The Irrawaddy magazine has covered Myanmar, its neighbors and Southeast Asia since 1993.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aung Zaw
EDITOR (English Edition): Kyaw Zwa Moe
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CONTRIBUTORS to this issue: Kyaw Zwa Moe; Kyaw Phyo Tha; Zarni Mann; Kyaw Hsu Mon; Bertil Lintner; Min Zin; Yu Mon Kyaw; Oliver Gruen; Simon Lewis; Nora Swe; Nyein Nyein; Feliz Solomon; Sean Gleeson; Steve Tickner; Andrew. D Kaspar; Paul Vrieze; Thet Ko Ko; Wei Yan Aung; San Yamin Aung, Kyaw Kha; Khin Oo Tha.
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16 | Life: Precious Dreams
Miners in the Mogok valley hope to unearth that one giant gem
20 |
Communities: Lashio Works to Build Trust
An interfaith group works to foster good relations in the northern town
24 | COVER History Lessons
After the recent violent crackdown at Letpadan, Bertil Lintner reflects on the historic role of student activism in Myanmar
28 |
COVER The Thamaga Factor
Min Zin on the significance of the word for ‘union’
34 | Feature: Crafting a Better Life
A small enterprise is busting barriers for people living with a disability
39 |
Interview: Medicine, Naturally
42 | Decor: Antique Furniture
Enjoys Renaissance
Retro wares find new customers
44 |
Signposts: Yoma Gets Go-Ahead
46 | Thailand: Floating Homes Tested
In a region plagued by seasonal flooding, amphibious architecture offers new alternatives
P-58
Singer Sone Thin Par spoke to the Irrawaddy's Yu Mon Kyaw recently about why she believes in more rights for women—and help from men
You were part of a concert in Yangon on International Women’s Day in March, with Oxfam. What made you decide to take part in it and other activities organized by the charity group?
Oxfam invited me. At first, I did not know much about them, but later I came to know that they provide much support to women, and I accepted their invitation gladly. The first activity I took part in was a song composition contest. There were many songs and we had had great difficulty in choosing the best of the best. We chose four and I sang one, with younger singers. Since then, I hadn’t been involved in Oxfam activities until I accepted the decision to sing on International Women’s Day.
I am an ethnic woman and I am proud that I was able to work with an organization that is working for women. I am glad that I had the chance to participate. It is worthwhile singing the songs if Myanmar women who listen to them get positive encouragement. Though we are calling for the advancement of women, it is impossible
without the participation of women. I hope that women gain more leadership positions and hold important positions in any field they choose.
Do you think that women share equal rights with men in Myanmar?
When I joined Oxfam, I had a chance to see accurate data, and I now feel sorry that the roles given to women are too limited. I am proud that they do very well in the roles they take, but the numbers are too small. So, I feel like I am also responsible for it.
You are an ethnic person, a Chin, and also a woman. Have you ever been treated unfairly?
Generally, I think whether a girl is mistreated or not depends on her own family. I am interested in both music and sports and my father supported me a lot. His support was a driving force for me. He is my hero. So, I think it is determined largely by one’s family. In my circle, there is no mistreatment of women. I don’t feel inferior, because my family is on my side. I went to school when I was four, and my elder brother only began at six. We went to school together and we grew up together, and so I never feel inferior for being a woman.
You mean you have enjoyed equal rights with men since you were a child?
Yes, in my case. Personally, I think it is a long way before women enjoy equal rights with men. Much more remains to be done for women to be able to participate in important sectors of society. The number of able women either in business or politics is very low. So, I don’t want women to feel
depressed, but I also want to say that their opportunities are in their hands.
In which social classes do you believe women are suffering from mistreatment? What measures do you think should be taken to reduce inequality?
Mistreatment exists in every social class. Housewives especially are subjected to mistreatment. Many able women have to devote themselves to their household chores after they get married. They make no more use of their skills. I have seen this happen to women around me. They subjugate themselves to the needs of their children. That concept is wrong. They can do many things while raising their children if they divide the duties with their husbands.
I met a female trainer at Oxfam who was very smart. Her husband is also an educated man. She said when she decided to do a degree that was higher than her husband’s qualifications, he did not allow her to do so, saying he would divorce her if she did. In the end she divorced her husband. She said they went along with each other when her educational status was lower than his, but they did not see eye to eye when her status was higher than his.
