NCA event shooting blanks
Last year, the regime vowed to provide free air transport for ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) joining peace talks in Naypyitaw regardless of their location in the country. But it seems the multi-front war with the resistance has cleaned it out over the past year, as the regime has signaled budget constraints for the upcoming anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
The junta is planning to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the NCA’s signing next week. Regime boss Min Aung Hlaing recently boasted of inviting heads of state to the ceremony, writing to some and phoning others depending on “his personal ties with them”. He gushed that some had promised to attend while others would send high-level representatives.
But on Sept 2. the chairman of the committee tasked with organizing the event, Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant-General Yar Pyae, warned committee members to be frugal with the budget.
It is common knowledge that EAOs attending the anniversary event are not involved in active fighting with the regime. Also well known is that the event is being held just for show and the regime is chronically short of cash.
However, Yar Pyae’s order to tighten the purse strings was a humiliating and very public admission of the truth.
The NCA was signed by 10 EAOs under Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government and the now ousted National League for Democracy government. Seven of the groups continued to hold talks with the regime after the putsch. The three others have launched armed resistance against the junta, saying the pact had been rendered void by the military takeover.
Pawns in their game
Myanmar’s top brass have a long history of ruthlessly pursuing their own interests while simultaneously treating rank-and-file troops as cannon fodder.
While generals are busy amassing wealth for their families, ordinary soldiers receive little in the way of support or welfare benefits from the upper echelon. Instead, they have been subject to widespread violations of their basic rights.
This has resulted in a high desertion rate in the Myanmar military since the 2021 coup – but also for decades before that.
On Oct. 3, deputy junta chief Soe Win told cadets at the Defense Services Academy in Pyin Oo Lwin that they were now owned by the military, not their parents. He called on them to strictly obey all duties assigned to them – in other words, follow any and all orders to protect the military dictatorship.
His call comes at a time when the military is heavily depleted by desertion, casualties and a recruitment crisis, and with resistance forces threatening Nay Pyi Taw. The regime has used rank-and-file troops as expendable pawns over the past two years in its desperate battle to hold on to power.
Tax news is bad news
Pro-junta media outlets have become the latest prey for a cash-starved regime that is milking Myanmar citizens both at home and abroad.
On October 4, the regime announced a new tax on local news agencies. As the junta crackdown has forced all independent media to exit Myanmar, only the mostly pro-junta local outlets are affected by the new tax.
Over the past few months, the regime has been busy thinking up ways to bleed Myanmar citizens. So far, it has imposed income tax on those working abroad and also healthcare professionals, forced eateries to collect commercial tax from customers, raised business license and vehicle registration fees, and forced supermarkets to sell the widely boycotted Myanmar Beer produced by a military-owned conglomerate.
Revenue from all these taxes will boost the military budget that funds the junta’s terror campaign against its own civilians. Some will also go into the pockets of junta generals.
Two regime generals were recently purged and are being interrogated for corruption.
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