Thursday, October 31, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

New modern train to Rangoon’s circular railway

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 07:33 AM PDT

The Rangoon circular railway, whose trains depart from Insein township to the Rangoon Central Railway Station at 5am every morning, will be equipped with a new exclusive train on 1 November.

The Myanmar Railway Enterprise announced the news at a press conference in Rangoon on 29 October. The new train will have six carriages with room for up to 648 passengers and tickets will cost 300 kyat each.

"The new train will run the same route as the H-line, with nine tours a day", said Htun Aung Thin, General manager Myanmar Railway Enterprise.

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"It will depart from Insein to Rangoon at 5am, then back to Insein from downtown Rangoon, then from Insein to Hlawka. It will circle round the city four times".

The train is designated to stop at every one of the 39 stations along the route, which is 45,9 kilometres long.

The British built the circular railway during the colonial time and the double track railway was finished in 1954.

Currently, there are circular trains running round the city 22 times a day, at ticket prices; 100 kyat, 200 kyat and for air conditioned; 400 kyat.

Flooding inundates villages in central Burma

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 05:14 AM PDT

Several villages in central Burma's Pegu division were inundated this week with water from local reservoirs after several days of heavy raining.

Over 10 villages near the Sittaung River were flooded after local authorities opened sluice gates at several local reservoirs.

According to local residents, the water started rising on the evening of 28 October and now hundreds of acres of farmland in Swa township are completely inundated. Farmers say they risk losing their crops unless the water is drained in the next few days.

Pegu's Taungoo, Yedashe and Swa townships have all been affected.

"The flooding came just when our rice farms are about to be ready for cultivation – there are over 1000 acres of farmland inundated alongside the Sittaung River and between 800-900 acres by the Swa Creek," said Pho Thar, a local resident in Swa town.

"If the water stays for next couple of days, the rice paddy will be destroyed."

Meanwhile, Taungoo town's resident Aung Zeya said low-lying residential areas have been completely submerged and seven relief camps opened in the town to shelter displaced families.

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"Families from about 12 villages alongside of the river are taking shelter at the camps in the town," said Aung Zeya, adding that the flooding has also disrupted local transportation routes.

Heavy rains have battered Burma over the past few months, causing the worst flooding in a decade. Magwe division is currently also affected, while large parts of eastern Burma were inundated earlier this year.

According to the UN, nearly 50,000 people across the country have already been displaced by monsoon rains and flash floods this year, with some 70,000 acres of farmland flooded or destroyed.

Burma is one the most disaster prone countries in the Asia Pacific, identified by the UN as vulnerable to a range of hazards including floods, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis.

Burma to count Thailand refugees in 2014 census

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 04:42 AM PDT

Burma is planning to negotiate with the Thai authorities about including refugee populations living abroad in the country's first census for over thirty years.

The Ministry of Immigration and Population says it wants to include Burmese refugees living in Thailand, which is estimated to be around 130,000 people, in the 2014 census.

Myint Kyaing, director general of Department of Population told DVB that Burmese nationals living abroad will be counted in the upcoming census.

"We are going to employ two methods to count Burmese nationals living abroad; by gathering information from their families back in Burma, and through the Burmese embassies in the countries they are in," said Myint Kyaing.

"For the refugees outside of Burma, we will negotiate with the local authorities in the respective countries."

The upcoming nationwide census will be carried out between 29 March 2014 and 10 April. Myint Kyaing added that every individual living in Burma at the time, regardless of their race and citizenship, will be counted.

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"We are going to include every individual; including ethnic nationalities and foreigners regardless of their social status, visas and the passports they are carrying."

It follows speculation that Burma's Rohingya minority, which is denied citizenship and heavily persecuted, would not be included in the census. The group, which numbers some 800,000 people mainly in northern Arakan state, has attracted international attention in the wake of sectarian clashes with Burmese Buddhists last year.

Myint Kyaing, who is leading the census project in collaboration with the UN Population Fund, has himself previously denied there are any Rohingya in Burma.

But last month, Immigration Minister Khin Yi insisted that the Rohingya, described as "Bengalis" in Burma, will be counted under the "other" category on the census along with ethnic Chinese and Pakistani residents.

Myint Kyaing said that the government is working to develop a procedure that will allow Burmese nationals living abroad to register for the census through their local embassies.

According to the government, 100,000 primary school teachers and 20,000 supervisors have already been trained to carry out the process.

Ongoing conflicts in Burma's ethnic minority territories, including Shan and Kachin states, are also likely to present difficulties. But the government says census administrators will coordinate with local communities and religious leaders to collect accurate data.

