| Tycoon Plans Salvage Attempt of Sunken Dhammazedi Bell Posted: 22 Oct 2013 04:36 AM PDT  An artist's impression of the Dhammazedi Bell. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) RANGOON — Well-known businessman and ruling party lawmaker Khin Shwe says he plans to salvage the Great Bell of Dhammazedi from the bottom of the Rangoon River, even if the costs of the project rise to US$10 million. The bell, which is believed to be the largest in the world, sunk into the river more than 400 years ago and since the late 1980s there have been several unsuccessful attempts to recover it. Zay Thiha, Khin Shwe's son, said his father was working with the abbot of the Kyaik Htee Saung Pagoda, located near Mon State's Golden Rock shrine, to organize a salvaging operation for the long-lost bell. "Our family will cover 100 percent of the costs of this project," he told The Irrawaddy in a brief message. Khin Shwe told local journal Snapshot on Monday, "We've already hired big ships to salvage the bell. After that—if we can salvage the bell—we will put it on display at Shwedagon Pagoda." "One foreign expert predicted that salvaging the bell will cost between $5 million and $10 million. Whatever the cost, I'm ready to spend any amount," said Khin Shwe, who is the chairman of Zay Kabar Company and a Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Lower House MP. Zay Kabar Company is one of the largest property developers in Burma and the firm was involved in numerous high-profile real estate projects during past years of military rule. Khin Shwe is an in-law of Shwe Mann, the USDP chairman and Union Parliament Speaker. The powerful businessman told Snapshot that his project would succeed due to the mystical powers of the abbot of Kyaik Htee Saung Pagoda. "King Dhammazedi was born on a Tuesday and so is the abbot of Kyaik Htee Saung [Pagoda]. So, I'm 100 percent confident that this project will be a success," he was quoted as saying. The article provided no details about the salvaging project and Khin Shwe could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The Mon King Dhammazedi ordered the Great Bell cast in 1484 and offered it as a present to Shwedagon Pagoda. According to historical records, the bell is made of 290-tons of copper, gold, silver and tin alloy, which would make it the biggest bell in the world. Portuguese warlord Filipe de Brito e Nicote (known as Nga Zinka in Burmese) conquered Syriam and Pegu with the help of an Arakanese army in the early 16th century. He removed the Dhammazedi bell with the intention of melting it down and using it to make cannons, but a raft that was transporting the bell sank at the confluence of the Pegu and Rangoon River, at a site known as Monkey Point, in 1608. The lost bell has long been a source of fascination for Burmese and foreign researchers. Since the late 1980s, the Burma government and private individuals have tried in vain to retrieve the bell, with poor visibility, silting, nearby shipwrecks and 400 years of shifting currents hampering progress. Chit San Win, who wrote several books about the history of the bell, was the first to organize a salvage attempt in 1987 and has made several attempts since, including an effort carried out in 1996 with the support of then-Military Intelligence chief Khin Nyunt. He told The Irrawaddy that unless Khin Shwe's project involves state-of-the-art salvaging technology operated by overseas experts it was doomed to fail, adding that the bell had never been located. "I don't believe the bell can be recovered without the use of the latest technology, because according to my experience, using local technology won't work," Chit San Win said, adding that he supported Khin Shwe's project. In July 2012, Chit San Win, the Historical Research Department of the Ministry of Culture and SD Mark International LLP Co. of Singapore organized a workshop in Rangoon to seek suggestions for recovering the bell. The Singaporean firm claimed to have a $10 million budget for the project and hoped to complete the project in about 18 months, but there has been no information about the planned project since. According to a source familiar with the project, the ministry cancelled the plan after officials became concerned over a lack of necessary project funds. The post Tycoon Plans Salvage Attempt of Sunken Dhammazedi Bell appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| For Burma Beauty Queens, ‘Carrying Coffins Is Not Easy’ Posted: 22 Oct 2013 04:28 AM PDT  Nang Khin Zay Yar speaks at a press conference in Rangoon after her return from the Miss International beauty competition in Okinawa, Japan, in October 2012. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A couple of Burmese beauty queens are known for their philanthropic work with the Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS), a Rangoon-based organization that has provided free funeral services to more than 120,000 people in the country. But in addition to receiving praise, pageant winners who work for the FFSS say they have been questioned for their motivations, with some critics accusing them of volunteering for the sake of popularity. Among the organization's volunteers is Nan Khin Zay Yar, who took home the People's Choice and the Miss Internet awards at the Miss International beauty pageant in Japan last year. She has volunteered at FFSS twice monthly since winning the titles. Another volunteer is Khin Wint Wah, who competed at the Miss Supranational contest this year in Belarus and won the People's Choice and the Miss Supranational Internet awards. She said has wanted to do philanthropic work since eighth grade. The FFSS was co-founded by famous Burmese actor Kyaw Thu and director Thu Kha, and it is led by a number of prominent people from the entertainment industry. "I never urged them to do philanthropic work for me," Kyaw Thu said of the two pageant winners. "They just volunteered according to their own conscience. They came to donate money and they also wanted to work with us." He said Nan Khin Zay Yar and Khin Wint Wah should be praised for their efforts. "If a well-known person engages in this kind of work, they will make it more successful and it will benefit others," said the FFSS co-founder and chairman. "To those who accuse the girls of working for their popularity, I want to ask, why did they not criticize me in a similar way after I transitioned from my career as an actor to take care of funeral services?" In addition to the two pageant winners, a number of musicians and artists from other industries have joined the FFSS. "It's very good news for our philanthropic community, and I believe they will continue to work with us," said Kyaw Thu. "As working with death is regarded as the lowest job, carrying coffins is not easy for them. They have to be brave enough to do so— that's why I feel delighted to see them involved in this activity. I welcome whomever wants to join us." Nan Khin Zay Yar said she hopes that, by volunteering, she can help break superstitious beliefs about death in Burma. "I do this job, which others see as a low form of work, because I want to get rid of superstition," she said. "Everyone will eventually die one day, and sending off someone on his or her