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news September 17 - 23, 2012 Residents protest FMI eviction plan By Noe Noe Aung RESIDENTS of a slum area in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township held a demonstration on September 13 against plans by a local firm to evict them from their homes. The demonstration was held in front of FMI City, where many of the protesters say they have been employed for years as construction workers and gardeners. The protesters live in an area behind the FMI City residences. The neighbourhood, located beside Tharyar Gone Creek and known locally as the “Labourers’ Community”, is home to about 2000 people from more than 300 families. “We have worked for First Myanmar Investment at FMI City since 1995,” said U Thaung Sein, a former full-time assistant labourer in charge of gardening at the residences. According to FMI City management, he was fired in 2005 for “breaking the company’s rules”. “The place we are living now is the place the company gave us to live, but now they want us to move out and have even brought charges against some of us for not leaving. But they don’t own this land. We are living in a vacant lot near Tharyar Gone Creek behind the residences,” U Thaung Sein said. He said most of the people living in the slum have census and national identification cards, although some lost their census cards during Cyclone Nargis in 2008. “The township authorities have given approval for us to live here and they even allowed us to vote in the 2010 election. But now First Myanmar Investment is accusing us of invading their property. We didn’t invade. The company gave us this place to live when they built FMI City,” U Thaung Sein said. He said that nearly all the adults living in the community have worked for daily wages in FMI City, mostly as construction workers, gardeners and cleaning staff. U Aung Zaw Win, a former gardener for FMI City who was also fired in 2005, said the neighbourhood had been approved by former township authorities and there was even a signboard reading “Labourers’ Community” at the entrance. “But the company took the signboard a few months ago, and now they say we are invaders,” he said, adding that the company has brought lawsuits against more than 50 people for not leaving the neighbourhood after they were warned to vacate. “We have nowhere to go, so we didn’t move. All of us work for daily wages and we don’t have spare money to rent a house somewhere else. So we held a protest to request that we be allowed to continue living here and that they stop suing us,” U Aung Zaw Win said. He said First Myanmar Investment also told the people against whom charges have been brought that they would have to repay court expenses and transportation fees after the trials. “We don’t have a chance to fight the charges because we are poor. But we also can’t move because we have no money due to the fact that we are daily wage earners. Now we have to pay all the expenses,” U Aung Zaw Win said. One 35-year-old housewife who lives in the Labourers’ Community said residents know they do not own the land, but they also want First Myanmar Investment to understand their difficulties. “Every family has students. Most of the children here are learning in the monastery because their parents don’t have enough money to send them to school. And we don’t have enough money to move to another place,” she said. The housewife said the company first told them to move in 2007 but they had nowhere to go. “Then FMI City started throwing all their trash here. We had to build our houses on top of piles of waste. And this year they started bringing lawsuits against us. Some families moved out because they were afraid, but most of us still live here,” she said. U Aung Zaw Win said about 200 people in the community have identification cards from the company because of their jobs as construction workers for FMI City. Some 10 the MyanMar tiMes Protesters hold signs in front of FMI City in Hlaing Tharyar township. Pic: Kaung Htet Linn ‘ We didn’t invade. The company gave us this land when they built FMI City.’ are permanent workers and some are temporary, he added. But Daw Nwe Win, the manager of the FMI City residences, said there were only ever two permanent labourers there. “We had only two permanent labourers before, but we fired them in 2005 because they broke the company’s rules,” she said, referring to U Thaung Sein and U Aung Zaw Win. U Khin Maung Win, the deputy estate manager of FMI City residences, acknowledged that the company sometimes hires construction workers on a day-to-day basis. “But they can’t say they are workers for our company. They are daily wage earners, and they work at other places too,” he said. Daw Nwe Win said First Myanmar Investment has brought lawsuits against 58 people for not leaving the land. So far 24 of them have been brought to court, with three more scheduled to appear on September 19. No decisions have been passed down by the judge yet. “Our company owns a total 650 acres, from the entrance to the residences to Tharyar Gone Creek. We allowed people to live there in the past because we didn’t need to use some of the land behind the residences, but now we are planning to extend the area of FMI City and build new houses there,” she said. “We first told them to move out in 2007 and they didn’t go, so in June we started bringing lawsuits against them at Hlaing Tharyar Township Court. We’ve filed lawsuits against 58 people to make them leave the area.” “The new houses can’t be too close to the place where these people live. Some of our residents are worried about their security now, and sometimes these people act rudely towards our engineers. Some of them have moved but many are still here,” Daw Nwe Win said.
