Monday, August 20, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Experiencing Mandalay On a Tight Schedule

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 09:08 AM PDT

Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar and the country’s last royal capital. It is also known as the “motorbike city.” It has historic buildings, traditional food, beautiful landscapes, and many temples and monasteries. On a recent visit to Mandalay, I had only one day to explore the city owing to a tight schedule. There are many things to see and do here for those with a few days to spare. But if you have only one, like me, here's a suggested to-do list.

A bowl of mhee shay. (Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Local cuisine for breakfast

It takes about a 10-hour bus ride from Yangon to reach Mandalay. I arrived at the Chan Mya Shwe Pyi Highway bus gate at 6 a.m. and headed straight for my hotel to drop off my luggage and relax a bit before heading out.

I have some friends from Mandalay and they always speak proudly of the local food. So I decided to try some of their most popular dishes for breakfast.

Grab thonebane (three-wheel taxis) are a new and popular way to get around Mandalay. I had been to Mandalay twice before and had trouble with transportation each time because I can't drive a motorcycle. And the city doesn’t have many taxis, so the car rental fees are very high. Luckily, the city has a variety of transportation service providers including Grab, Oway and Get. I used Grab to catch a ride to the Shwe Pyi Moe tea shop.

A Grab thonebane.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Mandalay is famous for specialties such as moat ti or nang gyi thoke (thick rice noodle salad), mhee shay (another kind of rice noodle salad), man myo daw pauk si (bread dumplings) and htoe moat (glutinous rice cake topped with cashews, raisins and creamy butter). Moat ti and mhee shay are the best choices for breakfast.

Shwe Pyi Moe also serves up mohinga, dim sum, dumplings, kyarsan hingar (vermicelli soup) and Shan noodles. But for the best moat ti in town, head to Daw Taw or Soe Soe.

Moat ti can be ordered with differed sizes of rice noodle, including nann lat (medium) and nann gyi (large). The dish also includes chicken, fish balls, onion and a few other ingredients. But the main ingredient is roasted bean powder; add too little or too much and the dish is ruined.

The moat ti (1,800 kyats) at Shwe Pyi Moe wasn't bad, but it wasn’t great, either.  Unfortunately, Daw Taw was too far from my hotel and I missed a chance to have the best moat ti in Mandalay.

It was now 10 a.m. and time to explore the city.

Popular pagodas

Inside Maharmuni Pagoda.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Maharmuni Pagoda

I started with Maharmuni Pagoda, also known as Mahar Myatmuni Pagoda or Phayar Gyi, in southwest Mandalay, home to the most revered and ancient Buddha image in the city. The 4-meter-tall statue is cast in bronze and weighs 6.5 tons. It was created in Rakhine State and moved to Mandalay during the reign of King Sanda Thuriya.

The place was beautiful, peaceful and nice for a short rest. Maharmuni is always packed with visitors, both local and foreign. I recommend visiting in the early morning to avoid the biggest crowds.

A bird’s eye view of Kuthodaw Pagoda.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Kuthodaw Pagoda

Kuthodaw Pagoda is also known as the world's largest book because of the stone inscriptions inside the 729 smaller pagodas that surround it. The text comes from the Buddhist holy book known as the Tipitaka. The smaller pagodas are white and make for a beautiful sight. It’s a relaxing spot with a few big Kha Yay (star flower) trees on the grounds. It also makes for great photos.

Sandamuni Pagoda

Sandamuni Pagoda is close to Kuthodaw and only takes 5 minutes on foot to reach. It also has many small, slender white pagodas on the  grounds and is best known for the Iron Buddha cast by King Bodawpaya of the Konbaung Dynasty in 1802. The pagoda is stunning and should also delight shutterbugs.

With the morning expired, I headed to the center of town for lunch.

Shwe Mi Lotus Leaf Restaurant

What’s special about this restaurant is that is serves the rice and curry on a big lotus leaf, like a Burmese buffet. It includes five main meat dishes and eight sides such as salads and soup for only 3,000 kyats per person. The restaurant is on 67th Street, between 32nd and 33rd streets.

Most of the restaurants in Mandalay are excellent with reasonable prices and include Thai, Chinese, Indian and Korean, so it’s easy to try something new.

After lunch it was about 1 p.m. and getting hot. I decided to spend my afternoon at Mandalay Palace.

Mandalay Royal Palace.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Mandalay Palace

The Mandalay Royal Palace, or Mya Nan San Kyaw, was the last royal palace in Myanmar and the first palace to be built in Mandalay. It was the home of King Mindon, who moved his capital to Mandalay from Amarapura. The entire palace was destroyed during World War II but later restored.

The palace has a total of 12 gates, the main one sitting along the eastern wall. These days only a few gates are open; I entered from the west. At the entrance, visitors must show an ID card or passport. Foreigners also have to pay 10,000 kyats for a look inside.

Some of the buildings are old and some have been restored. Most are empty inside and offer very little information about what you are seeing. Visitors can climb a tower for a bird’s eye view of all of Mandalay; it might just be the best part of the palace.

The palace compound itself is very large and best to explore by car or motorcycle.

After a couple relaxing hours at Mandalay Palace, I headed to Mandalay Hill to catch the sunset.

A view from the top of Mandalay Hill. (Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Sunset from Mandalay Hill

From the palace, it was 15 minutes to Mandalay Hill, a must for the first-time visitor to the city. There is no better way to end a long day in Mandalay than trekking up the hill for the sunset. You might get tired, but the view is worth it. From the top, you can see the many ancient temples and pagodas sprinkled all around you.