last journey is very noble. That's why I became involved with the FFSS. "I think I can offer relief to some extent to the grieving family members by carrying the coffin of their lost one. They are happy to see me carrying their beloved one's coffin, and I am very delighted too." In addition to her work at the FFSS, she volunteers to care for the elderly as well as people with leprosy, HIV and cancer. "Ma Nan Khin [Nan Khin Zay Yar] is a very kind person," said Khin Wint Wah, the other pageant winner. "She is part of the reason I got involved with the FFSS. "I didn't expect to meet and work with her. I was happy when we carried a coffin side by side. Like others, 'Miss' winners are human beings. There shouldn't be any distinction for who should and shouldn't do social and philanthropic work. Everybody should do it." "Some people say we do this job to make ourselves popular. … I am not doing this for popularity. I am doing this because I'm interested and I want to share my joy with others. I also feel sympathetic toward others, since my day will come one day." The post For Burma Beauty Queens, 'Carrying Coffins Is Not Easy' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma Refugees Among Top Five Globally for US Resettlement Posted: 22 Oct 2013 04:17 AM PDT  A female refugee makes a sheet of leaves for the roof of her house in Ei Htu Hta refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burmese refugees are among the top five nationalities to be resettled to the United States in 2013, along with Iraqis, Bhutanese, Somalis and Cubans, according to a US announcement on Tuesday. The US State Department said a total of 69,930 refugees were brought to the United States in the 2012-13 fiscal year, a number closer to the authorized annual ceiling—this year set at 70,000—than in any year since 1980. A country-specific breakdown of the total refugees resettled in the United States was not provided by the State Department, but the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that 5,258 Burmese refugees were resettled in the United States from January to August this year. "The United States has a strong tradition of welcoming refugees, many of whom have fled unspeakable horrors and persecution," the State Department's statement said. "The Obama administration is committed to maintaining a strong refugee admissions program as an integral component of the government effort to offer protection to some of the world's most vulnerable people." For fiscal year 2013-14, US President Barack Obama has again authorized the admission of up to 70,000 refugees, and the country's refugee program "expect[s] to admit more than 60 nationalities with continued strong arrivals from Iraq, Burma, and Bhutan." "Their presence makes our country more diverse, our culture richer, and our national character stronger," the statement read, adding that the refugees were resettled in 186 communities across 49 US states. On Oct. 1, which marked the beginning of the 2013-14 fiscal year in the United States, the US federal government suspended all "nonessential" government services pending resolution of a budget impasse in the US Congress. Last week, The Irrawaddy reported that the country's refugee resettlement program was among the services affected by the 16-day government shutdown. A refugee aid program on the Thai-Burma border on Thursday told The Irrawaddy that resettlement flights for refugees had been suspended. A spokesperson from the US Embassy in Rangoon confirmed on Friday that the program had been affected, despite the resolution of the US budget crisis and resumption of services on Oct. 17. The embassy spokesperson told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the program was back on track. "We expect the refugee program is continuing as usual now that the shutdown is over," the official said. According to the UNHCR, about 87,000 Burmese refugees have been resettled in third countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan and nations of the European Union. The United States accepts the lion's share, having taken in more than 69,000 Burmese refugees from 2005 to August 2013. The post Burma Refugees Among Top Five Globally for US Resettlement appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Two Decades on the Trail of the Wa Posted: 22 Oct 2013 03:20 AM PDT  A column of UWSA soldiers walks to the top of a hill during an expedition in the Golden Triangle region of Shan State in 1993. (Photo: Thierry Falise) It was a scorching June afternoon in 2010 when I had my most recent encounter with the Wa. I was walking down through a valley with a team from a relief group that was supplying basic medical care to villages in an area controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), in the so-called "southern Wa State," near the Thai border. We came across a large group of young Wa soldiers who were attending an open-air school in a field. "Who are you?" asked some of the adult members of the group. "No photos!" insisted others, who obviously had not been informed of our presence. Many questions and a few tense moments later, however, everyone relaxed. Cigarettes and sweets were traded, and one man in his thirties—evidently the most senior UWSA leader there—started to jokingly compare his handgun with that of our escort leader. We conversed in a mixture of Wa, Thai, Lahu and Chinese—everything except Myanmar. The Wa commander had fine, pale features, suggesting that he was ethnic Chinese, whereas his subordinates and the young cadets had the stockier build and darker skin typical of the Wa. Although we all ended up smiling and shaking hands, we knew that we had seen too much. After all, we were in the heart of the fiefdom run by Wei Hsueh-kang, a Chinese-born UWSA commander who, along with several others, was indicted by the US government in 2003 as a major drug lord. Our request to continue our trip was rejected, for "security reasons." This incursion into Wa territory was nevertheless very enlightening. It came nearly two decades after my first visit to a UWSA-controlled area in 1992, when I ventured just across the Thai border to a place where the group was controlling vast poppy fields. In the years that followed, there would be half a dozen trips in all, including a 35-day expedition on foot and by mule in 1993 from the Thai border to Pangsang, the UWSA's capital on the Chinese border. Returning so many years later, what struck me most was that it looked like hardly anything had changed. Sure, there were no more human skulls on display from the not-so-distant days of head hunting still so dear to old leaders. But the people—mostly farmers and the families of soldiers—were still as destitute as when they were first moved from the northern Wa territory to the southeast in the mid-1990s. I wondered what had become of the dams, roads and other infrastructure—including a gas station built by a Thai politician—that I saw under construction in 1999, when I traveled to Wei Hsueh-kang's then headquarters of Maung Yawn, near the Thai border. At the time, they were displayed by the Wa leaders as pieces of a grand development plan for their subjects. What I found instead of evidence of development was an abundance of signs that