Monday, September 4, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Analysis: Modi in Myanmar

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 08:27 AM PDT

When the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Napyitaw on Monday evening, he will not likely have time to look forward to his much-touted visit to the ancient city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done stellar work to renovate the Ananda Temple after a 2016 earthquake.

This visit by the PM comes at a critical juncture for both India and for Myanmar, as both countries face similar problems of armed rebellions, a rise in ultra-nationalistic forces, threats of growing radical Islamic insurgencies, and a need for overall development.

While on the democracy quotient, India may be ahead of Myanmar, and there are perhaps lessons for the latter to learn that could strengthen its own democratization process since the National League for Democracy (NLD) government was voted to power in 2015.

So what will PM Modi discuss with President U Htin Kyaw and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar's capital? Their plates are full. Talks are likely to start with a routine review of developments in bilateral relations, with a focus on the development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India has been undertaking in Myanmar.

However, between the mundane reviews, Modi seems poised to bring up the issue of strengthening existing cooperation between India and Myanmar on security and counter-terrorism. India has arguably been worried by the recent turn of events in northern Rakhine State, where a Muslim insurgency has taken root. These concerns are well founded, given that India shares a 1,643-kilometer boundary with Myanmar and some northeastern Indian states like Mizoram and Tripura are in close proximity to the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh, near northern Rakhine.

Worries probably reach beyond the insurgency itself and toward the fallout of the conflict, in which Rakhine Hindus too have come under attack, with several reportedly killed, along with Muslims and Buddhists. The plight of the Muslim Rohingya community of northern Rakhine—referred to as "Bengalis" by the Burmese government in order to identify them as interlopers from Bangladesh—continues to be a concern. Recently the Indian government came under international pressure to stop the potential deportation of more than 40,000 Rohingya refugees. Even the national human rights commission had on August 18 questioned the move and wrote to the Indian home ministry, asking for a detailed report within four weeks.

The only news that has emanated from the Indian government on how Prime Minister Modi plans to address this issue is from Sripriya Ranganathan, a senior officer in India's foreign ministry. She told reporters recently that the issue of the Rohingya in India will feature in the discussions between PM Modi and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her government. Ranganathan has been quoted in the Indian media as saying, "We will be discussing how India can help them in addressing the situation that is prevailing in the state."

In the past India has been very careful so as not to interfere with any of Myanmar's internal conflicts in Myanmar, including those in Rakhine, but as of late it has been more vocal in lending its support to the Burmese government and the Tatmadaw in tackling the situation there. At this stage it would be difficult to read too much into how India plans to engage itself in Rakhine, but it could certainly be said that Chinese support to Myanmar in resisting any involvement of the UN Security Council (UNSC) may well have prompted India to also play a part.

International pressure and pressure from exiled Rohingya organizations has pushed India to exert its leverage as a member of the UNSC to prevent atrocities from being committed against the Rohingya population by Myanmar's military. India has not responded so far to any of these calls and it can expected that PM Modi will bring these developments to the table when he meets higher-ups within the NLD-led government.

It perhaps goes without saying that India wishes to ensure that there is peace across the borders which will allow it to fine tune trade and investment, skills development, build a strong infrastructure and harness energy for the overall development of India's landlocked northeastern region. PM Modi has aired this view several times in the past.

For Modi, unfinished tasks are growing and he likely wants to ensure that he has success stories to share as he and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), heads for the next general election in 2019. There is a need to revisit the Act East policy, which has been tattering, to say the least.

The promise to create more air connectivity, made by Nirmala Sitharaman when she visited Myanmar as the Commerce and Industry Minister in May 2016 has remained simply that—a promise. In fact her visit to Myanmar was followed by yet another statement at the sixth India Myanmar Joint Trade Committee (JCT) meeting in Delhi where she was quoted as saying, "the Indian government has been seeking the cooperation of the Myanmar side in actively pursuing enhanced road, sea and air connectivity between the two."

While there is no news on air connectivity, the push to complete some of the sea routes will likely to figure in Modi's talks with his Myanmar counterparts. Of these, the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP), which aims to connect the landlocked Indian state of Mizoram to the Bay of Bengal, as well as provide new trading routes for the rest of Northeast India, will certainly top the list. The other would be the new Special Economic Zone and a seaport in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, where India is looking to invest heavily.

Whether India is developing these ports to keep up with China's strategic interests in the Indian Ocean is not the issue. What is perhaps of greater significance is the fact that India is dependent on Myanmar to develop connectivity to the rest of Asia, and that cannot be overlooked. Therefore, it would be in India's best interest to ensure that its plans get the much needed momentum to build on the cordial relationship that she shares with this once-pariah state.

Bidhayak Das is a veteran journalist who has also spent over a decade working on promoting democracy in Myanmar. He is currently working as an independent consultant on elections, media and communications.

