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မက္စ္ ' ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ' ( ၄၇ + ႏွစ္ ) 1967 Born
။။။။။။။။။။။။။။။။။။။
ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ဟာ ဧ ရာ ဝ တီ ျမစ္ ဝ ကြၽန္း ေပၚ - ေရ ၾကည္ နယ္
သား ပါ ၊ အ ေဖ က အ စိုး ရ ဝန္ ထမ္း ၊ အ ေမ က အိမ္ ဆိုင္ ေလး ဖြင့္ ထား ပီး တစ္ ဘက္
တစ္ လမ္း အိမ္ ဝင္ ေငြ ရွာ ခဲ့ ရ တဲ့ ေမြး ခ်င္း ၆ ေယာက္ အ နက္ သူ က အ ငယ္ ဆုံး သား
တစ္ ဦး ျဖစ္ ပါ တယ္ ၊
၁၉၈၈ မွာ အ ေရး အ ခင္း ျဖစ္ ေတာ့ သူ က ' ရန္ ကုန္ တ ကၠ
သိုလ္ ေနာက္ ဆုံး ႏွစ္ မွာ ပါ ၊ စစ္ တပ္ အာ ဏာ သိမ္း ပီး ေနာက္ အ ေရး အ ခင္း မွာ ပါ
ဝင္ လႈပ္ ရွား သူ ေတြ ကို စစ္ အ စိုး ရ လိုက္ လံ ဖမ္း ေတာ့ သူ လည္း ၄ လ ေလာက္ ျပည္
တြင္း မွာ ပုန္း ေရွာင္ ေန ရ ပါ ေသး တယ္ ၊ အဲ ဒီ ေနာက္ ေဆြ မ်ိဳး ဝမ္း ကြဲ အ ကူ အ ညီ
နဲ႕ စင္ ကာ ပူ ကို ( ေဒၚ လာ ၈၀ ပဲ အိတ္ ေထာင္ ထဲ ပါ လာ ) ထြက္ လာ ပီး ၊ သေဘၤာ သား လုပ္
ခဲ့ တာ ၆ ႏွစ္ ၾကာ ျပည္ ပ ထြက္ အ လုပ္- လုပ္ ျခင္း စြန္႕ စား ရ မႈ ရဲ့ အ စ ဦး ပိုင္း
အ ေျခ အ ေန ပါ ပဲ ။ ျပည္ ပ ကို အ ေၾကာက္ တ ရား ရွိ ေန တဲ့ စစ္ အ စိုး ရ ရဲ့ အ ထီး က်န္
ကာ လ ေတြ မွာ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ တစ္ ေယာက္ တစ္ လ မွ ေဒၚ လာ ၂၀၀ ရ ဖို႕ အ ေရး သေဘၤာ ကုန္း ပတ္
ေပၚ မွာ သေဘၤာ သား လုပ္ ေန ရင္း နဲ႕ ၊ ဩ စ ေတး လ် - ေဟာင္ ေကာင္ - တိုင္ ဝမ္ - အီ ရန္
- ဂ် ပန္ -အာ ဖ ရိ က စ သည္ ေန ရာ ေတြ ကို သူ လည္း အ စံု ေရာက္ ဖူး သြား ျပီး ၊ အဂၤ
လိပ္ စာ ကို ေလ့ လာ ခြင့္ ရ ခဲ့ သ လို ၊ တစ္ ဖက္ မွာ သူ မ်ား ႏိုင္ ငံ ေတြ ဖြင့္ ျဖိဳး
တိုး တက္ တာ ေတြ ျမင္ ရ ေတာ့ သူ႕ ဘ ဝ သူ ~သူ ရဲ့ ဆင္း ရဲ မႈ - အ ႏွိမ္ ခံ ရ မႈ ေတြ
အ ေပၚ ရွက္ စိတ္ ေတြ နဲ႕ သာ ရွင္ သန္ ေန ထိုင္လာ ခဲ့ ပါ တယ္ ၊
ေဒၚ လာ ၈၀၀၀ စု မိ ေတာ့ ဘန္ ေကာက္ ေရာက္ သြား ျပီး ၊အ ေပါင္း
အ သင္း ေတြ နဲ႕ ႏိုက္ က လပ္ ေတြ မွာ သုံး ျဖဳန္း ပစ္ တာ ၊ ၁၉၉၁ မွာ လက္ က်န္ ေငြ ၆၅၀
နဲ႕ ဂ် ပန္ ကို ေရာက္ ရ ျပန္ ပါ တယ္ ။ တို က်ိဳ မွာ ' ထ မင္း ခ်က္ - ပန္း ကန္ ေဆး
- စား ပြဲ ထိုး ' အ လုပ္ ၃ မ်ိဳး လုပ္ ျပီး ၊ တစ္ ဖက္ မွာ ဂ် ပန္ စာ ကို သင္ ယူ ေလ့
