Monday, August 19, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burmese Literary Giant ‘Dagon Taya’ Dead at 95

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 05:34 AM PDT

Dagon Taya, one of Burma's leading literary figures and a prominent peace activist, died at his home in Aung Ban, Shan State, on Monday at the age of 95. (Photo: Moemaka)

RANGOON — Dagon Taya, one of Burma's leading literary figures and an outspoken peace activist, has died at his home in Aung Ban, southern Shan State, at the age of 95.

Devi, one of his family members, confirmed Dagon Taya's death to The Irrawaddy, saying he died of natural causes on Monday afternoon.

Best known for his literary works, which were inked under the pen name "Dagon Taya," the man born Htay Myaing was perhaps equally renowned for his reserved and flexible personality, and for his life-long conviction to peace. He attended multiple World Peace Council meetings and worked actively on various on peace campaigns.

Two months after war between Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke out in Kachin State in 2011, Dagon Taya delivered a message urging the government forces and ethnic armed rebels to stop their fighting and start a genuine dialogue to establish peace. "Bullets cannot provide security; only loving kindness can," he said at the time.

In March 2013, Dagon Taya was awarded South Korea's prestigious Manhae Grand Prize, which the Manhae Foundation gives annually to people honored for promoting peace across the world. The foundation was set up to commemorate the poet Han Yong-un (1879–1944), who was also known as Reverend Manhae.

Dagon Taya's literary philosophy was "art for people's sake," and in the post-World War II years, Dagon Taya launched his New Literature movement, believing that literature could solve social problems and document the people's struggle for freedom and peace.

He was not without critics, particularly among rival literary schools that accused him of writing in an overly stylized and unrealistic, even abstract, manner.

Hailing from the Irrawaddy Delta, Dagon Taya grew up with a strong interest in painting and music. When he was in college, he kept a piano in his room at the Rangoon University hostel.

He was a close friend of Burma's independence hero, Gen Aung San, who in 1943 offered him a high-ranking position in the Japanese occupation government—an offer he refused. Before Aung San's assassination in 1947, Htay Maying wrote an important critical essay about his friend's personality, titled "Aung San the Untamed."

Many Burmese of the time were shocked by his criticism of the country's revered father of independence. Aung San himself told close friends, "I'm not so untamed as Htay Myaing has put it."

But Dagon Taya merely smiled in response to the controversy generated by his essay.

He was subjected to political persecution following the successful military coup of 1962, after which he was arrested and imprisoned for four years on suspicion of being a communist. In fact, Dagon Taya called himself "the Liberator," but never assumed an active role in any political party or governing regime.

"I have no foes, only friends," he once said.  "I have no hatred for any person," he claimed on a separate occasion.

In a 2010 interview, Dagon Taya told The Irrawaddy that to his understanding, politics was about making friends of foes. "Some people came into power by arms, but we have to stage a coup by a free and fair election," he said.

"Nothing but peace is democracy's goal," he continued. "Friendship is only possible through peace."

Arakan Residents Push for More Benefits From State’s Resources

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 05:04 AM PDT

Campaigners advocating a greater share of local natural resource revenues gather petition signatures in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, on Sunday. (Photo: Narinjara)

Ethnic Arakanese activists have begun a signature campaign calling on the government to share more benefits from their state's bountiful natural resources with the people of Arakan State.

In a statement from the campaign, which launched on Sunday, its organizers said revenue from the state's natural resources must be shared with Arakan residents to go toward local development.

"It is crucial to allocate our rightful benefits from the revenues of Rakhine [Arakan] resources into Rakhine State's budget so that the economic, social, health, education and transportation sectors of the Arakanese people's lives can be improved in short order," the statement said.

Arakanese activists have formed the Committee for Obtaining the Benefits of Rakhine Resources in an effort spearheaded by the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), which holds 34 seats in Parliament.

Signatures will be collected for two months, said Khaing Pyi Soe, who heads the committee in addition to serving as the RNDP's spokesman. He said more than 400 signatures in each of Arakan State's 17 townships and in Rangoon had been collected since Sunday.

"When we receive 300,000 signatures, we will submit it," he told The Irrawaddy on Monday. The petition will be sent to President Thein Sein and both houses of Parliament, he said, adding that the issue would be shared with Arakanese legislators to encourage them to bring up the proposal during parliamentary meetings.

The activists say their campaign for greater revenue sharing refers to more than just natural gas production, such as money derived from the high-profile Shwe gas project. The petition also pertains to other resources acquired from Arakan State's lands and adjacent seas, including the Nayputaung mine project in Taungup, and forestry and fisheries products.

