------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: April 10, 1996
Issue #380

HEADLINES:
==========
BKK POST: BURMA OPENS BID FOR CINEMA HALLS
NATION: NO VISA FOR SUU KYI SPOUSE
BKK POST: SUCCESSES IN VN PERSUADES CP TO ENTER BURMA
BKK POST: NAMING OF NEW ABBOT CAUSES STIR IN LAMPANG
NATION: BURMESE RENOVATED TEMPLE AS PART OF MAKING MERIT
WWW: INTERESTING URL
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BKK POST: BURMA OPENS BID FOR CINEMA HALLS
April 10, 1996
Rangoon, AFP

BURMA has invited private bids for the ownership of 16 of a total
21 cinema halls that were nationalised by the previous military
government over 30 years ago, a state newspaper said yesterday.

Bids would be accepted until May 24, but priority would be given
to the original owners if they were prepared to pay floor prices
set for their former establishments, it said.

The floor prices ranged between two million and 11 million kyats,
the New Light of Myanmar said. There are about six kyats to the
US dollar at the official rate, or about 100-120 kyats to the
dollar at the prevailing market rate.

Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
has decided to sell off 51 enterprises, including the 21 cinema
halls various parts of the country, in the first phase of a
privatization program.

The SLORC took power in a 1988 coup d'etat which ended 26 years
of national socialism under the previous military government,
which formed the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP) after a
coup in 1962.

In 1963 and 1964, the BSPP nationalised all missionar schools and
hospitals an 12,212 foreign and domestic companies, including 10
foreign and 14 domestic banks brokerages, big stores an cinema halls.

The current government formed a privatization committee in
January 1995 headed by SLORC secretary Lieutenant General Khin
Nyunt with national planning an economic development minister
Brigadier General David Abel as secretary.

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NATION: NO VISA FOR SUU KYI SPOUSE
April 10, 1996

HONG KONG - Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in an
interview published yesterday that  British husband, Michael
Aris, was refused a visa to visit her last month.

Aris, an Oxford don, had previously visited Suu Kyi over Christmas.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post Suu Kyi said
she had been prevented at least twice in recent months from going
outside the capital, Rangoon, - Associated Press.

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BKK POST: SUCCESSES IN VN PERSUADES CP TO ENTER BURMA AND CAMBODIA
April 10, 1996  (abridged)

CHAROEN Pokphand Group plans to invest in both Cambodia and Burma
following its successful foray into Vietnam according to Adirek
Sripratak, president of CP Agro-Industry Co.

The integrated investment Wheme would involve establishing an
animal feed manufacturing plant, chicken farms and a processing
factory, and restaurants.

Mr Adirek said CP would sign an investment agreement with
Cambodia late this month to set up an animal feed factory, and
expected approval for its proposed Burma investment within the
next two months.

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BKK POST: NAMING OF NEW ABBOT CAUSES STIR IN LAMPANG
April 10, 1996
by Nussara sawatsawang

THAI authorities have taken the unusual step of appointing a
local monk familiar with Burmese ways to head a revered Burmese
temple in Lampang province. The move is seen by many as an
attempt to avert a potential conflict , with Rangoon over the maintenance
of the century-old succession of Burmese abbots at Wat Srichum.

Phra Maha Saengthong will officially assume the position of
acting abbot tomorrow if the temple trustees, who are predominantly
Burmese descendants , cannot come up with a better choice to succeed
U Pyinya Wuntha (a Burmese) who passed away last December.

The Burmese government has intervened by nominating its own abbot
and vice abbot -Ashin Nyana Thiri and | Sudhamma, respectively
and has also asked Thai authorities to grant permanent residency
to U Thummana, a Burmese monk who has been at the temple ' for
four years and the original choice by temple trustees to succeed
the late abbot, when his study visa expires this July.

Thai authorities turned down the Burmese nominations on the
grounds that this would violate Thai religious laws.

Privately, they have expressed mistrust of Burmese monks, who
could pose a national security threat by spying for the Rangoon
military regime or by sheltering illegal Burmese immigrants.

