The Irrawaddy Magazine

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Dateline Irrawaddy: ‘Cartoonists Have Been on the Side of the People’ Posted: 09 Oct 2015 08:30 PM PDT On this week's Dateline, cartoonists Maung Maung Aung and Win Aung discuss the Burmese cartoon tradition. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) Aye Chan Myae: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. This year marks 100 years since comics were introduced to Burma. I have invited cartoonists to discuss what is needed for the artform to develop and the relationship between cartoons and journalism. Artists Maung Maung Aung and Win Aung will join me for the discussion. I am Irrawaddy editor Aye Chan Myae. This year marks the centenary of the introduction of cartoons into Burma. Cartoonists have gone through various experiences in that time. U Win Aung, what is your view on the experiences of cartoonists in political, social and economic aspects in 100 years? Win Aung: I don't see Burmese cartoons having a smooth history in the later period of this timeframe. Burmese cartoons have a good origin story. Sayagyi Shwetalay started his cartoon work in the period of the independence struggle. Though Burma was at that time under colonial rule, there was a certain degree of freedom of expression. Burma then regained its independence, and in the time of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, there was also freedom of expression. The most striking example is cartoons of Saya U Ba Gyan, and taking at look at them, one can know (that there was freedom of expression). Then there came the caretaker government, then the Revolutionary Council, and finally one-party dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP). Then, the degree of freedom of expression cartoonists had enjoyed gradually decreased. Cartoonists had fewer things to draw cartoons about. ACM: We have gone through the time of BSPP and its successor. Cartoonists enjoyed a good time at first. Then there were restrictions in the time of the BSPP. But, cartoon played an important part in every political evolution of Burma. Cartoonists took part in it. U Maung, things have changed very swiftly today and with the proliferation of social media, cartoonists can draw very freely. And there are lots of cartoonists. Whether people like their work or not, it is undeniable that the number of cartoonists has increased significantly. There are also many young cartoonists who draw for fun in this age of social media and democracy. U Maung, would you tell me about the situation of cartoonists and their freedom of expression in this age? Maung Maung Aung: I have now written cartoons for around 45 years. In these 45 years, cartoonists have been on the side of the people, reflecting the economic, social and political situations of the country. Now, it seems that we get somewhat more freedom after years of restriction. So, more people are drawing cartoons. There are two types of cartoonist. The first are cartoonists who takes the art form as his life and the second are opportunistic cartoonists. There has been some impact on those who have continuously engaged in cartoon art with deep faith. There is an unwritten code of conduct among cartoonists, according to what we have learnt from our seniors. Previously, there were prohibitions on things such as mocking the poor and the disabled and making personal attacks. It is more important (not to do such things) in this democratic era. To an artist, democracy is like a double-edged sword. While it can be used to stab others, it can also hurt the artist. So, it is not true that cartoonists can draw as they please. They will have to take responsibility for their actions when the law of democracy flourishes for some time. ACM: We journalists also have a code of ethics. Whether there is press scrutiny or not, we have to operate according to our ethics. Cartoonists have their own ethics. There should be ethics in any field of arts. What do you think of ethics among cartoonists, U Win Aung? Would you compare the code of conduct that respected cartoonists have previous observed and the situation at present? WA: Mainly, what is important for a cartoonist is his faith. Cartoonists should make sure their creations reflect the life of people. Many say that cartoonists or journalists should not be biased, but must be neutral. It is wrong. They should have bias. They must. By bias, I don't mean prejudice. If one side is right and another is wrong, which side they would stand for? Of those who oppress and those who are oppressed, which side they would stand for? They have to take a position. If a cartoonist has adopted a firm position and are to draw cartoons from that position, they have to think about ethics. As Saya Maung Maung has said, we are not supposed to write cartoons focusing on personal and racial feelings. For example, if the political system is bad, we can draw things about those who create that system, but we are not supposed to draw things about the personal lives of the creators of that system. ACM: Cartoonists should understand that? WA: Yes, they should understand and also observe it. Today, some have written dirty things. They use foul language in text. They should avoid personal attacks and foulness in illustrations and texts. I would like to give an example of a cartoon by U Ba Gyan. When the Pyitawtha Project came to failure, U Ba Gyan drew a cartoon about the corruption of the ministers of U Nu government. He used words such as 'traitor', 'stooge' and 'fat cat'. He also used the word 'goat bell'. Excuse me for being rude. By goat bell he meant the testicles of the goat which rock from side to side. He used subtle illustrations and texts. He used the word goat bell and covered that part of the goat with a piece of cloth in illustrating it. ACM: Burma's cartoon tradition has reached its centenary and there has been a struggle in its history. While there are cartoonists who value and devote their