Friday, March 1, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Over 80 Percent of Village GAD Officials in Northern Rakhine Township Resign

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 07:58 AM PST

YANGON — Eighty-nine village General Administration Department (GAD) officials from northern Rakhine State’s strife-torn Mrauk-U Township resigned from their posts on Friday for fear of arrest.

The township has a total 103 villages, meaning 86 percent lost their GAD officials today.

The mass resignation is the second in as many months in northern Rakhine State, after more than 30 village GAD officials in Rathedaung Township resigned in January.

One of the officials who resigned Friday, U Sein Kyaw Aung, of Kyauk Kyat Village, said they stepped down after the arrest of four GAD officials in Mrauk-U on Thursday while attending a monthly township GAD meeting.

Owing to its collection of ancient temples, Mrauk-U is among of the more popular tourist destinations in Rakhine, but intense fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) has engulfed the area since early this year.

"We are afraid of arbitrary detention, like what happened yesterday," U Sein Kyaw Aung told The Irrawaddy.

Village GAD officials submit their resignation letters in Mrauk-U, Rakhine State, on Friday. / Kyaw Hla Myint / Facebook

He said two police officers came to the Mrauk-U Township GAD office on Thursday and took the four officials and a fifth person to the township police station for questioning.

U Sein Kyaw Aung said the officials were from the villages of Pyaing Gya, Pauk Pin Gwin, Yan Aung Pyin and Kyaukse Pyin, and that the township GAD official, U Maung Thar Sein, claimed no not know that they would be arrested in advance.

The Mrauk-U Township GAD office could not be reached for comment.

Another GAD official who resigned Friday, U Wai Hla Aung, of Tein Nyo Village, said the four officials arrested Thursday were also sued under Article 17 (1) of the Unlawful Associations Act this morning and being detained in Mrauk-U.

"We felt unsafe because they detained the village administrators without any reason, so we decided to submit resignation letters," he said.

He said they have already handed in the letters at the township and district GAD offices.

Rakhine State lawmaker U Tun Thar Sein said the village officials called to inform him of their plans to resign on Thursday and returned various office supplies including documents and stamps today.

Government stamps returned by village GAD officials lay on the floor of the Mrauk-U Township GAD office in northern Rakhine State on Friday. Kyaw Hla Myint / Facebook

Village GAD officials are authorized to issue travel documents to people without National Registration Cards, recommendation letter to citizens and household registration documents. They also send weekly and monthly reports about their villages to their superiors.

"The actions of the police are beyond the procedures. If someone violates the existing laws, they should take action in line" with those procedures, said U Tun Thar Sein.

“It seems the bureaucracy will come to a halt as of today because they returned their GAD stamps and documents,” he added.

The GAD had been under the authority of the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs until December, when the government moved it to the Ministry of the Offices of the Union Government, which is run by the civilian administration.

Mrauk-U resident Ko Zaw Tun said the arrest of the officials without advance notice to the township GAD officials was a sign that the two ministries were not getting along. He suggested that State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urge the military’s Western Command to call a truce with the AA and try to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the rebel group.

The post Over 80 Percent of Village GAD Officials in Northern Rakhine Township Resign appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Identity Politics and Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 05:21 AM PST

American political scientist Francis Fukuyama said in an interview that the rise of identity politics was “an unhealthy situation for democracy to be in when people line themselves up according to these birth categories."

The rise of white nationalism and the “black lives matter” movement in the U.S. was mentioned in his book “Identity Politics.”

In fact, ethnic identity politics has been present in colonized countries since the colonial era. "Many ethnic categorizations and ethnic hierarchies still functioning today were the intended or unintended results of European colonialism," said Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen. This is also known as divide-and-rule, used by colonial powers to divide the Frontier Areas from Ministerial Burma, Hutu from Tutsi in Rwanda, and during apartheid in South Africa.

During a meeting with Britain's Labour prime minister, Clement Attlee, in London in 1947, Aung San, leading Burma’s delegation to the country, openly accused the empire of a divide-and-rule policy in Burma.

"The present division between Ministerial Burma and the Frontier Areas is the direct result of the past policy of the British rulers of Burma if not of His Majesty’s Government to do everything possible to divide the Frontier Areas from the rest of Burma,” Vum Ko Hau, an ethnic Chin scholar, wrote in the book “Profile of a Burma Frontier Man.”

When Burma claimed independence from Britain, there was a serious debate between ethnic Bamar and minority leaders about whether or not the Frontier Areas would join. Though Aung San said in his speeches that "Burma would ask for independence separately if the Frontier Areas will not join in," he knew very well that it was "most ridiculous" to divide a country as small as Burma any further.

