More cows than cars in Myanmar's new capital

YANGON, Sep 18: It is nearly a year since Myanmar's military rulers abruptly abandoned their leafy, colonial-era capital in favour of a ''command and control'' centre in jungle-clad hills along the road to Mandalay.

The generals have grandly named their new capital Nay Pyi Taw, or ''Royal City'', but besides a few reception halls the former Burma's answer to Brasilia boasts little more than dusty building sites, deserted highways and disgruntled civil servants.

''There are more stray dogs and cows on the roads than any type of transport,'' one diplomat said after a recent visit to the new town around 400 km north of Yangon, near the former logging centre of Pyinmana.

''It's a bit like those photos you see of Pyongyang -- great wide roads but no cars, no people, no life.'' The junta argues the site, midway between Yangon and the second city of Mandalay, will work better as a national capital, especially as it is closer to the ethnic border areas where civil war has raged almost since independence from Britain in 1948.

But exile dissident groups suggest alternative motives, ranging from paranoia about a possible U.S. invasion or popular uprising in Yangon, to astrological prognostications whispered into the ears of junta supremo Than Shwe.

Other analysts have suggested the 73-year-old Senior General is merely walking in the footsteps of Burmese kings who liked to build a new capital every time they proclaimed a new dynasty.

Whatever the reasons, Nay Pyi Taw looks set to stay.

Google Earth satellite images reveal construction sites stretching over more than 40 km, including a new airport, a string of identical government ministry buildings, barrack-style housing units and two vast parade grounds.

Word is, the junta -- the latest face of more than four decades of military rule -- is even planning a life-size replica of Yangon's gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's holiest Buddhist shrine that towers 98 metres above the city.

''It shows how serious the regime is about moving the capital,'' a retired government officer said. ''They want to take everything up there.'' Dissidents joke that the only thing unlikely to decamp is opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 11 of the last 17 years either in prison or under house arrest at her lakeside Yangon home.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Despite rumours of visiting foreign bigwigs being kept under lock and key to stop them snooping around, there appear to be few restrictions -- at least in the civilian parts of the complex -- for the simple reason there is nothing there. ''You could walk out of your hotel for miles and miles but there's nothing to see or do and nowhere to go,'' the diplomat said.

The estimated 10,000 government workers forced to leave friends and family in Yangon tend to agree.

''Things are absolutely terrible for those with families but it's not much better for the singles either,'' said Ko Khin Maung, a 24-year-old bachelor and senior clerk who is now sharing a single room with five or six others.

''There could be so many serious consequences. How are we supposed to spend our spare time in this wilderness? It's completely out of the question to look for a better job from here. I wonder how long I'll have to stick it out.'' Quitting is hardly an option, as shown by the case of Khin Khin Aye, who was ordered to repay 3.5 million kyat -- 583,000 dollars at the official exchange rate, or around 3,000 dollars on the black market -- as compensation for having had an overseas scholarship.

''It's more than I've earned in 15 years of service, but I couldn't have moved there for the world. Both my parents are bedridden and I'm an only daughter,'' she said.

While the junta has rolled out the red carpet to foreign dignitaries such as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Nay Pyi Taw's workers routinely complain about a lack of fresh water and public transport.

At the other end of the move, dozens of government buildings in Yangon, some of which were never occupied, are sitting empty -- another example, critics say, of the incompetence that has reduced the once-prosperous nation to an economic basket-case.

IN THE DARK

Even though officials estimate around 90 per cent of the government has moved, Myanmar's roughly 50 million people are still being kept in the dark as to Nay Pyi Taw's precise status.

''We haven't been told anything official so we honestly don't know how to answer when pupils ask what the capital is,'' geography teacher Daw Hla Tin said.

Foreign embassies, told the day after November's shock capital move they would have to communicate with the government by a fax number they were not given, appear no better informed.

The United States and Thailand were both busy building new embassies in Yangon's sedate diplomatic quarter when word came through they would have to start construction afresh in Nay Pyi Taw next year.

Diplomats used to the languid pace of life in the old port city of Rangoon, as it was known in its colonial heyday, are planning their exits before they are dragged off to the hinterland.

''We may have to open at least a liaison office there around 2008,'' said one diplomat from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). ''To my great relief, I won't be here by then.''

Reuters