The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Limited Rice Trade Resumes as Govt Weighs New Export Policy
- Stupa Construction in Hpa-an Township Draws Community Concerns
- Election 2015: Generals Take It Easy as Parliamentary Hopefuls Battle It Out
- Child Workers in Thai Seafood Industry Face Hazards, Injuries: Report
- Thailand’s Military Govt Detains Newspaper Reporter
- Behind Singapore Ruling Party’s Victory, a Rising Star
| Limited Rice Trade Resumes as Govt Weighs New Export Policy Posted: 15 Sep 2015 06:04 AM PDT  A man carries a sack of rice from a boat on the banks of the Rangoon River, Rangoon, November, 2013. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) RANGOON — While limited rice exports resumed on Tuesday after a 45-day halt, the government announced overland rice exports would remain suspended as it considered a new trade policy on the back of recent severe flooding. Flooding across the country over the last two months inundated more than 1.3 million acres of paddy fields and, in early August, the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) called on its members to halt rice exports until mid-September. But while rice exports via sea routes resumed on Tuesday, Myint Cho, Director of Trade Promotion in the Ministry of Commerce, said the government would not yet resume overland exports as it mulled a new export policy. "Even during these past 45 days, some exporters, on a case-by-case basis, were granted special permission to trade by sea," Myint Cho said. He added that the government was focused on ensuring local consumption needs were met and ongoing concerns had convinced officials to consider adjusting Burma's rice export policy. "As of now, an exporter may have to save at least 2 percent of his rice volume as surplus," he said. Following a meeting between MRF members and officials from the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday, the federation said the government would soon issue new export licenses, but no date was specified. Ye Min Aung, general secretary of the MRF, told The Irrawaddy the federation was waiting to see details of the new export policy. He said the ministry would have to weigh local consumption, prices and export volumes in determining a new approach. "If the government has plans for a surplus of rice, we will have to check how to store it, who will handle it and what the volume will be," he said. Chan Tha Oo, a rice exporter based in Muse, Shan State, said that the new export policy would be of national importance and that exporters would just have to wait and see how it played out. "Rice policy must look out for all farmers, traders, and consumers. We therefore shouldn't rush to implement a new policy," he said. "Rice exports across border check points have been stopped now, only local consumption is allowed here." Of the approximately 15 million tons of rice produced in Burma in the 2014-15 fiscal year, about 1.5 million tons, or 10 percent, were exported, according to the MRF. The post Limited Rice Trade Resumes as Govt Weighs New Export Policy appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Stupa Construction in Hpa-an Township Draws Community Concerns Posted: 15 Sep 2015 04:42 AM PDT  The stupa, constructed within a Baptist church compound in Hpa-an Township, Karen State. (Photo: Saw Black Karen / Facebook) Christian religious leaders are concerned that the construction of a stupa in a Baptist church compound in Mi Zine Village in Karen State's Hpa-an Township may cause religious tensions. Leaders from the Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) asked Myaing Kyee Ngu Sayadaw, who led construction of the stupa, to halt the project, according to Mann San Thein Tun of the MBC. "The Sayadaw said there were pagodas and stupas [in the area] since the time of King Asoka. He even asked us to understand that he had to [build the stupa] because of happenings in his previous existence," Mann San Thein Tun told The Irrawaddy. The Christian church has stood since 1919, the MBC representative said, and construction of the stupa began on August 21. Christian leaders of the MBC conveyed their concerns to Burma's Religious Affairs Minister Soe Win who pledged to resolve the issue, Mann San Thein Tun said. "We made the request to the Religious Affairs Minister U Soe Win in person on Sept 7. He gave us two promises: that he would talk to Myaing Kyee Ngu Sayadaw and settle the issue to the satisfaction of Christians at an opportune time," he said. The Irrawaddy contacted both the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Naypyidaw and the Karen State government, but officials declined to comment. The church's vicar, Michael, who has served at the church since 1980, said some Christian worshippers had been disturbed enough that they had stayed away from the church compound. "Christians could not pray at the church since the stupa was built. They pray at my house because it is not convenient for them to pray [at the church] as [Buddhist monks] recite religious verses with loud speakers close to the church. We asked them to reduce the volume just for an hour while we are praying, but they said they could not," he told The Irrawaddy. Some locals in Mi Zine, a small village of around 150 households that includes a Buddhist community, are concerned that construction of the stupa could lead to heightened religious tensions. "There are other vacant spaces in the village where they can promote their religion. Why don't they choose one of those places? They did not inform the church in advance of the stupa's construction. It is quite strange. Some locals here are suspicious that they are creating religious problems," said a local, who did not want to be named. The Karen National Union (KNU) also expressed concern over the issue, pointing to past examples of communal tensions. "There were riots… resulting from religious issues [in the past], which