Arakan State has been an economically important one for Burma, but projects involving natural resource extraction have also had significant impacts on local communities. The Shwe gas project, which began piping gas to China's Yunnan province from the Kyaukphyu port in Arakan State last month, traverses the western state before crossing over into central Burma and onward to Shan State in the country's north. During the dual oil and gas pipelines' construction, accusations of forced evictions and insufficient compensation for land confiscations were frequent.

The campaign launched Sunday also calls on the government to ensure that electricity is supplied to the whole of Arakan State.

Although Arakan State and its offshore territory possesses substantial energy reserves that could go toward the state's development, those resources have largely been exported, with profits not benefitting local residents. Though the Shwe gas project has to date uncovered more than 200 billion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves—most of which will be exported to China—electricity costs remain high in Arakan State. A unit of electricity, which costs 35 kyats (less than 4 US cents) in Rangoon, costs between 450-850 kyats in Arakan Sate, according to Kyaukphyu residents.

Many local residents claim that their way of life before development projects were initiated has been jeopardized due to land confiscations and a loss of traditional livelihoods, leaving residents without employment or forced to migrate in search of better job opportunities.

A Kyaukphyu resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, said "the projects have caused our lives to deteriorate. Our lives were peaceful before these projects. We had plenty of land for farming or fishing."

"The move [petition] is not only for the Arakanese, but for other ethnic groups to start campaigning for their local resources to be shared with their people," added Khaing Pyi Soe, the petition committee's leader.

Banned in Rangoon, Graffiti Artist Finds New Painting Platform Through SEA Games

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 04:15 AM PDT

Graffiti artist Arker Kyaw is facing charges for defacing public property. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — After being banned from spray painting in Rangoon last year, Burmese graffiti artist Arker Kyaw has been invited by the government to decorate a sports stadium for the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).

The 20-year-old told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he was practicing the designs he would paint next month on the stadium in Naypyidaw.

"A member of the SEA Games committee invited me recently," he said. "I'm very excited about this. I'm doing a lot of practice at home now, before I go."

Arker Kyaw is known in Burma for spray painting a portrait of US President Barack Obama on a roadside wall in Rangoon last year before the American leader's historic visit.

The portrait was well received, but when he later painted Burma's own President Thein Sein, the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), Rangoon's administrative body, imposed a ban on spray painting walls in public places in the city.

"I do not have bad feelings toward Yangon authorities," he told The Irrawaddy. "They were doing their job. Naypyidaw is under a different authority."

Burma will host the 27th SEA Games in December. The regional sporting event with athletes from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam will be held in Naypyidaw, Rangoon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung beach.

Arker Kyaw declined to reveal his designs for the stadium. "I have an idea about what I'll paint," he said. "But if I tell now what I'm going to do, I feel it will have less value."

The young artist became interested in graffiti in high school after seeing graffiti art on international music album covers.

"I looked for more on the Internet and learned how to do it myself. But I like all kinds of painting," he told The Irrawaddy in an earlier interview.

"For me, there's no special difference between using a brush on paper or canvas and using spray paint. Which medium I use just depends on my feeling."

Govt-Backed Militias Clash With Kachin, Karen Rebels

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 03:49 AM PDT

Soldiers from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) aim a machine gun at Burmese government troop positions during fighting in January this year. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Separate clashes were reported over the weekend in north Burma's Kachin State and east Burma's Karen State between government-backed militias and non-state armed groups.

In Kachin State, clashes reportedly occurred on Saturday between the government-backed Kachin Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

San Aung, a peace broker with the KIA's political wing—the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)—said fighting broke out after BGF members attacked KIA bases in Chi Pwe and Sawlaw, two towns in Pangwa region, in the northern part of the state.

He said the BGF members formerly belonged to the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDAK), a rebel group that defected from the KIA and has since disbanded.

"I don't know why they clashed," he told The Irrawaddy on Monday. "I heard one or two people were killed from the BGF. They wore KIA uniforms and pretended to be members of the KIA, and they attacked KIA bases. Clashes lasted for about one hour."

According to sources at a KIO liaison office in the state capital Myitkyina, BGF soldiers launched the attacks together with government troops and targeted a battalion under KIA Brigade 1. Three soldiers from the joint BGF-government forces died, the KIO sources said.

A battalion of government troops identified only as Battalion 521 assisted the BGF, the sources added, saying the joint forces used 60 mm rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the attack.

A 17-year ceasefire between the KIA and the government broke down in 2011. Fighting escalated earlier this year but has since calmed, with the KIO and the government's peace negotiation delegation signing a seven-point preliminary peace agreement in late May. Under the agreement, both sides pledged to "undertake efforts to achieve de-escalation and cessation of hostilities" and to "continue discussions on military matters related to repositioning of troops."

San Aung from the KIO said the Kachin BGF had very strong ties to the government.

"The Kachin BGF is a militia that is controlled by the government's armed forces," he said. "They have to listen to orders from the government's force. I think without support from the government's armed forces, they would not have dared to fight the KIA."