It is said that housewives with no income are more likely to be mistreated by their husbands. What is your impression?
I think it is more concerned with attitude of men than whether or not housewives are earners. Some men do not want to physically harm women. They are virtuous. Others are not. Domestic violence is the worst type of abuse. It is not a fight between two men. A man who bullies his wife tarnishes his own dignity. It is to do with the attitude of men and their environment.
What about your marriage? How is your life as a singer, housewife and a mother?
My husband is like a friend to me. He supports me in whatever I do and I also want his support. I want to share my achievements with him and I also want to be beside him when he succeeds. I take care of my baby when I am at home, but when I am at work and away on a trip, he takes care of him. Women who work take pride in who they are, and our husbands need to understand us.
In my case, I got married after I became a singer, so my husband understands my job. It is not that he loves my voice, but he respects my job and vice versa. I don’t mean our marriage is a perfect one, but we at least try to respect each other. When I had our baby, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sing any more, but my husband and my mother encouraged me.
Though we are talking about women’s rights, this is not only the concern of women. Men would be very lonely if there were no women in this world. In taking this opportunity, I want to urge men to support and create opportunities for women.
‘‘This is not only the concern of women. Men would be very lonely if there were no women in this world.’’
“I believe the Ministry of Education is haunted by a communist ghost.’’
Whose
‘‘People cried for help as if it was the end of the world.’’
‘‘We totally reject the report that says we failed to meet international counternarcotics cooperation and obligation and efforts.”
—Maung San Win of Ramree Township describing the scene during the ferry disaster off Rakhine State on Mar. 13, in which at least 60 people died.
—Dr. Tin Aung, a representative of the National Network for Education Reform, accused the education ministry of raking up “irrelevant” ideas in response to students’ efforts to form unions and reform the education system, in
an interview with DVB.
The owner and two managers of Yangon’s V Gastro Bar were each sentenced to two-and-ahalf years in prison with hard labor on Mar. 17, more than three months after they were arrested over a promotional advertisement on social media picturing the Buddha wearing headphones.
The bar’s owner U Tun Thurein, manager Ko Htut Ko Ko Lwin and general manager Philip Blackwood, a New Zealand national, were convicted under articles 295(a) and 188 of Myanmar’s Penal Code.
The first charge pertains to destruction, damage or defilement of sacred places or objects with intent or knowledge that the action could cause insult, while the latter pertains to disobeying an order issued by a public servant. The trio’s attorney said the charge related to keeping the V Gastro Bar open after authorized hours.
Police, family members and backers of the Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha gathered outside the Bahan Township court for the longawaited verdict in a case that has garnered international attention since the three were arrested on Dec. 11, 2014.
“Everyone can use Facebook in our country,” shouted Daw Aye Than Than Htoo, Ko Htut Ko Ko Lwin’s visibly distraught mother. “Even monks use Facebook. Is that a problem?” —Steve Tickner
After more than 60 people died in a ferry accident off the coast of Myebon in mid-March, the government announced plans to inspect stateowned vessels across the country.
The government-run Aung Tagun-3 ferry capsized during a voyage from Taungup to Sittwe on Mar. 13, a few hours after leaving the port town of Kyaukphyu. Between 250 and 350 people were believed to have been traveling on the ferry. A total of 61 bodies, including 47 women, were recovered as of Mar. 17, with a further 169 people rescued.
On Mar. 18, state-run newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar said a team led by the managing director of Myanma Shipyards, a department of the Ministry of Transport, would investigate the safety and strength of all vessels operated by the government, with a priority given to the remaining eight vessels in the Rakhine fleet.
“Those ferries were bought from China in 1996-97,” Pe Than, a Lower House lawmaker, told The Irrawaddy. “They are very old and their bodies have become rusty and thin because of seawater.”
The Ministry of Transport also launched its own investigation into the disaster.
“The vessel was overloaded and was tilting in the storm,” 60-year-old survivor A Lone Chay told The Irrawaddy. “Travelers were asked by sailors to move from side to side when the ferry tilted sideways. Then water flooded in and the ferry began to sink.” —San Yamin Aung, Kyaw Kha & Khin Oo Tha
A group of monks filed criminal and civil suits against Home Affairs Minister Lt.-Gen. Ko Ko on Mar. 11, alleging that he was responsible for a crackdown at the Letpadaung
copper mine in Sagaing Division in 2012, where more than 100 monks and others were injured when police used smoke bombs containing the incendiary agent phosphorous.