The post Analysis: Modi in Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Maungdaw Declared Military ‘Operational Area’

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 06:00 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Myanmar government approved the military's request to designate the entire Maungdaw District in northern Rakhine State as an operational area, President's Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Monday.

"The Commander-in-Chief's Office asked to designate it [Maungdaw District] as an operational area, and the President's Office has given approval," U Zaw Htay said.

According to police major Ko Ko Soe of the border guard police headquarters in Kyee Kan Pyin in Maungdaw, five areas in northern Rakhine—Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung townships, and Taungpyoletwe and Myinlut sub-townships—have been designated as operational areas as of August 25.

"The whole of Maungdaw is designated as an operational area. So, this is approval that decisive actions can be taken against terrorist organizations in clearance operations," police major Ko Ko Soe said.

Myanmar Army commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing reportedly asked for the "operational area" designation in order to ensure the "effectiveness" of clearance operations.

The army chief attended a ceremony on Friday to accept cash donations for security personnel and government officials who have died since attacks by militants began in the region on Aug. 25 in what he described as a "well-prepared plot."

At the ceremony, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing referenced events from 1942 during World War II, in which he said that "Bengalis"—a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Muslim Rohingya population—who were more closely aligned with the Allied forces, allegedly attacked ethnic Arakanese communities in Rakhine State, who frequently fought alongside Japanese forces.

"We will never let such an occurrence happen again," the army chief said, describing it as "unacceptable."

"The Tatmadaw had to get involved as the strength of police forces alone could not defend [the area]. It was also officially permitted by the government. Without the Tatmadaw's involvement, the situation could worsen. The military will do its best to perform its national defense duties," Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said.

The senior general added that the Tatmadaw would "fully safeguard the sovereignty of Myanmar."

"In addition to the security forces, all the government institutions and the entire people must defend the country with strong patriotism," Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said.

He speculated that the original attacks by militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) were launched as retaliation against the citizenship verification process for the 1982 Citizenship Law. The law makes distinctions between three types of citizenship—full, associate, and naturalized—and has been criticized for defining citizenship along ethnic lines.

The Rohingya population—numbering more than 1 million—are largely stateless, and not classified as one of Myanmar's official 135 "national races," a concept put forward under military rule in the 1990s.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing cited casualties of security forces as numbering 13—11 policemen and two soldiers—as well as one immigration officer, a member of health staff, and 14 ethnic Arakanese civilians. He also described infrastructure that had been destroyed, including eight bridges and more than 2,700 homes.

Reuters reported on Monday that 87,000 Rohingya Muslims had been displaced to Bangladesh since clearance operations began in late August, and at least 400 killed. The Myanmar government has said that nearly 12,000 Arakanese have been displaced in Rakhine State as well.

In a statement released on Aug. 31, the Myanmar Army said that there had been around 90 clashes between security forces and the ARSA from August 25-30, in which 370 suspected militants had been killed.

The post Maungdaw Declared Military 'Operational Area' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Gold Mining Sending ‘Toxic Waste’ Into Shan Villages

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 05:42 AM PDT

YANGON — Controversial gold mines have devastated the lands and homes of hundreds of villagers in Tachileik District, eastern Shan State, according to locals and rights groups.

"The gold mines send toxic waste into the villages," Thum Ai, a spokesperson from the Shan State Farmers' Network, told The Irrawaddy on Monday, after recent flooding has reinvigorated local calls for action.

Rights groups say that gold mines affect vital ecosystems, as mining waste can carry mercury and cyanide, which are used to extract gold from rock. Numerous health problems have also been linked to metal mining.

District administrator U Tin Win Swe told the Irrawaddy on Monday that an investigation into the contamination was ongoing and that the results would later be submitted to the government.

Local residents have repeatedly called for gold-mining companies to take responsibility for the environmental damage they have caused.

Na Hai Long village was flooded with contaminated water on September 1 and it has yet to recede, said Nang Lar, a local Shan farmer and activist who added that she has lost 17 acres over the years due to mining activities.

"We want the government to stand up for people facing loss of land and environmental pollution," she said, adding that people were currently having difficulty accessing areas of the village but that a township administrator had come to assess the situation.

After a decade of mining, a local creek has been contaminated, along with about 340 acres of land, according to rights groups.

Residents are hoping for compensation or relocation to areas where they can farm if mining companies will not cease operations, said Nang Lar.

According to locals, nine companies (two official and seven unofficial) currently operate gold mines in the area.

In 2014, locals complained to authorities about their damaged farmlands. In July of that year, gold mining projects were suspended by the order of the Shan State minister of mining and forestry Sai Aik Pao due to local opposition.

The companies paid each household in the village 660,000 kyats (US$488) for destroyed farms in 2014 but the ban was later overturned and mining restarted in the area the following year.

