ASEAN Beat | Economy | Southeast Asia

Myanmar’s Military on the Back Foot Over Fuel Shortages

But the junta is setting up a new propaganda unit in order to send more positive messages.

A road-side petrol stand in a village close to Inle Lake, Myanmar.

Myanmar’s military is feeling the pinch just 12 days after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran. Access to oil is key to the junta’s survival, and its supply shortages are already being felt at the pump and perhaps on the battlefield.

But that’s not the message that Senior Gen. Ming Aung Hlaing and his senior brass want relayed, and they have established a new propaganda body designed to ensure the rest of us stay on message. A week ago, that message was 492 million liters in reserve, enough for 40 days.

The junta would also like its yet-to-be-named propaganda unit to extol its legitimacy in the wake of the recent elections, in which barely half the population could vote due to a long-running civil war it started.

Even with forced voting and allegations of rigging, barely 11 percent of the population voted for its proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won anyway and is expected to do the military’s bidding while disguised as a civilian government.

And it will be tested at the bowser, where reality has hit the ordinary people of Myanmar on many fronts as the international market price of crude leapt from just under $65 a barrel to almost $90 in the first 11 days of the war in Iran.

Despite military reassurances – and depending on where – pump prices have at least doubled to around $2 per liter amid panic buying. Rationing has been introduced on an odd and even number plate system.

Long queues continue to form in Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay, where motorcyclists were limited to buying petrol worth $1.25 while motorists could spend no more than $2.50.

Such restrictions prompted similar queues at the Myawaddy-Mae Sot border crossing, with motorists spending much of their day lining up to fill up at a cheaper rate without restrictions in Thailand.

Myanmar imports about 90 percent of its oil and petroleum products via India and ASEAN countries, predominantly Singapore and Malaysia, but also Indonesia and Thailand.

Chinese imports account for less than two percent, but given the People’s Republic also relies heavily on oil imports from the Gulf, it is unlikely to emerge as an........

© The Diplomat