Vum Ko Hau reproduced his conversation with Aung San about the Frontier Areas: “The adjacent boundaries with all the important foreign countries would be with the Frontier Areas, and as such the defence of her borders would be in a hopeless position as the Frontier Areas themselves would not be able to defend themselves against their own neighbours, which are also neighbours of Ministerial Burma. On the other hand, it would be difficult for most of the Frontier Areas to stand on their legs with regards to finance when they need it most for improvement in almost all fields. There is definite mutual advantage to join together rather than to divide further as already designed by the imperialists.”

Identity politics based on nationalism and territorial control was installed in the Frontier Areas in the late colonial period. In 1946 the governor of British Burma, Dorman-Smith, and the officers in the Frontier Areas met with Kachin leaders in Myitkyina, while the director for the Frontier Areas Administration, Henry Stevenson, met with Karenni leaders in Loikaw, to introduce the Frontier Areas Regulation.

Author Mikael Gravers highlights the British influence in the Frontier Areas in his essay "Nationalism as Political Paranoia in Burma."

"During the negotiations in Panglong in the Shan states,” he writes, “the British tried to the last to secure Burma's status as a dominion within the Commonwealth — or at the very least to ensure control in 'Frontier Areas' and with the minorities."

He notes Britain’s attempts "to mobilise the pro-British leaders against Aung San's young supporters and the AFPFL in the border areas."

The identity politics of the Frontier Areas, where a handful of feudal lords competed for territory and power, was the result of British policy.

Military rule in Bamar attire

One of the main causes of identity politics in Myanmar today is the Burmanization policy of former dictator Ne Win. Touting a "Burmese Way to Socialism," Ne Win's government started to control education services and press freedom. The government terminated the education services provided by Western countries to reduce foreign influence in Myanmar. The teaching of English was limited to middle and high school, and only Burmese language, literature, and history were taught in primary schools across the country. The services of the Peace Corps were rejected and the activities of the British Council and the US Information Service were suspended. The Socialist government imposed a closed-door policy to minimize foreign influence.

The recent Rohingya exodus was not the only exodus in Myanmar history. There were several cases after the advent of Ne Win’s "socialist" dictatorship in 1962. Under a nationalization law, Ne Win deported many Indian and Chinese immigrants — who dominated much of the country's business and agriculture sectors — in 1963-64, creating an exodus to India and China of some 500,000 to 800,000 people, author Robert Holmes notes in his paper “Burmese Domestic Policy: Politics of Burmanization.”

Whether one calls it the "Burmese Way to Socialism" or "Disciplined Democracy," it was military rule in Bamar attire. While Myanmar managed to overcome feudalism and colonialism, the country spent five decades under military or one-party rule. Ne Win's Burmanization policy and his mismanagement fostered inequality between ethnic Bamar and minority groups and caused great suffering. While Ne Win was imposing socialist rule using nationalist identity politics, the rise of ethno-nationalism in the former Frontier Areas emerged. Ethnic leaders formed armed groups and have been fighting the Myanmar military since independence. Thus Myanmar has had more than 70 years of civil war.

Myanmar democracy and identity politics

When nationalism emerged in the 19th Century, Burmese nationalists took part in independence movements in Southeast Asian nations. When Marxist ideology was influenced in Asia, it became popular among university students in Myanmar. As with many countries across Asia, Myanmar was heavily influenced by popular ideologies around the world.

Fukuyama said 21st Century politics "is defined less by economic or ideological concerns than by questions of identity. Now, in many democracies, the Left focuses less on creating broad economic equality and more on promoting the interests of a wide variety of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees, women, and LGBT people. The Right, meanwhile, has redefined its core mission as the patriotic protection of traditional national identity, which is often explicitly connected to race, ethnicity, or religion."

If we look at the Myanmar peace process, the Left and Right have taken hard positions with little willingness to compromise. The ethnic groups want recognition and accommodation, as they have since Myanmar gained independence. At the same time, the majority Bamar want to maintain the country’s sovereignty and to protect the traditional national identity.

After 2010, a quasi-civilian government formed by former generals took power with a military-drafted Constitution and ruled the country until 2015. Although the military is no longer officially in charge, it still plays a major role in the duel-governing system the Constitution established and continues to sell itself as the last defence against the country’s disintegration.

As a result of the shift from military to quasi-civilian rule after 2010, press freedom has increased. Many civil society groups have been establish that promote democracy. Then the 2015 elections marked a milestone in the people’s political awakening, and a civilian government was formed for the first time in 60 years.

Today there are many organizations in Myanmar promoting the rights of women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people and other oppressed groups.

During British rule, the colonialists pulled the strings of identity politics in Burma to try to secure their power in the Frontier Areas. Likewise, there are people pulling the string of identity politics now during Myanmar transition to democracy. Sometimes they pull the strings in the name of ethnic identity. Other times they use religion as cover to secure power.