လာ ခြင့္ ရ ပါ တယ္ ။ ဒီ လို နဲ႕ yellow pages နဲ႕ cold-calling က တစ္ ဆင့္ ကား ေဟာင္း
ေရာင္း ဝယ္ တဲ့ ဗ်ံ က် အ လုပ္ က ေလး စ လုပ္ ျဖစ္ ပါ တယ္ ၊ အဲ ဒီ မွာ Max Trading
Co လို႕ အ မည္ စ ေပး ျဖစ္ သြား တာ ပါ ။ ကား ေဟာင္း ေရာင္း သူ ေဌး နဲ႕ မိတ္ ေဆြ ျဖစ္
လာ ျပီး ၊ အဲ ဒီ က Nissan ဆီ ဒင္ ၂ စီး ကို ဝယ္ ျဖစ္ ၊ အ ျခား မိတ္ ေဆြ ကို ျပန္ ေရာင္း
ျဖစ္ ၊ ဒီ က စ ျပီး Max Myanmar Group.ျဖစ္ တည္ လာ တာ ျမန္ မာ နဲ႕ အ ျခား ႏိုင္ ငံ
ေတြ ဆီ ကား ေဟာင္း ေတြ တင္ ပို႕ ေရာင္း ခ် ျဖစ္ ပါ တယ္ ။
ျမန္ မာ ႏိုင္ ငံ သား တစ္ ေယာက္ ကို ကား ၁ စီး သြင္း ခြင့္
ရွိ တဲ့ အဲ ဒီ ေခတ္ လုပ္ ထုံး လုပ္ နည္း အ ရ $500 ေလာက္ ေပါက္ တဲ့ ကား ပါ မစ္ ေတြ ကို
သူ က ခ်ဳပ္ ကိုင္ ထား ရ ပါ တယ္ ။
သူ႕ ရဲ့ ဇ နီး ေလာင္း ျဖစ္ မည့္ သူ ဟာ သူ မ ကိုယ္ တိုင္
လည္း ဂ် ပန္ မွာ အ လုပ္ လုပ္ ေန ခ်ိန္ ၊ သူ႕ ထံ ကား လာ ဝယ္ ရင္း နဲ႕ ဖူး စာ ဆံု ခဲ့
တာ လို႕ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ က ေျပာ ပါ တယ္ ။
( ' လာ ရင္း က ေတာ့ ကား လာ ဝယ္ တာ ဗ် ၊ ေနာက္ ဆုံး မ ေတာ့
လူ ပါ ဝယ္ သြား ေရာ ' ဟု အင္ တာ ဗ်ဴး တြင္ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ က အ ရႊမ္း ေဖာက္ ထား ပါ ေသး သည္
။ )
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၁၉၉၅ မွာ လက္ ထပ္ ျပီး ၊ျမန္ မာ ျပည္ အ တူ ျပန္ လာ ေတာ့
လည္း ဒီ ကား ေဟာင္း သြင္း တဲ့ အ လုပ္ ကို ပဲ ဆက္ လုပ္ ပါ တယ္ ။ အဲ ေနာက္ အ ၾကီး စား
ေဆာက္ လုပ္ ေရး ယ ႏၲ ရား ပ စၥည္း ေတြ က ပို ကိုက္ တာ ကို သိ လာ ရ ခ်ိန္ ၊ ေဆာက္ လုပ္
ေရး ေလာ က ထဲ ဝင္ ပါ တယ္ ၊ ပ ထ မ ေတာ့ ကန္ ထ ႐ိုက္ တာ ၾကီး ေတြ ရဲ့ လက္ ေဝ ခံ ၊ အဲ
ဒီ က အ စိုး ရ ပ ေရာ ဂ်က္ ေတြ မွာ တိုက္ ႐ိုက္ ကိုယ္ တိုင္ ကန္ ထ ႐ိုက္ သြင္း ႏိုင္
သူ ျဖစ္ လာ ၊ စစ္ အုပ္ ခ်ဳပ္ ေရး ပိုင္း နဲ႕ လည္း အ ဆက္ အ သြယ္ ေတြ ေကာင္း လာ ၊ ၂၀၀၅
မွာ ေဆာက္ လုပ္ ေရး ကု မၸ ဏီ ဖြဲ႕ ျပီး ၊ ေန ျပည္ ေတာ္ အ တြက္ လမ္း ေတြ ေဖာက္ ေပး ခဲ့
ပါ တယ္ ၊ ၅ လ အ ၾကာ ေန ျပည္ ေတာ္ မွာ ပဲ ဟို တယ္ ေတြ ေဆာက္ ေပး ရ ပါ တယ္ ၊ ကား ပါ မစ္
ေတြ ရ ပါ တယ္ ။
၂၀၀၇ မွာ အ စိုး ရ နဲ႕ ' ေက်ာက္ စိမ္း ' တြင္း ဖက္ စပ္
လုပ္ ႏိုင္ ခဲ့ ပါ တယ္ ၊ ၂၀၁၀ ပုဂၢၢလိ က လႊဲ ေျပာင္း မႈ အ စီ အ မံ ေတြ မွာ ဓာတ္ ဆီ