If you still have the energy, another worthwhile site is the U Pein bridge, nor far from the hill.

Street-food vendors in China Town.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Dinner in China Town

Mandalay also has a China Town packed with street-food vendors and stalls and bars, but it’s not so clean. The variety isn’t great either, giving visitors a choice between Shan noodles, Shan-style dumplings and some Chinese dishes. But it’s good for a beer with some local snacks and a chance to watch the locals go about their daily lives.

Chinese-style grilled chicken in China Town.(Photo: Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Travel tips

The weather in Mandalay is very hot, even in the rainy season. Even the wind is hot. So you should bring your sunglasses whenever you go and take along some sunscreen. Bring some long-sleeved shirts and a hat, too.

Mandalay has a lot of pagodas and monasteries, and all forbid footwear inside. So ditch the shoes and opt for a comfortable pair of slippers to slip on and off.

And as I mentioned before, Mandalay is full of beautiful sights, so don’t forget to pack your camera and take plenty of pictures.

The post Experiencing Mandalay On a Tight Schedule appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

President Takes Sagaing Officials to Task Over Duplicated Drug Figures

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 07:21 AM PDT

YANGON—Local authorities in Sagaing Region have drawn the ire of President U Win Myint by submitting fabricated monthly drug-seizure statistics, including identical information for two consecutive months.

At a meeting on Saturday with Sagaing Region administrative, legislative and judicial officials aimed at finding ways of speeding up regional government reforms, the president questioned whether the regional government was trying to cover up the reality of the situation. Comparing the two monthly government reports containing the drug information, he said, "It doesn't make sense."

He pointed out that the identities of the people tried for drug offenses, the number of seizures, the total number of kilograms of heroin seized and the total value of the drugs were the same in both reports. He brought the reports with him to show the error to the officials attending the meeting.

"You think I don't read the reports? I read them carefully. I'm very disappointed," U Win Myint said.

"Don't hide anything from me," the president said. "I don't want lies."

Over the years, it has become part of the bureaucratic culture in Myanmar to cover up unpleasant facts by submitting false data to placate visiting high-ranking officials and paint a rosy picture of reality.

U Win Myint asked the Sagaing chief minister whether he had checked the data before submitting it to the President's Office. According to procedure, state government departments need to submit reports to the chief minister's office within a certain deadline. After the chief minister checks and signs them, reports are submitted to the President's Office.

The president said he understood that there are strengths and weaknesses, and good and bad, in every situation. He said he didn't want to be fed only reports claiming that everything is fine on the ground.

Sagaing Regional Government Office Secretary U Khin Maung Swe told The Irrawaddy that the duplicated information was submitted due to "a typing error."

"It involved the April and May reports. We have already amended it," he said.

Since July, President U Win Myint has been meeting with regional administrative officials across the country to discuss their monthly reports to his office. Sagaing is the third region he has visited. In July, he met officials from Yangon and Bago regions and warned them not to drag out high-profile legal cases or verbally commit to any projects the Union government had yet to approve.

Sharing borders with Chin State and India, Sagaing is an important area affected by drug trafficking, land disputes, and illegal logging and gold mining. U Win Myint instructed regional administrative, legislative and judicial officials to work together to tackle the region's problems, including corruption.

According to Myanmar's Anti-Corruption Commission, 16 officials from across the country, including two from the regional branch of the General Administration Department, are currently fugitives.

Under the 2008 Constitution, the military controls three ministries — Defense, Border Affairs and Home Affairs. The Defense Ministry controls the Border Affairs Ministry, which has responsibility for issues relating to the ethnic states. Home Affairs oversees the country's police forces and the General Administration Office, which manages all local administrative offices from the village to the township level.

"Before I came here, I read all the reports carefully. I want to emphasize that regional administrative, legislative, judicial and other departments must work together to speed up reform. Each of you is responsible for implementing reform. Don't work solely for your own benefit, or for that of your department," the president said.

"Some may be hesitant to change. Some may see it as a burden. Truthfully, you don't need to worry about changes. Reform is not your enemy. Reform is your good friend," he added.

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Lawsuit Opened Against Chairman of Gold Mining Company

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 05:10 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation said on Friday that it is planning to arrest the chairman of a gold mining company and that a lawsuit has been opened against him for abusing a mining law.

The ministry has opened the lawsuit against U Soe Tun Shein, chairman of National Prosperity gold mining company, at Yamethin police station and police are preparing to arrest him as the offense deems him not eligible for bail.

"The police went to Yangon to arrest him but he was not there. If he does not show up, the police will issue an arrest warrant in accordance with the law," U Than Dain, the ministry's director general, told journalists at an event in Naypyitaw on Friday.

The ministry's No. 2 Mining Enterprise issued a notice in a state-run newspaper on Aug. 13 stating that the mining company needs to return the mining license to the enterprise, as the company has failed to pay a required total of 2,032 kilograms of gold.

The ministry said that the gold mining company National Prosperity is still mining in the Moehti Moemi area of Yamethin Township, thus the lawsuit was opened.

In addition, the director general said the ministry has submitted the case to the Office of the Attorney General, in order to get the gold which is still owed by the company, in accordance with the law.

However, the company refused accusations from the ministry, saying the company is not mining but doing maintenance work on the machinery.

