Can you work effectively in Myanmar?

“You can work here very well, and to say that you can’t is a lie,” said Frank Smithuis, a physician and the longtime country director for Medecins Sans Frontieres. “Look, the human rights record is shaky, yes, and it’s politically nice to beat up Burma, but the military has actually been quite helpful to us.” Dr. Smithuis said the delta had recovered well enough – and that enough other agencies were working there – that he had deployed his staffers to poorer, needier parts of the country.

“Because of sanctions there is a lot of suffering, and we see that particularly in the humanitarian-aid field,” said Frank Smithius, Myanmar country director for Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. “There’s definitely hope in the aid community that the policy will be reconsidered.”

“The Myanmar people are victims of a humanitarian boycott,” Smithius said. “There is enormous pressure on politicians in the West to look politically correct, and they get human rights brownie points by being very strict on aid.” (Source: Myanmar loses aid to political “brownie points” – Bloomberg 5 May 2009)

“Why is Myanmar the lowest recipient of overseas development money in the world? This is the result of political pressure to restrict humanitarian aid to Myanmar, arguing that aid cannot reach the population of Myanmar. This argument is not valid, hampers humanitarian aid and increases the suffering of the Myanmar people. We have experience that it is possible to guarantee that foreign aid can directly reach the people of Myanmar. Large-scale health projects, with good monitoring systems that guaranteed that donor money directly benefits the population, have been set up and proven to be very effective to save lives of Myanmar people” (source: Dr. Frank Smithuis frank.m.smithuis@gmail.com)

Frank Smithuis, MD, PhD.

Frank has worked for 20 years in South East Asia, first as a clinical doctor in a Cambodian refugee camp (1988-1992), than as project coordinator in West Cambodia (1993-1994), and later as medical coordinator and general director for MSF in Myanmar (1994-2009). In Myanmar he built up the largest medical programme of MSF in the world, with over 10 million patient consultations. In 2005 he received a PhD for Malaria research in Myanmar. frank.m.smithuis@gmail.com