Thursday, May 22, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

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Democratic Voice of Burma

World Bank to boost Burma’s education system
Raid on SSA-S ‘badly affected’ trust
Natmauk farmers protest land confiscations
Burma Chamber of Commerce says US sanctions ‘not a big issue’

World Bank to boost Burma’s education system

Posted: 22 May 2014 03:56 AM PDT

The World Bank has announced it will provide US$100 million to expand the Burmese Ministry of Education's School Grants and School Stipends Programme.

The money comes in the form of the World Bank's Decentralising Funding to Schools Project, designed to ensure funding is made available to schools in impoverished, often overlooked areas.

According to the World Bank, current operating grant allotment to schools by the Ministry of Education is $250 per year for small schools, rising to $400 for medium-sized schools and $500 for large schools. In backing the existing government grant programme, the World Bank intends to lift this figure to targets of $900, $12,000 and $18,000, respective of school size.

Eleven-thousand children currently receive government-sponsored stipends to attend school under the School Grants and School Stipends Programme. The World Bank hopes to raise that to 100,000.

In a 20 May press release, the World Bank stated that "About 8.2 million students in Myanmar [Burma] will benefit from better-financed schools and more than 100,000 poor students will receive financial support to attend classes" by virtue of the project, funded by the World Bank's International Development Association ($80 million) and the government of Australia ($20 million).

The stipend programme is to be rolled out over the next three years and is to include 40 townships across Burma.

While it is unclear whether schools will be required to spend the extra funds in particular ways, such as teacher training, the World Bank has issued operational guidelines for recipient-schools which encourage planning, transparency and community involvement in administering funds.

Further to this, according to the 20 May statement, the allocation of funds will be linked to measurable results, which the World Bank said was designed to make "sure that Ministry of Education's focus will be on delivering results and building a data base to track the progress of students."

The Bank has indicated that the grants and stipends programme will improve the quality of education available to school children in ethnic areas in particular.

Such a result would be welcomed by lobby groups such as US Campaign for Burma, who on Wednesday urged the World Bank to prioritise closing the gap in educational outcomes across Burma's ethnic groups.

"It should be a priority for the World Bank and reformers in the Burmese government to reduce social and ethnic disparities in the school system, which have long been implemented by the Ministry of Education," said Rachel Wagley, policy director of US Campaign for Burma.

"It’s critical to ensure that Bank engagement with the Ministry emphasises the promotion of conscientious education policy in ethnic areas, drawing on consultations with ethnic civil society and other groups that have faced deliberate educational discrimination in Burma over the past several decades."

In 2012, reforms instituted by the current Union government allowed for languages other than Burmese to be studied at schools in ethnic areas, however only outside of official school hours. Despite this development, there remains a discrepancy in funding between schools in majority and ethnic areas.

Raid on SSA-S ‘badly affected’ trust

Posted: 22 May 2014 02:59 AM PDT

A recent raid on a rebel liaison office in Kengtung, Shan State, seriously undermined Burma's peace process, the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) said on Wednesday.

Marking the 56th anniversary of the Shan resistance on 21 May, the ethnic political body issued a public statement condemning the action and the central government's sluggish response to what they consider an extreme breach of trust.

The RCSS claims that on 6 May, more than 20 Burmese police and military officials "raided" a liaison office of the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), the group's armed wing. According to the RCSS, the intruders had no warrant and gave no prior notice.

Seven liaison offices were authorised under a ceasefire reached between the SSA-S and the government in 2011. Unwarranted entry and inspection of their offices risks damaging the country's ongoing ethnic dialogue, the statement said, stressing that if something "goes wrong" with the peace process, "it is not the fault of the RCSS.”

The reprimand was issued on the same day that bilateral peace talks reconvened in Rangoon. The Union Peace-making Work Committee, a team of government negotiators, met with the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) on Wednesday for a two-day conference aimed at drafting a single-text nationwide peace pact.

The RCSS is not a member of the NCCT, but is currently under statewide ceasefire with the central government and has attended some national peace accord conferences. Although the SSA-S has had a state peace agreement for three years, the statement warns that, "if it is not possible to use peaceful means to solve the political problems, there is no choice but to continue the armed struggle until political aims are achieved."