whole life to cartoons, there are also people today who draw without professional skills today. Some don't even use pens—they use computers instead. It has become very easy to draw cartoons. What is your assessment of the quality of cartoons today? MMA: It depends on the situations we have gone through. In successive periods, we are like a person standing at the edge of a chasm. Drawing cartoons does not provide a secure livelihood, but we can't help drawing. I will continue working this job and I have to think about how to survive with it. Again, a cartoonist needs to have creative ideas and expertise. When we were young cartoonists, editors played a very important role. They asked us to change things if our ideas and illustrations were not good enough. We have passed through such an age and it was beneficial to us. In the past, it was very difficult to be a cartoonist. Without expertise, it was impossible to become a cartoonist. But today, it is easy to enter and get a place in the cartoon world, and different people have entered. This affects the cartoon world, decreases the quality of cartoons and cartoonists. The aesthetic quality of our tradition has declined. WA: There are people who enter the cartoon field by drawing an issue without knowing the basics of art. It is editors who have to decide if their drawings are cartoons or not. ACM: Cartoonists have to accept (rejection) if editors give them good reasons. Only then can the quality of cartoons be better. We have grown up in the company of cartoons and we love cartoons very much. I wanted to see cartoonists since I was a child. So, we want our children to love cartoons and cartoon characters. So, I think the cartoons must be of good quality. WA: Speaking of quality, I would like to stress the important role of the editor. I'd like to give you an example. When U Win Tin (the late patron of the NLD and seasoned journalist) moved to the Hanthawaddy newspaper house to Mandalay and published the newspaper there as the chief editor, cartoonists emerged in large numbers in Mandalay. There were as many as 60. And there were lots of good cartoons. The period was even dubbed the Hanthawaddy cartoon era. So, a good editor can turn out many cartoonists. There remains many cartoonists nurtured by the Hanthawaddy newspaper. The role of the editor is very important. ACM: Your discussion is very interesting. I wish cartoonists great success and progress, on the occasion of the centenary of Burmese cartoons. Thank you both for your contribution. The post Dateline Irrawaddy: 'Cartoonists Have Been on the Side of the People' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (Oct. 10, 2015) Posted: 09 Oct 2015 08:23 PM PDT Commuters move along Stilwell road in Lido town, about 600 km (373 miles) from Guwahati, a major city in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, August 19, 2005. (Photo: Reuters) Has Burma's 'Social Spending' Surpassed Military Expenditure? With the country going to the polls in less than a month, it seems an opportune time to assess the progress that President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government has made in reversing one of the more damaging longstanding policies of Burma's rulers. Successive military leaders focused large amounts of the national budget toward the armed forces, at the expense of education and health spending. When Thein Sein took the reins in early 2011, social spending was among the lowest in the world, even as government coffers were already filling with new revenue from offshore gas fields. The results: Foreign investors regularly complain that education levels among the workforce are a major obstacle to modernizing the economy, and those who can afford it—especially the families of government officials—still fly to foreign cities for health care. Education spending was just 0.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, and health spending was just 0.2 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank. The true scale of military expenditure, officially estimated somewhere around 4 percent of GDP, is hard to know, given the opacity of departmental spending and the military's numerous companies that control large segments of the economy. The World Bank this week published its "Myanmar Economic Monitor" for 2015, which included the news that the economy may grow less than expected next year, depending on how serious the impacts of this year's flooding turn out to be on agricultural production. The detail of the Bank's report had some praise for the government in addressing what it diplomatically calls "gaps in public service delivery." The government has begun to "rebalance" its spending, thanks to improved tax collection, it said. Government revenue amounted to 11 percent of GDP in 2014, compared with just 6 percent in 2009. According to the report, total spending on "social services" has increased from 10 to 33 percent of government spending between 2009 and 2014. But the Bank went further, claiming that a major milestone had been reached in government spending in the 2015-16 budget, which it refers to as the Union Budget Law (UBL). "Social services for the first time constitutes the largest share of the UBL (3.9 percent of GDP compared to 3.77 percent for defense)…." it said. "Whilst defense spending remains high compared to other countries, it continues to trend down both as a share of GDP and as a share of the budget." This apparent turnaround would give the incumbent government an opportunity to boast its reformist credentials to the electorate. It would also be a helpful factoid for those wanting to dismiss claims that Thein Sein's administration, packed with former military officials, has not dented the primacy of the military in government policy. But Sean Turnell, an economist at Macquarie University in Sydney and an economic advisor Burma's opposition, accused the World Bank of using figures that distort the true picture. "Health and education spending