The Shan State Farmers' Network and the Shan Human Rights Foundation released a joint statement calling for the government to halt gold mining operations in eastern Shan State's Tachileik Township in March 2016.

Loong Sarm, a 54-year-old Na Hai Long villager, was shot dead in October 2015 for climbing a hill to monitor expanded mining operations, the SSFN/SHRF statement added.

Three soldiers admitted to shooting Loong Sarm at Tachileik Township court on Jan. 14, 2016. The result of the case is unknown, according to Nang Lar.

In Shan State, which is rich in natural resources including gold, coal, rubies and timber, there are numerous ongoing projects and operations to extract natural resources. Locals and civil society organizations have repeatedly called increased transparency, as well as for a halt to operations that damage lands and livelihoods.

U Win Myo Thu, a co-founder and managing director of the Economically Progressive Ecosystem Development Group (Ecodev), said: "The government has a responsibility to check on company implementation of environmental management plans. But there are unofficial companies operating as well, and law enforcement is an issue."

The post Gold Mining Sending 'Toxic Waste' Into Shan Villages appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Malala Calls on Fellow Laureate Suu Kyi to Condemn Rohingya Treatment

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 03:42 AM PDT

LONDON, UK — Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, called on her fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the "shameful" treatment of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, saying "the world is waiting" for her to speak out.

Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar in August, in the biggest political challenge facing the country's leader Suu Kyi, who stands accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

"Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment," Malala said in a statement on Twitter. "I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same.

"The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting."

Activists from Indonesia, home to the world's biggest Muslim population, on Saturday called on the Nobel committee to withdraw Suu Kyi's peace prize during protests outside the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, state news agency Antara reported.

The recent violence in Myanmar was set off by a coordinated attack on Aug. 25 on dozens of police posts and an army base by Rohingya insurgents.

The ensuing clashes and a major military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people.

Myanmar officials blamed the Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army aims to force them out.

Malala, 20, came to prominence when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head in 2012 after she was targeted for her campaign against efforts by the Taliban to deny women education. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

The post Malala Calls on Fellow Laureate Suu Kyi to Condemn Rohingya Treatment appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Chinese Special Envoy Meets Myanmar Vice President Over Rakhine Attacks

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 02:29 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — China condemns attacks in northern Rakhine State, said China's special envoy for Asian affairs Sun Guoxiang, who had a meeting with Myanmar's vice president and chairman of the government investigation commission on Maungdaw, U Myint Swe, on Monday in Naypyitaw.

"We condemn the attacks. We've expressed our condolences to the innocent victims and sympathies to the innocent injured and the bereaved families," Sun Guoxiang told the vice president.

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacks on police stations on Aug. 25 left at least 59 of the militants and 12 security personnel dead. Since then, clashes between ARSA—deemed a terrorist organization by the government—and the Myanmar Army have devastated communities in the area.

At China's foreign ministry press conference on August 31, ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, when asked about the attacks in Rakhine State, said: "China, as a friendly neighbor, supports Myanmar's efforts in maintaining peace and stability in Rakhine state."

China's concerns over Rakhine State are related to interests in its One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR), said political and ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe.

Rakhine plays an important part in OBOR, as it is an exit to Indian Ocean and the location of planned billion-dollar Chinese projects—a planned economic zone on Ramree Island, and the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port, which has oil and natural gas pipelines linked with Yunnan Province's Kunming.

"Therefore, the stability of Rakhine State is important for this project. The meeting shows China's concerns over its One Belt One Road Initiative," said U Maung Maung Soe.

Before his meeting with Vice President U Myint Swe, Sun Guoxiang also met Bangladeshi government officials and chairman of the Arakan State Advisory Commission Kofi Annan.

The Myanmar government understands China's concerns regarding the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port, but hopes that the Chinese government will provide help according to international norms in solving the Rakhine issue, presidential spokesperson of the Myanmar government U Zaw Htay told the press in April.

The UN Security Council convened a meeting after the recent attacks in Rakhine, where China continued to support Myanmar in resisting UN involvement in the ongoing crisis in Rakhine State.

China previously offered help in tackling a diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Myanmar over the issue of Rohingya refugees, Reuters reported in April.

Sun Guoxiang is also the Chinese government's envoy in peace negotiations between the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Chinese Special Envoy Meets Myanmar Vice President Over Rakhine Attacks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Journalists Wait for Court to Drop Charges

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 02:21 AM PDT

HSIPAW, Shan State — Three journalists facing charges of unlawful association are awaiting the judge's decision to drop the case after the army withdrew the charges.

Hsipaw Township Court on Monday scheduled the trio's next hearing for Sept. 15, when it requires the government's legal official to remark that the judge drops the charges.

The Irrawaddy's Lawi Weng, also known as U Thein Zaw, and U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phone Aung from the Democratic Voice of Burma were released on bail on Friday following the military's decision to withdraw its case against them.