The monks’ family members filed the complaint against the minister and the chief of the Myanmar Police Force, Maj.-Gen. Zaw Win, at the Salingyi Township police station. Whether police there will accept the case remains unknown, according to U Aung Thane, a lawyer and member of the Myanmar Lawyers’ Network.
“They just took the paper and did not say anything except that they will report it to higher officials
and get back to the families,” U Aung Thane said at a press conference in Yangon on Mar. 16.
U Tikha Nyana, a monk who suffered severe burns to much of his body during the early morning raid on Nov. 29, 2012, told The Irrawaddy that due to his health condition, filing a lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators took more than two years.
“I was in hospital for one-andhalf years, and am still trying to get back to normal again,” said the 66-year-old monk, who was flown to Bangkok to receive treatment after the crackdown. —Nyein Nyein & Andrew D. Kaspar
“decisive” measures if there was a repeat attack by Myanmar forces on its territory. Beijing also summoned the Myanmar ambassador to register a protest.
Naypyitaw has said the bomb may have been lobbed by rebels it is fighting in the Kokang region bordering China.
Myanmar expressed “deep sorrow” on Mar. 16 for the deaths of five people across the border in China’s Yunnan province that it has been blamed for, and said it was jointly investigating the incident with Beijing.
China said a bomb fell from a Myanmar aircraft on a sugarcane field in Yunnan on Mar. 13, killing four people and wounding nine. One of the injured later died.
On Mar. 14, a senior officer said China’s military would take
After languishing for more than a year, a bill aimed at overhauling government-run media services has been withdrawn from the Union Parliament at the request of the Ministry of Information.
Information Minister U Ye Htut told The Irrawaddy that the public service media bill was withdrawn without any objections from lawmakers on Mar. 18.
“The draft law has been withdrawn in order to be amended in accordance with the changing situation of the country and to consider the suggestions from media organizations and public received by the ministry,” he said.
According to the minister, the bill will also be reviewed with the television and broadcasting bill, which passed the upper house of parliament at the end of November but has yet to be enacted.
The public service media draft law will be reviewed with the help of experts from UNESCO and other media organizations. The ministry has not given any details over the length of the review period or when the revised bill will be tabled.
Zarni Mann“We would like to express our deep sorrow for [the] death and injuries of Chinese nationals living in border areas as a consequence,” the government said in a statement published in the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. It added that the two countries’ foreign and defense ministries were in direct contact over an investigation into the incident. “[A] thorough investigation will also be made whether the Kokang insurgent group is involved in this incident to have a negative impact on the friendship between Myanmar and China and to create instability along the border area.” — Reuters
Rebel soldiers of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) patrol near a military base in Kokang region on Mar. 10, 2015.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY
Government representatives met with ethnic armed groups of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team in Yangon on Mar. 17 on the opening day of the seventh official round of negotiations for a nationwide ceasefire agreement.
Solar Impulse 2, an aircraft powered entirely by solar energy, made a successful landing at Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport on Mar. 19. Traditional dancers, cheerleaders and bands performed at the airport to greet the plane and President U Thein Sein traveled to Mandalay the following morning to meet the pilots. Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg are taking turns to pilot the aircraft on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
copper mine project; and the now suspended Myitsone dam.
Many of these projects were signed off under the previous military regime, when Myanmar was still perceived as a villain on the world stage.
Naypyitaw’s old guard may in fact retain a sense of gratitude towards China, which continued to funnel investment into the country while the Myanmar Army was internationally ostracized for committing gross human rights violations against its population.
For its own geopolitical motives, China was one of the country’s few staunch supporters and served as a shield—both economically and in international forums such as the UN Security Council—to protect the repressive military regime.
While a Western bloc led by the US and the EU imposed sanctions for over two decades, China built up ties, extending not only economic support but also military weapons and training. Without Beijing, the junta would have struggled to survive.
Myanmar and China have long stressed the “pauk-phaw” or “fraternal” nature of their bilateral relationship. But the comforting catchphrase belies the often uneasy reality. While at pains to maintain strong ties with its giant neighbor, successive Myanmar leaders have often viewed the country with which they share a 1,250 mile border as a potential threat.
