Saturday, December 20, 2014

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine


The Shape of Things to Come

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 04:30 PM PST

Young people from Asean gathered to hear US President Barack Obama deliver a message of encouragement at a town hall-style meeting in Rangoon on Nov. 14, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

Young people from Asean gathered to hear US President Barack Obama deliver a message of encouragement at a town hall-style meeting in Rangoon on Nov. 14, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The legacy of 2014 will shape the year ahead. After many ups and downs—more downs than ups—this year, it appears likely that many of the high hopes we had for 2015 will not eventuate. This is not encouraging, but it's realistic. As usual, Myanmar people will hope for the best but be prepared for the worst—an outlook they have grown accustomed to over generations.

Next year will be crucial for Myanmar with the general election scheduled to be held later in the year. The result, if the election is held as scheduled, will determine whether Myanmar turns a new page or reverts to the status-quo.

We still can't say for sure whether the election will be free and fair. But judging by the current state of political affairs, the people of Myanmar are highly unlikely to see come to fruition what they have dreamt of for decades—a free, prosperous and democratic society.

Today Myanmar is recovering after almost 50 years under one of the world's most repressive regimes which lasted from 1962 until 2011. But it remains in old hands. President U Thein Sein is no longer a general but he was one of the highest ranking members of the former junta. Most of his cabinet members are current or former military officials. In Myanmar's new political order, the military retains its stranglehold over the executive and legislative arms of government.

The international community is convinced that Myanmar is marching toward democracy. But the majority of locals share a different view. For them, the country is travelling toward the "Burmese way to democracy," much like the "Burmese way to Socialism" that the late dictator Gen. Ne Win introduced in the 1960s.

Snr.-Gen Than Shwe, who is the architect of the current reform process, called it "discipline-flourishing democracy." President U Thein Sein, his successor, has evolved the rhetoric to suit international expectations, emphasizing the country's progression towards "democracy." What seems clear in all these conceptions is that the military retains its powerful political position.

The military-drafted, undemocratic 2008 Constitution helps safeguard the military's political preeminence. Any proposed amendments which would undermine their central role will not be achieved without a fight.

Faced with mighty resistance from the establishment, attempts by opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy groups to amend the Constitution over the past three years have been in vain. They are losing the political battle.

The main task of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 43 of 44 seats contested in 2012 by-elections, was to amend the Constitution ahead of the 2015 election. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters had hoped to amend undemocratic clauses, including article 59(f) which bars her from being president because her two sons are foreigners.

Kyaw Zwa Moe is editor (English Edition) of
the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at kyawzwa@irrawaddy.org.

These hopes now appear all but dashed. In November, lower house speaker Thura Shwe Mann, himself a former powerful military general, stated publicly that constitutional amendments would only be possible after the 2015 election.

In other words, the year 2015 won't see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi become president even if her NLD party wins by a landslide in the election. In that scenario, the opposition leader doesn't seem to have a plan B as to whom else within her party could take the lead. We haven't yet seen any qualified candidate emerge.

Opposition groups in general have never been in a position of ascendancy in this political game with the ex-junta and the current nominally-civilian government. They have all been forced to compete and cooperate within a political framework designed by successive military governments.

Quite simply, at present, the military government is as strong as ever while the opposition remains weak—having been curtailed by the government, the military and the ruling party at every turn.

That's one of the reasons for the international community's policy shifts over recent years. They are convinced that the current power holders constitute the only institutions that can change the country. Many western countries are now working to coax the three key power bases, government, military and parliaments, towards gradual change. It's not exactly an easy task.

Imagine if they can persuade the military to reform itself into a professional force, return to barracks and quit its current roles in Parliament and in the ministries. We can imagine—but clearly this is not the military's aim or intention. A basic principle of the Constitution's first chapter clearly states that the country's abiding objectives include enabling the defense services to participate in national political leadership.

Myanmar's military has never been fit to govern, but the country has had consecutive military leaders since the 1962 coup. If the military returned to the barracks, Myanmar might achieve something like normalcy. But this is unlikely to happen over the next decade.

Meanwhile, under this military-dominated leadership, attaining peace with ethnic armed groups is proving difficult. On Nov. 19, the government's troops fired on an area near the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army, killing 23 rebel cadets and injuring 20 more in northern Kachin State. Given such a hostile attack, little ameliorated by the army's subsequent apology, the peace process between the government and ethnic armed groups looks set to go nowhere in the near future. For the peace process to work, trust has to be built. At this point, many ethnic leaders do not seem to trust either the military-dominated government or the military itself which has long stifled their desires for autonomy.

