10  May

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chairperson of the Central Committee for Development of Border Areas and National Races together with Union Ministers Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Lt-Gen Ye Aung, U Min Thu, Dr. Aung Thu, U Ohn Win and Dr. Myint Htwe and officials met with people of Magway at Magway Town Hall yesterday afternoon.

At the meeting the State Counsellor said that in her tour of the country she saw people from Magway working everywhere because there wasn’t sufficient work in Magway. On one hand it shows that people from Magway didn’t shy away from jobs, were capable of taking up any works and had the courage to seek out jobs anywhere. On the other hand it was sad to see that they had to leave their place of birth to seek out jobs elsewhere. No one would want to leave their place of birth and will want to stay there.

That was why we said creating jobs was a very important matter ever since our government took over responsibility. Economically or socially, job creation was important. Only through jobs can we earn income. Only with income can we survive. However, only with work or job where they were can people live with their family, relatives and society. If not they’ll have to seek out works or jobs elsewhere and part with their family which was not good.

We prioritize job creation all over the country. We designated job creation as our first priority when we took over the government responsibility. But after a few months we noticed that the main requirement for job creation was road communication in electricity. Where there was a good road communication with electricity, jobs and works were created. There were two ways in which this happens. One was where locals have the opportunity to create jobs and works. They set out to start small businesses. Sometime, due to good road communication, farmers were able to send their products to the market quickly without the products degrading from time. So, economically there’ll be development. With electricity, they’ll be creating their own businesses or increase whatever they’re doing. Create more jobs and works.

Another one will be businesses coming in to invest. Once the road communication became good and electricity became available, business persons come in to invest in businesses. Road communication was noticeably good in Magway Region. It was quite developed. However, we were unable to provide as much electricity as we want to. Electricity was required all over the country. We have to decide on where to prioritize. We can’t provide to the entire country at one time. This depends a lot on technology, work situation and financial situation.

We hope to fulfill 50% of the country’s electricity requirement before the end of this year. We’ll strive toward providing this to the entire country in the coming two to three years. As we want 100%, we were not satisfied with 50%. But let me say that there was progress. Two years ago, we were only providing about 30% and reaching 50% means the progress was close to double. This was indeed quite acceptable.

Education was most important for the whole country. We emphasize on education because the future of our country will be good only when our people were educated. Only when children were taught with what they need to learn can they benefit the country when they grow up. When civic rights and responsibilities were taught to the children at the primary schools they’ll understand and learn quickly. It would be hard to teach the parents as once the mindsets were established it would be difficult to change their attitudes and practices. The children were easier to teach and change.

An example is trash. Trash is becoming a habit for our people. The trash we throw away were something like not related to us but even when we left a place, the trash we throw away remains. We were taught not to throw away our trash since we were in school. We were taught since young to handle this.

Ever since we started our political party movement in 1988, we told youths to leave a place at least in the same condition as they first reach there if they couldn’t leave it in a better condition. The least they should do was to leave a place as how it was before they were there. If possible, they were to leave a place in a better situation than they were there first.

I would like to urge both young and old to have a spirit of leaving a place they went through in a better condition once they left. This would be the individual duty and responsibility of each and every citizen. Only when this duty and responsibility was taken up can the country develop. Our country was a developing country. What this was like was like a youngster growing up in harsh neighborhood. We need to have the quality of putting in more efforts than others. I trust that people of Magway had this ability. They can endure hardship. They stay simple but aim high. They were simple and straight forward. All must have this aim. All can improve themselves. It was possible to become an honorable and qualified person. People of Magway should be exemplary in this. People of Magway were seen all over the country working in all sorts of works. I believe such people had the ability to advance the country in a big way.

We would want to make the education system as practical as possible. We want to establish an education system that was in line with the time. In other word, we want to establish an education system that was unique from other countries. We want to be on par in all technologies. This we have to teach. But we need to raise not only the education but also the moral and ethics too.

For this, we need to teach civic duties and responsibilities that’ll change and develop the morality of youngsters. We want to teach subjects that changes the moral characters and provide physical development.

For most, higher education means university education. But this was now becoming an outdated thought. Even in the world’s most developed countries, there were many unemployed university graduates. It was important for youngsters and parents to know the value of vocational education. University education was not the only education. Vocational education was also an education. They are two different types of education. Vocational education was practical and there were many good opportunities for people who had completed vocational education to go straight into the work forces.

That was why we want to promote vocational education. People need to support and strive toward understanding the value of it said the State Counsellor.

Afterwards, local people in the meeting raised matters consisting of land and construction of Obo Ward administrator office, taking action against misuse of fund in a cooperative, releasing of confiscated lands, issuing identity card quickly to children born of parents who were citizen, loan to construct Magway Town Pyidawtha Ward administrator office, beautifying Kanthaya Ward pond in Magway Town, upgrading Aung Cetana Ward sub middle school, providing land and supporting fund to construct Aung Zeya Ward library, designating an additional land plot as part of Magway Town Aungzeya Ward, constructing a school in Magway Town Aung Myitta Ward, releasing of lands confiscated from Magway Town Mae Hla Village, laying of a pebble surfaced road, expanding land area of Magway Town Kanpya Village, provision of quality rice seedlings, agriculture loan, compensation for confiscated lands, issuing of form 7 for lands, issuing of land grants to houses in Mann Oilfield Ward, construction of an embankment to protect bank erosion in Minbu Township, brick lining canals distributing irrigation water from Mann embankment and Einma dam.

Six out 16 who had drawn a lot to raise matters in the hall also raised questions on compensation for land confiscated in constructing Magway-Taungdwingyi railway line, upgrading a school, obtaining agriculture loan and form 7, resolving corruption issues related to Magway car compound, re-electing Htonepauktaw village administrator, plotting of lands in Myothit Town. Three out of 33 outside the hall who had drawn lots to raise matters also raised matters covering preventing flooding in Magway Town, Aungzeya Ward, changing teaching method in Magway University and issuing of village land grant.

The State Counsellor, Union Minister Dr. Aung Thu, Region Chief Minister, region ministers and official then responded to matters that can be resolved immediately while explaining of resolving some matters requiring more time and to conduct matters that requires doing things in the long run.

At the end the State Counsellor asked the people to raise matters in which they were facing difficulties with full confidence and trust to the Region Government, spoke of the requirement for the Region Government to consistently keep in touch with the local populace, possibility of overcoming any problem if the people and the government have good relation and the government having full confidence in the capacity of the people. — MNA

(Translated by Zaw Min)