Myanmar Spring Chronicle – August 15 Scenes
MoeMaKa, August 16 2022
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to another 6 years in prison
After the military coup, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 6 years in prison for 4 cases that led to the investigation and prosecution of the Corruption Commission on the ground that the country suffered damages in the lease of state-owned land on Yangon University Avenue for Daw Khin Kyi Foundation and the attempt to open Nay Pyi Taw La Yuang Taw Agricultural Education Training School. Although many people have accepted that these alleged cases are excuses because they wanted to imprison her and detain her to stay out of national politics. It is only intended to bring down her political image with corruption. The military council has already conspired and framed prosecution and sentenced more than a dozen cases and is still in the process of imposing more.
Daw Khin Kyi Foundation is not a for-profit organization nor does it work for private interests, but it is understood by many that the military council did it because they wanted to show the image of a person facing a trial and a convicted person. As an ASEAN Special Envoy, when requested a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the military council refused, citing the above reason.
In fact, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not even need to defend herself after the case was set up and brought to court. Because it was a matter planned by the military council, even if it was defended according to the law, nothing will be of any benefit and I think that it is a situation that should be faced in the sense that the trial is only used as another staged-justification and shouldn’t matter how much punishment is given in cases.
In addition to the content of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s further prison sentence, other interesting news was about the shortage and price hike of petrol and diesel. There has been a shortage of fuel at private fuel stations for several days due to the difficulty of buying imported dollars. A few days after the central bank fixed the dollar exchange rate in early August, the price of fuel suddenly rose from a few weeks of below 2,000 kyats per liter and we couldn’t buy as much fuel as we needed. Even in private fuel stations in Yangon, the port city where fuel is imported, there was only one type of diesel or only 92 types of petrol, or no both petrol and diesel, and we were seeing scenes of a long car queue at the stations that sell fuel.
Although the news expressed that there was almost no car traffic in Yangon, actually, the traffic for transport to schools, companies, goods delivery and markets were still can be seen. In addition, there were also household cars traveling normally nearby. The situation in which more time and money is spent on buying fuel has been experienced and, due to the rise in shipping costs, people will have to suffer from increasing costs for goods and services.
Dollar and gold prices rose to unprecedented prices on a daily basis and then fell back a little and these effects were affecting other business activities as well. Those who have extra money no longer want to keep Myanmar Kyats in their hands. Instead, buying assets such as gold, dollars, and land and apartment purchases had increased and it was also affecting the market. At the same time, a shortage of jobs, fleeing of those who work in agriculture in war-torn villages and regions as they can no longer do their jobs safe. Those people were fleeing to other regions, cities and villages in order to escape from the danger of losing one’s life. Some were entering to neighboring countries with or without documentations to work as migrants laborers. It has become like a picture of today Myanmar’s story.