"We are not mining as they accused. We did only the maintenance of the machines. This is nothing related to our chairman either, and we've already explained this to the ministry," said U Tun Aung Soe, director general of National Prosperity gold mining company.

Additionally, the company said that only 163 kilograms of gold remains to be paid and they have submitted an appeal to the ministry and the enterprise for permission to mine after the remaining gold has been paid.

"The license was submitted together with the appeal to the Union high court. Since the case still remains at the high court, we cannot give back the license. We also sent an appeal to the ministry on Aug. 17 to understand the situation and we will hand back the license once the high court makes a decision," he explained.

The Irrawaddy was unable to reach the chairman of the gold mining company, U Soe Tun Shein. When asked, company staff said that he was traveling but did not disclose further details about him.

The National Prosperity gold mining company was granted permission to mine for gold in Moehti Moemi in Mandalay Region in 2011, with the agreement to pay about 5.57 tons of gold to the state over an initial five-year term.

In 2013 the company received a three-year extension to the payment period and was given permission to continue mining in the area for another 17 years under a production-sharing contract once it paid the full 5.57 tons.

According to the No. 2 Mining Enterprise, the company has failed to pay the monthly installments totaling 2,032 kilograms of gold since 2013. As a result, the ministry ordered the company to suspend operations at the end of 2017.

As the company has continued mining in spite of the order, the ministry revoked its mining license in February and terminated the agreements with the company in May this year.

In March, the ministry filed a case against the company's chairman, U Soe Tun Shein, at the Yamethin Township police station under the Mines Law for continuing to operate after being ordered to stop and for failing to hand back the mining license.

Punishment for these offenses is up to seven years' imprisonment, a 50,000 kyats ($33) fine, or both and the company will never get permission to mine any minerals in the future.

Additional reporting and translation from Burmese by Zarni Mann.

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Public-Private Partnerships: Headlong vs. Strategic

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 04:31 AM PDT

Not long after the National League for Democracy came to power in 2016, public-private partnerships (PPPs) became a buzzword among government ministers and public officials.

It is understandable, given Myanmar’s immense infrastructure needs. In a 2013 country report, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated Myanmar's infrastructure needs at $320 billion by 2030. The G-20 Initiative Global Infrastructure Hub estimated in 2017 that Myanmar needed $224 billion by 2040.

Investment shortfalls against these estimates will have a huge impact on Myanmar's economic development and nation-building. There are also many studies, by the World Bank and others, pointing to a strong correlation between infrastructure investment and GDP growth. If Myanmar continues at its current level of infrastructure investment, the country's sustainable development goals will not be met.

One way to fill the huge infrastructure gap left behind by successive authoritarian governments is PPP. Numerous studies by multilateral and bilateral institutions such as the Asian Development Bank have recommend this approach for Myanmar and other countries in the region. Therefore, it is not surprising that the government adopted PPP as the main approach to fulfilling the country’s infrastructure needs.

However, PPPs are not a magic wand. It is a very complex investment model involving multiple stakeholders and long-term regulatory oversight. Although it is called a public-private partnership, it is privatization by another name since public assets are transferred to private entities on long-term concession contracts, in some cases for 70 years.

PPPs have been in existence in Myanmar for many years and are commonly known as build-operate-transfers (BOTs). The track record of privatization and BOTs in Myanmar is not good and most people consider them to be asset stripping by cronies. A number of country analyses by bilateral and multilateral institutions on the current PPP situation also point out that Myanmar lacks a legal and regulatory framework and is weak on the institutional capacity needed to manage PPPs effectively and efficiently.

In my opinion, by observing the calls for expressions of interest and requests for proposals from various ministries for different types of PPPs — from community centers to airport rehabilitations, elevated expressways to power projects — it seems the government is going all-out on PPPs.

A draft PPP policy document prepared for the government by two UN consultants reinforces this belief. It states that "participation in PPPs may take place in both productive and socio-economic service sectors.” The list includes every public sector, from health care to education, social welfare, energy, transportation, tourism and information and computer technology.

This all-out approach to PPPs can be problematic, as it can be tantamount to wholesale privatization or a massive transfer of public assets without benefiting the public to the extent that past practices have. Public utilities and state real estate assets, for example, could fall into private hands via PPPs given the current level of institutional capacity and human resources in the ministries and regional governments.

There are many examples in which even the governments of developed countries could not manage PPPs properly and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. Metronet, in the U.K., is a case in point. Moreover, if all the ministries and regional governments in Myanmar were involved in complex PPP projects, they might end up spending much of their time on them and not be able to fulfill their core functions effectively. Therefore, the central government should take a more strategic approach to PPPs by identifying priority infrastructure projects and setting criteria for different types of financing.

The government understandably needs to tap private capital for infrastructure development in Myanmar and naturally adopted the PPP model as a main pillar of its infrastructure program.  However, taking the example of the Philippines, the successful implementation of a sustainable and inclusive PPP program necessitates strong political support, clear and transparent policies, enhanced capacity of implementing agencies, a sufficiently resourced PPP knowledge center able to provide essential technical, financial and legal advisory support to ministries, and a pipeline of viable PPP projects.

There is no shortcut to a sustainable and inclusive PPP program. If the government goes headlong, it could face political backlash.

Khine Win is director of the Yangon-based Sandhi Governance Institute.

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US Imposes More Sanctions on Tatmadaw over Rohingya Crackdown

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 03:38 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — The US on Friday imposed sanctions on four Myanmar military and police commanders and two army units, accusing them of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims and widespread human rights abuses.

