The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Waiting for Our ‘Mandela Moment’
- Doubts Cast Over ‘Orwell Home’ in Burma
- Burma Business Roundup (Dec. 7)
| Waiting for Our ‘Mandela Moment’ Posted: 07 Dec 2013 02:26 AM PST Leaders come and go, but their courage, inspiration and integrity can resonate long after they leave office or this world. South Africa's Nelson Mandela will always be remembered as one of humanity's most extraordinary leaders. Mandela was a man of many achievements, and as Desmond Tutu wrote in the Washington Post, "Never before in history was one human being so universally acknowledged in his lifetime as the embodiment of magnanimity and reconciliation as Nelson Mandela was." However, amid an outpouring of tributes today, Tutu pointed out a fact that Burmese would do well to take note of: Mandela was not a saint. Tutu wrote: "His chief weakness was his steadfast loyalty to his organization and to his colleagues. He retained in his cabinet underperforming, frankly incompetent ministers who should have been dismissed. This tolerance of mediocrity arguably laid the seeds for greater levels of mediocrity and corruptibility that were to come." In Burma, we have our own dissident leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Now an elected parliamentarian working within a deeply flawed system, Suu Kyi on Friday paid tribute to Mandela as a "great human being who raised the standard of humanity" and inspired others to change the world. While under house arrest, Suu Kyi was in the past compared to Mother Teresa or Mandela. Upon her release in 2010, some newspapers even predicted Burma was due for its own "Mandela moment." But on a weekend when many are reflecting on an inspirational life that was, Burma is still waiting for that moment. Like Mandela, Suu Kyi has been painted in the media as Burma's revered, even saintly, pro-democracy icon. But Suu Kyi insists she isn't.  Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org. "Let me assure you, I'm no saint," she told an audience in Sydney during her recent trip to Australia. "I look upon myself as a politician, not as an icon." This expectations management and the self-imposed "politician" label is understandable from a woman who has said openly that she wants to be president in 2015. But can an honest politician survive in a dirty game played by deceitful military interests and crony capitalists in Burma? Burma's military-drafted Constitution effectively disqualifies Suu Kyi from becoming president, owing to a clause which states that eligibility for the post precludes those who have a spouse or children who are foreign nationals. Suu Kyi's late husband Michael Aris was British, as are her two sons. The Constitution also requires the president to have military experience. To change these provisions, she will need the approval of 75 percent of lawmakers in both houses of Parliament, a body where one quarter of MPs are unelected military representatives. In her new role as an elected member of the opposition seeking to overhaul the Constitution, Suu Kyi has at times played politics. Like Mandela, pundits say the elected reincarnation of the former political prisoner has exposed her own weaknesses and flaws. Some are even saying she made a mistake in deciding to contest the country's 2012 by-elections. After meeting President Thein Sein for the first time in August 2011, Suu Kyi publicly vouched for him as "sincere" and set about advocating for the lifting of Western sanctions. The government, say critics and even some of her admirers, manipulated Suu Kyi to advance its goal of regaining legitimacy and convincing Western powers to lift sanctions. Analysts say she only belatedly saw the deception and manipulation, eventually changing tack and adopting a critical tone in her public assessments of the Thein Sein administration. These days, relations between Suu Kyi and the president are said to be strained. In dissident circles inside and outside of Burma, critical voices say that since her release from house arrest, Suu Kyi has neglected the activist network that has been built up over the last few decades to promote human rights and democracy in Burma. That network has also been a major source of support for Suu Kyi and the opposition movement. Moreover, since failing to speak out against human rights abuses and conflict in ethnic regions, she has lost considerable support among Burma's ethnic Kachin, who in the past supported her. This silence, coupled with her skirting the issue of violence targeting Muslims by the country's majority Buddhists, has seen The Lady's moral standing erode considerably since she took her seat in Parliament last year. Like Mandela and his African National Congress party, Suu Kyi is the embodiment of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which she co-founded and guided to a sweeping victory in a 1990 general election—an outcome that was never honored. The ability of the parties of these two influential figures to function without them is still very much an open question. With her eyes on the 2015 election, Suu Kyi is asking government leaders to amend the Constitution and has sought a dialogue involving the military, Parliament, the executive branch and the opposition NLD. The government has rejected that proposal. No one doubts that the military still holds considerable sway over the affairs of the nation, and given this reality, Asia's Nelson Mandela is playing a calculating game. Of course, there are fundamental differences between the political trajectories of South Africa and Burma. Burma's "democratization" has been a top-down process, limited and carefully engineered by the military. Former generals continue to hold power and much of the nation's wealth. By hook or by crook, the military and its crony associates will cling to that power for as long as they can. The hope is that Suu Kyi can maintain popular support despite the setbacks. The Lady and her party have work to do in winning back many disgruntled and disillusioned dissidents and ethnic groups. And as important as rebuilding the old network, a new generation of leaders must be groomed for a day when our Mandela is no more. Suu Kyi remains an