"The fighting would have spiraled out of control in Pangwa Township if the government had not ordered this group [the Kachin BGF] to stop," he added.

The NDAK officially disbanded in November 2009, following an agreement reached earlier that year between its founder, Zahkung Ting Ying (also known in state media as Za Khun Ting Ring) and the central government. The NDAK's 1,000 or so troops were subsequently transformed into a BGF.

Meanwhile, separate clashes reportedly broke out in Karen State on Friday between the government-backed Karen BGF and troops from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU). One soldier from the Karen BGF was reportedly killed in the fighting and two were wounded.

Gen Saw Johnny, commander-in-chief of the KNLA, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that fighting was reported in the village of Weigyi, in a southwestern area of the state controlled by KNLA Brigade 5.

He said KNLA leaders and respective officials from the Karen BGF would meet to find a resolution to the conflict, but he did not disclose a date or location for the meeting.

"We don't know exactly what the problem was on the ground," he added. "But, as both sides are Karen people, we will try our best to solve it."

The KNU signed a ceasefire agreement with the government's peace delegation in January 2012.

Border Guard Forces were created under Burma's former military regime, which called for all armed forces in the country to be placed under central military command.

This was achieved with two rebel armed groups, the NDAK in Kachin State and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in Karen State. These groups disarmed, incorporated into separate BGFs and then resupplied with government-issued weapons. As BGFs, they became subordinate to regional government military commanders.

The Living History: Dagon Taya & Modern Burmese Literature

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 02:55 AM PDT

Dagon Taya (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

Well-known Burmese writer and poet Dagon Taya passed away at his home in the town of Aungban, Shan State, on Monday at 1 pm. He was 95 years old.

Here is a story about Dagon Taya, known as one of Burma's greatest literary figures, from the July 2000 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. Stay tuned for more coverage soon.

Dagon Taya, Burma's greatest living literary figure, continues to draw strength from his convictions despite attacks from critics and political opponents. At the turn of the 20th century, Burmese literature made a remarkable departure from its traditional classicism.

In 1904, James Hla Kyaw adapted part of the story The Count of Monte Cristo, by the French writer Alexandre Dumas, into Burmese under the title Maung Yin Maung Ma Me Ma, the first modern Burmese novel. It was an epoch-making work in the history of Burmese literature. This innovation led others to realize that exposure to world literatures, particularly those of the West, would greatly assist efforts to modernize Burmese literary writing.

In 1920, the University of Rangoon was founded and some persons connected with it— most notably J S Furnivall, founder of the Burma Education Extension Association— were determined to make foreign literature available to Burmese.

Many new adaptations of foreign works into Burmese followed. The writers of the new movement, who were called the “University Wits,” also did original works, including short stories and poems. There were three luminaries in this movement, which we now call Khitsan (“New Writing”). Theitpan Maung Wa was famous for his lucid prose style, while Zawgyi and Min Thu Wun were highly respected for their keen powers of observation, revealed in poems about the everyday life of people and the minute details of nature.

The styles and outlooks of William Wordsworth, P B Shelley, John Keats and Rabindranath Tagore of India—broadly speaking, the major exponents of Romanticism—were the major influences on the Khitsan writers. Later on many critics pointed out that while the Khitsan movement had made great strides in the development of artistic technique, they had failed to meet the contemporary political needs of the whole nation—particularly, the growing demand for independence from British colonial rule.

The most influential literary figure throughout the colonial period was Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, a highly respected journalist, playwright, poet and historian. His literary works succeeded in arousing patriotism, love and compassion, mainly dealing with the past history of Burma as well as the contemporary political movement for independence. Commentators agree that Kodaw Hmaing, alone amongst his contemporaries, was completely successful in meeting the esthetic and political requirements of his age, even though he continued to write in a traditional style of poetic composition.

Many of the young writers who emerged in the years following the Second World War were deeply affected by their experiences during the struggles against imperialism and fascism, as well as by their exposure to the prevailing left-wing political ideologies of the post-war period. Dagon Taya, a tremendously creative writer who continues to compose beautiful poems, short stories, novels and commentaries even now, became the recognized leader of the post-war progressive writers with his magazine Taya, which strove to promote literary realism and “art for people's sake” under the banner of Sar Pe Thit (“New Literature”).

He was, in fact, the direct heir of Kodaw Hmaing's politically oriented brand of literature, bringing to it a more sophisticated outlook and manner of presentation. Some observers have described the work of Dagon Taya as the product of a fusion of Kodaw Hmaing's style with that of the earlier, pre-independence Khitsan writers. Min Thu Wun, the hero of Khitsan, dubbed Dagon Taya's New Literature Movement “the Khitsan of the Khitsan.”

