Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory

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Title: Arundhati Roy (videos)
Description: Talks, interviews, conversations etc.
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2018-02-11
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Title: Democracy Now!
Description: "Daily independent news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations."...Topics in the News...
Creator/author: Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez
Source/publisher: Democracy Now!
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-17
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: George Monbiot?s website
Description: "...Here are some of the things I try to fight: environmental destruction, undemocratic power, corruption, deception of the public, injustice, inequality and the misallocation of resources, waste, denial, the libertarianism which grants freedom to the powerful at the expense of the powerless, undisclosed interests, complacency..."
Creator/author: George Monbiot
Source/publisher: George Monbiot
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-27
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: I will be a hummingbird (video)
Description: Advancing the politics of small deeds.... "In this beautifully animated clip from Dirt! The Movie, Wangari Maathai tells an inspiring tale of doing the best you can under seemingly interminable odds. Join us at www.DirtTheMovie.org"
Creator/author: Wangari Maathai
Source/publisher: www.DirtTheMovie.org
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-22
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Noam Chomsky - Google search (text and videos)
Description: "About 11,100,000 results, February 2018, of a Google search for Noam Chomsky
Source/publisher: Google
Date of entry/update: 2015-10-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Noam Chomsky - Wikipedia
Description: "Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator, social justice activist, and anarcho-syndicalist advocate. Sometimes described as the "father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus, and has authored over 100 books. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure, and was voted the "world?s top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll..."
Source/publisher: Wikipedia
Date of entry/update: 2015-10-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Noam Chomsky on Youtube (video)
Description: Wide-ranging collection of videos
Creator/author: Noam Chomsky
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-29
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Noam Chomsky on Z
Description: "Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, and particularly international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. Chomsky has been a writer for Z projects since their earliest inception, and a tireless supporter of our operations."
Source/publisher: Z Communications
Date of entry/update: 2015-10-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Noam Chomsky?s philosophy
Description: 347 videos, November 2016; 111,000, February 2018 - of Noam Chomsky - interviews, debates, lectures etc. on politics, education, philosophy, activism.... from 2 minutes to more than 2 hours -
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-11-13
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Tom Dispatch
Description: "Tom Engelhardt launched Tomdispatch in November 2001 as an e-mail publication offering commentary and collected articles from the world press. In December 2002, it gained its name, became a project of The Nation Institute, and went online as "a regular antidote to the mainstream media." The site now features Tom Engelhardt?s regular commentaries and the original work of authors ranging from Rebecca Solnit, Bill McKibben, and Mike Davis to Chalmers Johnson, Michael Klare, Adam Hochschild, Robert Lipsyte, and Elizabeth de la Vega. Nick Turse, who also writes for the site, is associate editor and research director. Tomdispatch is intended to introduce readers to voices and perspectives from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here). Its mission is to connect some of the global dots regularly left unconnected by the mainstream media and to offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours actually works..."
Source/publisher: tomdispatch.com
Date of entry/update: 2018-02-11
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Title: Myanmar's ethnic groups have long suffered from military brutality. The junta gave them a common foe
Description: "For many of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, the bloodshed inflicted across the country's towns and cities this week is a continuation of the oppression they have suffered at the hands of the military for decades. The Southeast Asian country is home to some of the world's longest civil wars, where myriad ethnic insurgencies have fought the military, central government and each other for greater rights and autonomy. Some of those bloody conflicts have ebbed and flowed in the borderlands for 70 years. Throughout years of conflict in Myanmar's jungles and mountains, ethnic people have witnessed and been subjected to horrific atrocities including massacres, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, forced labor and displacement by the armed forces, as well as state-sanctioned discrimination. In 2016 and 2017, the military launched a brutal campaign of killing and arson that forced more than 740,000 Rohingya minority people to flee into neighboring Bangladesh, prompting a genocide case to be heard at the International Court of Justice. In 2019, the United Nations said "grave human rights abuses" by the military were still continuing in the ethnic states of Rakhine, Chin, Shan, Kachin and Karen. This week, that brutality played out on the streets of Myanmar's biggest cities, as the ruling junta launched a systematic and coordinated attack on unarmed peaceful demonstrators calling for an end to the February 1 coup. Witnesses, footage and photographs showed police and the military shooting dead anti-coup protesters, beating detainees and reported extrajudicial killings, while images of crumpled bodies laying in pools of their own blood or being dragged through the streets shocked the world. Determined to fight against those abuses and ensure their distinct voices and demands are heard, ethnic people have loudly joined the nationwide protests, uniting in solidarity against a common enemy. Though many fear further violence and intensified conflict from an unchecked military junta operating with impunity and now firmly in control of the country. "This fight has been since the beginning of the forming of the country itself. We hope that the current fight against the military coup in 21st century might be a new hope for our people," said Chin activist Sang Hnin Lian..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-06
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Title: A fight is brewing over Myanmar's seat at the United Nations
Description: "The fight for control of Myanmar has now officially arrived at the United Nations. In a letter seen by CNN, Myanmar's UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun has told the international body that he still represents Myanmar, after making an impassioned speech last week rejecting the country's military takeover. Meanwhile, a deputy ambassador to the UN from Myanmar will claim that he is now the man the military authorities want to represent the country. Both sides have sent the UN letters to make their case on official letterhead. Myanmar's democratically elected government was overthrown last month in a military coup that saw civilian leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi detained. For weeks, thousands of people in the country have come out to protest against the coup, risking deadly violence and arrest by security forces. "The perpetrators of the unlawful coup against the democratic government of Myanmar have no authority to countermand the legitimate authority of the President of my country," Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun wrote in his letter to the UN. But the Myanmar foreign ministry is backing a deputy ambassador to take control of the country's UN representation, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "It's a unique situation we have not seen in a long time," Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday of the dueling claims. He added that the UN is "trying to resolve things as quickly as possible." Myanmar's military leaders first announced Kyaw Moe Tun's removal over the weekend, after he called on UN members to use "any means necessary" to help restore the country's civilian leadership. "We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people and to restore the democracy," he told the UN on Friday. Kyaw Moe Tun said he was delivering the speech on behalf of Suu Kyi's government, and flashed the three fingered "Hunger Games" salute used by protestors on the streets of Myanmar, prompting a rare round of applause from his UN colleagues at the end. The new US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, praised the envoy's "courageous" remarks..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
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Title: Myanmar security forces intensify crackdowns on protesters
Description: "Pro-democracy demonstators in Myanmar show no signs of backing down amid the ongoing crackdown by security forces. Police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse protestors, who have been on the streets every day since the military siezed power over a month ago. Demonstrations are taking place around the country and strikes are planned in at least one state. Diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis stalled on Tuesday as ASEAN countries failed to make a breakthrough in talks with Myanmar's military junta..."
Source/publisher: "DW News" (Germany)
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
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Title: Myanmar: End Lethal Force Against Protesters
Sub-title: UN Security Council Should Impose Targeted Sanctions, Arms Embargo
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta should order its security forces to end the use of excessive and lethal force against largely peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 3, 2021, security forces fired live rounds at protesters, killing at least 38 and wounding more than 100 at demonstrations across the country, the United Nations reported. One of the deadliest incidents took place in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, where security forces opened fire on largely peaceful protesters. Security forces fired on some protesters as they attempted to rescue an injured man. Earlier in the day, police detained and brutally beat medical workers. Human Rights Watch reviewed an incident in which a man in custody appears to be shot in the back. “Myanmar’s security forces now seem intent on breaking the back of the anti-coup movement through wanton violence and sheer brutality,” said Richard Weir, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The use of lethal force against protesters rescuing others demonstrates how little the security forces fear being held to account for their actions.” At a March 3 briefing, the United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, reported that 38 people had been killed during the day’s violence, bringing the tally of those killed since the protests began a month ago to more than 50. At least four of those killed were children, according to Save the Children. Through the analysis of 12 videos and 15 photographs, Human Rights Watch documented three incidents in which security forces apparently used live fire against protesters along the Thudhamma Road in Yangon on March 3. In a Facebook live video posted on March 3, Human Rights Watch identified a line of at least five military vehicles positioned on the overpass road that merges into the Airport Road near Okkala Thiri Park on Thudhamma Road. The video shows hundreds of protesters shielding and taking shelter from ongoing gunfire coming from the direction of the overpass..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
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Title: Myanmar: Reporter placed in chokehold as 6 journalists charged
Sub-title: Six journalists are facing charges punishable with up to three years in prison amid a crackdown on anti-coup protests.
Description: "The Associated Press news agency released a video on Wednesday that showed Myanmar security forces holding an AP journalist in a chokehold and handcuffs as security forces crack down on anti-coup protests. Myanmar authorities have charged Thein Zaw and five other journalists with violating a public order law, which could put them in prison for up to three years. "Independent journalists must be allowed to freely and safely report the news without fear of retribution," Ian Phillips, AP vice president for international news, said on Wednesday, calling for Thein Zaw's immediate release. What did the video show? In the AP video, Thein Zaw appears to be photographing security forces running at protesters on Saturday in Myanmar's largest city Yangon. Thein Zaw tries to escape as seven people place him in a chokehold and handcuffs. A policeman then pulls him with the handcuffs. What do we know about the charges? According to AP, Thein Zaw's lawyer said he faces charges under a law that punishes spreading false news, causing fear, or agitating for a criminal offense against public employees. The junta amended the law last month to increase the penalty from two years and widen its jurisdiction, the lawyer told AP. Thein Zaw, 32, is reportedly being held in Insein Prison in northern Yangon, where previous military regimes sent political prisoners. AP said that the lawyer confirmed Thein Zaw could be held until March 12 without another hearing. Among the charged journalists are reporters working for Myanmar Now, Myanmar Photo Agency, 7Day News, Zee Kwet online news and a freelancer, AP reported..."
Source/publisher: "DW News" (Germany)
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
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Title: ‘Stability of the region’ hangs on Myanmar, declares UN Special Envoy
Sub-title: UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Wednesday that the situation in the country challenges “the stability of the region” and could lead to a “real war”.
Description: "Speaking at a virtual press conference, Ms. Burgener said the news out of Myanmar was shocking and, with the death of 38 people, marked the bloodiest day since the start of the coup on 1 February. More than 1,200 people are under detention and many families do not know where their loved ones are or what condition they are in. Ms. Schraner Burgener said that in discussions with the army, she warned that UN Member States and the Security Council might take “strong measures”, to which they responded: “We are used to sanctions and we survived the sanctions time in the past”. She continued, “I also warned they will go in an isolation”, to which they said, “we have to learn to walk with only few friends”. Chaos continues Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power and detained elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her National League for Democracy (NLD) leadership, who won a November election in a landslide, which the military said was fraudulent. However, the election commission said the vote was fair. The UN envoy said she remained in contact with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which represents the elected parliamentarians, and with all regional stakeholders, including leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). She noted that the Secretary-General condemned the coup and urged an end to the violence. Stressing that every tool available was now needed to end the situation, she spelled out that the unity of the international community was essential..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
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Title: Internet access Internet access restored as Myanmar coup protests grow
Description: " As enthusiastic crowds of tens of thousands marched through the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city on Sunday to protest last week’s coup ousting Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, their spirits were lifted by the return of internet services that had been blocked a day earlier. Separate protests that began in various parts of Yangon converged at Sule Pagoda, situated in the center of a roundabout in the city’s downtown area. Protesters chanted “Long live Mother Suu” and “Down with military dictatorship.” Protesters in other parts of the country echoed their calls. Authorities had cut access to the internet as the protests grew Saturday, fanning fears of a complete information blackout. On Sunday afternoon, however, internet users in Yangon reported that data access on their mobile phones had suddenly been restored. RELATED COVERAGE – UN chief: UN will seek to unite world, reverse Myanmar coup – Military coup yet another blow for Myanmar's sagging economy – Myanmar's Suu Kyi detained again — without her old support The demonstrators are seeking to roll back last Monday’s seizure of power by the military and demanding the release from detention of Suu Kyi, the country’s ousted leader, and other top figures from her National League for Democracy party. The military has accused Suu Kyi’s government of failing to act on its complaints that last November’s election was marred by fraud, though the election commission said it had found no evidence to support the claims. The growing protests are a sharp reminder of the long and bloody struggle for democracy in a country that the military ruled directly for more than five decades before loosening its grip in 2012. Suu Kyi’s government, which won a landslide election in 2015, was the first led by civilians in decades, though it faced a number of curbs to its power under a military-drafted constitution..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar: Respect right to peaceful assembly, UN human rights office says
Sub-title: The United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) on Saturday called on the security forces in Myanmar to ensure that people’s right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and that demonstrations are not subjected to reprisals.
Description: "According to media reports, many people took to the streets in Myanmar’s commercial hub, Yangon, on Saturday to protest the military’s takeover and the arrest of several elected leaders and politicians, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. “Myanmar’s military and police must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals”, OHCHR said in a Tweet on Saturday. Earlier in the week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet raised concerns of a “violent crackdown on dissenting voices” in Myanmar and reminded the military leadership of the country’s obligations under international human rights law to ensure people’s rights are protected and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force. The military takeover followed escalating tensions between the military and the government after the November 2020 elections, which was won by Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD). The polls were only the second democratic elections in Myanmar since the end of nearly five decades of military rule. The first elections, in 2015, were also won by NLD. Internet and social media blocked OHCHR also called on the authorities to restore internet and communication services. “Internet and communication services must be fully restored to ensure freedom of expression and access to information”, the office said. Myanmar’s military reportedly blocked access to Facebook on Thursday, for several days. The social media platform is said to be used by around half of the country’s population, for access to information. On Friday, Twitter and Instagram platforms were added to the list of services that could not be accessed in Myanmar. Media reports also said that the mobile service provider in Myanmar was ordered to temporarily shut down data networks, effectively cutting off internet on mobile devices. Voice and SMS services are reported to be operational..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar’s military built a new capital as a haven for power. Other countries have tried that, too.
