People face bleak future under military

Abdul Khalik ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Kawthoung, Myanmar   |  Mon, 06/23/2008 10:35 AM  |  Headlines

More than a dozen teenagers chased after a group of foreign tourists and reporters after the group finished with Thai immigration officials in Renong, 600 kilometers south of Bangkok.

Although still inside Thailand, scores of Myanmarese teenagers aggressively offered their boats to take the foreigners, including an American, two Australians, a couple of Italians and The Jakarta Post, across the strait into the Myanmar town of Kawthoung.

The struggle was won by 13-year-old Maw Mya and his friend, 15-year-old Khyat, who both quickly made their boat ready for the foreigners. Each passenger paid 100 Thai baht (US$3) before the boat set sail.

With Khyat busily steering, Maw Mya had time to offer some merchandise to the passengers.

"You want Viagra? It's cheap. For 300 baht you get one pack containing four tablets. You can boom boom (make love) for four hours straight," he told an Australian.

The American, who seems to have tried the Viagra sold in the border areas, quickly handed over some money and said,"Give me two packs."

"Is it good?" other passengers asked the American.

"Yeah. And very cheap too. That's why I keep coming back," he said with a smile. The other passengers quickly pulled out their money and bought two or three packs.

Nobody knows where the drugs come from, but speculation is from China.

Entering Myanmar territory, the boat stopped at a military checkpoint, where troops with rifles in hand welcomed Maw Mya.

They exchanged words, and the boy handed over some money to a soldier before leaving the checkpoint for Kawthoung's small port.

The passengers filed into an immigration office at the port to get a tourist visa, paying US$10 for the 12-day visa.

Talking to the Post before heading back to Renong, Maw Mya said he had to leave school after two years to work to support his 65-year-old mother.

"My father was shot by the military, and my mother is very old now. I have to work so that I can take care of her," he said.

Maw Mya is not alone in being forced to quit school. As the foreigners left the immigration office, dozens of teenagers approached them.

In broken English, they offered their services as guides.

Some of them offered the foreigners teenage girls.

"I have a 15-year-old girl if you want," one of the boys told the Post.

Mui Mui, 21, was forced to become a sex worker in Kawthoung after her home was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, which killed some of her family.

"We have no home now. So, our family is spread out in many places, looking for shelter. Some people I know offered me a job here, and because I have to support myself and my family, I accepted the offer. So, here I am," she said while waiting for customers at a beach in Kawthoung.

She charges 1,000 baht (about US$32) per night, but only receives half of that amount, the rest going to her pimp. With fewer tourists entering the country from Thailand, she only has one or two customers a week.

Life is getting harder for the people of Myanmar, and many of the country's 50 million people don't know how to earn a living.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the country's unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in 2006, from 5 percent in 2005.

Many experts, however, speculated that the unemployment rate in 2008 reached 15 to 20 percent as a result of skyrocketing oil prices.

Even if people can get a job, the pay is far from enough to cover their basic needs, with the ever-increasing prices due to rising oil prices. Shop attendants in large cities, for instance, earn only about 1,000 baht ($30) a month.

GOING HOME: Two female students walk home after school in Myeik, about 600 kilometers southeast of Yangon. (JP/Abdul Khalik)

The difficulty in meeting basic needs has forced families to let their children leave school and find whatever work they can, including becoming sex workers, to support the families.

According to the UN Children's Fund (Unicef), Myanmar has one of the highest primary school dropout rates in the world, with up to half of children leaving school before finishing five years of education, due to poverty and pressure to help their parents by working.

The future of millions of Myanmarese children was put in further doubt with the coming of Nargis, which slammed the country on May 2 and 3, killing more than 130,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings, including schools.

According to Myanmar education authorities, more than 4,000 primary, middle and high schools that previously served an estimated 1.1 million children were damaged or destroyed in the cyclone.

Of the 4,000 schools affected, about 1,200 were demolished, another 800 were severely damaged and 2,000 lost their roofs in the powerful winds of the storm.

Yang, one of Myanmar's few educated young people, said his country had lost one or maybe two generations under the military regime, which has neglected education in order to serve their own interests.

The 24-year-old, who has a master's degree in international relations from Rangoon University, was forced to go abroad to work as a bartender at a club in Thailand.

"Many teenagers leave school after one or two years only. What can they do? Only working to buy food for the day, without knowing what to eat the next day. We are poor, and we have no future," he told the Post in Myeik, 200 kilometers north of Kawthoung.

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