Fukuyama writes: "People's identities are neither fixed nor necessarily given by birth. Identity can be used to divide, but it can also be used to unify."

Aung San and ethnic leaders signed the Panglong Agreement in 1947. When people talk about the agreement today, they usually cite its promise of "full autonomy in the internal administration" of minority areas. The part they usually forget to mention is this: "Citizens of the Frontier Areas shall enjoy rights and privileges which are regarded as fundamental in democratic countries."

In the meantime, only a politics of democratic identity that protects individual rights and freedoms can help Myanmar with its transition, not the politics of one group, one territory or one identity, because the recognition of one’s identity is a basic tenet of democracy.

Mon Mon Myat is a freelance writer and journalist and a graduate student in the PhD program on peace building at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The post Identity Politics and Myanmar’s Democratic Transition appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Women Candidates on the Rise for YCDC Elections

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 04:33 AM PST

YANGON — More women candidates (16 percent of total candidates) will be contesting in the upcoming Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) election at the end of this month.

Of a total 272 candidates registered for the election, 44 are women aiming for city committee seats, head of township positions and township committee seats.

According to the YCDC Election Commission, 105 people will be elected to YCDC positions. Six of them will take YCDC central committee positions and the 99 others will be elected to the 33 township committees. There are three township committee members for each township. The deputy mayor will then be appointed from the elected YCDC members.

The candidates canvassed for one month from Feb. 28 to March 29.

"We welcome having more women candidates on the list. Not only the candidates, we women need to be elected to serve as committee members," said Daw Khin Lay, director of Triangle Women's Support Group.

She said the majority of people focus on parliamentary elections, but the local ward, village and city development committee members are the one who deal directly with the people on a day-to-day basis in solving problems related to litter, water and taxation. Therefore, she said, having women in those positions is crucial.

"I totally agree that women would do their best to solve these challenges if they are elected. Women face similar challenges in their daily life and thus they will be able to do it well," she added.

When compared to the 2014 YCDC election in which 32 women contested alongside 261 men, the number of women candidates this year rose from 11 to 16 percent. “But it is still not adequate,” said U Kyaw Htin, program director of the Yangon-based New Myanmar Foundation, which is raising awareness, holding workshops and advocating for the amendment of Yangon City municipal laws. The foundation also plans to monitor the upcoming YCDC election, especially the success of the women candidates and the contribution of women voters.

"According to the ratio of Yangon's population, women candidates should make up half [of the candidates]. More women should contest for these important positions in the YCDC," he said.

He said women's perspectives are important in dealing with the urban development works including litter, markets and drainage systems that are important issues for urban families. He is confident that the city's development performance would be better and said research shows that when women mayors are elected, capacity and performance rises.

In the new YCDC law, everyone above 18 years old is eligible to vote, which didn't happen in 2014. During the 2014 YCDC election, only one person per household, meaning the head of a household, was allowed to vote.

Many women's rights activists believe that this new provision to the YCDC law gives the women candidates a better chance.

Ma Htet Htet Tun, a professional model and candidate running for election told The Irrawaddy that she is preparing to prove that she can be trustworthy.

"Being a model, people are worried that I may be more interested in putting on makeup than serving in this kind of [role]. I would like to prove [them wrong] and will try to earn their trust and fulfill their wishes. I want votes from the people who believe in me."

She will contest for Yangon's Constituency Number 3, which covers 12 townships. She also has her sights set on the position of deputy mayor.

"For the city to be clean and developed, everyone who lives in Yangon needs to change their minds, their commitments and follow [good] leadership. I want them to change. If they change these thoughts, not only on the litter issues, but I believe everything else will change too," she added.

The post Women Candidates on the Rise for YCDC Elections appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Irrawaddy Region Parliament Approves Lawyer as New Deputy Speaker

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 03:58 AM PST

U San Htway, a lawyer and lawmaker in the Irrawaddy Region Parliament representing Danubyu Township’s Constituency 2, has been approved as the local legislature’s new deputy speaker.

His appointment was approved at a regular session of the legislature on Thursday.

The former deputy speaker, also a lawyer, was expelled from the National League for Democracy for his involvement in the controversial procurement of five vehicles for the Irrawaddy Region Parliament. He then resigned as deputy speaker on his own accord.

"I am determined to steer the Parliament in accordance with the law and the Constitution. As I am also heading the Construction Committee for the new regional parliament building, I am determined to complete the project during the remaining term," U San Htway told the Irrawaddy.

U San Htway, 64, was elected representative of Danubyu Township’s Constituency (2) after winning 62 percent of the vote in the 2015 elections. He also served as secretary of the Legislative Committee and a member of the Public Complaints Committee.