large-scale narcotics production was still in full swing, contrary to claims from the UWSA leadership that it was working to eliminate the local drug industry. Vast patches of dry poppy fields could be seen all over the hills from ridges along the Thai border. Inside sources confirmed that, besides the well-documented methamphetamine factories, the Wa were still running heroin labs. This reminded me of another trip into UWSA-controlled territory that I made in 2003: Traveling in the company of soldiers from the Shan State Army–South, I came across a group of Chinese workers busy building a refinery on the bank of a river. But the UWSA is far from being the only major player in the narcotics business. As one Shan source once put it: "From the moment you start doing business in eastern Shan State—whether you're from an ethnic armed group, a local militia or the Burmese army—you are involved, in one way or another, in the drug trade." And this is the way it's been for ages. Long before the UWSA came into existence, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of Burma used narcotics to finance their causes. My previous trips in Pangsang were possible only because I was invited by a faction of UWSA leaders who were actually trying to help end the drug trade, which had long stigmatized their people. They believed they could get rid of this business and win access to development aid and support from the outside world. They were certainly true patriots, but they were also too naïve about the cynical drug industry and the local political chess game. They were all neutralized, sometimes in brutal ways: While one retired to a pastoral life of growing tea and apples in the north, another was gunned down in a Chiang Mai street. Today, such internal divisions are not the only problem facing the Wa. Increasingly, the UWSA is coming under heavy Chinese influence, as the Myanmar government turns to the West to rebalance its relationship with Beijing. With its 20,000 to 30,000 well-trained and well-equipped soldiers, the UWSA gives China powerful leverage along Myanmar's northern border. There have been recent reports that China has provided the UWSA with armored vehicles and helicopter gunships—a first for an ethnic armed group in Myanmar. While this may be a boon for the UWSA, it is less clear how it will benefit the Wa people. Perhaps I can ask them the next time I visit—if I'm invited. This story first appeared in the October 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post Two Decades on the Trail of the Wa appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Lower House Rejects Calls to Discuss Child Rape Posted: 22 Oct 2013 01:29 AM PDT  Parliamentarian Thein Nyunt is pictured during a visit to The Irrawaddy office in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) Burma's Lower House of Parliament on Monday rejected a call to talk about amending the 1993 Child Law to provide better protections for children from sexual abuse. The majority of lawmakers voted against the proposal, despite members of Parliament arguing for harder punishments for child-rapists in Burma. "I proposed [to discuss] how we can protect children and young girls effectively from a legal perspective," said Thein Nyunt, a Lower House lawmaker from the New National Democracy Party. There were over 130 reported rape cases from January to August in Rangoon Division alone, he said. Among them, 88 cases involved children under 16, according to Thein Nyunt. Recently, the daughter of indebted family from Rangoon's Shwepyithar Township was taken and photographed for pornography, he said, citing local media reports. Likewise, a 15-year-old girl in Tenasserim Division was raped and killed, he said. "These crimes are threatening our society because there are weaknesses in the legal sector," said Thein Nyunt. Under the current Child Law, the punishment for allowing a child to enter prostitution or producing child pornography is just two years imprisonment or a fine 10,000 kyat, or both. In cases of children being raped by adults, the rapists receive seven to ten years imprisonment under section 376 of the Burma criminal code, not under the Child Law. Burma ratified the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. In 1993, Burma replaced the 1955 Children Act with the current law. The Child Law does not include children who have been sexually abused or who are in danger of being sexually abused in its section that defines children "in need of protection and care." "The current law is 20 years old and we should amend it to be accordance with the present situation," said Thein Nyunt. "It is destroying the children's future," said the outspoken lawmaker, who raised the issue for the second time in two years of the Parliament on Monday. Only 19 MPs (from the opposition National league for Democracy, National Democratic Force and Rakhine Nationalities Development Party) supported the proposal, while more than 330 remaining MPs voted against. At the last parliamentary session, he tried to amend the law on child abuse under the criminal code but it was not also successful. As restrictions on media have being relaxed since President Thein Sein's government took power in 2011, cases of young girls being sexually abused have become more widely reported than ever before. "We are hearing and seeing that young girls as young as 3-years-old are being raped. There is something very wrong with our society. Those rapists must be given the death sentence, in my opinion," said Khin Saw Wai, an Arakanese lawmaker from the RNDP. "I think those crimes will be reduced only if actions are taken effectively." She added that a representative of the Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Ministry, as well as the attorney general, argued that the current act was sufficient for child protection. But Khin Saw Wai said the law was not protecting children, in particular those in poor families. "We found that the child abuse is related to poverty, because as we see, most of the victims are the children of the ordinary poor families," she said. "There needs to be much more awareness of this, even under the current Child Law." Although sexual abuse of children is now widely reported, there are very few civil society groups or international NGOs working to help abused children. The post Lower House Rejects Calls to Discuss Child Rape appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘It’s Balancing the Interests of Both Sides’ Posted: 22 Oct 2013 01:18 AM PDT 
RANGOON — In addition to political reforms, Burma's government is preparing to overhaul its public school system. Last year, the Ministry of Education began a two-year review to identify the main problem areas and come up with some possible solutions. The study is being led by a government body known as the Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR), in collaboration with a number of development partners, and it could potentially lead to major changes, such as a revision of outdated curricula, bigger discretionary budgets for schools, new and improved textbooks, and classes taught in ethnic minority languages.
