"We are not out to boast that there is so much percentage of growth per year. Our real concern is how it affects the lives of people, the future of our country"
About this Quote
The line rejects the fetish for GDP figures and reframes development as a moral and civic project. Percentage points of growth are abstractions; the lived consequences for families, workers, farmers, and children are the substance. It asserts a hierarchy of ends and means: growth is a tool, not an end in itself. The proper questions become who benefits, how widely opportunity is shared, and whether gains translate into health, education, dignity, and security.
Spoken by a leader shaped by Myanmar’s long authoritarian period, it also challenges the way regimes brandish statistics to claim legitimacy. For decades, Myanmar’s economy was distorted by isolation, cronyism, and resource extraction that enriched a few while leaving public services hollow. To applaud brisk growth without asking about equity, rule of law, and institutional capacity invites a brittle future. The statement insists that quality of governance and human rights are integral to development, not optional extras.
There is a forward-looking discipline embedded in the phrase the future of our country. It points to investments that compound beyond a fiscal year: schools that create capability, clinics that extend productive life, courts that protect contracts and people, and an environment that can sustain agriculture and cities. It values social trust and inclusion as economic assets. Growth that erodes these, through displacement, corruption, or repression, mortgages tomorrow to flatter today’s charts.
The sentiment aligns with a broader shift in development thinking, associated with ideas like development as freedom, where expanding people’s real choices is the metric of progress. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi’s later tenure drew sharp criticism and complicated her legacy, the standard articulated here remains bracing: judge policy by the human horizon, not by numerical spectacle. It asks leaders to translate expansion into capability, resilience, and shared stake, and to measure success by the country people are able to build together.
Spoken by a leader shaped by Myanmar’s long authoritarian period, it also challenges the way regimes brandish statistics to claim legitimacy. For decades, Myanmar’s economy was distorted by isolation, cronyism, and resource extraction that enriched a few while leaving public services hollow. To applaud brisk growth without asking about equity, rule of law, and institutional capacity invites a brittle future. The statement insists that quality of governance and human rights are integral to development, not optional extras.
There is a forward-looking discipline embedded in the phrase the future of our country. It points to investments that compound beyond a fiscal year: schools that create capability, clinics that extend productive life, courts that protect contracts and people, and an environment that can sustain agriculture and cities. It values social trust and inclusion as economic assets. Growth that erodes these, through displacement, corruption, or repression, mortgages tomorrow to flatter today’s charts.
The sentiment aligns with a broader shift in development thinking, associated with ideas like development as freedom, where expanding people’s real choices is the metric of progress. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi’s later tenure drew sharp criticism and complicated her legacy, the standard articulated here remains bracing: judge policy by the human horizon, not by numerical spectacle. It asks leaders to translate expansion into capability, resilience, and shared stake, and to measure success by the country people are able to build together.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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