The sanctions by the Treasury Department marked the toughest US action so far in response to the crackdown by the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) on the Rohingya minority, which started last year and has driven more than 700,000 people into neighboring Bangladesh and left thousands of dead behind.

The sanctions were imposed on military commanders Aung Kyaw Zaw, Khin Maung Soe and Khin Hlaing, and border police commander Thura San Lwin, in addition to the 33rd and 99th Light Infantry Divisions. The measures call for freezes of any US assets the individuals hold, a prohibition on Americans doing business with them, and bans on travel to the US.

A Reuters special report in June gave a comprehensive account of the roles played by the two infantry divisions in the offensive against the Rohingya.

Friday's sanctions were the second round imposed by the US since December last year, when the Treasury Department slapped penalties on General Maung Maung Soe for overseeing the crackdown against the Rohingya Muslims in 2017. The US also scaled back already-limited bilateral military ties.

The Trump administration again stopped short of targeting the highest levels of Myanmar's military and of calling the anti-Rohingya campaign crimes against humanity or genocide, which has been the subject of debate within the US government.

According to US officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing to issue the findings of an intensive US investigation of alleged atrocities by Myanmar authorities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.

The release of the report, compiled from interviews at refugee camps in Bangladesh, is expected on or around the Aug. 25 one-year anniversary of the bloody crackdown.

"Burmese security forces have engaged in violent campaigns against ethnic minority communities across Burma, including ethnic cleansing, massacres, sexual assault, extrajudicial killings, and other serious human rights abuses," said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker.

"Treasury is sanctioning units and leaders overseeing this horrific behavior as part of a broader US government strategy to hold accountable those responsible for such wide-scale human suffering," Mandelker said.

The military has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.

Myanmar's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Long Overdue Step"

Critics have accused President Donald Trump of being slow in his response to the Rohingya crisis. Human rights groups noted that while Friday's sanctions list included generals, the Tatmadaw's powerful chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, was spared.

Rich Weir, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch, called the sanctions "an important but long overdue step."

"The avoidance of the top military leaders is striking," he added. "The likelihood that they did not know what was happening is close to infinitesimal."

In the Treasury statement, Mandelker said: "The US government is committed to ensuring that Burmese military units and leaders reckon with and put a stop to these brutal acts."

In November, following the lead of the United Nations and the European Union, then-US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that the Rohingya crisis constituted "ethnic cleansing," a designation that increased pressure on State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Pompeo has yet to decide whether, once he releases the State Department's Rohingya atrocities report, to ratchet up characterization of the violence as crimes against humanity or genocide or to avoid any such label, the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Such terms could commit the US to stronger punitive measures or help set the stage for charges at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Some within the administration worry that this could complicate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's relationship with the powerful military and push Myanmar closer to China, Washington's regional rival.

On Friday, US Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, called on social media companies to better protect vulnerable communities by regulating hate speech on their platforms, citing a Reuters report that found more than 1,000 examples of content published on Facebook that attacked the Rohingya and other Muslims in Myanmar.

"Facebook and other technology companies must find the means to address these problems head on and invest in solutions," said Cantwell in a statement.

Two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, are on trial in Myanmar on charges of violating a state secrets law after being arrested in December while reporting on the massacre of 10 Rohingya men. Both have pleaded not guilty and have told the court how they were "trapped" by police officials who planted documents on them.

This month Pompeo called for the immediate release of the two reporters.

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Group Demands TNLA Release Shan Woman Taken from Her Home in Namkham

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 02:40 AM PDT

MON STATE — A youth group based in Namkham Township in northern Shan State has condemned the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA)'s arrest last week of an ethnic Shan woman and demanded her release.

In a statement released Sunday, the Namkham Youth Network said the TNLA arrested Nang Moe Hom at gunpoint at her home on Aug. 17 and took her away after destroying a video camera belonging to her.

The youth group claims the TNLA earlier accused the woman of informing on two of its members who attempted to collect taxes in the area and were later shot and detained by the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw). The TNLA has acknowledged detaining the woman, without giving a reason. The woman's family denies she ever informed on TNLA members to the Tatmadaw.

Her family was shocked and distressed by the incident, the statement said.

The Namkham Youth Network condemned the TNLA's action and accused the group of violating the woman's human rights. It warned that the incident could hinder the implementation of the peace process in the country and even stoke conflict between the Shan and Ta'ang communities.

TNLA spokesman Major Tar Aike Kyaw confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the group detained Nang Moe Hom, but said the arrest was justified as she had violated the group's laws. "All I can say is that she violated our law. Therefore, we detained her," he said.

He did not offer any details about what law she had broken. However, Namkham Youth Network spokesperson Sai Thein Shwe said that prior to her arrest the TNLA sent her a letter accusing her of being an informant for the Myanmar Army after two of the ethnic organization's members were detained after collecting taxes from her house last year.

In July 2017, the Myanmar Army issued a statement reporting that its personnel had shot and arrested two members of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) suspected of extorting money from local businesses in Namkham Township.

The woman's relatives denied the TNLA's accusation. They said their family includes children and they would never put their security at risk by complaining to the Myanmar Army about having to pay taxes to the group.

Maj. Tar Aike Kyaw said the TNLA was holding the woman in a secure location and the family did not need to worry for her safety, he said, adding that the group planned to take legal action against her. "We will let her family visit her once her trial begins," he said.