In fact, Dagon Taya and his fellow writers made a breakaway from Khitsan not only in terms of theme but also in sensibility and style, though many of them continued to use the rhyme schemes of their Khitsan predecessors when composing poems. The influence of Dagon Taya's literary movement has, amazingly, continued to the present day. But he has not been without his critics, particularly amongst rival literary schools (including other advocates of “People's literature”), which have accused him of writing in an overly stylized and unrealistic, even abstract, manner.

Not just a leading literary figure but also a famous peace activist who has made a significant contribution to both internal and international peace efforts, Dagon Taya has also been subjected to political persecution. After the military staged a coup in 1962, he was arrested and imprisoned for four years on suspicion of being a communist.

Personally, Dagon Taya is known to be calm, reserved and flexible, but also firm in his convictions. He was a close friend of Burma's independence hero, Aung San, who in 1943 offered him a high-ranking position in the Japanese occupation government—an offer that Dagon Taya refused. Before Aung San’s assassination in 1947, Dagon Taya wrote a very beautiful but highly critical essay about Aung San's personality, titled “Aung San the Untamed”.

Many Burmese were shocked by this apparent criticism of their revered father of independence, but Dagon Taya, and Aung San himself, merely smiled in response to the storm of controversy that this essay generated when it first appeared in Taya magazine. Even more daring was Dagon Taya's rejection of an honor bestowed upon veterans of the independence movement by Gen Ne Win's socialist regime.

The State Honorary Award, which carried a grant and a monthly stipend, was generally regarded as a bribe to win the loyalty of famous patriots. After his refusal to accept the award, Dagon Taya went into self-imposed exile from the capital and composed one of his best-known poems, “Sending myself to the Mae Za.”

“He then came to be seen as the Boris Pasternak of Burma in the eyes of the authorities,” recounts a young poet and close associate of Dagon Taya now living in exile. “Mae Za, in the Burmese political context, means the place where opponents of the king used to be sent as exiles, something like the gulags of Soviet Russia.”

Despite his strong leftist sympathies, Dagon Taya felt no need to conform to pre-conceived notions of socialist orthodoxy, either intellectually or in his lifestyle. He eschewed any sycophancy towards self-declared “liberators” of the masses, and throughout his life, kept his distance from political parties. A lifelong bachelor with long, wavy hair and a custom of wearing iridescent silk longyis and colorful Indonesian batik shirts, this “friend of the common man” also loved to express his free-spirited nature through painting and by playing the piano in a completely improvised, unrestrained manner.

In the 1970s, a new generation of poets, strongly influenced by their reading of contemporary Western literature and by their fervid, anti-imperialist response to the Vietnam War, broke with tradition and began composing poems in free verse. Although not explicitly anti-government in nature, the artistic liberties taken in these poems, as well as the themes of social injustice that frequently ran through them, provoked harsh criticism from conservatives close to Ne Win's regime. Accused of trying to destroy classical literature or of being communist agents, these young poets found their greatest defender in Dagon Taya, who reiterated his position that, while it was good to have knowledge of the classics, it wasn't strictly necessary as long as the poet's work served the interests of the people.

In 1988, when demands for political reform in Burma came to a head, many writers both young and old became actively involved in the pro-democracy movement. Since then, to avoid censorship, many have used a variety of highly abstract styles and techniques, including surrealism, magic realism and stream-of-consciousness, to express their dissatisfaction with the status quo and their hopes for a more democratic society.

Meanwhile, Dagon Taya, who continues to write prolifically even as his eyesight fades in his old age, addressed the changes in the global political climate in a poem titled “The Thaw,” written after the fall of Berlin Wall, and in an article on the collapse of both individuals and entire nations as a result of political dogmatism and artistic rigidity. While the retreat from realism in Burmese literature has been understandable considering the circumstances, an unfortunate side effect of this development has been a growing tendency for young writers to divorce themselves from reality altogether.

Modernist and postmodernist literary theories have found many adherents in Burma since the early 1990s, resulting in a number of original works that are both aesthetically and politically significant. But, for the most part, they seem to have created an almost totally detached attitude towards the issues of society at large. “To an extent, [the introduction of new theories] needs to be welcomed. But when it becomes excessive, the young writers seem to be distracted from reflecting on the current situation,” commented one well-known writer based in Mandalay.

In reaction to the military regime's propagandistic works of art, which promote an ideal of selfless service to the nation, and blindly following imported Western concepts, some young writers have even gone to the extreme of declaring themselves followers of the school of “art for no sake.” According to a well-known literary critic who writes for a famous magazine inside Burma, Dagon Taya briefly came under attack from one such group in the mid 1990s. This group—consisting of ex-communists, former members of Ne Win's Burma Socialist Program Party and a few younger writers—accused Dagon Taya of being out-dated and an obstacle to a new generation of writers.