An informed source in the provincial clergy admitted that Phra
Mahaaeng hong's nomination on February 28 was done "in a rush"
under pressure from security police and this had caused bad
feelings among the local community.

The temple trustees favour a Burmese succession to carry on the
tradition at Wat Srichum, which was largely rebuilt and expanded
in 1893 by Burmese merchants and since then has been frequented
mostly by Burmese descendants in this northern province.

Tensions have run high, prompting Phra Maha Saengthong to say he
will assume the post of acting abbot until confirmed or just
leave if the trustees cannot find anyone better within two weeks.

Burmese Ambassador to Thailand U Tin Winn defended his government's
intervention on historical grounds and the desires of the trustees.

"Throughout the monastery's 150-year-old history, the abbot has
always been Burmese. Even the trustees want a new Burmese abbot,
that's why we asked the Thai Government to consider the matter," he said.

In fact, the intervention by Rangoon is not a new phenomenon.
Back in 1993, Rangoon asked to send a Burmese monk to head Kyaung
Kha temple (or Chaimongkol in Thai), also in Lampang province.
The temple was build in 1919 by Burmese merchants.

Thai authorities at the time went ahead with their own nomination
without informing the Burmese.

This time around, Thai authorities rejected the nomination of U
Thummana even though he has received the full backing of the Wat
Srichum trustees.

The deputy director-general of the Education Ministry's Religious
Affairs Department, Charuay Nookhong, said all temples and monks
on Thai soil excluding Vietnamese annum and Chinese sects are
subject to Thai law.

He said the monk law of 1962, amended in 1992, requires abbots to
be Thai nationals of any ethnic descent and to be ordained by a Thai
preceptor.

The only Burmese temple headed by Burmese monks and falling under
the authority of the Burmese Embassy is at Prok in Yan Nawa,
Bangkok, which comes under an agreement signed by the late Field
Marshal Pibul songkram and the Burmese government headed by U Nu.

One can only speculate on the true intentions of the Burmese
government in intervening they also donate funds and materials to
renovate important Burmese temples in Thailand but Thai
authorities have a real concern that Burmese monks might act as
intelligence agents for their government in Rangoon.

Observers say the Burmese military junta, known as the State Law
and Order Restoration Council, has never failed to use religion
as a political tool.

They cited last year's downfall of the ethnic Karen rebels, who
had fought Rangoon for four decades, after Buddhist Karens broke
away from the main Christian Karens to set up the Democratic
Kayin Buddhist Army, reportedly at the instigation of Rangoon.

Burmese monks also are believed to report on the movement of
ethnic rebels, said the observers.

While there is no concrete evidence to prove this, Rangoon's
nominee for the abbot of Wat Srichum, Ashin Nyana Thiri is said
to be fluent in Thai, Shan, English and Burmese.

The monk, who is in his early 30s, is from Keng Tung province in
Shan State. He was reportedly told by the Burmese authorities to
prepare to go to Lampang to spend his fifth year of Buddhist education
before graduating from the government-sponsored Sangha University.

The intervention by the Burmese government earlier this year,
through an official letter to Education Minister Sukhavich
Rangsitpol and by summoning Thai Ambassador to Rangoon Poksak
Nilubol for talks, prompted the local clergy in Lampang not only
to hurriedly nominate Phra Maha Saengthong, 43, but also to
scrutinise the status of all Burmese temples and monks in the province.

According to a senior Thai monk in Lampang, there are 172 temples
in Muang district. However, only 138 temples have abbots; 12 have
acting abbots, and the others have none. Four of the temples have
also been built without proper permission.

Another two of the eight Burmese temples in Lampang Wat Pafang
and Wat Sri Rongmuang are also in the same situation as Wat Srichum.

The senior monk said there are now only 15 Burmese monks staying
in Lampang legally. From time to time, Karen monks flee to the
province claiming persecution at home, but they are repatriated, he said.

"This year, we have had found 39 illegal Burmese monks in
Lampang," he said, adding that they have all had to leave because
they did not possess the proper papers identifying the temple
they were attached to in accordance with Thai Law.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Surapong Jayanama suggested that a
cultural agreement between Thailand and Burma was one means of
solving the problem. The agreement would also allow Thailand to
operate Buddhist temples in Burma on a quid pro quo basis.