The post Irrawaddy Region Parliament Approves Lawyer as New Deputy Speaker appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Introducing Indawgyi Lake: Community Tourism With a Social Impact

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 03:43 AM PST

LON TON, Kachin State — Face of Indawgyi is a sustainable social enterprise based at Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State. As well as facilitating sustainable, community-based tourism at the lake, Myanmar’s largest, the project works on four main principles: cultural preservation, environmental conservation, educational opportunities and sustainable business development.

The idea for Face of Indawgyi came during US-native Stephen Traina-Dorge's visit to Lon Ton Village, on the southeast shore of the lake, while making a video documentary in 2015. He was struck by the tranquility of the lake, the open friendliness of the people and their unique culture.

"This really all stemmed out of cultural preservation. We were doing a cultural preservation documentary on thanaka and came here to document rural northern Myanmar. Right when we arrived, we felt the same thing — this place is incredibly special. We wanted to have more of an impact than the thanaka documentary work," said Traina-Dorge.

The reserve covers 73,600 hectares and includes 10 globally threatened bird species, the endemic Burmese peacock turtle and a number of endemic fish species. / Marie Starr

In July 2017, he moved to Lon Ton and founded Face of Indawgyi. He was joined by a like-minded partner, Patrick Compton, also from the US, who became associate director.

Though over 70,000 pilgrims visit the lake annually for the festival at Shwemyitzu Pagoda, a temple that seems to float on the water’s surface, visitors to the lake strictly for tourism are few but growing. Travelers who do make their way here are drawn to the lake, part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, for its wealth of birdlife and healthy populations of other endemic wildlife.

On a February morning at Indawgyi Motel, one of two basic guesthouses serving the lake in Lon Ton, Burmese, English, German, and Korean languages could be heard from visitors who, in their determination to experience this unique region, undertook the long journey to be here.

Tourism with and for the community

Face of Indawgyi helps to facilitate visits to the lake and in turn supports the community. It doesn't focus on new activities or experiences, but rather connects visitors to a range of sustainable, community-focused activities that are already available but not widely known.

On a boat ride on the 260-square-km lake, you can see some of the 20,000 birds that flock here from Siberia each year to escape northern Russia’s harsh winters between November and March. You can join shrimp farmers on their wooden boats as they lay out their traps at dusk, the intricate cages dunked quietly into waters colored golden by the setting sun. Kayaks, bamboo bicycles and skateboards made from recycled plastic can be rented. Treks into the surrounding hills and various viewpoints by the lake are other low-impact activities that can bring financial income to local families.

Shrimping boats with handmade traps are prepared at the shore of the lake. / Marie Starr

Generating income locally and providing employment opportunities for the community's youth are important positive social impacts of the project, which works in areas plagued by drug addiction and where many young men are lured into work at the notorious jade mines of Hpakant, 80 km away.

"In other places, it's about being a tourist. But here, it's about becoming involved in the community through your experiences," said Traina-Dorge at a property on the lakeshore the social enterprise recently acquired and where it plans to build the Lon Ton Social Impact Guesthouse.

"We're trying to make Indawgyi a kind of hub, an example for other places. We're not trying to do it all ourselves. We're looking for partnerships. If we could bring the best of 21st century ideas, the best of globalization, to solve local challenges, then that would be something special," said Compton.

Some 20,000 birds flock to Indawgyi Lake from Siberia every winter. / Marie Starr

Face of Indawgyi has created a map of Lon Ton that includes useful information on where to eat, lake paths, shops and viewpoints. It has created multilingual menus for restaurants where travelers might eat. What's more, the wide range of activities can be prearranged on the Face of Indawgyi website, including those already mentioned plus a visit to a traditional Shan-ni fabric weaving workshop, a local alcohol-making business and Shan-ni cuisine cooking classes.

Cash generated through tourism activities they organize goes straight into the hands of the locals providing the service. All other funds go into furthering the project's reach around the lake.

"What sets [Indawgyi] apart from other destinations in Myanmar is that it hasn't been overdeveloped. In fact, it's barely developed at all. There's still a unique identity," said Compton.

As Inle Lake struggles with the waste burden of a growing number of visitors and construction projects on its shores, Indawgyi has the opportunity to establish environmentally sound tourism practices before visitor numbers really start to grow.

As part of its environmental work, Face of Indawgyi runs an anti-littering campaign that involves signage and awareness-raising and the installation of trash bins around four villages and at Shwemyitzu Pagoda. The simple bins are made locally from recycled fishing nets and set a good precedent for the future.

A map of Lon Ton created by Face of Indawgyi to help visitors get around the village and find restaurants and services. / Face of Indawgyi

Shan-ni cultural preservation

Something Face of Indawgyi is passionate about is preserving and documenting the local culture. The people living around Indawgyi are predominantly Shan-ni, or Tai Laeng in their own tongue, a subgroup of the Shan. Over decades of repression by the military junta and suffering the effects of conflict in the area between Kachin armed groups and the military, the Shan-ni culture is not as strong as it once was. Only a few elderly locals and monks can speak the language, though a number of classes for youth have been started. Face of Indawgyi has been creating a Shan-ni oral archive and video documentation of the language and researched and recorded the unique oral histories of three villages on the lake.

