SPEAKING FREELY Verify, don't trust, in Myanmar
By Curtis S Chin
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Clearly, something is up when Myanmar's new President Thein Sein, a former
general, tells his country's parliament to act "according to the desire of the
people" and suspend construction of a US$3.6 billion Chinese-backed
hydroelectric dam. This in a country, also known as Burma, whose authoritarian
military government had long been deaf to the voices and wishes of its own
people.
Now, with a nominally civilian government in place following last year's
election and release of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi from house arrest, Thein Sein
surprised many by announcing the suspension of the controversial 6,000 megawatt
Myitsone dam project in northern Myanmar. The dam's construction was being led
by the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation and most of the power
that would have been produced was scheduled for export to China.
The suspension was widely interpreted as the latest conciliatory gesture by the
new government and a further signal that baby steps toward reform will continue
in an effort to ease international sanctions imposed for the old regime's poor
human rights record. It also may well signal that it is time to take a new look
at the impact and effectiveness of ongoing policies and projects in Myanmar.
Time will tell if the suspension is a real step towards reform, particularly as
those with a stake in the dam going forward apply backroom pressure to lift the
suspension. Thein Sein said the suspension would stay in effect through his
tenure. China Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Myanmar counterpart U Wunna
Maung Lwin have apparently agreed to "properly settle matters" related to the
suspension.
Who can predict what will happen next in a country of limited transparency,
when the decision to suspend might yet be reversed again with a new
determination by the government of "the will of the people?" Just a few weeks
before Thein Sein's announcement, Minister for Electric Power Zaw Min had said
the dam would proceed despite popular opposition.
Wouldn't it be ironic, though, if Myanmar's new government's actions
inadvertently underscored to some of its Asia-Pacific neighbors, including its
Chinese patrons to the north, the value of listening more to affected people
before moving forward with massive and disruptive infrastructure projects?
Effective, robust consultation and public communications are critical to
ensuring long-term support among a nation's citizens for such projects as well
as accountability for those that finance and build them.
Until Thein Sein's September 30 announcement, work was well underway for the
dam on Myanmar's main Irrawaddy River, with completion expected by 2019. As
with other infrastructure projects marked by inadequate public consultation on
siting, design and impact, concerns were raised - in this case by Suu Kyi,
among others - about the consequences for the environment and the livelihoods
that would be destroyed by rising waters.
Families and communities may well still be displaced and the environment
damaged should the Myitsone dam project eventually go forward. In that case,
like many other ill-advised projects in the region, the impact and incentives
that drove this particular hydropower project will become evident only too
late.
This is not to say that all hydropower projects are bad; indeed hydropower can
be a critical and important part of a nation's energy mix. Certainly,
electricity is critical to improving people's lives, and countries that export
electricity produced by hydropower projects may generate revenues to fuel
development and poverty reduction programs at home.
But too often a lack of transparency and consultation, if not outright
corruption, has resulted in scarce funds being misspent on big projects that
defy economic common sense. Smaller, more impactful, projects that would better
serve the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable, whether in Myanmar or
elsewhere, too often go unfunded.
With insufficient consultation with local communities, including of indigenous
peoples and other marginalized groups, those that benefit the most from many
mega-projects are the commissioning officials, enabling bankers and complicit
state-owned or private enterprises. Incentives are too often driven more by
side deals, and the size of the deal, than by the results that matter most to
the people on the ground.
If corruption is to be uprooted and support built for large-scale energy
projects and public works, greater and continued scrutiny of infrastructure
spending is warranted long after the contracts are signed, loans approved and
investments made. Mechanisms across the region must be strengthened to ensure
true accountability by the government to its people, including for development
projects that go awry.
By some accounts, the multilateral development banks are chomping at the bit to
get back into the business of selling loans and infrastructure projects in
Myanmar, one of the region's most laggard economies. However, governments and
the development community must recognize that just as important to financing
new dams, roads and bridges will be building an infrastructure of good
governance, transparency and the rule of law.
Myanmar certainly has miles to go on all these fronts and the new government
must be watched and judged more by its actions, not its rhetoric, as countries
and institutions revisit and reassess their policies toward the new nominally
civilian government. Don't trust, but verify when making new approaches to
Myanmar.
The suspension of the Myitsone dam project is certainly a step forward in the
right direction and a lesson to others across Asia, including to potential
financiers and business partners, of the need for greater consultation and,
building on the words of Thein Sein, of paying attention - no matter how late -
to the desires and the will of the people.
Curtis S Chin served as US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank under
presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush from 2007-2010.
(Copyright 2011 Curtis S Chin.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say.
Please click hereif you are interested in contributing.
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