The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Shwe Mann Supports Change to Make Suu Kyi Eligible for Presidency
• Burma Army Violently Raids Kachin Village: Aid Groups
• Burma on Track to Reach Tuberculosis Targets: WHO
• Italy Supports Burma’s Constitutional Reform
• Than Shwe ‘Worried’ About Burma’s Politics, Says House Speaker
• Burmese Beauty Receives Honor From Mongolia
• In Burma, Gift Hampers Are Govt Officials’ Dirty Laundry
• Bad Guy Blues: Burma’s Villains Struggle to Get by
• In Mandalay, a Theater Revives the Dying Art of Burmese Puppetry
• Punishments Reduced, But Burma’s Harsh Online Law Remains
• Canadian Weed Finds Export Market in Asia
• Thousands March in Cambodian Opposition Protest
• China, India Sign Border Cooperation Agreement

Shwe Mann Supports Change to Make Suu Kyi Eligible for Presidency Posted: 24 Oct 2013 05:04 AM PDT Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann meets Aung San Suu Kyi in April. (Photo: LYNN BOBO / FACEBOOK) NAYPYIDAW — Burma's Union Parliament speaker says the Constitution should be amended to create an opportunity for democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to become president. Shwe Mann told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the government should allow Parliament to change a section of the charter that currently bars the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from the job. "To have a free and fair election in 2015, I have to say we should amend Section 59F of the Constitution," he said at a press conference in Naypyidaw, responding to a question about constitutional restrictions for the presidency. Section 59F of Burma's 2008 Constitution says anyone who has a spouse or children who are foreign citizens are not eligible for the presidency or vice-presidency. Suu Kyi and her husband, the late British academic Michael Aris, had two children who are British. Earlier this year, Shwe Mann aired his own ambitions to become Burma's president during the World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw, after Suu Kyi reiterated her desire for the job at the same forum. On Thursday, the Union Parliament speaker said that, given his experience in Parliament, he would not require additional preparation for the presidency. "I would have no problem being president," he said, before adding, "I want to be president because it's the position that would allow me to work best for the interests of my citizens." The Union Parliament speaker added that he did not know how long it would take to reduce the number of seats in Parliament held by the army, but that it would be possible to do so in the future. The 2008 Constitution reserves 25 percent of seats in the legislature for military representatives. The post Shwe Mann Supports Change to Make Suu Kyi Eligible for Presidency appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Army Violently Raids Kachin Village: Aid Groups Posted: 24 Oct 2013 04:56 AM PDT Refugees from Kachin State cook meals at a temporary camp near the Burma-China border last year. (Photo: Reuters) Kachin relief workers said Burma Army units carried out a violent raid on an ethnic Kachin village and a camp for displaced civilians on Tuesday, reportedly looting belongings, injuring four and causing hundreds of villagers to seek refuge in a local church. The reported incident comes at a time when the Burmese government hopes to convince the Kachin rebels and other ethnic rebel groups to join a nationwide ceasefire conference. Naw Din, director of Karuna Myanmar Social Service Relief Team, said Burmese soldiers entered Mung Ding Pa village in Mansi Township, southern Kachin State, on Tuesday morning and randomly opened fire. "Escaped villagers told me that the government troops … entered Mung Ding Pa village in Mansi Township, shooting everywhere," he told The Irrawaddy by phone. Naw Din said that about 60 villagers managed to escape during the attack and fled to nearby Mai Hkaung village, where he met with the group on Wednesday. "The escaped villagers said four people were wounded by the soldiers' shooting, but we are not able to confirm their conditions as we cannot go into the village," said Naw Din. He added that hundreds of villagers were reportedly seeking refuge in a local church and could not leave as they are surrounded by soldiers. Some 2,000 people live in Mung Ding Pa, a village located about 20 km (12 miles) south of Bhamo that also houses an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp of about 400 civilians, according to Naw Din, whose organization provides aid to 47 IDP camps in Bhamo District. A group of international Kachin activists, the Kachin National Organization, claimed in a press release on Thursday that Burma Army Light Infantry Battalions 45, 56, 236, 240, 276, 601 and 602 raided Mung Ding Pa and Kong Ja villages in Mansi Township. The activists said the soldiers "fired small and heavy artillery toward Mung Ding Pa IDP camp. Local witnesses stated that 60mm heavy artillery shells landed near the school in the IDP camp." The overseas group said eight people, including a child, had been arbitrarily arrested by the soldiers. Father Peter Lazum Tu, a Catholic priest from Mai Hkaung village, said hundreds of Kachin villagers from Mung Ding Pa, Nam Phu, Khaw Yum and Hkaung Ja villages in Mansi Township had fled their homes after the incident out of fear for Burma Army attacks. "The villagers are afraid of further fighting, so they left their homes," he said, adding that these villagers could not be reached due to ongoing army movements in the area. Nam Lin Pa, another village in Mansi Township where there is a 1,000-strong IDP camp, has been cut off since last week after government soldiers entered the area, Naw Din said. Early this month, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government troops reportedly skirmished in Mansi Township. The current Burma Army operations, however, were not part of a government attack on the KIA, said Father Peter Lazum Tu. He said he believed that the troops ostensibly came to tackle illegal logging in the area and to secure a road that runs through the township. On Aug. 1, Shan State Forestry and Mining Minister Sai Aik Paung told reporters in the Shan capital Taunggyi that his administration had asked government troops to crackdown on illegal logging in Kachin State's Mabein and Mansi townships, which straddle the border with Mong Mit Township in Shan State. Father Peter Lazum Tu said it appeared KIA soldiers had decided not to confront the Burma Army units that entered into Mansi Township this week because of ongoing ceasefire talks. "I think, that as the KIA is talking with the government about peace, they are not responding with military actions," he said. The KIA and government have been engaged in occasionally heavy clashes since June 2011, when a long-standing ceasefire broke down. Since March this year tensions have cooled and there have been three rounds of ceasefire talks. The sides last met on Oct. 8-10 and signed a preliminary agreement to work towards reaching a ceasefire. The Burmese government is keen to hold a nationwide ceasefire conference next month and all major ethnic rebel groups are meeting in Laiza next week to take a joint position on Naypyidaw's proposal to hold a conference. The KIA is one of two major rebel groups that have not yet signed a ceasefire agreement with the government and skirmishes between the sides are regularly reported. Additional reporting by Nan Thiri Lwin. The post Burma Army Violently Raids Kachin Village: