Burmese social and political culture


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    Title: Myanmar Regime Admits Killing Monk
    Description: "Myanmar’s regime has admitted its troops killed a 78-year-old Buddhist monk on Wednesday after junta media claims of a resistance ambush were contradicted by another monk at the scene. Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, a retired member of the State Sangha Nayaka Committee, the highest Buddhist authority in Myanmar, was shot dead by junta troops near Mandalay International Airport in Tada-U Township, Mandalay Region. The junta media initially accused resistance groups of killing the abbot of Win Neinmitayon Monastery in Bago Region with a landmine. Another monk, Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa, the abbot of Kanthonhsint Buddhism Learning Center in Mingaladon Township, Yangon, and the driver U Kyaw Win were injured in the attack. Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa said in an online video for a wake where Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhiwamsa lay in state on Thursday in Bago that junta soldiers in a truck opened fire on their car. He said the soldiers admitted that they thought the car contained resistance fighters. Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun admitted on Friday that regime troops were responsible. “Our security forces in a truck shouted at the vehicle and fired warning shots to make it pull over. Security personnel opened fire on the moving vehicle from behind,” he said. The spokesman said senior officers were conducting an inquiry and action would be taken..."
    Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
    Date of publication: 2024-06-22
    Date of entry/update: 2024-06-22
    Grouping: Individual Documents
    Language:
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    Title: Southeast Asian cyberspace: politics, censorship, polarisation
    Description: "On 12 April 2017, Thailand?s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society issued what the Bangkok Post called ?a strange government directive”. It prohibited anyone from following, communicating with, or disseminating information online from three outspoken critics of the government—or risk up to 15 years in prison. The statement seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and without any explanation. Does the act of ?following” include reading these authors? posts, or actually clicking the ?follow” button on their profile? This was never clarified by the government. The ambiguity of the Thai cyber laws prompted a local online newspaper, Prachatai, to publish information warning readers about how to avoid being charged with Thailand?s draconian Article 112, which prohibits defamation against the royal family. But the journalist responsible for the article was in turn interrogated by the Thai authorities for a possible computer crime herself. This deadly dose of opaque cyber regulations and an authoritarian political regime has made Thailand?s cyberspace one of the most restricted in Asia. This combination, however, is growing more and more representative of the regional norm. In Southeast Asia, the liberating effects of the internet coexist in increasing tension with state anxiety about information control. Southeast Asian cyberspace is thus becoming more expansive, yet more restricted. On the one hand, the number of people who have come online for the first time has exploded: Myanmar, for example, went from 1% internet penetration in 2012 to 26% in 2017 thanks to an abundance of cheap mobile phones. Internet users across the region are increasingly spending time online to work, study, connect with friends, and participate in civic and political life..."
    Creator/author: Aim Sinpeng
    Source/publisher: "New Mandala"
    Date of publication: 2017-11-01
    Date of entry/update: 2017-12-22
    Grouping: Individual Documents
    Language: English
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