| As Life Normalizes, Mandalay Residents Try to Make Sense of the Riots Posted: 07 Jul 2014 05:27 AM PDT  Buddhist monk U Wirathu speaks during a ceremony to form an interreligious committee to keep the peace, on Sunday in Mandalay. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) MANDALAY — Tensions remain high, but Mandalay is slowly returning to normal after several days of inter-communal violence. Most shops in the city center, where rioting between Buddhists and Muslims first broke out, were reopening on Monday, though some Muslim-owned storefronts remained shuttered. Customers returned again to the city's busiest market, Zegyo, while streets downtown were flooded with commuters in the afternoon. But as the sun went down, shopping centers, restaurants and cinemas—normally crowded in the evening—were deserted, while shopkeepers closed their businesses quickly to rush home before the nighttime curfew. When the clock strikes 9 pm, the city will go quiet. Police officers, on standby at barricades downtown, will watch to ensure that nobody wanders the streets until 5 am the next morning. The government imposed the curfew last week on Thursday, after two people were killed in rioting. But since then, some people have refused to spend their nights indoors. According to a divisional police office, about 200 people have already been arrested and detained for breaking curfew. Another 16 men have been charged with crimes ranging from arson to carrying illegal weapons, he said. A committee comprising religious leaders and local residents was established on Sunday to maintain peace in the city. At a ceremony, several Buddhist monks and abbots spoke, including U Wirathu, a nationalist monk who leads an anti-Muslim campaign known as 969. The overall message of most speakers was the need for religious leaders to preach tolerance and kindness. "Monk or layman, Buddhist or Muslim, we all need to unite and help each other," said one of the monks, Galone Ni Sayardaw. "If someone tries to create unrest, you need to stop him, control him. Other religions also need to join hands, rather than viewing this as simply a problem between Buddhists and Muslims. "Muslim or Buddhist, people also need to control themselves, behave themselves, to avoid chaos. You must not insult another person's religion or race. If there's a police case, let only those involved take care of it. We do not need to intervene and create a big problem." Fighting began last week on Tuesday following allegations that a Buddhist woman had been raped by her Muslim employers. In the following days, one Buddhist man and one Muslim man were killed, while at least 14 people were injured. Mandalay was built by King Mindon in 1221 with several Buddhist pagodas and monasteries as well as churches, Hindu temples and mosques. Local residents say that since then, the city has seen smaller bouts of religious violence, especially under the former military regime, but never an outbreak of communal violence on such a big scale. "There were some small religious clashes, but the monks and abbots could control it and the situation did not escalate. Now some monks have many different opinions about the other religion [Islam], and some people's respect for the monks has declined," Hsu Nhget, a famous writer in the city, told The Irrawaddy. "On the other hand, with greater communication, people who want to create unrest use social media as a weapon to spread rumors, and the situation worsens," he added. He criticized authorities for failing to curb the recent violence. "Just look at the funeral of Tun Tun," he said, referring to a 36-year-old Buddhist man who was killed in the unrest. At the cemetery for the burial, "the crowd included young men who were shouting and holding rods and sticks, like a group of rebels entering the city. I wonder why the authorities allowed this? The police were understandably handling the situation cautiously because the crowd was large and there were not many security officials. But as a result, some angry men destroyed a Muslim section of the cemetery." The writer added, "No resident in Mandalay wants their city to experience unrest. Only a few people who wanted to destroy the city wanted to create the unrest." Local residents noted that the chaos followed rallies in the city by the country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to campaign for a change to Article 436 of the Constitution, which allows the military to veto amendments. "We think Mandalay became a victim in the reaction to stop the 436 campaigns. Now the campaign has been stopped visibly, especially in Mandalay," said Thein Win Aung, vice chairman of the peace group formed on Sunday. "If we do not understand these political tricks, if we do not control each other, if we allow ourselves to fall into the trap, then not only Mandalay, but the entire country, will be consumed in the flames of various chaos." The post As Life Normalizes, Mandalay Residents Try to Make Sense of the Riots appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Govt Thanks Mandalay Resident for ‘Effective Cooperation’ in Ending Unrest Posted: 07 Jul 2014 05:21 AM PDT  Police patrol the streets of Mandalay on Wednesday, after an outbreak of inter-communal violence. (Photo: Teza Hleing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — After four days of unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Mandalay came to an end this weekend, Burma's President Office released a 'thank-you' letter to the city for the "effective cooperation of its residents" during efforts to end the violence, which left two people dead. The announcement, made both in Burmese and English, was shared by the
President Office Director Zaw Htay on his Facebook page, where he uses the name Hmuu Zaw. Titled "Appreciated to Responsible Citizens in Mandalay City," the statement hailed the collaboration of Mandalay residents, civil society organizations, media and religious leaders to "overcome the most difficult situation." "Religious and civil society leaders together with responsible youth
who managed to defend and protect the people of different faiths from
unnecessary misunderstanding also deserve our deep appreciation," said the statement, which could not be found on the President Office's official website. "We have to recognize and appreciate those dutiful persons behind the scene… who informed and cooperated with the police about the activities of miscreants," it said, adding that these people's collective efforts to work with the government had prevented further escalation of violence. A government statement released Sunday said 16 people had been arrested in relation to the violence, which saw mobs of hundreds of armed and angry Buddhist young men swarm through the streets, only to be turned back at the edge of the city's Muslim areas by a heavy police deployment. Inter-communal violence first broke out on Tuesday night after allegations circulated on Facebook that a Muslim tea shop owner had raped a Buddhist maid. Rising tensions spilled over into violence and Muslim and Buddhist clashed, leaving a 36-year-old Buddhist man and a 50-year-old Muslim man dead. Fourteen people were injured. On Thursday, Mandalay authorities imposed a 9 pm to 5 am