Aid Groups appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma on Track to Reach Tuberculosis Targets: WHO Posted: 24 Oct 2013 04:50 AM PDT A patient with drug-resistant TB is examined by a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor at a clinic in Lashio, Shan State, earlier this year. (Photo: Eddy McCall / MSF) RANGOON — Burma, with one of the highest tuberculosis prevalence rates in the world, is on track to reach global targets in reductions to its incidence, prevalence and mortality rates for the disease by 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. But significant challenges remain, the UN health agency warned, as a large proportion of TB cases in the country go unreported or undiagnosed, while the number of laboratories to test for drug-resistant strains are far below recommendations and medical officials warn that medication supplies are running low. Burma is one of 22 countries identified by the WHO for having the world's highest disease burdens for TB, with 489 people infected last year per 100,000 in the population, compared to the global average of 169. In its "Global Tuberculosis Report 2013," the WHO estimated that worldwide, 1.3 million people died last year out of 8.6 million who became infected with TB, an airborne disease that affects the lungs and can easily spread from person to person. "The number of TB deaths is unacceptably large, given that most are preventable," it said. Burma was one of four high-burden countries (HBCs) on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for TB by 2015. These targets include a falling incidence rate, or the number of people infected annually per 100,000 in the population; as well as a halving of the disease's prevalence rate, or the proportion of people infected in the population at a given time, compared to 1990 levels; and a halving of the disease's mortality rate. Burma, Ethiopia, India and Thailand are on track to meet all three goals, the WHO said. Burma has already met the targets for incidence rate and mortality rate, which stood at nearly 30,000 deaths from TB last year. It is expected to meet the target for prevalence rate by 2015, the WHO said. Seven HBCs—Brazil, Cambodia, China, the Philippines, Uganda, Vietnam and Tanzania—have already achieved all three goals, while 11 other HBCs are not expected to meet them by the deadline. Globally the goal for falling incidence rates has been met and the targeted reduction in mortality rates is expected to be achieved by 2015, but the targeted reduction in prevalence rates appears out of reach by the deadline, the WHO said. Despite Burma's progress, the Southeast Asian nation faces significant challenges and is far below standards for detecting cases of the disease. Globally, about 3 million of all new cases of TB went undiagnosed or unreported in 2012, and Burma was among 12 countries responsible for 75 percent of those "missing" cases. An estimated 35 percent of Burma's new cases were not detected, about the same percentage as in 2009. "Finding the 'missed cases' is one of the biggest challenges in TB care and control today," the WHO said in a supplement to its report. It called on Burma and other countries with high disease burdens to increase the number of health facilities with diagnostic capacity, expand service coverage through NGOs, and step up engagement with community workers and volunteers. Burma has only two laboratories in the entire country that are equipped to test for drug-resistant TB and two laboratories equipped for bacterial culture testing, or about 0.2 laboratories of each type per 5 million people, the WHO said. The UN agency recommends five times that many laboratories for the same population. The laboratories for drug-resistant TB are in Rangoon and Mandalay, the country's two biggest cities, and they require a 24-hour supply of electricity that currently would not be possible in underdeveloped rural areas. The WHO also called on Burma to improve its testing for HIV, as patients with HIV have weakened immune systems and are particularly at risk of contracting TB. Only 13 percent of tuberculosis patients in the country knew their HIV status last year, far below the target rate of 100 percent, it said, although most of those who were diagnosed with both diseases were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). "Concerted efforts are required to increase HIV testing while also ensuring access to ART for HIV-positive TB patients," it said. Burma's health care system was chronically underfunded for decades by the former military regime, and even today, under the quasi-civilian government that took power in 2011, only about 3 percent of the national budget goes to health. Last month the country received four state-of-the-art machines to detect drug-resistant TB. The machines were donated by a health assistance consortium formed by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and Britain. Also in September, the Ministry of Health reportedly announced that it would expand its TB program to double the number of drug-resistant TB patients under treatment. Ministry officials said they would expand their care and treatment services this year to reach 500 more patients at centers in 38 townships, The Myanmar Times newspaper reported. The ministry aims to treat some 10,000 cases in 100 townships by 2015. However, last month medical officials in Rangoon warned that important TB medications were running low across the country and could even run out before the year's end. The WHO also cautioned in its report on Wednesday that a funding shortfall would remain a challenge. It said that while Burma's national tuberculosis control program reported a budget of US$36 million, available funding was only about $14 million. The post Burma on Track to Reach Tuberculosis Targets: WHO appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Italy Supports Burma’s Constitutional Reform Posted: 24 Oct 2013 04:42 AM PDT Ahead of a meeting with Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi over the weekend, Italy's foreign minister has called on Burma to consider constitutional amendments by 2015. ROME — Ahead of a meeting with Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi over the weekend, Italy's foreign minister has called on Burma to consider constitutional amendments by 2015. "Democracy is a complicated exercise and a very demanding institution," Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told her Burmese counterpart, Wunna Maung Lwin, during a conference in Rome on Wednesday. "Democracy is a process that we also have to improve on, and that cannot be taken for granted. It can go forward and it can go backward." The Italian and Burmese foreign ministers were attending a conference about investment, economic growth and development opportunities in Burma. The conference—promoted by the Italian government and organized in part by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—came during Suu Kyi's visit to Europe to accept a human rights prize. Suu Kyi on Monday urged Europe and the United States to press Burma to reform the Constitution, which bars her from becoming president. On Tuesday, the democracy icon traveled to the European Parliament in France to receive the Sakharov human rights prize, which she was awarded in 1990 but could not accept at the time. The Burmese foreign minister told diplomats and businesspeople at the conference in Rome that Burma was drafting new laws that permitted freedom of association and expression "for the benefit of the people." "A joint