Hornbills are seen on a guided trek in the hills to the southeast of Indawgyi Lake arranged by Face of Indawgyi. / Marie Starr

Biodiversity at Southeast Asia's third-largest lake

Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary was established by the Myanmar government in 1999 and listed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2017. Of its 73,600 hectares, the lake covers 12,000. Species in the sanctuary include 10 globally threatened bird species, the endemic Burmese peacock turtle and a number of endemic fish species. However, the lake's health is threatened by nearby small-scale illegal gold mines and unmanaged waste from the huge number of pilgrims who come for the annual Shwemyitzu Pagoda festival.

Face of Indawgyi founder Stephen Traina-Dorge (L) and associate director Patrick Compton (R) at the recently-acquired property where they will build Lon Ton Social Impact Guesthouse, in Lon Ton on February 15, 2019. / Marie Starr

Blueprints for a guesthouse with positive social impact

Government numbers show foreign visitors to Indawgyi remain below 1,000 per year. It's not easy to get here — the fastest way to reach Lon Ton from Yangon is to fly to Myitkyina and hire a car for the four-hour trip to the village. Many travelers make their way here on a long train or bus journey north from Mandalay, stopping off at Katha and Bamaw.

What will make the journey more worthwhile, however, is a better quality of accommodation, and Face of Indawgyi is onto that. After a complex yearlong bureaucratic process to buy the land, it has begun making plans for a 10-room guesthouse on the sloping site right at the lake's edge that it hopes to open in March 2020. Set to be the "cornerstone of Face of Indawgyi," it will incorporate a hotel training center funded by Luxdev and a community event space.

Face of Indawgyi's projects are already wide-reaching and ambitious, but with a long list of plans for the future and ventures in the pipeline, this social enterprise holds lots of potential for genuine, long-lasting positive impacts on the community and environment of Indawgyi Lake.

As Compton said, "We have lofty goals, but figuring out concrete and measurable things we can do at this early stage sets the foundation for great things later on."

The post Introducing Indawgyi Lake: Community Tourism With a Social Impact appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Imprisoned Reuters Reporter Kyaw Soe Oo Is Ill, His Wife Says

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 03:09 AM PST

Jailed Reuters reporter Kyaw Soe Oo has fallen ill in prison, according to his wife.

Ma Chit Su Win told The Irrawaddy on Friday that her husband had a high temperature and appeared very weak when she visited him at Yangon's Insein Prison on Feb. 27.

"His whole body is covered in a rash and he has a high temperature," Ma Chit Su Win said. Walking left him very tired and he was unable to talk for more than 5 minutes, she said.

After being invited to dinner to meet with police to discuss a story, Kyaw Soe Oo and his Reuters colleague Wa Lone were arrested in December 2017 and accused of violating the Official Secrets Act. The journalists were eventually convicted and sentenced to 7-year prison terms. The case drew international attention as many critics of the case—and even a police officer serving as a prosecution witness during the trial—claimed the pair had been framed. Prior to their arrests, they had been reporting about rights abuses committed by the Myanmar Army in Rakhine State, including the massacre of 10 Rohingya civilians.

Kyaw Soe Oo has received some treatment at the prison's hospital, Ma Chit Su Win said.

"He told me not to come on Thursday as the doctor planned to put him on an intravenous drip," she said.

She said a doctor from the prison hospital told her he had conducted a blood test on Kyaw Soe Oo on Thursday and found no abnormalities. Nonetheless, Ma Chit Su Win said she was very worried about her husband's condition, adding that she planned to visit to him on Monday.

"The doctor told us that he was fine, and that we did not need to worry," she said.

Reuters' office in Yangon said it would help Ma Chit Su Win and her family write a letter to the prison authorities asking that Kyaw Soe Oo be allowed to seek treatment outside the prison.

"We have requested permission to transfer Kyaw Soe Oo to his doctor for a consultation and to visit him and Wa Lone. We will continue to monitor the situation closely," Reuters said on Friday in an email sent to The Irrawaddy.

Ma Chit Su Win visits her husband in prison every day. She said Kyaw Soe Oo was in relatively good spirits and did not appear to be depressed, but complained about missing his family, especially when he was sick.

"He is my husband. I want to take good care of him. But I can't do it. So I'm really worried for him," she said, adding "I wish I could get inside the prison to take care of him."

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Some Facebook Content Reviewers in India Complain of Low Pay, High Pressure

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 08:58 PM PST

HYDERABAD, India/SAN FRANCISCO—On a busy day, contract employees in India monitoring nudity and pornography on Facebook and Instagram will each view 2,000 posts in an eight-hour shift, or almost four a minute.

