The article "Myanmar Considers Foreign-Exchange Overhaul" (World News, Aug. 8) states that Myanmar's national election last year "was dominated by allies of Myanmar's long-ruling military regime" and that it was "derided as a sham by the U.S. and other Western governments." It went on to note that Western governments maintain economic sanctions against Myanmar because of "reports of widespread human-rights violations there." In my view those statements were not relevant to the subject matter of the article and were only included to satisfy the political correctness in Western countries.
The article goes on to say it "isn't entirely clear" why Myanmar allows multiple exchange rates. In fact, the government's inability to change its currency rate system is partly due to a lack of foreign reserves and a lack of support from the International Monetary Fund, which in turn is a result of pressure from the U.S. Your article fails to mention this.
Lastly, the article says that many residents believe military figures, including former leader Sen. Gen. Than Shwe "continue to pull the strings behind the scenes," and that there is a power struggle developing within the new government between "hard-liners connected to the military" and ministers who are pressing for more economic changes. Since 1988, there have been many rumors and speculations about splits and power struggles within Myanmar's leadership, which were mainly spread by opposition groups and Western media outlets that are happy to quote them. But nothing happened.
Ye Htut
Naypyitaw, Myanmar
Mr. Ye Htut is the director general of the Information and Public Relations Department at Myanmar's Ministry of Information.