“These attacks seemed to have had a hidden agenda,” observed one historian who closely followed the renewed controversy surrounding Burma's most famous living author.

“They tried to denounce Dagon Taya by labeling him an old communist. The military regime was no doubt pleased to see him come under fresh attack.”

He also noted that Dagon Taya was not the only casualty of this latest assault on the living bastion of Burma's modern literary history.

“The Burmese literary movement is scattering and dividing itself up,” remarked the historian, adding that literary figures and other left-leaning intellectuals have always been regarded as a threat by the country's ruling military elite.

These attacks have since subsided; and, as if to demonstrate his own powers of endurance, Dagon Taya seems to have derived from them an even deeper awareness of the social and psychological state of Burma today.

Recognizing the deep sense of intellectual and spiritual drift that afflicts many young writers as they desperately seek a meaningful direction for the future, Dagon Taya reaffirms his belief that writers cannot afford to lose touch with their surroundings.

“One can not separate the arts from their socio-political setting,” he wrote recently. “Burma is now in a transitional period, and young people naturally feel that something is lacking in their minds and in their creative efforts. Indeed, Burmese literature is now looking for a new shore.”

Pun to Give Rivals a Run for Their Money

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 01:13 AM PDT

Serge Pun speaks at the World Economic forum on East Asia in Naypyitaw in June. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

YANGON — As founder of Myanmar's only listed business and head of a commercial network spanning more than 30 companies, Serge Pun is more used to winning than losing.

That habit is well-attested to by the swanky surrounds of the family-run Pun Hlaing Country Club—a 660-acre golf and residential retreat complete with hospital and shopping mall—across the Hlaing River from the honking traffic and, in places, rain-sodden squalor of downtown Yangon.

However, in late June the Chinese-Myanmar entrepreneur found himself on the losing side after Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo won two keenly contested mobile network licenses.

He was the local focal point of a three-pronged bid, along with Irish-owned telecoms company Digicel and billionaire speculator-cum-philanthropist George Soros. The pitch was thought to be among the frontrunners for the high-risk but likely lucrative mobile provider gigs, in a country where only between 4 percent and 9 percent of the population is connected to the network.

While congratulating the two winners, Mr. Pun suggested that the deep pockets of the oil- and gas-rich wealth funds backing both Telenor and Ooredoo might have decided the outcome.

"I've a feeling they bid a lot for the license fee, which ensured them pole position, but congratulations to them," he said with a smile, speaking from an office decorated with reminders of the Cultural Revolution in China, when he spent around a decade in a hard-labor camp—an experience he described in retrospect as "a blessing."

"It probably molded a lot of how I see things," he recalled, pointing to a series of paintings that he said allegorize the destruction wrought by those 1960s upheavals.

But back to the present, and the future. With Myanmar still a telecoms black spot, Mr. Pun believes there will still be plenty of opportunities in the sector, which needs around US$45-50 billion in investment through to 2030, according to US-based global consulting firm McKinsey.

"We still intend to play a very significant role in the telco industry," he said, citing the "huge number of tower sites, as many as 5,000," where he believes the network providers can quickly erect towers.

And while there will certainly be rewards for high-stakes investors who can successfully navigate the risks inherent in Myanmar's untapped telecoms market, this is also one sector in which that burned-out notion of "trickle-down" economics surely applies.

Mobile phones have changed lives and livelihoods in poor countries in Africa and South Asia, said Mr. Pun, who believes that the sector will also be critical to Myanmar's future development prospects.

"Telecommunications play a totally essential part in economic development. This goes down to the very poor farmers as you will see in India and Bangladesh, where it helps farmers know prices and know the market," he said.

But before the mobile network is improved and ahead of any pervasive economic take-off, the Myanmar government will have to enact a series of much-needed economic reforms—facilitating the creation of an independent central bank and a stock market, for example.

Mr. Pun pointed out that such legislative gaps mean that—hyperventilating headlines about Myanmar's boom-times aside—the country's economic reforms are really just starting.

"Before last November, and the foreign investment law, you hardly saw any economic or financial reform," he said, coughing gingerly between staccato pulls on a cigar.

"That's why, when these skeptics say that two years have gone by, and people are not seeing fruits of this reform, I feel that is distorted, as the reforms made so far are political and social."

And those changes—such as freeing up of a long-stifled press, holding free and fair by-elections, seeing robust exchanges in a mostly elected (albeit military-shadowed) legislature—have already had an impact at all levels of society, fueling Mr. Pun's optimism that, in time, the same will happen to the economy.

"We can now say anything we want, read anything we want—that's evidence of a reform measure trickling down. If you are talking about labor law, it is trickling down: Workers have new rights and new protections," he said—though at the time of writing, Myanmar's newfound media freedoms were stalling amid a standoff between the Ministry of Information and the interim Press Council over a publishing bill that journalists feel is redolent of old military-era curbs, and activists protesting land grabs in high-profile cases such as the Chinese-run Letpadaung mine were being sent to jail.