in fact should not have happened. Therefore, we are concerned that [tensions] might arise again," said Padoh Ar Toe, responsible for internal and religious affairs with the KNU. Myaing Kyee Ngu Sayadaw is an influential monk in Karen State with reputed ties to local ethnic armed groups including the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA). The Irrawaddy could not reach Myaing Kyee Ngu Sayadaw for comment on Tuesday. The post Stupa Construction in Hpa-an Township Draws Community Concerns appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Election 2015: Generals Take It Easy as Parliamentary Hopefuls Battle It Out Posted: 14 Sep 2015 11:12 PM PDT The post Election 2015: Generals Take It Easy as Parliamentary Hopefuls Battle It Out appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Child Workers in Thai Seafood Industry Face Hazards, Injuries: Report Posted: 14 Sep 2015 10:45 PM PDT  Migrant workers from Burma unload fish at a seafood market near Bangkok in 2010. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — Children employed in Thailand's seafood processing industry are more exposed to workplace hazards such as fire or gas, and are twice as likely to be injured than minors working in other industries, experts said on Monday. Under Thai law, the minimum age of employment is 15 years, but many younger children—including migrant children from neighboring Burma—are working illegally and not attending school, they said. Almost 20 percent of children in the seafood industries reported workplace injuries, compared to 8.4 percent in other workplaces, the International Labor Organization and the Asia Foundation experts said in a new report. "In the 21st century, no child should be brutalized by exploitation," said Maurizio Bussi, head of the International Labor Organization's office in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Migrant children are disproportionately exploited because Thailand's seafood industry, with exports valued at US$3 billion a year, relies heavily on cheap labor, mostly from Burma. Children in the seafood industry work almost 50 hours per week—about 6 hours more than Thai children—and few are aware of child labor laws. Just 30 percent of minors who are above the minimum employment age enjoy the legal protection of a contract, the report said. Thailand, the world's third-largest seafood exporter, is under pressure internationally after rights groups and media investigations accused the seafood industry of using slave labor. Vitit Muntarbhorn, an international human rights lawyer and professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the country has the laws in place to tackle labor abuses. "What we need is better enforcement," Vitit, a member of the ILO Committee of Experts, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the launch of the report. "The question is how do you get children out of this situation?" The report recommended improving migrant children's access to early childhood education centers, from the age of three, so they become proficient enough in Thai to enter formal schools in first grade. It also said part-time schooling for migrant children, in particular 15- to 17-year-olds, would improve their chances of staying in education. The report found big differences in labor standards between the canned tuna and the shrimp industry. The shrimp industry, with more than 10,000 farms, traders and processors, is much harder to monitor and regulate than the canned tuna industry, which is dominated by three big players who improved labor standards after pressure from overseas buyers. Governments, buyers, producers, NGOs and international organizations should work together to improve labor conditions, the report said. In addition, procedures for migrant workers to register with the Thai government should be simplified, while buyers abroad should be held accountable to work with suppliers to maintain international standards. The post Child Workers in Thai Seafood Industry Face Hazards, Injuries: Report appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Thailand’s Military Govt Detains Newspaper Reporter Posted: 14 Sep 2015 10:36 PM PDT  Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk in a photograph from June. (Photo: Pravit Rojanaphruk / Facebook) BANGKOK — Thailand’s military government has detained a reporter for an English-language newspaper, in what appears to be part of a fresh crackdown on critics of the ruling junta. A spokesman for the junta, Col. Winthai Suvaree, said in a text message to local reporters Monday that Pravit Rojanaphruk, a senior journalist for The Nation newspaper, had received an “invitation” for a talk with the authorities because of statements that could “cause confusion to the public.” Pravit has been a high-profile critic of the military regime that took over after a coup in May 2014 toppled an elected civilian government. After turning himself in Sunday, Pravit was taken to an unidentified location and is being held incommunicado, according to The Nation. Detainees of the junta usually are held at an army camp. Winthai said the length of Pravit’s detention depends on how cooperative he is. The detention process has been used since the coup, with the junta calling it “attitude adjustment.” To expedite their release, detainees are reportedly pressured to sign a statement promising to refrain from further public criticism. The Nation’s editor-in-chief, Thepchai Yong, called for Pravit’s immediate release and said he would submit a letter to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to demand that he order Pravit to be freed. “We see this as a direct threat to press freedom,” Thepchai said in a statement on The Nation’s website. Pravit has written critical commentaries in The Nation and frequently posts his opinions on Twitter. It is the second time he has been detained by the junta, which called in large