committee has been formed to review the Constitution," Wunna Maung Lwin added. "Revisions need to be approved by the Parliament." He also told The Irrawaddy that Burma's army was an important political institution in the country and had been important since independence. The 2008 Constitution, drafted by the former military regime, reserves 25 percent of seats in Parliament for military representatives. A 109-person committee was formed by lawmakers earlier this year to consider possible amendments. Also at the conference were a number of Italian entrepreneurs, including Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of the energy company Eni, as well as Paolo Zegna of Confindustria, the confederation of Italian industries. The event was organized to "further cooperation and economic ties between Italy and Myanmar [Burma]," Italy's Bonino said. Burma is re-engaging with the West amid a transition from nearly half a century of military rule, and the European Union earlier this year lifted economic sanctions against the former Southeast Asian pariah state. However, the OECD, one of the conference organizers, published a report that offered a reminder of Burma's long history of human rights violations, associated with military rule and armed conflicts in ethnic minority areas. The director general of Burma's Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) acknowledged these conflicts but said that the country had entered a "new economic climate." Aung Naing Oo said investment opportunities could be threatened by "unstable macroeconomic indicators, the infant stage of democracy and internal conflicts in some areas." "We can say the situation related to the conflicts has improved in recent months," he told The Irrawaddy, saying he was optimistic that all ceasefire agreements, including with Kachin rebels in north Burma, would be finalized by the end of the year. It seems that ongoing instability has done little to deter Italian businesses from exploring possible opportunities in Burma. Businesspeople at the conference seemed eager to understand ways to invest in the new frontier market, with Aung Naing Oo highlighting potential in the electricity, oil and gas sectors. Italian investments in the country are limited. According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, exports to Burma reached their highest level in 2012 at 23.7 million euros (US$32 million), 69 percent more compared to exports in 2011. Italy's imports from Burma were limited at 11.7 million euros, an increase of about 111 percent. Among the main Italian ventures in Burma is Eni's involvement in the oil and gas sector. The Italian energy company will explore two onshore blocks and is awaiting the results of a competitive bid to explore two offshore blocks. "For small and medium-sized companies, it is important to plant the seeds for the future, especially with one eye on the geographic location of Myanmar, a crossroads both to India and China, and to other countries in Southeast Asia," Zegna of Confindustria told The Irrawaddy. "It is a potential market to over 2.4 billion consumers." On Sunday Suu Kyi will arrive in Rome to meet Bonino and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Her Italian tour will finish in Turin, after visits to Bologna and Parma for official meetings. The post Italy Supports Burma's Constitutional Reform appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Than Shwe ‘Worried’ About Burma’s Politics, Says House Speaker Posted: 24 Oct 2013 04:02 AM PDT Burma's former head of state Than Shwe is seen among other members of the military regime. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) NAYPYIDAW — The dictator who was at the top of Burma's military regime until two years ago, Senior General Than Shwe, is concerned about the way the country's political sphere is developing, according the speaker of Parliament's Lower House. During a press conference held Thursday in Naypyidaw, the speaker, Shwe Mann, recounted a meeting with the former ruler on Oct. 19, the day of the Thadingyut festival, when Burmese traditionally pay respects to their elders or superiors. Shwe Mann said that although Than Shwe is no longer directly involved in the country's politics, he is closely following the evolution of the political framework he worked on when in power, and is concerned. "Snr General is worried about things that shouldn't happen in today's Burmese politics," the Lower House speaker said, somewhat cryptically. "He's concerned about the ongoing political process, but he is no longer involved in politics because he can't be. He's having a peaceful life." But Shwe Mann, who was the third-highest ranking member of the former military regime, didn't elaborate on what specifically was worrying his former boss. Than Shwe came to power in 1992 as head of State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and commander-in-chief of the Burma Army, following the unexpected resignation of Senior General Saw Maung, officially due to health reasons. While he was in office, Than Shwe is believed to have masterminded the drafting of the now controversial 2008 Constitution, beginning in 1993. He held nation-wide referendum, largely considered not a fair vote, to approve the constitution In 2007, his military crushed the monk-led Saffron Revolution. And when the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis hit the country's delta in 2008, Than Shwe denied foreign aid workers access to the country. In 2011, he officially resigned from his position as head of state in favor of his hand-picked successor, President Thein Sein, who has since introduced democratic reforms to the nation's authoritarian political system. However, conventional wisdom has it that the retired ruler is still influential in the quasi-civilian government still dominated by ex-generals. The post Than Shwe 'Worried' About Burma's Politics, Says House Speaker appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burmese Beauty Receives Honor From Mongolia Posted: 24 Oct 2013 03:50 AM PDT Burmese beauty queen Nang Khin Zay Yar receives an award for her charity work from Miss Mongolia 2012, Dolgion Delgerjav. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burmese beauty queen Nang Khin Zay Yar was on Tuesday given an award by Mongolia's beauty pageant association for her charity work since becoming a well-known figure. The 25-year-old shot to fame after winning Miss Myanmar 2012, and subsequently winning the People's Choice and Miss Internet awards at the Miss International contest in Japan last year. Since then, she has publicly dedicated herself to charity work. The Miss Mongolia Association awarded Nang Khin Zay Yar the title of Miss Humanity for her humanitarian efforts. The award was presented by Mongolia's Miss International 2012, Dolgion Delgerjav, at a promotional concert in Rangoon for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games, which featured Thai rock star Carabao. "I was so surprised and so glad when Miss Mongolia presented me the award on the stage. At the same time I wanted to cry with happiness and I felt honored," Nang Khin Zay Yar told The Irrawaddy. The Miss Mongolia Association has organized Miss Mongolia beauty contests since 2004, and has sent Mongolian beauties to international pageants. Nang Khin Zay Yar uses her Facebook page to inform fans about her charity work and to invite the people to donate to good causes. She has volunteered at a free funeral service in Rangoon and collected donations for orphanages and old age homes and for children from poor families. She said that she would not be participating in the upcoming "Miss Humanity International" contest, although she was invited. Instead, she said, receiving the honorary award would encourage her to do more work for charity in Burma. "I usually post my charity work, written in Burmese language [on Facebook], and I wonder how they know everything about me and what I'm doing here. But I'm so happy to know that they acknowledge my charity work," she said. "This honor will motivate and encourage me to move forward in helping people in need." The post Burmese Beauty Receives Honor From Mongolia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Burma, Gift Hampers Are Govt Officials’ Dirty Laundry Posted: 24 Oct 2013 03:40 AM PDT Gift hampers are commonly given to senior government officials by their junior charges, ostensibly as a show of respect. