TheIrrawaddy

The Irrawaddy magazine has covered Myanmar, its neighbors and Southeast Asia since 1993.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aung Zaw

EDITOR (English Edition): Kyaw Zwa Moe

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sandy Barron

COPY DESK: Neil Lawrence, Paul Vrieze, Samantha Michaels, Andrew D. Kaspar, Simon Lewis

CONTRIBUTORS to this issue: Aung Zaw; Kyaw Phyo Tha; Yan Pai; Simon Lewis; Bertil Lintner; Nyein Nyein; Dani Patteran; Kyaw Hsu Mon; Grace Harrison; Zarni Mann; Marwaan Macan-Markar; Thit Nay Moe; Seamu Martov.

PHOTOGRAPHERS : JPaing; Sai Zaw.

LAYOUT DESIGNER: Banjong Banriankit

SENIOR MANAGER : Win Thu (Regional Office)

MANAGER: Phyo Thu Htet (Yangon Bureau)

REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS MAILING ADDRESS: The Irrawaddy, P.O. Box 242, CMU Post Office, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.

YANGON BUREAU : No. 197, 2nd Floor, 32nd Street (Upper Block), Pabedan Township, Yangon, Myanmar. TEL: 01 388521, 01 389762

EMAIL: editors@irrawaddy.org

SALES&ADVERTISING: advertising@irrawaddy.org

SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@irrawaddy.org

PRINTER: Chotana Printing (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

PUBLISHER LICENSE : 13215047701213

Features

16 | Culture: Forgotten, but Not Gone

Half a millennium after the Portuguese first set foot in Myanmar, their legacy lives on in a remote corner of the country’s north

20 | History: Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away

A peculiar little museum in a remote corner of Shan State shows how to eradicate drugs—and erase history

22 | Politics: Whose Army?

Despite what his daughter says, today’s Tatmadaw was not Gen. Aung San’s creation

Business

27 | COVER Yangon Switches On New gas-fred power plants raise hopes that the annual hot-season power drought may soon be a thing of the past

34 | Interview: A Developer’s Dream: Housing for All

38 | Timber: India Leads the Pack in Timber-Processing

As the ban on exporting raw timber goes into effect this month, India has emerged as the largest investor in the processing industry

40 | Small Business: Local Enterprise with a Big Reach

The parasols of Pathein combine tradition with innovation and prove a hit in the hot season

42 | Signposts: Taxing times

Regional

44 | In Thai Peace Talks, a Challenge to Military Dominance

In the internal struggle over who’s in charge of ending a decade-old insurgency in Thailand’s south, the powerful army appears to be losing out