Press members welcomed the move but stressed they should have never been arrested for doing their job.

The journalists were arrested along with three other men by the Myanmar Army on June 26 as they returned from covering a drug-burning ceremony hosted by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). They were detained in Hsipaw Prison for more than two months under Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act.

One man was released on bail together with the three journalists. Another two men who had additional charges for unlicensed vehicles were granted bail on Monday, according to Lawi Weng's lawyer Daw Khin Mi Mi.

Citing the Attorney General of the Union Law, she explained it is judicial procedure that such a lawsuit cannot be settled between plaintiffs and defendants but requires official withdrawal with the legal official's remarks.

The post Journalists Wait for Court to Drop Charges appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Turkish Deputy PM Denounced for Misleading Twitter Pictures on Rakhine Conflict

Posted: 04 Sep 2017 12:29 AM PDT

YANGON — Both the Myanmar government and military have condemned and complained about the Turkish deputy prime minister for his misinforming tweet on the massacre against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

On Aug. 29, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted four photographs, urging the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya. His post was retweeted more than 1,600 times and liked by more than 1,200 readers.

But it transpired the photographs were not related to the incidents in Rakhine. News on the recent conflict in Rakhine has been swamped by fake images and content condemning the actions of both Rohingya Muslim militants and the military.

Tens of thousands of Muslims, Arakanese and Hindus have been displaced since the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked police stations on Aug. 25. However limited access for journalists to the region has made aspects of the conflict difficult to verify.

According to the BBC, a number of Myanmar people who have challenged Simsek about the tweet suggested the first photo was of victims of the devastating Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 or a riverboat accident in Myanmar.

The second photograph showing a woman mourning a dead man tied to a tree was taken in the Indonesia province of Aceh in June 2003 by a Reuters photographer.

The third photograph showing two infants crying over the body of their mother is from Rwanda in July 1994.

The fourth picture, of people immersed in a canal, can be found on a website appealing for funds to help victims of recent flooding in Nepal.

On Friday, Mehmet Simsek posted a correction on his Twitter account that said, "My earlier twit [sic] regretfully included pics that wrongfully depicted massacre taking place in Rohingya against Muslim by error."

In a statement released on Sunday, the Myanmar Army stated Myanmar citizens were worried about the "terror attacks of ARSA extremist Bengali terrorists in Rakhine State," using a term for the Rohingya to imply they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

"The families of Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air) strongly condemn and object to the intentionally wrong expression of a State level official of a country," read the statement.

On the same day, the government's Information Committee warned people not to share fake news on social media.

It also added that the government summoned the Turkish ambassador over the tweet.

"Despite the correction, the circulation of the fake news and pictures had negative impacts on Myanmar government, security forces and people," it said.

The Myanmar President's Office Spokesperson U Zaw Htay retweeted the Turkish deputy prime minister's post on Saturday, saying: "Image is already gone! Rakhine people are killed by ARSA terrorist. Don't change true story to play politics. #ARSA is extremist terrorist."

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Myanmar of "genocide" against Rohingya Muslims.

The post Turkish Deputy PM Denounced for Misleading Twitter Pictures on Rakhine Conflict appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Nearly 90,000 Rohingya Escape Myanmar Violence as Humanitarian Crisis Looms

Posted: 03 Sep 2017 11:42 PM PDT

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON — Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar in August, pressuring scarce resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous spasms of violence in Myanmar.

The violence in Myanmar was set off by a coordinated attack on Aug. 25 on dozens of police posts and an army base by Rohingya insurgents. The ensuing clashes and a major military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people.

Myanmar officials blamed the Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar Army aims to force them out.

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

The number of those crossing the border – 87,000 – surpassed the total of Rohingya who escaped Myanmar after a much smaller insurgent attack in October that set off a military operation beset by accusations of serious human rights abuses.

The newest estimate, based on the calculations of United Nations' aid workers in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox's Bazar, takes to nearly 150,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October.

"We are trying to build houses here, but there isn’t enough space," said Mohammed Hussein, 25, who is still looking for a place to stay after fleeing Myanmar four days ago.

"No non-government organizations came here. We have no food. Some women gave birth on the roadside. Sick children have no treatment here."

An unofficial camp for Rohingya refugees that sprang up at Balukhali after the October attacks is being dramatically expanded. Hundreds of Rohingya milled beside the road while others slung tarpaulins over bamboo frames to make rickety shelters against the monsoon rains.

More than 11,700 "ethnic residents" had been evacuated from northern Rakhine, the government has said, referring to non-Muslims.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who said on Friday that violence against Muslims amounted to genocide, last week called Bangladesh's President Abdul Hamid to offer help in sheltering the fleeing Rohingya, the south Asian nation's foreign ministry said.

The statement did not clarify if financial assistance was offered.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other officials in Myanmar on Monday, to urge a halt to the violence after a petrol bomb was thrown at the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta over the weekend.