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) While corruption remains a target of President Thein Sein's reform drive, some public employees say "respect paying," a long-standing practice with Buddhist underpinnings, continues to undermine those efforts as government officials accept gift baskets from their junior charges—and reward them with professional opportunities accordingly. Traditionally, centuries-old custom demands that Burmese Buddhists, especially young people, pay respect to their parents, teachers and elderly relatives during Thadingyut, the seventh month of the Burmese calendar and the end of Buddhist Lent, by offering them fruits and other gifts. In return, the recipient elders wish good fortune on the gift givers. Others engage in a more troubling form of the practice, effectively bribing government officials in high places with the hope of furthering their professional fortunes. "That kind of paying respect has become a tradition," said a divisional officer from the Rangoon Division Transportation Department who requested anonymity. "There's no limit on the amount of gifts or how expensive they are. But the more expensive the gift, the better opportunities you will receive," he added. A source from the Rangoon Division government said all sub-departments of the government had to show up with gifts to show their respect for their superiors during Thadingyut last year. He said at least four to five times a year—during the full moons of Thadingyut and Tazaungdaing in November, and at Christmas, New Year's Eve and the Burmese New Year in April—departmental superiors and influential generals receive hampers filled with everything from Ovaltine to Hennessy X.O cognac, bottles of vintage wine or expensive Scotch. The price of the hampers varies from 60,000 kyats (US$62) to 600,000 kyats, depending on the contents. A superior used to receive at least 100 hampers, which are then typically sold back to supermarkets, giving them an opportunity to earn upwards of 10 million kyats. This year during Thadingyut, which was marked on Oct. 19, the hampers were nowhere to be seen at divisional offices in Rangoon, with a ban on the gifting practice enforced. "This year, cars and people bringing the hampers were not allowed to enter the office in order to prevent bribery. But what if they send them directly to the houses?" said an administrative officer. The gifting of the hampers is the sort of dirty laundry that has placed Burma consistently at the bottom of Transparency International's annual corruption assessments, putting it among the most graft-ridden countries in the world. Last year, the Southeast Asian nation was ranked 172 in the watchdog's Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures perceived public sector corruption in 176 countries. And the "respect paying" is arguably just the tip of the iceberg Since the earliest days of the former military regime, which monopolized most of the country's business sectors, it has been common practice for businessmen to grease the palms of high-ranking military officials to clinch lucrative contracts. A tycoon heavily involved in agriculture businesses across the country built mansions for military chiefs in the regions where he had operations. Others approach the children of powerful generals as go-betweens to gain approval for their business plans. While many participate in the gifting of hampers, some businessmen say they refuse to play ball. "I'm worried that the habit of bribe-giving in the guise of paying respect will root deeply, although the country is trying to abolish bribery and corruption," said Ba Ba Cho, a secretary of the Myanmar Timber Merchants Association. "I think this tradition will be hard to eliminate. I'm really against this custom. "When you pay respect, you should do it from the heart. Gift [giving] is not the important matter," said Min Thu, a member of Parliament from the National League for Democracy (NLD). "It is awful that the tradition of giving respect has become part of the corruption and I'm afraid this habit will take root as a tradition." The post In Burma, Gift Hampers Are Govt Officials' Dirty Laundry appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Bad Guy Blues: Burma’s Villains Struggle to Get by Posted: 24 Oct 2013 01:51 AM PDT People walk in front of a cinema in Rangoon on Oct. 1, 2007. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — In a dimly lit alley on a cramped side street of a teeming Southeast Asian city, the bad guys cluster together, plotting their next move. There is A Yaing Min, the "King of Cruelty," who twirls his mustache as he talks and cultivates a pointy beard with a pointed message: Mess with me, and I will end you. There is Myint Kyi, who has been dispatching enemies—typically with spears—since 1958. There is Phone Naing, muscular and sinewy in tight military pants, who talks only in a low snarl. Granted, these are not actual evildoers. They are longtime cinematic villains who gather each morning in a tightly packed enclave of video production houses, movie-poster studios and worse-for-wear apartment buildings that serves as the tattered ground zero of the Burmese movie industry. In the heart of Rangoon's Little Hollywood, they sit on tiny plastic chairs, glowering, spitting carmine betel-nut saliva onto the ground. They wait, and wait, and wait some more, stalking a quarry that is becoming ever more elusive: a day's work. For decades, as Burma endured dictatorship and international isolation, these actors were the twisted faces of wrongdoing that the country's struggling film industry showed the Burmese people in movies that rarely made it out of the country—and even more rarely dealt with anything that really mattered. Now this nation is opening to a wider world brimming with pop-culture choices, big-budget special effects and international bad guys who jet from Stockholm to Shanghai to wreak destruction on shiny, globalized levels. The struggle is a microcosm of change in Burma, whose military dictatorship handed power to a civilian government in 2011 after elections the previous year. What happens when the world opens up to you? For Burma's movie industry, one of the answers was this: It got harder to earn a living being evil. "The market is in trouble," says A Yaing Min, a former boxer who turned to on-screen villainy in the early 1980s and became a fixture in such Burmese staples as "The Bad Guy with a Pure Heart." "In other countries," he says, "villains don't have to walk the streets to get their jobs." Each morning, the bad guys of Rangoon and their brethren—all members of Ko Lu Chaw, or "Handsome Guy Group," effectively a trade union for cinematic