Asean & Burma: Getting Beyond Spin, Addressing Substance – The Irrawaddy
October 16th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17005
NEWS ANALYSIS
| By SIMON ROUGHNEEN |
BANGKOK — With the US announcing its Burma policy review on Sept 28, the focus now switches to the Asean summit to be held in Thailand next week. It appears that the regional bloc has been handed a golden opportunity to affect developments in Burma – by working more closely with a US that is “back” in southeast Asia - as Secretary of State Hilary Clinton remarked in Phuket in July.
The US is retaining sanctions on the Burmese regime, to the chagrin of many Asean nations, which do business with the junta and have urged an end to sanctions. However the US has started talking to the junta, the onset of what Assistant Secretary Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell regards as likely to be “a long, slow and step-by-step process.”
In his Senate testimony on Burma, Campbell referred only to “direct, senior-level dialogue with representatives of the Burmese leadership,” while mentioning consultation with the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Burmese opposition. Suu Kyi’s response was to welcome the prospect of bilateral talks, supplemented by her request that the US to “engage” with the political opposition in Burma, as well as the regime. (more…)
Burmese migrants struggle in Malaysia – IRINnews
October 14th, 2009
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86574
Burmese workers on the job at the new pagoda under construction at the Burmese Buddhist temple in Penang. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
PENANG, 14 October 2009 (IRIN) – In the tourist city of Penang in northern Malaysia, the Buddhist temple has become the locus of social and economic support for migrants from Myanmar.
“l was a contractor at home, but left Burma [Myanmar] 19 years ago, arriving in Malaysia after crossing from Thailand,” said Aung Tin, a foreman on the construction site of a new pagoda.
Penang is one of Malaysia’s main economic and industrial centres, and the Burmese Buddhist temple provides social and religious support for the Burmese community.
At the construction site, all 14 staff supervised by Aung Tin – who would only talk to IRIN using a pseudonym – are Burmese migrants.
“I left as soon as I could after the 1990 elections,” said Aung Tin. “The economic situation in the country was bad for years before then, and I had not been able to generate enough work. When I saw that the army was going to keep things the same, it became clear that I could not make a living,”
In 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the last election held in Myanmar, but the military rulers overturned the result, and have run the country since.
Aung Tin left behind a wife and two sons, whom he has not seen since. His boys are now grown up, and like their father, want to leave their home country.
When Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar in 2008, his family’s home was one of more than three million destroyed. “All my money was sent home to help repair my house,” he said. (more…)
Burma’s precarious peace – RTÉ World Report
October 11th, 2009
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1011/worldreport.html
Presented by Colm Ó Mongáin
Saints and sinners
Brian O’Connell, London Editor, reports that Catholics turning out to to see St Thérèse de Lisieux have been on the receiving end of some surprising invective
Burma’s precarious peace
Simon Roughneen reports that the military junta in Burma is risking alienating its Chinese supporters. (more…)
War Crimes: The Movie – ISN
October 8th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=106861
After a movie based on the deaths of five journalists at the hands of the Indonesian army in East Timor hit the screens, Australian police launched a war crimes investigation into their deaths, sparking ire in Indonesia and ambivalence in East Timor, Simon Roughneen writes for ISN Security Watch.
Almost 35 years ago, five Australia-based journalists died while reporting on the early stages of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Jakarta maintains that the men died in the crossfire as the Indonesian army fought Timorese
Scene from the movie "Balibo" (c) FootprintFilmsOz/YouTube
fighters in Balibo, which sits a few kilometers from the border separating Indonesian West Timor from the eastern half of the island, now known as Timor-Leste.
The murders made headlines recently. On 24 July, Balibo’ premiered in Melbourne, with Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta in attendance. The movie does not stick to the events of the day, digressing into a fictionalized scenario where the young Ramos-Horta accompanies another journalist, Roger East, to Balibo, to investigate the five’s disappearance. East went to Timor and, according to dozens of eyewitnesses,was shot on the Dili waterfront when the Indonesians took control of the city.
Real-time impact
The movie seems to have had some real-time impact beyond the silver screen. On 20 August, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced that it would launch a war crimes investigation into the deaths, based on 2007 recommendations by the deputy New South Wales coroner.
The coroner’s report concluded that Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart were shot or stabbed as they tried to surrender to the Indonesian-led troops who stormed the border town on 16 October 1975. According to the coroner, the men’s bodies were dressed in military uniforms and photographed with guns, before being incinerated in an attempt to portray them as combatants killed in a mortar attack. (more…)
Speaking up for migrant workers – The Irrawaddy
October 7th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16944
| By SIMON ROUGHNEEN |
At the global launch of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 2009 Human Development Report in Bangkok on Monday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the report’s findings provide “guidance for policymakers around the world.”
The UNDP report calls on countries to focus on the economic benefits that migration can bring to a host country and recommends that recipient countries allow more unskilled workers to move more freely, based on transparent procedures, with access to education and health services, and with reduced transaction costs.
Thailand hosts an estimated 2 to 3 million Burmese economic migrants. The push and pull factors determining Burmese migration to Thailand are stark. (more…)
Irish give go-ahead to EU – The Casual Truth
October 7th, 2009
http://thecasualtruth.com/node/187
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary (back) displays a new-found enthusiasm for a Yes vote (CasualTruth.com)
Last Friday, Irish voters backed the European Union (EU) Lisbon Treaty by a 2 to 1 majority, 16 months after saying no to the document the first time around.