ဆိုင္ ၁၂ ဆိုင္ ၊ Novotel ေျမ ေန ရာ ၊ ဘဏ္ လုပ္ ငန္း လိုင္ စင္ ( ဧ ရာ ဝ တီ ဘဏ္ ) ၊
အဲ လို ဆက္ တိုက္ ရ ယူ ပိုင္ ဆိုင္ ႏိုင္ ခဲ့ ပါ တယ္ ။
ယ ေန႕ Max Myanmar ဥ ကၠ ႒ ၾကီး ဦး ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ဟာ အဂၤ လိပ္
စ ကား ကို ကြၽမ္း က်င္ စြာ ေျပာႏိုင္ ေန ပါ ျပီ ၊ ျပည္ တြင္း နဲ႕ အား မ ရ ဘဲ ~ က မၻာနဲ႕တစ္
ဝွမ္း မ ဟုတ္ ေတာင္ - အ နည္း ဆုံး ေဒ သ ဆိုင္ ရာ ( အ ေရွ႕ ေတာင္ အာ ရွ ) မွာ သူ႕စီး
ပြါး ေရး ေတြ လုပ္ ကိုင္ လည္ပါတ္ ေန ခ်င္ တာ လို႕ သူ က ဆို ပါ တယ္ ။
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| Photo from IRRAWADDY |
အ တိုက္ အ ခံ ေခါင္း ေဆာင္ ' ေဒၚ ေအာင္ ဆန္း စု ၾကည္ '
၂၀၁၀ ႏို ဝင္ ဘာ မွာ ေန အိမ္ အ က်ယ္ ခ်ဳပ္ က လြတ္ ျပီး ေနာက္ ၊ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ က သူ မ ထံ
စ တင္ ဆက္ သြယ္ ခ်ဥ္း ကပ္ မႈ ျပဳ ခဲ့ တာ အ ေပၚ ၊ 'သူ မ ဟာ ႏွစ္ ရွည္ လ မ်ား က တည္း
က ၾကည္ ညိဳ ေလး စား လာ ခဲ့ ရ သူ ပါ ' လို႕ ေျပာ ပါ တယ္ ။ ေဒၚ ေအာင္ ဆန္း စု ၾကည္ ၏
ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ နဲ႕သာ မ က အ ျခား ~ အ ျခား ေသာ ခ ရို နီ မ်ား နဲ႕ ပါ ၊ ဦး ညီ ညြတ္ ေရး လမ္း
စဥ္ ၊ ျပန္ ေပါင္း ထုပ္ ဆက္ ဆံ ေရး သ ေဘာ ထား ေတြ ဟာ အ ခ်ိဳ႕ ေသာ သူ မ ရဲ့ ပူး ေပါင္း
မႈ ေတြ အ ေပၚ ေအာ ခ် စ ရာ ျဖစ္ ခဲ့ ရ သည္ ။
ေဒၚ ေအာင္ ဆန္း စု ၾကည္ ဦး ေဆာင္ ေသာ NLD ပါ တီ ဖြဲ႕ စည္း
ရာ တြင္ ေတာက္ ေလွ်ာက္ ကူ ညီ ေစာင့္ ေရွာက္ လာ ခဲ့ ေသာ ( ၁၉ ႏွစ္ တာ အ က်ဥ္းစံ ~ ႏိုင္
ငံ ေရး အ က်ဥ္း သား ျဖစ္ သူ ) ' ဟံ သာ ဝ တီ - ဦး ဝင္း တင္ ' က ေတာ့ ' စီး ပြါး ေရး
မွာ ေမာင္ ပိုင္ စီး သူ ေတြ အ ေပၚ ~ ထို သူ တို႕ ရဲ့ လက္ ေတြ႕ လုပ္ ေဆာင္ ေန တဲ့ လုပ္
ငန္း ေတြ အ ေပၚ သ မၼာ ေသာ စီး ပြါး ေရး မ ဟုတ္ ဘူး လို႕ ေတာက္ ေလွ်ာက္ ကန္႕ ကြက္ လာ
ခဲ့ ပါ တယ္ ။ ' က်ဳပ္ တို႕ က ေတာ့ ဒီ လူ ေတြ ကို ခြင့္ မ လႊတ္ ႏိုင္ ဘူး ဗ် ' လို႕
သူ က ဆို ဘူး သည္ ။
ဒါ ေပ မည့္ ' ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ' ရဲ့ တစ္ ခ်ိဳ႕ ေသာ အ ျငင္း ပြါး
ေျမ ေတြ ကို အ မ်ား ျပည္ သူ သုံး ဖို႕ ျပန္ ေပး ခဲ့ တာ ေတြ ၊ ၁၉၉၃ မွ ၂၀၁၂ အ တြင္း