As for the economy, while broadly optimistic about Myanmar's economic future, Mr. Pun conceded that there are "bottlenecks" that for now will hinder any Asian Tiger-type takeoff.

Criticizing what he sees as the short-term profiteering mindset prevalent in Myanmar, he cautioned that speculation-driven land prices in the country are too high and admonished that people should not "try to make a profit on the land."

That bottleneck, as Mr. Pun sees it, could undermine Myanmar's potential, if the government does not rein in land prices. While he believes that 1 million manufacturing jobs could be created in Myanmar in the near future—"We're talking about 1,000 factories with 1,000 jobs in each"—he worried that "it is not feasible for an industrialist to start a manufacturing plant under such prices."

Land prices are also driving up the cost of scarce office and hotel space in Yangon, with the dearth of rooms threatening to hold up a possible tourist boom. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism hopes to attract over 7 million visitors per annum by 2020, up from around 1 million at present.

Myanmar currently has fewer than 30,000 hotel rooms in the entire country, but Mr. Pun believes that new developments should in time offset that deficit, although he hopes it can be done without the destruction of Yangon's famed old colonial buildings, many of which are now disused, mildewed relics of military-era neglect and mismanagement.

He said he hopes ground will be broken after the rainy season at a landmark new development in downtown Yangon, a project that he said will fuse tinted-glass progress with the vintage postcard aura that permeates Yangon's downtown.

The now tatty-looking red-brick railway building will be the hub for a modern five-star hotel—what Mr. Pun hopes will be a seamless blend of the new and the old.

This story first appeared in the August 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

‘Burmese Python’ Beats ‘Chocolate Thunder’ in MMA Showdown

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 11:03 PM PDT

A judge lifts the arm of Aung La N Sang, right, following his mixed martial arts (MMA) victory over Shedrick Goodridge on Saturday in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo: Aung La N Sang / Facebook)

The ethnic Kachin cage fighter Aung La N Sang, also known as the "Burmese Python," defeated his American opponent Shedrick Goodridge in a bout on Saturday in the United States.

A picture of a judge raising the arm of Aung La N Sang, wearing a white shirt featuring his reptilian nickname, was posted to the fighter's Facebook page after his victory at the Borgata hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

"Thank you God for blessing me with the victory," he wrote on Facebook. "Thank you friends, family and fans for the unending support. Love you guys." An outpouring of comments from fans congratulated Aung La N Sang following his victory.

Born in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State in northern Burma, Aung La N Sang is a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who now calls the US state of Maryland his home.

The Kachin fighter's popularity has grown with a string of recent victories over opponents. In October last year, he defeated Jason Louck in a first-round knockout. Many of his fans, increasingly connected to the digital world, watched the fight online in Burma.

Aung La N Sang described Goodridge, known as "Chocolate Thunder," as a "young and hungry 6 [foot] 2 [inch] fighter … an exciting striker and a good wrestler."

"We fight because it's in our blood," Aung La N Sang wrote on his Facebook page prior to Saturday's showdown.

Indonesian President Worried By Growing Religious Intolerance

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:56 PM PDT

People from Indonesian Muslim hardline groups hold a banner and placards during a protest near the Burma Embassy in Jakarta on May 3, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta)

JAKARTA — Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was concerned by growing religious intolerance in the country with world's largest Muslim population, which many analysts say his administration has failed to contain.

Indonesia has recently seen a series of increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities like Christians, Shia Muslims and members of Ahmadiyah, a small Islamic sect which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims.

"I am very concerned about the continuing incidents of intolerance and communal conflict we see, which are often violent," Yudhoyono said in an annual address to parliament.

"We should always be able to prevent these if we prioritize dialogue and if the country's leaders, in government and religious institutions, take collective responsibility."

Yudhoyono, in office since 2004 and whose current term ends next year, has been criticized for failing to defend the rights of religious minorities.

"President Yudhoyono seems to say all the right words. But he does not talk about legal discrimination that his administration had created over the last nine years," Andreas Harsono, Indonesia director for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an e-mail.

Human Rights Watch released a damning report this year that listed more than 260 violent incidents against religious minorities in 2012. It accused some cabinet members of fanning the violence.

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's population considers itself Muslim but the constitution guarantees freedom of worship in a country that was once home to powerful Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms.

Most Indonesians follow a moderate form of Islam but militants linked to al Qaeda have carried out several major attacks on foreign targets since 2002.

Indonesia has largely managed to root out militant networks though sporadic attacks continue.

Yudhoyono also said he would continue to battle corruption in one of the world's most graft-ridden countries and another key problem which many observers accuse his government doing little to counter.