On Mar. 13, relations faced their latest source of tension when, according to Beijing, a Myanmar aircraft dropped a bomb on a sugarcane field in Yunnan province, killing five civilians and wounding eight others. The Myanmar military has been engaged in heavy fighting with a Kokang rebel group, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, in the town of Laukkai, close to the Chinese border, since Feb. 9.
Some observers have voiced concern that the ongoing conflict in the Kokang Special Region, right on China’s doorstep, would ratchet up tensions between the two nations. This is possible, but leaders on both sides will likely seek to hose down concerns and protect their shared economic and strategic interests.
While Naypyitaw obviously remains the younger sibling in the so-called fraternal relationship, equally, China cannot afford to lose or neglect its weaker yet strategically invaluable neighbor.
Chinese economic interests in the country run deep and Beijing is acutely aware of the importance of keeping Naypyitaw on-side. Beijingbacked projects in Myanmar include the Kyaukphyu to Kunming oil and gas dual pipelines; a string of planned controversial dams; the Letpadaung
In December 1949, Myanmar was the first non-communist country to recognize the communist-led People’s Republic of China, shortly after it was proclaimed. Under Prime Minister U Nu in the early 1950s, a few years after Myanmar regained its independence from the British, the term pauk-phaw was first used to describe the brotherly Sino-Myanmar relationship.
Behind the rhetoric, Myanmar leaders were always attuned to the pragmatic realization that the country’s much larger, stronger neighbor could seek to assert its influence through threats or force. The researcher Maung Aung Myoe wrote in his book “In the Name of Pauk-Phaw: Myanmar’s China Policy Since 1948” that in December 1970, dictator Gen. Ne Win had remarked that “the real threat for Myanmar was China.”
Maung Aung Myoe wrote that Gen. Ne Win cautioned the military to maintain a defensive posture in its military operations along the border
with China and to avoid provoking any direct Chinese military intervention. The general insisted that the military should not launch any offensives near the Sino-Myanmar border.
This chronic distrust was one of the reasons that the country pursued a foreign policy of neutrality and nonalignment; it was an assurance that Myanmar would not become entangled in alliances hostile to Beijing.
After 1988, relations with China entered a new, stronger phase. Respective violent crackdowns against pro-democracy demonstrators— Myanmar in 1988 and China in Tiananmen Square in 1989—brought to mind the “birds of a feather flock together” phrase. The post-1988 military regime in Myanmar tried to
strengthen its position by allowing China to exploit the country’s natural resources while generals reaped the profits.
But a relationship built on this kind of shared despotism left fertile grounds for anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar.
After President U Thein Sein’s government assumed power in 2011, relations shifted again. The militaryturned-civilian government began a reform process which has opened the door to the West.
U Thein Sein’s decision to postpone the China-backed Myitsone dam project after facing widespread public opposition shocked Chinese leaders who, perhaps for the first time, felt they might lose a long-term partner.
Since then, China has actively tried to engage with the public as well as opposition groups to ensure its ongoing
economic primacy in the country. As Myanmar courts more partners abroad, perhaps Beijing has calculated that the old ways of courtship, based primarily on economic inducements, will no longer suffice.
Despite the often fractious nature of relations, brought to light not least by the recent ongoing conflict along the Sino-Myanmar border, leaders from both sides of the political spectrum in Myanmar will endeavor to maintain pauk-phaw relations with Beijing while simultaneously reconnecting with the West.
The intersecting economic and geopolitical imperatives of both sides mean the stakes could hardly be higher.
President U Thein Sein shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 27, 2014.
By KYAW HSU MON / MOGOK, Mandalay Region
UKrishna took a midday break from his long and arduous shift digging for rubies in the vast San Taw Win mine in central Myanmar’s Mogok valley. A descendant of Gurkha soldiers, born in Myanmar and now in his 50s, U Krishna said the work is hard but he holds out hope of landing that one giant gem that would make him rich.
“Looking out for high-quality rubies is my only purpose in my life as a miner,” he said, sitting near the edge of the gaping hole where he spends much of his time.
Located about 126 miles north of Mandalay city, Mogok is a rich valley known the world over for its fine rubies and other gems such as sapphire, lapis lazuli and moonstone. The area is peppered with dozens of varieties of other semi-precious stones, but some said the deposits are noticeably thinning.