curfew in the city and one outlying township, and a heavy police deployment secured the city. On Friday, unrest continued to simmer, but on Saturday the situation had calmed down. Local residents have questioned the authorities' handling of the situation, however, saying that police forced been slow to react to the unrest. The post Govt Thanks Mandalay Resident for 'Effective Cooperation' in Ending Unrest appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Jade Emporium Sales Soar to $3.4Bln Posted: 07 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT  Potential buyers expect a block of raw jade offered for sale at the Myanmar Gems Emporium 2014 in Naypyidaw last week. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Jade sales at Burma's major gems emporium held in Naypyidaw last week have surpassed expectations and reached about 2.6 billion euro (US $3.4 billion), up from about 2 billion euro ($2.6 billion) last year, a Ministry of Mines official said. A senior official at Ministry's Myanma Gems Enterprise told The Irrawaddy that some 6,000 jade lots had been sold during auctions at the 10-day emporium, which ended Sunday. "I can say that sales have surpassed the target. Although the number of lots sold has been less than last year, the total sales amount has been more than last year because the [international] jade price is high," said the official, who asked not to be named. "This year's emporium is more successful than last year's," he added. Ahead of this year's event, officials had said they expected sales to total around 2 billion euro. (Payments at the government-organized event are carried out in euros). Jade dealers and craftsmen in Hong Kong said earlier this year that price The post Jade Emporium Sales Soar to $3.4Bln appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Ethnic Leaders and Women Brief Politicians on Peace Talks Posted: 07 Jul 2014 03:28 AM PDT  Political party leaders with members of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team and the Women's League of Burma after a meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy) CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Ethnic political parties from Burma met with ethnic leaders and Burmese women activists in Thailand on Monday to discuss the latest developments in the peace process. Twenty-three party leaders—representing the Mon, Karen, Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Tailai (Red Shan) and Burman ethnic groups—met with members of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), which represents ethnic armed groups in ceasefire talks, in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. "We shared our views on the peace process, mainly discussing the NCCT's task, federalism, how we find ways to overcome challenges, and how to have politicians and parliamentarians participate in the process," said NCCT leader Pado Kwe Htoo Win. Last week, NCCT leaders decided that they would hold a third conference of ethnic armed leaders at the end of this month in Laiza, Kachin State, before meeting with the government's negotiation team. Hkyet Hting Nan, chairman of the Unity and Democracy Party (UDP) of Kachin State, and an Upper House lawmaker, said he appreciated the NCCT's efforts to draft a single text of a nationwide ceasefire agreement. "They have worked hard on this, day and night," he said. Amid ongoing disagreements over certain words in the text, including "federalism," the Kachin lawmaker said, "What's most important is practicing genuine federalism in reality, regardless of whether we use this word or not." Activists highlighted the need for negotiators to consider the wellbeing of women in conflict zones. "It is important that we remember to raise the issue of women, who play a vital role in society but have suffered most in the conflict and have been left out of decision-making," the Kachin lawmaker said. Tin Tin Nyo, secretary of the Women's League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella group of Burmese women's organizations, said women required greater legal protections, referring to the issue of gender violence in conflict zones. "Some leaders have even told us to forgive the perpetrators—army soldiers, in our country's case—but what we would like to say is it is not right to ignore the truth when we are in the peace building stage," she said. The politicians arrived in Thailand last week to attend a workshop in Bangkok about federalism policies, electoral systems and the peace process in Burma. They represented the UDP (Kachin State), the Chin Progressive Party, the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP), the Tailai Nationalities Development Party, the Karen People's Party, the Mon National Party, the National Democratic Force, the Democracy and Peace Party, the National Unity Party, the Democratic Party (Burma), the Arakan National Party and the Kayah National Race Democracy Party. The post Ethnic Leaders and Women Brief Politicians on Peace Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| NLD Holds First Youth Congress, Choses Youth Leaders Posted: 07 Jul 2014 03:22 AM PDT  Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the NLD's first youth congress in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The National League for Democracy (NLD) held its first ever youth congress in Rangoon this past weekend and during the long-planned event 15 youth leaders were chosen, a NLD member said. Maung Maung Oo, central commission chairman for the NLD Youth Congress, said 166 youth representatives, aged between 16 to 35 years, from NLD township, district, division and state commissions from across Burma attended the two-day event. Fifty seven of them were chosen to join the NLD Youth Wing and 15 among were accepted to join a Youth Working Group, he said, adding that the youth wing would be tasked with developing the party's youth-related policies and the working group would implement them. Dr Soe Moe Thu, a representative from Irrawaddy Division was chosen as the NLD Youth Wing leader, and Wai Phyo Aung, from Rangoon Division, will become the leader of the NLD Youth Working Group. Maung Maung Oo said the working group would try "to increase the number of future young leaders of the NLD and to implement the parties' policies," adding that it would work closely with the NLD's Central Executive Committee. He said the youth wing and working group would focus on environment, regional development and building up capacity of the party's youth members, who number about 100,000 nationwide. Details on how the youth leaders planned to invigorate the ageing party leadership remained scarce, however, and Maung Maung Oo was unable to provide concrete examples of what the NLD youths' role in the all-important 2015 elections would be. NLD chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi told the congress that youths should join her party out of