Two days before his speech, a top energy official was arrested by the anti-corruption agency (KPK) over allegations he pocketed more than half a million dollars in bribes from an oil firm.

It is the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have also damaged many of the major political parties, including Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party whose popularity has been sliding ahead of next year's general and presidential elections.

But Yudhoyono made no mention of the latest arrest.

"We continue to try and prevent and eradicate corruption to strive for a 'Clean Indonesia,'" he said. "And I continue to push law enforcement agencies like the police, attorney general's office, and even the KPK, to take effective steps to fight corruption."

After Deadly Ferry Disaster, Philippines Asks What Went Wrong

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:07 PM PDT

Philippine Navy personnel continue their search on the second day for the victims of Friday's disaster in the waters off Talisay, Cebu, in the central Philippines, on August 18, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

TALISAY, Philippines — As rescuers plucked more bodies from the sea after a Philippine ferry and a cargo ship collided late last week, killing at least 38 people, a vexing but familiar question faces a country plagued by an abysmal record in maritime safety: What went wrong?

Authorities say 82 people listed as missing are believed to have died, trapped in the ferry that sank to the sea floor off the central Philippine port of Cebu minutes after Friday's collision. Divers are trying to cut into the vessel, at a depth of 45 meters (150 feet), and plug an oil leak.

Although a formal investigation will not begin until after the rescue operation, attention is already turning to the final moments in the latest fatal shipping disaster to strike the Philippines, a country of 7,100 islands, where overcrowded or overloaded vessels are common and sea regulations are notoriously hard to enforce.

The MV St. Thomas of Aquinas, an inter-island ferry loaded with 870 passengers and crew, had been at sea for about nine hours after leaving Nasipit, a port on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, when it approached Cebu, a bustling economic zone about 560 km south of Manila.

The yellow-hulled MV Sulpicio Express Siete, laden with containers, had just left Cebu's port with 36 crew.

As they both entered a narrow channel about 550 meters wide in the dark at about 9 pm, they appeared to have strayed onto the same lane from opposite sides, officials said.

Under navigational rules, both vessels must steer to the right if they are on a collision course, Commodore William Melad, head of the coast guard district in the central Visayas region, told Reuters.

The ferry repeatedly blew its horn and sent warning signals, said 2GO Group Inc, which owns the ferry. "They blew their horns several times before the collision," Bimsy Mapa, spokesman for 2GO Group, told Reuters.

Another 2GO Group official, speaking on condition of anonymity because a formal inquiry into the accident is pending, said the ferry could not veer right because the water was too shallow on that side.

"Our options were to turn right or left, but we couldn't turn right because we would hit shallow waters so we veered left," the 2GO Group official said.

Officials at Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp, which owns the cargo ship, declined to respond to requests for comment. The vessel remains in Cebu, a gaping hole in its bow.

"We need to review whether both ships followed regulations," said Melad, the Cebu coast guard chief. "If they are approaching each other, there should be a safe distance. Otherwise, you signify intention to move to the right and the other should move to the right also, so that there won't be any collision."

Melad said the vessels' speed would also be checked for possible violation.

Tug boats typically accompany ships arriving and departing within 1 km from the port, but the accident happened 4 km out at sea, said Greg Castillo, a Cebu city councilor.

Authorities have suspended passenger and cargo shipping operations of both companies.

The cargo vessel's owners were formerly known as Sulpicio Lines Inc, which owned the MV Dona Paz ferry that collided with a tanker in the Sibuyan Sea in the country's main Luzon island region in December 1987, killing 4,375 on the ferry and 11 of the tanker's 13-man crew. That ranks as the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

The St. Thomas of Aquinas sank within minutes of the collision on Friday, but 750 people were rescued, mostly by fishing boats.

Additional reporting by Reuters writers Rosemarie Francisco, Manuel Mogato and Enrique de Castro.

Fallen Chinese Political Star to Be Tried Thursday

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:00 PM PDT

China’s former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai looks on during a meeting at the annual session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 6, 2010 (Photo: Reuters).

BEIJING — Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai goes on trial Thursday on corruption charges in a case crafted to minimize damage to the Communist Party and avoid exposure of party infighting or human rights abuses.

Sunday's announcement of a trial date for the former rising political star puts China's new leaders on track to wrap up a festering scandal as they try to cement their authority.

The former party secretary of the major city of Chongqing fell from power last year in China's messiest scandal in decades. It exposed the murder of a British businessman by Bo's wife and a thwarted defection bid by his former police chief.

Bo will stand trial in the Intermediate People's Court of the eastern city of Jinan on charges of taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power, said a one-sentence announcement on the court's microblog account. The announcement was also carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Most trials in China last less than one day and Bo, 64, is almost certain to be convicted.

