By Jamie Parker
and Maung Maung Than
Big companies such as CRA and BHP come to mind as examples of multinational destruction and exploitation. Yet in Burma, smaller companies are playing a significant part in legitimising and resourcing the dictatorship.
Burma is desperately in need of infrastructure, and Australian companies like Multiplex and Transfield have been lured by the prospect of significant profits. Transfield has even established an office in Rangoon to "investigate opportunities with the private sector". It claims, like a number of other tourism and construction companies, to be dealing with the private sector rather than the dictatorship, but the so-called private sector is almost exclusively owned and controlled by families, cronies and members of the military.
Transfield was a major sponsor of a conference held in Rangoon in late May. Advertising for the conference encouraged corporate leaders to "meet members of the government" and "network over golf". This is the same company that "only deals with the private sector".
Companies like Intrepid Travel in Melbourne and Indochina Travel in Sydney also claim they are not supporting the dictatorship. However, their clients often fly with Air Myanmar, the dictators' airline, travel on roads and stay in hotels built by forced labour or tour the city whitewashed by forced labour.
The new Australian government claims to "neither encourage nor discourage" trade while maintaining an office of Austrade in Rangoon!
Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi has said that "now is not the right time to invest in Burma" and rejects any claim that Australian companies involved are acting in the interests of the people or democracy.
[Jamie Parker is a coordinator of the Free Burma International Student Solidarity Network and Maung Maung Than is the vice-president of the All-Burma Students Democratic Organisation.]