a sense of responsibility for the country and not because they are seeking personal opportunities, according to Maung Maung Oo. "But, in accordance with the NLD's objectives, women, youths and ethnic members will be prioritized for becoming a parliamentarian if they are qualified," he added. Suu Kyi has long aspired to hold a youth congress. It was only last year that the NLD held its first ever national congress, which was attended by about 900 members. The opposition party was outlawed by the military regime. Burma's biggest opposition party twice announced it would hold the conference, once in January and then in April, but then postponed the event, most recently because the NLD started its nationwide campaign calling for amendments to the Constitution's Article 436. Last year, a group of NLD youth activists formed the party's first policy research unit, which can count on the support of several international experts. Although the NLD is hugely popular, questions have been raised over its organizational capacity, ageing leadership and an overdependence on Suu Kyi's leadership, which has left little room for the development of other NLD leaders. The NLD needs to revitalize ahead of the upcoming elections and develop a younger generation of leaders, as many of its current central leaders are in their 70s and 80s. The post NLD Holds First Youth Congress, Choses Youth Leaders appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma to Name Kyaukphyu SEZ Developers by December Posted: 07 Jul 2014 12:09 AM PDT  Some development is already underway at Kyaukphyu, Arakan State, the site of a planned special economic zone. (Photo: Ko Soe / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The developers for a massive trading hub planned in western Burma's Arakan State will be selected by December, according to an official. International companies can register their interest in building the infrastructure for the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from next week, and a competitive tendering process will follow, said Railway Minister Myint Thein, who is also the deputy chair of the government committee managing the project. "This phase is to seek developers for port, industrial and residential building projects. We are looking for three developers for those three projects. We'll accept [expression of interest] applications beginning on the 14th of this month, and we'll make the final list by December," the minister said at a promotional "road show" for the project in Rangoon on Thursday. The selected developers will then have to submit detailed work plans to the committee early next year, and be prepared to begin work in March 2015, he added. Another road show event is taking place in Singapore on Monday to provide information about the project to potential developers. In March, the government named a consortium led by Singapore-based firm CPG as the winner of the US$2.5 million consulting contract for the project, one of three planned SEZs that Burma hopes will drive economic growth and provide jobs. The Kyaukphyu SEZ is planned for the island in Arakan State that is also the terminus of Chinese-built cross-country oil and gas pipelines, and officials have expressed hopes that the developments will transform the impoverished coastal region. Myint Thein said the SEZ would initially cover 1,000 acres of land and would later expand to 4,000 acres. Aung Kyaw Than, secretary of Kyaukphyu SEZ tender invitation and selection board, said expressions of interest must be submitted before Aug. 14. "Then, we'll sort out the best four or five developers and ask them to present details, and we'll select the best ones," he said. While the tight deadlines signal the Burmese government's desire to get the Kyaukphyu project underway swiftly, the Japan-backed SEZ at Thilawa, near Rangoon, has gathered the greatest momentum among the country's industrial zone plans. However, long-standing plans to develop an industrial hub in Dawei, Tenasserim Division, have stalled, with the Thai developer initially selected for the project no longer in charge of the development. The post Burma to Name Kyaukphyu SEZ Developers by December appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Constitution Reform Swept Under the Carpet? Posted: 06 Jul 2014 10:45 PM PDT |
| Elephants in Burma at Risk Due to Poor Thai Law: Activists Posted: 06 Jul 2014 10:37 PM PDT  An elephant is being transported in a truck from Taungoo towards Pegu. (PHOTO: Reuters) RANGOON — After taking steps to halt the illegal trafficking of elephants from Burma, Thailand has been urged by a wildlife trade monitoring network to update legislation that currently leaves the animals vulnerable. In an assessment of the live elephant trade in Thailand between April 2011 and March 2013, at least 60 percent of the animals trafficked came from Burma, according to the monitoring network, TRAFFIC. Burma is home to about 5,000 Asian Elephants, the network said in a statement on Monday, as it released a report on the illegal trade. Many wild elephants are captured to supply the tourism industry in Thailand. In 2012, the Thai government began examining the authenticity of origin and ownership documents of elephants being held in captivity. "Thailand's action have caused the illegal trade in live elephants from Myanmar [Burma] to halt, but unless urgent changes are made to outdated legislation and better systems are introduced to document the origin of elephants in tourists camps and other locations across Thailand things could quickly revert to their previous unacceptable state," Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC's regional director for Southeast Asia, said in the statement. For example, current legislation states that elephants only need to be registered when they turn 8 years old, the network said. "There are gaping holes in the current legislation, which do little to deter unscrupulous operators passing off wild-caught young animals as being of captive origin and falsifying birth and ownership documentation," Joanna Cary-Elwes, campaigns manager of Elephant Family, an organization dedicated to the conservation of Asian Elephants, said in the statement. Penalties for those who violate the law are also low, TRAFFIC added. The post Elephants in Burma at Risk Due to Poor Thai Law: Activists appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Persecution of Muslims in Arakan State Traps Buddhist Minority in Limbo Posted: 06 Jul 2014 10:27 PM PDT  A displaced woman sifts through her rice in front of her hut in a camp for a Buddhist minority group known as Maramargyi, in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, on June 7, 2014. (Photo: Thin Lei Win / Thomson Reuters Foundation) SITTWE — The 400-odd Maramargyi ethnic minorities who have been living in ramshackle huts in the Set Yone Su displacement camp since sectarian violence wracked communities here in western Burma two years ago ostensibly practice the "right" religion—Buddhism. However, in a country where Buddhist nationalists have become increasingly hostile