Pushing this process forward in Rangoon is Julian Watson, an independent education consultant who was appointed to coordinate between the Burma government and international development partners in the CESR. He comes to Burma, also known as Myanmar, with prior experience as a consultant in more than 20 countries, including several in Southeast Asia. In this interview, he explains how the CESR works and shares a surprising discovery from the process, while also breaking down a big issue in higher education and revealing some ways that Burma's schools might benefit down the road. Question: What is the Comprehensive Education Sector Review? Answer: The CESR was set up by the government in response to the fact that there was a large number of development partners, or agencies, who wanted to help Myanmar education. The government created the CESR and staffed it, and then its first task was to do a quick report on what is happening, where everything is, in education across the board from kindergarten, including early child development, right through to universities. The donors decided to help the government with the sectors in which they were particularly interested. And that turned out to be six sectors: policy, law, management and finance of education; basic education, which includes early childhood development, primary education, lower secondary school and curriculum; non-formal education; teacher education; technical and vocational education and training, or TVET; and higher education. So, for instance, ADB [the Asian Development Bank] supports what it calls post-basic education. Unicef [the UN agency for children] supports basic education. There are more than 20 DPs [development partners] in all. The CESR really isn't a program funded by donors in the way that many programs are funded by NGOs and larger institutions. It is a government institution, the CESR, and it is part of the research department of the Ministry of Education. Much of what the CESR does is try to match the interests of the development partners with the interests of the government. It's balancing the interests of both sides—it's trying to get a rational debate that suits both sides, and at the same time takes the country as a whole on the path of deciding what it wants to do. Q: Can you explain how the review works? I understand there are three phases. A: Phase 1 was a quick look at what's going on—what's happening, where the gaps are, what the problems are—to make some recommendations. In Phase 2, the development partners have come in and decided to look deeper into particular parts of the whole picture. There are a lot of big questions—for example, the universities want to be independent from the Ministry of Education, and that may or may not be a good thing—and these questions are being looked at in in-depth reports. Those reports will be gathered into a Phase 2 document, and that document will set out some of the options, backed by annexes of research. In January and February, all of these options should be open for discussion, not just among stakeholders, but also with school administrators and parents. And then there are massive cost implications. At the end of Phase 3, which is scheduled for the end of June to catch the government's budget cycle, there should be a costed education sector development plan. Q: Any surprises so far? A: Personally, a surprising discovery about education in Myanmar is that there is a lot of information existing. If you go to a school in the middle of nowhere and ask them how many children are registered, how many children came to school this week, and how many will likely not come back, or have dropped out completely, the schools generally know the answer. But they write it down in a book and they don't send it to the district education office, which doesn't send it up [to higher levels]. Information, as a result of past government, is, in my experience, available but extremely difficult to collect. And one of the things that is certainly being recommended is developing education management information systems that allow this information to flow. Q: You mentioned that education reform will require legal reform. What education laws are currently on the table in Parliament? A: A recommendation of the CESR rapid assessment report was that there should be an overarching education law that would take in the Constitution, Myanmar's obligations as a member of Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and its commitment to a number of international covenants. Such a comprehensive education law would cover all sectors and provide updated objectives and purposes relevant to the current priorities of the government and society, but so far it has not been drafted. As far as I know, there are four laws in progress that have been introduced to Pyithu Hluttaw [the Lower House of Parliament] on basic and university education as well as examination and education research laws. But there's no law on vocational education, and there's no law or even sub-law on qualifications, to determine what examinations mean and to standardize attainment. … Out of the CESR process, I think first you need to have an umbrella education law—what's the point of education, what are we trying to do, where are we going? And then you can fit the other laws underneath. Q: Higher education is a sensitive subject in Myanmar. Some people want universities to be autonomous from the government, which would be a major change. Can you explain this issue? A: The debate is whether universities should be under the Ministry of Education. Historically, universities have been places where there has been opposition to the government, so I think hitherto the government has treated them very carefully, with a tendency to try to hang on to control of them, maybe in a way that doesn't make logical sense. In the nature of the Burmese government structure, universities are very specialized. You have a marine university; you have a military medical university. Some are reluctant to come under the Ministry of Education's overall control because they see themselves as better aligned to other ministries. Is it sensible to put an agricultural university under the Ministry of Education, or is it more sensible to put that under the Ministry of Agriculture? What matters is the value of the degree attained. There is a great need for quality assessment—how good is the qualification you have when you come out? Q: Which international donors are involved in higher education reform? A: At this stage, the Asian Development Bank is really taking the lead in the CESR. The Open Society Institute, which is [George] Soros' foundation, is also involved, as is AusAID, the British Council and Unesco [the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]. … The one not at the table is USAID, because it doesn't fund government work. As part of its mandate, it works through NGOs, and therefore it's not at the CESR table. Having said that, somebody from the American embassy does come to the development partner meetings and is welcome—there's no hostility about that. Q: What is an example of how schools could potentially benefit from the CESR? A: The government already has a grant system for schools, whereby schools get a per capita grant, but it's an average of $100 per school. It's a good system, but it's