Description: "A country’s capital, its seat of power, is typically the center for showdowns during times of political unrest. But not in Myanmar. All was reportedly quiet Saturday in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s purpose-built capital unveiled in 2005. Meanwhile, 225 miles to the south in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city and former capital, protesters marched in the first major street demonstrations since the military seized power Feb. 1 and jailed leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The roster of capitals-by-design dots the globe: from Canberra in Australia to Brazil’s Brasília. Even Washington was laid out for the job of governing. Yet there are other countries — including Egypt, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Equatorial Guinea — that have joined Myanmar to build new capitals in part to shield their leadership. Naypyidaw is infamous for its eerily empty 20-lane highways and high-end hotels, golf courses and spas in a city about six times the territory of New York City in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, according to the Guardian. The British paper summarized it as a “monument to hierarchy.” Naypyidaw was the brainchild of Myanmar’s former military leader, Than Shwe, who rescinded power in 2011 when the country began a transition to democracy. Shwe was never publicly challenged when he said Myanmar needed a new capital because of Yangon’s heavy traffic and population density. But analysts have described the decision as motivated by a desire to secure the military’s seat of power from any threat of protests or invasions..."
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar: New internet blackout “heinous and reckless”
Description: "On 6 February, the Myanmar military reportedly ordered telecommunications companies in the country to fully shut down internet and 4G services. According to information received by Amnesty International, the effective blackout will be in operation until Monday 8 February. An earlier order, on 5 February, instructed telecommunications companies to block access to Twitter and Instagram. On 4 February, the military had already announced that they were ordering telecoms operators to block access to Facebook until 7 February. As the 1 February military coup was underway, internet and phone outages were reported in several parts of the country, including in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, the largest city, Yangon, as well as Shan and Kachin States and the Mandalay and Sagaing regions. Access was later reestablished. There have also been mobile internet restrictions in conflict-affected areas of Rakhine and Chin States in the country for more than a year. 4G internet access in those areas was reportedly restored late in the evening on 2 February 2021. Such restrictions pose a real danger to at-risk civilian populations, especially when access to information is so vital during the COVID-19 pandemic – and even more so when the situation on the ground is so tense amid the coup, and in conflict-affected areas..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar: tens of thousands protest against coup despite internet blackout
Sub-title: Demonstrators in standoff with police amid demands for release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi
Description: "Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Myanmar on Saturday in the first major demonstration since the military seized power, despite a nationwide internet blackout imposed to stifle dissent. In the main city Yangon, protesters chanted “down with the military dictatorship” and carried images of the ousted leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, whose party won a landslide election in November. The military detained both in raids early on Monday morning and they have not been seen in public since. “Tell the world what has happened here,” one of the protesters said. “The world needs to know.” The military shut down the internet across the country in an attempt to stop the protests. The NetBlocks Internet Observatory reported that connectivity had fallen to 16% of ordinary levels by early afternoon. The military had already blocked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Myanmar’s military has shown that it believes it can “shut the world out and do whatever it wants,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. “They’re going to pull down the shutters and intimidate, arrest and abuse everybody who is daring to speak up. The question is how long people are able to do this and whether there will be any splits in ranks within the police or the military,” he said. Throughout Saturday, the state-run broadcaster MRTV played scenes praising the military, according to Reuters. Despite the internet blackout, several thousand demonstrators gathered near Yangon University. Many wore red headbands, the colour of the National League for Democracy, and raised their hands in a three-finger salute, a gesture also used by Thai pro-democracy protesters which symbolises resistance..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar cuts Facebook access as military tightens grip following coup
Description: "Internet and news services continued to be disrupted across Myanmar on Thursday, as the country's military sought to secure their grip on power after deposing the democratically-elected government earlier this week. Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, along with President Win Myint and dozens of other senior figures in their National League for Democracy (NLD) were detained in pre-dawn raids Monday. Hours later, the military declared that power had been handed to commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing, in response to unfounded allegations of election fraud. A state of emergency was declared for one year. Late Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Suu Kyi over unspecified "import and export" offenses, while Win Myint was remanded in custody under the country's Disaster Management Law, according to an NLD spokesman. While the dramatic overthrow of Suu Kyi's government attracted international attention, continued disruptions to internet access and communications mean that many in Myanmar may still be unclear about what is taking place. Facebook, by far the largest online platform in the country, confirmed to CNN that its services were "currently disrupted for some people" as of Thursday morning, as independent monitors recorded widespread filtering of Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms, even as basic internet access was returning in some areas. Limited access to news and internet could affect the ability of people to get information or organize any response via social media. At one point on Monday, the only operational TV channel was the Myanmar military-owned television network Myawaddy TV. By Wednesday, some channels, such as DVB TV, were still off the air..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-05
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Title: Biden administration designates Myanmar military takeover as a coup
Description: "The Biden administration has formally determined that the military takeover in Myanmar constitutes a coup d'état, a designation that requires the US to cut its foreign assistance to the country. "After careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1," a State Department official said Tuesday, using another name for Myanmar. "We continue to call on the Burmese military leadership to release them and all other detained civil society and political leaders immediately and unconditionally." The United States provides "very little" foreign assistance directly to Myanmar's government and "the government of Burma, including the Burmese military, is already subject to a number of foreign assistance restrictions, including statutory restrictions on military assistance, due to its human rights record." The State Department official, speaking on a call with reporters, said the administration "will undertake a broader review of our assistance programs to ensure they align with recent events." That review will begin "immediately" and will "look at any programs that indirectly benefit the military or individual low level officers." "At the same time, we will continue programs that benefit the people of Burma directly, including humanitarian assistance and democracy support programs that benefit civil society. A democratic civilian led government has always been Burma's best opportunity to address the problems the country faces," the official said..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Deep fears of violent crackdown in Myanmar, UN rights chief warns
Sub-title: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced “deep fears” of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices in Myanmar, where the military assumed all powers and declared a state of emergency after overthrowing the civilian government and arresting top political leaders, on Monday.
Description: "“Given the security presence on the streets in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, as well as in other cities, there are deep fears of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices”, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Monday. “I remind the military leadership that Myanmar is bound by international human rights law, including to respect the right to peaceful assembly, and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force”, she added. High Comissioner Bachelet also called on the international community to “stand in solidarity with the people” of Myanmar at this time. She also urged all nations with influence to take steps “to prevent the crumbling of the fragile democratic and human rights gains made by Myanmar during its transition from military rule.”..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Security Council unity ‘crucial’ to support democracy in Myanmar
Sub-title: The UN Special Envoy on Myanmar appealed on Tuesday for the Security Council to unite in support of democracy in the country in the wake of the recent power grab by the military and the declaration of a one-year state of emergency.
Description: "Christine Schraner Burgener addressed ambassadors during a closed meeting held the day after Myanmar’s military seized power and detained top political leaders and activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. “More than ever, this Council’s unity is crucial”, she said, according to remarks shared afterwards. “I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.” ‘Surprising and shocking’ The crisis stems from elections held in November, marking the second democratic elections in Myanmar since the end of military rule a decade ago. Ms. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), scored a landslide victory. The military and some political parties claimed the vote was fraudulent. Myanmar’s Supreme Court was scheduled to pronounce this month on its jurisdiction over complaints of alleged election-related violations. “We had earlier encouraged all electoral disputes should be resolved through established legal mechanisms”, Ms. Schraner Burgener said. “There appeared to be a commitment on the part of the military to safeguard the rule of law. So, the turn of events was surprising and shocking.” Release leaders The UN envoy underlined the NLD’s victory at the polls. The party won more than 82 per cent of seats, which “provided a strong renewed mandate to the NLD, reflecting the clear will of the people of Myanmar to continue on the hard-won path of democratic reform.” She called for the state of emergency to be repealed and for the detained leaders to be released, while the post-electoral litigation process should resume “with full commitment from both sides”. The military’s proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged, she added. “It is important that we join our efforts in helping ensure the military respects the will of the people of Myanmar and adheres to democratic norms.” Fears of backsliding Following reports of violence, including against journalists, Ms. Schraner Burgener also urged the Council to ensure the protection of civilians and human rights..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Democracy in Myanmar still under threat
Description: "Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) secured a landslide victory in November’s 2020 general election. The NLD’s massive win was shocking even for close observers of Myanmar politics, who anticipated the party’s popularity to take a hit after five years of controversial rule. Since the NLD has been in power, Myanmar’s nascent democracy has not met expectations. The country’s human rights record has not improved, the peace process is stalled, and repression of government critics is continuing. Economic growth has slowed down due to the inefficient bureaucracy and volatile conflict situation. Pro-democracy activists are wary of Aung San Suu Kyi’s growing authoritarianism while the international community now calls her a pariah. The NLD did poorly in its 2017 and 2018 by-elections, a downward trend that was expected to continue. What does the NLD’s electoral victory suggest about Myanmar’s road to democracy? Myanmar’s democratic institutions are working relatively well. The Union Parliament (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw) has been one of the most active government institutions since its birth in 2011, which implies that parliamentary democracy is functioning. General elections are held every five years and, while there is still room for improvement, no significant electoral fraud, violence or manipulation were reported in November. The voter turnout of 71.6 per cent is also an encouraging sign, up from 69 per cent in 2015. But other aspects of Myanmar’s democratisation have regressed over the last five years. The government has tightened control over the media, causing overall freedom to decline and civil society space to shrink. Restrictive laws such as the Telecommunication Law, Unlawful Association Act and the defamation section in the Penal Code intimidate the media, while journalists have been detained for reporting on the conflict in Rakhine State. The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the electoral landscape, with domestic and international observers criticising the Union Election Commission for introducing restrictions on election campaigns and cancelling the vote in some townships in Rakhine, Shan, Kachin and Kayin states. Continued ethnic conflict presents another challenge. The violent situation in Rakhine State has not yet been contained. Although there was no visible political violence during the election period, following the election, a parliamentarian elected to the Amyotha Hluttaw (upper house) was killed in late November 2020. The Arakan Army, an insurgent group, and the Tatmadaw — the Myanmar military — agreed to hold a by-election in areas where the vote was cancelled, but the incident shows that national reconciliation will not be easy..."
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-17
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Title: COVID-19, Political Movements and the Need to Re-examine Racial Thinking for Future Change
Description: "This article has been adapted from a Burmese language version titled “Race-Class, COVID Politics and Future Change,” first published in the COVID-19 Special Series No. 2 by the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar) on May 1.] On March 23, Myanmar reported its first positive cases of COVID-19. Within two months, there were over 200 cases. More than 60 have been linked to a Christian religious gathering. A majority of initial positive cases were Myanmar re-pats, former Burmese citizens visiting the country temporarily, western tourists, and their local medical and travel service providers (and their family members). In March and April, many thousands of migrant workers returned from Thailand and China through border crossing points. Around the same time, factory workers organized several protests against the factories for laying off workers and not allowing leave-with-pay during the Thingyan holidays. As the news stories and images about foreigners, Myanmar returnees, religious gatherings, migrant workers, and factory workers were circulated in the media and on Facebook, people began to see the COVID-19 pandemic through racial, xenophobic and discriminatory lenses. They viewed COVID-19 as a foreign disease, imported by foreigners and Myanmar returnees. A senior government official said the lifestyle and diet prevented the people of Myanmar from getting the disease. Such a response is not new to Myanmar; it is a recurring socio-political dynamic that further divides an already divided nation..."
Source/publisher: "Teacircleoxford" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-03
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Title: China Turns Tide In Myanmar Politics, Suu Kyi Expected To Win Upcoming November Elections
Sub-title: China was initially suspicious of Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy icon and her late British husband who was a Tibetologist maintaining contacts with Tibetans in exile
Description: "In a series of twists and turns in Myanmar politics leading to the November elections, which may differ in view of COVID-19 pandemic, China seems to be playing to its own advantage. Political analysts are of the opinion that the first and incumbent State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) will win again but not in a landslide victory as it did in the 2015 elections, because of her party losing significant support in ethnic areas of the country. What remains crucial for her electoral victory is how she and her party juggles between the autonomous army of the country and the powerful northern neighbour China. China was initially suspicious of Suu Kyi for having a pro-democratic approach and her late British husband who was a Tibetologist maintaining contacts with Tibetans in exile. Suu Kyi was under house arrest when the military was ruling Myanmar. The Military then had good relations with China as the latter supplied arms as well as provided diplomatic support at the United Nations. However, a significant reversal can be seen in today's politics in Myanmar. Suu Kyi, the harbinger of democracy in Myanmar is seen becoming close with China, while the military which once maintained close ties with China is now wary of China's growing advances in the region. Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has been stripped of awards, one after the other, many of which she earned during her long non-violent struggle for democracy against the abusive military rule. Once a darling of the west, now she has often been condemned by the international community concerning the human rights violations under her rule including the Rohingya ouster, jailed journalists and locked up critics. In 2017, at the time when the world condemned the Suu Kyi government for siding with the army for the Rohingya ouster, she was given a red carpet treatment by China. Although Myanmar Army's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing visited China a week before Suu Kyi, things didn't seem to go well between the Myanmar Army and China, despite Chinese President Xi Jinping calling the China-Myanmar Military relations the best ever..."
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-29
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Title: Secrets and Power in Myanmar: Intelligence and the Fall of General Khin Nyunt, By Andrew Selth, Singapore, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2019, 248 pp.
Description: "In Rangoon’s Drug Elimination Museum, a sprawling hall of half-truths and hilarious fantasy, there are subtle clues to past power plays within the Defence Services, or Tatmadaw. In a section of the museum extolling the questionable commitments to drug eradication of the previous military regimes, displays of drug burnings and press conferences have full pages of the now-defunct Working People’s Daily. But one key figure in this record has been airbrushed from history, almost Soviet style. Except in clumsier form. A thin sheet of brown paper and tape covers several entire photographs. But the revisionists failed to conceal the photo captions underneath, including the name of the senior official depicted: General Khin Nyunt, the Chief of Military Intelligence (MI) and principal protector of some of Burma’s biggest drug dealers. The scholar Andrew Selth’s latest book is an examination of one of Burma’s most powerful and feared figures of the past forty years. Since his purge in late 2004, Khin Nyunt has been eclipsed by history, ostracized from the military, largely unknown to the outside world since the ‘transition’ to democracy in 2011, and remembered only by his many victims. Selth’s study, Secrets and Power in Myanmar, is less a political biography of Khin Nyunt, and more a technical examination of the intelligence services, producing skilful navigation through the maze of the opaque world of intelligence gathering by one of the most esteemed chroniclers of modern Burma. The book’s introduction outlines the fearsome place MI and other intelligence agencies, notably the Special Branch (SB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, have played in generations of military rule starting from the Tatmadaw’s coup d’etat of March 1962, through nearly three decades of Socialist military rule, and the corresponding culture of a surveillance apparatus. Selth could have explored further the devastating impacts on the psyche of Burmese society during this period, but he wisely draws from Christina Fink’s 2001 book Living Silence to support his claims..."