numbers of politicians and potential dissidents in the months after the coup but appears to have begun a new round of detentions. Last week, the military detained two politicians who had been critical of the junta, including a former energy minister. Both men were members of the Pheu Thai party, which led the government that was ousted by the army in the coup. The post Thailand’s Military Govt Detains Newspaper Reporter appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Behind Singapore Ruling Party’s Victory, a Rising Star Posted: 14 Sep 2015 10:28 PM PDT  IMFC Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam speaks at a news conference during the Spring Meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, April 20, 2013. (Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters) SINGAPORE — Singapore's ruling party is celebrating a resounding re-election victory, thanks partly to its economic Tsar, an ethnic Tamil politician whose voter appeal poses an awkward question for its leaders: can a non-Chinese ever become prime minister? As the People's Action Party (PAP) settles down to another five years in power, the guessing game of who will succeed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has begun – and the name of Tharman Shanmugaratnam keeps coming up. The odds of Shanmugaratnam, who is deputy prime minister and finance minister, making it to the top job should be long. All three of Singapore's prime ministers to date have been of Chinese origin and, in a country where three-quarters of the residents are ethnic Chinese, it would be hard to break that tradition. Just one in 10 Singaporeans can, like Shanmugaratnam, trace their roots back to South Asia. PAP officials declined to comment on the question of who will come after Lee, 63, who has hinted that he may step down by 2020, because it is a sensitive subject in a party that is in any case instinctively secretive. Lee has said that the chances of a non-Chinese becoming prime minister are better for the new generation of leaders but a lack of Mandarin, widely spoken here, could be a problem. For some Singaporeans, though, the idea is as outlandish as a non-Malay prime minister in Malaysia or an Indonesian from outside the political heartland of Java becoming president. In a book published two years before his death this year, Lee Kuan Yew, Lee's father and the deeply respected first prime minister of this tropical city-state, listed four ethnic Chinese men as the new generation of up-and-coming leaders. Still, Shanmugaratnam's hustings performance in the run-up to last week's election was so impressive that even an opposition candidate, Paul Tambyah of the Singapore Democratic Party, openly longed for him to lead a grand coalition of parties. "People would like to see Tharman around to set the tone for a new PAP leadership," said Catherine Lim, a long-time political commentator and critic of Lee Kuan Yew. "It's time now for a completely different one, and the only person whom I can think of to set that tone convincingly and who can appeal to Singaporeans across ethnic groups would be Mr Tharman," she said. Shanmugaratnam, 58, said in July he was not keen on the prime minister's job, though he expected Singapore to have a leader from one of its minority ethnic groups at some point. He was not available to comment for this article. A Transitional Prime Minister? The PAP won almost 70 percent of the popular vote in the election, a stunning recovery from its record low of 60.1 percent in 2011. In his own district, Shanmugaratnam led a handful of lawmakers to a win with about 80 percent of the vote. Analysts say that rebound was helped by a wave of patriotism after the death of Lee Kuan Yew and independent Singapore's 50th birthday celebrations, but also by a slight shift from unbridled capitalism to Western welfarism that was led by Shanmugaratnam. In his campaign speeches, Shanmugaratnam pressed the right buttons for an electorate that has in recent years begun to question the hard-nosed growth-at-all-costs policies of the PAP that left many marginalised and struggling to make ends meet. In a calm baritone and with his trademark avuncular style, he crunched numbers to show how social welfare is working. He also explained changes the PAP has embraced after 50 years of unbroken rule, but conceded still more were needed. "It used to be a top-down government, often quite heavy-handed," he told one rally. "It's no longer that way … Strong leadership is listening, engaging, moving with people." Shanmugaratnam spoke some Mandarin on the campaign, and when he quoted from an ancient Chinese poem at one rally the crowd exploded with cheers. He was educated at the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard, and spent most of his career at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the island state's central bank and financial regulator. He got into a legal tangle in the 1990s when he was fined for failing to protect the secrecy of official information after economic data was published in a newspaper ahead of its release. Shanmugaratnam had pleaded not guilty. He is also well known on international circuits: a darling of international investors, he was appointed chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policy steering committee in 2011. Eugene Tan, a law professor at Singapore Management University and a political commentator, said one obstacle for Shanmugaratnam is that he is seen as part of the prime minister's generation, when perhaps ideally a new generation would be coming forward. "However, if it is assessed that a transitional prime minister is needed while the fourth generation is ready to take over, then … Tharman is well-positioned to step up," Tan said. The post Behind Singapore Ruling Party's Victory, a Rising Star appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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