inspiring figure and a dominant player in Burmese politics, but now in her late 60s, time is running out. And still, everyone is waiting for Burma's "Mandela moment." The post Waiting for Our 'Mandela Moment' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Doubts Cast Over ‘Orwell Home’ in Burma Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:27 PM PST  The provenance of this building in upper Burma, thought to be the former home of George Orwell, is being called into question. (Photo: Nan Thiri Lwin / The Irrawaddy) Googling the home of George Orwell in colonial Burma invariably returns images of a burnt-red two-story house in Katha, Sagaing Division, which has long been considered the former residence of the famous 20th century British writer. But now, just as plans are in motion to restore the old structure to draw tourists to the upper Burma town, locals are casting doubt on the true provenance of the house. The colonial homes of British officers, including Orwell's, once dotted the landscape in Katha, a colonial outpost on the Irrawaddy River. Those dwellings have since been left in varying states of disrepair after decades of neglect in independent Burma. But despite widespread belief to the contrary, Orwell's old house is no longer among them, says Orwell-ophile and local Katha resident Nyo Ko Naing. A local graphic designer who also practices cartography, Nyo Ko Naing has closely studied Orwell's life in 1920s Burma, where the Briton served as a district superintendent of the Indian Imperial Police. Nyo Ko Naing told The Irrawaddy this week that he "was wrong about Orwell's home," claiming that the red house he and others had pegged as the writer's was actually the residence of a district commissioner. Orwell's old home was destroyed in an earthquake in 1986, he insists. "I realized after studying the old maps and through more conversations with the elders who have lived here over the last 80 years," the geography graduate said. "In October 2013, I found an old map from 1911-12, which shows the building plots with the title of their [British colonial residents'] rankings," Nyo Ko Naing explained, adding that homes were typically inherited by the succeeding officer when a colonial official left his post. Orwell was the district superintendent police officer and local residents knew him by his title, DSP, and his residence was referred to in the Burmese language as Eain Ni, meaning "red home." Tint Swe, a 65-year-old Katha resident who says his family was the last to live in the real former Orwell home, told The Irrawaddy that his family moved out in 1979, fearing that a ghost haunted the structure. "My father was a forestry official and we were allowed to stay in that house in the 1970s," said Tint Swe. "We stayed there for over three years, we were the last family. "The house was infamous for ghosts. We did not know at first, when we found out, we moved. And then later it was used by drug users. It was left in disrepair and was falling apart when the 1985-1986 earthquake hit Katha." A former secondary school teacher in Katha, Myint Myint Thein, echoed Tint Swe's ghost story. "We did not believe in the ghost, so my mother and I went to visit to the house in December 1979. Water was thrown on me, I looked up and I saw nothing. It was in the daytime," the 78-year-old former schoolteacher told The Irrawaddy. Foreigners who make the rugged trek to remote Katha are drawn by the prospect of seeing Orwell's residence, a tennis court once used by colonial administrators, a British clubhouse, and the Saint Paul Anglican Church, all of which are portrayed in Orwell's first novel, "Burmese Days." Orwell's old home and the still-standing house of the British deputy commissioner were constructed in the same style and in close proximity to one another, possibly leading to the confusion, said Nyo Ko Naing. The deputy commissioner's old home is now owned by the township's administrative department, with some civil servants and their families taking up residence there. "Since early 2000, I have seen many foreign visitors arrive to Katha in quest of the characters in 'Burmese Days' and George Orwell," said Nyo Ko Naing. "Their visits compelled me to study more about the great writer George Orwell and his old life in Burma." A campaign pushing for renovation of the building thought to be Orwell's kicked off in February after it was learned that the structure would be torn down to make way for a skate park. Win Myint, an 85-year-old old man who was a Katha police official in the1950s-60s, said his office was the former Orwell home from 1958 to 1963, after which it was turned over to forestry department officials. Katha locals told The Irrawaddy this week that the concrete foundation of Orwell's old home remains, located about 100 feet away from the building long-believed to have been his residence. Only the house's chimney was left standing after the quake, but that vestige was torn down in 2005 when authorities let civil servants build on the surrounding land. "Now there are about 21 houses, built surrounding the plot of the old house we used to live in," said Tint Swe. A passage from Emma Larkin's "Finding George Orwell in Burma," a novel in which the author traces Orwell's life in the country, appears to make reference to the chimney. Larkin, however, goes only so far as to speculate that it was the site of the former home of the Lackersteens, a fictional family whose niece is unsuccessfully courted by John Flory, the book's protagonist. That assertion was based on a map drawn by Orwell himself, Larkin writes. Nyo Ko Naing said it was unclear whether plans to restore the red home formerly thought to be the British writer's would go forward. Orwell came to Burma as an Indian Imperial Police officer, assigned to Katha in 1926. The town was the inspiration for the fictional district of Kyauktada in "Burmese Days," which was published in 1934. The book presents the dark side of British colonialism in Burma, then part of the British Indian Empire, with biting descriptions of discrimination against the Burmese by their British colonial overlords. Orwell was born in India in 1903 and moved with his family to England one year later. He joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma in 1922 but despised colonial life and resigned several years later. In addition to "Burmese Days," he is known writing the dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Animal Farm." The post Doubts Cast Over 'Orwell Home' in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma Business Roundup (Dec. 7) Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:00 PM PST Work Begins on Industrial Facilities in Thilawa Special Economic Zone Ground clearance and basic infrastructure preparation work has begun on an industrial estate inside the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, said the Japanese Kyodo News agency. A ceremony marking the start was attended by Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, Marubeni Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation plus nine Burmese business partners and Naypyidaw government representatives, said Kyodo. Mitsubishi, Marubeni and Sumitomo will jointly hold a 49 percent stake in the consortium, to be capitalized at US$100 million, while the remaining 51 percent will be owned by Burma's government and local private companies, it said. "The industrial complex…about 23 kilometers south of the city center of [Rangoon], is expected to draw businesses involved in apparel, car manufacturing and other services, upon its completion in 2015," Kyodo reported. The preparation work for industrial facilities such as factories and warehousing will include "roads, sewage treatment equipment and other infrastructure," Kyodo said. The start has been repeatedly delayed over the past year due to land ownership issues. Rules to Permit More Activity by Foreign Banks 'Expected Soon' Burma is moving closer to allowing foreign banks to open fully independent banking operation in the country, a Japanese financial report said. "Banking regulators are preparing a phased plan under which foreign entities would first be allowed to conduct wholesale banking services for corporate customers and eventually to hold full branch licenses," said the Nikkei Asian Review. A law permitting this development could be in place during the first three months of 2014, the Nikkei said, suggesting that between three and five foreign banks could be licensed initially. "The chosen banks would be required to focus at first on corporate and trade banking. The banks would be permitted to carry out work in areas including project finance, international remittance, and treasury and trade services for local and international companies," the Japanese report said, quoting unnamed financial sources. Progress on plans to permit foreign banking in Burma is moving "far ahead of the expected time frame of one year or more," Nikkei said. "It highlights [Burma's] efforts to overhaul a once-closed and semi-socialist financial system, in which exchange rates were heavily manipulated and international banking transactions were strictly limited to a handful of state-backed institutions." Burma's Foreign Trade on Track for 36% Rise This Year Burma is on track to achieve a target of around US$25 billion in two-way overseas trade during the current financial year. The value of two-way trade reached $13.5 billion for the first six months of the financial year, April-October, the Ministry of Trade said. That compares with $18.3 billion for the whole 12 months of the previous financial year, 2012-13. Achieving the target of $25 billion for the whole year would mean a year-on-year increase of over 36 percent. The encouraging figures come in spite of concerns by import-export traders about financial obstacles that make trading more expensive than necessary, according to the Myanmar Times, quoting a ministry official. "Merchants are calling for increased lending and the removal of obstacles that are currently making exporting goods time-consuming and expensive," the paper said. However, problems for traders could be resolved by plans for a new National Export Strategy. "Financing for exports is one of the key strategies that we considered putting in the NES [National Export Strategy], which should be completed by April," Aung Soe, deputy director general of the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Trade Promotion, was quoting by the Myanmar Times saying. The bulk of trade in the April-October period was with Thailand, China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. Tourists Camp Among Bagan Ruins Rather Than Pay High Hotel Bills A boom in tourism has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of foreign visitors to the historic temple sites at Bagan, but it's also brought an accommodation problem—and a preference for camping among the ruins. An increasing number of young tourists, mostly from Europe, are breaking site rules and staying overnight among the ruins, said the regional travel trade magazine TTR Weekly. "Most hotels in Bagan are over-booked and rates are very high," said the magazine. "The majority of the tourists visiting Bagan are from Europe and the younger ones are prepared to rough it for a night to catch the sunrise scenes in the historical park rather than pay for a hotel or face the shock of a wake-up call at 0400 to transfer to the site." In November alone, the number of visitors to Bagan was logged at 188,400, said TTR Weekly, quoting Ministry of Tourism figures. That's a 57 percent increase on the number visiting Bagan in November 2012, it said. New Mining Rules Could Become Law by March 2014, Ministry Hopes Burma's new mining legislation could become law during the first quarter of 2014, the Ministry of Mines said. The legislation is still to be debated by the country's Parliament and "we hope [they] will approve it within three months," a ministry official told Reuters. The legislation sets out the new rules for foreign investment in Burma's potentially rich mineral resources sector, replacing a 20-year-old law. It's expected that foreign companies will be interested in developing Burma's gold, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, tin and chromite, said Reuters. The post Burma Business Roundup (Dec. 7) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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