Source/publisher: "Teacircleoxford" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-18
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Title: The Entrenched Tatmadaw: Explaining the Dominant Elite in Myanmar’s Political Landscape
Sub-title: explores the reasons behind the Tatmadaw’s stronghold over Myanmar politics.
Description: "Having endured more than a half-century of military rule, Myanmar appeared to be the least likely candidate for democratic transition in Southeast Asia. Although the prospects for Myanmar’s democratization resurged with the landslide victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the 2015 election, this political change has been a top-down transition in the system–-from military rule to electoral authoritarianism–-not in the military’s dominance in politics. The military’s continued dominance was institutionalized by the “roadmap to democracy” engineered by the military regime in 2003. Most notably, this included the drafting of a new constitution in 2008 which allots a quarter of the seats in both houses of Parliament to the military. As the civilian control of the military is a necessary precondition for a democracy, the persistence and entrenchment of Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has led to a late and limited democratic transition. Myanmar’s continued military dominance despite its recent transition is not only a divergent pattern in the world, but also in Southeast Asia, as the Tatmadaw has outlasted its Filipino and Indonesian counterparts. This raises the following question: how can the enduring strength of the Tatmadaw be explained? The essay argues that Tatmadaw’s persistent hold on power results from its continuous elimination of democratic forces, its substantive involvement in the national economy, and its management of longstanding centre-periphery conflicts over the course of a half century of military rule; this has established the Tatmadaw as the country’s predominant political, economic, and even cultural elites, overshadowing any other contending force. Today, other than the Sangha, the military is the most deeply embedded institution in Myanmar’s politics, economy and society..."
Source/publisher: "Teacircleoxford" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-17
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Title: Survey reveals warning signs for democracy in Myanmar
Sub-title: The new Asia Barometer Survey finds greater tolerance of diversity but also growing political division and disenchantment with democracy since the last survey in 2015.
Description: "No country in Southeast Asia has experienced more intense political, economic and social changes over the past five years than Myanmar. The changes are evident in everything from the Yangon skyline to ubiquitous mobile phone use, from the COVID-19 response to televised debates of parliament. Despite this, opportunities to quantify broad political, social and economic change remain relatively rare in Myanmar. The Asia Barometer Survey seeks to fill this gap. Its new report details the findings of a nationally representative survey of 1,620 respondents carried out in September and October 2019 through face-to-face interviews across the 14 states and regions (excluding conflict zones). Significantly, this report is able to compare public perceptions and political behaviour against an earlier study conducted in Myanmar in 2015, and also see how Myanmar fares against other countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam (Cambodia and Singapore surveys are ongoing this year). The latest survey reveals an often contradictory but overall worrying picture of democracy in Myanmar. First, though, let’s start with the good news: There has been a significant rise in confidence in political institutions, from the parliament and judiciary to the election commission and police force. This higher trust in political institutions across the board is accompanied by greater confidence in the capacity of government to address the problems Myanmar is facing. In all of the ABS research over the past 20 years, no other country in the 14 East Asian countries/territories surveyed has seen such an increase in institutional trust in such a short period of time. The chart below shows that positive views of trust by institution over the two surveys..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-17
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Title: Political Instability in Southeast Asia
Description: "This book of proceedings is based on several papers presented at the seminar Political Instability in Southeast Asia, organized by the Department of Asian Studies and the Center of Asia-Pacifc Studies at Metropolitan University Prague on April 19th, 2013. This relatively small academic gathering was held as part of the series of workshops organized in the framework of the RESAREAS project, ofcially entitled the Cooperation Network for Research of Non-European Areas. This was the third seminar of the series and had originally been entitled Political Instability in Asia. Interestingly, all the papers which responded to our Call for Papers dealt with the region of Southeast Asia. Our team, based around the Department of Asian Studies at MUP, took this as a good omen that our eforts and area of focus – i.e. a concentration on Pacifc Asia with a strong dedication to Southeast Asian afairs in our research and teaching activities – is heading in the right direction. Therefore, focusing on Southeast Asia in this little edited volume makes it both more specifcally focused and realistic. Furthermore, of course, this region deserves much more attention than it is actually getting. And I daresay this statement bears even more validity in Czechia as well as within post-Communist Central Europe in general. The simple fact is that Southeast Asia has so far been heavily understudied in the Czech Republic. This is something of a paradox since Charles University and other notable institutions have had a long tradition of (mainly linguistic) Oriental Studies programs such as Indology, Sinology, as well as Japanese and Korean Studies. Also Middle Eastern Studies there and at the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Science of (still regarded geographically, if not always culturally, as part of Asia) have been well established for decades. Palacký University in Olomouc and Masaryk University in Brno also have departments which give lectures on East Asian languages and cultures..."
Source/publisher: European Social Fund (Evropský sociální fond)
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-06
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Title: Toward a Reorganization of the Political Landscape in Burma (Myanmar)?
Description: "Key figures on the national political scene and foreign specialists and observers alike have been puzzled by the rapid transformations taking place in Myanmar1 since 2011. What is happening in this country that was isolated for so long and dominated by its armed forces (or Tatmadaw in Burmese) totally resistant to change or contact with the outside world? In recent months, diplomats from the UN, Asia and the West have rushed to Naypyitaw2 and above all to Yangon to meet with the main opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been free since her (third) release from house arrest in November 2010 and has been a member of the national parliament (hereafter referred to as Parliament) since the by-elections held in April 2012. Strikes and public demonstrations, as well as unions and opposition political parties, are now perfectly legal. The censorship board has been dissolved. The Internet and cell phone industry are booming. The vast majority of the 2,200 political prisoners counted in early 2011 have been released. A human rights commission was even created in September 2011. Foreign journalists and critics have no problem obtaining visas, and tourists are flocking in. Burmese dissidents in exile have begun to return in order to take part in rebuilding an economy still on the sidelines of globalization. Foreign investors and multinational corporations have started to prospect in a “gold rush” atmosphere, as one of Asia’s richest regions in natural resources appears to be opening up..."
Source/publisher: "SciencesPo." (France)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-21
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Title: Exclusive: Myanmar set to be placed on global money laundering watchlist - sources
Description: "Myanmar is set to be placed on a watchlist by a global finance watchdog this week, amid concerns of money-laundering by transnational drug traffickers and weak regulation of its financial system, two sources familiar with deliberations said. A decision to put Myanmar on the “gray list” by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) would mean the inter-governmental body had found “strategic deficiencies” in the country’s ability to counter money-laundering and terrorism financing. While being on the list does not carry any sanctions, it could curtail the growth of financial, investment and trade flows to and from the Southeast Asian nation, a high-level official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. Kyaw Win Thein, the head of Myanmar’s Financial Intelligence Unit who is attending the FATF meeting in Paris this week, told Reuters that Myanmar “is not on the gray list so far”. Its fate will be decided at a plenary meeting on Thursday, he said. The FATF typically announces its decisions on Friday at the end of its Paris plenary meetings. Kyaw added that Myanmar’s government has developed a strategic implementation plan to improve its ability to counter-money laundering..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-20
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Title: Unlocking Civil Society and Peace in Myanmar
Description: "Civil Society: Civil Society is defined broadly as the space between the family and the state, but does not include political parties, professional unions and associations, private businesses, and Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs). For the purpose of this Discussion Paper, research was directed predominantly, but not entirely, to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) at Union and sub-national level and their emerging networks. Research also included ethnic literature and culture associations. It is important to note that many people “wear several hats” in Myanmar, meaning that the affiliations of individuals are not always limited to one organisation. The roles of as key stakeholders often change roles over time. Due to their importance in Myanmar, faith-based networks are also included in civil society. Civil society is not synonymous with communities. It is inherently heterogeneous; its diversity relates to a range of different ethnic, linguistic, religious, gender, and class identities among which ethnicity stands out as a particularly prominent marker of identity in Myanmar. Social cohesion: A cohesive society is one that works towards the wellbeing of all, creates a sense of belonging, promotes trust, and offers everyone the opportunity to prosper and advance peacefully. Peacebuilding: Peacebuilding is defined as initiatives that foster and support sustainable structures and processes that strengthen the prospects for peaceful coexistence and decrease the likelihood of the outbreak, reoccurrence, or continuation of violent conflict.1 Within this Paper, civil society engagement in peacebuilding refers to civil society-led initiatives that seek mitigate inter- or intra- ethnic, faith, and communal tensions and promote social cohesion. Peace process: For the purposes of this research, the ‘peace process’ is defined as the national tri-lateral negotiations related to the ethnic armed conflict. Peace process architecture relates to government-led initiatives since 2011, spanning bi-lateral ceasefires, the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), the Union Peace Conferences (UPCs), Joint Monitoring Committees (JMCs), and the national dialogue process. For the purpose of this Paper, participation in the peace process has been categorised into direct participation (contribution to decision-making and supporting roles within peace architecture), and indirect contributions, which are equally critical, that lie outside of the peace process and political structures. Gender: The socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that determine our understanding of masculinity and femininity. The question of gender difference and the construction of masculine and feminine is not universal, but culturally specific and strongly influenced by other factors such as ethnicity, religion, race, and class.2 Youth: Myanmar’s National Youth Policy defines young people as between the ages of 15-35. The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250 considers young people to fall between 18-29 years..."
Source/publisher: Paung Sie Facility
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-15
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Title: Foreign Policy and Political Changes in Post-junta Myanmar
Description: "Because of its geostrategic position and whatever the system of government in place, Myanmar must cope with a series of key security challenges.1 The country is sandwiched between two emerging giants with global ambitions, China and India. It boasts a 2,000km-long coastline opened to the Indian Ocean, through which a large part of the world’s seaborne commerce transit. It offers a gateway to, and from, continental Southeast Asia. In the twenty-first century, this peculiar geographical situation may present considerable opportunities for regional growth and future development in a country long kept away from global flows and Asia’s economic boom.2 But it can also contribute to increased concerns among Burmese ruling elites, starting with the armed forces (or Tatmadaw), over the potential sway neighbouring states, global powers and international institutions may seek to gain in a region known for its abundance of underexploited natural resources.3 In March 2011, the junta formed after the last coup d’état staged by the Tatmadaw in 1988 was disbanded. A startling transition to a semi-civilian administration followed.4 The five-year presidency of ex-general Thein Sein (2011–2016) marked a first phase in this post-junta transitional moment. Under the impetus of a handful of retired high-ranking military officers, Myanmar started to liberalise its polity, returned to a parliamentary form of elected government, allowed its pro-democracy opposition forces to join the political game, and gradually re-engaged with the world, particularly the West. After years of diplomatic isolation and international condemnations led by the United States and the European Union, most sanctions imposed against the country since the 1990s were suspended, then lifted, between 2012 and 2016. Even more, the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in the legislative polls held in November 2015 and the subsequent formation of an NLD government further rekindled hopes for a gradual, yet palpable, democratisation..."
Source/publisher: Renaud Egreteau
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-10
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Title: Reworking the Colonial- Era Indian Peril: Myanmar’s State-Directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims1
Description: "Myanmar’s widely hailed transition from military dictatorship to a Chinese model of great commercial opening and calibrated political liberalization— “discipline flourishing democracy,” as the generals call it—has had one unintended consequence for the country’s military-controlled government: ugly things have been exposed.4 Suddenly, the dark secrets of this predominantly Buddhist nation of 51 million people with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds have been laid bare. Te world now has access to hitherto-closed-of sites of religious and ethnic persecution via international media such as CNN, BBC, wire news agencies, and so on. First, the world witnessed the eruption of two large bouts of violence in 2012 between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhist Rakhine communities in the western coastal region of the country.5 Within a year, there were incidents of organized violence against Muslims in about one dozen towns and neighborhoods across the country.6 Burmese social media sites were littered with various hues of genocidal comments, articles, analyses, and updates, and remain so to date. Many openly call for the slaughter of all Muslims (or Kular, in Burmese), while others are more specifc about the type of Muslims that should be killed: the phrase “kill all illegal Bengalis,” a popular racist reference to Rohingyas, indicates that they belong in former East Bengal (Bangladesh) and not in Buddhist Myanmar.7 Led by Buddhist monks, protests sprang up in the Rakhine state and in other major urban centers such as Mandalay and Yangon; they called on the quasi-civilian, military-backed government of ex-General Tein Sein to crack down on Muslims and expel all Bengalis to any country, Muslim or Western liberal, that would take them. In fact, in President Tein Sein’s meeting with António Guterres—the then visiting head of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)—in Naypyidaw in August 2012, Tein Sein stated that “the only solution” to the troubles in Rakhine was either to send unwanted Rohingyas to countries that may be prepared to accept them as refugees or to contain them in UNHCR-administered camps.8 Burmese media outlets, including those run by former Burmese political exiles, echoed the ofcial and popular view that Rohingyas were illegal Bengali migrants with no organic ties to the country..."
Source/publisher: Maung Zarni and Natalie Brinham
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: US travel ban impacting some Myanmar people in the US
Description: "People from Myanmar who now live in the American state of Indiana home are feeling the impacts of Washington’s recent travel ban, according to the Indy Channel. They are getting ready to help their community celebrate Myanmar Union Day, marking 73 years since the southeast Asian country became free of British rule. While they plan to celebrate this culturally significant holiday, the recent addition of Myanmar to The White House's Travel Ban will be hanging over them. "This is a great concern to the community," Elaisa Vahnie, Burmese American Community Institute Executive Director, told the channel. He said the travel ban is already impacting people who planned to reunite with their family in the United States..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Title: Myanmar’s Contested Civil-Military Relations in the Spotlight With New Spat
Sub-title: A recent incident served as yet another reminder of the complex and contested dynamics of civil-military relations in the country and the sensitivities therein.