It is unclear what punishment Nang Moe Hom faces for her alleged crime.

The TNLA is a member of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed organizations. It is active in northern Shan, including Namkham Township, the scene of frequent fighting between the TNLA and the Myanmar Army.

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5 Inmates Receive Pardons for Release After Acing Matriculation Exam

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 02:15 AM PDT

MANDALAY — The prison department released five inmates who passed the matriculation exam with flying colors and reduced the prison terms of 28 others on Saturday, after they were granted presidential pardons.

Two inmates from Yangon's Insein prison and three inmates from Mandalay's Obo prison who passed the exam with three distinctions were released on Saturday and will be able to attend university with the help of the Ministry of Education and the department of social welfare, which is under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

U Min Tun Soe, the deputy director of the prison department in Naypyitaw, said the department of social welfare would help the students receive further education and stay out of trouble in the future.

Ko Nay Myo Aung and Ko Nyan Lin Aung from Insein prison, and Ma Lu Pan, Ko Zin Min Tun and Ko Tun Ko Ko from Obo prison, were released on Saturday.

"It is compulsory to contact the department social welfare. If the released students do not want to go to university, the department will give them professional training to help them find employment," the deputy director said.

Eight other students from both Insein and Obo prisons who passed the matriculation exam with 2 distinctions received pardons reducing their remaining prison terms by half.

Another 20 inmates who passed the exam with one distinction or no distinctions received pardons reducing their remaining prisons terms by one quarter.

The prison department said the inmates remaining in prison would still have an opportunity to receive a university education while serving their time through the Ministry of Education's distance learning program.

"There will be classes and exam centers inside the prison so inmates can continue their studies. If they are released before graduating, they can continue these studies at university," the deputy director said.

U Min Tun Soe added that the pardons were not solely based on distinctions but on crimes committed and time served as well.

In the 2017-18 academic year, 19 inmates out of 34 who took the matriculation exam passed it, along with 27 out of 55 inmates from Obo prison – 21 of them with honors.

According to the prison department, 13 inmates who passed the exam were already being released in June and July after their prison terms were fully served.

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NSCN-K Replaces Chairman After 1 Year

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 01:58 AM PDT

YANGON — The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khapland (NSCN-K) removed retired Lt-Gen Khango Konyak from his role as chairman and replaced him with Yung Aung, the deputy minister of the NSCN-K defense department, as interim chairman last Friday.

The replacement was made after three days of meetings from Aug. 15-17 in Taga village, Nanyun town, at the headquarters of the NSCN-K, said U Kyaw Wan Sein, a central committee member.

"The chairman was ousted from his role as chairman and as a member of the NSCN-K, as all of our cabinet ministers agreed on the decision," said U Kyaw Wan Sein.

The deputy minister of defense of the NSCN-K is the nephew of the late SS Khaplang. He studied in Manipur and is known to be skilled at martial arts and polo.

He will act as both chairman and president of the NSCN-K government.

U Kyaw Wan Sein added that Khango Konyak was removed from the position because he was unable to lead the NSCN-K in his capacity as chairman even though he had held the role for more than a year. Other reasons included that he acted without consultation, did not appoint a vice chair, did not engage with the public, and was unable to guide cabinet ministers.

Khango Konyak, who is western Naga, or an Indian national, was appointed as chairman on June 20, 2017, after the death of the founder SS Khaplang.

Of his role as chairman for 14 months, U Kyaw Wan Sein said: "He [Khango] could not do anything that would develop our organization. We were disordered and our work suffered setbacks. There was no guidance to the ministries and no engagement with the public."

The ousted Khango Konyak was also restricted from traveling outside the ethnic armed group's headquarters in Myanmar's Hukwang valley, Sagaing Region, by the Tatmadaw's Northwestern Command last month.

Under his leadership, the NSCN-K also lost an outpost in Lahe Township, Sagaing Region, to Myanmar's military.

The loss was regarded by some as a coup against Indian Naga by Myanmar Naga within the NSCN-K.

It is believed that Khango Konyak and some of his followers have returned to India.

In regards to the leadership change and its effect on peace process negotiations, U Kyaw Wan Sein said negotiations are ongoing, adding that more discussion is needed among NSCN-K members regarding whether to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

"We have to discuss signing the NCA so that we can move forward. When we do, we will focus on principles that benefit the Naga region," said U Kyaw Wan Sein. "Then we will discuss our decision with the government."

The NSCN-K had a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the Sagaing regional government in 2012 and was invited to sign the NCA, which was drafted in 2015. However, as the NSCN-K focuses on having a united Nagaland for the Naga people in both Myanmar and India, its chance of signing the NCA is hindered.

Translated from Burmese by Nyein Nyein.

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Myanmar State Counselor in Singapore for a Working Goodwill Visit

Posted: 20 Aug 2018 12:23 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Singapore on Sunday for a working goodwill visit, at the invitation of Singaporean Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong.

She will be in the city state for four days.

During her third visit to the country, the Nobel laureate will have meetings with Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and receive a briefing there.

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Myanmar State Counselor will call on President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as well as Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Apart from the work-related meetings, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will also host a talk titled "Myanmar's Democratic Transition: Challenges and Way Forward" on Tuesday.

On Sunday, she was accompanied by Union Minister for the Office of the Union Government and National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, Union Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin and Deputy Minister for the Office of the President, Min Thu. The last time she visited the country was in 2016.

