Friday, April 5, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Myitsone—Decision Time for the ‘People’s Leader’

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 07:10 AM PDT

Myitsone Dam—just another damned problem for Myanmar. Or is it? This issue in particular seems to have both constructive and destructive potential; politically, it could save or slay a leader of this country.

Former President U Thein Sein—who, as a general of the former oppressive junta came to power with only limited public support in 2011—saw that support grow when he suspended the Myitsone project in September of that year. The former general cleverly chose that path, though his bosses in the ex-regime had agreed with China on the project in 2006 and started it in late 2009. Myitsone saved his political popularity.

Eight years later, this controversial issue inescapably confronts the country's popular de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. It is her turn. The question is whether the Myitsone project will save or slay her politically.

If she saves Myitsone, it seems, Myitsone will save her.

Even now, as she prepares to travel to Beijing this month to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum, people have no clue as to what she has in mind for the project. During her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping there, the Myitsone issue will be high on their agenda, for it's one of the most controversial Chinese-backed projects in Myanmar. Obviously, many people from all walks of life across the country have very strong feelings on the issue, and want to know whether Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her government plan to revive the suspended project, the initial agreement on which was signed with China's State Power Investment Corporation.

On April 1, about 200 prominent environmentalists, intellectuals, civil society leaders and experienced writers from different regions of the country held a meeting in Yangon. They formed the Committee to Terminate the Myitsone Project and issued a strong statement urging the government to scrap it. In a statement, they warned that reviving the project would disrupt the country's ongoing democratic transition and hinder national reconciliation.

The Myitsone Dam project would be among the largest hydropower projects in the region, costing US$3.6 billion (5.4 trillion kyats). The dam itself, which would be built about 3.2 km south of where the confluence of the May Kha and Mali Kha rivers gives rise to the Irrawaddy River, would disrupt the water flow of the river. Environmentalists say the proposed dam site has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, and fear the project would destroy the natural beauty of the Irrawaddy River, as well as alter its flow. It could potentially flood an area the size of Singapore, destroying livelihoods and displacing more than 10,000 people.

For some time, the majority of people in Myanmar had been under the impression that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would not revive the project, given the opaque nature of the deal signed by the military regime with China. She certainly sounded critical of the project before her National League for Democracy took office in 2016.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi attends 71st Kachin State Day ceremony in Myitkyina, the state capital, on Jan. 10, 2019. / State Counselor's Office / Facebook

On Aug. 11, 2011, she published an open letter to then-President U Thein Sein appealing to him to review the project in order to avoid unnecessary consequences and to find a joint solution that could allay the concerns of people who want to save the Irrawaddy River. Her letter may have influenced his decision to suspend the project when he officially announced the move a month later.

Today, however, the public is getting mixed signals from their leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. It was this ambiguous messaging that prompted the formation of the committee to prepare resistance against the project in case her ruling government decides to revive it.

In a meeting with local people in Bago Region in March, when asked for her opinion on the proposed dam, she answered, "I would like you to think about it from a wider perspective." She went on to say that the final decision would have to be politically, socially, economically and environmentally sound and sustainable.

This sounds reasonable and pragmatic, but what she should understand is that the Myitsone project goes beyond those boundaries. Besides political, social, economic and environmental factors, Myitsone is also a sentimental and national issue for the majority of people across the country. Building a mega dam near the source of Myanmar's lifeline Irrawaddy River would destroy one of the country's national symbols.

In January, U Thaung Tun, the Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations and a key economic aide to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, said the government and a commission studying the project were in very serious discussions and considering all possibilities, including downsizing the dam, relocating it or developing other projects instead.

But many people don't seem inclined to accept any alternative to the Myitsone project other than terminating it. Apart from the factors mentioned above, they have no confidence in China at all. Many people, including critics of the Myitsone project, may be willing to tolerate other Chinese projects across the country, but they simply say "NO" to Myitsone.

Meanwhile, the NLD government—which is already engulfed in such crucial issues as the peace process; ongoing conflicts in border areas; the fallout from the Rohingya crisis of 2017 including the resultant international condemnation and economic slowdown; and intensifying clashes between the Arakan Army and government troops in Rakhine State, among other problems—faces the dilemma of reviving the dam or saying no to China, which has shielded the government from some of the consequences of the international condemnation over human-rights violations by the Army.

What Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should understand is that the Myitsone issue is categorically different from other issues. She can't only consider practical factors involving political, social, economic and environmental issues. She must also take into serious consideration less material concerns and the Myanmar people's emotional attachment to the Irrawaddy River.

Given the mounting popular opposition to the dam project, any green light for its resumption would be political suicide for the Myanmar State Counselor. With a general election looming next year, it would surely be an electoral nightmare for the NLD. Perhaps worst of all for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she would be putting at risk her status as the "People's Leader" of Myanmar—a title unanimously endorsed by the people.

The post Myitsone—Decision Time for the 'People's Leader' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

George Orwell and the Modern Yangon INGO Worker

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 04:16 AM PDT

Recently I ran across a Western diplomat, this one from an embassy in Southeast Asia.  I dream of having intellectual conversations with such people.  After all they hold the levers of governmental power, particularly the big aid budgets in Myanmar, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the conversations are usually one sided.  Usually, I get an earful of talking points generated by a distant capital (think London, Washington, New York and Geneva) which shows that they are "up to date"—even ahead of The New York Times, which it seems is their main source of news and analysis. Usually they are prophesying something big, like:

(A) Peace around the corner!

(B) War around the corner!

(C) Refugees going home!

(D) Something in-between!

(E) An early ticket out of Myanmar to a new posting!

Then I ask my fictional diplomat how this fits with the authors my graduate students in the PhD program in Peacebuilding in Thailand might read. I usually get a blank look. Then it is my turn for the monologue—this one about the great English-language literature about Myanmar.  I ask them if they have read Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's essays about fear, Edmund Leach on the traditional politics of the Kachin and Shan, or perhaps U Thant Myint-U's histories? Others include James C. Scott's book on the political ecology of Southeast Asia, Mandy Sadan on the Kachin, Charmaine Craig's novel Miss Burma, and Ashley South's books on Burmese and Mon politics.

And then I add, but only to myself, that if the embassy folk spent more time reading books, and less time talking, they might make fewer mistakes, and have time to read even more!

And I imagine they dismiss my monologue, with the bureaucrats' favorite rejoinder: "That's all old stuff, and I only have time to read that which is up-to-date." Followed by, "We're too busy to read anything longer than a couple of pages, because well, I'm solving stuff!  I don't read anything longer than an op-ed piece in The Irrawaddy, and certainly not a book!"

And thus power speaks truth to academia. And academia speaks truth to power. Really it is just a lot of noise.

This is of course too bad.  Besides having intractable problems, Burma/Myanmar has one of the most extensive English literatures—much of which can be found Saturday mornings along Pansodan Street, where cheap knock-offs of most books having to do with Burma are readily available. This is alongside a large selection of Burmese-language books, and not too much further afield, an established literature in Karen, Shan, Kachin and other languages. The street itself is one of the best English-language bookstores I've seen in Southeast Asia! This is not surprising, since one of the English language's greatest writers, George Orwell, himself got his start in colonial Burma, with essays like "Shooting an Elephant" and "A Hanging", both stories of the morose nature of colonialism. Most infamously, his first novel, Burmese Days, is an indictment of the pitfalls of foreign meddling on the colonizer and colonized alike.

