Saturday, January 19, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Is China Deliberately Sowing Discord over the Myitsone Dam?

Posted: 18 Jan 2019 11:24 PM PST

Kyaw Kha: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, we'll discuss Irrawaddy Myitsone, the lifeblood of Myanmar. I'm The Irrawaddy chief reporter Kyaw Kha and I'm joined by environmentalist Dr. Myint Zaw and Khon Ja of the Kachin Peace Network.

Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang recently visited Kachin State and claimed that some Kachin leaders support the Myitsone Dam project. In particular, the Chinese Embassy's statement [about the dam project] aroused controversy. How much has it impacted upon and caused concerns among the Kachin community?

Khon Ja: It has caused serious concerns. For example, Rev. Hkalam Samson [president of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC)] is one of the senior Kachin leaders. He was quoted in the [Chinese Embassy's] statement as supporting the dam project. This could seriously heighten concerns among not only the Kachin community, but also people elsewhere in Myanmar. Before the Chinese Embassy released its statement, we'd already read in The Irrawaddy about Rev. Hkalam Samson's stance on the dam project. That the Chinese Embassy has said the opposite made me very worried. Why did it issue a misstatement? It caused controversy not only among the Kachin community but also among the Bamar community. And [Bamars] were really concerned that the Kachin had approved the project. They assume that [the government's] decision about the dam project will change if the Kachin approve it, because the majority of the people residing in Myitsone are Kachin.

Kyaw Kha: Dr. Myint Zaw, could you recap the reasons that people are so bitterly opposed to the Myitsone Dam project?  

Myint Zaw: This project will decide whether The Irrawaddy River survives or dies. The river is of vital importance to the entire Myanmar population. As it played a fundamental part in the birth of the nation, the possibility of sowing the seeds of its destruction makes the whole country worried. Secondly, our country has the longest-running civil war in the world. [Construction of the dam] will only deepen the hatred and grievances between Kachin and Bamar people who reside downstream. It will only contribute to perpetuating the civil war and conflict. So, the Myanmar people strongly reject it out of consideration for the future of the Irrawaddy River and for the sake of the country's future peace.

KK: So, Daw Khon Ja, you say China has not been honest in its approach regarding the Myitsone Dam project.

KJ: That's right—China has been dishonest. When the Chinese ambassador visited Kachin State in July 2016, we presented him with printouts of statements by civil society organizations [opposing the projects]. [Leaders of] political parties including U Awng Hkam [president of the Kachin Democratic Party (KDP)] staged a demonstration in front of the hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying. But the Chinese Embassy has said the opposite about those who have publicly opposed the project. This is even more dangerous, we believe. We are worried about [China's] motives for saying this so assertively. I think it is worse than a divide-and-rule approach—I'd call it cunning. And the Chinese Embassy's statement heightened the concerns of Myitkyina locals. Now an elected government is in office. What Myitkyina residents had expected was total cancellation. But then, based on what they heard from the Chinese ambassador, they assume that the dam project has been approved. And the Myanmar government hasn't released any statement. So locals are in a fog, and this has heightened their concerns.

KK: Can you assess the negative impacts of the dam from a technical perspective?

MZ: In short, the Irrawaddy will die [if the dam is built]. This is not just an assumption; it is a conclusion based on international examples and local surveys. The Myitsone Dam will kill the Irrawaddy, and destroy the social security of millions of people who live along the river. A river flows not just to convey water, but also to preserve the balance of nature. Its ecological balance sustains the lives of the majority of farmers and fishermen in the country. The blocking of the natural flow of the river will cause huge changes in the flow of the entire river downstream. This will affect the agriculture and livestock farming of millions of people, not to mention changes in the waterway, river temperature, and erosion of riverbanks. The changes will be felt right down to the Delta. It has become clearer, according to recent international surveys, that the middle part of the river and the Delta areas will be hit hardest by the downstream impact. So it is a serious cause for concern from a technical point of view.

KK: The Chinese ambassador visited Kachin State from Dec. 28-29 and met leaders of the KBC and Kachin political parties. Before his visit, the British and U.S. ambassadors visited Kachin State. It seems that China is concerned about their visit. It seems that China doesn't want Western countries to come close to the Myanmar-China border. The Chinese ambassador reproached the leaders of the KBC and Kachin political parties regarding the visits of the ambassadors of Western countries. So, do you think Kachin State is a buffer zone in tensions between China and Western countries?