underfunded, and at the moment there are too many restrictions on how schools can use the grant—they can spend it on repairs and very few other things. Out of this [CESR] process, I think—although I don't know—that a recommendation may come to put down a great deal more money for what other countries such as Cambodia and Laos call discretionary budgets for schools, and at the same time to broaden the scope of what it can be used for. Q: The CESR is a review of the government's public school system. But in ethnic minority states, there are also entirely separate school systems that were established by ethnic education departments, sometimes under the guidance of ethnic rebel groups. How are they included? A: The intention is that they should be included in the debate after Phase 2. They're certainly not being held out in any way. … Most of them will talk to the CESR—we like to talk to them—but some don't wish to, and there's nothing one can do about that. But their views are wanted, to be integrated into the debate, and not just on issues of language, but on many issues. [Some ethnic education groups are pushing for public schools to offer classes in ethnic minority languages, instead of teaching solely in Myanmar language.] Maybe one thing that might come out of this debate would be to increase the government system of school grants, and this may be a way to allow much more flexibility to individual states to decide on how they want to do education. I'd be very surprised if a core education curriculum did not come out of this process, but there might well be things that one state wants to do [with schools] that another state doesn't. Q: Do you know what percentage of the whole national budget goes to education right now? A: No, I don't think anybody knows for sure. There may be a statistic but I would question its accuracy. What I do know is that the amount of money that parents are putting into the education system is massively high compared to other countries in Southeast Asia. It's because previous Myanmar governments didn't put money into education in the past, so Myanmar parents are carrying a really high burden of costs, and that's dangerous because it creates a risk that the poor will give up paying for education because they cannot afford to do so. Q: Any last thing you'd like to add? A: Don't forget that policy, law, management and finance are a very important part—developing or strengthening institutions at the district level and down the chain that can handle money, organize teacher training and make decisions about the distribution of books. When people write about education, there's a great tendency to write about the classroom and the child, and yes, of course that's the be-all and end-all, but even if you have all these plans for doing good things, unless those district and regional education offices can manage, organize, motivate and handle the money, the system falls apart. … If you haven't got that, nothing else will happen. The post 'It's Balancing the Interests of Both Sides' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma’s Aviation Industry Booms Despite Grim Safety Record Posted: 22 Oct 2013 01:08 AM PDT  Win Swe Tun, deputy director of Burma's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), talks during an interview with Reuters in his office in Rangoon September 18, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) KONEMOE, Shan State — Htay Aung was riding pillion on a motorbike last Christmas morning, wending through the cool hills of eastern Burma, when Air Bagan Flight 11 came down on top of him. The Fokker 100—more than 24 tons of aircraft, plus 65 passengers and six crew—sheared its way through trees and power lines, across the road and into a field short of nearby Heho airport. Htay Aung found himself sucked into a scorching maelstrom of debris. "I felt my body go up into the air and then drop. Fire was all around me," recalled Htay Aung, who is now 19 and lives with the effects of burns across his head and body. His uncle, who was driving that day, was killed. The crash, which also gutted the jet, killed one passenger and injured eight, most of them foreign tourists, capped off a horror year for air safety in Burma. Out of the country's tiny fleet of domestic commercial aircraft, four were involved in serious accidents in 2012, one of them causing death. But the appalling safety rate has hardly dented a broader trend in Burma's aviation industry: spectacular growth. After decades under the thumb of xenophobic generals, one of Asia's last frontiers of commercial aviation is opening up. Passenger numbers are surging as new airlines spring up and foreign carriers rush in. Some officials and executives talk grandly of turning Burma into a regional hub. The country, however, appears ill-prepared for the pace of change, putting both safety—and the prospects of many hopeful airlines—at risk. "They've opened up, in my personal opinion, far before they're ready for it," said Shukor Yusof, an analyst who specializes in the aviation sector for credit-ratings agency Standard & Poor's in Singapore. "The infrastructure is not there to cope with demand. There's going to be a point where it's going to get choked up," he said, adding that safety is "not going to improve any time soon." In the 2011/12 peak winter season for foreign tourists, who are driving much of the growth, there were 50,000 seats per week in and out of Burma provided by 13 international airlines, including flag carrier Myanmar Airways International (MAI), according the CAPA Centre for Aviation, which advises airlines, and flight industry database Innovata. Last year, that jumped to 80,000 seats, with CAPA predicting it will surpass 100,000 this winter. The number of international airlines in the country nearly doubled to 23 as of early October, with MAI and Golden Myanmar the only locals. There are signs too many airlines are entering at once, meaning the number could shrink in coming years as some carriers merge or die off, said Brendan Sobie, chief analyst at CAPA. Isolation's Legacy Win Swe Tun, deputy director of Burma's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), is shockingly candid about Burma's air accident rate. "It's nine times higher" than the global average, he said. In the 1950s, Rangoon was Southeast Asia's aviation hub. But after the military seized power in 1962, civilian aviation entered a long decline. International isolation made it hard to deal directly with manufacturers, import equipment, train staff or finance infrastructure. Some of those problems were lifted with the end of European Union sanctions this year. The United States has suspended sanctions, but not ended them entirely. State-run Myanma Airways, a domestic airline that partly owns international flag carrier MAI, grounded its three Chinese-made Xian MA60s last year after two of the turboprop aircraft suffered accidents on landing within a month, said Win Swe Tun. The purchase of the aircraft in 2010 was a direct result of sanctions, he added. Locally owned airlines began to emerge before the advent of a quasi-civilian government in 2011. Many, like Myanma Airways, are losing money. Seven carriers, six of them private, are operating regular