Monday, December 17, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Armed Group Soldier Involved in Shan State Shooting Dies From Knife Wounds

Posted: 17 Dec 2018 05:42 AM PST

Mon State — The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) says one of its soldiers involved in a shooting on Tuesday in southern Shan State that left at least four ethnic Pa-O people dead has died from his wounds.

Colonel Sai Oo, a spokesman for the RCSS, said the soldier had been stabbed in the head and died on Thursday.

"He had two wounds on his head. He was very seriously wounded with a knife. He died because we could not treat him anymore," he told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

He said a second wounded soldier was still being treated.

The RCSS says the two soldiers were attacked by a group of Pa-O they had stopped in Loilem Township because they were members of another armed group in the area and suspected that one of them was a spy for the Myanmar military. It says the soldiers fired in self-defense, killing four people.

The Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) claims that the Pa-O were civilians searching for a new water source for their village when the RCSS soldiers detained them. It says other Pa-O from the village — Seng Ngum, also known as Namp Hu — came to demand their release and that the RCSS soldiers fatally shot five of them and wounded three others.

In a statement on Wednesday, the PNLO condemned the RCSS and accused it of “arbitrarily arresting, killing and injuring people.” Another group, the Union Pa-O National Organization, condemned the RCSS in a statement of its own on Friday and warned that the shootings could stoke communal tensions.

They appear to have done so already. Locals said tensions between the area’s Pa-O and Shan communities have been high since the shootings. Angry comments have been flying back and forth on Facebook.

Thousands of locals attended the funerals of the fatally shot Pa-O in Loilem on Thursday.

Col. Sai Oo said the RCSS was open to a request from Pa-O leaders to jointly investigate Tuesday’s violence but added that they had yet to make arrangements to do so.

The RCSS wants autonomy for Shan State. But unless they make peace with the state’s other ethnic groups, they will fail, said Khun Kyaw Win, a Pa-O community leader.

"Whenever there is a problem in the area or the situation is unstable, local people always have to suffer for it," he said.

The post Armed Group Soldier Involved in Shan State Shooting Dies From Knife Wounds appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Can Myanmar Profit From the Trade and Currency Wars?

Posted: 17 Dec 2018 02:04 AM PST

Fiscal and monetary management in Myanmar are suffering amid global trade and investment uncertainty. The global trade and macroeconomic scene does not favor the transformation of Myanmar's economic institutions. The state counselor's team has been trying to treat the country’s monetary and fiscal problems with the assistance of development partners such as the World Bank, IMF and ADB due to the dearth of home-grown technocrats and economists.

Myanmar's real GDP growth dropped slightly from 7 percent in 2015-16 to 5.9 percent in 2016-17 and then increased to 6.8 percent in 2017-18. The trade and currency wars between the U.S. and China have meanwhile created both winners and losers. The IMF, Bangladesh and Vietnam are winners. The WTO, powerless to settle the dispute, is a big loser.

A modern economy runs on taxes, yet Myanmar has one of the lowest tax collection rates in not only ASEAN but the world. The government budget fell from 10.1 percent of GDP in 2016-17 to 9.4 percent in 2018-19 (though the allocation for health and education rose slightly to 6 percent of GDP in 2017-18). Yet tax collection ranged from only 3 to 7 percent of GDP between 2012 and 2018. The country’s many armed groups and religious organizations have meanwhile been collecting their own taxes, levies and donations. Myanmar’s economy is based more on donations than taxes, savings and investment because there is no clear tax policy for a lack of talented tax economists.

Countless schools, streets, clinics, hospitals and streetlights in Myanmar are built with public donations and run on the power plants of armed groups, rather than by or with the state. An obvious reason for the state’s falling revenue is that few people trust the government’s tax policies. In Myanmar, trust is the scarcest commodity. The government needs to re-establish trust by improving its performance and tax system, in particular the horizontal or vertical tax systems, by hiring international experts over the next few years.

A bright spot of Myanmar’s public financial management is the fiscal discipline the government imposed in 2016-18. As a result, Myanmar's fiscal deficit fell even though revenue declined slightly to 1.1 percent of GDP in 2017-18. According to World Bank data, the current account deficit has improved as the trade deficit declined from 5.5 percent of GDP ($ 3.5 billion) in 2016-17 to 2.6 percent of GDP ($ 1.7 billion) in 2017-18 due to rising garment exports. But the government will also need to address an inefficient bureaucracy, unprofitable state economic enterprises and electricity prices in the coming years.

Regarding monetary matters, the policies and actions of the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) improved in 2017-18, after U Soe Thein and U Bo Bo Nge were appointed deputy governors. It came out with the “Burmese Way to the Basel Principles” in July 2017. The CBM also stopped the practice of printing money to cover budget deficits in 2016-17 for the first time in the country’s modern history.

