Junta leaders trying to win people with phones

Civil servants in Mong Yang, Eastern Shan State, have been promised with cheap mobile phones, in order to secure their support, according to sources from the “Sino-Burma border.

“The generals said they would provide 200 telephones to persuade local people to vote for the party,” a civil servant told SHAN.

The report came following a visit made by Prime Minister General Thein Sein, accompanied by Shan State-Kayah State Commander, Lieutenant General Min Aung Hlaing, on 25 April, and held a meeting with local authorities and village headmen to talk about the planned 2010 elections.

People in Mong Yang are using Chinese mobile phone which are cheap and easy to use. They are not interested in junta’s offer, said another.

Currently, the retail price is 2.3 million Kyat ($ 2,300) for a line phone and 1.9 million Kyat ($ 1,900) for a GSM. The overall official price for each handset will be 1 million but it eventually will cost the same price. “The telephone provided by the junta is only for civil servants and businessmen. After civil servants get the telephone, they will sell it again to the local people at market price,” said a source from Tachilek.

“The gist of the speech of the (PM) Thein Sein was that we should not vote for any party that is not supported by the junta, that we should vote for only the Burmese Socialist Program Party which is now called the National Unity Party (NUP) or other parties formed by the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA),” said a civil servant from Keng Tung.

According to another source from Keng Tung who recently returned from Rangoon, the USDA has been given a free hand to collect fund, to be used in canvassing support from the people. “The USDA may be divided into three separate parties,” he added.

According to The National from United Arab Emirates, 6 April issue, Thein Sein is of the opium that “We cannot afford to lose this election. Otherwise, we have wasted the last 20 years for nothing.”

SHAN HERALD-www.shandland.org