December 2, 2015

Trump, Myanmar’s 969 Movement and Islamophobia

A Reluctant Royal

By Gretchen Shelby, For The Miami Student,

“They’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”

“They would like to occupy our country, but I won’t let them.”

“If I win, they’re going back.”

“President Barack Obama has been tainted by black Muslim blood.”

What do the above remarks have in common? Xenophobia, Islamophobia and the questioning of President Obama’s religious affiliation are certainly obvious. One might even assume that the same person said them.

The above quotes could easily be mistaken for presidential candidate Donald Trump and his outlandish, xenophobic attitudes. Of the four quotes: one statement was made by Trump alone, another is a shared sentiment, and two are actually quotes taken from the leader of Myanmar’s ‘969 Movement,’ Ashin Wirathu, who has also been called the ‘Buddhist Osama bin Laden.’

There exists a fine line between what is said and what is acted upon, and while each man is afforded freedom of speech, the plight facing Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya people is inexcusable and the actions of Wirathu should not be taken lightly.

Perhaps a symptom of the post-9/11 era, the discrimination and violence against Muslims across the globe has gone widely unaddressed by the international community.

From Palestine to Syria to Myanmar, these human beings are faced with the prospect of being sold into modern-day slavery, living in poverty as a refugee or dying at home.

Following an outburst of violent riots between June and October 2012, the Rakhine State of western Myanmar experienced significant increases in ethnic tensions between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist Rakhine. According to Genocide Watch, the resulting destruction of communities and villages resulted in the internal displacement of over 140,000 and 200 deaths. (Courtesy of The Miami Student)

For more information - Visit here.

U.S. nominee to be Myanmar envoy does not see big sanctions changes

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Myanmar said on Tuesday he does not anticipate major changes in U.S. sanctions in the wake of the country's historic election last month.

"I would not anticipate, nor recommend any dramatic change," Scot Marciel, currently a deputy assistant secretary of State and former ambassador to Indonesia, said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

However, Marciel said the sanctions system is "somewhat dynamic" and allows the measures to be eased if the targets are found to have made significant changes.

Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a resounding victory in Myanmar's Nov. 8 polls, which were seen as a significant step toward ending decades of military rule.

The Obama administration, which has continued deep concerns about human rights and other issues in the country, has remained cautious. U.S. officials have said they would watch for the democratic process to move forward before lifting more sanctions, which target more than 100 individuals and businesses and limit U.S. investment in Myanmar, also known as Burma. (Courtesy of Daily Mail Online)

For more information - Visit here.

48 more trafficking victims return from Myanmar

Around 48 Bangladeshi human trafficking victims, who were rescued by the Myanmar authorities in May, will be brought back home on Wednesday after a flag meeting between the border guards of the two countries, reports UNB news agency.

They will return home through Ghundum border point in Naikhyongchhari upazila of Bandarban district.

Earlier, 729 Bangladeshi human trafficking victims were brought back home from Myanmar in six phases this year. (Courtesy of Prothom Alo)

For more information - Visit here.

Vigil along India-Myanmar border to be tightened

Aizawl: Concerned at the incidence of trans-border illegal activities, a top army General has urged tightening of vigil along Mizoram’s border with Myanmar, an official said on Monday.

Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 3 corps, issued the directive to the para-military Assam Rifles guarding the India-Myanmar border, the official said. Gen Krishna assumed charge of his new command recently.

“General Abhay Krishna during his two-day visit to Mizoram met senior Assam Rifles officials and discussed about the strengthening of security along the India-Myanmar border along Mizoram,” a Mizoram home department official said.

“Gen Krishna gave strategic instructions to the para-military officials and troopers to check trans-border illegal activities,” the official added.

Mizoram, which shares a 510-km border with Myanmar and a 318-km frontier with Bangladesh, has become a corridor for arms and drugs smuggling.

Assam Rifles troopers guard the Myanmar border while the Border Security Force (BSF) are posted along the Bangladesh frontiers. (Courtesy of The Shillong Times)

For more information - Visit here.

Myanmar's first major exchange to debut on Dec. 9: officials

YANGON -- Myanmar will open its first major stock exchange next week after months of delays, authorities said Tuesday, as the long-cloistered economy slowly opens up.

Initially slated for October, the Yangon Stock Exchange (YEX) will now be launched on Dec. 9, according to a statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar.

Its debut was pushed back until after the breakthrough Nov. 8 elections, won handsomely by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party.

Suu Kyi's supporters hope her party's landslide win will hasten the pace of economic liberalization in the formerly junta-ruled country. (Courtesy of The China Post)

For more information - Visit here.

Navy seizes close to 50 unlicensed trawlers

The navy has seized 49 trawlers caught illegally fishing in Myanmar waters since 2013, parliament heard yesterday. Deputy Minister for Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development U Khin Maung Aye told MPs eight of the boats were from Thailand and the rest were local. The deputy minister was responding to a question from the Tanintharyi Region MP who represents the coastal constituency of Kyunsu, where fishing is the main source of employment.