The Problem of the $52,200 Yangon Salary

So what is my fictional embassy worker actually doing all day that keeps them away from books? This was in part answered by an anonymous 25-year-old "program coordinator" from Yangon who sent in her weekly budget to the Refinery 29 website. She let us in on some of the secrets for why a Yangon-based non-profit manager is so busy. Indeed, on a $52,200 annual salary ($48,000 take home) she manages to only save about $4,000. Guess what? It wasn't because she spent too much on Book Street, or at the airport bookstore. Reading material did not make it into her budget. (Nor was there an item on "Burmese language lessons.")

Rather, she apparently spent some $48,000 per year in a swirl of expatriate-focused social activity, at the center of which was expensive weekends on Singapore visa runs, accompanied by a constant consumption of food, coffee, theater and alcohol.  All this somehow includes Mexican food, but not Burmese food. At least this was the case during the week she reported on. The biggest expense was food and "drink" on the weekend trip to Singapore after a flurry of activity in Yangon which, so far as I can tell, involved little contact with actual Burmese except at a performance of "Vagina Monologues," while professionally focused on the bureaucratic requirements for accountability, measurable outcomes and transparency as reported to a nameless overseas headquarters. All presumably in the name of the rule of law, good management and civilization.

The John Flory Problem and Yangon's Modern Program Coordinators

This is actually an old story, told best perhaps by Orwell himself, who wrote about the earlier breed of foreign program coordinator. Orwell's program coordinator was a colonial police officer for the British Empire.  The protagonist of Burmese Days, John Flory, also idealistically sought to bring the rule of law, good management and civilization on behalf of his superiors in Delhi and London. Flory though, like our 25-year-old program coordinator, engages in a flurry of activity with other expatriates—in his case the denizens of the European Club.  There he makes friends and enemies, and whiles his days away in bouts of lust and alcoholism.  Like Orwell himself, Flory picks up a bit of the local languages, and unlike our more modern program coordinator, ends up in a relationship thoroughly disapproved of by his European friends, and looked at with skepticism by the local Burmese. And of course it ends badly for Flory. The girl betrays him, and he ends up committing suicide. Just another cost of empire.

As for Orwell himself, of course, this was not his personal fate. He actually quit Burma by age 25 and returned to England to pursue his dream of being a writer by wandering the streets of London and Paris. In this task he of course succeeded admirably, after penning Burmese Days which enlightened us with Flory's tyranny. This was followed by his condemnation of authoritarianism, Animal Farm, and his dystopian novel about the all-seeing totalitarian state, 1984. The joke today of course is that Orwell was describing not only the tyranny of British colonialism, but also the authoritarianism of the Ne Win regime, and the totalitarianism of the 1990s SLORC regime and its successors. This is why Emma Larkin, the author of Finding George Orwell in Burma, could assert plausibly that older Burmese referred to Orwell as "The Prophet."

All this leads me to wonder what Orwell would write about our non-profit worker? She is not tyrant, authoritarian or totalitarian. But what is she? Does she read anything longer than a memo, or op-ed piece in The Irrawaddy? What would Orwell write?

Reading and the Aid Industry

So why are $52,200 program coordinators too busy to read Orwell? Why don't they buy the books found on Book Street? Orwell presumably whiled his way reading such books before quitting the colonial enterprise. Perhaps his superiors thought he was a lousy program coordinator for doing so, but I doubt that they even noticed—after all he quit his police career on his own volition. But just like Flory, our Refinery 29 program coordinator wrestles with the alcohol infused world of the modern expatriate clubs, seeking to please a boss who will perhaps send her back to HQ in London, or wherever. She is after all dealing with those problems—urgent problems which their bosses in London, Geneva and New York read about in The New York Times! Think about it: In Yangon in just the last couple of years there was the election victory of the NLD, NCA ceasefire, violations of the NCA ceasefire, ARSA came and went, 700,000 or so Rohingya were expelled, and now there is the emergence of the Arakan Army. Not to mention the accusations against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the "ignoble Peace Laureate" by The New Yorker.  All problems that were urgent and needed to be addressed! With war, peace, refugees, who has time for old books?

But none of these problems were "solved" with ideas from The New York Times, The New Yorker, the expatriate program coordinators whiling away time in Yangon and Singapore bars. The Rohingya still sit in Cox's Bazaar, the NCA still sputters along, Rakhine is again in revolt, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi regained at least some of her nobility in the eyes of the Western press. Who then is a better prophet—800 word essays in The New York Times, or the 50,000 or 60,000 words in books published in the 1930s and 1940s?

I am biased of course; I prefer books, including my own long and windy books. Still in my professorial academic view, answers to the questions raised and abandoned by powerful embassy workers, op-ed writers, and program coordinators are in fact found between the pages of books, including old ones like those of Orwell, written as a complete academic argument, whether or not it agrees with the policy wishes of your Yangon boss, or in a distant European or American capital consuming op-ed from abroad.

Tony Waters is Director of the Institute of Religion, Culture and Peace at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has been writing about the nature of refugees and development work in Southeast Asia and Africa for many years. He is also Professor of Sociology (on leave) from California State University, Chico.

The post George Orwell and the Modern Yangon INGO Worker appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bangladesh Considers Reopening River Naf to Fishing

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 04:02 AM PDT

DHAKA—Despite concerns that it could trigger a surge in drug smuggling, the Bangladesh government is considering allowing the resumption of fishing on the River Naf in Cox's Bazar. Fishing has been suspended since an influx into the country of Rohingya fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar that began in August 2017.

Cox's Bazar deputy commissioner Kamal Hossain informed the Bangladesh Home Ministry that the situation regarding fishing on the River Naf was under review and that a decision would be made soon.

The district deputy commissioner will ultimately make the decision on behalf of the government in consultation with the Home Ministry.

"[Fishing] has been suspended since the August 2017 incident…now we are in discussions to resume it," the deputy commissioner said on Thursday afternoon.

A meeting was held at the Border Guards Bangladesh headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday in the presence of Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan but no decision was made, the official said.

Ali Johor, the leader of a group of fishermen in Shah Parir Dwip in Teknaf sub-district of Cox's Bazar, told The Irrawaddy that the fishermen and their families who are dependent on the river had suffered extreme hardship in the 20 months since the ban was imposed.

"Many of us now are working in the salt fields for our livelihoods," said Johor. He suggested the government allow fishing at particular times during daylight hours along with BGB checks of the fishing catch.

He claimed none of his fellow fishermen from the Jelepara or Campara areas of Shah Parir Dwip were found to be involved in drug smuggling, but they were suffering the most from the suspension.

Fazlul Haque, an elected representative of the Sabrang union council in Teknaf, told The Irrawaddy that over 600 families who were directly dependent on the river were facing hardship. One of them committed suicide last week due to having been impoverished by the ban, he said.

He said suspension of fishing was basically meant to stop drug smuggling from another bank of the river in Myanmar.

"But," he said, "if [the fishermen] do not have an alternative option for their livelihood, they could get involved with criminal activities just for their survival. Otherwise, they will need rehabilitation; as you know there are hardly any job opportunities in the border area."

The BGB commander in Teknaf, Lieutenant Colonel Mustafizur Rahman, predicted that as soon as fishing resumed, there would be a surge of yaba smuggling into Bangladesh.

He also said it would be difficult for them to monitor thousands of fishing boats.

"In the past, the fishermen were given particular times, but they did not follow it," Mustafizur said.

Despite the suspension of fishing, yaba—small tablets containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine—continue to be smuggled across the Bangladeshi border from Myanmar and more recently from India.

On Friday, the BGB team seized 150,000 yaba tablets from a canal in Tamru of Ukhia sub-district in Cox's Bazar.