is falling as a proportion of GDP, and together continue to track well-below spending on the military," he said in a Facebook post in response to the World Bank's update. "This distorted relativity has long been a pathology in Burma, is highly unusual, and is not 'called out' enough. "There is, in my view, no better indicator of a government's priorities." He explained that the World Bank was "lumping in" other spending, including pensions for government staff, within its "social spending" category, along with education and health spending. Additionally, plenty of "off-book" military spending is ignored in the Bank's report, Turnell argued. "This new metric is without utility in my view, and only serves to blind us to the realities in Burma," Turnell said. Work to Begin on Renewed 'Ledo Road' Kachin State Chief Minister La John Ngan Hsai has reportedly said that work will begin this month on a new Chinese-backed version of the "Ledo Road" that played a major role in World War Two in Burma. The road connected the border town of Ledo, in northeast India's Assam, with the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, and was intended to allow goods to be transported from British India to nationalist China, avoiding the areas of Burma then under Japanese control. It was also known as the Stilwell Road, after the American general who oversaw its construction in the early 1940s. Chinese state-owned newswire Xinhua reported last week comments by the state minister saying that Chinese regional authorities were cooperating on a new highway along the route. "As part of Kachin’s development efforts, the project will be constructed in two phases under a build-operate-transfer system with Baoshan regional authorities and local companies," La John Ngan Hsa was quoted saying. "For the first three years, the project will cover construction of the road section between [Myitkyina] and [Tanai], while for the second three-year phase will be the section between [Tanai] and [Pansaung], he disclosed. "Coordination is also being made with Dehong regional authorities [in China's Yunnan Province] for the building of another section between Lwejie and Momauk, he added." While the original road was constructed in wartime, the Xinhua report did not mention the ongoing conflict in Kachin State, where clashes continue to erupt between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army. Vietnamese Bank Claims to Be Next Burma Entrant Officials from Vietnam's BIDV have claimed the bank is next in line to receive approval to enter Burma's nascent market for foreign banks, according to Reuters. BIDV said it had been assured by President Thein Sein that it would be allowed to offer banking services in the country next year, the newswire reported. The bank failed to win one of nine licenses handed to overseas banks this year that allow them to offer a limited range of services to customers in Burma. "In a statement, it said Myanmar President Thein Sein had on Tuesday told BIDV’s chairman 'the government will give priority to BIDV'," Reuters said. Australia's ANZ Banking Group, Bangkok Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, as well as a clutch of Japanese banks, are among the nine banks that have already opened branches in Rangoon. Burma Considering 'Safeguards' to Stop Price Dumping Amid concerns among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that increased economic integration will have negative impacts, an advisor to the Commerce Ministry has said legislation will be enacted to prevent foreign companies dumping low-cost goods in the country, according to state media. Dumping occurs when overseas companies offload goods at below their market price. While not strictly illegal under international trade rules, it can cripple local industries, which may struggle to compete with larger competitors overseas. The Global New Light of Myanmar reported comments from the adviser, Maung Aung, saying the law was needed before the Asean Economic Community (AEC) begins to come into force. The AEC officially begins next year but is expected to be implemented more slowly following concerns that the region is not ready for the envisioned single market. "During his presentation, the adviser said that levels of imports continue to increase following the country's economic reforms combined with trade relaxation and the implementation of the AEC," he said. "He highlighted the importance of laws that allow small and medium-sized enterprises to call on the government for imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties and safeguard measures." Philippines Power Company 'Scouting for Ventures' in Burma The Philippines' second-largest electricity producer is eyeing a new venture in Burma, according to a Bloomberg report this week. Aboitiz Power Corp. is looking to expand in the Southeast Asian region as domestic projects begin to look less attractive, the report said, quoting a financial analyst. The company is involved in hydroelectric and geothermal energy projects, as well as "non-renewable power plants" across its home country, according to its website. Aboitiz Power is planning to have built a portfolio of projects producing a total of 4,000 megawatts in the Philippines by 2020, the Bloomberg report said. Chief Executive Officer Erramon Aboitiz told Bloomberg that the company was set to "scout for ventures" in Burma, as well as in Vietnam. The company has already entered agreements to develop power projects in Indonesia. "We want to stay close to home," he was quoted saying. Indonesia, Vietnam and Burma are "the countries that pose the best opportunity for us. We've chosen ASEAN because we can add value in these places," the CEO said, adding that Aboitiz Power may invest $500 million in regional projects in the next five years. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (Oct. 10, 2015) appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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