They are part of a 1,600-member team at Genpact, an outsourcing firm with offices in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad that is contracted to review Facebook content.

Seven content reviewers at Genpact said in interviews late last year and early in 2019 that their work was underpaid, stressful and sometimes traumatic. The reviewers, all in their 20s, declined to be identified for fear of losing their jobs or violating non-disclosure agreements. Three of the seven have left Genpact in recent months.

“I have seen women employees breaking down on the floor, reliving the trauma of watching suicides real-time,” one former employee said. He said he had seen this happen at least three times.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the incidents or determine how often they may have occurred.

Genpact declined comment.

The working conditions described by the employees offers a window into the moderator operations at Facebook and the challenges faced by the company as it seeks to police what its 2 billion users post. Their account contrasts in several respects with the image presented by three Facebook executives in interviews and statements to Reuters of a carefully selected, skilled workforce that is paid well and has the tools to handle a difficult job.

Ellen Silver, Facebook’s vice president of operations, acknowledged to Reuters that content moderation “at this size is uncharted territory”.

“We care deeply about getting this right,” she said in January. “This includes the training reviewers receive, our hiring practices, the wellness resources that we provide to each and every person reviewing content, and our overall engagement with partners.”

While rejecting the Hyderabad employees’ assertions about low pay, Facebook has said it had begun drafting a code of conduct for outsourcing partners but declined to give details.

It has also said it would be introducing an annual compliance audit of its vendor policies this year to review the work at contractor facilities. The company is organizing a first-ever summit in April to bring together its outsourcing vendors from around the world, with the aim of sharing best practices and bringing more consistency to how moderators are treated.

These efforts were announced in a blog post on Monday by Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice-president of global operations.

Facebook works with at least five outsourcing vendors in at least eight countries on content review, a Reuters tally shows. Silver said about 15,000 people, a mix of contractors and employees, were working on content review at Facebook as of December. Facebook had over 20 content review sites around the world, she said.

Over a dozen moderators in other parts of the world have talked of similar traumatic experiences.

A former Facebook contract employee, Selena Scola, filed a lawsuit in California in September, alleging that content moderators who face mental trauma after reviewing distressing images on the platform are not being properly protected by the social networking company.

Facebook in a court filing has denied all of Scola’s allegations and called for a dismissal, contending that Scola has insufficient grounds to sue.

Some examples of traumatic experiences among Facebook content moderators in the United States were described this week by The Verge, a technology news website.

Pressure, lack of experience

The Genpact unit in Hyderabad reviews posts in Indian languages, Arabic, English and some Afghan and Asian tribal dialects, according to Facebook.

On one team, employees spend their days reviewing nudity and explicit pornography. The “counter-terrorism” team, meanwhile, watches videos that include beheadings, car bombings and electric shock torture sessions, the employees said.

Those on the “self-harm” unit regularly watch live videos of suicide attempts—and do not always succeed in alerting authorities in time, two of the employees said. They told Reuters they had no experience with suicide or trauma.

Facebook said its policies called for moderators to alert a “specially trained team” to review situations where there was “potential imminent risk or harm.”

The moderators who spoke to Reuters said in the instances they knew of, the trained team was called in when there was a possibility of a suicide, but the reviewers continued to monitor the feed even after the team had been alerted.

Job postings and salary pay-slips seen by Reuters showed annual compensation at Genpact for an entry-level Facebook Arabic language content reviewer was 100,000 Indian rupees ($1,404) annually, or just over $6 a day. Facebook contended that benefits made the real pay much higher.

The workers said they did receive transport to and from work, a common non-cash benefit in India.

Moderators in Hyderabad employed by another IT outsourcing firm, Accenture, monitor Arabic content on YouTube on behalf of Google for a minimum of 350,000 rupees annually, according to two of its workers and pay slips seen by Reuters. Accenture declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.

Facebook disputed the pay analysis, saying Genpact is required to pay above industry averages. The outsourcer, while declining to comment on its work for Facebook, said in a statement that its wages are “significantly higher than the standard in the industry or the minimum wage set by law.”

'Massive targets'

The Genpact moderators in Hyderabad said Facebook sets performance targets, which are reassessed from time to time, that are called Average Review Time or Average Handling Time.

“We have to meet an accuracy rate of 98 percent on massive targets,” one of the moderators told Reuters. “It is just not easy when you are consistently bombarded with stuff that is mostly mind-numbing.”

They said they often took work home on their laptops to keep up.

Silver said handling time was tracked to assess whether Facebook needs more reviewers and whether its policies are clear enough. But she acknowledged some older procedures may have led moderators to feel pressured.

The company also said it was increasing restrictions on workers’ remote access to its tools.