Description: "On Monday, reports surfaced that a Myanmar military spokesman had hit out at comments made by a minister in the country about civil-military control. While the incident may appear minor relative to wider developments in Myanmar and Naypyidaw’s broader challenges, it nonetheless served as a reminder of the complex dynamics underlying civil-military relations in Myanmar and the sensitivities in navigating them. As I have observed before in these pages, governance in Myanmar remains a complex and contested affair, with the National League for Democracy (NLD) ruling the country but the military, known as the Tatmadaw, still exercising significant political influence in the country in official and unofficial ways, including a quota of seats in parliament and control of key ministries: defense, border, and home affairs. Over the past week, we have seen these complex and contested civil-military dynamics at play with a spat in Myanmar’s domestic politics. The spat emerged from comments made by Myanmar’s Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture U Aung Ko, who suggested at an interfaith event in Yangon last month that that the military had control of the police. On Monday, in a sign of fallout from those comments, Myanmar news media outlets reported that military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun had urged the government to take action against the minister and added that the Tatmadaw would file a complaint with the government according to legal procedures..."
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-06
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Title: Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban expanded to add six countries, including Myanmar and Nigeria
Sub-title: Move could reignite debate over whether policy discriminates against Muslims, although most nations added do not have Muslim majorities...Other countries facing new restrictions are Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan.
Description: "The Trump administration said on Friday it will add six new countries to its travel ban, part of an election-year crackdown that could reignite debate over whether the policy discriminates against Muslims. Restrictions on entering the US will now apply to certain travellers and migrants from Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, as well as Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official. The updated policy would not completely ban all citizens of those countries from coming to the US, but instead would limit access to certain kinds of visas. Unlike the initial list, most of the countries just added do not have Muslim-majority populations. Under the plan, immigration visas will be suspended for Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, and Nigeria. Access to the diversity lottery programme will be limited for Sudan and Tanzania, and the new restrictions will go into place in 21 days..."
Source/publisher: "Bloomberg News" (New York) via "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-02
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Title: Myanmar’s get out of jail free card
Sub-title: So-called Independent Commission of Enquiry whitewashes military abuses in bid to elude genocide charges
Description: "Myanmar’s government made a stunningly rare admission of wrongdoing recently when it admitted that “war crimes” had been perpetrated against Muslims in Rakhine state during the violence of 2017. Unsurprisingly, it concluded the savagery did not constitute genocide as United Nations (UN) and other human rights investigators have suggested. The government made the admission following the finalization of the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) report, the executive summary of which was made public just days before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced temporary provisions on Myanmar in its ongoing proceedings on genocide charges. The ICOE’s conclusions evinced two broad international receptions: one of measured acknowledgement that it admitted to serious crimes previously flatly denied by the administration of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – and thus provides a foundation for further discussion on accountability – and another of blithe indifference. While the report should be dismissed as another exercise in cynical codswallop from an unrepentant military and civilian government, the ICOE experience nonetheless signals something more. That is, the report bids to peddle a sense of official partial closure on what happened in Rakhine state and that government business may now return to normal..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
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Title: Myanmar Military Faces Added International Scrutiny
Description: "Increasing conflict between Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups and government forces during the last year has increased civilian casualties amid mounting allegations of war crimes. With the U.N.’s International Court of Justice order that the country "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who fled the country amid a bloody military crackdown in 2017, other ethnic minorities that have been fighting for decades over control of resource-rich territory are coming forward to voice their concerns over past documented atrocities, also carried out by the Myanmar military. The mountainside village of Pain Lone in Shan State was the site of such conflict last fall between government forces and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an armed ethnic group based in the region, panicking students scrambling for cover as their afternoon classes were ending. "The sound of the helicopters was very terrifying and the loud explosions falling around the village were terrible,” recalls local instructor U Maung Chone, who teaches in the remote mountain settlement.“ It doesn’t matter if they are falling in the town or just in the area. The explosions were very frightening for the kids,” the 45-year-old said, adding that he’d never seen army helicopters in more than two decades of teaching..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-31
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Title: China’s loose arms still fuel Myanmar’s civil wars
Sub-title: Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to “solve” persistent gunrunning to Myanmar insurgents
Description: "When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief Senior General Ming Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw earlier this month, it was not clear which of the two raised the issue first. But side-stepping the 800 pound gorilla in the room — new Chinese weaponry fueling Myanmar’s civil wars — was never going to be an option. Over the past year, those Chinese weapons have cost the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, hundreds of lives. And as the fighting season gathers pace in western Rakhine state, the likelihood of another high death toll in 2020 will cast a long shadow in army circles over the triumphant hailing of a “new era” in Sino-Myanmar amity and cooperation that attended Xi’s historic state visit. Almost certainly not by coincidence, the day before the January 18 meeting – the sixth meeting between Xi and Min Aung Hlaing — the Tatmadaw’s public relations wing ensured that the “discovery” of a rebel cache of Chinese munitions made on January 15 in Hsenwi township in northern Shan state received wide media publicity..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
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Title: Myanmar: First state visit in almost 20 years highlights China’s role in human rights crisis
Summary: "Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s two-day state visit to Myanmar, which begins on Friday 17 January 2020, Amnesty International’s Regional Director, Nicholas Bequelin, said: “President Xi’s...
Description: "Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s two-day state visit to Myanmar, which begins on Friday 17 January 2020, Amnesty International’s Regional Director, Nicholas Bequelin, said: “President Xi’s government has expressed its desire to help solve the situation in Rakhine State. While this is welcome in principle, the reality is that China’s engagement has failed to yield positive results for the people of Myanmar. “China must stop using its position in the UN Security Council to shield Myanmar’s senior generals from accountability. This has only emboldened the military’s relentless campaign of human rights violations and war crimes against ethnic minorities across the country. “Almost a million Rohingya languish in refugee camps in Bangladesh while 600,000 still in Myanmar continue to live under appalling conditions of apartheid. If it fails to pressure Myanmar to ensure justice and restore Rohingya’s rights, China’s efforts to resolve the situation will remain ineffective – and counter-productive. “With major economic and infrastructure agreements expected to be signed during President Xi’s visit, the absolute lack of transparency over such agreements is deeply disturbing. Investment in infrastructure can help raise living standards and realize human rights through improved access to basic services and employment. But these benefits are not delivered if those who bear the heaviest cost - the women, men, and children whose homes, health, livelihoods might be affected – are not adequately consulted before construction starts and protected from potential harm. Human rights, transparency, and consultation with communities should be at the heart of these projects.”..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-19
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Title: THE TIMES THEY ARE NOT CHANGING
Description: "“As ever, it is civilians who bear the brunt of the accompanying abuses that the Myanmar military soldiers inflict on the local populations. Furthermore, they do so with impunity. Documented for decades, yet without any real change, the Myanmar military which commit rape and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, torture, forced labor and many other forms of violations against local ethnic populations, escapes justice.” A new decade has begun in Myanmar[1], yet the same problems that have blighted the country since independence, ethnic inequality, Burmanization, and military attacks in ethnic areas remain. Renewed fighting in Karen State, continuing fighting in Shan and Arakan States, and the struggle for ethnic nationalities to assert their identity have all been present in the first two weeks of this year. Yet the powers in Naypyidaw remain stuck on the same track, pushing a broken peace process and blaming ethnic groups for continued failures. At the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM) held in Naypyidaw on 8 January, 2020, which was attended by leaders of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatory ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), the government, and the Myanmar military, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi put blame on the EAOs for the failure of the peace process. In her opening remarks, she stated, “Concerning the case of having more armed conflicts, we would like to remind you of the fact that taking advantage by means of stronger armed forces or playing with the fancy of finding other new solutions will never bring solutions to the problems of our country.” The meeting, unsurprisingly, ended without substantive progress..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-19
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Title: Prospects for Myanmar’s development and governance
Description: "Myanmar’s efforts to reverse a legacy of isolation began with the quasi-civilian government led by then-president U Thein Sein. From 2011–2015, his government undertook a series of political, economic and social reforms that built the foundation for future democratic development. Key reform initiatives under his administration included renewed engagement with ethnic armed forces, a relaxation of press censorship, liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, increased autonomy of the Central Bank of Myanmar and improvement of the budgetary and taxation system. The government also attempted to improve private sector development by reducing red tape to ease business costs and attract foreign investment. During U Thein Sein’s presidential term, Myanmar became one of the fastest growing economies in ASEAN, with an average growth rate of 7.3 per cent. The country also achieved the Human Development Index’s medium-ranked member status. Major challenges remain despite these positive developments: land disputes, informal settlements in cities, inadequate basic infrastructure and most importantly an unstable political situation due to conflict in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin states. The political landscape of Myanmar changed dramatically after the second general election in 2015 when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a majority of seats in the people’s parliament, national parliaments and sub-national parliaments. The new government was immediately confronted by existing and new challenges. A few months before the elections, 12 out of 14 regions and states were affected by flooding that damaged 1.9 million acres of farmland causing the price of rice to increase. A 20 per cent drop in net inflow of FDI and a growth rate sinking to 5.9 per cent (from the average 7.3 per cent growth rate of president U Thein Sein’s administration) also made 2016 a difficult year for the new government..."
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-18
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Title: Xi Courts an Isolated Myanmar in First State Visit of the Year
Description: "Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next. In China’s carefully choreographed diplomatic calendar, the itinerary of the president’s first overseas trip can send signals about his long-term strategic goals. In 2017, Xi Jinping opened with a speech at the World Economic Forum defending globalization from criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump. A year earlier, he became the first major world leader to visit Iran after international sanctions were lifted. This year, Xi’s first state visit will be to conflict-torn Myanmar. While the European Union and the U.S. have criticized Myanmar for what the United Nations has called genocidal acts against its minority Rohingya population, China, which often faces scrutiny over its own human rights record, is continuing its role as a vocal supporter. Upon his arrival to the capital of Naypyidaw on Friday, Xi will meet with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who last month defended Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in the Hague over accusations the country’s military had committed atrocities with “genocidal intent,” forcing more than 700,000 ethnic Muslims to flee across the Bangladesh border. Suu Kyi rejected the case brought by the Gambia as “incomplete and misleading” and said the exodus of civilians was caused by an ongoing internal armed conflict with insurgents..."
Source/publisher: "Bloomberg News" (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-18
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Title: China turns to Myanmar as the ‘friendly giant in the neighbourhood’
Sub-title: When Xi Jinping arrives in the Southeast Asian nation for the first state visit in 19 years, he will come bearing gifts – billions of dollars of investment projects...China has been its closest ally for two decades, and the country presents a particular opportunity for Xi and Beijing’s broader ambitions.
Description: "China’s president, on a visit to Myanmar, took in the sights with a tour of the Buddhist temples in Bagan and vowed to pour investment into the country even as the United Nations criticised the local government for violation of human rights. That was 19 years ago and the visitor was Jiang Zemin. On Friday, when President Xi Jinping arrives in Myanmar for the first state visit since 2001, he may well gaze upon the same temples his predecessor saw, he will repeat plans for investment in the neighbouring country, and again Myanmar faces condemnation over human rights abuses. What’s changed, though, is China and its ambitions. In between the two visits, China leapfrogged Thailand to become Myanmar’s biggest trading partner and eventually unseated Japan as the world’s second-largest economy after the US. With that economic clout, Beijing asserted itself in international affairs – China now has more embassies around the world than any other country – only to bang heads with the West, especially the US, as its influence spread. Closer to home China has exercised claims over regions of the South China Sea, causing disputes with Asian neighbours from Vietnam to the Philippines and Indonesia..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: China's Xi turns to Myanmar as he pushes for 'Belt and Road' plan
Summary: "Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Myanmar on Friday on his first trip to the country since 2009 and is expected to step up investment in the Southeast Asian nation including in the conflict-...
Sub-title: Xi expected to sign $1.3bn deal to build a port in Rakhine State on his first visit to the country as president.
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Myanmar on Friday on his first trip to the country since 2009 and is expected to step up investment in the Southeast Asian nation including in the conflict-racked state of Rakhine, a key link in China's Belt and Road initiative. Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Commerce Aung Htoo told reporters before the visit that Xi would sign agreements related to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and $1.3bn port in Rakhine, where a brutal military crackdown in 2017 led hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh. More: Myanmar's women trafficked to China at risk of sexual violence ICJ to rule on emergency measures in Myanmar genocide case China invests billions in Myanmar "Xi has visited almost all ASEAN countries since assuming power in 2013, but Myanmar had been left out until now," Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Center, said in an email to Al Jazeera..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: Myanmar Has Blazed a Path to Democracy Without Rights
Description: "The paradox at the heart of the Rohingya genocide has always been Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Just a few short years ago, the Rohingya regarded the international democracy icon as their champion and defender in an increasingly hostile Myanmar. Last month, she was standing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, defending the soldiers and politicians who erased the Rohingya from their native lands in Myanmar. Her history is a lesson for the optimists who thought democracy would also bring liberalism—and a disturbing portent of the compatibility of democracy and oppression that’s playing out from New Delhi to Budapest. The Rohingya Muslim minority have been a favorite target for successive Buddhist central governments in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, for almost the entire post-imperial history of the country. But they have been far from the only target. Other, smaller, Muslim groups have always been on the radar of the Theravada nationalist military juntas that ruled the country between 1962 and 2011. Christian groups and a plethora of borderland ethnic groups such as the Chin, Kachin, Shan, and Karen were also oppressed under the juntas..."
Source/publisher: "Foreign Policy" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: UWSP says peace could be found during Xi’s visit
Description: "The United Wa State Party (UWSP) says that they expect the solution for resolving fighting between government troops and northern Myanmar based ethnic armed forces will be found during Chinese President Xi’s visit to Myanmar. The statement issued by UWSP/UWSA (United Wa State Army) welcomes President Xi’s visit to Myanmar and added that peace in northern Myanmar was concerned with Sino-Myanmar relations and development among people (with China). The statement suggests that China plays a crucial role in restoring peace in Myanmar especially a ceasefire with ethnic armed groups in the Northern Alliance..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-16
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Title: Myanmar's Rakhine state teetering towards war
Summary: "Rakhine state is descending into growing turmoil. Globally long associated primarily with the brutal oppression of the Rohingya, the much wider dimensions of Rakhine's troubles are now visible,...
