Myanmar should chew on defense expenses

Myanmar or Burma's armed forces will spend Ks 2.2 trillion
(US$2.3 billion) for its next fiscal year financial plan, the Defense Minister
told during the ninth Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament) session on
15 January.

Lt-Gen Wai Lwin said that defense sector based on
condition of Myanmar's economy and maintains that the nation spends less on defense
than many other countries, according to the Myanmar Freedom Daily. The defense
minister cited neighboring Thailand, which spends US$ 5.39 billion annually on
its military -- as well as Malaysia, which allocates $4.2 billion.

  In the
2013-14 fiscal year, 13.6% of Myanmar's national budget was spent on military
expenditure -- in the coming year that figure may be reduced to 12.26%.
Meanwhile the health budget for the coming fiscal year remains low, at 5% of
the total budget.

Defense Minister Lt-Gen Wai Lwin gave details how
the money would be due for covering military welfare, expenditures for of
vehicles and machineries, training at military academies and sending officers
abroad to attend training, according to the Eleven Media Group.

"When building a military camp, we build from
dirt roads, macadam roads, paved roads and tar roads depending on the
budget," said Lt-Gen Wai Lwin.

"Similarly, we have also planned tasks to
maintain the roads and bridges that are useful for both military operations and
rural development in military operation areas. Maintenance of military attaché
buildings abroad is also included in our project," added the Defense
Minister.  

According to government statistics, Myanmar's total
income is Ks 16.5 trillion and its total expenditure is Ks 19.3 trillion,
between 3 and 5 percent of which will go to health and education respectively.

The Defense Ministry of Myanmar should
review the wrong policies in the past in order to protect the people's needy
healthcare and schooling sectors.

For example, Government's policies in Myanmar that
curb public health and humanitarian aid have created an atmosphere where AIDS,
drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and vitamin deficiency are spreading without
impediment, according to a 2006-March report by researchers at the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In that report -- "Responding to AIDS, TB, Malaria
and Emerging Infectious Diseases in Burma: Dilemmas of Policy and Practice
March 2006"- authors Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, director of the Bloomberg
School's Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Luke Mullany, PhD, Voravit
Suwanvanichkij, MD, MPH and Nicole Franck, MHS, document the spread of these
infectious diseases, which if left unchecked, could pose a serious health
threat to other Southeast Asia nations and the world.

The country's citizens are very poor not because the
country has meager resources, but because the mismanagement of the country's
leaders, including the incumbent semi-elected government, who refuse to
acknowledge the exceedingly heavy burden of the defense budget.

Myanmar
is one of Southeast Asia's most natural resource-rich countries. It earns
billions of dollars yearly exporting natural resources such as oil and gas,
teak, gems, and minerals. Sending natural gas overseas is the country's
particular prime source of foreign revenue.

Myanmar
has been exporting gas to Thailand from the Yetagun and Yadana offshore blocks
located in Mottama Gulf since 1998 and 2000 respectively. In 2008 BP ranked
Burma as the largest gas exporter via pipelines in the Asia-Pacific with gas
exports totaling 9.7 bcm in 2007. This made it the 11th largest gas exporter in
the world that year, according to the report Burma's Resource Curse: The
case for revenue transparency in the oil and gas sector,  issued by Arakan Oil Watch , an independent,
community-based, non-governmental organization operating in Myanmar.

Nobody knows exactly how revenues from the sale of
gas resources are spent.  However, it is easy to figure out that
government spending for social improvement is stingy, while the military
continues to enjoy the lion's share of state revenues.

In
fact, most of those incomes from export never used in the public sectors
especially in health and education. Those financial benefits constantly flow
into the defense budget expending the military strength without facing any
external threat.

With
Chinese military hardware -- from rifles to tanks, jetfighters and warships -- previous
military junta has strengthened the size of its army up above 400,000 men,
including with approximately 70,000 child soldiers -- more than any other country
in the region.

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