The Bangladesh government has started registration of the fishing boats so that it can monitor any criminal activities or more easily rescue any fishing boat or trawler that is in danger.

Regarding the registration of fishing boats, the Home Ministry was informed that 67,669 motorized and non-motorized boats were in action along the coastal belt as of April 3.

According to the Shipping Ministry, more than half of the fishing boats and trawlers were registered by 2018.

The post Bangladesh Considers Reopening River Naf to Fishing appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Tourism to Korea Shows Steady Increase

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 03:56 AM PDT

SEOUL & YANGON—With "Korean Wave" popular culture attracting an ever-greater following in Myanmar, from drama to K-pop, the number of Myanmar tourists visiting South Korea continues to grow.

According to data from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the number of Myanmar tourists visiting Korea has risen every year since 2015. A total of 71, 094 Myanmar tourists visited from January to November last year, an increase of 21 percent compared to all of 2015.

Oh Choongsub, a director at KTO, said that given the increasing number of visitors, Myanmar is likely to be the next main target for Korea's tourism industry, which is already concentrating on attracting more visitors from Asian countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, targeting them with heavy promotions and advertisements.

"Myanmar will be our next target," he said.

He added that while the Korean Wave, or "Hallyu", pop culture phenomenon had resulted in the spread of Korean culture, fashion, cafes and general interest in the country, the trend of peace on the Korean peninsula was also helping to attract foreign tourists.

Ko Naung Naung Han, the secretary general of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association, who is also the managing director of Radiant Tours, an inbound/outbound travel company, said the popularity of Korean dramas and movies has made the country a dream destination among Myanmar travelers.

With direct flights now operating between the two countries and visas more easily obtained than before, more and more tour agencies are arranging trips to Korea, he said.

"Before, visa applications were often rejected due to concerns about people overstaying their visas or working on a tourist visa. Recently, the embassy has approved more visas for travelers and travel agencies, as they now have direct flights," he said.

Outbound tourism is booming in Myanmar, with more than 500 tour agencies now offering guided trips to the country. Myanmar people are mostly traveling to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Bodh Gaya in India, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Jordan, South Korea, the U.S. and Europe, state media reported recently.

"There [is] a lot of interest from Myanmar to Korea and also from Korea to Myanmar," said Oh, the KTO director.

According to KTO data, 42,535 Korean Tourists visited Myanmar from January to August 2018.

Oh urged tourism authorities to emulate Myanmar's neighbors and boost marketing efforts to attract more visitors to the country.

"These days, especially for the Korea market, Japan, China, Indonesia, especially Taiwan [are] very eager to attract Korea tourists," he said. He added that some countries advertise themselves by making films starring Korean celebrities or sponsoring TV programs to shoot on locations there.

He suggested Myanmar needed to do more to promote its own image.

"Tourism is not one-sided. It is two-sided communication. That's why to a certain extent, to Myanmar, to Korea, we should increase more tourists. So that we can have a chance to understand each other's culture."

The post Myanmar Tourism to Korea Shows Steady Increase appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Kachin Activist Vows to Keep Up Work Upon Release From Prison

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 03:27 AM PDT

YANGON — Kachin peace advocate Nang Pu was released from prison on Friday after serving four months for defaming the Myanmar military.

"I am not happy because I was released alone and not with the others," said Nang Pu, director of the Htoi Gender and Development Foundation and founder of the Kachin State Women's Network.

Two of her colleagues are still serving their six-month sentences.

The Myitkyina Township court sentenced all three — Nang Pu, lawyer Lum Zawng, and Zau Jat of the Kachin National Social Development Association — to six months and fines of 500,000 kyats ($333) on Dec. 7.

And although they all appealed to the Kachin State court, the judge approved only Nang Pu's application and reduced her sentence by two months on Mar. 29.

Lt. Col. Myo Min Oo of the military's Northern Command filed criminal defamation complaints against the trio under Article 500 of the Penal Code on May 8 for their participation in protests a month earlier. The protests were held in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, to urge the government to help more than 3,000 locals trapped in the Tanai area of the state who had fled fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the military. The fighting displaced more than 6,000 villagers in all in Tanai, about half of whom were able to reach shelters in urban areas.

Nang Pu told The Irrawaddy that her health deteriorated severely in prison.

"I feel sorry for my colleagues and I will continue working for their release," she said.

She added that Myanmar's judicial system needed to be reformed for the country to achieve peace and to help build a democratic state.

"We have done nothing wrong. These charges should not have been filed in the first place, but they did it and sent us to prison," she said.

The three were recognized by the Kachin community both in the state and in exile in February for their commitment to supporting the Kachin and their efforts to promote justice and human rights.

The Myitkyina News Journal also honored them with its MNJ Award last month for their commitment to community service.

In February, Nang Pu herself was honored with the 2019 Schuman Award along with two other human rights advocates from Myanmar for "helping some of the most marginalized members of the conflict-affected communities in Kachin State."

The U.S. Embassy honored her with its annual Women of Change award last month.

Nang Pu said she would continue her work on gender equality and female participation in the peace process and to support displaced women.

The post Kachin Activist Vows to Keep Up Work Upon Release From Prison appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Workers Bound for Malaysia Stuck With Stifling Fees

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 02:37 AM PDT

YANGON — Outside a drab concrete compound in central Yangon, a short walk from the looming gold spire of Shwedagon Pagoda, dozens of young men and women huddle in the shade waiting their turn.

They have all come to the One Stop Center (OSC), the private business Kuala Lumpur has hired to process the visa applications of the thousands across Myanmar who come here each month with dreams of turning their lives around in Malaysia’s booming factories, construction sites and stately homes. Well over 100,000 of them are in Malaysia already.

But getting there is not cheap. And since Malaysia outsourced the visa process to a handful of homegrown companies and their partners abroad a few years ago, it has gotten far more expensive.

Visa applications that used to cost $6 are now nearly 10 times that much. A health check that once cost $10 to $20 now costs $56.

The new fees come on top of the hundreds of dollars the workers pay employment agencies to find them the jobs. As few can afford it all, most take on crippling loans that drive them into debt bondage and what labor rights groups call a prime example of modern-day slavery.

Outraged by the new fees, Nepal abruptly banned its workers from going to Malaysia in mid-2018. Within months, Malaysia signed a new deal with Nepal promising that the employers in Malaysia would cover the fees and all other recruitment costs, though the details are still being worked out. In September, Malaysia itself banned migrant workers from Bangladesh following media reports that a handful of firms had monopolized the system and raised prices.

In December, Malaysia’s human resources minister, M. Kulasegaran, told The Star, a local paper, that his government was negotiating similar deals to the one it struck with Nepal with Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The minister made no mention of Myanmar, which sends far more workers to Malaysia than Vietnam and where the same few Malaysian companies hired to run the country’s visa process continue to funnel cheap labor through the pipeline at the workers' expense.

The company at Myanmar’s end of that pipeline, Diamond Palace, is run by a former Myanmar Army officer, U Thein Than, who cornered the market just before the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party was swept from power in the 2015 general election. The company’s own employment agency is currently barred from sending migrant workers abroad because it was overcharging them.

Andy Hall, a migrant worker rights specialist in Southeast Asia, said the “syndicate” of companies has created a “systemic situation of debt bondage for the workers, who take out high interest loans or have to mortgage and sell their land.”

Once in Malaysia, he said, the workers usually have their passports confiscated and find it nearly impossible to leave abusive conditions, “thus creating a situation of systemic forced labor.”