Description: "Rakhine state is descending into growing turmoil. Globally long associated primarily with the brutal oppression of the Rohingya, the much wider dimensions of Rakhine's troubles are now visible, including their international implications. Given their complexity, a broader perspective is badly needed to help bring about stability, development and prosperity for all Rakhine's people. Governments around the world, but especially in the region, have a legitimate role to play in helping to find solutions. Rakhine lies at the crossroads of Asia and its stability, ethnic harmony and economic promise are important for both South Asia and Southeast Asia. As a matter of course, that includes Asean. Moreover, its membership reflects a diversity similar to that of Rakhine state. It is to be hoped that in-depth discussions on this issue will be held at the Asean foreign ministers retreat in Vietnam this week..."
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
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Title: High expectations for Xi Jinping’s visit to mark 70th anniversary of China-Myanmar relations
Sub-title: Two-day trip could be ‘milestone’ for relations if progress on Rohingya refugee crisis and stalled US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project can be made...Xi’s visit could involve ‘dozens’ of cultural, political and economic agreements
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping will try to kick-start stalled Belt and Road Initiative projects and attempt to mediate in the Rohingya crisis during a two-day visit to Myanmar this week to mark the 70th anniversary of relations between the nations, analysts said. Ties between Myanmar and China – its biggest trading partner – have strengthened rapidly in recent years, although violent conflicts and one of the world’s largest refugee emergencies pose major challenges to Beijing’s goals in the Southeast Asian country. Xi’s visit is expected to begin on Friday, the first by a Chinese leader since Jiang Zemin 19 years ago, and may be a “milestone” for bilateral ties, according to Beijing’s senior envoy in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital. Xi would meet the country’s senior military and political leaders, and the two sides were expected to sign “dozens” of agreements in culture, politics and the economy, state newspaper Global Times quoted Chen Hai, China’s ambassador, as saying on Sunday..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-14
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Title: Myanmar must weigh up the extent of its dependence on China
Sub-title: Bilateral agreements set this week could have implications for generations to come
Description: " Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/df96fcf4-35e4-11ea-ac3c-f68c10993b04 President Xi Jinping, who travels to Myanmar this week, will be the first Chinese leader to visit in nearly 20 years. What happens next in bilateral relations could determine Myanmar’s future and China’s place in the region for generations. Beijing hopes for the speedy realisation of a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, a massive infrastructure scheme valued in tens of billions of dollars. Its spine will be a railway line linking China’s Yunnan province with both the city of Yangon and a new deep-sea port at Kyaukpyu on the Bay of Bengal. The corridor is part of the Belt and Road Initiative and is meant to include a 6,000-megawatt dam on the Irrawaddy river, as well as a new city for Chinese manufacturing close to Yangon. Dozens of projects will bind Myanmar closely to the markets of south-west China. More importantly for Beijing, they will form an artery between China’s hinterland and the Indian Ocean. But there’s a catch: the corridor would traverse one of the world’s most complex and violent political landscapes. China and Myanmar share a 1,300-mile border and uplands between the border and the Irrawaddy Valley, an area about the size of Britain, are home to more than a dozen ethnic-based insurgent armies and hundreds of militia forces..."
Source/publisher: "Financial Times" ( London)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-14
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Title: Xi plans Myanmar trip this week to expedite BRI projects facing slowdown
Sub-title: According to Myanmar government sources, Xi is expected to visit Naypyitaw, January 17-18. During his trip, the two sides are expected to sign several agreements covering the construction of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and border economic cooperation zones, , road upgrade projects, promotion of trade relations among others.
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Myanmar, a key neighbour of India this week, as Beijing seeks to ramp up support for BRI that will open connectivity in Bay of Bengal. The BRI projects in Myanmar has not received enough local support contrary to Chinese expectations. This will first visit by a Chinese President to Myanmar in nearly two decades. India will keep a close watch on the visit. According to Myanmar government sources, Xi is expected to visit Naypyitaw, January 17-18. During his trip, the two sides are expected to sign several agreements covering the construction of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and border economic cooperation zones, road upgrade projects, promotion of trade relations, and social and economic development assistance, according to Myanmar government sources. Minister for Commerce U Than Myint told the reporters that Xi will visit Myanmar soon, saying that during his trip an agreement would be signed between the two countries in which China would ease restrictions on imports of products from Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "The Economic Times" (India)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-14
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Title: Asia In-Depth Podcast: What Happened to Myanmar?
Description: "Few countries in Asia have a recent history as turbulent as Myanmar. The election of the National League for Democracy in 2015, which followed the freeing of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, caused companies and civil society organizations to return and ignited a fresh optimism about the country's future. But just as quickly as Myanmar's fortunes rose, they seemed to fall. The military responded to violence in Rakhine state with a brutal and deadly crackdown of the Rohingya minority, while the government has arrested journalists and rights advocates. In just a few short years, Myanmar's international image has plummeted and its hopes for prosperity have been set back. Aung San Suu Kyi has gone from being a revered Nobel Peace laureate to a leader accused of abetting crimes against humanity. Why did Myanmar's hopeful democratic transition go wrong? And what happens next? In the latest episode of Asia In-Depth, Thant Myint-U, author of the recent book The Hidden History of Burma, talks to Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski about the tough questions surrounding Myanmar's transition..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Society" ( New York)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: Global Political Calendar: Xi Jinping's visit to Myanmar, final Democratic debate
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping pays a state visit to Myanmar; the United States holds final Democratic debate. Xi's Myanmar visit: At the invitation of Myanmar's President U Win Myint, Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a two-day state visit to Myanmar on January 17 and 18, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday. It is the first visit by a Chinese president to Myanmar in 19 years. During his visit, Xi is expected to meet Myanmar's President U Win Myint, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and officials from Myanmar's Assembly of the Union and the military, vice foreign minister Luo Zhaohui said at a media briefing on Friday..."
Source/publisher: "China Global Television Network (CGTN)" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: In Myanmar’s Game of Thrones, Aung San Suu Kyi’s moral failure invites ugly comparisons
Sub-title: She was once a beacon of democracy standing up to the country’s military but the genocide against the Rohingya has left Suu Kyi painfully exposed...Nobody denies the intractable difficulties she and her country face. But she ought to have used her moral authority to address the ethnic divide.
Description: "Is she Cersei Lannister: cold, cynical and deadly? Or Sansa Stark: noble, long-suffering and genuine? Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi – the general’s daughter presiding over a desperately fragile state – has been transformed from being the military’s nemesis into its leading apologist or, worse yet, its enabler. As the proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gear up and Myanmar again comes under global scrutiny, many have asked how she could have become so reviled? She has allowed the darkest forces in her nation to wreak violence against the long oppressed Muslim Rohingya minority, whom she refuses to acknowledge..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: Myanmar: Has Suu Kyi’s Position Been Enhanced After Her Return From ICJ? – Analysis
Description: "Suu Kyi returned from the Hague on 14th December. She was received at the airport by enthusiastic colleagues and the people that included Members of Parliament, Locals, teachers and students. Significantly, no Senior Army Official was present. At the court, in her final submission, Suu Kyi said that the case filed by Gambia should be dismissed or alternatively, the provisional measures requested by Gambia should be dismissed. It should be noted that decisions on both the counts of “intent of Genocide” or “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingyas from future threats of violence will take a long time and are not enforceable also unless it is brought to the Security Council again for action. Here again both China and Russia may come to Myanmar’s rescue. It is in this connection, Joe Kumbum’ (an analyst from Kachin under a pseudonym) has suggested that Myanmar should keep in touch with the Western powers lest it does not go over to the Chinese. My response would be that it is the Western Powers including the USA that should take the initiative. Suu Kyi while conceding that excesses may have taken place said that the country has had one Court Martial to try the guilty officers and one more is also in the offing. Surprisingly she even undertook that more Court Martials will be pursued once the report of the ICOE- Independent Commission of Enquiry submits its proposal that is expected in a few days..."
Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: Obstacles to Myanmar’s growth in 2020
Summary: "The ASEAN Post recently published an article on whether 2020 will be a good year for Myanmar’s economy. That article noted that the ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) had given Myanmar’s...
Description: "The ASEAN Post recently published an article on whether 2020 will be a good year for Myanmar’s economy. That article noted that the ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) had given Myanmar’s economy a positive outlook for the fiscal year of 2019 to 2020; expecting it to expand by 7.1 percent up from 6.8 percent in the previous fiscal year. However, there may be some events that could act as obstacles to this growth. The positive outlook is largely thanks to reform momentum, improving business sentiments, growth in manufacturing, tourism related expansion and stronger fiscal spending. According to AMRO, the five key sectors with growth potential in Myanmar this year are (1) the tourism industry, (2) property, (3) insurance, (4) digital transactions and (5) the stock exchange business. However, according to reports, economists have noted that the downside is the ongoing Rakhine crisis as well as the lawsuit filed against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by Gambia, which could tarnish the country’s image as an investment destination. One of the five key growth sectors this could clearly impact is the tourism industry. Myanmar has taken several measures to attract tourists. Among these measures are relaxed visa requirements. Aside from that, there have also been a slew of new flight routes coming in and out of Myanmar and neighbouring countries including India, China, Cambodia, and Thailand all throughout last year..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: World needs stronger UN more than ever: Myanmar's UN envoy
Description: "Myanmar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Hau Do Suan said Friday that the world needs a stronger UN more than ever. "At this critical time, the world needs a stronger UN more than ever to harmonize our collective efforts to strengthening multilateralism and maintenance of international peace and security," the Myanmar UN ambassador told a Security Council open debate on upholding the UN Charter. "The strict observance of the principles of international law and adherence to the obligations under the Charter of the UN by all member states are essential for the maintenance of international peace and security," he said. "Every state has the responsibility to abide by the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, political independence and non-interference in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of states," said the ambassador..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Title: Myanmar in Transition Polity, People and Processes
Description: "Myanmar’s political transition from military authoritarianism to an evolving parliamentary system has gained worldwide attention and praise. Local and international scepticism regarding the flawed national elections of November 2010 gave way to outright optimism once the by-elections of April 2012 brought representatives from the opposition party National League for Democracy into the bi-cameral national as well as two federal parliaments. In particular, Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s metamorphosis from long-term political prisoner into national parliamentarian was seen as key evidence of the government’s sincerity in its reform agenda. Since then, the country has embarked on a journey towards fundamental change, encountering severe challenges, setbacks, and renewed criticism but also encouraging developments. This Panorama edition analyses the focal areas of institution-building, principal actors and long-term processes that will hopefully lead toward a democratic, federal state. While development cooperation practitioners and experts in political transitions toil to draw up plans, programmes and budgets, Myanmar’s government and parliaments face an impatient population demanding an end to underdevelopment, poverty, corruption, armed conflict and oppression of dissent, so that there can be focus on daily bread-and-butter issues..."
Source/publisher: "Panorama Insights into Asian and European Affairs" via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-09
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Title: China's Challenge to America’s Political and Economic Liberal Order
Sub-title: American apathy in world affairs may be the silver bullet that hands-off systemic leadership to the Chinese. With growing structural capacities, China is able to propagate a new means of conducting world politics, one of a distinctly authoritarian variant.
Description: "China’s successful economic and geopolitical rise has positioned Beijing to push an agenda that is antithetical to America’s political and economic liberal order. China is no longer a rising power, but rather a peer competitor with the United States fighting to maximize security and global clout. Meanwhile, the United States remains distracted by domestic political polarization and protracted foreign wars. What does this lack of American engagement and increasing Chinese ambition mean for the global order? This is not another piece on America’s “lost hegemony.” Instead, it is representative of aggressive Chinese ambition and coercive economic diplomacy. Perhaps a more relevant scenario to explore would be: if China rolled tanks into Hong Kong tomorrow to quell the persisting pro-democracy demonstrations, how would the international community react? Would the United States be able to draw a red line for China?..."
Source/publisher: "The National Interest" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: Myanmar, Though Suspicious of China, Edges Closer to Beijing for Safety
Description: "Myanmar has crafted a neutral foreign policy since its colonial years to avoid leaning too much on any foreign power, but a spiraling political crisis at home is pushing it toward China as a buffer against international outrage. Western leaders say the poor but quickly developing Southeast Asian country is trying to wipe out Muslim Rohingya people near its border with Bangladesh. Myanmar’s state counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi, met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the issue days before going before the International Court of Justice on December 11. Myanmar faces charges of genocide against the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority group in Rakhine state. China had backed Myanmar in the U.N. Security Council when a military junta ruled the country before 2011. China is grappling with international criticism over perceived repression of ethnic Uighur people who oppose living under Beijing’s rule..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: Top Eight Developments in International Law 2019
Description: "For those who support and believe in the power of international law to effect positive change in the world, 2019 was difficult. There were however a number of important bright sparks, in the form of efforts to negotiate treaties on the protection of marine biodiversity, business and human rights, and the elimination of work place harassment; as well as spotlights shone by national and international courts on the plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The past 12 months have both highlighted the political limits within which international law operates, and the good it can achieve within those boundaries. This post reflects on some of the most important new cases, treaties, and events; as well as the international legal order’s most difficult challenges. 1) Climate change and loss of biodiversity accelerate Climate emergency is Oxford’s word of the year and, as we are closing out the warmest decade on record, evidence of global warming seemed to be everywhere. The ferocity of forest fires both in the Amazon and in areas of Australia, fuelled by extreme drought, are but one worrying example. They also illustrate the limits of international law’s ability to force change on governments who are unwilling to accept it. Against this dark backdrop, the 2015 Paris Agreement’s achievements look modest. Climate change poses an existential challenge to international law, in that it affects almost everything it regulates. International cooperation is our only hope of tackling it, but it is difficult not to question whether the existing international legal architecture is up to the challenge..."