The post Some Facebook Content Reviewers in India Complain of Low Pay, High Pressure appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Social Media Fake News Fans Tension Between India and Pakistan

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 08:29 PM PST

MUMBAI — With India and Pakistan standing on the brink of war this week, several false videos, pictures and messages circulated widely on social media, sparking anger and heightening tension in both countries.

The video of an injured pilot from a recent Indian air show and images from a 2005 earthquake have been taken out of context to attempt to mislead tens of millions on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and its messenger service, WhatsApp.

The spurt of fake news comes after New Delhi this week launched an air strike inside Pakistan, the first such move in more than four decades. India says the attack destroyed a militant camp run by the group that claimed responsibility for killing 40 paramilitary troops in Indian Kashmir on Feb 14. Pakistan denied there had been any casualties in the attack.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed nations peaked with both sides claiming they had shot down each other’s fighter jets on Wednesday, and Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot.

As claims and counter claims poured in from both sides, social media became a hotbed of unverified news, pictures and video clips, according to fact checkers.

Pratik Sinha, co-founder of one such fact-checking website, Alt News, said it had received requests to verify news from journalists and people on social media.

“It’s been crazy since Tuesday. There is so much out there that we know is fake, but we’re not able to fact-check all of it,” Sinha said.

A Facebook group that says it supports Amit Shah, the chief of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), posted images on Tuesday of the alleged destruction caused inside Pakistan by the Indian air strike.

Three photos posted on the group page showed debris from a destroyed building and bodies and have been shared hundreds of times.

Alt News said the pictures were from a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

India, where roughly 450 million people have smartphones, is already struggling with a huge fake news problem with misinformation having led to mass beatings and mob lynchings.

Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have begun to take steps to combat the issue, but as India heads toward general elections, due by May, fake news is getting more intensely politicized.

Another message circulated on a WhatsApp group supporting the BJP claimed the Indian jet was not shot down, but crashed due to a technical snag and blamed the opposition Congress party for failing to upgrade the jets during its tenure.

Similarly in Pakistan, a purported video of a second captured Indian pilot was being widely circulated. Fact-checking website Boom noted the clip was from an air show in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, where two planes crashed on Feb. 19.

“Everyone has a role to play in ensuring misinformation doesn’t spread on the internet, and we encourage people who use Twitter not to share information unless they can verify that it’s true,” a spokeswoman for Twitter said.

The post Social Media Fake News Fans Tension Between India and Pakistan appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Some Sighs of Relief in Washington as Trump Returns Empty Handed from Kim Summit

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 08:24 PM PST

WASHINGTON—Among some U.S. officials, congressional aides, analysts and others who track North Korea, there was a sigh of relief on Thursday as President Donald Trump headed home empty handed from his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.

Trump said he walked away from a deal because of Kim’s demands to lift all U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea in return for the denuclearization of its Yongbyon atomic complex but not others that the United States knows about.

In contrast, North Korea’s foreign minister said Pyongyang offered to dismantle Yongbyon in return for a partial lifting of sanctions as a step toward better relations between the nations, technically still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Before the summit, there were hints Washington was open to declaring an end to the war, some sanctions relief, and opening of liaison offices, a first step toward diplomatic ties, if the North reined in its nuclear program.

The fear of many in the U.S. national security establishment was that Trump would give up too much in return for too little and they were pleased that did not happen. There was still concern in Washington, however, about what the summit’s collapse would mean for future nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the summit’s failure had eased fears that Trump, anxious to claim a foreign policy success, might have made an agreement that dispelled the North Korean nuclear-armed missile threat to the continental United States, but not the threat of its shorter-range missiles to U.S. regional allies, such as Japan.

“The general feeling was that all President Trump wants is a scalp to hang on the wall, like he did with calling the Singapore nothing-burger a great victory,” said Armitage, referring to Trump’s first summit with Kim in June 2018.

That produced a vague statement of Kim’s pledge to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but little progress followed.

Trump's defenders have long said he had no intention of giving ground to Kim at their second meeting in Hanoi this week without major North Korean concessions.

They said Trump planned to use the rapport he claims with Kim and negotiating skills honed as a real estate developer to secure the best possible deal despite skepticism from critics who question whether he is up to speed on the main issues.

Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank rejected criticism that Trump came up empty, tweeting: “Actually walking away from a bad proposed deal is exactly what we'd expect from a competent deal-maker.”

It had appeared Trump was moving toward offering Pyongyang concessions on a peace deal, sanctions and liaison offices in return for “promises to make promises to move toward (nuclear) disablement and dismantlement,” a congressional aide said on condition of anonymity. “There is a certain sigh of relief in that respect.”

Nuclear analysts estimate North Korea may have a nuclear arsenal of 20 to 60 weapons which, if mated with intercontinental ballistic missiles it has developed, could threaten the U.S. mainland.