Hall said the hundreds of dollars Malaysian employment agents charge their counterparts abroad to pass on job opportunities — and often partly kick back to the employers offering them — has plagued the system for years. The new fees the works now have to pay, he continued, “only further add [to] the costs borne by them.”

Pay to play

Malaysia has long leaned on an army of millions of migrant workers to fuel its economy. As of January, about 114,000 of them were from Myanmar, a near tie with India, according to Malaysia’s Immigration Department. Only Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh send more. Vietnam is a distant eighth with about 20,000 workers in the country.

But the real numbers are likely far higher given the many migrants believed to be working in Malaysia illegally. In 2017 Myanmar’s Labor Ministry said more than 420,000 nationals were working in Malaysia.

Among those hoping to join them and waiting outside the Yangon OSC one recent morning was Aung Khan, ashy 21-year-old ethnic Shan with a wisp of a beard and an A.C. Milan football jersey paired with his longyi.

“There are no jobs in Shan State,” he said. “I’m going [to Malaysia] to make money.”

Most of Myanmar’s migrant workers head for Thailand, a relatively easy trip across the border. The agent and visa fees are lower and the bureaucracy simpler. Those like Aung Khan with their eyes set on Malaysia put up with the added costs and paperwork for the promise of higher wages.

He was waiting for his agent to arrive and usher him into the OSC, where he will queue up at a series of windows to file his visa application forms and pay the prescribed fees while a TV plies him with a loop of gilded scenes of Malaysia more akin to a tourism spot than a job ad.

Before the OSC opened in December 2015, migrant workers headed for Malaysia paid only $6 for a visa at the Malaysian Embassy just around the corner. The OSC has forced them to pay much more. Now, besides the visa fee, they also have to pay a $25 service fee, a $26 system fee and a $26 immigration security clearance (ISC) fee.

The Once Stop Center lists some of its fees on a signboard outside its compound in Yangon on Monday. / Zsombor Peter / The Irrawaddy

Employment agencies say the $56 workers must now pay for pre-departure health checks, which include blood and urine tests, is also far higher than before. And while the workers used to have their pick of clinics across Myanmar, they now have to choose from one of only four approved by Bestinet — the Malaysian company the government of Malaysia hired to screen all prospective foreign workers for health problems before they arrive — all of them in Yangon.

The new fees, unique to Malaysia, have added painfully to the hundreds of dollars the workers were already paying employment agencies to land them jobs in Malaysia. The agencies say they can legally charge Malaysia-bound workers up to $850, and that about half of it goes to employment agencies in Malaysia for the “demand letters” they need from employers to place the workers in those jobs.

The agencies said their counterparts in Malaysia also insist on being paid through the “hundi” system, an informal, centuries-old practice of moving money across borders based on personal relationships that operates in a legal gray area. It keeps the payments beyond the reach, and out of sight, of either government.

“If you do not pay the money, you do not get the demand letter,” said the head of one employment agency in Yangon, who asked to remain anonymous for fear his business might suffer for speaking out.

Aung Khan said his parents had to take out a loan to pay for it all. They have already paid his agent 500,000 kyats ($329) and expected to pay him much more by the time they were done.

“I am sad they had to go into debt,” he said.

The $850 agencies can charge is well over half the per capita gross national income in Myanmar, and far more for the roughly one in three who live in poverty, whose ranks disproportionately make up those seeking work abroad.

When migrant workers and their families take on those levels of debt, the workers “almost definitely” end up falling into debt bondage, said Adrian Pereira, executive director of the North South Initiative, a non-government rights group based in Malaysia.

He said the risks were especially high when the employers take on the workers’ debts themselves and use their wages to pay themselves back.

In the most extreme cases, Pereira said, workers have been held for ransom to force their families to pay the lenders back.

Even when the employers do not take on the debt themselves, they have often had to pay the agencies to find the workers, he added, “so they don’t let go of the workers very easily” and make it almost impossible to leave the job.

Money for 'nothing'

Critics of the new fees say they amount to little more than a cash grab by the companies that landed the government contracts to run the system.

In 2017, Stephen Sim, a then-opposition lawmaker in Malaysia whose party is now part of the ruling coalition, told Al Jazeera’s "101 East" current affairs program that the companies were getting paid for mere “paper shifting.”

Employment agencies in Myanmar see no good reason for the new fees, either.

“It’s not necessary; it’s just a money-making process,” said the head of another Yangon employment agency, who also asked to remain anonymous. “The OSC takes the money for doing nothing.”

“This is very expensive for the worker. Those machines are not the very high technology,” he said of the equipment the OSC and clinics use, taking particular exception to the new health check fees. “The $56 is just to register your name, to send to the Malaysia side. They send to the Bestinet company. $56 is only for that.”

U Kyaw Htin Kyaw, a spokesman for the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF) and a member of its executive committee, said the agencies add the new fees to each worker’s final bill but make no money off the added costs themselves.

“All this money we put on the worker’s head, so the worker pays more,” he said, “So who will get the problem? The workers get the problem only.”

MOEAF spokesman and executive committee member U Kyaw Htin Kyaw speaks with a reporter at his office in Yangon on March 26. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

U Kyaw Htin Kyaw also said that the OSC, which quotes its fees in U.S. dollars, only accepts kyats but inflates the going exchange rate by 10 to 20 kyats on the dollar to further boost its profits.

“He is like a crocodile,” he said of the Diamond Palace boss. “His mouth is always open.”

Diamond Palace’s own on-site money change counter quotes the center’s rate for each day. On a recent morning that Diamond Palace was selling U.S. dollars for 1,524 kyats at the OSC, a popular money change counter downtown was selling for 1,512 kyats. The Central Bank of Myanmar’s reference exchange rate for the dollar that day was 1,514.9 kyats.

When the OSC opened, the MOEAF implored the Labor Ministry to shut it down, to no avail.

“At that time we rejected OSC; we did not want OSC,” U Kyaw Htin Kyaw said. “We wanted to strike in front of the office, but the government did not allow.”

Since December, when Reuters reported that some migrant workers in Malaysia were clocking long hours past the legal overtime limit at factories for Top Glove, the world’s largest glovemaker, to clear their debts, a few agencies in Myanmar have been advertising jobs in Malaysia with employers willing to cover all fees.

But U Kyaw Htin Kyaw, who runs an agency himself, said those employers remain the exception to the rule.

The men and women The Irrawaddy spoke with outside the OSC all said the fees were still on them, and all but one said they were going deep into debt to pay them.

Ko Kyaw Swe Oo, 34, from Irrawaddy Region, said he borrowed 300,000 kyats ($197) at 7 percent interest from a local moneylender to pay his agent and was told he would have to pay another 700,000 kyats ($461) soon.

“Farming is not good in my village and I can’t make as much money as before,” he said, complaining that the price of fertilizer was on the rise but his revenues were not.

He said his brother was already working in Malaysia and told him the pay was good. He was hoping to land a construction job in Kuala Lumpur but worried about what might happen if he fails, or if he ends up earning less than he expects.

“I’m worried that if I don’t get the job, or if I don’t earn enough money, I will stay in debt,” he said.

Blacklisted

Employment agencies in Myanmar blame the Yangon-based firm co-managing the OSC, Diamond Palace, for the new fees at least as much as the companies running the labor pipeline from Kuala Lumpur.

On its website, the Diamond Palace Group of Companies presents itself as a sprawling conglomerate with its hands in everything from military training to hotel management and road construction, an international trader of anything from beans to diesel, and a miner of tin, tungsten and lead. It calls itself a “pioneer in the IT field of biometric identification” and offers a weapons-tracking system that promises to reduce workloads with “zero error.”