Daw Tin Tin Yi had raised the question in connection with the controversial issue of hiring Thai and other technicians on Myanmar fishing boats which, she said, “might cause insecurity of information … loss of maritime resources, and unemployment of Myanmar fishing technicians and fishermen”.

Hiring foreign fishermen was allowed for 2015-16 fishing season as a trial period, replied the deputy minister. He said local fishing companies could apply for permission to hire skilled foreign fishermen by producing recommendations from the respective ministry, certificates from Ministry of Immigration and Population to prove the hired fishermen had been cleared from the blacklist, and a recommendation from Thai Embassy in Myanmar. (Courtesy of MMTimes)

For more information - Visit here.

Foreign developers fuel commercial boom in Yangon

YANGON -- Large commercial complexes are popping up in Yangon as foreign property developers seek to cash in on an expected surge in consumer spending in one of Southeast Asia's least-developed nations.

Vietnamese real estate developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai will partially open a huge commercial complex this month featuring what will be the largest shopping mall in Myanmar. Thailand's Fragrant Property and other foreign developers are planning to build similar facilities in the country's business capital.

The Vietnamese company is shelling out $440 million to develop the HAGL Myanmar Center, located in Yankin, the prime shopping and entertainment district in Yangon. Construction on the complex, which has a total area of 73,000 sq. meters, started in the summer of 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2017.

The lower five stories of the 27-story building are opening ahead of other parts of the complex and will house retail shops and other commercial facilities. Luxury Swiss watch and jewelry brand Chopard and Italy's Ermenegildo Zegna, a maker of upmarket men's clothing, are opening their first stores in the country there. (Courtesy of Nikkei Asian Review)

For more information - Visit here.

China or India: Difficult choice for new Myanmar government

Even as the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to form a new government in Myanmar, China has lost no time in diagnosing the import of the party's victory and is all set to recalibrate its policy towards the country to steal a march over India towards gaining a deeper strategic depth in this ASEAN nation.

China's standpoint became clear when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in the middle of November that his country expects Myanmar to continue its friendly relations with Beijing although a new dispensation is set to emerge in Naypyidaw.

China has reasons to feel uncomfortable as Suu Kyi has close personal bonds with India. General Aung San, her father and the legendary Burmese liberation hero, enjoyed close personal relationship with the Indian political leadership. Suu Kyi herself spent a good amount of her life in Delhi. She studied first in the Jesus and Mary Convent and then in Lady Shri Ram college.

Because of this fact, China had extended her a warm reception in Beijing in June when President Xi Jinping had met her, breaking protocol.

The ground reality is that China is way ahead of India in matters of strategic depth in Myanmar. In a classic example of establishing relationships with the Indian Ocean littoral states, China has recently constructed two pipelines originating at Kyaukpyu in Myanmar and terminating in Kunming for transporting oil and gas. The purpose is to lessen reliance on the route passing through the Malacca Strait.

Given Myanmar's strategic importance in South Asia, China has been constantly increasing its economic footprint in the country. Last year China's cumulative foreign direct investment in Myanmar stood at $14 billion. Bilateral trade reached $6 billion in 2013 while the corresponding figure for India-Myanmar trade was around $2 billion. (Courtesy of The Economic Times)

For more information - Visit here.

Little Myanmar thrives in Tokyo as more residents arrive

In the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s Takadanobaba district there exists what might be termed Little Yangon, with a number of restaurants and shops catering to the growing community of residents from Myanmar.

Although not as big or as well-known as Chinatown in Yokohama and Koreatown in Shin-Okubo, Little Yangon is becoming recognized thanks in part to increased coverage of Myanmar-related news around that nation’s recent, historic general election.

On the north side of JR Takadanobaba Station, scattered among the eateries, bars and entertainment venues are shops and restaurants with signs written in the script used in Myanmar.

One outlet is Bagan Myanmar Store, located on the eighth floor of Tak 11 building, a three-minute walk from the station.

“Please come in,” a shopkeeper says in Japanese. Inside the narrow, dimly lit store, a range of food items are for sale. (Courtesy of The Japan Times)

For more information - Visit here.

Another Myanmar Newspaper Folds

The Messenger newspaper has ceased publication, joining a growing list of defunct dailies in the new democratic Myanmar, media reports said Tuesday.

The Messenger’s managing editor Ko Thura Aung denied allegations that the closure was linked to the  victory of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the November 8 polls, the Myanmar Times reported.

Messenger Media is owned by U Zaw Min Aye, the son of U Tin Aye, chair of the Union Election Commission that came under fire for its handling of the election.

“Anyone who says that is an idiot and knows nothing about running a newspaper,” Ko Thura Aung told the Myanmar Times.

Myanmar’s liberalized its media sector in 2013 when the government ended its monopoly on daily publications, leading to a proliferation of at least 30 English-language and vernacular dailies, of which only a third have survived the past two years. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)

For more information - Visit here.

Rohingya — the Palestinians of Asia

Are the Myanmarese generals learning the art of collective oppression from the Israelis? This is hardly a far-fetched question, considering that Israel had quite an eventful history of cooperating with past South American military dictatorships, while working closely with South Africa’s past apartheid government.