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Korean Families Separated by War to Reunite Briefly After 65 Years

Posted: 19 Aug 2018 09:56 PM PDT

SEOUL — Some 180 families torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War will be temporarily reunited in North Korea starting Monday after the two Koreas renewed exchanges this year following a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

The reunions, the first in three years, will take place in the North’s tourist resort on Mount Kumgang, as agreed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their first summit in April.

The separated families are victims of a decades-long standoff between the neighbors, which has escalated over the past several years as Pyongyang rapidly advanced its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

More than 57,000 South Korean survivors have registered for a brief family reunion, which lasts only 11 hours and often ends in painful farewells.

“I’m over 90 so I don’t know when I am going to die. I am very glad that I have been selected this time, I’m walking on air now,” 91-year-old Moon Hyun-sook told Reuters on Sunday, a day before meeting her younger sisters in North Korea.

For years, Seoul has been calling for regular meetings between separated families including using video conferences, but the reunion programs often fell victim to fragile relations with Pyongyang.

During his summit with US President Donald Trump in June, Kim pledged to abandon his country’s nuclear programs if Washington provided security guarantees, but the two sides have since struggled to agree on how to reach that goal.

South Korean family members arrived at the coastal border city of Sokcho on Sunday to be briefed by officials on the reunion and for a brief health check-up, before crossing the border on Monday.

Ninety-three families from both sides of the border were initially scheduled for a three-day gathering from Monday, but four South Korean members canceled their trip to the North at the last minute due to health conditions, the Red Cross said.

Starting Thursday, there will be a meeting of another 88 groups of relatives, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

The brief family reunions, which began in 1985, can be a traumatic experience for the aging survivors, they say. And time is running out, with many of them aged 80 or older.

Around 132,600 individuals are listed as separated families as of the end of July. Of the 57,000 survivors, 41.2 percent are in their 80s and 21.4 percent are in their 90s, according to government data.

The oldest South Korean participating in the latest gathering is 101 years old.

“Most participants are elderly and many of them are suffering from hypertension, diabetes and have underlying medical conditions. Ahead of the reunions, we are thoroughly checking their health conditions so that they can attend the events as planned,” said physician Han Sang-jo.

Many of the family members brought gifts for their North Korean relatives. Socks, underwear, basic winter jackets, medicine, toothpastes and food are the most common items, with gifts deemed too extravagant unlikely to pass muster with Pyongyang authorities.

“I’ve prepared for him some household medicine including digester and headache pills, nutritional supplements as well as some daily necessaries,” said Lee Soo-nam, a 76-year-old South Korean, due to meet his older brother in the North separated by the war.

“He is very old so I really want to express my gratitude for being alive for a long time.”

The post Korean Families Separated by War to Reunite Briefly After 65 Years appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Empty Hotels, Idle Boats: What Happens When a Pacific Island Upsets China

Posted: 19 Aug 2018 09:14 PM PDT

KOROR, Palau — Empty hotel rooms, idle tour boats and shuttered travel agencies reveal widening fissures in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, which is caught in an escalating diplomatic tug-of-war between China and Taiwan.

Late last year, China effectively banned tour groups to the idyllic tropical archipelago, branding it an illegal destination due to its lack of diplomatic status.

As China extends its influence across the Pacific, Palau is one of Taipei’s 18 remaining allies worldwide and is under pressure to switch allegiances, officials and business people there say.

“There is an ongoing discussion about China weaponizing tourism,” said Jeffrey Barabe, owner of Palau Central Hotel and Palau Carolines Resort in Koror. “Some believe that the dollars were allowed to flow in and now they are pulling it back to try and get Palau to establish ties diplomatically.”

In the commercial center of Koror, the Chinese pullback is obvious. Hotel blocks and restaurants stand empty, travel agencies are boarded and boats which take tourists to Palau’s green, mushroom shaped Rock Islands are docked at the piers.

Prior to the ban, Chinese tourists accounted for about half the visitors to Palau. Of the 122,000 visitors in 2017, 55,000 were from China and 9,000 from Taiwan, official data showed.

Chinese investors had also gone on a buying frenzy, building hotels, opening businesses and securing large swathes of prime coastal real estate.

The decline since the ban was announced has been so sharp, charter airline Palau Pacific Airways announced in July it would terminate flights to China, four hours away, from the end of this month.

The Chinese government was “putting an effort to slow or stop tourists going to Palau”, said the Taiwanese-controlled airline, which has experienced a 50 percent fall in bookings since the China restrictions began.

China has previously used its tourism clout as a diplomatic tool, last year halting tours to South Korea after Seoul installed a controversial US missile defense system.

Asked if designating Palau an illegal destination was a way of putting pressure on it to move away from Taiwan, China’s Foreign Ministry said relations with other countries had to happen under the framework of the “one China” principle.

“The one China principle is the pre-condition and political foundation for China to maintain and develop friendly cooperative relations with all countries around the world,” it said in a statement to Reuters, without specifically addressing the Palau issue.

The “one China” principle is a core government policy that states Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says China has lured four countries to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in the past two years by offering generous aid packages and investment.

“While Taiwan faces serious diplomatic challenges, the government will not bow down to pressure from Beijing,” the ministry said on its website. “Taiwan will work with friendly nations to uphold regional peace and stability and ensure our rightful place in the international community.”

Shift in Focus

Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr. said there had been no official communication from Beijing on the tourism restrictions.