President U Thein Sein, leaders of the military and house speakers recently held an unprecedented meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and a few other political leaders. But the gathering clearly wasn't the dialogue many wanted. Critics saw the meeting as a show-off exercise ahead of US President Barack Obama's second visit in November.

For people on the ground, economic reforms have delivered little so far. Former power structures remain largely intact. Military-owned companies and cronies still monopolize the most lucrative industries. Business concessions are still not transparent.

Still, we have to admit that today Myanmar has more room for all stakeholders than under the former military regime. It is something. At the same time, we know well that the reform process in 2014 no longer looks as promising as hoped. As Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said in early November, "this reform process started stalling early last year.''

Myanmar people do not expect miracles from the reform process that started in 2011. They just want to see gradual, genuine progress toward a democratic and prosperous nation. Such progress was lacking during 2014.

When the people of this country suffered from oppression for decades under the former ruthless military dictatorship, hope was kept alive by the philosophy that everything is impermanent. The unfinished struggle for a just society will carry on in 2015.

 

Kyaw Zwa Moe is the editor of the English-language edition of The Irrawaddy.

This article first appeared in the December issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

The post The Shape of Things to Come appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (Dec. 20, 2014)

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 04:00 PM PST

Labor Rights Improve in Burma but Deteriorate in Thailand: Survey

Thailand has suffered one of the world's worst declines in human rights in 2014, especially when it comes to Burmese migrant workers.

An annual survey of 198 countries by business risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft places Thailand in the top ten most "extreme risk" economies—alongside North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan and civil-war torn Ukraine.

Burma is also still ranked as an extreme risk but has made improvements and drops out of the worst top ten, the Human Rights Risk Atlas 2015 said.

"Human rights risk remains extreme [in Burma] due to working conditions that fall below regional and international standards," Verisk Maplecroft said. "Nevertheless, [Burma] has demonstrated progress in improving human rights protections. Reflecting a commitment to improve governance and address labor rights violations, the government has been working closely with the International Labour Organization to combat forced labour."

Verisk Maplecroft's separate Political Risk Atlas 2015 has meanwhile taken Burma out of the "extreme risk" category for the first time since 2008, but says that a continuing concern for foreign investors is the military control over the reform process.

The Human Rights Risk Atlas 2015 said it "attributes violations committed by state security forces against opposition groups following the May 2014 military coup as a key driver of Thailand's downgraded position."

An unverified number of legal and illegal economic migrants work in Thailand, estimated by various agencies to be between 2-4 million, and most of them are Burmese. Tens of thousands of Cambodian workers left the country after the coup, alleging harassment by the Army.

British human rights activist Andy Hall faces charges of criminal defamation in Thailand brought by fruit juice exporter Natural Fruit. He wrote a report alleging the firm commits violence against employees, enforces overtime, uses child labor and confiscates Burmese passports to prevent workers leaving.

Hall faces up to seven years imprisonment under Thai law if found guilty.

Surge in Tourist Numbers 'Poses Quality of Service Problems'

The sharp increase in the number of tourists visiting Burma may be undermining the quality of service visitors receive, an industry report said.

The Myanmar Tourism Federation has estimated that 2014 may have hit a record number of 3 million visitors.

But regional tourism industry newspaper TTR Weekly there was signs that the rapid growth in tourism is "having a negative impact on service delivery and causing prices to rise to a level that increased complaints."

Visitor numbers have surged from approximately 300,000 tourists in 2009, putting a strain on sector services, said TTR Weekly.

Tourism has become a major revenue stream, rising from US$534 million generated in the 2011-12 financial year to an expected US$905 million in this current financial year, said the paper.

"The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is drafting a tourism development plan and tourism is a priority sector in the export strategy of the Ministry of Commerce," TTR Weekly said.

Natural Gas Export Revenues Increase by 22%

National income from natural gas exports has increased by US$585 million in this financial year up to the end of November, Burma's Ministry of Commerce said.

The rise is 22 percent more than for the same period of the 2013-2014 financial year.

Total income from gas exports in the April-November period was US$2.64 billion, said Myanmar Business today quoting ministry figures.

"[Burma] exports its natural gas to neighbouring Thailand and China. Gas exports to Thailand started in 1999, and have since grown to consume 70% of the total production," the report said.

Despite the higher export sales, more gas is being funnelled into domestic use, the ministry said. This includes an increase in the number of roadside stations supplying natural gas vehicles to 45, most of them in Rangoon Division.

There are more than 27,700 registered natural gas-fuelled vehicles in the country, of which 26,835 are based in greater Rangoon, ministry figures showed.

