Burma's energy protests light up the night

Thousands of marginalised Burmese, sick of being left in the dark by their government, are taking part in a series of candlelit demonstrations over electricity shortages around the country.

On Sunday night, around 250 protestors holding candles and handmade placards quietly made their way through darkened streets in the dilapidated former capital of Rangoon, watched by nearly a thousand more, and entered the Sule Pagoda for an address by a local activist group.

The column of demonstrators circled the pagoda, observed by scores of stern-faced riot police, before removing their sandals and filing quietly inside, the small space soon cramped by the hundreds of attentive men, women and children, their faces lit up by hope and candlelight.

Around 200 people listen attentively to an activist address inside Sule Pagoda, Rangoon

Men, women and children kneel together as a small group of activists begins an address, oblivious to the burning wax from melting candles dripping over their upraised arms.

Their demands are simple: give the whole country electricity.

Long-running energy shortages in resource-rich Burma cause frequent blackouts across the country, forcing people to resort to expensive diesel-powered generators to run their shops and homes.

A young man holding up a cardboard placard reading “Please Nay Pi Daw, help us,” says people feel frustrated and abandoned by their government, which relocated to the new administrative capital, some 300 kilometers north of Rangoon in 2009.

“We want electricity, we want democracy, we want this government to change,” he says.

Another holds a printed page with a sarcastic message targeting the government “Hi… Mr Electric, why do you only love Nay Pi Daw? Please, can you love other towns…”

One card paints a picture of the Burmese government’s energy distribution chain – 80 per cent in foreign exports, 19 per cent to the government in Nay Pi Daw, leaving one per cent for millions of citizens.

A plea to the Burmese government... demonstrators in Rangoon on May 27

Angry protestors say the Burmese government prioritises the export of energy from rich oil and gas production to neighbours Thailand and China, while its own citizens struggle with a few hours of power a day and millions more have no electricity at all.

These people say the government’s much-touted reforms have not reached the majority of the impoverished country’s citizens, and they want to see that change.

President Thein Sein’s government has been hailed by the international community for a range of economic and political reforms, including the election of Aung San Suu Kyi to the lower house, since the transition from half a century of repressive military regime to a semi-civilian government in 2010.

Growing public discontent over the country's energy distribution

 The international community, including the EU, US and Australia have rewarded the reforms by easing trade and investment sanctions and increasing foreign aid budgets to the impoverished nation.

However activists say any real change is yet to be experienced at the grassroots level and the country still suffers from endemic corruption and absence of democracy and rule of law.

In Burma, renamed Myanmar by the former regime, the anger over insufficient energy distribution is spreading systemically throughout the resource-rich country.

Despite the Burmese government announcing additional power generators will be installed in various areas surrounding Rangoon and Mandalay, a business source close to the project says the electricity generated will be for commercial use only.

“The ordinary people won’t see much benefit,” the source said.

Sunday night’s demonstration in Rangoon was the last of seven consecutive gatherings held in the country’s former capital every night over the past week and activists say a series of protests are organised for the entire country.

The mass demonstrations were sparked by power shortages that began on May 19 after transmission cables from the Shweli hydropower project were damaged. The government has blamed the Kachin Independent Army for the attack on the power plant, the Myanmar Times reported on May 28.

More than 1,500 protestors attended the first demonstrations in Mandalay on May 20 and have spread to other parts of the country as Burma’s citizens join forces to protest against energy shortages.

In Rangoon the warm, damp air is thick with anticipation - these are the biggest mass demonstrations in Burma since the infamous Saffron Revolution of 2007, where thousands of monks and protesters were fired upon in a brutal crackdown by the former military regime.

But this time the police are only observers and one senior commander walks at the head of the glowing procession, clearing the way for people to walk forwards.

Tonight in Rangoon one thing is clear: There may be power shortages but there is no shortage of people power and protestors say they won't stop until the government starts listening.

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