Burma has only carried out two past censuses; in 1973 which recorded a population of 28.92 million and in 1983 when over 35 million people were counted. Neither census included the Rohingya minority, while many people living in conflict-torn ethnic regions are believed to have been overlooked.

The country's population is currently estimated to be somewhere between 50-60 million people, although no reliable data was collected by the former military regime.

Japan’s lack of transparency threatens Burma’s development

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 02:46 AM PDT

Japan's traditional approach to diplomacy – characterised by "quiet dialogue" – is becoming a threat to Burma's fragile reform process. In recent weeks, the Japanese government has demonstrated an alarming lack of transparency regarding both its role in Burma's peace process and land grabbing problems at Thilawa, Japan's flagship development project near Rangoon. Eleven News also reported on Tuesday that a Burmese parliament member demanded greater transparency about how Japanese financial aid is distributed to Burma's health sector.

Perhaps of greatest concern is Japan's abysmal response to land grabbing problems at Thilawa. When landgrabbing reports first surfaced in January 2013, a Japanese company developing Thilawa responded to media inquiries by saying that land issues were the sole responsibility of Burma's government. The following month, a spokesman for Japan's embassy in Burma took the same position, saying that Thilawa land issues were "very complicated" and that Burma's government was solely responsible for land grabbing issues.

This kind of detached and dismissive response from Japan was nothing less than a public relations disaster. It also set off alarm bells among members of the international community who were hoping that Japan would play a responsible role in Burma. It wasn't until this October – over 10 months after the initial land grabbing report – that Japan's government finally decided to take some responsibility for land grabbing by holding a meeting with Thilawa landowners. Not surprisingly, The Irrawaddy reported that the meeting was off-limits to the media and held behind closed doors.

Japan's secretive approach to such an important issue is an ominous sign that Japan is stubbornly clinging to its "quiet dialogue" approach to diplomacy, whereby Japanese officials "gently encourage" foreigners to capitulate in stuffy private meetings that are tightly controlled and choreographed by Japan. Japanese officials just don't seem comfortable doing business any other way. But being uncomfortable isn't an excuse. There's a good reason why transparency has become a rallying cry for Burma's opposition, and Japan will need to adapt. A lack of transparency breeds corruption, and corruption stifles development. So if Japan really wants to foster sustainable development in Burma it simply has to change its ways.

“Japan is starting to destroy an amazing opportunity that practically fell into its lap”

The Irrawaddy also reported that JICA – Japan's overseas development arm – which it described as "notoriously tight-lipped" refused to answer inquiries about the land grabbing meeting. But Thilawa landowners were free to speak to the media, so it doesn't make sense for JICA to decline interview requests. It's not only a bad policy, but it harms Japan's interests in Burma.

Burma's decision to offset China by "opening up" in 2011 gave Japan a golden opportunity to reassert its influence in the country and greater Southeast Asia. Yet unfortunately, Japan's lack of transparency is leading people to believe that Japan is no different than China, which has been widely criticised for making secretive deals with Burmese military generals to plunder Burma's resources.

In other words, Japan is starting to destroy an amazing opportunity that practically fell into its lap when Burma's military decided to give Japan a prominent role in developing the "new and improved" Burma. One reason why Japan has been so favoured lately is because it's viewed as a "friendly" alternative to China. But if people start to equate Japan's tactics with those of China, the whole game changes and Burma will be less willing to grant Japan special privileges.

Japan also made a huge mistake by asking Yohei Sasakawa to serve as Japan's official peace ambassador in Burma. Sasakawa is a member of Japan's far-right historical revisionist movement which still somehow thinks Japan was the victim rather than the aggressor of World War II. Sasakawa also cultivated personal ties with Burma's former military dictatorship, and not surprisingly Sasakawa has yet to disavow his father's controversial support for fascism.

In his blog, Sasakawa even sings high praises for former junta leader Than Shwe, an outrageous position which immediately puts him at odds with millions of Burmese citizens. As a personal friend and apologist of Than Shwe, it's clear that Sasakawa should have been disqualified from the peace process from the beginning.

All this might explain why Sasakawa and his Nippon Foundation (which funds Sasakawa's peacemaking efforts and was established with proceeds from his father's gambling enterprise) are so media shy. Yet considering the important role they are playing in Burma's peace process it's imperative for Sasakawa and his organisation to be more transparent. Burmese people have a right to be informed about what's happening in their country, and sooner or later savvy media professionals will find out anyway, so what's the point of trying to hide?