It is no surprise that Palestinians find numerous similarities between South Africa’s apartheid regime and Israel’s unmistakable apartheid practices. But the Myanmarese-Israeli connection is rarely discussed. In Tablet magazine, Joe Freeman, wrote the article: ‘In Israel’s earliest days, the place its leaders felt compelled to visit was Burma.’

High-profile Israeli visitors, who began making their pilgrimage to Myanmar decades ago, included Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir. At the time, the Myanmarese government was convinced that “Israel was the quintessential example of the egalitarian social and economic order that he wished to establish”. (Courtesy of GulfNews)

For more information - Visit here.

Hopes Are High For New Myanmar Government To Solve Rohingya Issues - DMDI

MELAKA: The soon-to-be formed Myanmar's new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi is hoped to take the necessary and effective measures to resolve issues involving the Rohingyas in the country, says President of the Malay World Muslim World (DMDI), Senator Tan Sri Mohd Ali Rustam.

The senator said it was also hoped that the new government would be more open and democratic, and would recognise the ethnic minority so that they could live like normal citizens of Myanmar.

He said the issues, which include the recognition as citizens, security protection and human rights, involving the Rohingyas should be resolved immediately so that the community would not become refugees in their own country.

"This is in line with the resolutions of the 16th DMDI Convention held in Jakarta in October last year, which called on Myanmar to take the responsibility for the Rohingyas.

"It is hoped that the NLD (National League for Democracy) under Suu Kyi's leadership would give the recognition to the Rohingyas, and not let be refugees," he told Bernama through an SMS here today. (Courtesy of Malaysian Digest)

For more information - Visit here.

Myanmar has long way to go for completing peace process

YANGON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups are drafting a framework for holding political dialogue as part of the implementation of the National Ceasefire Accord (NCA) signed in mid-October.

The framework is being drafted by a special drafting committee of the tripartite Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC).

The 10-point document would focus on major issues including the basic principles, representation and participation of stakeholders in the dialogue, decision making method, management of the dialogue, signing of a union agreement and the process for implementation.

The framework is expected to be formed by Dec. 14 in accordance with the timeline of the ceasefire term and the first round of formal dialogue would start before Jan. 14, 2016.

The UPDJC comprises more than a dozen each representatives from the government, ethnic armed groups and political parties that include the opposition National League for Democracy party, the current ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, Arakan National Party and Shan National League for Democracy, among others.

Prior to the formation of the tripartite UPDJC, a union-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JCMC) was formed in order to implement the NCA signed by the government and the eight ethnic armed groups on Oct. 15. (Courtesy of Xinhua)

For more information - Visit here.

WHO and UNICEF support the Ministry of Health for mass polio vaccination

WHO and UNICEF are supporting the Ministry of Health to conduct a polio vaccination campaign in 102 townships across Myanmar, targeting 1.4 million children under 5 years of age,according to a joint press release on 30 November.

The campaign will start off in early December, with rounds of vaccination conducted across 15 high risks townships in Rakhine, Chin, Magway, Bago and Ayeyarwady.

According to the statement, “Earlier this year, two cases of vaccine-derived polio virus infection were reported amongst children in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State. The emergence of such cases of vaccine-derived polio virus is due to low immunization coverage. In fact, the routine immunization coverage in Rakhine state has been below 80% for the last years. In 2014, in some of the State’s townships only 27% of children received the three recommended doses of oral polio vaccine.

The most effective way to stop the circulation of this virus is to increase the immunity of children through increased routine immunization coverage. Therefore, the first three rounds of this campaign - scheduled on 5-7 December, 26-28 December and 16-18 January - will target all children under five in these 15 high risk townships across the country. (Courtesy of Mizzima)

For more information - Visit here.

Two Rohingya Detained After Brawl Over Goose in Arakan State

RANGOON — Police in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township have arrested two Rohingya Muslims accused of assaulting two ethnic Daingnet men in a quarrel stemming from disputed ownership of a goose.

Buthidaung Township police chief Aung Bar Lay confirmed that the two accused were taken into police custody on Friday, one day after the incident, adding that the search was still on for five “Bengalis” who were also allegedly involved in the fight.

The two Daingnet victims were knocked unconscious in the brawl and are receiving medical treatment at the local hospital, according to Aung Bar Lay.

The altercation ensued after a Rohingya Muslim claiming to be the owner of a goose confronted the two Daingnet men, who had taken the waterfowl from a stream in the village of Ngagyitauk and refused to return it to the man claiming proprietorship. A group of about 10 Rohingya men then attacked the alleged goose thieves, and an ethnic Arakanese truck driver who was attempting to mediate the dispute also sustained minor injuries but did not required hospitalization, the Buthidaung police chief said.

Htun Aung Thein, chairman of the Buthidaung Township chapter of the Arakan National Party (ANP), said he had heard that seven “Bengalis” were arrested and that the medical condition of one of the Daingnet men was serious. (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)

For more information - Visit here.