towards Muslims, the Maramargyi say they have the "wrong" looks: South Asian facial features and darker skin like the persecuted, stateless Rohingya Muslims. As a result, even though the Buddhist Maramargyi are recognized as Burmese citizens, they say they suffer discrimination, are denied identity cards, neglected by the government and stranded in crumbling temporary shelters after losing their homes in Buddhist-Muslim riots in 2012. A sign at the camp entrance says there are 1,172 people living here, but in fact, only the few hundred Maramargyi remain. The Buddhist Arakanese, who have lighter skin and more East Asian features, and the Hindus that were also in the camp moved into new homes a year ago, but the Maramargyi say they have no idea when they will be resettled or allowed to go home. "We're the only ones left behind," Kyaw Thu, a father of three, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. "When the Rakhines [Arakanese] and the Hindus moved in July 2013, we asked the officials why we didn't get anything. They told us to wait for a while, but nothing has changed. The government hasn't provided us with food, information or anything," he added, standing at the entrance of his room, one of 10 in a dormitory-style house with corrugated-iron roofs and bamboo walls. Citizen or Stateless? Beyond their devotional differences, the key distinction between the Maramargyi and the Rohingya lies in a discriminatory 1982 law that arbitrarily lays out the 135 ethnic groups bestowed with citizenship. The Maramargyi are included on that list. The Rohingya are not, and are thus stateless and denied basic rights. Since violence flared between Buddhist Arakanese and the Rohingya in June 2012, religious conflict has spread across Burma, killing at least 240 people and forcing more than 150,000—a huge majority of them the stateless Rohingya in Arakan State—into sprawling, squalid displacement camps. Two men—a Buddhist and a Muslim—were killed and 14 people were hurt in the latest riots on July 2 and 3 in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city. The Maramargyi at the Set Yone Su displacement camp say they lost their homes in arson attacks by Muslims. Many also lost their jobs in the ensuing destruction and are struggling to rebuild their lives. "We were caught in the middle of the conflict between the Rakhines and the Muslims, so we suffered," said camp resident Kyaw Maung. Win Myint, the Arakan State government spokesman, dismissed their concerns. He at first insisted that the Arakanese and Hindus were still at the camp, but later added that their new homes—neat, single dwellings on stilts not far from the camp—are the same as the dorms. "We don't have the space to give everyone individual new homes," Win Myint said. However, the rickety homes in the camp do not look like they will withstand the upcoming rainy season. Parts of the walls and roofs at many homes, including Kyaw Thu's, have collapsed. They are unbearably hot during the summer and leak during the rainy season, residents say. Shallow drainage ditches circling the homes are filled with green stagnant water. The area floods during the monsoon, and snakes are a common threat, said Kyaw Thu, a former tea shop owner now trying to make ends meet driving a rented taxi. Looks That Attract Hostility Buddhist nationalists have portrayed the violence as part of an effort to protect Buddhist-majority Burma from being taken over by Muslims, who officially make up an estimated 4 percent of the country's 60 million people. Yet the Maramargyi recounted the discrimination they suffered, even though they are Buddhist. Unlike Muslims who are barred from entering Sittwe, the Maramargyi can travel with relative ease, but their looks sometimes attract hostility. When nationalist mobs attacked aid agency offices on March 27 and 28 after rumors spread that a foreign aid worker improperly handled a Buddhist flag, none of the Maramargyi in Sittwe—those in the camp as well as those who still live in their homes—dared to go out. "Because we look like kalar, we were scared we would be killed," a woman who did not want to be identified said, using a commonly-used derogatory term for people of South Asian descent. "Even though we're Buddhists, we can easily get into trouble because of our faces." Most of the Maramargyi in the camp do not have identification cards, called National Registration Cards (NRC), the residents say, although they are entitled to one. The process is slow and costly, but life without one can be debilitating as an NRC is required to apply for formal jobs, travel or even sit for high school exams. "Sometimes it takes two years, sometimes it takes two months. Sometimes you get nothing after all these years," Kyaw Thu said. Kyaw Maung said one of his friends ended up paying $300. Both Kyaw Thu and Kyaw Maung have identification cards, but say they are among the lucky few. "We are an officially-recognized ethnic group but treated differently and don't get the same rights," Kyaw Thu said. "Surely everyone should be equal in the eyes of the law?" The post Persecution of Muslims in Arakan State Traps Buddhist Minority in Limbo appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘Censorship Changed Our Thinking’ Posted: 06 Jul 2014 05:30 PM PDT  Myanmar writer and human rights activist Ma Thida in her office in Yangon. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) Leading writer and human rights activist Ma Thida recently became the first president of Myanmar's branch of PEN International, a global association of writers and editors that promotes free expression. Established last autumn, PEN Myanmar aims to revamp the local literary scene, currently dominated by lecture-style book talks. The 47-year-old Ma Thida, who is also a trained surgeon and former political prisoner, spoke with The Irrawaddy's Samantha Michaels about her work with PEN Myanmar, while also sharing her thoughts on the country's opening media sector and explaining how meditation helped her survive prison. Question: Fiction writers and journalists have more freedom today than they did under the former junta. What are some of the biggest remaining challenges? Answer: For fiction writers, there's self-censorship. For nearly five decades, they only thought about how to bypass censorship. And now, even when they get a chance, they forget to touch on current issues, such as land conflicts, in their writing. It's an intellectual inertia—our thinking has been changed by censorship. For journalists, there's a lack of training. Some reporters are struggling, even though they are so enthusiastic. Q: As president of PEN Myanmar, what are your main activities? A: We aim to protect free expression, to establish a new literary culture and to promote aesthetic literature in schools. Literary talks here are like one-way lectures, so we are holding interactive writing workshops with local writers and readers. We want the community to participate, so we say, just grab a book and read out loud any part, or a poem or short story or essay, and based on that, we have