villains—arrive at dawn. They take up position at outdoor breakfast stalls along 35th and 36th streets, order coffee or tea, and hope for work. It comes more rarely every day. When it does, it is hardly lucrative—a day or two on bottom-budget videos, a few dollars here and there, perhaps not even practicing the villainy that has been their bread and butter for so long. Several things made this happen. The government privatized the state-controlled film industry in 2010. Decaying theaters, unable to afford new digital systems to project DVDs, began to close; today, many sit crumbling on street corners. Films were supplanted by a sausage-grinder glut of cheap home videos made in mere days, even hours. The masses began turning away from overwrought Burmese action movies, electing—in, finally, times of tentative hope—to favor romance, comedy and supernatural horror. And, of course, the arrival of movies from India, South Korea and Thailand, plus visually arresting Hollywood epics like "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Wolverine," pointed up the lack of production values in the homegrown, B-movie culture. "I worry very much these days. I used to work nonstop. But I haven't had regular work in six months," says Phone Naing, 45, a movie villain for the last quarter century. His compatriots nodded vigorously. Things have gotten so bad, he complained, that directors will press their film technicians into service to play bad guys. "They'll be working on a set and someone will say, 'Hey, can you be a villain?'" Phone Naing says. "You use cheap villains, you get what you pay for." Membership in the villains' union helps, a bit. Some of the group's 100 members contribute money to support others. And this year, a coalition of stars got together to donate 100 bags of rice each month to the society. A Yaing Min points proudly to a recent newspaper tabloid that shows him receiving rice from actress Wut Hmone Shwe Yi, Burma's latest It girl. Burma's movie industry is organized in a unique way. Actors and actresses congregate—form unions, develop health care plans, lobby for benefits—based on the roles they play on screen. There is an aging mothers' guild, a spinsters' guild, a comedians' guild. It is typecasting, pulled into the real world. The villains' union was founded in 1990 to offer such assistance. Myint Kyi, 73, one of its founding members, talks not only of aging but of the injuries that many villains suffered during filming of acrobatic, athletic scenes that usually were done without any stuntmen. "There was no one to help us when we die, nobody to pay for our funerals or help with our hospital bills when we were injured," says the soft-spoken Myint Kyi, known for the 2000 movie "Blood: A Love Story" and probably one of the few villains seen in public wearing a fanny pack. He learned his craft from a 1950s screen villain known as "Spear Prince." It was not exactly a safe apprenticeship. "I would get cut all the time," he says. Once his mouth was cut open and he had to have surgery to fix it—on his own dime. These days, in the hierarchy of movie roles, comedians seem to fare better. Perhaps because Burma is hungry for laughter, not villainy, most movies made inside the country these days are comedies. Thus, those who make people smile are higher on the food chain. This is of no small import to the villains, befuddled by a world where the jokester outpaces the scoundrel. Just up the street, clustered around a plastic table drinking tea, the comedians see it differently. Kyaw Htoo, one of Burma's best-known, says the video industry's rise glutted the market for everyone, not just villains. And like so much media today, an easy overabundance means cheaper production values. He talks of Indian movies with multiple generations in the same movie. But in Burma, "they let Father die, they let Mother die. It's cheaper to have a boy without parents." "We face the same obstacles," Kyaw Htoo says. "There's just not enough money." The numbers seem bleak. Last year, just 17 feature films were produced, down from more than 60 five years ago, according to the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization. By contrast, more than 1,000 videos were made—and that official figure probably excludes hundreds of others, according to U Aye Kyu, a screenwriter and the organization's vice president. "When we were young, it took many months to shoot a film. Casting was careful, and people were committed," says Aye Kyu. "I'm worried. If they just show foreign films, that's bad news for Myanmar movies." One contributing factor: whether a coherent international strategy for Burmese movies eventually emerges. Few Burmese films have gone beyond the country's borders, says Tom Vick, author of "Asian Cinema: A Field Guide," and those that have are more on the serious side—hardly the crime-and-potboiler fare that these villains are accustomed to. "They've been thinking about the local audience and what a local audience wants to see. The question is, would any of these films translate well or will they only appeal to people there and just be a curiosity in other places?" says Vick, the curator of film at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer/Sackler Gallery. "They have to decide how to focus their film industry," Vick says. "Once countries open up, suddenly Hollywood dominates the movie screen. … If 'Skyfall' is taking over, what hope does a local filmmaker have?" That's precisely the worry that consumes our Central Casting of villainy down on 35th Street. Accustomed for so long to being despised and loving it, they never imagined they'd wind up at the margins of the Burmese show-business caste system, lost in a confusing landscape after being so delightfully nefarious to so many for so long. "I want to see our industry be alongside the international movie industry," says A Yaing Min, the bearded King of Cruelty. "But you have to think of the right people for the right characters, or we villains are done for." The post Bad Guy Blues: Burma's Villains Struggle to Get by appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Mandalay, a Theater Revives the Dying Art of Burmese Puppetry Posted: 23 Oct 2013 10:44 PM PDT The "royal page boy" dance. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy) MANDALAY — As night falls, a small wooden hut, near to the corner of the walls surrounding the Royal Palace, comes alive. Foreign tourists chat and buy tickets to enter into the hut, while some set up their video cameras. "It looks exactly like you!" says a female tourist, teasing her boyfriend as she points to a buck-toothed clown puppet hanging on the wall inside. The hut is the theater of Mandalay Marionettes, where visitors are treated to a performance of yoke thé—traditional Burmese puppetry, an art form developed as entertainment for Burma's royalty, once housed in the nearby palace. Marionette operas, using wooden puppets dressed as people in traditional clothes or animals, Was once a popular art form in Burma, and was used as a medium to tell stories and educate people in religion, history, literature and culture. But the scene in this small wooden building is rare in modern Burma. As the clock strikes to 8:30 pm, a traditional orchestra, or sai wine, begins tuning up, and there is a hush inside the hut. The curtain of a small stage lifts, revealing a woman playing classical songs on a Burmese harp. As well as traditional Burmese dancing, puppets depicting a cast of characters dance to the music. Scenes named "Himalayan Scene," "The Alchemist" and "The fight of the Garuda and Serpent" are performed to the lively music of the orchestra. Mandalay Marionettes' most famous dance sees a marionette of a boy dancing beside and a real boy, who moves as if he is a puppet. Founded in 1990, it is the only puppet theater in Mandalay, where hundreds of tourists enjoy the show every year. "Foreigners who come to Mandalay want to see our culture, but there are no places to see traditional shows such as puppet theater or cultural shows, even though Mandalay has more pagoda festivals then the other city," said Ma Ma Naing, founder of Mandalay Marionettes. "That's why I decided to set up a puppet theater." At first, Ma Ma Naing ran a small souvenir shop, selling decorative Burmese traditional puppets, embroidery and handicrafts. But in 1989, the words of a tourist couple pushed her to set up the puppet theater and to become a puppeteer. "A German and Philippine couple was about to buy the puppets that I was selling. Suddenly, the lady from the Philippines asked me to pull the string of the puppets and make them dance. She said she would not buy one if I could not make them dance," she said. But the puppets for sale at that time were only decorative, and Ma Ma Naing was not a practiced puppeteer. "I was saddened for I could not make them dance, not because she didn't buy my puppets," she said. Ma Ma Naing rushed to see Pan Aye, a veteran puppeteer in Mandalay, and asked for his help. "She asked me to come to her shop and perform on that same evening. I went there, bringing the Prince and Alchemist puppets and performed with songs played on cassette tape," Pan Aye recalled. The show was watched not by the couple, but by a Belgian tourist, who loved the show and subsequently bought all the decorative puppets for sale in the shop. "After the show, Ma Ma Naing told me to help her to set up a puppet theater," he said. While puppetry was once widely performed at Buddhist festivals in Burma, television and more modern forms of entertainment are now more dominant. In 1975, Burma's famous puppet artist, Shwe Bo Tin Maung, considered one of the last in a long tradition, died. Pan Aye and a group of fellow puppeteers did still perform alongside the dance performances of Mandalay artist Thein Zaw, but after Burma's 1988 uprising against the military regime, public celebrations become less and less frequent. "During the uprising in 1988 and the years of unrest that followed, we were pushed away from the stage again and depressed. From that time, there were no puppet shows in Mandalay region," Pan Aye said. "When Ma Ma Naing told me to do more puppet shows, I had no faith because I saw clearly that people's interest in puppets had already flown away," he said. "But when she told me that her puppet show was to show off the tradition to the foreigners, I felt that I would be a puppeteer again so I agreed to work with her." From a small stage set up in the living room of her mother's home, Ma Ma Naing's Mandalay Marionettes has become popular with tourists to Mandalay, Burma's cultural center. In peak tourist season the show is booked out in advance, with foreigners paying 10,000 kyat, or US$10, for the show. "I'm so glad that I could somehow help this dying art to prevent it from disappearing. I'm honored that the veteran puppet artists like Pan Aye joined us and encouraged us to maintain the culture and show it off to the world", said Ma Ma Naing. The theater's popularity has seen the puppeteers invited to perform at international events, including in France, Germany, the United States, Finland, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand. "I'm honored and proud to represent Burmese puppeteers," said Pan Aye. "I'm glad to hear praise from foreigners. They say our Burmese puppets are unique and dance more wonderfully than other kinds of puppets because they can dance almost likely with the human." However, Pan Aye said, Burmese rarely come to the show, although entrance is free for locals. He was saddened, he said, that the tradition was not more valued among Burmese people. "It's dying," he said, "not because of the lack of the professional puppeteers, but because of the lack of audience." The post In Mandalay, a Theater Revives the Dying Art of Burmese Puppetry appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Punishments Reduced, But Burma’s Harsh Online Law Remains Posted: 23 Oct 2013 10:42 PM PDT A man surfs the web at an Internet cafe in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma's restrictive Electronic Transactions Law, under which political dissidents were in the past imprisoned for sending or receiving "detrimental" e-mails, remains in place for now, though work continues to have the code revised or replaced. This week Rangoon parliamentarian Thein Nyunt won the consent of fellow Lower House MPs to have punishments under the law reduced, with lawmakers voting to replace prison sentences with a system of fines. Citing his previous attempts to have the law removed or overhauled, the New National Democratic Party MP told The Irrawaddy that "I brought this law up before Parliament four times during all the sessions of Parliament held since the government was formed." The Electronic Transactions Law dates back to 2004 and includes up to 15 years' prison time for "acts by using electronic transactions technology" deemed "detrimental to the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or community peace and tranquility or national solidarity or national economy or national culture." And while those lengthy jail terms are to be abolished, Thein Nyunt believes that such changes don't go far enough. "The law should be removed or at least amended," he said. The law includes a vaguely worded ban on "receiving or sending and distributing any information relating to secrets of the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or community peace and tranquility or national solidarity or national economy or national culture." Among the better-known public figures jailed under the law were former student protestor Ko Ko Gyi and comedian Zarganar. However, despite the seeming reluctance of MPs to bin or even substantially revise the existing law, reformists are not giving up. The Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF) will meet next week to discuss what it hopes will be a wide-ranging new draft law, which it will push to either replace the current code or be used as a template for revision. "We will include some sections on e-commerce, while some sections of the law we will modify, and some sections we will add as new," said Myint Myint Than, the MCF's director. She would not comment on when the new draft would be put before Parliament. "We may have a public consultation on the draft after our meeting on Monday," she told The Irrawaddy. Those involved in putting the draft together include the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), a group headed by blogger Nay Phone Latt, who also did time under the Electronic Transactions Law. MIDO's Vice Executive Director Nyi Nyi Thanlwin told The Irrawaddy that while the new draft was needed soon, activists also need to keep an eye on related regulations, such as the telecommunications rules—which have to be put in place within 90 days of the recently passed Telecommunications Law's enactment. The telecoms codes will, MIDO says, have a bearing on what needs to be drawn up to replace the existing Electronic Transactions Law. Work on replacing or redrafting the Electronic Transactions Law has been ongoing for several months. Online businesses and activists have suggested that, as well as needing a revamped Electronic Transactions Law, Burma will need separate laws covering areas such as cyber-crime and online pornography. "I think the government may come up with a draft cyber-crime law, but it is early days yet," Nyi Nyi Thanlwin said. Additional reporting by Htet Naing Zaw. The post Punishments Reduced, But Burma's Harsh Online Law Remains appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Canadian Weed Finds Export Market in Asia Posted: 23 Oct 2013 10:27 PM PDT A Burmese anti-narcotics officer stands in front of stacks of seized marijuana during a drug burning ceremony in June. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) HANOI — For the young Vietnamese dope smokers rolling up outside a smart Hanoi cafe, local cannabis is just not good enough. As with their Adidas caps, IPhones and Sanskrit tattoos, so with their choice of bud: Only foreign will do. Potent marijuana grown indoors in Canada and the United States is easy to buy in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, say regular smokers, and it sells for up to 10 times the price of locally grown weed. That’s perhaps surprising given that marijuana is easy to cultivate regionally, and bringing drugs across continents is expensive and risky. Some experts say the trade can be explained by the dominant role Vietnamese diaspora gangs play in cultivating the drug in Western countries, making sourcing the product and smuggling it to Vietnam an easier proposition than it might be otherwise. The characteristics of cannabis use in the country also drive the trade. The drug is used mostly by foreigners and well-heeled Vietnamese, who are prepared to pay for quality. Vietnamese have long shown preferences for imported goods of all kinds — and it appears cannabis is no exception. Regardless of the reasons, its availability in Vietnam is a sign of how hydroponic growing techniques have shaken up the global marijuana business. In the 1960s and 70s, marijuana went from plantations in countries such as Thailand, India and Morocco to wealthy consumer markets in the West. Now, many Western countries are self-sufficient in the weed because of indoor cultivation, and export is on the agenda. Western-grown cannabis is also appearing in Japan and South Korea. Unlike Vietnam, both are wealthy, developed nations with climates ill-suited to cultivation. They too have seen a shift in supply from countries in the region such as India and Thailand to North America and Europe, law enforcement authorities there say. The smokers sitting outside the Hanoi cafe, a short walk from the city’s famed French-era Opera House, seemed proud they were able to buy foreign, expensive buds, boasting their city was like a "mini Amsterdam." But as the tightly rolled joints went round, they struggled to explain why Western weed was available. "Some people raise cows," said one, a tattoo shop owner with a passion for big bikes and Facebook. "Other people prefer to buy steak at the market." Like other smokers interviewed for this story, he declined to give his name because cannabis is illegal in Vietnam. Vietnamese diaspora criminal gangs got into the marijuana cultivation business in North America in the 1980s. Having found a niche, they expanded and now account for much of the business across Europe also. Martin Bouchard, a professor in criminology at Canada’s Simon Fraser University and expert in the cannabis trade, said he was unaware that Canadian-grown weed was showing up in Vietnam but that it could be explained. "The quality and reputation of the Canadian cannabis is such that it could be worth the trouble and cost of importing," he said. "The diaspora connections probably make this easier and cheaper than it normally would." Smokers said one gram of Canadian retails for anything up to 45 US dollars, the average weekly wage in the country. Mid quality hydroponically grown marijuana sells for about 10 dollars a gram in the United States and Canada. Smokers, quoting dealers, said some of the weed comes into the country via the northern port in Haiphong, a city that has a reputation for the import and export of illegal goods as well as the laundering of drug profits by diaspora growing gangs. Other channels included smuggling by flight crew in liquor boxes or the postal service. "They charge a ridiculous premium, but the quality compared to the local stuff is ridiculously different," said one expatriate English teacher who before arriving in Vietnam had worked for seven months on a farm for medical marijuana in California. "It’s good for special occasions." There are no public statistics on cannabis use in Vietnam, but it is a niche product without a long history of use like say in India. The drug’s well documented use by American soldiers during the Vietnam War is credited by some for introducing or popularizing it. Speaking after a UN-organized media conference on drug use in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, Lt. Gen. Do Kim Tuyen, a deputy director general at the Ministry of Public Security, said he was unaware of details of the cannabis trade in Vietnam. Canadian police didn’t directly answer questions on the flow into Vietnam, but said in a statement they were committed to "directing attention and resources to combating the illegal drug trade both domestically and internationally." Tun Nay Soe, an expert at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Thailand, put the business down to the social cachet of using imported, better quality product. He said a similar pattern could be detected with ecstasy use in Asia, where tablets imported from Europe are more expensive than regionally produced ones. "On the one hand, there is enough supply here, so we really don’t need things coming from other parts of the world," he said. "But when we talk about high potency cannabis, then it is a different story. Among the elite and rich kids, this is like a trend: ‘let’s not use local stuff, it is rubbish.’" A US State Department report on drugs in Vietnam in 2012 said that there was little cultivation or production of illicit drugs in Vietnam, but noted that it was becoming a transshipment destination for amphetamine in part because of corruption at border points. "A certain level of corruption, both among lower-level enforcement personnel and higher-level officials, is consistent with the fairly large-scale movement of narcotics into and out of Vietnam," it said. While smokers say those who sell and use cannabis face arrest, cracking down on the use of the drug is a not a priority for Vietnamese authorities, which are more concerned with heroin and amphetamine. Some users thought many officers didn’t know what it was. Those smoking outside the cafe were not worried about being caught. "We are nice boys, sitting in a nice place," one said. "There is no problem." The post Canadian Weed Finds Export Market in Asia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Thousands March in Cambodian Opposition Protest Posted: 23 Oct 2013 10:17 PM PDT Sam Rainsy, president of the National Rescue Party, addresses his supporters at the Cambodia National Rescue Party office in Phnom Penh on Aug. 16, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Samrang Pring) PHNOM PENH — Thousands of Cambodian opposition supporters marched through the capital Wednesday to deliver a petition to the United Nations urging it to intervene in what they say was a rigged election that illegitimately returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power. The