The collapse of the summit leaves Kim in possession of that arsenal though Trump said the North Korean leader had agreed to maintain his moratorium on nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The United States has long resisted offering the North a formal end to the war regarding this as a concession that should not be made until Pyongyang abandoned its nuclear arms. U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no sign North Korea would ever give up its entire arsenal of nuclear weapons, which Kim’s ruling family sees as vital to its survival.

An end to the war could also have spurred demands from North Korea for the United States to withdraw some of its 28,500 troops from South Korea, where they serve as a trip wire to deter a North Korean invasion.

Trump, who has questioned the value of keeping the troops there, made clear before the summit that removing them was off the table, another source of relief for those who believe their withdrawal could embolden the North and endanger the South.

One of the ironies that experts pointed out was that in failure, Trump may actually have had a success.

It may also have been a victory for hawkish White House national security adviser John Bolton, who has pressed for Washington to maintain its “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign intact while demanding Pyongyang’s full denuclearization.

Even Adam Schiff, the Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is one of Trump’s main critics in Congress, offered qualified praise.

“President Trump’s decision to walk away from the summit with North Korea without an agreement was preferable to making a bad deal,” he said.

The post Some Sighs of Relief in Washington as Trump Returns Empty Handed from Kim Summit appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bangladesh Tells U.N. Security Council Cannot Take More Myanmar Refugees

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 08:12 PM PST

UNITED NATIONS — Bangladesh told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that it cannot take any more refugees from Myanmar, some 18 months after more than 700,000 mainly Rohingya Muslims started pouring across the border fleeing a military crackdown.

Attacks on security posts by Rohingya insurgents in Myanmar’s Rakhine State triggered the crackdown that the United Nations, the United States, Britain and others describe as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies the accusations.

“I regret to inform the council that Bangladesh would no longer be in a position to accommodate more people from Myanmar,” Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said.

Haque accused Myanmar of “hollow promises and various obstructionist approaches” during negotiations on returns.

“Not a single Rohingya has volunteered to return to Rakhine due to the absence of conducive environment there,” Haque said.

Myanmar says it has been ready to accept returning refugees since January, but the United Nations says conditions are not yet right for their return. The Rohingya say they want guarantees over their safety and to be recognized as citizens before returning.

Western powers on the council on Thursday lamented the lack of action from Myanmar’s government.

“We’re very disappointed … that there hasn’t been more progress on getting the refugees back and that obviously includes creating the conditions where the refugees feel able to go back,” British U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce told the council.

Several council members from Western countries stressed that the return of refugees needed to be safe, voluntary, dignified and secure, and pushed for the Myanmar government to allow the United Nations widespread and unconditional access to Rakhine.

U.N. envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner-Burgener told the Security Council that U.N. access was currently “insufficient.”

“The scale of what has been done to the Rohingya Muslims and the allegations of crimes against humanity really mark this out as one of the most terrible events of this century so far,” she said.

The 15-member Security Council has been split over how to deal with the crisis, with western powers pitted against Russia and Myanmar ally China.

China’s Deputy U.N. ambassador, Wu Haitao, said it was mainly an issue between Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh “and as such it is up to the two countries to work out a solution.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, agreed.

In December Britain circulated a draft resolution to council members that diplomats said aims to put a timeline on Myanmar allowing the return of refugees and addressing accountability, but China and Russia have boycotted talks on the draft.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen said: “The international community cannot ignore the world’s largest refugee camp.”

The post Bangladesh Tells U.N. Security Council Cannot Take More Myanmar Refugees appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Gen. Aung San’s Ill-fated Economic Plan for Myanmar

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 06:02 PM PST

Seventy-two years ago today, at the request of the British Chamber of Commerce looking to know the future economic policies of Burma which was about to be granted independence, Gen. Aung San announced his economic plans for the future government. He planned to nationalize important industries, and revealed that plans had been drawn to revamp the damaged economy. He vowed that the government would not neglect public subsidies and would deal with the financially troubled transportation projects. He said he was not in favor of the excessive growth of capitalism and that conditions of Myanmar workers were not as satisfactory as those in developed countries.

Four months later, Gen. Aung San was assassinated. Due to the involvement of some British army officers in the case, Britain itself was on trial in the eyes of the public, as rumors swirled that figures in London supported the plot. Later, in an interview with the BBC, his counterpart from the Thirty Comrades Brig-Gen Kyaw Zaw surmised that it was they who machinated the murder, saying, "It was the British Government that actually assassinated Gen. Aung San. It was their conspiracy."

Read more stories:

Happy Birthday Sir Maung Ba, British Burma Home Affairs Minister

Daw Saw Hsa, Myanmar's First Female Surgeon and Lawmaker

The post Gen. Aung San's Ill-fated Economic Plan for Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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