a discussion. We are also organizing a peace writing contest, calling for poems and short stories in Myanmar language or any ethnic language, to be published into a book. Another project is the conflict sensitive media monitoring project—we are making a report based on our research regarding civil war, ethnic conflicts and hate speech. Q: Earlier this year you were blocked from speaking at a literary event because you once volunteered for the Muslim Free Hospital in Yangon. Has your association with this hospital ever been a problem for you in the past? A: I don't think so. And I was quite happy with my involvement in the Muslim Free Hospital. Throughout history, a lot of political prisoners and their family members couldn't go to state-owned hospitals, so they relied on the Muslim Free Hospital. I am not a Muslim, but this was where I could best help the needy and my political prisoner friends and their family members. Q: As editor of The Myanmar Independent news journal, you focus on politics, civil society issues and ethnic issues. Do you think there's enough coverage of ethnic minority issues in Myanmar? A: It's under covered. A lot of the reporters and editors lack background knowledge, so they may try to cover it but they are not very effective. I encourage regional papers to run by themselves, but they also lack skills. The language barrier is a problem, and the education in their states is not very good. Q: The government has proposed a controversial Public Service Media Bill which would turn state-owned newspapers into "public service media" that would, in part, cover ethnic issues. Is this a good idea? A: Throughout history we have already been reading their public service newspapers, and I have never seen any brilliant coverage of ethnic issues, or any issue for the matter. As an example, when Minister U Ohn Myint made some very bad speeches to the local people, every independent journal wrote about it. At the time, if I ran the government newspaper, to serve the public I might have interviewed the minister and asked why he made this speech. But instead, they printed all the good things about him, like propaganda about how he works so hard. According to this example, how can we believe this public service media can serve the public? Why should we spend our tax money on this kind of paper? Q: What social work are you doing now? I heard you had plans once to open a school in the countryside? A: I volunteer at the clinic of the Free Funeral Service Society once a week. And I did have a dream to create a big compound—it wouldn't be a school, but inside there would be a free clinic, or a free hospital, and also a nonprofit publication to publish research papers. And an orphanage. Families would work for the clinic or the publication and could host the orphans. There would be a family atmosphere. Q: What are your latest writing projects? A: I'm translating a memoir by Suad Amiry, a Palestinian engineer and writer, about her experience as a migrant worker traveling to Israel. The title is "Nothing to Lose but Your Life." I'm also trying to edit an English version of my own prison memoir, which was published in Myanmar language in 2012. Q: In your memoir, you describe how you meditated sometimes up to 20 hours per day in prison. Are you still practicing meditation today? A: I don't keep aside a particular time of day to meditate, but I meditate off and on, especially when extreme emotions come to me, to keep myself calm. Sometimes, more than sometimes, I regret not having enough time to meditate these days. … I was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and I used to wonder, who can release me? It truly was not me—for this, I needed to rely on others, the authorities. Since I was young, I wanted to be independent, I wanted to rely on myself. I thought, if I want to escape the vicious cycle of samsara [the Buddhist cycle of birth and rebirth, which involves suffering], who can do that? For this, I didn't need to ask anything of the jail authorities. I could be released from the vicious cycle if I did meditation. This interview first appeared in the July 2014 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post 'Censorship Changed Our Thinking' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Indonesia’s Tight, Dirty Presidential Race May Be Decided in West Java Posted: 06 Jul 2014 10:18 PM PDT  Indonesian presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, second right, speaks beside his vice presidential candidate Yusuf Kalla during a televised debate with his opponent Prabowo Subianto, second left, and his vice presidential candidate Hatta Rajasa in Jakarta on July 5, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta) TASIKMALAYA, Indonesia — The closest and dirtiest presidential race in Indonesia's young democracy could be decided on Wednesday among the mosques and rice paddies of West Java, the nation's most populous province. Former special forces chief Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, leaving markets in Southeast Asia's largest economy under pressure and on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome. Indonesia's 190 million voters face a clear choice: the relatively untested, untainted Jokowi or a tough nationalist in Prabowo who has top military leadership experience but is dogged by decades-old allegations of army brutality, which he denies. "The young democracy of Indonesia is about to face a tough maturity test on July 9," said Wellian Wiranto, economist at OCBC Bank. This will be the first time in the world's third-largest democracy that a directly elected president hands over the reins to another. Outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has largely disappointed in his last four years, must step down in October after serving a two-term limit. Voting starts in Indonesia's distant eastern islands and finishes two time zones away in the densely populated west at 0600 GMT. Early counts by pollsters should give an idea of the outcome fairly soon afterwards. A Prabowo win is expected to weaken markets due to concerns that he will introduce protectionist policies in the financial and farm sectors, and launch big debt-funded spending projects. Stocks and the rupiah have fallen about 4 percent since mid-May when Jokowi's big lead in the polls began to slip. Should the race be too close to call, the markets could take an even bigger hit, particularly if it is a long, drawn-out process involving legal battles, protests and violence. Main Battleground All eyes are on the main battleground province of West Java, an area the size of the Netherlands but with a population nearly three times larger. Prabowo has seized a single-digit lead from Jokowi in the province of 46 million people, helped by a smear campaign that raised questions about the Jakarta governor's race and religion—potent topics in a nation that is 95 percent native Indonesian and has the world's largest Muslim population. "That had a very big impact," said Fitri Hari, researcher at polling firm Lingkaran Survei Indonesia, referring to