US$ 2.3 သန္း ဘိုး လူ မႈ ေထာက္ ကူ အ သီး သီး အ တြက္ ေပး ကမ္း စြန္႕ ၾကဲ မႈ စြမ္း ေဆာင္
ရည္ ျမင့္ မား ခဲ့ တာ ေတြ ၊ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ရဲ့ စာ မ်က္ ႏွာ ၇၅ မ်က္ ႏွာ ပါ ကု မၸ ဏီ လက္
ကမ္း စာ အုပ္ ၾကီး အ ရ သိ လိုက္ ရ ခ်ိန္ မွာ " သူ သိ ရ ႏိုင္သ ေလာက္ ခ ရို နီ
ထဲ မွာ ေတာ့ ေဇာ္ ေဇာ္ ဟာ အ ေတာ္ ဆုံး ပဲ " ဟု ဦး ဝင္း တင္ က ခ်ီး က်ဴး ျဖစ္
ခဲ့ သည္ ။
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| Photo from Youtube |
[ source ။ ။ Associated Press သ တင္း ႒ာ န " How
a Myanmar tycoon is profiting from change By ERIKA KINETZ ~ Jun. 2, 2013 "
ေဆာင္း ပါး ကို ကိုး ကား ပါ သည္ ။ အ ျပည့္ အ စံု ဘာ သာ ျပန္ ထား ျခင္း မ ဟုတ္ ပါ - မူရင္းဘာသာၿပန္ ေဖာ္ၿပသူ ]
( မိမိတို.အေနၿဖင္. Jun. 2, 2013 3:37 တြင္ By ERIKA KINETZ ေရးသားေဖာ္ၿပခဲ့ေသာ
မူရင္း Post ကိုပါ ပူးတြဲ ေဖာ္ၿပ အပ္ပါသည္ - wakhama.blogspot.com )
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Zaw Zaw, one of Myanmar's most successful and
notorious businessmen, likes to pick his way at odd hours around the
hulking skeleton of his new hotel, rising beside Yangon's main airport
road.
The 366-room Novotel holds a story of how one man, who remembers
being too poor to afford a soccer ball, built an empire by befriending
the military government in what was one of the most oppressive and
isolated countries on earth; and how, as Myanmar opens up, he is quickly
breaking with the past to embrace a prosperous, cosmopolitan future in
which one thing seems certain: He will not lose.
"I am friends with everybody," Zaw Zaw says, a big smile spreading across his youthful face.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — This story is part of "Portraits of Change," a
yearlong series by The Associated Press examining how the opening of
Myanmar after decades of military rule is — and is not — changing life
in the long-isolated Southeast Asian country.