march kicked off a three-day rally marking the opposition’s latest push to demand an independent probe into alleged cheating in the July 28 election. Hundreds of bystanders lined the 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) route, cheering "Change!" as the protesters walked past waving Cambodian flags. The march snarled traffic along one of Phnom Penh’s major boulevards as the protesters walked from Freedom Park, where thousands more protesters had gathered, to the U.N. human rights headquarters in the city. In total, about 15,000 protesters turned out, according to the human rights group Licadho. "We have asked the United Nations to help to find justice for the Cambodian people," opposition leader Sam Rainsy told reporters after delivering the petition. "They promised they will send those petitions to the U.N. headquarters in New York." The opposition said some 2 million supporters thumb-printed the petition. Official election results extended Hun Sen’s 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in Parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. The CNRP says it was cheated out of a victory and will boycott the new Parliament until the government has met its demands. The new demonstrations coincide with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for UN-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. Opposition leaders say that in the next two days they will deliver petitions to several embassies of countries that signed the agreements, including France, Britain and the US. More than 1,000 police and soldiers were put on duty for the protest, which authorities said they would allow as long as there is no violence. Military police spokesman Kheng Tito has said authorities were ordered to take a softer line on this rally than on one in September, when clashes with police left one man dead and several injured. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy assured the protest would be peaceful. "If there is any violence, it will not come from us," he said. Human Rights Watch echoed the CNRP’s calls for an investigation. "Cambodia’s donors and other countries should publicly press the Cambodian government to set up an independent, internationally assisted investigation into disputed national elections in July 2013," the New York-based rights group said in a statement Wednesday. The group’s Asia director, Brad Adams, criticized France, Australia and Japan for sending congratulatory letters to Prime Minister Hun Sen, saying in the statement that "democratic leaders should skip the congratulations and instead insist on an independent investigation into malfeasance at the polls." The post Thousands March in Cambodian Opposition Protest appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China, India Sign Border Cooperation Agreement Posted: 23 Oct 2013 10:05 PM PDT India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, inspects the guard of honor with China’s Premier Li Keqiang during a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Oct. 23, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING — China and India sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship Wednesday as they signed an agreement to boost meetings between their militaries to avoid any repeat of this year's tense standoff along their disputed Himalayan border. The accord followed a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also had trade ties on the agenda as India seeks to gain greater access to Chinese markets and readjust a trade balance tilted heavily toward China. The two sides agreed to boost communication about border maneuvers, hold periodic meetings at designated crossing points, and have patrols refrain from any provocations. They agreed that patrols should not follow or "tail" patrols of the other side in contested areas. "I am sure it will help to maintain peace, tranquility and stability in our border areas," Li said of the accord. Li, who said the meeting injected "new vitality" into China-India relations, said the two sides also agreed to hold joint counterterrorism training in southwest China at an early date, strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs, and work together to tackle terrorism. Another accord signed by the countries enables a Chinese power equipment service center in India, and Li said China stood ready to help India with railway construction. The two sides also are exploring a trade corridor, said Singh, who expressed concern about the countries' "unsustainable trade balance." India ran a US$39 billion trade deficit with China over the last fiscal year. With growing economies and a combined population of 2.5 billion, the two neighbors have set a target of $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2015, up from $61.5 billion last year. "The huge gap between us and them in terms of overall material power is massive. It creates a lot of anxieties," said Sreeram Chaulia, an international affairs expert at Jindal School of International Affairs in New Delhi. "One way to address it would be to increase Chinese investment in India," he said. But he added, "In India, we are wary of Chinese investment, particularly in sectors like telecommunications or critical infrastructure. There is this fear that one day China is going to rule us." The two leaders played up positive aspects of their meeting, with Singh saying they had "candid and constructive discussions" on regional and global issues. "This is one of the promising developments in our relationship," Singh said. Relations between China and India are overshadowed by a decades-old border dispute over which they fought a brief but bloody war in 1962. More than a dozen rounds of talks have failed to resolve the issue, and the two sides had a three-week standoff at their frontier earlier this year. India said that Chinese soldiers launched incursions several kilometers across the Line of Actual Control at the Himalayan frontier between the sides in May, though China denied setting foot anywhere but on Chinese territory. On Tuesday, India decorated eight members of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police for their roles in the standoff. The force is responsible for guarding most of the roughly 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) border with China, most of it running over snowy mountain ranges. China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) of land in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, while India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of territory on the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas. They also face other tensions. China is a longtime ally and weapons supplier to Pakistan, India's bitter rival, and has been building strong ties with Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, feeding Indian fears of encirclement. China, meanwhile, is wary of India's growing ties with the United States. Ashwin Kaja, a lawyer leading an initiative to establish a China-India institute at Beijing's Renmin University and Jindal University in Sonipat, India, said Wednesday's agreements and statements signaled a more positive tone in China-India relations. "In the last few years the relationship between the two countries has run into some turbulent times," he said, adding that measures to "start rebuilding trust and cooperation are very important." The post China, India Sign Border Cooperation Agreement appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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