In a visit to Golden Triangle Region, I found the region peaceful and pleasant and located at the border shared by Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.
On arrival at Meisai, we paid a visit to a pagoda known as U Aung Zeya Pagoda. Under the agreement of the two neighbouring countries, the Tatmadaw government of Myanmar renovated and offered gold plates to it. On the upper terrace, four monks of us consecrated the marble Buddha Image that had been brought from Mandalay.

One of the salient points I noticed during the trip was the 20-foot-high sitting Buddha image kept on the hill on this side of the Mekhon River. It was distinct due to its glittering appearance.
I found the region packed not only with Buddhist pilgrims but also with tourists. The region was attractive with the Mekong River, beautiful silvery beaches and lush and green foliage.
Under the arrangements of Colonel Myint Han, I made another tour of Mongla through Kengtung. I took great interest in Mongla Region because I wanted to witness the progress of the region that was declared a drug-free zone on 22 April 1997.
There, most of the houses were built of raw bricks. Local people’s costumes were the same as that of the people of Wa region in Shan State (North).
Since the start of the trip, I had noticed many interesting things. Both sides of all the roads along the trip were covered with paddy fields. And all the mountainsides and hills were taken up by perennial crop plantations such as mango and banana especially by rubber.

I thought in the past, Mongla might be a region where poppy plants were in bloom. According to the book “Golden Triangle Region’s circle of heroin” by U Tin Maung Yin (MA), Asians including Myanmars lived below the poverty line. Since 1500, European merchants stuffed local people with a bad habit of smoking opium. In the 1700s, the British East India Company smuggled poppy most into China. In the 1800s, every colony saw a large number of opium dens, it says.
In consequence, opium dens were mushrooming not only in the cities and towns but also in rural villages of the area stretching from northern Borneo to Myanmar in the end of the 19th Century. The opium trade was monopolized by the colonial government. Therefore, the health conditions of local people were deteriorating, while the colonial government was making large profits from opium trade. Opium trade contributed 40 per cent of the colonialist government’s income, it says.
In the colonial days, Myanmar was a slave to opium till it regained independence. The situations of the nation went from bad to worse, stemming from multi-coloured armed insurgent groups. Only with the emergence of the Tatmadaw government, could the nation stop the circle of opium.
The magnificent achievement was reflected by the progress of Mongla. It had developed to a certain degree with fine transport facilities, modern buildings, a large market, Drug Elimination Museum, hydropower plant, sugar mill and the Dvenagara Pagoda.
On the way to the Drug Elimination Museum in Mongla Region, I was struck by a thought that till 1988, the region was under complete control of the Burma Communist Party (BCP). BCP (815) led by U Sai Lin and BCP (768) that broke away from the BCP returned to the legal fold under the name of Military and Regional Administrative Committee of Shan State (East) of National Democracy Allied Force in June 1989. Then, they established Special Region (4) and strove with might and main joining hands with the Tatmadaw government for community peace and stability, regional development, and eradication of narcotic drugs.

When peace was made, the region had 262 villages with 2716 acres of poppy fields, and it produced 8968 kilos of raw opium a year. With the assistance of the Tatmadaw government and the UNDCP, U Sai Lin and party dedicated themselves to the six-year drug elimination plan.

They set up a target of elimination of poppy cultivation in Monghe and Mongkham regions in the first two-year plan, and in Mongwa and Kyinkham regions in the second two-year plan. Under the third two-year plan, they made strenuous efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation in Mongla, Mongma, Hsilu, Mongkwei and Hsamtauk regions and in the whole region, and to ensure that the practice of poppy cultivation would never rear its head again. Besides, they expanded the agricultural farming as an alternative business.
As a result of various programmes including reclamation of vacant lands every year, distribution of high-yield strains of crops, conducting agricultural courses, cultivation of sugarcane and watermelon as poppy-substitute crops along with rubber, and construction of irrigation facilities, on 22 April 1997, Mongla Region was declared as a drug-free zone.
The museum shows formidable tasks Myanmar has made for eradication of narcotic drugs in it.
On my way back, I was engrossed in a thought of Golden Triangle Region’s bad reputation for occurrence of crimes by unscrupulous people in the past, and prosperity of the whole eastern Shan State including Golden Triangle Region at present.