The post Nearly 90,000 Rohingya Escape Myanmar Violence as Humanitarian Crisis Looms appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Indonesian Envoy to Urge Myanmar to Halt Violence in Rakhine

Posted: 03 Sep 2017 09:38 PM PDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian President Joko Widodo has sent his foreign minister to Myanmar to urge its government to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims, he said on Sunday after a petrol bomb was thrown at the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.

The embassy attack, which police said caused a small fire, came in the early hours of Sunday morning against the backdrop of mounting anger in Indonesia, home to the world's biggest Muslim population, over violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

A police officer patrolling a street behind the embassy spotted a fire on the second floor of the building at about 2.35 a.m. Jakarta time and alerted police officers guarding the front gate, a Jakarta police statement said.

After the fire was extinguished, police found a shattered beer bottle with a wick attached to it, the statement said, adding that the unknown perpetrator is suspected to have driven away from the scene in an MPV car.

Jakarta police are investigating the incident, said spokesman Argo Yuwono.

A group of activists had held a protest at the embassy on Saturday, calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to withdraw the Nobel Peace Prize from Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, state news agency Antara wrote.

Protests continued on Sunday in Jakarta's city center, with dozens of people calling for the Indonesian government to take an active involvement in efforts to end human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Indonesian President Widodo said he has sent Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to Myanmar to hold "intensive communications" with involved parties including the United Nations.

"Earlier this afternoon the Foreign Minister has departed to Myanmar to ask the Myanmar government to stop and prevent violence, to provide protection to all citizens, including Muslims in Myanmar, and to give access to humanitarian aid," Widodo said.

Widodo added that concrete actions are needed and the Indonesian government is committed to helping to solve the humanitarian crisis and that Marsudi will also travel to Bangladesh to prepare additional aid for refugees there.

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

Aid agencies estimate that about 73,000 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since violence in Myanmar erupted last week.

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‘Nothing Can be Done Well as Long as There is Corruption’

Posted: 03 Sep 2017 07:29 PM PDT

YANGON — U Thin Maung, a member of Myanmar's anti-corruption commission, explained in a recent interview with The Irrawaddy what the commission has accomplished since its formation more than three years ago, as well the difficulties in combating the country's deep rooted corruption.

The commission was formed of former high-ranking officials under ex-President U Thein Sein's government in February 2014, to enforce the Anti-Corruption Law. Its term expired in March, but since the new government hasn't yet replaced the members, the commission continues to perform its duties.

Seventy-year-old U Thin Maung contrasted the low wages of civil servants with high commodity prices, citing it as the main reason for continued corruption in the government.

How much does corruption matter in the building of a country?

Nothing can be done well as long as there is corruption. When I was in Australia to earn a Master of Economics [degree], a professor asked us to identify a common characteristic of developing countries in the first lecture of Development Economics. The professor replied: corruption. Corruption is the most prominent common characteristic of poor nations.

As long as there is no corruption, nothing can be done in the way that it should be done, nothing can be done in the timeframe that has been planned—and besides, people won't be treated fairly. But corruption has been around since ancient times. I would say it has become worse around the world. In a research paper from around the year 2000, the total cost of corruption was estimated annually to be US$1 trillion, which was equal to a cost of World Health Organization vaccination projects for children in 72 developing countries. But in 2015, it rose to $2 trillion. That proved that corruption didn't disappear, even though more countries have improved their scores in corruption perception indexes like those by graft watchdog Transparency International. Myanmar ranked 172 out of 176 nations in 2012 and 136 in 2016. But these are the results according to their criteria. Even in Singapore, where there is a zero-tolerance policy towards bribery, there are still bribe-givers and takers with action being taken against them.

Is it impossible to be corruption-free?

As long as people hold onto their greed, it is impossible. When we say we will fight against corruption, it is to reduce it as much as we can.

What has the commission done during its three-and-a-half-year term?

We have investigated more than 40 cases out of 3,572 complaints. We can't investigate all of the complaint letters that we receive. The law has a limitation saying that the one who files the complaint to us needs to describe evidence [of corruption]. Without it, we can't start an investigation. Another thing is that we can't disturb the judiciary system. If it is a case that is still ongoing in the courts, we can't interrupt it. But if there is important evidence that the accused judge or lawyer is taking bribes, we carry out an investigation.

For complaint letters which addressed the State Counselor's Office, the President's Office or relevant ministries and sent a copy to us, we can't start an investigation our own. We need to wait for instructions from the relevant ministries.

The commission also can't look into the cases that happened before the law [2013 Anti-Corruption Law] became effective. The cases before it were handled by the Bureau of Special Investigation.

The letters which don't include complete information about the complainant are rejected, as we can't communicate with them and investigate whether or not the aggrieved person is real. For some, we transfer them directly to the regional or state governments or relevant ministries, if we think the cases could be resolved faster or more effectively by them.