questions, aired in social media by Prabowo supporters, about Jokowi's Islamic faith and his Javanese ethnicity—even though he was born a Muslim in the Javanese town of Solo. To counter the smear, Jokowi is set to go on a minor pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia early this week when there is a ban on public campaigning before the vote. Jokowi's lead in national opinion polls—as much as 30 percentage points three months ago—has shrunk as the smear campaign has developed, pollsters say. Prabowo, who has not made public comments about Jokowi's race or religion, has appeared to lead a more organized campaign than his rival. West Java, which represents around 20 percent of the national vote, is home to some of the country's most conservative Muslim groups. One of the Islamic parties backing Prabowo holds considerable sway there. The province was also the breeding ground for fundamentalist religious groups such as the Darul Islam, which sought an Islamic state in the early independence years, to the Jemaah Islamiyah, which was behind the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005. "Jokowi is more of a manager. He pays attention to the operational side of things … but this country needs somebody with real leadership talent, a visionary. I think that's Prabowo," said Yanti, a 42-year-old resident of West Java's port city of Cirebon. Jokowi spent the last days of the campaign visiting mosques and meeting farmers throughout West Java to counter the damaging attacks on his image. Prabowo made similar stops in the area, reflecting the province's importance in a close election. "We stopped by in a mosque this afternoon and [Jokowi] joined the prayer. Everyone saw him praying and the immediate reaction was 'Oh, so he is a Muslim,'" said Anies Baswedan, a spokesman for Jokowi's campaign, speaking at a campaign stop in West Java's capital city of Bandung. With public campaigning banned three days before Wednesday's elections, candidates are turning to religious leaders to canvass support through their sermons in a last-ditch effort to grab the few remaining undecided voters in West Java. In Tasikmalaya, religious leader Bunyamin Ruchiyat said he would be dropping hints to his followers on who to vote for. "Jokowi is honest, humble and a down-to-earth figure. Those are the traits that we should vote for," he said. With additional reporting by Randy Fabi and Dennys Kapa in Tasiklaya, Kanupriya Kapoor in Cirebon, and Aubrey Belford in Bangkok The post Indonesia's Tight, Dirty Presidential Race May Be Decided in West Java appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Sri Lanka Accused of Turning Blind Eye to Violence Posted: 06 Jul 2014 10:10 PM PDT  A Muslim woman stands next to her burnt house after a clash between Buddhists and Muslims in Aluthgama on June 16, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Dinuka Liyanawatte) ALUTHGAMA, Sri Lanka — The attackers stormed in close to midnight, tearing through town with gasoline bombs and clubs before carting away piles of cash and jewelry they stole from Muslim families in this tiny corner of Sri Lanka. The onslaught incited by the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, a hardline group that has gained thousands of followers in recent years, killed at least two Muslims and injured dozens more last month in the worst religious violence Sri Lanka has seen in decades. Now, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is under fire, accused of failing to protect Sri Lanka's tiny Muslim minority and allowing radical Buddhists spewing illegal hate speech to operate with impunity for years. Critics of Rajapaksa's government say it has turned a blind eye to the violence as a way to shore up its core constituency—the Sinhalese Buddhist population—which makes up about 75 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people. "At the root of the failure of the government to check the violence is electoral politics," said Jehan Perera, head of the National Peace Council, a local peace activist group in Sri Lanka. "If the Sinhalese voters feel insecure for any reason they will tend to vote for the present government, which is seen as strong and pro-Sinhalese." But the most recent violence has drawn rare—and harsh—criticism from inside Sri Lanka, with the media, moderate Buddhists and even the justice minister slamming Rajapaksa's seeming unwillingness to safeguard Muslims. Foreign embassies and the UN also demanded action. The United States canceled a five-year, multiple-entry visa held by the BBS's general secretary, according to the group's chief executive, Dilanta Vithanage. Facing a growing backlash, the government in recent days has tried to deflate the crisis, although critics say the moves are too little, too late. The Defense Ministry called an unusual press conference on July 2—nearly three weeks after the bloodshed—to distance itself from the Bodu Bala Sena and to address allegations that Sri Lanka’s powerful defense secretary and the president's brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was quietly supporting the group's cause. But the military spokesman, Brig. Ruwan Wanigasooriya, was careful not to criticize the group, either. "I am not condemning the BBS," he said. "What I am saying is it is wrong to say that the secretary of defense is supporting the BBS." The same day, police interrogated the group's general secretary, the Rev. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, for five hours before releasing him without charge. It was the first time Gnanasara had ever been questioned by police for his hate speech even though it has been widely acknowledged and circulated in videos online for years. He was once questioned for disrupting a press conference convened by a moderate monk at odds with the BBS, but he wasn't prosecuted. Just hours before the latest violence, video clips showed him inciting crowds in Buddhist rallies that passed through Muslim areas like Aluthgama and Beruwala. "Yes, we are racists!" Gnanasara shouted. "Yes, we are religious extremists!" He also warned "marakkalayas"—a derogatory term for Muslims—not to lay a hand on any Sinhalese. "If you marakkalayas try to mess with us, if you want to test our strength, we are ready for that. Don't mess with us—if you do, the second action will be doom for the shops in places like Aluthgama and Beruwala." That evening, the mob attacked Aluthgama, Beruwala and nearby Darga Nagar, three towns with a large Muslim presence. In the wake of the raid, Gnanasara acknowledged that his supporters were behind the violence, saying the attackers were angry over an assault on a Buddhist monk. Muslims deny attacking the monk. "When people heard it they went out of control," Gnanasara said at the time. "This is natural because the people were under a lot of pressure." Previous attacks by the BBS have gone unpunished and hardline monks, for the most part, have acted without fear of any legal repercussions. Sri Lanka is still deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and ethnic Tamil rebels, who are