EU Gives Burma US$860 Million to Boost Farming, Health, Education

The European Union has made a grant of 700 million euros (US$860 million) for "initiatives for the benefit of all people".

The money, to be provided in tranches up to 2020, is primarily aimed at improving lives in rural Burma as well as "peace building" processes.

"The EU wants its funding to develop rural areas and support agriculture including improving food supplies, nutrition, while also providing support for education, good governance, and the rule of law," the EU Bulletin said, quoting an unnamed Brussels official.

Brussels said Burma would receive the funding from the end of 2014 to 2020 for efforts to stabilize the country's economy and promote peace agreements between ethnic armed groups and the Burmese government.

Burmese Tourism Firm Plans Thailand Exchange Listing

A Burmese tourism industry company is reportedly planning to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

The listing, to raise funds for expansion, will be possible after new rules for the SET to provide easier access for foreign firms are introduced next February, the Bangkok Post said.

The Burmese firm, which was not named, is being advised by Bangkok-based Twin Pine Consulting, the Post said. It is expected to have a "market capitalisation of 10 billion baht (US$303 million).

"As a firm focusing on capital market development among GMS [Greater Mekong Sub-region] countries, we look for opportunities on cross border fund raising, and [Burma] is in our plan," Twin Pine's Laorpan Wangitthi told The Irrawaddy.

However, the Twin Pine declined to name any Burmese firms.

Relaxation of SET rules for foreign businesses is part of the Thai finance ministry's plans to make Thailand a regional center for fund raising, the Post said.

The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (Dec. 20, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma


Karen refugee becomes cop in US

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 11:04 PM PST

Saw Lar Htoo has become the first Karen refugee to graduate as a police officer in the United States.

Born in Burma, he fled with his family to a refugee camp along the Thai border when he was three years of age. He spent the next 15 years there.

He and his family took resettlement to the US in 2009 when they moved to St. Paul in Minnesota.

Following high school, the young Karen graduated from Hennepin County Technical College, specialising in law enforcement.

Expressing a strong desire to become a police officer, he joined the training programme at St. Paul's Police Force.

Saw Lar Htoo was all smiles at his graduation ceremony on 18 December. He will now accompany a senior officer in the field for 16 weeks before he takes on crime in Minneapolis.

The post Karen refugee becomes cop in US appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Drug protests spread to Moenyin

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 10:36 PM PST

Local residents of Moenyin in southern Kachin State took to the streets on Saturday morning to protest against local authorities who, they say, have failed to tackle serious drug problems in the area, which is rife with heroin and methamphetamine use.

The demonstration was also targeting the local ethnic people who seem to regard drugs as a pastime rather than a social evil," said Seng Naw, the information officer of the civic group that organised the event.

"Almost every household in this town suffers from some form of drug-related problem," she told DVB on Saturday. "People have turned out in numbers to protest. We can say that the local authorities have taken some action, but not enough."

Drug users in Moenyin are mostly young people, he said, but older people are also prone.

He said organisers had obtained official permission to stage the rally, and estimated that 250 locals would turn up. He said the protestors marched between two of the town's main churches.

Most of the local population in Moenyin are ethnic Shan, though Kachins are also represented.

In October, protestors also took to the streets of Banmauk in Sagaing Division, calling for official measures to tackle rampant drug problems in that region.

Last month, DVB published a controversial video documentary showing some of the shattered lives that have resulted from drug addiction in northern Shan State. *WARNING: graphic images of drug use.

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Burma listed in Top 10 for jailing journalists

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 09:41 PM PST

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified 220 journalists imprisoned around the world in 2014, a slight increase from the year before.

The Burmese government is currently ranked as the eighth most repressive regime for jailing reporters; with ten media workers listed behind bars, it is surpassed only by China, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Egypt and Syria.

“The fact that Burma is among the ten worst global jailers of journalists underscores the abrupt reversal of President Thein Sein’s earlier press freedom promises. Reporters in Burma now face the same level of threat they did under the previous military junta,” said Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for CPJ, speaking to DVB on Friday.

“With ten journalists now languishing behind bars, proponents of the country’s supposed democratic progress should wake up and take notice of the authoritarian reality that still governs the country. The use of anti-state charges to jail journalists has restored the culture of fear and self-censorship that was pervasive under the previous ruling junta.

“If Western governments based their decisions to lift or suspend sanctions on previous progress on press freedom, they should now consider reimposing those punitive measures in response to the jailing of journalists,” he added.

According to the report by the international journalists’ watchdog, on the date of the CPJ census, at least 10 journalists were imprisoned in Burma, officially known as Myanmar, all on anti-state charges.