Can the commission take action against bribe-givers?

That's a controversial issue. For now, bribe-givers file complaints against those who took bribes. If we find out that it is true, we take action, and the bribe-givers become government witnesses in court. But the culprits always asked the court to declare the bribe-givers as co-culprits.

Under the law, the definition of the corruption includes giving, accepting, obtaining, or attempting to obtain a proposal, promise, or discussion.

But there are two kinds of bribe-givers—the one who is pressured to give and the one who gives on their own in order to gain advantages.

Those who are pressured or threatened to give bribes aren't guilty. There was a case where we took action against the bribe-giver. A lawyer was imprisoned as he tried to bribe the judge in order to win in his client's case.

But if we took action against all bribe-givers, I don't think anyone would file complaints, as they would be afraid they would be imprisoned, too.

What limitations or difficulties is the commission facing in tackling corruption?

[Difficulties] in the legal process. If we find out about a graft after we have carried out an investigation into the complaint or the cases ordered by the President or speakers of the Parliament, we open the case. The cases opened under the Anti-Corruption Law didn't grant bail and the accused person can be arrested immediately. But to arrest civil servants while they are in service, we need approval in advance from the head of the department in the ministry as per civil service law. And that takes at least one or two weeks to get the letter back from the department head saying that she or he did not object to the arrest. That has led to the accused person running away.

So far, around five people have gone on the run, including accused judges. If that happens, we declare them as fugitives and turn the case over to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which can issue an arrest warrant. We have only caught and arrested one fugitive.

Under the new government, the embezzlement of a large sum of regional development funds by the former chief minister was uncovered in Magwe Region. Are there any similar cases?

The Magwe case was not submitted to the commission. It came out following a lawmaker's question in Parliament. We have not yet received cases dealing with an amount like that. The biggest case was that of the ex-deputy permanent secretary of Home Affairs U Pyone Cho and five others. [U Pyone Cho is now the secretary of the Karen State government. He was accused of involvement in a scandal concerning the sale of a land plot in Yangon worth an estimated 100 million kyats while he was serving as the deputy permanent secretary of the home affairs ministry under Gen Ko Ko in 2015.]

That case was the biggest since the commission's formation in regard to the amount of money involved, and also the level of the officials in the case.

What do you think is the most important action to stop corruption among the civil servants?

The most important thing is that civil servants need to be happy with their civil service life. To be happy, they need to not to be worried about their meals. The other thing is their environment. We need to create a good environment for them where they can work happily. They will work hard if there is a guarantee for their careers. When we were civil servants, we could guess which positions we would be promoted to based on our work experience. But it's different now.

Another thing is, in other countries, they increased the salaries of civil servants after making calculations based on inflation and the consumer price index. But we can't do that yet.

Compared with the previous government, have you seen improvements under the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government? State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has also said that the fact that her ministers are not corrupt is what has pleased her the most in her first nine months of government in an interview with Channel News Asia.

We have not yet uncovered or received reports of corruption among the National League for Democracy (NLD) ministers, which is progress from the previous government, which was afflicted with allegations. I hope the situation continues like this.

The NLD government has come up with two priorities since assuming power: peace and a corruption-free government. They announced directives for the public procurement system to all ministries soon after taking office in March 2016, and made them public. Previously, there was no such mandate. So, if the public found out about any behaviors violating the directives, they could complain. But if they think it doesn't concern them, the conditions will be the same as before. That's why we need awareness.

People also need to have resistance—not to give bribes. In our custom, there is a saying that "giving is the key to success." So, when there is pressure, people are easily bribed. Government has the responsibility to raise awareness, and so do the NGOs and individuals, too.

The post 'Nothing Can be Done Well as Long as There is Corruption' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other’

Posted: 03 Sep 2017 05:28 PM PDT

None of Myanmar's many crises has captured as much attention from the outside world as the Rohingya issue in northwestern Rakhine State. Conflicts between Muslim and Buddhist communities, the often brutal intervention by the country's security forces, and the subsequent flight of tens of thousands of Rohingyas to neighboring Bangladesh, have been covered extensively by the international media. Foreign diplomats, representatives of the United Nations and an advisory commission requested by the Myanmar government and led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan have visited the area and come with recommendations for a solution to the crises.

The publication of Francis Wade's book Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other' is, therefore, very timely. The author, a former journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma, a television and broadcasting station that until recently was based in exile, takes the reader on a tour across the country, not only in Rakhine State, and relates his meetings with local officials as well as ordinary people and activists on both sides of the divide. The book is written in elegant prose and there is no doubt that he has spent considerable time examining the root causes of the conflict, including its historical background.