largely Hindu. During the war, Buddhist-Muslim violence was relatively rare. But the monks leading Bodu Bala Sena have amassed a significant following in recent years, drawing thousands of followers. At raucous rallies, radical monks encourage violence against minorities and implore Sri Lankans to preserve the purity of the Buddhist majority. Muslims are a particular target. Members of the Bodu Bala Sena claim Muslims are out to recruit children and marry Buddhist women. They say Muslims are trying to take over the country by increasing their birthrate and secretly sterilizing Buddhists. Even as the country has seen rising instances of hate speech against Muslims and attacks on Muslim-owned businesses, there have been few attacks on people. The June 15 violence changed all that. "They hit us with gasoline bombs and stones," said Mohamed Namaz, a 17-year-old Muslim who rushed into the streets of Aluthgama after a call came over the mosque loudspeaker, warning that an armed Buddhist mob was closing in on the town. "Then we heard shots being fired but we took them for firecrackers. I was trying to hold a friend who was shot and I was also hit," said Namaz, who still has the bullet lodged in his thigh. The initial toll from the violence was three Muslims killed, but authorities subsequently lowered it to two. Many of the injuries were critical; two people had legs amputated, according to A.R.M. Badhiuddeen, a local council member. Many Muslims feel they are being victimized because of their visibility in the economy—a role they have played for more than 1,000 years since Arab traders brought Islam to Sri Lanka and allied with the Sinhalese against Spanish and Dutch colonial forces. Today, they control at least half of small businesses and hold near-monopolies in the textile and gem trades. Sinhalese comprise about 74 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people, and the Tamil community accounts for about 18 percent. Most of the rest are Muslims. The violence has raised fears that Sri Lanka could soon see echoes of Burma, where Buddhist monks helped incite violence in 2012 and 2013 in which Buddhist mobs slaughtered Rohingya Muslims. Still, many Sri Lankans and human rights workers are alarmed, saying the monks are creating communal divisions and giving Buddhism a bad name. But Perera, of the National Peace Council, cautions that for now, the BBS have relatively limited power. "In reality this is the violence of a few, to which the government is turning a blind eye," he said. "It is the availability of impunity that drives the violent elements to more violence." Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report. The post Sri Lanka Accused of Turning Blind Eye to Violence appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China’s Top Graft-buster Says No Limits to Probes Posted: 06 Jul 2014 09:51 PM PDT  Then member of Central Military Commission Xu Caihou, center, shakes hands with colleagues on July 14, 2004. Xu was expelled from the Communist Party last week and will be court-martialed after being accused of corruption. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING — No part of China's ruling Communist Party is off limits for its crackdown on corruption, the country’s top graft buster was quoted as saying, sounding a warning a few days after the one of the country's most senior former soldiers was purged. The party this week announced that Xu Caihou, who retired as vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission last year, had been expelled from the party and will be court-martialed after being accused of corruption. President Xi Jinping, who heads the Central Military Commission, which controls the 2.3 million-strong armed forces, has launched a drive against pervasive graft since assuming office. Speaking during a visit to the northern region of Inner Mongolia, Wang Qishan, who heads the party's efforts to combat corruption, warned that every part of the party would be liable for inspection. "Inspection work is a 'health check' for the party. There are no off limits for oversight within in the party, and there are no exceptions," the party's graft watchdog cited Wang as saying, in a statement issued late on Friday. President Xi has vowed to take down powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies." Xu is the most senior person to date to have been felled. However, a potentially far juicier scandal is brewing—the case of the powerful former domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang. Sources have told Reuters that Zhou is under virtual house arrest, and while the party made no announcement about his case, many of his allies have been publicly taken down. On the same day Xu's fate was announced, three other former senior officials were also expelled from the party, all closely connected with Zhou, including the one-time head of the state assets regulator and a former deputy public security minister. The party has sent numerous teams into the provinces and government departments to expose corruption. Problems discovered during this process show that the party is "absolutely correct" in its judgment that corruption remains a serious and complex problem, Wang added. "It warns us that we must take the arresting of the spread of corruption as our aim and mission, and that these inspections are absolutely something we cannot do without," he said. The post China's Top Graft-buster Says No Limits to Probes appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Does the West Really Want a Suu Kyi Presidency? Posted: 06 Jul 2014 05:00 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama, second right, sits with Burma's President Thein Sein, second left, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on May 20, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Larry Downing) Having established cordial relations with Burma's government, Western nations are now contemplating whether they should also re-establish links with the country's military, known as the Tatmadaw. Low-key meetings have been held between representatives of the US military and Burmese officers, and Britain has conducted what it calls human-rights training with the Tatmadaw. Australia is said to be exploring the possibility of having soldiers from Burma take part in UN peacekeeping missions. Critics, among them the Burma Campaign UK, argue that this fledgling cooperation is with the same military that they say is responsible for abuses and atrocities, especially in the parts of Burma where ethnic minorities live. In June 2011, the Burma Army launched a major offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the north, using heavy artillery, Russian-supplied Hind helicopter gunships and attack aircraft. More than 100,000 people have been displaced as a result of the fighting, and Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases of murders of civilians, rapes and the destruction of entire villages. The KIA has been accused of committing atrocities as well, but not nearly on the scale of the Tatmadaw. The West is no doubt aware