“It is not a secret that China would like us and the diplomatic friends of Taiwan to switch to them, but for Palau it is not our choosing to decide the one China policy,” he told Reuters in an interview in Palau’s second biggest city, Meyuns.

Remengesau, whose second and final term as president ends in January 2021, said Palau welcomed investment and tourism from China but the current administration’s principles and democratic ideals aligned more closely with Taiwan.

Palau was adapting to the China pullback by focusing on higher spending visitors rather than mass tourism, which had taken a toll on the environment, said Remengesau, dressed in a lemon colored shirt and white shell necklace.

One of Palau’s key tourist attractions, the saltwater Jellyfish Lake, was shut in 2017 after large numbers of swimmers were blamed for contributing to plummeting jellyfish numbers.

“The reality is that numbers did not mean big revenues for Palau. It actually made us more determined to seek the policy of quality versus quantity,” said Remengesau, who in 2015 declared most of Palau’s territorial waters a marine sanctuary the size of California.

Cementing Influence

Former Palau government officials say Beijing is trying to cement its influence in the region ahead of the expiry of the Compact Funding agreements between the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau in 2023 and 2024.

The United States provides around $200 million a year on average to the Compact states and is responsible for the defense of the three countries, which each hold a seat at the United Nations.

Last December, the US belatedly approved $124 million in assistance for Palau through till 2024, but has not announced any plans to extend the Compact agreements.

“The United States and China are not zero-sum competitors,” a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters. “However, we have concerns about the sustainability of debt loads for countries highly indebted to China, as well as the environmental, social, or labor conditions that often come along with Chinese-financed projects.”

A June Security report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said Beijing’s increasing economic engagement in the Pacific was driven by its diplomatic and strategic priorities, including reducing Taiwan’s international presence, gaining access to natural resources and developing a blue water navy.

Former Micronesian government officials said Beijing also wants to extend its Belt and Road Initiative to Palau, and could provide an important source of investment once the Compact agreement expires.

“China is making overtures,” said former Palau President Johnson Toribiong. “We should be bringing in investors and that is a big factor in our Palau-Chinese relationship.”

Toribiong, who served until 2013, told Reuters Palau should not isolate itself.

“I like Taiwan. But even Taiwanese want China now. The businessmen, they also want China. They don’t care about political consequence. Think about the economics,” Toribiong said.

Palau receives $10 million annually from Taiwan, as well as education and medical scholarships.

Remengesau said Palau has not had any official talks with China for funding after the Compact expires but the government was discussing the issue internally.

Chinese Money

China has quickly become one of the dominant economic players in the Pacific, spending billions of dollars in trade, investment, aid and tourism across Micronesia and the broader region.

China’s total goods trade with the Pacific Island Forum member countries reached $8.2 billion in 2017 versus $1.6 billion for the United States, according to the US security report. Chinese concessional loans to Pacific islands have also risen sharply.

In contrast, Washington’s efforts to strengthen its position in Palau have been largely superficial, according to locals who cite examples of bigger US flags on their official vehicles and increased public signage.

Chinese activity has slowed significantly, however.

Barabe, the resort owner, said Chinese investors had secured 99-year leases for around 60 hotel projects prior to 2017, but construction has been largely put on hold.

At a lush forest site leased by China’s Hanergy group, a rusting metal gate blocks the entrance with no sign of construction. Hanergy did not respond to requests for comment regarding the development. At a nearby hilltop site overlooking the ocean and leased by another Chinese developer, the shell of a dilapidated mansion stands scrawled with graffiti.

Jackson M. Henry, a real estate appraiser in Koror who helps Chinese companies lease land from local clans, said he was trying to set up channels to aid Chinese investment into Palau ahead of the next election in 2020. Pro business candidate Surangel Whipps Jr. was an early favorite to win the vote.

Henry, whose previous roles included Palau’s ambassador to Taiwan and Chairman of Palau Visitors Authority, said Palau wanted to be friends with both Taiwan and China.

“They (Chinese clients) are looking towards the next administration to improve the relationship with mainland China.”

The post Empty Hotels, Idle Boats: What Happens When a Pacific Island Upsets China appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Trade War Puts New Strains on America Inc’s Factories in China

Posted: 19 Aug 2018 09:09 PM PDT

SHENZHEN, China/SHANGHAI — Larry Sloven arrived in southern China three decades ago, just as the region was taking off as the low-cost manufacturing center of the world. Since then, he has exported millions of dollars of goods, ranging from power tools to LED lights, to some of America’s biggest retailers.

That era may now be coming to an end.

For years, Sloven has seen profits whittled away by rising costs, tighter regulations and Chinese government policies aimed at building a more sustainable and services-oriented economy that have squeezed lower-end manufacturers.

But the final straw may be the prospect of tariffs stemming from a trade war between the United States and China, and a world of more protectionism.

“It’s been step, by step, by step. And it’s been getting more and more expensive to produce products in China,” said Sloven, president of Capstone International HK Ltd, a division of Capstone Companies, from Deerfield Beach, Florida, a maker of consumer electronics goods.

Manufacturers have been feeling the squeeze as China shifts its priorities from lower-end manufacturing to high technology industries as part of a broader bid to upgrade its economy.

But with tariffs looming, “everybody finally woke up to the extent that ‘maybe I should face reality’,” he said. Manufacturers were increasingly worried that “the next group of tariffs would be the killer."