But the main problem with the book is that he makes no clear distinction between Myanmar's different Muslim communities. It is easy to get the impression that all of them are, in one way or another, Rohingya-related, when they, in fact, have diverse origins and may not have more than their religion in common. The vast majority of Myanmar's Muslims speak the Bamar language as their mother tongue and live in an urban environment where many of them are engaged in trade and commerce. They may be able to trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent, but that is not always the case. The Panthays are of Chinese origin and differ considerably from other Muslims when it comes to customs, traditions and culture.

Many Myanmar Muslims have played important roles in social life, government service and politics. Among them are U Raschid, a prominent student leader during the fight against British colonialism in the 1930s who became a minister in several governments after independence in 1948; U Razak, a prominent politician who was assassinated along with Aung San and the other martyrs on July 19, 1947; Ba Galay alias Mohammed Bashir, a comedian and entertainer who invented the character U Shwe Yoe, the jolly dancer with his broken umbrella and ill-fitting longyi who for almost a century has been a major figure in any pwe (traditional dance troupe performance); Pe Khin, who was considered the chief architect of the historic 1947 Panglong agreement between Aung San and representatives of the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minorities that paved the way for the establishment of the Union of Burma, and later became a prominent diplomat; Maung Thaw Ka, or Major Ba Thaw, a naval officer who became a famous writer who, in 1988, became one of the founders of the National League for Democracy; Kan Chun, a popular cartoonist from Mandalay; and, in more recent years, Ko Ni, an expert on constitutional law and one of Myanmar's most outstanding lawyers, who was assassinated on January 29 this year. None of these prominent Muslims is mentioned in Wade's book, and it would be hard to put them, even now, in the category "other," which the author uses to describe the place of Muslims in Myanmar society today. There are Muslim communities scattered in towns all over the country.

By contrast, most Rohingyas live in rural areas bordering a country where people speak the same language and share a common culture. After independence in 1948, militants among them wanted to join the then East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. That rebellion fizzled out in the 1950s, but, in the 1970s, organizations such as the Rohingya Patriotic Front emerged followed by the radical Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and today's even more militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. This is no excuse for atrocities committed against communities in the northwestern Rakhine townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, where the majority of the population consists of Muslims who speak the Chittagonian dialect of Bengali and call themselves Rohingyas, but it is important to understand that the situation and dynamics there are fundamentally different from those of Muslim communities in Myanmar's urban centers. Wade does not analyze these questions, and what it really means when the conflict in Rakhine State spills over into those communities.

In order to show that the Rohingyas have lived in their area for centuries, Wade quotes, as do many supporters of the Rohingya cause, a 1799 report by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, where he mentions a people called "Rooinga" who lived in what is now Rakhine State (p. 65). Who they were is unclear, and Buchanan-Hamilton met them in Inwa (Ava), the then capital of the Myanmar Empire, not in today's Rakhine State. He was also primarily a botanist and a zoologist, not an ethnographer or anthropologist. And we have to wait for 150 years before any mention of a people called "Rohingya" or something similar appears, and then as a political term denoting the Muslims of northwestern Rakhine who until then had been referred to as Chittagonians.

Naturally, any people have the right to call themselves whatever they want, but we have to recognize that the name "Rohingya" in the way it is used today is a recent one which would be hard to trace back to the late 18th century. The name came into widespread use when Pakistan and Myanmar became independent countries and some minorities felt the need to establish a firmer, ethnic identity within those new nations. In a similar vein and at roughly the same time the Rakhine Buddhists living on the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) side of the border began to call themselves "Marma." Who the first was to use the name Rohingya is not clear, but we know that the term Marma was officially coined by Maung Shwe Prue, a Rakhine chieftain in erstwhile East Bengal, in the late 1940s to give his community a distinct nationality. And it is worth noting that the Marmas have never had any problem acquiring Pakistani and later Bangladeshi citizenship while the Rohingyas remain stateless.

There are also, unfortunately, some glaring factual errors in Wade's book which could have been avoided if the manuscript had been checked more carefully by experts, or why not by any well-informed Myanmar person. There are frequent references to the July 1988 "fall" of the old dictator Ne Win, who, according to Wade, was succeeded "by the rule of his Chief Justice, U Maung Maung" (p. 38.) First of all, most observers don't believe that Ne Win was ousted in 1988. He resigned from his last post in the governmental hierarchy, chairman of the then ruling Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), to become the power behind the throne, where he remained for several years after 1988. And his successor as BSPP chairman, on July 26, was Sein Lwin, a hardline former military officer who, the following day, also succeeded San Yu as president. Maung Maung came into office on August 19, after Sein Lwin had resigned on August 12.

Wade also claims that the Myanmar military "deployed helicopter gunships to fire on villagers" after an attack on police stations in October last year (p. 264). The Myanmar military has Russian-made Mi-35 "Hind" helicopter gunships, but those have been deployed only in war zones in the Kachin and Shan states. In Rakhine State, only transport helicopters have been used. Those may have had door gunners, but that doesn't make them gunships.