Diamond Palace Services, a subsidiary, says it has been an exclusive service provider to Myanmar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry since 2013, running visa and consular services for the country’s embassies in China, France, Italy, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. It says it has been operating the OSC in Yangon since 2015 with its Malaysian partner, Bukti Megah.

But for all its online boasting and highbrow tech talk, the website could use an update.

The company address it provides is an empty, overgrown yard — the property owner, who runs a hotel next door, says it has been vacant for years. Multiple calls to two listed phone numbers were never answered. A message sent to its listed email account was kicked back with an “address not found” error.

Staff at the OSC reluctantly directed The Irrawaddy to an unmarked office down a dim, dusty hallway in a shabby old building near the southeast end of Inya Lake. Inside, the few staff on hand confirmed that the sparse rooms were the national headquarters of Diamond Palace. They provided a phone number for the OSC’s general manager, Daw Thu Zar Mon, who said Diamond Palace would not be answering any questions and ignored all further messages.

U Myint Thu, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry “terminated cooperation” with Diamond Palace in December and that its duties at the embassies were transferred back to embassy staff. He declined to say why or to comment further about the company.

“No more questions,” he said.

The Labor Ministry’s Migrant Workers Division declined to answer any questions at all. Asked for an interview to discuss concerns that the thousands of Myanmar nationals working in or headed for Malaysia were being exploited, the division said it had “other important matters” to tend to.

But government documents reveal that the Labor Ministry blacklisted Diamond Palace Services last year.

On May 31, the ministry sent the company’s managing director, U Thein Than, the retired army officer, a letter suspending his overseas employment service license — effectively shutting down his own, in-house employment agency — for one year. The letter, a copy of which The Irrawaddy has seen, says Diamond Palace had not followed the proper procedures for sending workers abroad, failed to follow regulations and overcharged workers.

Despite the suspension, the company continues to run the OSC with Bukti Megah.

A man walks out of the Kone Baung Health Center in Yangon on Tuesday. The clinic is one of only four in Myanmar authorized to screen people who want to go to Malaysia to work. / Zsombor Peter / The Irrawaddy

Routine physical

The MOEAF said there was no open tender process when Diamond Palace landed the OSC deal.

Al Jazeera reported that Bukti Megah did business the same way. In the same “101 East” program that quoted Sim, Al Jazeera said company director Abdul Halim Suleiman, an ex-lawmaker, was a senior member of the United Malays National Organization party, which led the then-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. His company, it said, was one of three the Malaysian government hired — without an open tender process — to run a new program to legalize migrant workers who were in the country illegally.

Once Diamond Palace and Bukti Megah joined forces to open the OSC, U Kyaw Htin Kyaw said, U Thein Than met with the MOEAF to unpack the deal. He said U Thein Than told the agencies that, of the $51 the OSC would be charging workers on top of the $6 visa fee, Diamond Palace would keep $25 and Bukti Megah the rest. The Diamond Palace director said the OSC was Malaysia’s idea and that he was merely following instructions.

Bukti Megah did not reply to a request for comment.

The four health clinics in Yangon that screen Malaysia-bound workers all declined requests for an interview.

Bestinet, the Malaysian firm that vetted and approved the clinics for the program, was more forthcoming.

The company told The Irrawaddy it earns 100 ringgit (about $25) on every health check, a little less than half the $56 the employment agencies say they cost. Any charges above its own cut, Bestinet added, go to the service providers in Myanmar.

Asked who should be paying for the health checks, the workers or their employers, Bestinet declined to comment.

But the company said its Foreign Worker Centralized Management System (FWCMS) has helped workers and employers both — workers by reducing the time they have to wait for their test results from weeks or months to a few days, employers by weeding out impersonators and anyone trying to pass off forged medical reports.

“What we are trying to do is to protect the migrant worker’s rights and helping them save time and money,” it said. “We refute the allegations made and would like to stress that we are not a ‘paper shuffling’ company as the system brings significant benefits to all principle-centered stakeholders.”

Last year, the Nepali Times reported that Bestinet secured its contract with the Malaysian government thanks to its connections with top officials. It said the company was run by the brother-in-law of then-Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and that Hamidi’s brother and another ex-minister owned shares.

A few days after the report, Bestinet issued a statement denying the claims.

The Nepali Times, citing private FWCMS data, also reported that the new system had not cut down on the number of Nepali migrant workers being sent back home for failing health checks on arrival in Malaysia.

Bestinet told The Irrawaddy its observations suggested the number of migrant workers from Myanmar failing their health checks in Malaysia has dropped “significantly.” But it declined to disclose any figures, claiming the data was confidential and privy to the Malaysian government.

Myanmar’s employment agencies do not see the figures, either. But they said that if Bestinet has cut down on migrant workers failing their health checks in Malaysia, it has not been by much.

One agent said the numbers were always low and may have dropped about half of a percent since Bestinet took over. U Kyaw Htin Kyaw acknowledged that some of the clinics in Myanmar that screened prospective migrant workers before had done a poor job but said he had seen no change in the number of migrant workers failing their health checks in Malaysia since Bestinet took charge.

X-rays are piled up at the Kone Baung Health Center in Yangon on Tuesday. / Zsombor Peter / The Irrawaddy

A new deal

U Kyaw Htin Kyaw said that in the months after the National League for Democracy took power in early 2016, the MOEAF again urged the Labor Ministry to close the OSC and hand the visa process back to the Embassy of Malaysia.

But he said the Labor Ministry claimed to have no jurisdiction because the OSC was under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

U Kyaw Htin Kyaw said the federation was reluctant to approach the Foreign Affairs Ministry because, as a group representing employment agencies, it was expected to address all its concerns to the Labor Ministry. He said the MOEAF petitioned the Foreign Affairs Ministry anyway, but never heard back.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, took personal control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the National League for Democracy took office.

U Kyaw Htin Kyaw was not surprised that the ex-generals who ran the previous government ignored the federation’s complaints about the company of a retired army officer. But he has been disappointed by the ministry’s silence now that it is under the direct charge of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who rose to power on the promise of an end to Myanmar’s crony capitalism.

“She must be able to solve this problem, we [thought] before,” he said. “But now we don’t know.”

The MOEAF spokesman said he would like to see Myanmar and Malaysia strike a deal similar to the one Malaysia made with Nepal in October, putting all fees and recruitment costs on the employers.

Hall, the migrant worker rights specialist, agreed that Myanmar should be negotiating a deal with Malaysia similar to Nepal’s.

“There should be an end to corrupt syndicate processes that result in higher charges, or employers should have to bear the higher costs from the syndicate or privatized visa, health check and ISC processes,” he said.

And where possible, he added, “Malaysian employers should hire directly from Myanmar agencies, bypassing the corrupt and risky system involv[ing] Malaysian agents.”

In the meantime, the problem is only getting worse. With Bangladesh and Nepal still officially closed off to Malaysia, the country’s factories and construction companies are turning ever more to Myanmar to fill the gap in cheap labor. Where Myanmar used to send 3,000 to 4,000 migrant workers to Malaysia each month, it is now sending 5,000, said U Kyaw Htin Kyaw.

People wait to be tested at the Kone Baung Health Center in Yangon on Tuesday. / Zsombor Peter / The Irrawaddy

M. Kulasegaran, Malaysia’s human resources minister, did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

In December he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his administration, which achieved a surprise election victory last year over a corruption-mired coalition that had been in power for decades, was reviewing the country’s policies on migrant workers. He said it was moving to eliminate the Malaysian middlemen who have raised the costs of landing a job in the country by wedging themselves between workers and employers.