Source/publisher: Oxford University Press (Oxford)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
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Title: Myanmar and the Dream of the Golden Land
Description: "Burma/Myanmar has moved from stagnation to dynamic reform. Much attention has focused explaining the timing, shape and key personalties of the reform process. What this approach neglects is an examination of the ideological frameworks that shape political culture and action in Burma/Myanmar. The democratic opposition and the military leadership, the two major political forces in the majority Burman population, are actually united by an underlying ideological framework derived from understandings of the colonial era. According to this framework Burma's rich natural resources and strategic location were the reason for its colonization by the British, and mean that Burma is perpetually in danger of neocolonial interference from covetous foreigners, be they Western or Chinese. The former military government argued that the democratic opposition would sell the nation out to neocolonial interests in the West. The democratic opposition and popular sentiment, in contrast, have seen the post-1988 military governments as neocolonial and deeply complicit in selling the nation out to the Chinese. These surface differences mask underlying structural similarities that derive form a shared ideational framework..."
Source/publisher: "Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population" (Naypyitaw)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
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Title: Myanmar cannot escape justice
Description: " Nothing can justify just egregious human rights abuses as those that have taken place in Rakhine state Myanmar and its military are currently being exposed for its gross violations of human rights -- through their ethnic cleansing operations of the Rohingya minority -- at the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations. This is all thanks to the tireless efforts of Gambia, a relatively small West African nation, who saw shades of the Rwandan genocide in the plight of the Rohingya. And it is because of Gambia, largely, that the world is finally starting to give the Rohingya crisis the attention it deserves. Perhaps the biggest news to arrive from the trials so far is the United States imposing strict sanctions against four of the Myanmar army’s top military leaders, including military chief Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy. This is truly an amazing turn of events. Backing Gambia’s initiative is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its 57 member states, Canada, and the Netherlands. And while the trials have only just begun, it is nothing short of heartening to see so many countries finally waking up to Myanmar’s history of abuse against its own minority groups..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
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Title: Peace and war in Myanmar
Description: "A visitor to Myanmar can easily spend two weeks seeing the main tourist destinations and depart with the impression of having been in a peaceful nation. Within its borders, however, rages the world’s longest continuing civil war. It began at independence in 1948 and no end is in sight. This is the conundrum of Myanmar today: the coexistence of peace and war. The first national election in 20 years was held in 2010, at the end of five decades of repressive military rule. This election produced a government led by former General Thein Sein that unexpectedly moved quickly to adopt far-reaching political and economic reforms. The longtime leader of the democratic opposition and world-famous icon of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest shortly after that election. In 2012, she won a seat in the parliament in a by-election. In the 2015 election, her party — the National League for Democracy (NLD) — won in a landslide against the military-supported party..."
Source/publisher: "Brookings Institution (blog)"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-07
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Title: Myanmar and foreign aid – recent changes, risk and opportunity
Description: "This policy briefing gives an overview of politics and development in Myanmar, focusing in particular on minority conflicts as well as the national context. The role that international aid agencies can play is explored, and recommendations are offered for policy and practice. There is a risk that pressure to build good relations with the government and to spend pledged funds will lead donors to overlook significant ongoing problems in conflict-affected border areas and elsewhere. Yet, the right kind of foreign aid, implemented effectively, can play a potentially useful role in supporting peace, justice and development. Donors need to learn from experience elsewhere, recognising that many challenges will arise over the coming years despite recent reforms. Through a careful understanding of Myanmar’s political economy at the local and national levels, and by incrementally establishing programmes, they will be able to build domestic capacity in support of sustainable peace and poverty reduction. Continued engagement can generate opportunities for promoting international standards including human rights. Recent Changes Despite continued uncertainty, Myanmar’s recent transition is now generating significant political, economic and social change. After decades of rule by an opaque and chiefly selfinterested military junta, some political space is opening up and media censorship is being relaxed. Economic and development policies have continued to shift, with signals emerging that the leadership is more responsive to the needs of Myanmar’s ethnically varied and predominantly poor population of around 55 million. External coverage of Myanmar has for decades presented the country’s travails as a black-andwhite morality play: villainous generals opposed by the virtuous angels of the Burmese people represented in particular by Nobel prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In practice, some changes had already occurred before the military junta carefully selected its civilian successors in 2011, including gradually improved economic management and ceasefire agreements that had reduced bloodshed in the many long-running conflicts affecting most of the country’s outlying, border regions. Various foreign aid agencies had already established a presence with a limited range of humanitarian and social programmes despite the sanctions imposed by many Western states..."
Source/publisher: "The Policy Practice"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-06
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Title: Myanmar: Battling History And Losing
Description: "The primary security problems continue to be concentrated in the border regions where ethnic and tribal minorities are the source, although not always the cause, of problems that have turned violent. One ethnic problem caused by violence is the million ethnic Rohingya Burmese pushed into neighboring Bangladesh since 2017. The pushing was done by Burmese Buddhist nationalists and the army. Burma is being accused of war crimes over this and is depending on neighbor and ally China to help get them out of this mess. Despite over two years of effort few of the Rohingya Burmese refugees in Bangladesh have returned. This has caused a diplomatic problem but otherwise is ignored by most Burmese. No compromise seems possible and with a powerful ally like China (and its UN veto and economic clout) to block major UN action Burma can afford to just let the situation simmer and concentrate on the other ethnic problems it must cope with. All this is the result of how the modern state of Burma was created after World War II. That process was messy and it was in part become no one had done it before. This was all about the relentless spread of nationalism over the last few centuries. This eventually became a European effort to ensure that everyone belonged to some kind of nation. Before that large portions of the world were inhabited by humans but there was no local government or ownership. By the 20th century that was no longer acceptable, at least to the European nations that had taken, or simply assumed control over the many remaining blank spaces where there was no government that owned or controlled an area. Bringing education, modern medicine and the industrial revolution to these areas proved to be more expensive than anticipated. Then there were a lot of locals who become more aware of nationhood and demanded it for themselves. So between the late 1940s and 1960s, most of the colonial areas were turned into sovereign states..."
Source/publisher: "Strategy Page"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-05
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Title: Rally in Myanmar Demands Removal of Manipur Armed Groups From Region
Sub-title: A member of an armed group belonging to Manipur’s Meitei community is accused of killing a popular schoolteacher in Tonzang.
Description: "Tedim township in Myanmar’s Chin state, which borders the northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur, witnessed a huge rally of residents on November 30, demanding that the country’s army remove the camps of the armed groups belonging to Manipur’s Meitei community, and the cadres be expelled from their area. The rally, jointly organised by 28 Zomi civil society groups including the Zomi Student and Youth Organisation (ZSYO), had over 500 protesters, who gathered to demand justice for the killing of a popular female school teacher in Tonzang area on November 17 night by a member of a Meitei armed group. Locals said that the group has set up bases in the area since 2004, after a raid by the Indian Army led it to vacate its camps in Sajik Tampak in Manipur’s Chandel district. It is believed that at least six armed groups under the umbrella group CORCOM has been taking shelter in the area. According to a report in The Irrawaddy, “A Tonzang resident, who requested not to be named, said that about 40 members of a Meitei insurgent group are living in Tonzang Town and estimated that 1,500 Meitei insurgents are living in the jungle.” The militant who allegedly shot dead 27-year-old Dim Lun Mang, an ethnic Chin and a teacher at the Tuival Zaang village primary school in Tonzang, has been identified as M. Isaba Binod from Imphal (Manipur). According to the area’s residents, he shot at her after she complained that he was playing music too loudly and demanded that it be stopped at once..."
Source/publisher: "The Wire"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-05
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Title: McConnell questions Pompeo on Hong Kong, Myanmar in Louisville visit
Sub-title: ‘What’s your take on Aung San Suu Kyi?’
Description: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was in his element Monday morning as he welcomed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the University of Louisville. The Kentucky Republican served as interviewer for an onstage discussion with Pompeo, who is widely known to be the preferred candidate of McConnell and other senior Republicans for the Senate seat in Kansas being opened by the pending retirement of GOP Sen. Pat Roberts. While McConnell did not ask the former CIA director and House member from Kansas about his interest in running for that Senate seat next year (at least not on stage), the question and answer session hit on some of McConnell’s other favorite topics. “What’s your take on Aung San Suu Kyi?” McConnell asked in his closing question at the event hosted by the McConnell Center. The Senate majority leader has long been the leading voice on U.S. policy toward Myanmar, having a decades-long association with Suu Kyi, whose holds the title of State Counsellor, where she leads the civilian government of the country also known as Burma..."
Source/publisher: "Roll Call" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-04
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Title: Who is Brave enough to love Union of Burma?
Description: "The news that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel laureate and a de facto head of State will be heading to The Hague, to face the ethnic cleansing/genocide of the Rohingyas charges, one wonders whether any Generals of the Myanmar army (Tatmadaw) who had taken the country from the rice bowl of Asia, to the Least Developed Status since 1962, under different pretext, have any guts for inspiration or imitation of this skinny vivacious lady and dared to stand by her side ? For the past seven decades a rough figure of more than ten millions have been killed and more have been displaced because of the xenophobic policies of the Tatmadaw in their endeavor of making one country, one religion and one culture which is categorically opposite to the founding fathers of modern Burma led by the lady’s father way back in 1947 (Panglong Conference.) Now, she has come to claim her rightful place and dared to face the truth for her people and country, the power maniacs’ generals were nowhere to be seen. This serpentine breed of Generals after unsuccessfully endeavoring several ways to eliminate her for two decades have grudgingly shared power with the lion’s share of a veto power and 25% in all levels of general administration, are silent now. After ignoring the plethora of UN reports of forced evictions, razing homes, rape and summary executions, will not be enough to win the case nor sway international public opinion and the case will carry on for decades but will give time to get things right only if the marauding Tatmadaw become a professional one under the civilian rule..."
Source/publisher: "Asian Tribune" (Bangkok)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-03
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Title: Myanmar’s constitutional reform imbroglio
Description: "Myanmar’s ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) apparently has decided to go slow on the constitutional reform process until next year’s elections. Last month, the country’s State Counsellor and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an interview to Nikkei Asian Review said her party was “not building hopes for the next election on [its] ability to bring about constitution amendments within the next year.” The military-drafted constitution was passed through a controversial referendum in 2008 when Myanmar was under the junta. Against all democratic principles, the military regime guaranteed itself a prominent role in the country’s politics and administration. Some of the provisions that privilege the military include holding 25 percent of the seats of the parliaments (Art. 14) and reserving the nomination of ministers of defence, internal security and border affairs (Art. 17 b). The right to takeover power in a state of emergency (Art. 40 c) and the setting up of the National Defence and Security Council as the most powerful body during crisis with military representatives enjoying an upper hand (Art. 201). The NLD and ethnic-based parties did not accept the constitution and boycotted the 2010 general elections. Two years later, they participated in the 2012 by-elections and again in the 2015 general elections with the confidence that the undemocratic constitution was the first step towards democratising the country and hoped to bring about change from within the system..."
Source/publisher: "Observer Research Foundation (ORF)" (India)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-29
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Title: Over 37 mln eligible voters estimated to take part in Myanmar's 2020 general election
Description: " Myanmar has compiled a fundamental list of eligible voters for next year's general election, with an estimated 37 million people to vote for the next government, the Union Election Commission told a press briefing on late Wednesday. Of the over 37 million eligible voters, over 17 million are male, while over 19 million are female, Commission Member U Myint Naing said. The list has not yet included military personnel and their family members as well as those in five townships in Wa Special Region. By the time the complete list is compiled, the number of eligible voters will increase by over 3 million, he said. With the date of the general election yet to be announced, the expenditure of a parliament candidate for election campaign is designated as previously as 10 million kyats (about 6,600 U.S. dollars), while 15 million kyats (10,000 dollars) are set for those ethnic candidates in remote ethnic areas..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-28
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Title: Myanmar forms special unit on int'l criminal justice
Description: "Myanmar government has formed a Special Unit on international criminal justice in order to strengthen internal capacity and expertize and provide legal opinion to relevant ministries on issues related to international criminal law, according to a press statement of the Ministry of the State Counselor's Office late Tuesday. The special unit will be led by the Union Attorney General's Office and comprises of legal experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Union Attorney General's Office and the Office of the Judge Advocate General, the statement said. The formation of the special unit came after Myanmar government announced on last Thursday that State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, in her capacity as foreign minister, will lead a legal team to Hague, Netherlands to defend the country's national interest at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning Rakhine issue, filed by Gambia against Myanmar. Myanmar has retained the services of top most legal experts to contest the case. Gambia, on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has submitted an application to the ICJ against Myanmar with regard to the displaced persons from Rakhine state..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-27
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Title: Myanmar still using landmines, global casualties 'exceptionally high': report
Sub-title: Myanmar is the only government whose security forces deployed landmines in the last year, according to a new report that flags “exceptionally high” global casualty numbers from mines and other explosives despite a widely adopted ban on the weapons.
Description: "The Landmine Monitor report, released last week, tallied nearly 6,900 casualties from landmines and other explosives in 2018, largely driven by conflicts in Afghanistan, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Syria, and Ukraine. It comes as countries who have signed on to a treaty banning landmine use meet in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, today for a summit aimed at reviewing eradication goals. While global casualty figures are less than last year, they’re nearly double what was recorded in 2013 – continuing the reversal of a longer-term trend in falling casualties. The report – an accounting of casualties and global stockpiles, as well as on progress towards mine removal and victim assistance – is released annually by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The coalition of NGOs spearheaded the anti-mine movement, leading to the 1997 treaty that banned the weapon’s use. The coalition says 164 countries have signed on to the treaty. But 33 others have not, including some of the world’s largest stockpilers of landmines: the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan, and India. From mid-2018 to October 2019, government security forces deployed mines in only one country, Myanmar, underscoring the ongoing conflicts raging on multiple fronts in the Southeast Asian nation. Accused of widespread rights abuses, Myanmar’s army largely operates without civilian oversight..."
Source/publisher: "The New Humanitarian" (Geneva)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-26
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Title: Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Literary Festival: politics and social issues take centre stage at ‘uniquely charming’ event
Summary: "The Irrawaddy Literary Festival recently wrapped up its fifth year with over 100 panel discussions and workshops featuring more than 100 Myanmese writers together with several international authors...
