Myanmar Presentation in India

Min Ga Lar Bar

          Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am Bo Kaung from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

 

In my portion, I am going to talk about

• Political System
• Culture and Religion
• Economy
• Tourism
• Persons of Myanmar and
• Current and Future Prospects of my country.

          Firstly I would like to talk about our Political System. Myanmar is a Presidential Republic.

In the Executive pillar, the President is the Head of the State as well as the Head of the Government, elected by the Presidential College. But he is not the Supreme Commander. The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services is the Supreme Commander of the Nation. The States and Regions are governed by the Chief Ministers of the States or Regions.

       The legislative power is vested in the Union and States Parliaments. Union Parliament practices bicameral legislative system and the State Parliaments practise the unicameral legislative system. One noteworthy information here is that 25% seats of every Parliament is occupied by the military personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services.

       The Supreme Court of the Union holds the highest judicial power. But it has no power to interpret the Constitution. That power is vested in the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union.

         Concerning the culture of my country, I would like to talk about the seasonal festivals, traditional dance and novice ceremony of my country.

          According to Myanmar Lunar Calendar, we have twelve months and each month has a festival. Among them, the New Year Festival is the most popular festival of Myanmar. It is very similar to Holi Festival of India. The only difference is we use water instead of using colors. It is also known as Water Festival and it is usually celebrated for four to five days in April, the hottest month of the year. The main theme of the Festival is cleaning the evils of the old year with water. It is celebrated on a grand scale nationwide.   

          There are also other traditional festivals like Bohdi Tree Pouring Festival, Lighting Festival, Boat Racing Festival and Glutinous Rice Festival.

          Now I would like to tell you about our traditional dance. It is always performed with the traditional band troop called Myanmar Sai Wine. In this picture we can see the golden Sai Wai and the dancers. I would like to show you very common Myanmar traditional dance. It is always performed at the beginning of our cultural shows, and it is called Apyodaw Yein. Let's enjoy it.

( play movie Apyodaw Yein)

 

          Novice ceremony is the unique characteristic in Myanmar. This ceremony is usually celebrated during school holidays in the summer. Myanmar boys have to compulsorily enter the Buddhist Order at least once in their life for a week or more. We also entered this Buddhist Order once when we were children and once we become adult as novices and Monks.

          In this movie, we can see the ceremonial procession of sending the boys to the monastery.

(play novice ceremony)

          Every citizen in Myanmar is equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess and practise religion. The Union recognizes special position of Buddhism as the faith professed by the great majority of the citizen of the Union. And 89.7 % people are Buddhists, 5.4 % Christians, 3.9 % Muslims and 0.7 % Hindus. The remaining 0.3 % professes other religions.
 

          In this portion, I would like to talk something about the economy of Myanmar.

Independent Period

 After getting independence from the British, the economic status of Myanmar was almost same as India.

Socialist Economic System

From 1974 to 1988 we practised socialist economic system and it was not successful in my country and Myanmar became one of the Least Developed Countries of the world.

Military Govt

       From 1988 to 2011, Myanmar was ruled by Military Govt. Unfortunately, the US, European Union and other western countries, and the international organizations imposed economic and other sanctions against Myanmar because they did not like the Military Govt. We faced difficulties of producing value-added goods and we could mostly export raw material items.

Democratic Govt

           Now the situation has changed a lot and almost all the economic sanctions have been removed.

       However Myanmar’s economy is still based on agricultural products and export of raw materials. Now we are trying to uplift the Small and Medium Enterprises. Foreign investments are invited and heavy and Hi-tech industries are being built.

          Moreover we are doing the most important thing for the future of the Nation, i.e. Upgrading the Human Resources.

 

          In this slide we can see the pictures of our major exports including teak, fisheries products, agricultural products, and natural gas, the most important export item of Myanmar.

          Myanmar’s currency is KYAT and one US Dollar is equivalent to roundabout 900 kyats.

          Concerning the Tourism, I would like to talk about the Smiling Faces, Land of Pagodas, Virgin Environment and Ethnic Cultural Diversity of Myanmar.