Pereira, of the North South Initiative, said the Malaysian government did recently ban companies that used to technically hire migrant workers as their employees but farm them out to the companies were they actually worked. Now, the places migrants work must be their primary employers.

But he said the administration has shared little information about its grander reform plans with the public or groups like his, and has yet to release a copy of the new labor supply deal it signed with Nepal in October.

Pereira said the Malaysian government should try to take back full control of the migrant worker pipeline to put accountability squarely back in its hands, and cut out the “profiteering” private companies the previous administration outsourced it to.

“All of them should be sacked,” he said of the companies. “If the duty is given to the government, they should enforce it a bit more.”

He said the workers themselves also had to be better educated about the risks they were taking coming to Malaysia.

Given all the pitfalls, “I don’t understand why they still want to come to Malaysia to work — Malaysia is a terrible place for migrants,” Pereira said. “You can get more money…but the living conditions, the racism, the fear is terrible.”

U Kyaw Zaw Linn, director of Myanmar’s Migrant Workers Rights Network, said Naypyitaw should be paying at least as much attention to cleaning up the migrant worker pipeline as Kuala Lumpur, but he has seen scant evidence of it.

“They never pay attention to Malaysia. I don’t see any action,” he said.

“They need to understand what is the situation, what is happening on the ground,” he added. “Why [do] we need to pay the One Stop Center? For what? Is it fair or not? They need to think.”

U Kyaw Zaw Linn said the government should find a way to bring the costs down, or at least take the burden off workers. But he was open to more extreme measures.

Taking a cue from Nepal, he said, “If they can’t control the cost, they need to close. They need to stop sending workers to Malaysia.”

The post Myanmar Workers Bound for Malaysia Stuck With Stifling Fees appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

New ‘Fisherman Night’ Buffet Ideal for Seafood Lovers

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 01:48 AM PDT

YANGON—Melia Hotel Yangon has launched a new buffet with a wide range of the best local selection of seafood and fish for seafood lovers. The buffet will be on offer from April onwards at Melia's all-day dining restaurant, The Market.

What's special about of this Fisherman buffet is that it shines a spotlight on local produce. A wide range of fish and seafood dishes are served, including salads, grilled, boiled and steamed options. Though the night is called Fisherman Night, diners can also eat Burmese-style curries, western meals, dim sum, sushi, shawarma, bread, vegetable salads, soups and, of course, desserts.

A highlight of The Market's new buffet dinner is the grilled fish and seafood counter. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

My buffet tour started at the grilled counter which included different types of local fish like tilapia, grouper, palartu, cuttlefish and prawns. The chef can grill your selection right before your eyes. All the produce seems very fresh and the meat is perfectly soft and flavorful and served with its own sauce.

The soup counter. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

The chef recommended I try the baked threadfin fish which is accompanied by a spicy sauce. He sliced off a portion of the whole baked threadfin fish and served it with the sauce. It tasted delicious and was a perfect combination.

A chef at The Market slicing a whole baked threadfin fish for diners. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

At the buffet, a local favorite is the Mala Xiang Guo which is cooked with seafood. It's rare to see Mala Xiang Guo at a hotel buffet and this version of the dish was less spicy than usual and with reduced oil too. It tasted great.

The salad counter. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

Salmon sashimi is one of my favorite Japanese foods of all time and the orange salmon sashimi from the Japanese counter was so delicious. The freshness of the salmon and octopus satisfied my sashimi cravings.

The crispy pork skin and grilled pork neck are perfect accompaniments to a glass of beer which is unlimited with the buffet price. The pork skin was crispier than the grilled pork neck, but the meat was really soft. Try it with plum sauce—the taste is amazing.

A chef grills fish and prawns for diners right before their eyes. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

For the steamed seafood and seafood salad counters, the hotel uses only local products and you won't find king crab or lobster here.

The smoked salmon salad and squid salad were good to eat but they were lacking something—maybe more salt or a dash of lime.

The wide range of desserts. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

Then it was dessert time. Despite a stomach full of seafood, you can't say no when you see the wide range of desserts at this buffet. Their croissant pudding is a guest favorite, according to the staff at the dessert counter. And rightly so—the pudding is not too sweet and the taste is awesome. Even if your stomach is full, it's worth a try. The homemade ice-cream selections are also one of the best dessert choices. Please do try them.

Melia’s all-day dining restaurant, The Market, is a comfortable place to dine with friends. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy

Overall, this new buffet has a wide range of choices for seafood lovers and foodies. It costs U$29 nett per person including a free flow of beer, cold drinks and coffees, so the price is fair for what is on offer.

The buffet is available on Wednesday nights from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For reservations, you can contact the Melia Hotel Yangon Facebook page.

The post New 'Fisherman Night' Buffet Ideal for Seafood Lovers appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Irrawaddy Police Investigating Lawmaker for Embezzlement

Posted: 05 Apr 2019 12:46 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Police in Irrawaddy Region are investigating the former deputy speaker of the regional Parliament for alleged misappropriation of funds.

"We have opened a case against U San Min Aung under Section 409 of the Penal Code. We opened the case around the end of March, and the Pathein Township Police Station is investigating," a spokesman for the Irrawaddy Region Police Force told The Irrawaddy.

Section 409 addresses a criminal breach of trust and carries a penalty of 10 years to life in prison.

The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) launched an internal investigation into U San Min Aung in December, following a complaint from a Pathein resident accusing him of embezzling government funds in the purchase of five vehicles.

The NLD expelled U San Min Aung on Jan. 15, and the party’s central executive committee reported the case to the Myanmar Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), asking it to take appropriate legal action.

U San Min Aung resigned as deputy speaker of the Irrawaddy Region Parliament, but he remains a lawmaker representing Bogale Township.

The ACC investigated him in February.

"The commission said that his actions did not amount to corruption, but suggested that action can be taken against him if he violated departmental regulations and other existing laws," said Irrawaddy Region Parliament Speaker U Aung Kyaw Khine.

"So we sought legal advice from the regional attorney-general, and he suggested opening a case. So the deputy director of the regional parliament office filed a case against him," he said.

U San Min Aung led an eight-member team to arrange the purchase of the vehicles. The team bought one new vehicle and four used ones. He had the used cars repaired and overstated the repair cost, then added those repair costs to the original price of the cars, according to police records.

The eight-member team was comprised of officials from the Road Transport Administration Department and lawmakers.

"I didn't do it single-handedly. I have explained repeatedly that we did it with the consent of all the team members. What I can assure is we didn't embezzle funds," U San Min Aung told The Irrawaddy.

U San Min Aung worked as a lawyer before his successful run in the 2015 election in Bogale, after which he was appointed deputy speaker.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Irrawaddy Police Investigating Lawmaker for Embezzlement appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China Struggles to Ease Concerns Over Silk Road Project as Summit Looms

Posted: 04 Apr 2019 10:25 PM PDT

BEIJING/BRUSSELS — China is struggling to ease worries about President Xi Jinping’s signature plan to build a new Silk Road as it readies for a major summit in late April, especially among Western nations wary about debt, transparency and Chinese influence.

While China gained a major victory by convincing Italy to become the first G7 nation to formally sign on to the plan last month during Xi’s visit to Rome, others in the West have been less keen to jump onboard, though many have kept an open mind.

The Belt and Road Initiative, as it is formally called, is aimed at building a vast network of infrastructure connecting China to Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond, much like the ancient Silk Road.