Now, amid the currency war between the U.S. and China, the Myanmar kyat has suffered, depreciating heavily against the U.S. dollar. The kyat fluctuated sharply from August to September — between 1,300 and 1,800 per dollar — before stabilizing in October at 1,550. The CBM has since gotten heavily involved in managing monetary policy, in particular in the foreign exchange market. The inflation rate rose from 5.9 percent to 8.2 percent in 2017-18 due to mounting fuel and commodity prices and a cooling real estate market.

The government was wrong to impose policies restricting trade for fear that re-exports to China would depreciate the kyat further. In the midst of a trade dispute between great powers, Myanmar, as a tiny economy, must adopt a smart trade strategy that includes bilateral currency swaps with regional countries. Myanmar requires an “economic foreign policy” to deal with the G20 economies and balance its trade with the main players of the international economic order.

Currently, foreign direct investment from the U.S. and EU is shrinking. The EU is threatening to reimpose economic sanction and to revoke trade benefits under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), while Myanmar has adopted a "Look East” policy and committed to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. While allowing China access to the Bay of Bangle and Indian Ocean, Myanmar’s leaders would be wise to also pay attention to the country’s own energy security needs and its relationships in the Middle East and North Africa, home to more than 60 percent of the world’s petroleum reserves.

The European and U.S. markets, meanwhile, are meccas of consumerism and have great demand for international currencies and technology. Myanmar’s business community has to raise its ethical and regulatory standards, professionalism and trustworthiness to gain better access to their markets.

With respect to Myanmar's labor market, a lack of investment in human capital over the past several decades has left the country’s workforce at a disadvantage compared with its neighbors. In the lead-up to the 2020 general elections, the government should focus on coming up with a better labor policy and creating jobs and business opportunities. There are now about 14 million young people in the country’s labor force; many of them will migrate to other countries for work if the government cannot come up with a better labor policy than the one it has.

In sum, to attract foreign capital, investment and technology, Myanmar must address the risks associated with the country’s politics, economy and reputation, including rampant corruption. Now is the right time for Myanmar’s leaders not to isolate themselves in Naypyitaw but to engage and build trust with the G20.

Naing Ko Ko is a PhD candidate at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at Australian National University.

The post Can Myanmar Profit From the Trade and Currency Wars? appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Fighting Between Armed Groups Picked Up in November: Report

Posted: 17 Dec 2018 01:32 AM PST

YANGON — Clashes between ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) last month outnumbered those between them and the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, according to a new report.

The Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) says there were 44 clashes in November — 21 between EAOs and the military, and 23 between EAOs themselves. Among the latter, 10 involved the use of improvised explosive devices.

"We found that conflict escalated between EAOs and not with the Tatmadaw," MIPS Executive Director U Min Zaw Oo told The Irrawaddy.

The clashes occurred in 20 townships in states predominantly populated by ethnic minorities. Shan State's Namtu Township saw seven clashes. Kyaukme, Hsipaw and Kutkhaing townships, also in Shan, and Paletwa Township in Chin State saw four clashes each, while the rest saw one each.

The MIPS attributed much of the escalation to fighting between the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army-South (RCSS/SSA-S), the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N). It said their fighting had also expanded the area of conflict.

"Sometimes clashes happen as a result of encounters. Sometimes one side launches an attack on the other side. Sometime the two sides fight because of problems related to natural resources. We can't know the cause of every fight," U Min Zaw Oo said.

While the RCSS/SSA-S is a signatory to Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government and military, the others are not.

"Clashes happened because the [SSA-N] thinks the [SSA-S] is expanding into its territory in the north [of Shan State]. No one can control that. To solve this, there is a need to make sure everyone participates in the NCA and that everyone stops military operations. And there is a need to review the NCA to solve the existing problems. And there is also a need to establish clear territories," political analyst U Than Soe Naing told The Irrawaddy.

The MIPS attributed the clashes between the military and Arakan Army (AA) in southern Chin and northern Rakhine states to the AA’s attempts to expand its territory.

"The ultimate ambition of the AA is to establish a stronghold in Rakhine State. The AA attempted to gain a stronghold, and when the Tatmadaw attacked it, it fled, sometimes into Bangladesh. Then the fighting stopped for a while, until the AA came out again," said U Min Zaw Oo.

"But overall, clashes between the Myanmar Army and the EAOs across the country have declined," he added.

The AA, TNLA and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) met with the government's Peace Commission last week and offered to halt military operations in order to enter formal peace negotiations.

