As a prominent anti-regime activist living in exile, Maung Maung has steadily built an international reputation as a fighter for Burmese workers’ rights, and generally trying to pile pressure on the Rangoon regime. He founded the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma in 1991, and has been general secretary of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a political umbrella organization based on the Thai-Burmese border, since 2001. He was awarded the Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award by the AFL-CIO, a powerful US labor federation, in 2001.

 

Maung Maung recently spoke to The Irrawaddy about his organizations’ achievements in 2005, and plans to step up pressure on the regime in 2006.

 

Question: What do you think about international policy on Burma, particularly sanctions? Some people are saying they are not doing anything good for Burma.

 

Answer: Well, I don’t agree with that because we were the people involved in getting sanctions from the US. We have been involved in international campaign activities since 1993/1994, starting with the NCUB and then with the FTUB. To get the US sanctions was not an easy task. At the same time, the US sanctions are the only things that have had an impact on the regime.

 

What we’re saying is they’re [the Burmese government] going nuts over there, look at the currency issue—all of them are trying to use the Euro as a substitute. They are not able to use it in an official way. We have information … a company had to go and buy fish in Hong Kong to get [foreign] currency back. We discovered that. All the investors who work with the regime…cannot get [foreign] money in an easy way. So therefore we’re saying that US sanctions are the only instrument that has had an impact on Burma. At the same time we are trying to use the ILO [International Labour Organization] also, because most of the international issues haven’t had any kind of enforcement action. UN resolutions? The regime doesn’t care because there is no enforcement action. So we’re trying to improvise enforcement actions by really working on the internal dynamics of the organizations. The ILO is just a bureaucracy. But we are within, let’s say, the mechanics of the ILO, we keep the ILO office on their toes, we keep information flowing, that is how we can keep the ILO working against the regime.

 

Also, with the sanctions… it’s not working 100 percent, because people don’t deliver information. We have to deliver information, but look—T-shirts that are manufactured in Burma are being relabeled in Taiwan, being relabeled in Hong Kong, and we need to work more within Burma to send out the information, so that US customs can close down these things.

 

People have to work more to really get the US sanctions in place. Our people—the people in Burma—have to work more to get the sanctions much more effective.

 

Q: But the regime is going strong, China is doing business with Rangoon and Asean has an engagement policy with the military government. Won’t therefore the junta continue running the country?

 

A: Look at what we have been able to achieve in 2005. International pressure that used to be 10,000 miles away —that was in America, that was in the EU— is now in the region. We have the Malaysians pressing on the regime, we have the Indonesians pressing on the regime, even the Thais are speaking out against the regime. So…we have achieved a lot in 2005 on international affairs. Look at China also. China is doing what it needs to do with neighboring countries because they need to have access to the Indian Ocean, through Burma—fine, that’s geopolitics—but at the same time we are having more inputs to the Chinese government. For example, at the UN Security Council … the Chinese stayed silent. The regime is stupid enough to make the Chinese angry, keeping them silent. So anyway, it never used to be that way.