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Banker, Trader, Soldier, Spy

Sikder Haseeb Khan and Pervez Shams
OVER the past few decades, a quiet economic transformation has taken place in Burma and Pakistan. In the absence of accountability and transparency, the extent of "security interests" in the economy has increased significantly, compromising the long-term prospects for democracy and economic development.
Barons of Burma
In Burma, military control over the economy has expanded over the last forty years, but in two distinct phases. In the first phase, begun in 1962 and lasting until the late eighties, Burma was made to follow a socialist path toward development. State-owned enterprises controlled the economy, from industry to foreign trade to agriculture to even tourism and services.
As in many other countries, this drove out independent private investors and suppressed growth in key sectors. One telling example of this is rice. In 1868, Burma overtake Bengal to become the world's leading rice exporter. It remained in that position for the next century or so. After the military takeover in 1962, rice exports shrunk gradually to almost nil by the late 1980s. In the process, millions of Burmese farmers became impoverished, some rendered landless, some forced into unpaid labour, and many ended up fueling various
ethnic insurgencies that rage in the country.
The second phase started from the late eighties, when SPDC, the current military regime, began to liberalise parts of the economy, in keeping with the trend in the rest of the world to adopt capitalist ways. But a new law. enacted in March 1989, kept the best-growing sectors — petroleum, natural gas, teak, gems and precious stones, seafood, and minerals -- under the preserve of SPDC. Outside these, many of the state-owned businesses began to be privatised in the style of Russia under Yeltsin, essentially sold dirt-cheap to those with connections to the regime.
Since then, two private conglomerates have emerged as the most influential in the economy.
Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEH) and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). UMEH shareholding is restricted to only the military’, active and retired, and their family members. MEC too is set up to advance the "welfare" of the junta. It can conduct business in any sector, and it is authorised to do so outside the regular laws that apply to other private companies. Naturally, the savvy’ investors in Burma do business by forming joint ventures with one of these companies in order to get access and protection.
[For trie full version of tha article please read ths month's Forum, available with The Da-ty Star on Monday. March 3]
Sikder Haseeb Khan and Pervez Shams are free'ance con tn tutors to Forum