Episode #116: Have Pity on the Working Man (Bonus Short)
On July 7th, the official account of the European Union in Myanmar posted a two-minute video urging factories in conflict-torn Myanmar to re-open. Charging that the factory shutdowns had driven former employees to poverty and even prostitution, one slide reads dramatically, “If only her factory was still operating, Ma Kyu would still have a decent job she could be proud of.” The online response to this controversial video was as swift as it was damning. Many charged that the EU was trying to manipulate Burmese voices in order to advocate for a policy that benefits their own bottom line while undermining the aspirations of the democracy movement.
Today’s guest, Maung Maung, currently president of the Confederation of Trade Unions in Myanmar (CTUM), addresses this video, as well as labor’s role in the current revolution and the overall conditions for Myanmar’s workers. As Maung Maung has been involved in labor issues since the 1988 uprising, he has a wealth of institutional history to bring to the current situation.
Maung Maung estimates that 95% of Burmese industry is controlled directly or indirectly by the military, but he is under no illusions about the political motivations of foreign investors who choose to divest because of the coup and its aftermath. “It's not because they love the people of Burma, or they hate the military,” he says, but rather that they simply have made the evaluation that they can no longer effectively make money due to the country’s worsening economic instability and industrial unreliability from the fallout of the military coup. “You can't fool the international community,” Maung Maung notes dryly. They do not wish to invest large sums of money in a market that no longer inspires any confidence.
One of the accusations the video makes is that the closed factories harm ordinary Burmese workers. This is a charge that Maung Maung does not dispute. “We cannot say it's not hurting people! It is hurting the people, but it is hurting the regime more,” he says, emphasizing what he believes is the current priority.
Maung Maung has strong words for those, such as the makers of the video, who believe it’s time to go back to business as normal. “It's been less than two years. Give me a break! Don't come and give us excuses that it's been too long in the revolution. Now, we can't afford another breakdown, we have to win this time! And we are telling you: just stay away.”
More than just the video’s manipulative narrative, Maung Maung also found it highly offensive to Burmese women. Rather than gather data to gauge Burmese female workers’ actual attitudes about the factory shutdowns and whether they have indeed led to poverty and prostitution, it relies on caricature and scare tactics to further the EU’s own ends. Moreover, it is quite chauvinistic for Western powers to try and “educate” the Burmese people on the dangers of local young women turning to prostitution as a way to coerce them into returning to work. “That person and that office doesn't know the actual situation of Burma, the social culture of Burma, and it's very insulting!”
To make matters worse, the junta has picked up on the video and has begun to promote it as a way to normalize their brutal regime, meaning that, in effect, the EU has managed to provide the Tatmadaw with a key piece of propaganda to boost their rule. “This thing was very bad. It's a very bad image for the European Union.”
Yet, as hard as things are now in the country, Maung Maung is hopeful for the future. “We are winning. We want people to not just think like well, ‘The military is going to win again.’ No, it is not!”