Description: "The Irrawaddy Literary Festival recently wrapped up its fifth year with over 100 panel discussions and workshops featuring more than 100 Myanmese writers together with several international authors. Since 2010, when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from years of house arrest, Myanmar has undergone a number of political reforms following 50 years of military rule. With this backdrop of the country gradually opening up, the three-day biannual literary festival gives participants unfettered space to freely discuss sensitive political and social issues between locals and foreigners. The event was held from November 9 to 11 in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city and considered the centre of the country’s culture. Some 5,000 people attended, with this year’s theme “Youth and Literature” a bid to involve schools and universities as much as possible. Topics of discussion ranged from political cartoons to writing poetry, the challenges of translation, and journalism in the age of fake news. Engaging in these panels was not a problem for foreign visitors as a group of 30 volunteers provided simultaneous translation for the festival..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-25
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi Will Go to the Mat for Myanmar’s Military in The Hague
Description: "One of the enduring mysteries in recent years is what happened to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi. Somehow, some way, the woman known as “the Lady of Burma”—who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 after she spent 15 years under house arrest in Myanmar for her democratic activism—seems to have lost her soul. Her drive to the top of Myanmar’s political hierarchy and quest to burnish her political legacy have been relentless, but also devastating for all those who once hailed her commitment to democracy and nonviolence. Since she became the de facto civilian head of Myanmar’s government following landmark elections in 2015, assuming the newly created position of state counselor, equivalent to prime minister, Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged as one of the most virulent defenders of the military junta that separated her from her family for years and ruled Myanmar for decades—and whose generals still wield most of the power in the country. This week, however, the Nobel laureate showed just how much she will compromise for the sake of power when she announced that she will personally lead the legal team defending Myanmar against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Next month, she will travel to The Hague to fight tooth and nail in a case brought to the ICJ recently by Gambia, with the support of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, alleging that Myanmar’s military committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in its campaign to drive minority Rohingya Muslims out of western Myanmar. The announcement comes at an inauspicious time for Myanmar, since this is not the only case seeking justice for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have been displaced from their homes since the military onslaught began in August 2017. As noted by Andrew Boyle at Just Security, in addition to the war crimes charges at the ICJ, government officials in the majority-Buddhist country are also facing additional charges of genocide and crimes against humanity brought on behalf of the Rohingya under a universal jurisdiction claim in Argentina. Meanwhile, judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague have also authorized the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to move forward with a formal investigation into charges that Myanmar’s leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and her military compatriots, were complicit in genocide..."
Source/publisher: "World Politics Review (WPR)"
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-24
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Title: The Mekong region is caught in a tug-of-war
Description: "For the Mekong countries, including Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, 2018 was a big year both domestically and regionally. Key developments from last year will inevitably continue to shape the politics of the region in 2019. In terms of domestic affairs, the most worrying trend is the consolidation of autocratic power in almost all countries. In Vietnam, the sudden death of president Tran Dai Quang in September 2018 created a huge power vacuum, which was filled by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong. By merging the two most powerful positions in Vietnamese politics, he has become the strongest Vietnamese leader since the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969, edging the communist state towards the Chinese model of centralised rule. Cambodia, in theory a multi-party democracy, has practically become a one-party regime after a sham election that saw Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party win all parliamentary seats in July 2018. He is now one of the world’s longest-serving heads of government, having held the premiership for 33 years since 1985. Things are no better in Thailand. Four years after seizing power, the military junta has made — and broken — five promises to hold a general election to establish a civilian government. Even if the sixth promise is fulfilled in February 2019, it will be difficult to see swift change, as the junta will exploit all means available to dominate the electoral process..."
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-23
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Title: What Happened to Myanmar?
Description: "Thant Myint-U, author of the new book 'The Hidden History of Burma', discusses his native Myanmar with Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski. (1 hr., 18 min.)..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Society" (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-23
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Title: The US-China Relationship: Why Words Matter
Sub-title: Don’t discount the damaging impact of escalatory rhetoric on both sides.
Description: "The U.S.-China relationship under the leadership of presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping has been volatile. Though differences over trade practices remain the most salient form of discord, both Washington and Beijing have steadily ramped up their tough rhetoric to describe the bilateral relationship. While many may want to cast aside rhetoric as “just talk” or “empty words,” the framing of interstate dynamics can have profound effects that trickle down from the top echelons of political power to everyday citizens. Earlier this month China-focused scholars, foreign policy, and business leaders penned an open letter to the Trump administration condemning the current U.S. policy toward China and warning against painting Beijing as an enemy. Others have argued that no such “engagement” policy toward China was ever fully in place. Others still have instead noted that Trump’s approach, having abandoned Washington’s previously more cooperative policy, is an overt signal to China that the international status quo that assisted China’s rise is now broken. In other words, some read Trump’s position as communicating that the United States should not and will not quietly acquiesce to China’s emboldened pursuit of status and influence..."
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-21
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Title: China condemns passage of HK-related acts in US
Description: "A spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of China's State Council on Wednesday made serious protest to and strongly condemned the passing of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 by the US Senate. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson iterated China's position on the matter in a press statement the same day. Swift condemnation followed from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislature of China, and the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a press statement, "I'd like to stress once again that Hong Kong is part of China, and Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. We urge the U.S. to grasp the situation, stop its wrongdoing before it's too late, and immediately take measures to prevent this act from becoming law. The U.S. should immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's other internal affairs, or the negative consequences will boomerang on itself. China will have to take strong countermeasures to defend our national sovereignty, security and development interests if the U.S. insists on making the wrong decisions." In Hong Kong, the Liaison Office of the Chinese Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) echoed the stance by expressing strong indignation and condemnation..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-20
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Title: Hong Kong has declared war against its young people
Sub-title: I witnessed the determined solidarity of the protesters, even while police stormed their university campus
Description: "Over the weekend, defiant young activists in Hong Kong demonstrated their capacity to look after themselves in the campus of Polytechnic University. I was there, and witnessed how the students worked together to build brick barricades, took over the canteen to feed hundreds and set up first-aid stations. This all amid a heavy police presence, and occasional volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets. Then, on Sunday night, the police laid siege to the campus, saying everyone inside would be arrested for rioting – a serious offence punishable by 10 years in prison. The pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has been in force since the summer, but the renewed anger is in response to the tragic death on 8 November of Chow Tsz-lok, a 22-year-old computer science student who fell from a car park during chaotic confrontations with the police. The government continues to refuse permission for mass peaceful protests. It is adding fuel to the fire Many protesters hold the police responsible. They called for a city-wide general strike on 11 November. Students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Polytechnic blocked major roads for days before moving to the universities, which until recently were considered safe ground for protesters. But the police have been ruthless, employing lethal tactics including the use of live ammunition. At the same time, the government seems to be in no hurry to restore “order” to the city’s infrastructure or to unblock the occupied roads. It’s hardly a coincidence, I think, that this relative inaction is happening before the district council elections this Sunday, which many were planning to use as a referendum on the government itself. Pro-democracy candidates are looking to make gains over the pro-establishment camp. The Hong Kong chief executive, Carrie Lam, has hinted that the government could delay the elections because of the protests. This is deeply worrying given the already dire state of political freedoms in Hong Kong..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-20
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Title: China’s Enduring Influence over Wa State in Myanmar
Description: "In the northern part of Myanmar next to the Chinese border, there lies a Wa state where the way of life resembles that across the border in China. The yuan has become the main currency, Chinese language is widely spoken, and mobile telephones are connected to Chinese networks. It is also where the United Wa State Party (UWSA), the largest non-state armed group in the country, is located. This April marked the 30th anniversary of an internal coup within the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) by the Wa, with a three-day military parade. During the parade, Bao Youxiang, the President of Wa, even vowed, “We will not hesitate to sacrifice our lives and achieve the goal of being an autonomous state.” This article will discuss the reasons behind such a phenomenon in Wa state, the way and the extent of China’s intervention, and also the challenges faced by the Myanmar government. Historical background of Myanmar’s ethnic issues: After the Second World War, the interim Myanmar government organized a meeting between the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minority leaders, along with Aung San, to make Myanmar an independent (from Britain) and united (multi-ethnic) country. They eventually reached the Panglong Agreement in 1947, which allowed Frontier Areas to have full internal autonomy..."
Source/publisher: "Geopolitical Monitor"
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-19
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Title: Hong Kong protests: hundreds arrested as university standoff enters third day
Sub-title: Fears of bloody clashes as up to 200 remain trapped inside Polytechnic University
Description: "Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said about 600 protesters surrendered to authorities overnight, after police allowed two representatives to mediate between the two sides. On Tuesday, around 20 activists were evacuated to seek medical help. In her first public remarks since the crisis began more than 36 hours ago, Lam said that 200 of those who surrendered were children and were not arrested. She said however that authorities reserved the right to make further investigations in the future. Lam said the other 400 who left the campus have been arrested. The Polytechnic University campus in Kowloon has become the focus of the most prolonged and tense confrontation between police and protesters in more than five months of conflict in the semi-autonomous city. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the last two days in attempt to reach the protesters at the university, prompting intense clashes with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets and in a few incidents, live rounds..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-19
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Title: Just suing and putting international pressure on Myanmar can’t settle the problem
Description: "Just taking legal action against Myanmar and putting global pressure on Myanmar as to the repatriation process of the displaced persons who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar can’t settle the on-going issue. Bangladesh should follow the repatriation process agreed by both sides, said Zaw Htay, the spokesperson of the President Office. “The international community is putting pressure on Myanmar regarding the repatriation process. The ICC is suing Myanmar. The complex issue remains in Bangladesh. Bangladesh should use the problem-solving approach. The problem can’t be settled by suing Myanmar. We will have to negotiate the problem with Bangladesh. Especially, Bangladesh should follow the repatriation process and cooperate with Myanmar according to the bilateral agreement. Our problem will still remain as long as Bangladesh doesn’t cooperate. Bangladesh needs to understand this point,” said Zaw Htay. There were those who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in 1993. Collaborative efforts resulted in a success in the repatriation process. Cooperative measures are of great importance. The repatriation process remained deadlock as Bangladesh failed to cooperate. Only with the collaborative efforts can settle the problem, said Zaw Htay. “Bangladesh and Myanmar carried out the repatriation process two times in the past. According to this knowledge, mutual cooperation can solve the problem and these were examples. Both sides have physical arrangements to implement the agreed points. Working groups have been already formed. The root cause of the unsuccessful repatriation process is that Bangladesh fails to cooperation and this is a point,” said Zaw Htay..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-18
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Title: The Green New Deal With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Description: "Watch the full "Green New Deal with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news and in-depth analysis of the headlines, as well as informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, Hardball, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and more..."
Source/publisher: MSNBC
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-17
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Title: Myanmar to respond to Gambia lawsuit at ICJ in line with international laws
Description: "The government will take responsive measures against the lawsuit filed by The Gambia against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in accord with the international laws, President Office Spokesperson Zaw Htay said. He replied to the question about the lawsuit during a press conference of the President Office held in Nay Pyi Taw on November 15. He said the government had expected over a month before that Myanmar could face a suit at ICJ. "Myanmar is a signatory to many international conventions. This is the mandate of ICJ. It has its procedures as well. The international laws are related to each other. So we will respond in line with the international laws," Zaw Htay said. Representing the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, The Gambia filed a lawsuit at the ICJ against Myanmar for allegedly violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-16
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Title: Govt announces three steps to advance peace process
Description: "State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has announced a three-step plan to reboot the peace process at an event marking the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The government signed the ceasefire with eight groups in October 2015 but the country’s most powerful non-state armies are still yet to ink the accord, leaving them on the fringes of the formal peace process. Since the National League for Democracy government took office, the government has signed the NCA with just two additional armed groups. It has also convened just three Union Peace Conferences, despite a requirement that they be held every six months. Addressing a ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw on October 28, Aung San Suu Kyi urged ethnic armed groups and stakeholders to cooperate to ensure that the government’s three proposed steps were successfully implemented. The steps are to continue holding the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conferences, to involve non-signatories of the NCA in political dialogue, and to ensure that the people are able to enjoy the fruits of peace. The first step includes three elements: to develop a framework agreement to guide implementation of the NCA, to reach agreement on more points of a future Union Peace Accord, and to develop a plan for continuing the peace process beyond the 2020 election..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-11
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Title: Myanmar displays diplomatic finesse on China, Russia and US
Sub-title: Myanmar has made substantial shifts in its relations with major powers China, Russia and the United States. They are key regional players in Southeast Asia that will directly impact peace and stability as well as economic development in Myanmar.
Description: "In the first half of the year, China has made impressive diplomatic inroads throughout Southeast Asia, taking advantage of the lack of policy clarity coming from US President Donald Trump's administration. So far, Washington has flexed its muscles over the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan and displayed a more reconciliatory tone on Europe. That much was clear. It was only on Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence disclosed that Trump would attend the Asia Pacific Economic Leaders Meeting in Vietnam, and the ASEAN-US Summit and East Asia Summit in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Beijing has been able to sharpen its long-standing policy and make the necessary adjustments to ensure strong friendships and cooperation with countries in the region. Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw’s recent visit to China demonstrated the new dynamics of their bilateral ties, which have encountered several challenges over the years. Obviously, China has placed the highest value on U Htin Kyaw’s week-long trip, knowing that, amid growing anxieties over US policy toward the region, this would be the most pivotal time to further strengthen their 67-year-old bilateral ties. The joint press communiqué issued after his visit was extensive and forward-looking, as China recognised the so-called Myanmar way of doing things..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-07
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Title: Renewed calls for constitutional change in Myanmar’s ‘military-state’
Description: "Constitutional change was a 2015 election campaign promise of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and Aung San Suu Kyi. As the 2020 elections loom large, they are now revisiting the proposal to recapture the attention and support of the people. Over the past three years, the NLD government has been busy dealing with a wide range of governance issues. The peace process has been particularly difficult and hit a number of obstacles. It is unlikely that it will be able to show progress in this area. The NLD is instead turning to amending the military-enacted constitution to stimulate electoral momentum. Reforms could potentially affect the military’s role in governance, and so the move is mired in controversy. To begin with, the NLD raised this legislative motion on the date of the commemoration of U Ko Ni — a lawyer and former advisor to the NLD — who was assassinated on 26 January 2017. Ko Ni was the country’s most vocal advocate for constitutional reform. His death has had a chilling effect on efforts to amend the Constitution. When the NLD proposed forming a committee to amend the Constitution in the national legislature, the military claimed that they had failed to follow the correct procedure. All of the military members of parliament refused to vote on the motion as a show of defiance. They have done this on a handful of other occasions, such as when the NLD proposed creating the Office of State Counsellor specifically for Aung San Suu Kyi. The military has also suggested they may not participate in the legislative committee..."