Following the first Belt and Road summit two years ago, in a luxuriously appointed convention center in hills north of Beijing, the second one is scheduled for the same location in late April. China is billing it as the country’s most important diplomatic event of the year.

The country’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, said on Saturday that almost 40 foreign leaders would come, and also took a swipe at “prejudiced” critics of the program who seek to besmirch it with concerns like “debt traps.”

“The Belt and Road is open, inclusive and transparent. It does not play little geopolitical games,” Yang, who runs the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs committee, told the official People’s Daily.

The United States, locked in a bitter trade war with China, has been a particular critic of the Belt and Road, calling it an “infrastructure vanity project” when Italy signed on.

Jonathan Cohen, acting permanent representative of the United States at the United Nations, last month slammed China’s attempt to get Belt and Road language into a resolution on Afghanistan, saying it had “known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and lack of transparency”.

Wu Haitao, chargé d’affaires of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the rebuke was “contrary to the facts and fraught with prejudice.”

In 2017, the United States sent White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matt Pottinger to the summit. This time, Washington said it will not dispatch high-level officials due to its concerns about the project.

Lower-level staffers, possibly from the U.S. embassy in Beijing, might go to the summit to observe and take notes, sources familiar with the matter said, though a final decision has yet to be made.

China says it always welcomes “like-minded countries” to take part in the project.

It has not disclosed a full list of the leaders planning to attend the event. But some of Beijing’s closest friends have confirmed they will go, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

EU Wariness

The European Union, China’s largest trading partner, has also been in a bind about how to respond.

Last week, Europe’s top leaders told Xi they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China, signaling an openness to engage with the project if it meant more access to the Chinese market.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at the EU summit in March, grumbled about Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s decision to join the project, although she said Germany will play an active role in the Belt and Road and called for reciprocity.

Conte is due to attend the summit. Rome says signing onto the Belt and Road will bring much-needed investment and boost trade and has pointed to the fact that a dozen EU countries have already signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with China, including Hungary, Poland, Greece and Portugal.

Safeguarding interests

The EU last year proposed its own infrastructure scheme, but it has denied it is trying to counter China’s ambitions.

“For China it is a question of power projection. China is corrupting what should be a level playing field by offering loans that send country debts soaring and create a culture of economic dependency on Beijing,” one EU official said.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a Merkel confidant, is attending the summit, along with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, with Altmaier saying they wanted to “safeguard European interests in co-operation with China there.”

Several EU officials said the European Commission was still looking at who to send as a replacement for Vice President Jyrki Katainen, who attended 2017’s Belt and Road summit and has cited a calendar clash with the EU-Japan summit for not being able to go this time.

China has been on a push to show that the Belt and Road remains popular, despite cooling enthusiasm from governments including in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Maldives, where new administrations are wary of deals struck with China by their predecessors.

The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi, who ranks below Yang, last month touted the success of the $57-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a major Belt and Road scheme.

Wang said after meeting Pakistan’s foreign minister that less than 20 percent of funding for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor came from Chinese loans, with the rest made up of direct Chinese investment and free grants.

The corridor focuses on the interests of ordinary people, Wang said, citing as an example women truck drivers trained to work at a coal mine connected to the project, which he described as a “touching story.”

Wang told reporters at March’s annual meeting of parliament that the Belt and Road was about high quality, sustainable, green development.

“As President Xi has said, the Belt and Road initiative comes from China, but the achievements belong to the world,” Wang said.

The post China Struggles to Ease Concerns Over Silk Road Project as Summit Looms appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Stitching for Success — The Cheap Labor Fueling India’s Election Campaign

Posted: 04 Apr 2019 09:53 PM PDT

CHENNAI, India—For up to 14 hours a day, Nagaraj Nataraj and his wife and daughter hunch over sewing machines, churning out flags for the parties vying for votes in India’s upcoming general election.

They are among tens of thousands of home workers toiling to meet soaring demand for party merchandise ­— from flags to t-shirts to caps — ahead of the biggest exercise in democracy the world has ever seen.

Despite the urgency, it is far from lucrative work. The Nataraj family earn between one and 10 Indian rupees (less than 218 kyats) for each flag they produce, forcing them to work from dawn to dusk to ensure a decent wage.

Job creation has emerged as one of the biggest issues in India’s staggered general election, which starts on April 11, with votes counted on May 23.

But labor rights advocates say political parties are building their campaigns on the back of cheap casual labor — the very thing that many claim to be fighting.

“These orders don’t go to big factories, because the prices would go up,” said Nataraj by phone from Tirupur, a garment manufacturing hub in southern Tamil Nadu State.

“They give it to us instead and pay us lower wages. We agree because we don’t have options.”

Election campaigns in India are a colorful affair, with supporters dressing up in party colors and candidates doling out t-shirts, caps, scarves, masks and crowns at rallies.

Much of that merchandise is made by women working from home, and that, combined with a lack of supply chain transparency, makes it difficult to ensure the minimum wage or to spot forced labor conditions, activists said.

“The big campaign talking point today is unemployment, but nobody is talking about the condition of those employed in this work,” said Amarnath Sharma, general secretary of the Garment and Allied Workers Union.

“Wages should be a poll issue, instead, the exploitation of workers continues even when they are making election material.”

'A craze'

India’s main opposition, the Congress Party, which this week pledged to prioritize the creation and protection of jobs, said it was unable to identify all the manufacturers of its flags.

“It is a very complex supply chain, especially where home workers are involved,” said Shahnaz Rafique, the party’s national coordinator for garment and home-based workers.

“And with outsourcing, we are aware that sometimes even minimum wages are not guaranteed. It is something we will look into.”

Representatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were either unaware or unconcerned about how election-themed clothing and merchandise was being produced.

A link on the party’s website takes fans to NaMo Merchandise, where t-shirts are on sale for as little as 120 rupees. Modi-themed merchandise is also available via a dedicated app and from vending machines at party rallies.

“It has become a craze,” said Rohit Chahal, head of national media for the BJP’s youth wing.

“I don’t know where the t-shirts are coming from, but I know who is buying them and wearing them. Sourcing is not our concern. Our aim is to bring Prime Minister Modi back with a bigger majority. It is about visibility.”

Rock bottom prices

One Delhi-based manufacturer, Vimal Sharma, has already sent out more than 100,000 t-shirts printed with either Modi’s face or his campaign slogan, and orders are still flooding in.

“These are very cheap and fast-moving products,” Sharma told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Supporters are ordering thousands of these t-shirts and distributing them for free at political rallies or to friends and families. As a result, the prices are rock bottom.”

So are the margins — the lowest price Sharma has been quoted for making the t-shirts is 60 Indian rupees, meaning he stands to make less than one rupee.

Imran Khan, a second-generation flag manufacturer in the western state of Gujarat, operates on similarly tight margins.

The women he outsources work to are paid up to 120 rupees for every 1,000 flags they sew, depending on size, he said.

“The money is in the quantity, and if they stitch thousands, they ensure themselves a decent wage,” Khan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“But there are no other job options for them, so this is better than nothing.”

Aloysius Arokiam of Social Awareness and Voluntary Education (SAVE), a civil society group that works for garment worker rights in Tirupur, said it was “almost impossible” for people making these products to make the legal minimum wage.

“An entire family working all day may still not make minimum wages guaranteed by the state, because all political parties want this material very cheap,” he said.

Modi swept to power in 2014 promising jobs for India’s growing youth population, but his political rivals have raised concerns in their campaigns about continuing high unemployment.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said as the party launched its manifesto that the country’s main concerns were “unemployment and farmer distress” and the economy needed to be “restarted.”