Sloven is now stepping up efforts to trim his exposure to China, diversifying into growing manufacturing centers like Thailand.

“Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia are countries that have potential opportunities,” he said. “However, it’s not going to be as easy as many may think. And you don’t know what’s coming next in China.”

Interviews with over a dozen manufacturers from medical device makers to agricultural equipment firms illustrate how companies exporting to the United States are now rethinking their calculations about making goods in China.

“Before the tariffs came on board, we were looking to move about 30 percent of our production from China to the United States,” said Charles M. Hubbs, European director at Premier Guard, a medical products manufacturer, citing reasons such as rising wages, a shrinking workforce and soaring costs.

“With the latest tariff development, assuming those tariffs will go into effect, we’ll probably be moving about 60 percent of our manufacturing out of China to the United States.”

Other companies are closely reviewing their options.

“In the current tariff environment, it’s only natural for companies like ours and others to be internally reassessing the impact and taking steps to mitigate that,” said a senior China-based executive with a major US manufacturer.

Moves could include “limiting additional sourcing from China, shifting sourcing to other countries, or bringing work back to the United States."

Supply Chain Threat

The escalating tit-for-tat trade war between the United States and China, with President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese-made goods, could have huge implications for heavily integrated and globalized supply chains.

For some, the impact has been obvious and direct.

Georgia-based AGCO Corp told the United States Trade Representative that tariffs would make the farm equipment it makes in Changzhou, a city in China’s Jiangsu province, “price uncompetitive” in the United States.

Maroon Group, a chemical maker from North America said it would be “priced out of the market," a concern echoed by Goodman Global, which assembles air conditioners in Houston from Chinese-made parts.

Some firms have already made their moves. The furniture makers At Home Group Inc and RH have said they will cut back production in China.

Others are trying to adjust supply chains. DSM China Ltd, part of the Dutch nutrition firm Royal DSM, is looking to replace US soybeans with new ingredients such as pea powder it can source locally to avoid Beijing’s retaliatory import duties.

Rising risk from the trade tensions “gave us good impetus to check out how we look at the whole business”, said Bernard Cheung, director of global strategic marketing at DSM China.

For some, the response has been dictated by where they sit in the supply chain.

US-based GMM Nonstick Coatings has moved some production to India after a 30-40 percent drop-off in China orders for advanced chemicals used to coat American household kitchenware brands such as George Foreman and Baker’s Secret as those clients move some production out of China.

“This tariff thing is adding extra friction to being in China and it’s making the decision” to shift production “quite easy for US sourcing departments,” said Ravin Gandhi, GMM’s chief executive.

$2 Trillion Question

There are still plenty of manufacturers staying in China for now, especially those targeting the huge domestic or regional market, Gandhi said.

China still has the best infrastructure, supply chain networks and engineering talent, a major hurdle for potential rivals seeking to lure firms away with lower costs, according executives interviewed by Reuters.

In terms of scale, China cannot be easily replaced: it has a manufacturing output of around $2 trillion, according to a Brookings Institution report in July, the world’s largest.

Bird, a Santa Monica, California-based scooter start-up, wrote in a submission to the Office of the US Trade Representative in June that it was “unaware of any US producer of electric scooters that can manufacture to Bird’s scale and needs."

Keith Siilats, the head of Bytelogics, another US-based scooter start-up that manufactures in China, said it was hard to shift production from China. Instead, he expects to absorb the higher costs for the moment and plans to develop European operations less vulnerable to tariff pressure.

China’s manufacturing sector will not vanish overnight, but a shift is inevitable, said Dan Krassenstein, Shanghai-based director of Asia operations at ProconPacific, which makes around 3 million specialized industrial shipment bags.

He said manufacturing was moving to South Asia and Southeast Asia in search of cheaper labor costs and as Beijing discourages polluting, lower-margin sectors.

The tariff escalation “is just going to accelerate it," he said.

Five years ago his company made all its products in China. Now, a quarter are made in India and 5-10 percent in Vietnam.

Doing the Sums

In Southern China’s Pearl River Delta, the cost of renting industrial and commercial space has surged around 80 percent in the past eight years, while companies have complained of soaring labor costs.

“Production costs are cheaper in the US than in China,” said Yuan Juyou, deputy head of marketing at Wonderful Group, a ceramics maker. “Even though labor costs are more expensive, we have automated a lot of processes. Plus electricity, land, these kinds of costs are cheaper than China.”

Wonderful, a unit of the Chinese manufacturer Marco Polo, began shipping products from its new factory in Tennessee in June.

Regional rivals are also starting to sense an opportunity to step up and into China’s competitive space.

Thailand is actively promoting itself as a regional manufacturing hub, offering incentives such as an exemption of up to eight years on corporate income tax for certain industries and exemptions on import duties for some raw materials.

The country’s corporate income tax rate of 20 percent also ranks it as the second-lowest among countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Thailand’s Board of Investment.

Thailand is already a major center for some electronics and components, and the government plans a series of industrial zones to push development of target industries.

A China-ASEAN free trade deal also helps mitigate the trade-war risk for companies trading with both the United States and China.

“The Thai government is making it very easy now to move down there,” said Sloven.

“The Chinese government embraced manufacturing back in the day. But now, they’re not looking for growth in the product business. They’re looking for high-tech,” he said.

“It’s a bit like when a wife comes to a husband and says, ‘I don’t love you anymore’.”

The post Trade War Puts New Strains on America Inc's Factories in China appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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