for emergency relief efforts, a total UN
officials hailed as an unprecedented response to a natural disaster.

The World Bank itself had announced it would commit an initial 250 million
dollars for emergency reconstruction and Wolfensohn said Wednesday that
the amount could spiral up to one billion dollars to 1.5 billion dollars.

He said he was personally "apprehensive or somewhat doubtful" about the
accuracy of funding figures that had been mentioned until the
reconstruction demands in the affected areas were clarified.

According to an AFP tally, public aid made by governments totals slightly
more than eight billion dollars and private donations amounted to over two
billion dollars. Along with cash donations, the figure includes promised
debt relief and low-interest loans.

Wolfensohn said the World Bank was already meeting the needs of immediate
reconstruction in some of the affected economies, such as restoration of
power and water supplies and building of bridges and roads.

He cited as an example a recently signed 300 million dollar pact with
Indonesia for implementation of such basic facilities.

But rebuilding homes, for example, would be part of the comprehensive plan
that would take weeks and months to develop, he said.

"When you have 100,000 homes destroyed, the question is where do you put
the homes and in what sort of communal structure," Wolfensohn said. "At
the moment, you don't even know how much of the community is left in many
of these cases."

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 13, Bangkok Post
Do our prejudices know no bounds? - Sanitsuda Ekachai

Whatever the colour of our skin, we all look the same when our bodies
decompose. That is what the array of corpses at Wat Yanyao informs us, the
living. So why the fuss about our racial or ethnic differences?

No matter how rich or poor we are, the loss of our loved ones is equally
overwhelming in our hearts. Since we are all the same, don't all the
victims and survivors of the Dec 26 tsunami deserve equal assistance?

Sadly, the Thai authorities do not think so, not when it comes to migrant
workers from Burma. As we Thais celebrate the massive outpouring of our
own generosity for the tsunami victims _ particularly for the foreign
tourists, the country has totally ignored the plight of poor migrant
workers who, like us, lost family members and their source of income when
the killer waves hit the Andaman coast.

Like us, their lives have been shattered. But we do not recognise their
deaths and their losses. We do not give them relief aid. Worse, we punish
those who survived the disaster by deporting them to a precarious life
back in Burma, which refuses to accept its own citizens.

What has become of us?
There are more than 120,000 registered manual labourers from Burma in the
fisheries, construction, rubber and other industries in Ranong, Phangnga,
Phuket, Krabi, Satun and Trang provinces. The real number of migrant
workers could be at least twice that figure.

Thousands of these people are believed to have perished when the tidal
waves hit those provinces. According to survivors' accounts, at least
1,000 are missing in Phangnga alone.

These survivors believe many of their loved ones are lying unattended at
Wat Yanyao among the unidentified. But they are too scared to go and check
and collect the bodies for fear of being arrested and deported.

The fear is well-grounded.

Thanks to the media and nationalist history, the general Thai public
harbour a deep prejudice against the Burmese as a ruthless and
untrustworthy people who destroyed our once glorious capital and now steal
our jobs, rob their employers and bring us contagious diseases.

Right after the tsunami, an actor who served as a rescue volunteer told
the media he suspected a group of looters he saw were migrant Burmese
workers. The mere suspicion awakened the deep prejudice against the
Burmese.

To confirm these suspicions, the police immediately arrested a group of
migrant workers accused of looting. The media proclaimed the Burmese were
out to hit us again in out time of tragedy. Instead of sending the accused
to court, as is their basic right, the migrants were immediately deported.
And then the authorities began rounding up all migrant workers with the
excuse that the crackdown was necessary to prevent further crimes during
this time of emergency.

Who cares if these people are registered workers legally entitled to the
same assistance as all Thai workers? Who cares if deporting them will
aggravate their plight? Who cares if will they face danger in Burma, which
was also ravaged by the tsunami? According to local NGOs, more than 1,000
migrant workers have been deported. When Koh Song in Burma refused to
accept them, the officials reportedly left them to their own devices on
nearby islands.

To avoid deportation, many survivors have fled to the mountains where they
are hungry, afraid and jobless. Is that why some have turned to theft?
Many Thais agree with the deportations, saying the scarce resources
available during the emergency should be for Thais alone.

The foreign tourists may applaud Thai generosity, but the tales our
neighbours tell their children and grandchildren about us Thais will be
much less flattering. These will be tales of racism, cruelty and
heartlessness. They will be tales of a deep prejudice that could not be
moved even by a natural disaster that highlighted the transience of life,
the sameness of humanity and the futility of all prejudice.

When will we ever learn?

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor of the Bangkok Post