The intrusion into the Kengtung facility occurred one day after a politician from a dominant Shan political party, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, was allegedly abducted and beaten by Burmese soldiers in Nam Lin Mai, also in Kengtung Township. The party claims that the victim now faces charges for violating the Unlawful Associations Act.

The Shan State People's Resistance Day, designated 21 May, commemorates the day when a group of revolutionaries took up arms and began the struggle for independence and self-determination in 1958, ten years after Burma's independence from Britain and the signing of the Panglong Agreement in 1947, which remained unhonoured.

Resistance Day celebrations this year were held at SSA-S headquarters in Loi Taileng. More than 1,000 troops paraded at the event. The event is also celebrated by the state's other armed group, the Shan State Army-North, headquartered in Wanhai.

Natmauk farmers protest land confiscations

Posted: 22 May 2014 01:42 AM PDT

Dozens of farmers in Natmauk Township, Magwe Division, rallied on Wednesday to demand return of lands lost in three separate land grabs over the past seven years.

The demonstration was held with official permission from local authorities and no arrests have been reported in relation to the event.

The protest was led by Zaw Min Htike, a local farmer who told DVB that people from 19 villages around Natmauk had been forced to give up their farmland by the Magwe Division government in 2007 to make way for a gas pipeline.

Zaw Min Htike estimated that thousands of acres of land had been lost.

In 2010, local farmers were again displaced by the construction of a railroad linking Natmauk to Magwe, the division's capital. The Magwe Air Force Command later removed villagers from farms on the pretext of building an airfield.

"The Air Force took over the land and offered as little as 5,000 kyat [US$5] compensation per acre, then they walled off the confiscated plots," said Zaw Min Htike.

Phoe Phyu, a rights lawyer specialising in labour and land confiscation issues, has been assisting the Natmauk farmers. He said that in this case the majority of the land was confiscated by government officials and companies for their own personal financial gain.

"Most of the projects used as pretense for the seizures never materialised. In the end, the locals have just lost land," Phoe Phyu said. "The gas pipe was constructed across farmland, destroying many toddy trees in the process, and no compensation whatsoever was paid.

"Procedures for land acquisition in upper-central Burma are not in conformity with the law."

In 2012, Burma's parliament passed a land reform package that included the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law, which some analysts have criticised for leaving farmers particularly vulnerable. The legislation allows the government to acquire lands "in the national interest", but also stipulates that they must be returned if projects aren't completed.

Land rights have become a defining issue of Burma's reform period, which began in 2011. Farmers in particular have come forth for demonstrations nationwide, demanding the right to work and retain their lands.

Burma Chamber of Commerce says US sanctions ‘not a big issue’

Posted: 21 May 2014 10:09 PM PDT

The renewal of some US sanctions on Burma will not harm economic relations between the two countries, according to the Union of Myanmar [Burma] Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

"I don't see how this can have a significant impact as the sanctions were already in place and are just being renewed," said Maung Maung Lay, vice-president of the UMFCCI. "We're already at rock-bottom so the only direction for us is up."

Last week US President Barack Obama signed onto a one-year extension of the National Emergency Act, which limits some investments and military exchanges. Obama cited ongoing conflict and human rights abuse as cause for the extension.

After the lifting of most economic sanctions against Burma in 2012, the US fielded requests to preserve the restriction as a means of acknowledging known abuses that have continued despite Burma's reform process. The Burmese government maintains, however, that the decision won't damage their relationship.

"Basically this isn't a big issue for companies and businessmen who are familiar with the situation," Maung Maung Lay said, adding that a group of US-based companies and the UMFCCI are planning a conference in New York in September.

Not everyone shares this optimism. Win Kyiang, general-secretary of the Myanmar Fishery Federation, said the renewal of limited sanctions indicates that business incentives in Burma are about to slow, and the designation of Generalised System of Preference (GSP) benefits could be a distant goal.

"Renewal of the sanctions implies that we may not enjoy GSP privileges anytime soon, and, as I see it, this could hinder our fish trade with the US," said Win Kyiang.

The European Union, however, reinstated Burma's GSP status in 2013.

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Thursday, May 22, 2014