"In July, five staff members of the Unity weekly news journal were sentenced to 10 years in prison each under the 1923 Official Secrets Act. Rather than reforming draconian and outdated security laws, President Thein Sein's government is using the laws to imprison journalists," the report by CPJ news editor Shazdeh Omari said.

The five were found guilty of exposing state secrets after a January report in Unity alleged the existence of a secret chemical weapons factory in Magwe Division, central Burma.

On 2 October, the regional court reduced the sentences of the five Unity personnel to seven years following an appeal.

In July, more than 50 journalists and their supporters were charged under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act for participating in an unauthorised demonstration where they taped their mouths and held a vigil outside the government-backed Myanmar Peace Centre in Rangoon.

The charges were later dropped.

In October, five staff members of the now defunct Bi-Mon Te Nay weekly news journal were found guilty of sedition charges and sentenced to two years each.

The five – two editors, one reporter and two publishers – were sentenced under Article 505(b) of the penal code for "defamation of the state" after the journal had published a report in July repeating an activist group's claims that Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had teamed up with several ethnic politicians to form an interim government.

The conviction of the ten Unity and Bi-Mon Te Nay journalists prompted a domestic and international outcry, with warnings that the country could be backsliding on promises of press freedom.

While major media reforms, such as the disbandment of Burma's notorious pre-publication censorship board in August 2012, caused a wave of early optimism, disputes over new regulations and an apparent targeting of reporters began to cast doubt on Naypyidaw's commitment to establishing a free media.

According to the CPJ report, 44 journalists languish behind bars in China, a jump from 32 the previous year. Almost half of those jailed are either Tibetan or Uighur.

The increased imprisonment of journalists in China "reflects the pressure that President Xi Jinping has exerted on media, lawyers, dissidents and academics to toe the government line," said CPJ. "In addition to jailing journalists, Beijing has issued restrictive new rules about what can be covered and denied visas to international journalists."

Iran is second worst offender, according to CPJ, although its record continues to improve. Thirty media workers are currently recorded in Iranian prisons, down from 35 in 2013, and a record high of 45 in 2012.

According to international watchdog Reporters Without Borders, 66 journalists were killed around the world in 2014, 15 of who were in Syria. One slain reporter was recorded in Burma – Par Gyi, who was killed by the Burmese army in September under opaque circumstances.

 

The post Burma listed in Top 10 for jailing journalists appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Manau festival will go on despite calls to cancel

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 07:20 PM PST

The chief minister of Kachin State has said the state government will continue to hold its traditional Manau festival despite calls for it to be cancelled from many in the local community.

The Myitkyina-based assembly said it plans to stage celebrations from 5 to 11 January, at the same time marking Kachin State Day.

However, more than 8,000 people have signed a petition asking the chief minister to call off the ceremony due to instability in the region as clashes continue between Burmese government forces and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO).

The state Manau Festival Committee met protesters earlier this week when they explained to them the reasons for maintaining the festivities.

According to Gum Jah Naw, a leading protestor and organiser of the petition; "The committee said they would hold the festival because they had distributed invitation letters, and invited embassy representatives and dignitaries from near and far."

The celebration of the Kachin State Day and Manau Dance Festival was not promoted by the Union Government in Naypyidaw but only by state authorities, he said.

Officials in Myitkyina were unavailable for comment.

The last time the Manau festival was held in Kachin State was in 2011. It was halted thereafter when a 17-ceasefire ended between government forces and the KIO.

The post Manau festival will go on despite calls to cancel appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Shan Herald Agency for News

Shan Herald Agency for News


တပ္မ ၇၇ မွ ႏွစ္လေက်ာ္ဖမ္းထားသည့္ နမၼတူေဒသခံ မိသားစုႏွင့္ေတြ႕ခြင့္မရေသး

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 07:57 AM PST

သၽွမ္းျပည္ေျမာက္ပိုင္း နမၼတူၿမိဳ႕နယ္ မိုင္းယင္ေက်းရြာအုပ္စု ရြာသားတဦးအား စကား ေျပာစက္ ကိုင္ေဆာင္မွုျဖင့္ႏွစ္လေက်ာ္ၾကာဖမ္းဆီးေခၚသြားရာ ယေန႔တိုင္ မိသားစုႏွင့္ ေတြ႕ခြင့္မရေသးဘူးဟု မိသားစု အသိုင္းအဝိုင္းကေျပာသည္။