of these abuses and has occasionally expressed its concern. But that hasn't stopped, for instance, Washington from pressing ahead with its defense outreach, including considering whether to allow Burmese military officers to train in the United States. In fact, military cooperation between Burma and the United States was quite extensive before the massacres of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988. It is important to remember that Washington saw Gen. Ne Win's 1962-88 regime as a bulwark against communist expansion in Asia. It may have called itself "socialist," but the Burma Army fought against the Chinese-supported Communist Party of Burma (CPB). In September 1966, Ne Win paid a state visit to the United States and met then US President Lyndon Johnson. At the time of that visit, China was beginning to export Maoist revolution to Southeast Asia. When President Thein Sein was received in the White House in May last year —the first such visit since 1966—another, business-oriented China was emerging, a China that wants to expand its influence over the region, dominate its markets and exploit its natural resources. Even if Beijing's agenda this time is different, the United States and China are still at opposite ends of the strategic contest in Asia. Washington wants Naypyidaw to be on its side in the new Cold War that's sweeping over Asia—and a military re-engagement with Burma should be seen in this context. It is clear that the United States has always had other, more important priorities than human rights and democracy in strategically located Burma. As early as 1957, at least two Burmese intelligence officers were sent to the Central Intelligence Agency's training facility on the US-held island of Saipan in the Pacific. One of these was Tin Oo, or "Spectacles Tin Oo," as he was known at home. After the 1962 coup, he became the de facto chief of Burma's Military Intelligence and was once considered Ne Win's heir apparent. He served as spy chief until he was ousted, charged with corruption and jailed in 1983. The other Saipan-trained Burmese officer, Lay Maung, rose to become Burma's foreign minister in the early 1980s. At the same time, a CIA-sponsored "research unit" was formed in Rangoon, and the main common enemy was of course the CPB and its Chinese backers. The United States also sent weapons to Burma to help fight the CPB, although this kind of military aid was modest and the Tatmadaw continued to depend mainly on arms produced in its own defense industries. Several Burma Army officers also received training in the United States, among them Col. Kyi Maung, who attended staff college at Fort Leavenworth in 1955-56. In 1962, Kyi Maung became a member of the Revolutionary Council set up by Ne Win, but later broke with him and became one of the founding members of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Another, Gen. Kyaw Htin, was trained at the same US facility in the early 1960s and remained loyal to the government throughout his life, as chief of staff of the Burma Army from 1976-85 and defense minister from 1976-88. The 1988 uprising changed that cosy relationship. Relations were brought to an all-time low and did not improve until the November 2010 election and, especially and significantly, after Thein Sein's government in September 2011 decided to suspend the Chinese-sponsored hydroelectric power project at Myitsone in Kachin State. That was music to Washington's ears, and in December that year the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma, followed by President Barack Obama in September 2012. Then, in May last year, the red carpet was rolled out for Thein Sein in Washington. Ravi Balaram, a US military researcher and the son of a Burma-born ethnic Indian, has already compiled a list of Burmese officers who once took part in International Military Education and Training (IMET) in the United States, and, therefore, could be seen as potentially "friendly" to Washington. Those identified by Balaram in a February 2013 paper are Nyan Tun, former commander-in-chief of the Navy and now vice president; Myint Thein, who became a defense attaché in the embassy in Washington; the commodore of the Naval Training School, Tin Aung San; the commanding general of the army ordnance department, Hla Win; a deputy defense minister and former ambassador to Japan, Aung Thaw; and Aye Pe, a member of the Lower House of Parliament. It is an open question to what extent other Western powers are also involved in this re-engagement with the Burmese military. But if history is anything to go by, Australia may play an important role as well. Australia recognized at a very early stage Burma's strategic importance. When in the 1950s it was too sensitive for the former colonial power Britain to support the then government headed by U Nu, Australia became one of Burma's most generous aid donors—and, at that time, it was the communist specter that hovered over the region. A 1953 Australian government report titled "The Strategic Basis of Australia's Defence Policy" stated that "under anti-communist regimes, Burma, Thailand and Indochina would come under the category specified as countries whose defence will assist the defence of Australia." In other words, Australia concluded that the defense of Burma was of utmost importance to its own national security, and a number of places on the Australian army's Command and Staff College were set aside for Burmese officers. In November 1953, two senior Burma Army officers, Col. Maung Maung and Lieut.-Col. Tin Soe, visited Australia and were met on their arrival in Melbourne by the Australian army's directorate of military training, the legendary Lt.-Col. F.P. "Ted" Serong. By August 1954, no less than 16 Burma Army officers were undergoing training in Australia. Serong, who was also an expert in counterinsurgency warfare and founder of Australia's Jungle Warfare Training Center at Canungra in Queensland, arrived in Rangoon in 1957 to continue his mission there. The 1962 coup brought all that to an end, but there are indications that Australia may be interested in re-establishing military-to-military relations with Burma. And, now as in the 1950s, it is the China factor that is of overriding importance. There is fertile ground to build on but, in the end, Burma may find itself in the middle of a new big-power game over which it would have little or no control. It is also plausible to assume that the West would prefer continuity and stability in Burma to any abrupt change after the 2015 general election. While Western powers continue to pay homage to the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, it is more likely that they would prefer for the next government to be more or less the same as the present one. Because, as always, regional security is more important for the West than human rights and genuine democratic development. Bertil Lintner is a journalist and author of numerous books on Burma and Asia. The post Does the West Really Want a Suu Kyi Presidency? appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
