BURMESE REGIME DESTROYS EDUCATION TO KEEP CONTROL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001105

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM
SUBJECT: BURMESE REGIME DESTROYS EDUCATION TO KEEP CONTROL

RANGOON 00001105 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Political Officer Chelsia Wheeler for Reasons 1.4 (b) &
(d)


1. (C) Summary. Myat Ko Ko, a member of the Embassy-funded
Cosmopolitan Library Club, explained how the regime
consolidates its power by destroying Burma's education
system. While the children of the generals can afford to
attend foreign universities, over 300,000 university students
in Burma must make do with sub-par local schools.
Small-scale libraries throughout the country, many relying on
support from the Embassy's American Center, provide the sole
source for books on political science and literature in a
country where even possessing a copy of Aung San Suu Kyi's
"Freedom From Fear" can result in a 10 to 20 year prison
sentence. End Summary.


2. (C) On November 9 Poloff met with Myat Ko Ko, a founding
member of the Cosmopolitan Library Club. The club hosts an
Embassy-funded English language program in its library, which
contains books on literature, philosophy, and political
science. Members can also borrow books on human rights and
democracy that the regime considers illegal. These books are
not displayed openly but kept behind the counter.
Cosmopolitan Library Club received funding under the
Embassy's small grants program to enable university students
to read English-language material to which they would not
otherwise have access.


3. (C) Myat Ko Ko pointed out that his organization exists
primarily because of the poor quality of university education
in Burma. After the 1988 demonstrations, the government
closed down the country's four largest universities and
created many remote, small campuses throughout the country,
based on the idea that such a system would make it more
difficult for students to organize in the future. Myat Ko Ko
explained that university majors do not reflect a student's
interests, but rather on the outcome of their Tenth Standard
Exams. High scores earn students a chance to receive a
poor-quality medical education; lower scores limit students
to studying subjects with less employment potential, such as
history and natural sciences. He noted that local school
officials often inflate Tenth Standard Exam scores to improve
their own school's image, and many students with high scores
are not adequately prepared, even for poor quality Burmese
universities.


4. (C) The problems in the education system are no accident,
asserted Myat Ko Ko. University students organized and led
the 1988 demonstrations, after which the government dispersed
the entire student population to prevent future uprisings.
Several subsequent demonstrations have also originated on
university campuses, although on a much smaller scale since

1988. The generals, well aware of the poor quality of
education in Burma, send their own children to expensive
universities abroad, as does anyone else in Burma who can
afford to do so.


5. (C) As a result of the government's systematic destruction
of the university system, Myat Ko Ko does not believe that
students now are as organized for a democracy movement as
they were in 1988. Communication among students is more
dangerous and difficult, and there are more informants among
the students than previously. However, at the moment, Myat
Ko Ko observed, students and the general public have a
significant interest in political developments in Burma.
Students, despite being unorganized, present the best hope
for the democracy movement, he said, adding that the best way
to educate them is through small libraries, such as the
Cosmopolitan Library.


6. (C) Comment: While the Than Shwe regime touts "human
resource development" and "education" as the top goals in
their mouthpiece daily, the New Light of Myanmar, they have
simultaneously allowed Burma's education system, once
esteemed as the best in Southeast Asia, to wither and die.
As a result, Burma has far fewer trained and well-educated
people to lead it into the future than it did sixty years ago
at independence. This will make a political and economic

RANGOON 00001105 002.2 OF 002


transition all the more difficult. Until Burma has a
government willing to invest in future generations, Burma
will remain at the bottom of the world's development and
poverty indices. End Comment.
VILLAROSA