India’s unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent in February, up from 5.9 percent in the same period last year, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy think tank.

The BJP has not yet released its election manifesto, but Modi has repeatedly promised to create more employment, including by attracting the kind of foreign manufacturing that has helped China pull millions out of poverty.

For now, much of the country’s manufacturing capacity lies in the homes of poor Indians trying to scratch a living.

Research released in February showed that while the Indian garment sector employs more than 12 million people in factories, millions more work from home.

In Tirupur, workers are under pressure to deliver within weeks of campaign orders coming in.

“I wake up at six and immediately sit at my machine,” said Nataraj.

“If we want to earn enough to eat two square meals, we need to stitch relentlessly. The money is meagre and so the hours count.”

Sharma, the union leader, said none of the politicians out canvassing for votes really cared about the workers’ conditions.

“There are only promises of a better future, but no details on how wages will be increased and work place conditions improved,” he said. “These workers remain invisible.”

The post Stitching for Success — The Cheap Labor Fueling India’s Election Campaign appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Trump Says U.S-China Trade Deal May Be Reached in Four Weeks

Posted: 04 Apr 2019 09:46 PM PDT

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States and China were close to a trade deal that could be announced within four weeks, while warning Beijing that it would be difficult to allow trade to continue without a pact.

The two countries are engaged in intense negotiations to end a months-long trade war that has rattled global markets, but hopes of a resolution soared after both sides expressed optimism following talks in Beijing last week.

Speaking to reporters at the White House at the start of a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Trump said some of the tougher points of a deal had been agreed but there were still differences to be bridged.

“We’re getting very close to making a deal. That doesn't mean a deal is made, because it’s not, but we’re certainly getting a lot closer,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“And I would think with, oh, within the next four weeks or maybe less, maybe more, whatever it takes, something very monumental could be announced.”

Trump said he would hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping if there were a deal.

Xi assured Trump that text of the China-U.S. trade could be finalized soon, in a message conveyed by Liu He.

According to state-run news agency Xinhua, Liu He told Trump that Xi believed under his and Trump's leadership, China-U.S. relations will make new and greater progress.

Xi said that in the past month or more, the two sides' trade teams had maintained close contact and "achieved new and substantive progress on issues in the text of two countries' trade agreement."

"I hope the two sides' trade teams can continue working in the spirit of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit to resolve each other's concerns, and finish negotiations on the text of the China-U.S. trade agreement soon," Xi said to Trump through Liu.

Keeping leverage

Trump declined to say what would happen to U.S. tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods as part of a deal. China wants the tariffs lifted, while U.S. officials are wary of giving up that leverage, at least for now.

Asked about the benefits of an agreement for China, Trump said: “It's going to be great for China, in that China will continue to trade with the United States. I mean, otherwise, it would be very tough for us to allow that to happen.”

Goods trade between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, totaled $660 billion last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, consisting of imports of $540 billion from China and $120 billion in exports to China.

On China’s behalf, Liu cited “great progress” in the talks because of Trump’s direct involvement and expressed hope that the talks would lead to “a good result.”

U.S seeks sweeping changes

Trump has previously threatened to impose punitive tariffs on all imports from China, more than a half-trillion dollars' worth of products.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who is leading the talks for the Trump administration, said there were still some “major, major issues” to resolve and praised Liu’s commitment to reform in China.

Asked about the remaining sticking points, Trump mentioned tariffs and intellectual property theft. He said he would discuss tariffs with Liu in their meeting.

“Some of the toughest things have been agreed to,” Trump said. He later said that an enforcement plan for a deal remained a sticking point as well.

“We have to make sure there's enforcement. I think we’ll get that done. We’ve discussed it at length,” he said.

Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are holding talks in Washington with a Chinese delegation this week after meeting together in Beijing last week. The current round of talks is scheduled to go through Friday and possibly longer.

Hopes that the talks were moving in a positive direction have cheered financial markets in recent weeks. But U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors waited for more developments in the trade negotiations, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly higher, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slightly lower.

The United States is seeking reforms to Chinese practices that it says result in the theft of U.S. intellectual property and the forced transfer of technology from U.S. companies to Chinese firms.

Administration officials initially envisioned a summit between Trump and Xi potentially taking place in March, but some U.S. lawmakers and lobbying groups have said recently they were told that the administration was now aiming for a deal in late April.

Outstanding issues

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said last week that the talks were “not time dependent” and could be extended for weeks or even months longer.

While some reform pledges by Beijing are largely set, including an agreement to avoid currency manipulation, an enforcement mechanism to ensure that China keeps its pledges and the status of U.S. tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods must be resolved.

“China has been very clear, publicly and privately, that they would like to see all the tariffs removed,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce international affairs chief Myron Brilliant told reporters on Tuesday.

“The (Trump) administration has been equally clear that they want to keep some of the tariffs in place as a way to have leverage over China fulfilling its obligations under whatever final package is reached.”

The post Trump Says U.S-China Trade Deal May Be Reached in Four Weeks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

By Spying on Huawei, U.S. Found Evidence Against the Chinese Firm

Posted: 04 Apr 2019 09:30 PM PDT

NEW YORK — U.S. authorities gathered information about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd through secret surveillance that they plan to use in a case accusing the Chinese telecom equipment maker of sanctions-busting and bank fraud, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Solomon said at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn that the evidence, obtained under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), would require classified handling.

The government notified Huawei in a court filing on Thursday of its intent to use the information, saying it was “obtained or derived from electronic surveillance and physical search,” but gave no details.

The United States has been pressuring other countries to drop Huawei from their cellular networks, worried its equipment could be used by Beijing for spying. The company says the concerns are unfounded.

Brian Frey, a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in the Huawei case, said FISA surveillance, which requires a warrant from a special court, is generally sought in connection with suspected espionage.

“The reason they typically would have gotten the surveillance through a FISA court is where we suspect someone may be spying on behalf of a foreign power,” Frey said.

The U.S. government has been concerned about espionage by Huawei for years, he added.

In the Brooklyn case, Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, are accused of conspiring to defraud HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks by misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with Skycom Tech Co Ltd, a suspected front company that operated in Iran.

Meng was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States to face the charges of bank and wire fraud laid out in the indictment, which was not unsealed until January. She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition.

Huawei last month pleaded not guilty to the 13-count indictment. Chasen Skinner, a spokesman for the company, declined to comment on Thursday on the secret U.S. surveillance, saying the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Huawei has said Skycom was a local business partner, but prosecutors said in their indictment against Huawei and Meng that it was an unofficial subsidiary used to conceal Huawei’s Iran business.

U.S. authorities claim Huawei used Skycom to obtain embargoed U.S. goods, technology and services in Iran, and to move money via the international banking system. The charges against the company include violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Last month, Reuters detailed how U.S. authorities secretly tracked Huawei’s activities by collecting information copied from electronic devices carried by Chinese telecom executives traveling through airports.

Reuters also broke news of the bank fraud charges in December and exclusively reported in February how an internal HSBC probe helped lead to the charges against Huawei and Meng.

The U.S. sanctions investigation was spurred by Reuters reports over six years ago that Skycom offered to sell embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran’s largest mobile-phone operator and detailed the close ties between Huawei and Skycom.

Trump told Reuters in December that he would intervene in the case if it helped secure a trade deal with China. Meng’s lawyers have expressed concerns that she is a pawn.

The next court date in the Brooklyn case is set for June 19.

The post By Spying on Huawei, U.S. Found Evidence Against the Chinese Firm appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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