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| U Zaw Zaw & His Family ( Photo by Asian Fame Media Group ) |
The 45-year-old tycoon, who built his fortune capitalizing on
Myanmar's old networks of patronage and power, has demonstrated an
agility in reconfiguring his business — and image — to suit a new global
audience, and at a speed few have matched. As the country emerges from a
half century of military rule, his Max Myanmar Group is on track to
more than double revenues, according to data he has not made public
before.
His ability to ride the waves of change suggests that the old
economic order may not be overturned as Myanmar opens its markets and
deepens its embrace of democracy. Just as the former military leaders
have taken off their uniforms to refashion themselves as civilian
lawmakers and bureaucrats, many of Myanmar's dozen or so economic giants
are rebranding themselves as entrepreneurs and working hard to take the
stink out of the word "crony."
Zaw Zaw, widely regarded as among the cleanest of the bunch, has
moved faster — and more publicly — than his peers to take advantage of
Myanmar's reintegration with the global economy. Though he remains on a
U.S. blacklist that bans American companies from doing business with
friends of the old regime, the Max Myanmar Group is one of the nation's
most successful conglomerates, employing 11,000 people in sectors from
hotels and banking to cement and construction.
France's Accor Group has a deal with him to manage the Novotel in
Yangon and an MGallery hotel in Naypyitaw, the capital. Zaw Zaw says he
is pursuing a joint venture with a Thai cement company, and trying to
get his Ayeyarwady Bank in shape so he can bring in a foreign partner.
He also made a bold effort to list his energy subsidiary on the
Singapore Stock Exchange, though that was rejected in April over
lingering concerns about his past.
Zaw Zaw acknowledges being friendly with the old military regime,
arguing that there was no other way to succeed. "Only the government has
projects," he says. "If I don't do projects with them, who will I do
projects with?"
His only crime as he sees it? "In this poor country, I have become rich."
___
Zaw Zaw was not born to power. The youngest of six children, he grew
up in a two-room wooden house in Yeygi township in Myanmar's southern
delta. His father was a government servant, and his mother sold food and
household sundries from their home.
In 1988, during his final year at the University of Yangon, he was
swept up in student protests against the military government that
galvanized the nation. When the government began rounding up student
leaders, he hid in the countryside for four months, then went to
Singapore with the help of a cousin who found him a job as a sailor. He
had $80 in his pocket. It was the beginning of a six-year odyssey
abroad.
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| U Zaw Zaw with Award of AFF Association of the Year |
While Myanmar's xenophobic government sank deeper into isolation, Zaw
Zaw saw the world, earning $200 a month as a deckhand. He went to
Australia, Hong Kong, Iran, Taiwan, Japan and Africa. He learned
English. He saw the development in other countries and grew ashamed of
the poverty and repression of his own.
He saved $8,000 and headed to Bangkok, where he blew most of it at
nightclubs with friends. In 1991, he bought a ticket to Japan with his
last $650.
In Tokyo, he worked three jobs, as a cook, a dishwasher and a waiter.
He learned Japanese. Determined to go into business, he began flipping
through the yellow pages and cold-calling used car dealers. One was
named Max Trading Co. Zaw Zaw became friendly with the owner, bought two
Nissan sedans and sold them to his friends.
Thus was born the Max Myanmar Group. Zaw Zaw exported used cars to
Myanmar and other developing countries. Taking advantage of a Burmese
law that allowed each citizen living overseas to import one car, he
snapped up other people's import permits on the black market for around
$500 each.
He also met his future wife, a woman from Myanmar then working in
Japan too. "She was buying the car from me," he says. "At the end, she
bought me."
The couple moved back to Myanmar in 1995 to marry. Zaw Zaw kept
importing cars, then added more profitable sales of heavy construction
equipment. From there, he went into construction, first as a
subcontractor and then winning government contracts himself.
His businesses thrived on connections he developed with the military
rulers. He founded a construction company in 2005 that laid the roads
for Naypyitaw. Five months later, he started a hotel company that built
hotels in the same city in exchange for coveted vehicle import licenses.
He developed a jade mine in 2007 in a joint venture with the
government.
In 2010, the ruling junta oversaw a rush of privatizations before
handing power to a nominally civilian government. Max Myanmar acquired
12 gas stations, part of the land for the coming Novotel hotel and a
banking license, putting Zaw Zaw in good position to capitalize on the
ensuing opening of Myanmar's economy.