Bo's downfall followed a failed defection attempt by his police chief at a US consulate, which embarrassed Chinese leaders. The chief exposed a litany of complaints against Bo that gave political rivals ammunition to attack him.

Bo, the son of a revolutionary leader, was a member of the party's 25-member Politburo. But he alienated other party leaders by aggressively promoting his personal image and launched campaigns in Chongqing that invoked the radical era of the 1960s and '70s.

The charges against Bo appeared to be crafted to make him look like a rogue leader brought down by hubris and immorality. That would allow Chinese authorities to avoid questions about how the party's unchecked power enabled Bo's misconduct.

The court could avoid allegations of wiretapping conducted by his former top aide and the use of torture in an anti-crime crackdown. Judges could avoid asking about asset seizures from Chongqing entrepreneurs.

"These charges were tailor-made for Bo Xilai in view of the sentence that they want him to get," said Zhang Lifan, a historian and political analyst in Beijing.

"They decided how long they wanted to have Bo Xilai locked up for, and then according to that sentence, they made the appropriate charges," Zhang said. "But these charges have left out a lot of things that he is responsible for."

Bo's case was the last major unfinished business from the once-a-decade handover of power that began last November. Holding his trial now means the new leadership can wrap up the scandal before they head into a party meeting later this year that is meant to produce a blueprint for China's economic development.

The outcomes of criminal cases against senior figures such as Bo are usually decided in advance in secret negotiations aimed at securing the defendant's cooperation. Bo is only the third politician at Politburo level to be tried on graft charges in recent decades.

"When the indictment was finally announced, it meant that some sort of agreement was reached between the Politburo's Central Committee and Bo Xilai," said Zhang Sizhi, an eminent lawyer who has represented many defendants in high-profile political cases.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, received a suspended death sentence last year after confessing to poisoning a British businessman, Neil Heywood. Such sentences usually are converted to long prison terms if a convict is deemed to have repented.

The party also wants to present a spectacle of justice for the Chinese public and a warning to ambitious politicians not to defy the central leadership.

"They want to say "you have to obey the central leadership'," said Dali Yang, head of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing. "It's not simply about corruption. It's also about central-local relations, about the need for senior local officials … to pay heed to the central government's guidelines and not try to build independent kingdoms."

Authorities are trying to minimize potential disruption during the trial.

Fang Hong, a Chongqing forestry official who was put in a labor camp for a year for criticizing Bo, was taken by police to a lodge in the mountains where he was told to stay until the trial is completed. Fang had said last month on a microblog that he wanted to attend the proceeding.

Song Yangbiao, a Beijing reporter in Beijing known as a supporter of Bo, was detained in early August after he posted a call online for people to protest outside the courthouse. A writer who uses the pen name Lu Qi and describes himself as a close friend of Song said the reporter was released on bail after about a week.

Official announcements about the charges against Bo have given no details.

But a person with direct knowledge of the case said Bo is accused of accepting bribes amounting to more than 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) and embezzling 5 million yuan ($820,000) while he was in a previous post in the eastern city of Dalian.

The abuse of power allegation is related to the cover-up of the murder by his wife in late 2011 and the defection attempt by his former police chief, Wang Lijun, said the person. He asked not to be identified further due to the case's sensitivity.

Analysts say the charges underscore the party's attempt to keep the scope of allegations against Bo limited in order to prevent his case from undermining confidence in party leaders or their political system.

"It's almost like open heart surgery, or laser surgery," said Kerry Brown, a former British diplomat in Beijing and head of the China Studies Center at the University of Sydney. "You want to do the operation with as little collateral damage as possible."

Questions that appear to have been left unaddressed include whether Bo should be held accountable for waging an anti-gang crackdown in Chongqing that ran roughshod over the legal system.

The crackdown resulted in 2,000 arrests, 500 prosecutions and 13 executions, including the former director of the city's judicial bureau. Allegations of torture and shakedowns by law enforcement officials were common.

Bo also appears to have been spared some of the more serious accusations faced by his former police chief and right-hand man, Wang, including carrying out illegal surveillance.

Wang was convicted of putting people under electronic surveillance, which suggested he used bugging, wiretapping or computer monitoring. Websites abroad that follow Chinese politics said Wang was helping Bo gather information on other leaders.

Zhang, the veteran defense lawyer, said authorities appeared to be avoiding mentioning this charge even though Bo might be to blame in order to skirt larger questions about political factions and party infighting.

"There is no question that Wang Lijun was not acting on his own accord," Zhang said, adding that acknowledging that would lead to too many uncomfortable questions.

"If they were wiretapping phones, whose phones were they tapping? Why do they want to eavesdrop?" Zhang said. "It would definitely involve many relationships and problems. And right now they are not willing to raise these questions and magnify the problem."
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