In Myanmar, of those who had the rights to vote, 98.12 per cent cast votes in the referendum, and 92.48 per cent of the voters cast ‘yes’ vote, thus approving the State constitution (draft) the National Convention, taking time, had formulated with the objectives of national reconsolidation and democracy. That was indeed a national victory that represented the entire national people. In the transitional period to democracy, cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead or injured and hundreds of thousands of people homeless in Yangon and Ayeaywady divisions. The catastrophe also ravaged many social infrastructures. So, the Prime Minister and ministers and central executive committee members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association made trips urgently to th storm-affected areas to supervise the relief, resettlement and reconstruction tasks. In that regard, they are now working day in, day out in collaboration with local organizations and national entrepreneurs. Head of State Senior General Than Shwe made an inspection tour of the areas and gave guidance on rehabilitation andreconstruction tasks to be carried out in tandem with regional development undertakings and natural disaster preparedness measures for the storm-hit areas to enjoy development better than ever. Vice-Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Commanderin- Chief (Army) Vice-Senior General Maung Aye inspected rehabilitation and reconstruction tasks, and attended to the needs for ensuring systematic implementation of all the works. Now, rehabilitation works are in full swing due to the humanitarian assistance and relief supplies that are flowing from the UN and donor countries. Thanks to the measures the government is taking, the relief aid and health care provided by the UN, donor countries, and internal and international NGOs have reached the stormhit areas.
That reflected the attempts the Myanmar government made to cooperate with the UN and international organizations, and to accept international assistance. So, the accusations that the Myanmar government did not accept international assistance were totally groundless. It is a formidable task for cyclone-hit Myanmar to return to normal. In the course of the world history, the wars and riots have adverse effects on the human society, shatter the cultural civilization, and destroy development infrastructures and education. Similarly, economic sanctions designed to get the people of the target countries into economic crises, and cuts in humanitarian assistance
destroy the social life of the world people. Throughout the history, the world has seen tens of thousands of wars, more than half of them took place in Europe. World War I and World War II both started in Europe due to the conflicts between the colonialist countries. World War I cost about 10 million people, and World War II, 60 million people. During the world wars, a great number of infrastructures including townships, villages, houses and factories were ravaged. Here, I would like to make a comment. It is said that man is mortal. Then, why have the world people developed both in quantity and in quality unlimitedly since the beginning of the Earth? The world population has grown to more than 8000 million. When it comes to development, man has passed many stages from the Mud age and Stone age to Electronic age. Due to the ability to apply the intellectual power, man has overcome various natural disasters and wars. In the animate world, man is more intellectual than any other animals. Man has not been able to control the nature yet, but is overcoming the nature gradually. Today, the world has been like a global village. Man has been able to pay growing attention to peace, cooperation and development instead of wars and riots. Once, about half a dozen of colonialist countries such as Britain, the Dutch, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and America with military superiority enslaved 77 percent of the earth and 75 percent of the global population. Nowadays, those enslaved nations have been free from the colonial rule and are in a position to shape their own future. One hundred and ninety two sovereign nations have been UN members and they can stand tall together with other nations. However, the world still has to see neo-colonialism and hegemonism. The people of the international community still have to face some great powers’ interference, pressure, invasion of other nations by violating the UN Charter, addressing the global issues by using their military might and trying to strengthen their power by using the UN as a tool. So, the onus is upon the world’s people to deal with natural disasters and ward off neo-colonialism and hegemonism.While Myanmar, after being hit by cyclone Nargis, is receiving humanitarian aid and health and rehabilitation assistance from the UN, international governments and INGOs, she is also facing fabrications of some internal and external elements resorting to various ways to gain political profits. Now Myanmar and its people need a lot of international assistance. They are very grateful to the international community for their kind help. But it is necessary not to accept the assistance rendered with every intent to gain political benefits. For example, about a couple of days before the referendum was held for the approval of the draft constitution on 10 May, a western broadcasting station aired that another storm that was about two times stronger than cyclone Nargis was coming. Regarding this, Myanma Meteorology and Hydrology Department announced in daily newspapers unauthenticity of the news. The reason they manufactured the fabricated news was that they made a political trick dissuading the people from attending the national referendum and attempting to disrupt the process. The whole nation apart from the 40 affected townships in Yangon Division and the seven affected townships in Ayeyawady Division cast ‘yes’ vote for the approval of the draft constitution in the national eferendum held on 10 May accounting for 92.4 percent. Nonetheless, regarding the second-session holding of the referendum on 24 May for the 47 storm-hit townships, some western broadcasting stations and their cohorts fabricated news that the Tatmadaw government was trying to prolong their rule rather than helping the troubled people in order to cause misunderstanding with the people. There are also some internal elements who are in complicity with such news agencies. Furthermore, western broadcasting stations broadcast make-up news that the warships of one western country were waiting to help the Myanmar’s storm victims but they got no permission from the Tatmadaw government. It is obvious that although Myanmar welcomes help of any country, the goodwill of the big power wanting to help her with the warships was not genuine. It is necessary to be aware of the fact that the donations of western powers imposing economic sanctions on Myanmar, dissuading international monetary organizations from disbursing low-interest loans, cutting humanitarian aid exaggerating the Myanmar issue are indeed with strings attached.
Prime Minister General Thein Sein said in his opening speech in the ASEAN-UN international Pledging Conference held on 25 May that “Donation of relief supplies for the cyclone victims in Myanmar will be accepted through land route, by sea or by air. For the relief supplies coming by sea, I wish to inform that these supplies can be sent by civilian ships to the port of Yangon”. In compliance with this permission, ASEAN countries, neighbouring nations, the international community and UN rendering their assistance and making cooperation for the storm victims. There should be no attempt to break the rule of host country. This is the international code of ethics and mutual respect. Recently, some western news agencies broadcast slanderous news that shortly after the cyclone, the Tatmadaw government announced the death toll of over 20,000 but after two weeks, it announced more than 70,000 deaths and that its relief and rescue work was so slow that there were more deaths of the victims. In reality, the death toll collected shortly after the storm could not be complete as there were transport cuts due to the storm. The death toll increased later as transport links returned to normal. In China also, there was only low death toll soon after the quake but it increased later. It is clear that knowing the actual fact, western powers are playing a political game criticizing the Myanmar government alone without putting any blame on the Chinese government. If we say about the west-influenced news broadcasting stations, it seems it is endless. Therefore, now is the time when Myanmar national people are toguard against any danger while serving their own interest.So, all the people are to strive for national development in the democracy transition and in the post-period of thestorm (natural disaster).
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