11 news the MyanMar tiMes September 17 - 23, 2012 Indonesia Red Cross lends hand in Rakhine By Yamon Phu Thit THE Myanmar Red Cross Society will cooperate with the Indonesian Red Cross in providing humanitarian support for people affected by unrest in Rakhine State, MRCS president Dr Tha Hla Shwe announced at a signing ceremony in Yangon on September 8. The support, which starts this month, will include short and long-term programs related to disaster response, recovery, and youth and volunteer management, Dr Tha Hla Shwe said at the ceremony, which was held at Chatrium Hotel. The Indonesian Red Cross, also known as Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI), pledged in a memorandum of cooperation signed at the ceremony to provide financial and technical support for the program. The exact amount of financial support was still under discussion and was not specified at the time of the ceremony. PMI chairperson Mr Jusuf Kalla told The Myanmar Times that the support was offered not for political reasons but rather on a humanitarian basis. “There are disasters everywhere, and these disasters can be natural or manmade. In the case of manmade disasters, we should put all of our efforts into forging harmony between people,” he said. The memorandum of cooperation signals the first phase in what is expected to be ongoing cooperation between MRCS and PMI, with future activities expanding to other areas of concern to both organisations, Dr Tha Hla Shwe said. “At the moment we will occupy ourselves with Rakhine State for the purpose of containing the conflicts there,” he said. PMI secretary general Budi A Adiputro told The Myanmar Times that his organisation’s activities will focus on two approaches in Rakhine State: emergency support and recovery. “The emergency support will last three to six months, after which we will cooperate on recovery activities for a three-year project term,” he said. “The emergency support will include minimum support like building temporary houses for victims, as well as water and sanitation. The recovery activities will include building permanent houses for all the victims.” “Such support will strengthen our existing efforts to provide aid to all affected communities based purely on need, and irrespective of religious, racial and other considerations, in accordance with fundamental Red Cross principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality,” Dr Tha Hla Shwe said. Young doctors face job shortage By Shwe Yee Saw Myint MANY graduate doctors are struggling to find jobs in the under-resourced state health system, despite a four-fold budget increase this financial year, sources say. Myanmar has five medical universities – three in Yangon and one each in Mandalay and Magwe – that altogether produce 2000 graduates a year, said Dr Mei Mei Ko, managing director of MIEKO health care services and former government hospital employee. The majority want to get jobs in the state health system, because it is the only avenue to enrolling in postgraduate medical study. State sector doctors are eligible to enrol in master’s degree programs after two years of service. However, graduates normally face a wait of three or four years before being able to secure a job in the state sector, said Dr Myint Oo, a member of the Myanmar Medical Association’s committee on medical ethics for general practitioners. “More than 6000 medical graduates are not working in the medical field,” Dr Myint Oo said. While waiting to enter state hospitals, graduate doctors sometimes work as tutors or marketing executives at pharmaceutical companies, or attend further private training if they have the financial means. While they can find work at private clinics and hospitals, graduate doctors’ lack of qualifications mean their salary is likely to be low, averaging about K160,000 a month. Experts are calling for the government to both employ more doctors and amend its policy on entry to postgraduate medical study. While the country has about 30,000 registered doctors, Ministry of Health figures show only 5381 are employed in the state health system, including 1853 specialists. “Clearly it is not enough for the country’s population. Twenty years ago doctors had a very good reputation in Myanmar because after graduating they were appointed at state hospitals and they got work experience. Their skills were quite high,” she said. “But now the government appoints newly graduated doctors to positions as assistant township medical officers because the government thinks they need more experience. However, most young doctors do not want to go to rural areas where there is often no electricity, no water supply and low living standards. Some doctors suffer diseases, like malaria and tuberculosis.” The problem is likely to decrease in coming years, as medical universities have cut enrolments by half in 2012, from 2400 to 1200 each. This reduction does not include Mingalardon Defense Services Medical University. While only 500 graduate doctors were offered government jobs in 2011 – one-tenth of the number that sat the entrance exam – 1500 positions were made available in 2012. “I graduated in 2008 from University of Medicine 2 in Yangon but I still haven’t got a job yet,” said Dr Htet Htet Aung, who ‘ Twenty years ago doctors had a very good reputation in Myanmar because after graduating they were appointed at state hospitals and they got work experience.’ unsuccessfully sat the 2011 entrance exam. A private tutor and parttime employee at a private hospital, she also travelled to Nay Pyi Taw on September 1 for the 2012 exam. “I want to get a government position because I’d like to undertake a master’s degree in medicine. Unless I’m employed in the state system, I’ll have no chance to enrol in a master’s degree program because of the government’s policy,” she said. Professor Ye Myint Kyaw, head of the paediatric department at Yankin Children’s Hospital, said he recently suggested during a Ministry of Health discussion in Nay Pyi Taw that the government change its policy on entrance requirements for medical master’s degree programs. “I suggested that the Department of Health change the rules that doctors who want to study a master’s degree must have at least two years service at a government hospital. It is not reasonable because it makes it difficult for graduate doctors to attend further study. Graduates normally have to find a job in the private sector before they can get one at government hospitals. If the government recognised their service at private hospitals it would assist them in enrolling in further study,” he said. He said the increase in budget for the Ministry of Health in 2012-13, from 1.1 percent of the total budget to 3pc, was “a good step” but one that had not yet resulted in a substantial increase in doctors in the state health system.
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