KJ: China has not provided help for displaced persons in Kachin State. There are more than 120,000 displaced persons and it is the U.K. government that has provided the most help. So, our understanding is that the British ambassador has come to review an aid program funded by his government. And USAID has provided funds regarding human rights, natural resources and the livelihoods of people across the country, including in Kachin State. China has not provided assistance in those areas. Those ambassadors do not have offices in those areas, but their aid programs are in operation there. While people are only talking about displaced persons in Rakhine State, those ambassadors came to monitor their aid programs in Kachin State. This is how we understand [their visits]. But there may be many other reasons behind their visits. At present, China seems to have total control over the formal peace process led by the government. But the U.K. and U.S. governments play no role in the process. So, we wonder if they visited Kachin State in order to adjust the balance. But it seems China will not let anyone—not only Western countries including the European Union but also international non-governmental organizations and UN agencies—affect the position it has already established. I say this because staffers of [humanitarian agencies] can't get close to the border.

MZ: As an ordinary citizen, I'd like to question the role played by China. While it says it wishes to facilitate Myanmar's peace process, what its ambassador to Myanmar has done amounts to sowing discord between the Kachin and Bamar peoples. It is not an ethical act. While the country is faced with a crisis due to the Rakhine issue, China is aggressively attempting to take advantage of it, and it is acting unethically. This is how I see it as a citizen.

KJ: [China] also sows discord between the government and the people. We have read [the Chinese side's] presentation that the economic corridor [section] of the Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] is a Myanmar government plan—that Myanmar needs it and it has to rely on China for its development and technology transfer; that the leader of the ruling party is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; that the BRI is being implemented for the development of Myanmar; and that opposing the BRI amounts to opposing the government. This seems to be an attempt to present any opposition—for example, over the Kyaukphyu [deep-sea port] or the railroad project [that will link Kunming in China's Yunnan province with Kyaukphyu]—as an act of rebellion, forcing [the Myanmar government] to take action. And [China's] action amounts to sowing discord between party chairwoman Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the people.

KK: The previous government led by U Thein Sein suspended the dam project in response to public. People want to know whether or not Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will shelve the project. What is your assessment of this? Do you think she has changed her mind, as the Chinese ambassador has suggested?

MZ: I don't think she has changed her mind, because she also opposed the project together with the people under the U Thein Sein government. Before her first visit to China, she established an investigation commission [to assess the impact of the dam project]. The commission has not yet made an official report, but my understanding is that the commission has found more disadvantages in the project [than advantages]. We assume that the disadvantages of the dam have been presented to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. And it has become clearer according to scientific surveys that the project has more disadvantages; that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a leader would think about how to terminate it rather than how to resume it.

KK: The Irrawaddy River is the lifeblood of Myanmar and is vital not only for the Kachin but also for the entire country. People won't accept the dam project, as it would kill the river. For a leader, accepting the dam would be political suicide. Don't you think the government should release a clear statement about it? Public concerns have grown as the government has kept silent about it. I think some people will take to the streets if the government stays silent.  

KJ: There are many causes for concern at present [in Myanmar], and this is one of the most serious. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in her election campaign, promised to disclose information about Myitsone. But she failed to do so after she came to power. People expect the complete cancellation of the Myitsone Dam project. People understand that Myanmar is heavily in debt, and are extremely concerned about how [the government] is addressing it behind the scenes. If there is no answer, those over the age of 18 will blame themselves [for having voted for the NLD]. Under U Thein Sein's government, everyone raised objections to the Myitsone Dam in unison. The majority of the people felt that the government was a quasi-government, and they therefore seriously opposed it. So, the people were more united [in their opposition to the dam project]. But now, there are many blind supporters of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We have seen people start to disagree over Myitsone. This is a real cause for concern. There may be individuals and organizations who would exploit the circumstances for political gain. And foreign countries would exploit the circumstances. This is a cause for concern to us.

KK: Myitsone was sold under the military regime. But the current government has to bear its legacy. What will be the consequences if [the government] tries to settle the issue discreetly, as Daw Khon Ja has said?

MZ: Due to opposition from the people and environmentalists, U Thein Sein's government suspended the dam project. In other words, his government protected our natural resources and national heritage by halting the project. The current government has a responsibility to protect our national landmark by terminating the project. We people have elected the current government. Even if it can't achieve much, we will forgive it, presumably. We will forgive it if it can't do a lot for national development, because we are used to struggling along the way. But, if it agrees to destroy the resources and landmarks of the country, its historical legacy will be a negative one. As it is an elected government, I hope it will leave behind a [good] legacy for the country.

KK: Thank you for your contributions!

The post Is China Deliberately Sowing Discord over the Myitsone Dam? appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Education System and National Reconciliation

Posted: 18 Jan 2019 06:00 PM PST

A couple of years ago, I took an IELTS test in Yangon. The test was challenging for me, as someone who grew up in an ethnic state in which there was—and still is—little access to either formal or non-formal English-language education opportunities. By the time the test had finished, it was pouring outside, and I decided to take a taxi. The driver engaged me in conversation, but after we had exchanged just a few words, he interrupted me and said, "You have an accent. Are you an ethnic minority [tineyinthar]?" Feeling indignant, I confronted him the way any non-Burman would have. This is just a minor example of what life is like on a daily basis for non-Burman ethnic people. Such discrimination extends to every aspect of life, and yet many Burmans fail to recognize it exists, let alone actively denounce it.