In the end, it was more about the Irish economy than the European Union (EU).
The result was a stunning 20% swing in favour of the Treaty, which is a replacement for the EU Constitution rejected by Dutch and French voters in 2005.
The Lisbon Treaty will create an EU President, Foreign Minister and diplomatic service, and transfer more areas of decision-making from national governments, like Ireland, to the EU level.Promoters of the Treaty argue it is necessary to ‘streamline’ decision-making in the 27-country union and enable it to act with a greater presence on the global scene.
Opponents regard this as a stealth power-grab enabling the European Commission – an unelected body – to acquire a greater say in how Europe is run.
One commonly-cited problem is Article 48, which opponents say will allow more ‘competencies’ (EU-speak for powers) to be transferred from national governments to EU level without additional treaties or public votes.
Ireland has been the only country to give its people a vote on the Treaty, which now awaits (expected) acceptance in the Czech Republic and Poland before acquiring legal force. The British Government could yet put the document to a popular vote. (more…)
New US policy has multiple goals – The Irrawaddy
October 5th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16934
NEWS ANALYSIS – By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
Mere days after the US announced it would alter its Burma policy, the Burmese courts refused to release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. While her appeal was never likely to succeed, the timing of the denial arrives as a clear signal that change will not come quickly in Burma.
Not that anyone was expecting it. Addressing a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Burma in Washington last week, Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, acknowledged that “a long and difficult process” lay ahead. Tough US sanctions, Campbell said, will remain in place until the United States sees “concrete progress toward reform” in Burma, and he added that more sanctions could be imposed if changes are not forthcoming. (more…)
Burma Part 2: The John Yettaw incident – The Casual Truth
October 2nd, 2009
http://thecasualtruth.com/node/156
Click here for Part 1
It could not have been scripted better for the Burmese Generals.
Just two weeks prior to the release of iconic pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after 14 years in detention, an
Cartoon parody of the Yettaw incident (The Irrawaddy)
unbelievable incident occurred that extended her house arrest to 2011 and beyond next year’s election.
On May 3, American tourist and Vietnam vet John Yettaw swam across the lake next to Suu Kyi’s house in Rangoon, the country’s capital.
He claimed to have information that an assassination plot was being hatched against her (apparently from a dream), and sought to warn her in advance.
According to Suu Kyi’s lawyer, he was asked to leave straight away but he refused. She decided to let him stay due to ill-health and after two days he swam back. He was arrested upon his return across the lake.
Suu Kyi was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by ‘hosting’ an unpermitted ‘guest’.
Nobody explained how Yettaw managed to evade detection by the military guards around her house. Many suspect it wasn’t a coincidence that Suu Kyi’s house arrest was almost up when this incident took place.
The military government maintain a firm grip on the courts, and a show trial ran until August 11. The judge overlooked Yettaw’s gate-crashing antics, convicting and sentencing Suu Kyi to another 18 months, which crushed any last hope the suffering people of Burma had of a better life. (more…)
Burma Part 1: The worst government in the world? – The Casual Truth
October 1st, 2009
http://thecasualtruth.com/node/153
It’s been more than six decades since Burma (also known as Myanmar) won its independence from the British Empire.
Burma, a country of 50 million people in Southeast Asia, was then known as Asia’s rice-basket with its formidable food production potential exceeded only by the vast natural wealth in oil, gas, gems, timber and hydro-power.
Nowadays, these treasures lure foreign investors, who support the military dictatorship that rules the country.
Army rule was imposed in 1962. Since then, Burma’s Generals, known as the ‘junta’, have run the country as little more than a personal goldmine. (more…)
Islam as politics in Malaysia – Asia Times
September 30th, 2009
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KJ01Ae01.html
Guinness 250th anniversary banner on Penang island (Photo - Simon Roughneen)
PENANG – Two years after canceling her last scheduled concert in the country, US pop star Beyoncé announced earlier this month that she would perform in the Malaysian capital in late October. Her 2007 gig was cancelled after PAS – an Islamist party that forms part of the opposition coalition – threatened protests. “We are against Western sexy performances. We don’t think our people need that”, said PAS spokesman Sabki Yusof at the time.
Beyoncé’s about-turn comes despite a raft of piety-tinged controversies in recent weeks, including the Shariah law sentencing of a 32 year old woman and an Indonesian national to six lashes for drinking in public. The government did a u-turn of its own, rescinding a ban on Muslims – who make up around 60% of the population – from attending a Black Eyed Peas concert in Kuala Lumpur on September 26. That gig was part of a global series of events to mark the 250 year anniversary of the founding of Irish beer giant Guinness.
While political Islam has recently gained traction and plenty of profile in Malaysia, there is no indication the trend could acquire the violent edge that marks counterparts in the Philippines, southern Thailand and parts of Indonesia. Some have noted that until recently Southeast Asia’s most wanted Islamist terrorist, Noordin Mohammed Top, was a Malaysian national. Noordin was killed in a shoot out with Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, earlier this month.
Issues of political Islam – somewhere between “Western sexy” on the one hand, and jihadist terror on the other – are expected to weigh on Malaysia’s national discourse (more…)