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-07
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Title: Why GAD reform matters to Myanmar
Description: "With its ubiquitous presence, expansive mandate and long history within the military-led Ministry of Home Affairs, the General Administration Department (GAD) has been Myanmar’s paramount government agency, acting as the backbone of public administration. News of its removal from Home Affairs and placement into the Ministry of the Office of the Union Government last December shocked many — widespread belief prevailed that the reassignment of GAD was a red line that the military would not tolerate an elected government crossing. Removing a key department from a military-led ministry is notable, but there is more to be done. The National League for Democracy (NLD) government should think critically about how governance can be reformed to steer the country towards its goals of peace and full democracy. For the NLD government, the GAD’s transition represents the most important public sector reform since democratic transition began in 2011. For State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the removal of the GAD from Home Affairs demonstrates that significant structural reform can be achieved under an NLD tenure, even reform that demilitarises the state apparatus by placing key departments under full civilian control. The GAD’s power within government derives from its role in convening, communicating and coordinating across ministries rather than through its own executive decision-making power. Essentially, it is the ‘process manager’ over a large swathe of the country’s public administration. With the GAD transfer, the Office of the Union Government now has full control of the country’s paramount agency of administration..."
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-07
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Title: Proposal tabled for soldiers to vote outside of camps in Myanmar
Description: "CHANGES have been proposed to allow soldiers and their family members cast votes outside of military camps during elections in Myanmar. The proposal tabled by the Union Election Commission (UEC) would abolish military polling stations if passed by the Union Parliament, according to The Irrawaddy. The UEC sought polling stations to be set up outside military camps so that soldiers and their family members can cast votes with civilian voters. This aims to make the process more transparent as it allows for candidates, observers and party representatives to move freely and monitor at the polling stations. Concerns have been raised recently on election process in military camps, prompting the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) to oppose placing polling stations inside barracks ahead of the general election next year. Military spokesperson Major-General Tun Tun Nyi in response to the NLD’s objection had said members of the military and their families need to vote inside the barracks as they are busy to go outside. “We are on duty 24 hours per day. It is difficult for both military personnel and their family members to go vote outside,” he said in a military press conference in Naypyitaw last month. Since the 2010 general election, military personnel and their family members have voted in military compounds..."
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-06
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Title: Medic from Myanmar killed in shelling in Syria's northeast
Sub-title: American founder of the Free Burma Rangers blame the Free Syrian Army and Turkish troops for deadly shelling.
Description: "Shelling by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed a medic from Myanmar and wounded another Iraqi member of the humanitarian team on Sunday in northeastern Syria, where fighting between Kurdish fighters and Turkey-backed gunmen continued, the humanitarian group said. David Eubank, a former member of US Army Special Forces and the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, said in a video that the attack occurred about 4km (three miles) from the northern town of Tal Tamr near the border with Turkey. Eubank said the medic, Zau Seng, was hit in the head by shrapnel from a mortar shell that struck nearby as he was filming a video of the fighting. "He died right away and we brought him here to Tal Tamr," Eubank said in the video, which also showed one of the aid group's armoured vehicles hit by shrapnel..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-04
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Title: Global human rights and local politics
Summary: "“The mix within her of global human rights icon and steely Burmese politician is bound to be uneasy.” So wrote Mr William Burns, former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, of...
Sub-title: In countries undergoing a transition to democracy, deeply engrained social and intellectual tendencies are often at odds with idealistic international political norms.
Description: "“The mix within her of global human rights icon and steely Burmese politician is bound to be uneasy.” So wrote Mr William Burns, former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in his contemporaneous notes on meeting her in Myanmar (The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal. NY: Random House, p. 270). This prescient conclusion captures the essence of Aung San Suu Kyi’s dilemma, and that of much of the Western world, in balancing international opinions and policies with Burmese political realities. She considers herself, as she has stated, a politician not an icon. She is, however, both. This unease has been dually fostered: in the West by Myanmar’s egregiously discriminatory and disastrous policy of ethnic cleansing (some claim genocide) against the Rohingya Muslim minority, but in Myanmar itself – where anti-Rohingya sentiment is virtually ubiquitous and repressive legislation against them enforced – by her administration’s lack of economic progress for those most in need. Among the urban and intellectual community, there is further disquiet because of the use of anti-democratic legislation, some of it dating from British colonial rule and continued under military autocracies. Although reports indicate her falling, if not failing, reputation, she remains relatively popular..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-01
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Title: United States will go on supporting Myanmar's democratic transition and economic transformation
Description: "The United States will go on supporting Myanmar's democratic transition and economic transformation, said Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, David R. Stilwell. The remarks of David R. Stilwell came from his meeting with Union Minister Kyaw Tin of the Ministry of International Cooperation in Nay Pyi Taw on October 29. In meeting with Union Minister Kyaw Tin, David R. Stilwell emphasized the United States will go on supporting Myanmar's democratic transition and economic transformation. The discussions outlined greater development in the role of Myanmar. Both sides frankly discussed bilateral relations between Myanmar and the U.S, the partnership meeting of Myanmar and the U.S, increased investment in education and trade, latest developments taking place in Rakhine State, economic cooperation of Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), and continued cooperation with regional organizations including Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI). Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, David R. Stilwell called on State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi before meeting with Union Minister Kyaw Tin, according to the release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-01
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Title: In Myanmar, new parties challenge Suu Kyi's grip on power
Description: "New political groups are emerging to contest Myanmar’s next election in 2020, aiming to challenge the hegemony of national civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi after she has been weakened by escalating ethnic conflicts and slowing economic growth. Those factors were blamed by party officials for the poor performance of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in by-elections in November, when it won only seven of the 13 seats up for grabs as regional and army-linked parties made gains. “Now that ethnic parties have allied with one another and prepared, we can’t fully rely on the power of the party. We must try harder than before to win the trust of the people,” said Dashi La Seng, an NLD lawmaker from the northern state of Kachin, where the party lost a seat in November. At stake is the future of Myanmar’s transition to democracy. The NLD swept to power in a landslide in 2015, winning a comfortable majority in parliament despite 25 percent of the seats being reserved for the army..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
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Title: Why Foreign Policy Matters to Myanmar’s Democratic Transition
Sub-title: In the best-case scenario, Myanmar would be rich like the East and democratic like the West.
Description: "Global media coverage has not been easy on Myanmar. The refugee crisis in northwestern Rakhine sparked a firestorm of international criticism that has only been intensified by allegations of ethnic cleansing. A barrage of punitive actions followed, though most were targeted at the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, and have not yet resulted in drastic, direct impact on the population at large. Still, serious contemplation was given to imposing broader economic restrictions, in particular the withdrawal of general scheme of preferences benefits by the European Union (EU). Myanmar’s tarnished images also brought about a decline in tourist arrivals, notably from Western countries. Foreign investors, fearing economic sanctions and reputational risk, have hesitated to bring in more capital. Coupled with public dissatisfaction over the pace of economic reforms and a period of exchange rate volatility, the country’s growth forecast has decreased to 6.2 percent in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, from the 6.8 percent growth experienced in the 2017/2018 fiscal year..."
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-25
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Title: Myanmar: The Beginning of Reforms and the End of Sanctions
Sub-title: On 23 April 2012, the European Union (EU) suspended its sanctions against Burma/Myanmar in response to a series of domestic political reforms that have been enacted since Thein Sein became the new president in March 2011.
Description: "Since March 2011, Burma/Myanmar has witnessed a liberalization of the press, the release of political prisoners and the initiation of a political dialogue between the regime on the one hand and the opposition and ethnic groups on the other. The reforms culminated in by-elections on 1 April 2012, which in turn resulted in a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Overall, political reforms in Burma/Myanmar are being initiated from “above.” They are elite-driven and stem from the president and progressive members of the military-dominated party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Political reforms in Myanmar are a regime reaction to both internal and external factors. Internally, the military felt secure enough to embark on the slow liberalization of the political system. Externally, the growing economic presence of China seems to have worried the generals..."
Source/publisher: "GIGA Institute of Asian Studies" (Germany)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-18
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Title: Political Education Programme for Junior Politicians in Myanmar
Description: "Junior politicians in Myanmar must navigate a rapidly changing political landscape. The establishment of the 2008 constitution has transformed the country’s form of government and left its mark on the nation’s core institutions, its civil society, and its media, as well as on the way these entities interact. Myanmar’s politicians have to address old challenges while coming up with solutions for new issues as they arise. This is a demanding task. The Political Education Programme for Junior Politicians (PEJP) is directed at young leaders who are engaged in party politics and wish to pursue a career as a politician or civil servant. The programme aims to introduce participants to new ways of thinking about key political ideas and practices while acquainting them with the skills necessary for a political career. The five-day intensive workshop will be held in Yangon from 5 to 9 November. It will engage participants on the topics of political institutions, campaigning tools, constituent relations, media analysis, and good governance. Participants are also invited to attend an academic conference on political parties in Myanmar, to be held in Yangon on the days following the workshop (10 and 11 November). Here participants will have the chance to learn from accomplished scholars from Myanmar and abroad..."
Source/publisher: "In cooperation with Initiative Austausch e.V. and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation"
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-18
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Title: Shaping Past, Present, and Future: Political Parties and State Transformation in Myanmar
Description: "Political parties matter for political analysis, yet they have rarely been examined closely in relation to Myanmar’s trajectory in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some parties, such as the AFPFL, the BSPP, the NLD, and the USDP, have shaped Myanmar at critical historical junctures or continue to exert a strong influence over its current development. But while we are aware of the important role political parties play, we know little beyond their history and political manifestos. Are traditional party types (elite party, mass party, catch-all party, cartel party, clientelist party, cleavage-based party) relevant in the context of Myanmar, or are we better off using novel categorisations? What kinds of party systems have existed in Myanmar and how have they influenced the current party system? How do party patronage networks work? What characterises the patterns of interparty competition in Myanmar, and what effect do parties have on Myanmar’s political transformation?..."
Source/publisher: "GIGA / Initiative Austausch e.V. / Friedrich Ebert Foundation" (Germany)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-18
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Title: Full extended interview: Arundhati Roy on Democracy Now!
Description: "Extended interview with Indian writer Arundhati Roy talking about her new novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," Kashmir, Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Indian President Narendra Modi, and two of Roy’s biggest inspirations—Eduardo Galeano and John Berger"
Source/publisher: Democracy Now! via Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
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Title: An Hour with Noam Chomsky on Fascism, Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, Julian Assange & More
Summary: "In April, hundreds of people packed into the Old South Church in Boston to hear the world-renowned dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky speak. In this hour-long special, we air an excerpt of Chomsky’...
Description: "In April, hundreds of people packed into the Old South Church in Boston to hear the world-renowned dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky speak. In this hour-long special, we air an excerpt of Chomsky’s speech and his on-stage interview with Amy Goodman"....includes transcript
Source/publisher: Democracy Now!
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-06
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Title: This Week in Parliament
Description: ''In the Lower House, military representative Major Zin Lin questioned the practicality of proposals approved by the national legislature, saying there was no way to measure their contributions to government projects because the government lacked a five-year plan for the term of the current administration...''
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
Date of publication: 2019-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
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Title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discusses Fahrenheit 11/9
Description: "Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 11/9 which explores Trump's rise to presidency has been considered a grim portrait of current affairs. Moore criticizes both left and right party while highlighting smaller grassroots movements including Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's political campaign. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary in New York's 14th congressional district covering parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, defeating the incumbent Congressman, Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Source/publisher: WGBH Forum Network
Date of publication: 2018-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-02
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Title: Michael Moore v. Donald Trump in “Fahrenheit 11/9”: New Film Warns Our Democracy Is At Risk
Description: "https://democracynow.org - Fahrenheit 11/9—That’s the name of the new documentary premiering today by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, a stunning retelling of the 2016 election and its aftermath. 11/9. That’s November 9th, the day Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. In the film, Michael crosses the country, documenting not only the rise of Trumpism but also the teachers’ strikes sweeping the nation, the “blue wave” of progressive candidates in the 2018 primaries, the rise of student activism after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the water crisis in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Moore spares no one in the wide-ranging documentary, which takes aim at the Democratic establishment, the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets, the electoral college, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and even himself. Michael Moore joins us in our studio to talk about the film and much more"
Amy Goodman, Michael Moore
Source/publisher: Democracy Now
Date of publication: 2018-09-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-02
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Title: Michael Moore: Are We Going to Be Like the “Good Germans” Who Let Hitler Rise to Power?
Description: "https://democracynow.org - In his new documentary “Fahrenheit 11/9,” filmmaker Michael Moore interviews the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, Ben Ferencz, who describes President Trump’s policy of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border and the large-scale detention of immigrant children as a “crime against humanity.” Moore also looks at the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany and compares it to the rise of Trump in the United States."
Amy Goodman, Michael Moore
Source/publisher: Democracy Now!
Date of publication: 2018-09-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-02
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Language: English
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Title: Farenheit 11/9
Description: Filmmaker Michael Moore examines the current state of American politics, particularly the rise of the Donald Trump presidency, gun violence, the Flint Water Crisis, the teachers’ strikes sweeping the nation and the power of grassroots democratic movements.
Michael Moore
Source/publisher: Dog Eat Dog Films
Date of publication: 2018-09-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-01
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Myth of the "Clash of Civilizations"
Description: "This is a wonderful lecture by Edward Said on Samuel Huntington?s idea about ?Clash of civilizations”. In this lecture Edward Said analyses in detail the arguments of Samuel Huntington in his paper on Clash of civilizations (with a question mark) that ultimately became his book (this time without a question mark!). Edward Said incisively analyzes Huntington?s notion that differences in culture between the ?West? and ?Islam? will lead to conflicts between the two civilizations. Arguing against monolithic understanding of cultures, Said makes a powerful case for multiculturalism. Edward Said is one of the most powerful speakers I have listened to off-late, and this dense lecture is worth every minute of it. The talk is approximately 40 minutes and is followed by questions."
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of publication: 1997-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2018-02-20
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