Bangkok Post - October 9, 2003
Sanitsuda Ekachai

This humanitarian effort has won the doctor several international accolades, the latest of which was the Magsaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. But this work is now under threat - from the Thaksin government.

Uncertainty hangs over the Mae Tao Clinic in the border town of Mae Sot, where the medical team are under threat of repatriation. According to local authorities, the medical staff and volunteers do not have the proper papers. They are illegal workers subject to deportation.

This begs many questions. The clinic has been in operation for 14 years. Why take action now?

Past governments struck a balance between politics and humanity, and all allowed Mae Tao Clinic to operate. What blinds this government to compassion?

Our prime minister aspires to international stature among the world's democracies. But the government's exceptionally close ties with the Burmese junta will make it difficult for Thaksin Shinawatra to realise this dream.

Never before have pro-democracy activists from Burma experienced the kind of harsh treatment they now receive under this regime. Their ceremonial protests are no longer tolerated. They are confined to detention centres for extended periods. Human rights organisations which assist Burmese refugees and immigrants who flee poverty and the junta's atrocities are constantly raided, thus forcing them to shut down.

Mae Tao Clinic has treated over 200,000 patients over the years. Many ventured across the border to receive treatment they could not get in Burma.

Yesterday, a hundred elderly Burmese travelled to Mae Tao for eye surgery so they could see the world clearly again - something the Burmese junta could not care less about.

Is the deportation threat part of a scheme to appease the Burmese dictators because the clinic exposes their failure to their own people? Or is it because it exposes our society's failings? Or both?

Mae Sot is one Thailand's biggest slavery centres, with more than 100,000 immigrant workers toiling in harsh conditions. Only a small number can afford the expensive registration cards. Theoretically, they can get treatment at state hospitals. In practice, this does not happen because their employers confiscate their cards and/or they cannot communicate with Thai health staff.

Female immigrant workers also routinely suffer from rape, unplanned pregnancies, abortions and HIV/Aids.

Statistics at Mae Tao Clinic reveal a health time bomb caused by the government's failure to attend to migrant Burmese women's reproduction rights. Pregnancies among teenagers rose from 18.8% of the total in the first half of 2000 to 26% in 2002. Cases involving complications from past abortions rose to one-third of normal deliveries in 2002. HIV infection is rising steadily among the clinic's patients, to 1.5% of the total.

One health organisation has put the HIV infection rate among the predominantly Burmese sex workers in Mae Sot at 20%.

Immigrant workers in Mae Sot have only one refuge when they fall sick or are abused: Dr Cynthia Maung's Mae Tao Clinic. She is also an oasis of hope for their children. Since Thailand refuses to recognise and educate immigrant children, she has set up a school where some 200 children are now learning how to read and write. Her clinic also helps some 700 migrant children in 16 child care centres in Tak.

These humanitarian works will have to stop if her medical team and teachers are deported.

Despite the uncertainty, Dr Cynthia Maung said she still believes in Thai hospitality. Only the Thaksin administration can prove her right in this. Or wrong.

- Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok Post.sanitsuda@bangkokpost.net

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