No sooner had the Burmese military
attempted to convince the world it was too poor to undertake a
nuclear programme than its richest man emerges from
the shadows to brag about the incredible fortunes he, the generals and local
and Chinese businessmen have amassed over the years.
Tay Za is a 47-year-old billionaire
— and he wants the West to know it.
He recently told an Italian
journalist in his first interview with the foreign press: ‘I want it to be
known once and for all that I am the wealthiest man in Burma. Too many Chinese
have taken our citizenship and are now boasting they are the richest. But
they're not pure Burmese.’
In a fantastic interview with Raimondo Butrini and published in La Republica,
Tay Za did anything but cry poor from a snakeskin sofa with armrests shaped of
enormous golden conch shells in a plush Rangoon mansion.
The Burmese businessman heads a list
of 3,000 people with sanctions levelled against them, yet despite this runs a
network of companies with an estimated turnover of about $500 million a year,
with interests that include aviation and gem stones.
‘My holdings show that actually your
Western sanctions don't bother me,’ he said.
‘In fact, they suit me fine, and
that goes for everyone else on your black list, including the generals
themselves. But I don't like seeing our economy depending on Chinese trade
alone.
‘They have the money and can afford
everything, even the jade and precious stones from my mines. Everyone knows
that China has enormous interests here. The Chinese need a secure trade route
for their goods from the Middle East and Africa without using the Straits of
Malacca, which are controlled by the US.
‘That's why they're building huge
ports along our western coast, and railways across the country up to Kunming,
behind their frontier. Our gas goes up there too, through hundreds of miles of
pipeline.’
The interview was far reaching and
offered some rare insights into the running of the country. Asked if the
Burmese generals fear Chinese control, he responded:
‘You can be sure of that. But people
abroad don't seem to realize that sanctions are bound to thrust us into the
arms of Beijing in the end. Just the other day, China offered a loan of $30
billion, which the government hasn't yet accepted, but certainly will soon.
‘In exchange, they will obviously
get more concessions. All this is going on because you are following the moral
principles of (former US president) George Bush, who will go down in history as
America's worst ever president for the mess he made in Iraq and its
consequences.’
Tay Za also had some fair points
about hypocrisy and Western sanctions: ‘China is always being accused of
violating human rights, but where the sanctions against them are? As for the
champions of these sanctions, why do America and France let Chevron and Total
operate here with no restrictions whatsoever? They're the hypocrites,
moralizing while they knowingly swell their government coffers, not China,
India, Thailand, Singapore and Korea.’
However, he also made a somewhat
dubious point, saying: ‘You should realize that the real victims of your
measures against us here are the poor, who live hand to mouth.’
It’s a hard line to swallow given
his bragging rights are based on how so few have attained such great wealth in
a country of so many poor. It also makes a mockery of claims by Burma’s Vice
President Tin Aung Myint Oo, who recently told US Sen. John McCain during his
tour there to assess the country’s changing politics that Burma isn’t wealthy
enough to acquire nuclear weapons.
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