ေက်ာက္မဲခရိုင္ နမၼတူၿမိဳ႕နယ္ မိုင္းယင္ေက်းရြာအုပ္စု ေကာင္းဟုန္းရြာေန စိုင္းထြမ္း အား စကားေျပာ စက္လက္ဝယ္ကိုင္ေဆာင္ထားစဥ္ ဖမ္းမိသျဖင့္  သူပုန္ဟုစြပ္စြဲေျပာဆိုကာ  တပ္မ ၇၇ က ေအာက္တိုဘာလ ၈ ရက္ သီတင္းကၽြတ္လျပည့္ေန႔၌ ဖမ္းဆီးေခၚ ေဆာင္ သြားခဲ့သည္။

စိုင္းထြမ္းအားလည္း ယေန႔တိုင္ မိသားစု ႏွင့္ေတြ႕ခြင့္မေပးေသးသည့္အျပင္ မည္သည့္ ေနရာတြင္ဖမ္းဆီးထိန္းခ်ဳပ္ထားေၾကာင္းလည္း မိသားစုက မသိရေသးေၾကာင္း ေဆြမ်ိဳးေတာ္စပ္ သူတဦးကေျပာသည္။

"က်ေနာ္တို႔လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္ဆီသြားတိုင္တယ္။ သူက ရြာသားအားလုံး လက္မွတ္ထိုး ေတာင္းဆိုဖို႔ ေျပာေတာ့ဘယ္သူမွ မထိုးရဲဘူး။ ဒါနဲ႔ဘဲ အခု ႏွစ္လေက်ာ္ေနၿပီ။ စကားေျပာ စက္က မွန္တယ္ သၽွမ္းတပ္က လာေပးသြားတာ။ စကားေျပာစက္ကိုင္တာမွားလား။ စက္ ကိုင္ထားျခင္းအားျဖင့္ ဘယ္စစ္ေၾကာင္းက ဘယ္မွာေနတယ္။ ဘယ္ကိုသြားတယ္ စသျဖင့္ သတင္းေပးရင္ တိုက္ပြဲ ျဖစ္ပြားမွု ထိပ္တိုက္ရင္ဆိုင္မွု ေတြေတာင္ ေလ်ာ့နည္းတယ္။ တိုက္ပြဲမျဖစ္ရင္ရြာသားေတြလဲေကာင္းေကာင္း သြားလာအလုပ္လုပ္ နိုင္ တယ္ေလ" - ဟု ရပ္ရြာအေရးတက္ႂကြလွုပ္ရွားသူလူငယ္ စိုင္းခမ္း ကေျပာ သည္။

စိုင္းထြမ္းသည္ သီတင္းကၽြတ္လျပည့္ေန႔  သစ္သီးဆြမ္းေတာ္ကပ္ရန္ လယ္ေတာမွ အျပန္ အဖမ္းခံရ ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

နမၼတူၿမိဳ႕နယ္ မိုင္းယင္ေက်းရြာအုပ္စု က်ားျဖဴပါတီ ဥကၠဌက "  ဒီဇင္ဘာလက ၁ ရက္ေန႔က က်ေနာ္တို႔လူ သီေပါအခ်ဳပ္ခန္းမွာ သူ႔ကိုသြားၾကည့္တယ္။ သူ႔ကို အာမခံထုတ္ဖို႔ သက္ေသေပးခ်က္က မျပည့္စုံေသးဘူးဆိုၿပီး အာဏာပိုင္ေတြဘက္က မလႊတ္ေပးေသးဘူး။ တကယ္ေတာ့ သူက အဖြဲ႕အစည္းက မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ ဝမ့္ေကာင္းဟုန္းရြာက ေဒသခံ ပေလာင္အမ်ိဳးသားပါ။" ဟု သၽွမ္းသံေတာ္ဆင့္အားေျပာပါသည္။

စိုင္းထြမ္း အသက္ ၅၄ ႏွစ္ သည္ ဇနီး နန္းဆာလူ အသက္ ၄၀ ေက်ာ္၊ သမီးႀကီး ၁၇ ႏွစ္၊ သားႀကီး ၁၂ ႏွစ္ ၊ သားငယ္မွာမူ ၁၀ လေက်ာ္သာရွိေသးသည္ဟု ရြာခံမ်ားကေျပာသည္။

နမၼတူၿမိဳ႕နယ္သည္ သၽွမ္းျပည္တိုးတက္းေရးပါတီ သၽွမ္းျပည္တပ္မေတာ္ SSPP/SSA သြားလာ လွုပ္ရွားရာ နယ္ေျမျဖစ္သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ထိုတပ္ဖြဲ႕သည္ ျမန္မာအစိုးရ ႏွင့္ ျပည္ေထာင္စု အဆင့္လက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးထားသည့္ တပ္ဖြဲ႕ျဖစ္သည္။