To examine the root causes of the above anecdote, we need to go back to education; language and religion are embedded in the education system in Myanmar, and education contributes to identity development among students.

There exist over 130 official ethnic groups across the country. Yet the language of instruction in classrooms is Burmese, spoken by the ethnic majority Burmans. The vast majority of teachers are also Burman. As children learn better in the language they speak, the education system clearly favors ethnic Burman students, starting from kindergarten. During one of my monitoring trips to one of the northernmost townships, in which children don't hear or speak Burmese every day, I was told that a group of schoolchildren ran away from their school and homes after being disciplined and charged 200 kyats whenever they were caught speaking their own language at school. Usually, non-Burman ethnic children in rural areas do not speak Burmese well until they are in middle school. This is just one example of many showing that imposing the Burmese language on them can, even if unintentionally, result in animosity toward the Burmese language and Burmans as a whole. In the worst-case scenario, such enforcement may also be viewed as forced linguistic assimilation.

Religion is another lingering factor when it comes to education and national identity. To discuss one example, many people born in the 1980s and early '90s will remember memorizing the lesson Two Parrot Brothers [Kyay Nyi Naung] among their other primary school lessons. In the story, two parrot brothers caught in a storm end up in the hands of different people: a thief and a hermit. The moral lesson is beautiful and sincere, but it is worth asking why moral lessons derived from stories from other ethnic groups and religious communities are not found in the school curriculum. The Two Parrot Brothers asserts the moral legitimacy of Buddhism; thus, it may also imply the illegitimacy of other religions in the country, framing students' perspectives from a young age through a Buddhist Burman worldview.

In their study Language, Education and the Peace Process in Myanmar, South and Lall (2016) note that the curriculum is used as a "political tool to shape identities", and that "in fact, many young Bamar think that in order to become a citizen of Myanmar (Burmese), you have to be a Buddhist." This is sad and alarming, and it shows how fertile the ground is for religious and ethnic conflicts. The Rohingya issue serves as a glaring example of what happens when such notions are embedded in the curriculum. Islam is not the only religion that—if not today—may potentially be viewed as a threat to "Myanmar identity or citizenship" in the future. For example, Denis D. Gray wrote in a news report for The Associated Press on March 16, 2018 that Kachin State, where the Kachin community is over 90 percent Christian, has one of the most dense distributions of Buddhist pagodas in Myanmar. Similarly, Chin State, 90% of whose native population believe in Christianity, is also facing "state-sponsored" pressure to abandon the religion.

When it comes to social issues such as education and poverty, one of the most clichéd responses from ethnic Burmans is that they too are suffering and being denied their rights, just as other minority groups are. This the most obvious form one encounters of the denial of the institutionalized discrimination non-Burmans have been experiencing since independence from the British in 1948.

When generating a solution to a problem, the key is to recognize the problem as it is. While ethnic minorities fear the loss of their cultural, linguistic and religious identities, which are under serious threat from Burmese culture, language and Buddhism expansion, Burmans have never, since independence, experienced such fear. For non-Burmans, it is a matter of cultural and linguistic survival. It is undeniable that Burmans are also fighting against oppression and all kinds of political injustices in Burman-dominated areas. However, while Burmans are struggling for greater political justice, non-Burmans are struggling for survival—survival versus greater political justice. In other words, while ethnic minorities lack and demand basic rights as citizens of Myanmar, Burmans, whose culture, language, and religion are dominating others, have paid little attention to the cries of the ethnic minorities, whose rights have been constantly denied by the government and neglected by the Burmans.

It is worth noting that it is because of the non-Burman ethnic people that the Union was founded in the first place. Often, Burmans understand little about "the realities experienced by their ethnic minority brethren" (South and Lall, 2016). Thus, it may be unwise for Burmans to oversimplify non-Burmans' struggle for survival.

In brief, the identities, languages and religious beliefs of non-Burman ethnic groups are subjected to serious challenges and threats every day. Through public education and the enforced expansion of Buddhism into ethnic areas, Burmans are being conditioned to devalue the existence, rights and legitimacy of ethnic minorities. With such Burman values imposed on ethnic minority groups, and until the Burman-dominated education system is reformed to recognize the existence of other ethnic groups' existence, rights and legitimacy, national reconciliation will be next to impossible. If true national reconciliation is to be achieved, the necessary first step is for educated Burmans to recognize the lived experiences of ethnic minorities and to proactively start to speak out against those injustices stated above. This may serve as a first step toward discovering a "silver bullet" for resolving national reconciliation issues.

Kyaw Htut Aung is a pseudonym for a Kachin analyst doing his master's degree in education abroad. He has worked as a volunteer in the educational field in remote areas of Shan and Kachin states.

The post The Education System and National Reconciliation appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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