Myanmar readers may also be confused over his haphazard use of Myanmar honorifics. Some men are referred to by their male honorifics "U" and "Ko" and some females by their honorific "Ma" while others are not, giving the impression that those are part of their names (the male honorific "U," or Uncle is normally used in English text only when the person in question has no more than one name, like U Nu or U Thant.) And King Thibaw is called "King Thibaw Min" (p. 22 and elsewhere), a redundancy as "Min" is "King" in the Bamar language. But it gets more serious when Wade attempts to explain why the Rohingyas are excluded from Myanmar citizenship. He traces the origin of the division of the population of Myanmar into a multitude of different ethnic groups back to the British colonial power which, he asserts, "counted, or indeed created, 139 ethnic groups in its 1931 census." That census was a section in the Census of India, as Myanmar then was part of British India, but Indian censuses, before and after 1931, do not define ethnicity. They are based on language, including dialects and sub dialects, and that can hardly be described as "ethnic groups." There is, however, a sidebar in the 1931 census with a list of 20 ethnic groups, but that is more like a footnote to the rest of the text than a thorough survey of the ethnic composition of the colony.

It gets more complicated when Wade consistently refers to the country's "135 national races," which he seems to believe are listed in some annexure to the 1982 Citizenship Law. Wade is not alone in claiming this. The same mistake appears in writings by many Western journalists reporting on the crisis in Rakhine, but the 1982 law does not mention any "135 national races." Instead, the law and its annexes specify different kinds of citizenship, stating that "Nationals such as the Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine or Shan and ethnic groups as have settled in any of the territories included within the State as their permanent home from a period anterior to 1185 B.E. (1823 A.D.) are Burma citizens."[i] In addition to ensuring full citizenship to people from those eight categories, the law lays out rules for granting other residents "associate citizenship" and "naturalized citizenship." That was how those among the Rohingyas who had Myanmar citizenship lost it.

The first time "135 national races" was mentioned was in the early 1990s, when Myanmar was ruled by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). British Myanmar expert Martin Smith writes in his 1994 study Ethnic Groups in Burma: Development, Democracy and Human Rights: "The State Law and Order Restoration Council, which has ruled Burma since 1988, itself refers to the '135 national races' of Burma, but has produced no reliable data or list of names."

One of the earliest official references to "135 national races" is to be found in an article written by "a high-ranking Tatmadaw officer" and published on August 7, 1991 in the Working People's Daily: "The fact that there are 135 national races living in Myanmar Naing-Ngan is a hindrance to the idea of drafting a constitution based on the 'big race concept.' If the State is to be constituted on 'the big race concept' the matter of putting an end to the armed insurrections within the country will not be possible and this may cause worse racial disturbances." In a 1991 speech, then junta leader Gen Saw Maung also for the first time mentioned "135 national races."

In other words, all major ethnic groups would have to be split up into an abundance of smaller sub-groups as part of a policy that can only be described as one of "divide-and-rule." No official, complete list of all those "135 national races" was actually produced until it was time for a new census—and that was in 2014. That list also lends credence to the suggestion that the exercise was meant to create divisions within the ethnic states rather than uniting the country behind a functioning, federal concept. Besides, it must have been a formidable task to create "135 national races" in a country, which more realistically would have between 20 and 30 ethnic groups. The list mentions, for instance, 12 different ethnic groups in Kachin State, nine in Kayah State, 11 in Kayin State, 53 in Chin State, nine Bamar groups, one in Mon State, seven in Rakhine State and 33 in Shan State.

Wade does not provide any analysis of this, which makes it hard to understand the background to Myanmar's ethnic conflicts, and why, after decades of independence, there still is a civil war in the country's frontier areas. But there, again, the situation in northwestern Rakhine State is fundamentally different from that of other conflict zones. The vast majority of Muslims living in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung may be peasants who just want to be left alone, but radicals among them do have contacts with like-minded groups in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia and the Gulf countries. Some Rohingyas even went to fight in Afghanistan in the 1980s, others have more recently been trained by militants from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Wade mentions militancy among some Rohingyas only in passing, which is a major shortcoming. Those militants may or may not enjoy widespread popular support, but they are nevertheless there and their attacks can be deadly, as we have seen now in August. And many Buddhist Rakhine would find it disturbing, to say the least, that maps accompanying the emblems of those groups always include the whole of Rakhine State in the territory they claim as theirs.

Despite all those shortcomings, omissions in the narrative, and some factual errors, Wade's book is worth reading. It is a useful and somewhat controversial contribution to the debate, and, as such, it is bound to be received with accolades as well as criticism. And that debate is needed if we are ever going to see a solution to a conflict that is tearing Rakhine State apart and also affecting other parts of the country.

[i] http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Citizenship%20Law.htm (accessed on November 23, 2016).

The post Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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