During the first 11 months of 2018, March saw the most armed clashes, according to the MIPS  — 89 between the military and EAOs and three between EAOs themselves.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Fighting Between Armed Groups Picked Up in November: Report appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Three Soldiers Killed in RPG Attack in Northern Rakhine State

Posted: 17 Dec 2018 12:41 AM PST

YANGON—Three army soldiers were killed and more than 10 wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack by an unknown armed group in strife-torn northern Rakhine's Rathedaung Township on Sunday morning.

A police officer from Buthidaung Township confirmed  to The Irrawaddy that a military logistics truck was struck by an unknown armed group near Htee Swea and Kyauk Tan villages. According to the officer, the injured soldiers were receiving medical treatment at a 100-bed hospital in the town.

Police denied a rumor circulating on Facebook on Monday morning that some women and children were also riding in the Army truck as passengers on the way to a market. The police officer clarified that this information was wrong and that the only people on the truck were soldiers carrying supplies to the front when they were ambushed.

The officer said the incident took place about 5 miles from downtown Rathedaung. Kyauk Tan village is situated in the foothills of the Awrama mountain range. The area is actively contested between the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) and the Arakan Army (AA).

The Irrawaddy phoned spokesmen from both the Tatmadaw and the AA on Monday in an effort to obtain more details about Sunday's RPG attack, including a confirmed death toll, but both sides declined to comment. The Office of the Commander in Chief had not released any statement regarding the reported death of the three soldiers or details of the casualties as of Monday morning.

The AA posted an update regarding armed clashes via their information page on Facebook on Sunday. It said fighting broke out in Rathedaung Township's Thaung Da Rar and Htee Swea villages, as well as Ponnagyun Township's Kha Maung and Maung Hna Ma and Kyun Thar Yar villages, respectively.

It did not elaborate on the causalities or which battalion of the Tatmadaw was involved. The AA said it was bracing for further clashes once the Tatmadaw reinforced its frontline positions with more troops.

U Aung Thaung Shwe, an Arakanese lawmaker in the Union Parliament from Buthidaung constituency, said poorly informed villagers were frightened of surprise inspections and questioning by the military. Last week, a military column surrounded a village and checked every single home, one by one.

"I have requested authorized organizations not to cause overwhelming fear among villagers when they enter villages for questioning," U Aung Than Shwe said.

He said some villagers from his constituency told him that artillery shells had exploded near their homes last week, causing them to flee to a nearby village. Although his township has no proper displaced persons camp, some residents had already left their villages for safer locations along the Sai Din River.

According to the lawmaker, as skirmishes had erupted in Ponnagyun, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Chin State's Paletwa Township, the IDP population could be higher than the reported number, as many members of Arakanese sub-ethnic groups live in remote areas. Some 300 IDPs have been sheltering in Ponnagyun Township, while some local relief workers were providing humanitarian assistance to them.

"The fighting will surely intensify as the AA has gained a strong foothold in these areas," U Aung Thaung Shwe said.

According to an AA press release, the ethnic armed group has clashed with the military on more than 20 occasions in recent weeks. Last week, the military officially announced that some high-ranking soldiers were killed by the AA, and that it had the bodies of four deceased AA members.

The post Three Soldiers Killed in RPG Attack in Northern Rakhine State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Film Industry Misrepresents Women, LGBT Community

Posted: 16 Dec 2018 11:59 PM PST

YANGON–Stereotyping, gender roles and gender discrimination in films have been increasing in the Myanmar film industry, which plays an influential role in people's thoughts and behavior, according to those behind research into gender awareness in Myanmar's film industry.

"We have seen derogatory representations of the role of women, minority ethnic [groups] and LGBT in Myanmar films. The characters in the films are making fun of these groups. Even though it may be unintentional, it is happening at every second. It is offensive and it is a shame," said Daw Myat Thet Thitsar, director of the Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF).

Recognized as one of the most powerful communication tools, with the ability to convey messages and images of social reality to audiences, Myanmar films are also being used as a propaganda tool to portray political history, transition and ideological conflicts.

Since the year 2000, one-third of the films created have been comedies and most of them contain sex jokes and insinuation of sexual harassment, said the researchers.

It will soon be one hundred years since the inception of Myanmar's film production industry, but sadly the presentation and the characters have become "distorted" since the year 2000, said Daw Grace Swe Zin Htike, a member of the Myanmar film censorship board, who encourages research in the development of Myanmar films.

She added that advancements in the industry are sometimes off-track as the creative art of film-making becomes more like a factory-produced entity to serve commercial purposes. She hopes that the development of film schools and collaborations between the mainstream and independent filmmakers will help the industry to regain quality in films.