Today, the Max Myanmar headquarters in downtown Yangon are outfitted
with sleek burnished wood. Zaw Zaw welcomes visitors in royal red chairs
rimmed with ornate silver. He is surrounded by a coterie of assistants,
young men with firm handshakes, bright smiles and perfect English, some
of whom left successful careers abroad to join Zaw Zaw.
He says he wants to become a global, or at least regional, player.
"In Myanmar, we don't have any single brand to compete in the world, or
even the region," he says. That quest is forcing him to break many of
the old rules. He has courted the political opposition and Western
diplomats, both of which were anathema to the former military
government. And in a system that long prized secrecy, he agreed to open
his books, first to 48 inspectors from the Singapore Stock Exchange, and
then to The Associated Press.
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| Sepp Blatter is warmly welcomed by President of Myanmar Football Federation U Zaw Zaw ( FROM IRRAWADDY ) |
The revenues of the privately-held Max Myanmar Group, as reported to
Myanmar's tax authorities, show the direction Zaw Zaw is steering his
empire, as well as the extent to which he has benefited from his friends
in the former military government.
Revenues grew to $240 million in the year ended March 31, 2012, the
latest full-year data available, up from $180 million a year earlier.
They then jumped to an estimated $293 million in the six months through
Sept. 30, thanks to a surge in construction income.
The banking license Zaw Zaw got three years ago has given rise to the fastest growing part of Zaw Zaw's empire.
He and three other tycoons were summoned to a meeting with the
government in June 2010 and given the licenses, he says. "Maybe they
trust me," says Zaw Zaw, who had no prior experience in the field. "I
really don't know why they gave me the license."
Revenues at Ayeyarwady Bank grew to $20.2 million in the year ended
March 31, up from $7.5 million the prior year, while net income surged
from about $825,000 to $7 million.
The Max Myanmar Group's business is shifting away from areas
traditionally associated with cronyism. Revenues from his jade mine,
which is nearing the end of its productive life, plunged to $1 million
in the first half of this fiscal year, after totaling $17 million the
prior year. His construction business still accounts for more than 90
percent of group revenue, but it is weaning itself from government
projects in favor of private ones such as the Novotel. And he stopped
importing cars in 2010.
Zaw Zaw says he has long admired opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and began cultivating a relationship with her after her release from
house arrest in November 2010. Her rapprochement with him and other
crony businessmen has dismayed some of her allies.
"My objection is up till now what they are practicing is not good
business, but making monopolies," says Win Tin, a journalist who spent
19 years as a political prisoner and helped found the National League
for Democracy, the party led by Suu Kyi. "We can't forgive them."
But he commends Zaw Zaw for handing back some disputed land for
public use and for his high-profile charity projects — which totaled
$2.3 million from 1993 through 2012, according to a glossy 75-page
company brochure. "As far as I know, Zaw Zaw is the best one," he says
of the cronies.
Despite his outreach and pro-reform rhetoric, Zaw Zaw remains on the
U.S. sanctions list, which makes it harder for him to access foreign
capital. The U.S. Embassy, in a June 2009 cable released by WikiLeaks,
described him as "one of several mid-level cronies actively attempting
to curry favor with the regime."
The sanctions list does not allow for redemption. It is designed to
hold people accountable for past wrongs, regardless of whatever good
work they may be doing now, a U.S. State Department official said on
condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the
media.
The Singapore Stock Exchange's top concern in rejecting Zaw Zaw's bid
to list Max Energy — which now operates 31 gas stations — was his
presence on the U.S. sanctions list and the "lack of clarity" as to why
he was placed there, according to a filing by the Singapore-based
company that would have been his partner. The exchange also flagged
unresolved allegations of human rights violations and tax evasion.
Zaw Zaw insists he has done nothing wrong and was placed on the U.S.
blacklist based, in part, on inaccurate information. "If somebody did
wrong, they should be punished," he says. "But don't create rumors."
The Accor Group, for one, is happy to do business with him. Patrick
Basset, a senior vice president for the region, said in an email that
the hotel group sees its partnership with Zaw Zaw partly as a way "to
encourage positive changes."
And, as the glowing financial results in his books suggest, the U.S.
sanctions may be hurting Zaw Zaw's pride more than his pocketbook.