          Myanmar is famous for the smiling faces of the people. If you visit my country you can see the smiling faces of the people in every walk of life. Smiling is the inborn characteristic of Myanmar.

         The majority of Myanmar people are Buddhist and my country can be called the Land of Pagodas because Golden Pagodas can be seen everywhere, not only in the cities and town but also in small villages. Those pagodas represent the peaceful mind of Myanmar people.

          One of the significant features of Myanmar is her Virgin Environment. Myanmar is enriched with untouched forest, clean rivers and streams, very pleasant sandy beaches and virgin environment. The capital, cities and towns are very green and the air pollution is very low.

          I would like to show you one interesting place of my country. It is a lake, a big lake, called Inlay. One ethnic group, Inthar lives in this lake. The houses are built on the surface of the water and vegetable plants are grown on the floating islands. The most significant characteristic of them is rowing the boat not by hand, but by foot.

In this picture we can see the houses, the floating islands, and the floating markets. Now let's look at how they row the boat.

(play movie Inlay)

          Now it is my turn to talk about the Persons of Myanmar. There are many prominent persons in several professions. Among them I would like to talk about the five persons of my country. They are

• General Aung San,
• U Thant,
•  Senior General Than Shwe,
•  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
•  President U Thein Sein.

          He played the leading role in the independent struggle of Myanmar. Myanmar got independence from the British in 1948, and he was assassinated in 1947, one year before our independence. We recognize him as the Father of the Nation and everyone loves him. In this picture the coat that he is wearing was a present from Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. This coat is an evidence of our long-term good relationship between India and Myanmar.

          U Thant was a Myanmar diplomat to the UN and he served as the third Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971. One of his most noteworthy accomplishments was his valuable assistance in facilitating the negotiation between US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis, thereby narrowly averting the possibility of a major global catastrophe. Now his house in Yangon is decorated as U Thant Museum.

          He is the former military leader and Head of the State of Myanmar. He ruled the country for nearly twenty years.

The most valuable thing that he did for the future of the Nation is adoption of the Constitution of the State. In 2011 a new elected democratic government was established. Then he handed over the power of the country to the democratically elected government and then he retired.

          She is well known as the Democracy Icon of the World. She is a Nobel Prize winner. Unfortunately she strongly opposed the Constitution of the State adopted by the former military government. She refused to re-register her NLD party and did not participate in the 2010 General Election. However in 2012, she changed her decision and re-registered her party, and participated in the by-election.

Now she is a member of parliament in the Lower House and she cooperates with the President U Thein Sein.

          He is a retired army general who served as the prime minister of the former military government. He has been elected as the first President of the new democratic Myanmar in 2011. U Thein Sein has made various reforms in the country.

          The international community has recognized his efforts and supported the democratization of Myanmar in various ways. The US, European Union and other western countries have lifted the economic and other sanctions against Myanmar. The international organizations have rearranged to give the assistance and aids.

         The people of the country are very pleased with his reform efforts and he has been recognized as the Icon of Reform of the World.

          We love our president and we lovely called him Ba Pyaung means Mr. Bald. I pray that May God Bless our President Ba Pyaung.

          Now I am going to talk about the brief account of my country’s politics and the future prospects. We have now 31 months of democratic experience and we have got external and internal optimism of our political progress. We also have got International supports, both physically and mentally. Now we are ready to take the responsibility of 2014 ASEAN Chairmanship. Although we could make dramatic development in every aspect, we are still facing the challenges. However we believe that all the challenges can be overcome.

          Now I am going to talk the most important part of this presentation.

       It is bilateral relations between India and Myanmar. As I have presented before, our relations started from the time of Prime Minister Nharu and General Aung San to Dr.Memohan Sighn and President U Thein Sein. We could maintain our relationship for a long time and I believe that our good friendship will last forever and a day.

          This is the end of my presentation about Myanmar. Thank you for your patient listening. If you have any question about Myanmar, I will be very happy to answer them.

Thank You

Kyay Zu Tin Bar Dal