Moreover, transparency is especially important in Japan's case because there is evidence that Japan has been attempting to unduly influence Burma's peace process (despite assurances from Japan's Foreign Ministry to this author that Sasakawa is merely a neutral third-party mediator).

In March 2013, the Nippon Foundation threatened to cut off humanitarian aid to the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) if it didn't join the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of armed ethnic groups supported by the Nippon Foundation as part of its peace efforts. The Nippon Foundation still hasn't provided the world with a satisfactory explanation about why it put this pressure on the SSA-S, and the incident stands out as a prime example of how Japan is damaging Burma.

In addition, critics say the Nippon Foundation's disbursement of humanitarian aid to ethnic groups hasn't been conducted in a transparent way, particularly because it refuses to support community-based organisations. Instead, the aid is transferred directly to leaders of armed ethnic groups, who the Nippon Foundation apparently trusts.

The Nippon Foundation declined to answer questions about the SSA-S episode, saying instead that "we would like to keep it fair for all journalists, so we will release any information we have at the same time at a later date." In other words, the Nippon Foundation wants to ensure that it controls the message by releasing a carefully-worded statement similar to the PR spin it released after The Irrawaddy criticised Sasakawa for his personal ties with Burma's former military junta.

The problem, however, is that in Burma's highly-charged media environment the Nippon Foundation can no longer hide from its past, carefully control its message, or avoid direct questioning from the media. Not being fluent in Burmese or English isn't a sufficient excuse. If that's the case, hire an interpreter. The longer Japan avoids the spotlight the more Burmese people will start to realise that Japan is not very different than China, and that both countries are making secretive deals to further their interests in Burma. Transparency is a crucial component of sustainable development, and Japan simply cannot afford to continue with business as usual.

Without a doubt, Burma's reforms have presented Japan with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but the sad truth is that Japan's development strategy is flawed. It's a pity because Japan has the potential to make a truly positive contribution to Burma. There are plenty of liberal-minded people in Japan who have Burma expertise and know the value of transparency. The Japanese government should give them a greater voice rather than relying on far-right revisionists whose commitment to human rights, democracy, and transparency is questionable at best.

By stubbornly sticking to "quiet diplomacy" and relying on representatives from its conservative establishment, Japan is not only undermining its own interests in the country, but also wasting a great opportunity to play a constructive role in Burma's development.

Jacob Robinson is a freelance writer who focuses on business and politics in Asia.

Rangoon authorities clamp down on illegal buildings

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 02:16 AM PDT

Rangoon authorities have warned land owners that they must seek official permission before erecting new buildings in Burma's commercial capital or risk legal action, in an attempt to clamp down on illegal construction projects.

The Rangoon city municipal's engineering department issued a reminder to proprietors following media allegations blaming an increase in unauthorised developments on government inefficiency in processing building permits.

In an interview with DVB, Maung Maung Zaw, director of the Rangoon Municipal Engineering Department (Building) insisted that the process can be carried out in 45 days.

"Buildings constructed on leased land will have no limitation on the number of floors. However, some plots of land in Rangoon [have had their ownership transferred] under 'informal contracts' and buildings constructed on these plots will be only allowed to have maximum three floors," said Maung Maung Zaw.

"If we are given the right paperwork and the projects meet our criteria, we can immediately process and issue the permit within 45 days."

He said the department receives over 50 applications for construction permits every day but about 20 of them were for land plots with informal contracts.

The majority of unauthorised constructions can be found in Thingangyun, Hlaing, Mayangone and South Okkalapa townships, with over 500 illegal constructions in Thingangyun township alone, according to government figures. Maung Maung Zaw blamed building contractors for "luring" proprietors into investing in the projects by misinforming them about existing laws and regulations.

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"There is an increase in the number of unauthorised buildings because [contractors] are luring people into investing in these projects – mostly in suburban areas," he said, adding that the municipal authorities are planning to take legal action against contractors who manage illegal constructions.

Currently, the construction of high rise buildings in areas designated as so-called "quiet neighbourhoods" – wealthy areas reserved for residential buildings – as well as the vicinity of the Shwedagon Pagoda premises, Rangoon Zoo and the Rangoon regional parliament building, is prohibited.

Rangoon has seen an influx of foreign investment following a string of democratic reforms in Burma, which prompted most western countries to lift most economic sanctions. But the country's emergence as a new economic frontier has driven up property prices to exorbitant levels.

New housing projects and high rises have popped up across the city, with many businessmen and entrepreneurs scrambling to take advantage of the booming housing market.

Analysts say that part of the problem is that large portions of land and property held by the military junta has not been released into the market and remains unused.
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