Mon facing a lost generation of youth

(Kaowao: December 10, 2005)

Bangkok -- Chan Ong represents the younger Mon generation, who leave school at a young age to find work abroad to support their families in Burma. Chan dropped out of university in Burma because of financial difficulties and with no passport or legal status migrated illegally to Thailand to work in a 4 D job. 

After finishing university in Karen State (he disliked the colleges around his hometown) he refused to work as a schoolteacher in his village because he wanted to study information technology and English, a grand dream for Burmese students. He graduated in mathematics in Karen State and went to Thailand for 6 months, but is home again in Burma, jobless. 

Hundreds of young people from his village, recent graduates, distance education students, and many, who have not even finished junior high school, have migrated to Thailand. Most don’t want to leave because they have no experience working in a foreign country, but feel pressured to do so by their parents and relatives who say there’s no use waiting around for a dead end job working for the Burmese government. 

SPDC civil servants make barely enough money to get by; besides, most look down on those who can land a job with the government. At home, parents and relatives don’t want their children to continue at school or work in government services, but will instead persuade them to work in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore where they can earn a better income. 

Even children, aged between 13 and 14 years old, often pack up their belongings and head to Thailand by themselves without any prior knowledge of what to expect, most are encouraged to leave by their parents and relatives. The culture of ‘obeying your parents’ forces sons and daughters out of their homes to earn money. 

About ninety percent of young men and women from Chan’s village have gone to Thailand, the younger students, he said, wanted to stay and study, but broke down under pressure by their parents and relatives to give up school. 

Nai Lavi a high school graduate said he had to drop out of university after feeling guilty about attending university. “I was too big of a burden for my parents,” he explained. “I had to go,” he added. At 18 years old, he went to Malaysia first and then on to Thailand.  After quitting his 4 D job (dangerous, difficult, dirty, and distant) packing rice sacks for 150 baht a day for the Uthai Company, he decided to work with pro-democracy opposition groups in Thailand. “The company abused us, they abuse everybody’s rights,” he said of the Uthai Company.  

The educational environment is another barrier to receiving a good education in Burma. Miss Smod Chan said if she wanted to, she could pay bribe money to her head teacher to pass her exams. “People who have the money can easily pass and get the high marks needed for Distance Education”, she explained. She is a second year distance university student in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State, she choose not to go this route, saying, “I wanted to rely on my ability to pass the exam.’’  She went to Thailand and worked there for 6 months, then returned to Burma for further study. Her brother and sisters are working in Thailand to support her. 

“I want to be a lawyer, but I can’t attend university during the day because my brother and sisters would have to pay more,” she added. 

Nai Win Ong, famous in his home village for being a success in Singapore, refused to work in government service after graduating; he left to Singapore the day he graduated from Rangoon University. Today he is a Singaporean after being granted a permanent citizenship card. 

Land confiscation in Mon State have forced many people into poverty, especially in Ye township, which has created a context of extreme vulnerability for all people, but the young are faced with the pressure to support their families in some way and decide to leave home. 

After the New Mon State Party reached ceasefire agreement with Burmese State Peace and Development Council in 1995, many young students from Ye township moved to Mudon Township in central Mon state to continue their studies. They had to spend a lot of money to move to the most famous high school in Mon State. 

Young men such as Nai, Pe and Mroh Mon from Ye township finished high school in Mudon township around 2000. They said that they are the first of their generation in their villages to finish both high school and then graduate from Mon State University. 

However, after 2003, more land was confiscated and the whole of southern Ye township area has become a battleground. The young people also fled from this area due to many kinds of human rights abuses, such as portering, torture, murder, and rape. 

At a distinct disadvantage, suffering from hardship, a lack of employment opportunities, coupled with human rights abuses, more international attention needs to be focused on this excluded population to tackle the problems they face in leaving their home villages, particularly in providing assistance to them when working abroad and to improve their situation back home in receiving a proper education in a democratic Burma.