flights. Four more domestic airlines are planned. International airlines are jostling to get in. VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co, Vietnam's only privately owned airline, is in talks with an unidentified local carrier. Thai AirAsia has entered into joint venture talks with "some potential partners," said Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive of the unit of Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd. Japan's ANA Holdings Inc (ANA) announced in August it was buying 49 percent—the maximum under Burmese law—of tiny domestic carrier Asian Wings. The new deal will add international routes and expand its fleet with jets and turboprop. As Burma's skies get busier, so are its antiquated and under-funded airports. Only three of Burma's 33 airports—Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw—are international. Others often lack bigger runways, advanced navigation and safety equipment and adequate security. Rangoon airport, the country's busiest, is already over its annual capacity of 2.7 million passengers, accepting 3.1 million last year. A $150 million upgrade to Rangoon airport was recently awarded to a consortium led by an affiliate of Asia World, a conglomerate run by Tun Myint Naing, also known as Steven Law, the US-sanctioned son of the late drug kingpin-turned-tycoon Lo Hsing Han. A Japanese consortium has been charged with revamping Mandalay's airport, seen as a future logistics hub. The big project, however, is a plan to build a new US$1.5 billion airport for Rangoon at Hanthawaddy, northeast of the city, a job given to a consortium headed by South Korea's state-run Incheon International Airport Corp. The new airport will be designed to handle 12 million passengers a year on its opening in 2018, and will eventually become a regional hub in its own right, handling 30 million annually by 2030, Win Swe Tun said. That compares with 48 million at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and 51 million at Singapore's Changi Airport. Antiquated Airports Heho Airport, where Air Bagan crashed last December, shows just how far Burma has to go. Sitting inside a control tower with shoes outside the door, Win Myint directs air traffic via a set of radios atop a linoleum table. With no computerized systems, Win Myint organizes the landing schedule by scribbling on plastic slides, which are then lined up in order as new information comes over the radio. The airport, near the scenic Inle Lake, has seen tourist arrivals surge in recent years, said the manager, Htay Aung. The government promises to revamp Heho and other airports by expanding runway capacity and adding security, safety and navigation equipment. Heho's lack of navigation equipment was likely one factor in last year's crash. Although no final report has been issued by the DCA, Win Swe Tun, who is head of the investigation, told Reuters that Air Bagan Flight 11 had attempted to land in fog without the assistance of on-the-ground navigation equipment. Having misjudged the approach, rather than go around for a second attempt, the co-pilot tried to rush the landing, he said. Cost of Sanctions The aftermath of the crash has been an ongoing headache for Air Bagan, part of the Htoo Group of companies owned by Tay Za, a businessman who remains subject to US sanctions for his links to the former military junta. Many foreign survivors now complain of a drawn out and difficult compensation process. Air Bagan, one of the biggest domestic airlines, has not been profitable since the 2006-2007 financial year and faces pressure both from sanctions and the growth of new players, deputy managing director Sao Thanda Noi told Reuters. Sanctions, she adds, pose hurdles in critical areas—from training and supplies to maintenance and financing. "Our costs are much [more] expensive than other airlines. That's what sanctions cost us. But…we never compromise on safety." One tycoon who appears to have more comfortably negotiated the reform era has been Aung Ko Win, president of Burma's largest private bank, Kanbawza Bank, and formerly the target of EU sanctions. His domestic airline, Air KBZ, enjoys steadily rising revenues and is seeking to expand, says deputy managing director Khin Maung Myint. It controls 30 percent of the domestic market, carrying nearly 240,000 passengers in its last financial year, and plans to soon add "two or three" aircraft to a fleet of six, he said. Still, Air KBZ lost one of its ATR 72-500s in a crash last February. No one was injured. As airlines queue up to enter the country, the biggest international carrier flying to Burma, Thai Airways, sounded a note of caution. Infrastructure constraints mean there is "not now" any money to be made on domestic routes, executive vice president Chokchai Panyayong told Reuters. "I think in a couple of years we'll move in," he said. The post Burma's Aviation Industry Booms Despite Grim Safety Record appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| EU, US Must Pressure Burma on Constitutional Reform: Suu Kyi Posted: 22 Oct 2013 01:00 AM PDT  European Council President Herman Van Rompuy meets Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Council headquarters in Brussels on Sunday. (Photo: Reuters) LUXEMBOURG — Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi urged Europe and the United States on Monday to press Burma to reform what she said was an undemocratic Constitution, partly because it effectively bars women from running for president. The Burma opposition leader, in Luxembourg to meet European Union foreign ministers, said the Constitution stipulates that the president must have military experience, thus excluding women. It also prevents Suu Kyi, 68, from running for the presidency in 2015 because it bans anyone who has children who are foreign citizens. Suu Kyi and her husband, the late British academic Michael Aris, had two children who are British. The EU has already called for amendments to Burma’s Constitution, but Suu Kyi said it must be more vocal "because unless this Constitution is amended … we will have to take it that the present administration is not interested in taking reform further forward. "It’s gone as far as it is going to go without amendments to the Constitution and we are still very, very far away from a genuine democratic form of government," she told reporters. The United States, too, should call for constitutional change, she said in response to a question. Burma President Thein Sein, whose quasi-civilian government took power in March 2011 after nearly half a century of military rule, launched a series of political and economic reforms that helped break Burma’s international isolation. Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest, was allowed back into politics and her National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in last year’s parliamentary by-elections, giving her a seat in Parliament. Prize On Tuesday, Suu Kyi will visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg to receive the Sakharov human rights prize that she was awarded in 1990 but could not pick up. The EU decided in April to lift all sanctions on Burma, except for an arms embargo, increasing the interest of foreign businesses in a country with significan European Council President Herman Van Rompuy meets Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Council headquarters in Brussels on Sunday. (Photo: Reuters) t natural resources. Asked if she would contest the 2015 election if constitutional obstacles are removed, Suu Kyi said: "We are not shutting any doors at the moment." Changing the Constitution is difficult, requiring more than 75 percent support in parliament, where 25 percent of seats are held by appointees of the military, Suu Kyi said. An end to ethnic conflict also depends on overhauling the Constitution because the existing one is not acceptable to ethnic groups, she said. Burma has suffered from ethnic tensions, including between majority Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya minority. At least 237 people have been killed and about 150,000 made homeless in violence between the two groups over the past year. Despite investor interest in Burma, Suu Kyi said actual investments had been much less than the government had hoped for because of doubts over the rule of law and poor infrastructure. "I’ve talked to businessmen … They have no confidence in the situation in the country. They are not happy about the political situation and they are not happy about the rule of law situation … They are not happy with the lack of infrastructure – no roads, no electricity, in some places no water," she said. Asked if change in Burma was now firmly entrenched, she said: "Nothing is irreversible." The post EU, US Must Pressure Burma on Constitutional Reform: Suu Kyi appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| With Psy and Currency Swaps, South Korea Grabs Global Influence Posted: 22 Oct 2013 12:52 AM PDT ![South Korea, Psy, K-Pop,]() South Korean rapper Psy performs during a concert in Seoul. (Photo: Reuters / Lee Jae-Won) SEOUL — From rapper Psy to overseas financial aid, an economically and culturally confident South Korea appears to be taking on bigger neighbors Japan and China for the hearts and minds of the rest of Asia and beyond. Its most recent effort to leverage brand "Korea"—three currency swap deals worth more than $20 billion that were announced this month. South Korea had the seventh largest currency reserves in the world at the end of August, worth $331.1 billion, according to the Bank of Korea. It can easily afford to match cultural diplomacy with economic muscle as it competes with Japan and China for influence. K-Pop icons such as Psy, whose "Gangnam Style" hit went viral in 2012, and even Korean food are used by Seoul to build South Korea's brand, while Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hyundai Motor Co are firms with global reach. "Becoming a country that can offer currency swaps to support other economies elevates our standing abroad," a senior official at the central bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. Thanks to its huge foreign exchange reserves, South Korea doesn't need to buttress its currency against possible speculative attacks, although its swap partners Indonesia and Malaysia have been hit by recent financial market turmoil. The third deal with the United Arab Emirates is part of a package that has seen energy-starved Seoul take substantial stakes in UAE oil fields and win a hefty nuclear contract. Once impoverished, South Korea is now the world's 14th largest economy and has moved from a net aid recipient in the dark days after the 1950-53 Korean War to a net donor. The government aims to increase overseas development aid by 9.9 percent in 2014 to 2.3 trillion won ($2.17 billion), outpacing a projected 2.5 percent rise in total spending despite fiscal constraints on the country's budget. "Swap agreements and international aid should be seen as long-term strategic decisions to ensure a greater stake and influence in Southeast Asia and elsewhere," said Lee Sang-jae, an economist at Hyundai Securities in Seoul. South Korea has a long history of using economic leverage to win diplomatic prizes. In 1989, Hungary became the first Soviet bloc country to formally recognize South Korea in exchange for a tranche of economic aid in a move aimed at winning over communist allies of rival North Korea. Soft culture is just as important as hard politics and cash to Seoul. K-Pop, the carefully choreographed dance music showcased by bands like "Girls' Generation," had sales worth $3.4 billion, according to US show business magazine Billboard. It is especially popular in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where stars fly in almost every month to sold out concerts and Malaysian buyers line up for days for the latest Samsung smartphones. So popular are the acts that Malaysian mobile phone operator DiGi has run campaigns where customers had to buy pre-paid phone credits to win a chance to meet a K-Pop star while Asia's biggest budget carrier, AirAsia, sponsored a K-Pop concert to promote its Kuala Lumpur-Seoul route. "K-Pop idols always have unique choreography and that is what makes their songs famous. They work really hard to please their fans," said Azim Shaun bin Hermain Herbert, 25, a paralegal at a Malaysian law firm. Dian Novita, 27, an account manager at Jakarta-based Narrada Communications, has a Samsung phone, likes Korean food and watches Korean mini-series, known as K-Drama. "I started to dig into Korean culture three years ago. It started out from watching K-Drama, then I started to listen to the music too," said Novita. South Korean TV series are also popular closer to home—in China and Japan. "There has been a sharp rise in positive responses in surveys of Korea's image among younger people [abroad]; this is soft power," said Oh In-gyu, professor of Korean studies at Korea University. The promotion of "brand Korea" has not always been straightforward. Rapper Psy's success was outside the mainstream carefully nurtured groups, but was later proclaimed as a Korean success story by the government. In the 1990s, red faced officials withdrew the "My Seoul, Our Seoul" motto when told that a phonetic reading rendered it laughable to English speakers. A recent Korean food promotion overseas by the government twinned K-Pop stars with "Energizing Persimmon," "Romantic Mushroom" and "Sexy Red Pepper Paste," among others and was met with bemusement. Nonetheless, Seoul will continue to push ahead. "As our products are exported, people start to take interest and start asking where South Korea is and to look for interesting things; as that spreads, there is a synergy," said Ju Won, a senior research fellow at Hyundai Research Institute. Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage and Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta. The post With Psy and Currency Swaps, South Korea Grabs Global Influence appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Maldives Sets New Presidential Election for Nov. 9 Posted: 22 Oct 2013 12:45 AM PDT  A supporter of Maldives presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed shouts slogans in front of a police officer during a protest in Male on Sept. 27, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) MALE, Maldives — Maldives officials rescheduled the country’s presidential election for Nov. 9 after police prevented the scheduled vote this past weekend due to a conflict with a Supreme Court ruling. While the new schedule may break through a political stalemate and reassure this troubled young democracy, it may not produce a new president before the incumbent’s term ends, creating a constitutional vacuum. If no candidate wins 50 percent of the Nov. 9 vote, a runoff would be held on Nov. 16, according to the schedule Vice Elections Commissioner Ahmed Fayaz announced to reporters Monday. The constitution requires a president to be elected by Nov. 11, when sitting President Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s term ends. The Supreme Court had annulled results of a Sept. 7 election, finding that the voters’ registry had phony names and those of dead people. The revote had been set for Saturday, but police stopped it because the Elections Commission failed to obtain approval for the voting registry from all the candidates as required by the high court. Former President Mohamed Nasheed, who led the annulled election with more than 45 percent of the vote, has accused Hassan of scheming to delay the election until his term ends and continue to hold power. Nasheed has demanded that Hassan resign and hand over government to the speaker of Parliament to oversee a new election. Hassan has said that he does not intend staying in office beyond his term, but rejected calls to resign before that. He withdrew from the revote after losing badly in the Sept. 7 election. Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for Nasheed, said that he would contest the election set for new dates but insisted that Hassan must resign. Nasheed’s rivals at the election would be Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of Maldives’ longtime autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and tourist resort owner Qasim Ibrahim. Maldives, known as a luxurious vacation destination, has seen much upheaval in the five years it has been a democracy. Nasheed, who was elected president in the country’s first multiparty election in 2008 and defeated Gayoom’s 30-year autocratic rule, resigned last year after weeks of public protest over his order to arrest a senior judge he perceived to be corrupt and partial. A local commission on inquiry has dismissed his claim that he was ousted by a coup, but the country has since been politically polarized. The post Maldives Sets New Presidential Election for Nov. 9 appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Crackdown to Come Under Scrutiny At UN Rights Review Posted: 22 Oct 2013 12:34 AM PDT  Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING — China's human rights record under President Xi Jinping will come under formal international scrutiny on Tuesday for the first time since he took power, with the main UN rights forum set to hear accusations that the government is expanding a crackdown on dissent. The United Nations Human Rights Council, which reviews all UN members every four years, will give concerned countries a chance to challenge the administration of Xi, who some experts had thought would be less hardline than his predecessors. Instead, critics say Xi has presided over a clampdown that has moved beyond the targeting of dissidents calling for political change. For example, authorities have detained at least 16 activists who have demanded officials publicly disclose their wealth as well as scores of people accused of online "rumor-mongering." "Xi Jinping has definitely taken the country backwards on human rights," prominent rights lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters. "Look at the number of people who are being locked up and the measures that are being taken to lock them up." China will make a presentation at the start of the debate in Geneva, during which diplomats will speak. Non-governmental organizations are not allowed to address the council but can submit reports, often echoed in country statements. The council has no binding powers. Its rotating membership of 47 states does not include China, although Beijing is expected to run for a spot in about a month. The hearing will be the second time China has been assessed under a process that began in 2008. Diplomats are likely to raise questions over China's crackdown on dissent, the death penalty and the use of torture among other topics, said Maya Wang, an Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. Of special concern, Wang said, is the arrest in August of prominent activist Xu Zhiyong, who had called for officials to reveal their wealth. Wang also cited the September disappearance of Cao Shunli, who had helped stage a sit-in this year outside the Foreign Ministry to press for the public to be allowed to contribute to a national human rights report. China had sent a large delegation to Geneva to engage in dialogue with an "open and frank attitude," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference on Monday. "If there are some criticisms, some constructive criticisms, the Chinese government will listen with an open mind and accept them and will give them serious consideration," she said. "As for malicious, deliberate criticisms, of course we will uphold our own path and our own correct judgments." In 2009, China rejected calls from Western and some Latin American nations to end the death penalty but agreed to suggestions from Cuba that it take firm action against "self-styled human rights defenders working against the Chinese state and people." Crackdown Spreading The ascendancy of Xi as Communist Party chief in a once-in-a-decade generational leadership transition last November gave many Chinese hope for political reform, spurring citizens to push officials to disclose their wealth in several movements throughout the country. But the detention of activists making those calls is a strong indication the party will not tolerate any open challenge to its rule, even as it claims more transparency. The activists face trial on the charge of illegal assembly. Hundreds of microbloggers, people who post short comments online, have also been detained since August in a campaign against "rumor-mongering," according to Chinese media and rights groups. Most have been released, but some are still being held on criminal charges. On Sunday, Chinese police arrested Wang Gongquan, a well-known venture capitalist, Wang's lawyer, Chen Youxi, said on his microblog. Wang had helped lead a campaign for the release of another activist. Chen did not answer calls to his mobile phone. "Before, officials used a selective form of suppression, which is to say, they mainly suppressed rights lawyers and dissidents," said Huang Qi, a veteran rights activist. "But in the past few months what the government used to allow some people to say online—things that violated or exceeded the official view—has now been suppressed." Li Fangping, a prominent rights lawyer, said China would likely win a seat on the council given its international influence. "I don't believe that China is ready for that," Li said. "There are still a huge number of citizens for whom a lack of human rights is a growing problem." The post China Crackdown to Come Under Scrutiny At UN Rights Review appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