Mr Surapong said Burmese Ambassador to Bangkok U Tin Winn would
be summoned to the Foreign Ministry soon to hear Thailand's position on
the issue and to discuss the possibility of concluding such an agreement.

The spokesman is also expected to visit Burma early next month to
further explore the idea.

In the meantime, the Burmese descendant community in Lampang is
watching how Phra Maha Saengthong manages the temple, especially
after the trustees objected openly to his nomination.

The trustees are unhappy about the haste involved in his
nomination. They have suggested that if U Thummana's
qualifications were unsuitable, then a Thai monk educated in
Burma was the best option.

"We want to preserve Burmese rituals and want Thai and Burmese
monks to live together peacefully, speaking the same language,"
said a Burmese trustee who has been living in Thailand for 20 years.

Phra Maha Saengthong was ordained at 13 years old. Though he
spent some time teaching at the Burmese temple Wat Tha Ma Oo, he
cannot speak Burmese.

The same senior monk said the local clergy had full authority to
appoint acting abbots at any temples falling within their responsibility.

If no one challenges his appointment by today, Phra Maha
Saengthong will begin preparing his predecessor's cremation and
manage the budget allocated by the Fine Arts Department for the
temple's renovation.

After the cremation, consultations will be held between the
temple trustees and the sub-district and district clergy to find
a suitable successor, the senior monk said.

Phra Maha Saengthong said the local clergy was concerned how to
make Wat Srichum more open.

"In the past, Wat Srichum has been closed to the world because
the local community regarded it a Burmese temple. Only about 10
families come here, and its monks have never been invited to
perform religious ceremonies outside," he said.

The acting abbot believes the appointment of a Thai monk to head
the temple will facilitate contact with the local clergy.

He also said there were plans to, open a religious studies centre
at the temple to educate Thai monks, similar to what he did at
Wat Tha Ma Oo.

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NATION: BURMESE RENOVATED TEMPLE AS PART OF MAKING MERIT
IN THEIR ADOPTED COUNTRY
April 10, 1996

IT was not until the mid-19th century that Burmese people, who
were then subjects of British colonial rule, arrived in what is
today northern Thailand.

The Burmese arrived under the auspices of a Siam-British pact,
the Bowrng Treaty of 1855, granting them extraerritorial rights
and allowing them to engage in logging activities.

Burmese merchant U Maung Gyi was one of those who came and then
stayed, living in Lampang after marrying a Thai woman from Chiang
Mai.

He and his friends sought permission rom the provincial governor
to renovate and expand the ageing Wat Srihum, Nyaung Wine Kyaung
in Burmese, in 1893 as a means of making merit.

According to U Maung Gyi's granddaughter, Pen han Thammavongse,
her grandfather bought additional land to build a new chapel,
monks' quarters, a vihawra and a pond.

Skilled Burmese carpenters from Mandalay and northern Thailand
were brought in to build the central temple, which has elaborate
teak carvings and decorations.

Mrs Penchan, although not opposed to the temple being headed by a
Thai monk, said it was her grandfather's desire to preserve
Burmese culture under the Thai banner.

What she is afraid of is that some Burmese monks might be
expelled by Thai newcomers, as has been the case at some other
Burmese temples in Lampang when Thai monks were appointed abbot.

Srichum temple is a tourist attraction. Its chapel and vihara
were registered with the Fine Arts Department several years ago,
and HRH Prince Maha Chakri Sirindhorn visited the temple in
November 1990.

In January 1992, the vihara where the previous abbot lived was
burned down and Burmese technicians were invited to redesign the
building in accordance with the old architecture.

The Fine Arts Department has already secured 10 million baht in
both the 1995 and 1996 fiscal years to fund the renovation.

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WWW: INTERESTING URL
April 10, 1996
From: jeromep@sherpa.com

     Have a look at this URL. There is an interesting article by Kevin
     Heppner ("response to Doug Porter")
     
     http://www.nectec.or.th/thai-yunnan/20.html