"The perceptions [of the creators] have been wrong but it should not be turned to poison," Daw Grace Swe Zin Htike added, raising concerns that the characters in the films are very influential on the audience who tend to take cues from films for how they live with reality in their own lives.

She added that how the current Myanmar films represent male, female and LGBT characters, often involves discriminatory messages and portrays a biased identity. For example, LGBT characters are often portrayed as idiotic, rude and lustful.

"The quality of the films has decreased since the creative industry has being commercialized, but there are people who disagree with me who point out that the number of the films [produced] is increasing," said Daw Grace Swe Zin Htike.

The researchers based their analysis on 83 Myanmar films of different genres produced in 2016 and 2017, looking out for cases of gender discrimination, stereotyping, gender-based violence and gender awareness. The research also involved discussions with mainstream and documentary film directors, scriptwriters, actors, actresses and members of the censorship board.

Of the total number, 36 films included cases of gender discrimination which devalue the abilities of female and LGBT characters, said Daw Aye Lae Tun, a leading researcher from EMReF.

The findings also reveal more challenges facing the film industry, which has an actor-oriented market. In order to stick to the low budgets, plots with have many holes and there is a declining number of cinemas where the films may be screened.

One male director quoted in the research said, "The creation of well-organized stories has been in decline. The script is sometimes written on the scene, as it has not been well prepared beforehand. If the actor requests for the script to be revised, the writer has to rewrite it. If needed, LGBT characters have to be used to support the role of the actor or to [add fun to] the plot."

"Human rights were not heard of for a long time," said Daw Aye Lae Tun as explanation for creators such as directors and scriptwriters treating ethical issues with ignorance. "A human rights-based approach should be applied as a mainstream approach to every issue—this is not only related to the military's oppression," she said.

Scriptwriters may unintentionally compose the dialogue in a biased way, but these research findings which are available for everyone to read, should draw attention to the issues, said Daw Swe Zin Htike. "We just need to correct them as soon as we realize the wrongdoings."

The report findings may face opposition in the patriarchal society with some expressing their desire for Myanmar films to portray female characters as traditional women who are modest and take only the role of the house wife—the "perfect women"—in order to maintain a Myanmar-specific cultural perspective. The researchers, however, urged for only positive traditional views of women to be portrayed. The reality that modern Myanmar women often are opinionated, educated and have successful careers or businesses and healthy social lives should not be avoided.

"The research is comprehensive and the researchers did a detailed study on the films that are using proverbs to construct gender perspectives," said Dr. Khin Mar Mar Kyi, an award-winning social anthropologist and the first Senior Burmese female academic at the University of Oxford, who joined the research-study launch.

The post Myanmar Film Industry Misrepresents Women, LGBT Community appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Hunt for Crashed Lion Air Jet’s Black Box Delayed by Bad Weather

Posted: 16 Dec 2018 08:08 PM PST

JAKARTA — A renewed search for the cockpit voice recorder of a Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea on Oct. 29 has been delayed for two days due to bad weather hampering the arrival of a specialized ship, the airline said.

The crash, the world’s first of a Boeing Co 737 MAX jet, killed all 189 people on board and the main wreckage and second “black box” were not recovered in an initial search.

Lion Air said in a statement that it was funding a 38 billion rupiah ($2.6 million) search effort using the offshore supply ship MPV Everest, which had been expected to arrive in the search area on Monday.

Bad weather and heavy rain at the port of Johor Bahru in Malaysia interfered with the equipment and crew mobilization process, delaying the ship’s arrival at the crash site until Wednesday, the airline said late on Sunday.

Lion Air’s decision to foot the bill for the search is a rare test of global norms regarding search independence, as such costs are typically paid by governments.

By law, the search for the cockpit voice recorder is the “duty and responsibility” of Indonesia’s transport safety committee (KNKT), Lion Air said. The Transport Ministry, which is responsible for KNKT’s budget, was not immediately able to comment on the matter.

Indonesian investigators said last week that bureaucratic wrangling and funding problems had hampered the search for the recorder and they had turned to Lion Air for help.

Safety experts say it is unusual for one of the parties to help fund an investigation, required by U.N. rules to be independent to ensure trust in any safety recommendations.

There are also broader concerns about resources available for such investigations worldwide, coupled with the risk of agencies being ensnared in legal disputes.

The clock is ticking in the hunt for acoustic pings coming from the L3 Technologies Inc cockpit voice recorder fitted to the jet. It has a 90-day beacon, the manufacturer’s online brochure shows.

The flight data recorder was retrieved three days after the crash, providing insight into aircraft systems and crew inputs, although the cause has yet to be determined.

The post Hunt for Crashed Lion Air Jet’s Black Box Delayed by Bad Weather appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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