Locals have mined the area by hand since the British colonial era, setting up modest mining operations and marketing some of the world’s finest gems on their own. Those small businesses began winding down
around 1988, when the then-ruling military junta offered up large-scale mining concessions and forbade small, independent digging.
But while joint venture mining firms have been striking it rich, locals said they have gotten a rough deal. After two decades of large-scale mining, many said they have seen severe environmental and health impacts, a decline in local employment opportunities and a shortage of the finest quality stones that they once found in abundance.
“I haven’t seen any of the best quality rubies here recently,” U Krishna said, sitting down on a midday break to
speak with The Irrawaddy. “I’ve been working here for 25 years. I received 1 million kyat (US$1,000) for gems I found in the last 20 years, but now, I earn very little.”
The San Taw Win mine, where U Krishna now works, is one of Mogok’s biggest at more than 10 acres across several villages. The plots are known especially for their rubies and sapphire. Hard work is incentivized with a 20 percent commission for those who find the finest products. This often accounts for miners' entire salary in lieu of daily wages.
The downside to this payment scheme, a site manager admitted, was
that the mine is no longer producing much high-quality material.
“We hire and pay them a percentage of the value,” said Ko Htet Aung Naing, manager of San Taw Win’s Le Oo site. “If they find precious stones by working hard, they will earn a lot of money. But recently we’re not finding fine rubies and sapphires here.”
Ko Htet Aung Naing explained that the site is still producing a lot of material, but none of it matches the quality of the stones they found in the past. Other nearby mines, he said, are facing the same difficulty, after paying enormous license fees to the government that grant them the rights
to explore for three years. Ko Htet Aung Naing said that San Taw Win paid 15 million kyat for a license on the 5-acre section he oversees, while some companies paid up to 300 million.
About 10 miles down the road is another mine near Chaung Gyi village, where Ko Zaw Win has been overseeing operations for the last five years. He said that during that time, his deposits have also proven barren, and with the costs of operations he worries that his company will not even be able to work through their contract.
“We’re using eight to 10 barrels of oil per day to power our generators,” he said, explaining that the site requires a lot of energy for pumping water so the drills can operate. A single barrel of oil costs him about $120, he said. Beyond the operational expenses and licensing fees, he also pays taxes of up to 20 percent for all of the extracted goods.
“Finding gemstones totally depends on our luck,” he said, “so whatever we spend every day, if we don’t have good luck we won’t make that money back.”
Gem mines in Mogok are usually one of two kinds: Myay Twin (mud hole) and Ge Twin (rock hole). But
there is a third place left for gemseekers.
U Zaw Naing, 51, sifts through waste water to pick out small stones flushed out of company equipment. He said it is common for hand-pickers like him to have an informal agreement with site managers, and there is even a word for the job—Khanwe Saychin, roughly, man who collects stones by sifting.
He said that on some days he can find up to $10 worth of pebbles.
“Some people get rich by collecting these stones in the water. The owners allow us to pick, it just depends on our luck,” he said while sifting through a pan of water for bits of valuable waste. “I hope I will get rich someday.”
Those who get lucky take their wares to the local gem market, called Hta Pwe, which translates to “a plate for showing.” Hordes of traders rush in around noon every day, and are usually out by about 3 pm. Traders either rent or buy a chair and an umbrella, under which they smoothtalk prospective clients. Many at the market also observed a drought in the finest quality products.
Mining firms auction off the assets within their plots to traders who then take them to market to turn around
again, said local buyer Daw Phyu Phyu Myint. She said the business is becoming risky because traders no longer know what to expect from a given deposit; if a trader makes a deal with a miner, he or she could be stuck
with imperfect goods or less valuable types of stone.
Like the mine owners, the day laborers and the hand-pickers, Daw Phyu Phyu Myint turned a familiar phrase: “It depends on luck.”
Mining in Mogok is posing more than just financial risks, activists said. U Soe Myint, chairman of local conservation group Mogok Sein Lan, told The Irrawaddy that mining waste is among their chief concerns.
“There are a lot of big holes around town, and gem miners throw heaps of soil in piles near residential areas,” he said. While locals are not yet sure what types of health risks such waste could lead to, they are sure in their belief that the changing landscape could cause danger. While many fear long-term environmental effects, in the immediate future locals are worried about landslides.
The combined risks of large-scale mining operations in Mogok have made the area unlivable for many locals. The Mogok Sein Lan group said that a huge percentage of the area’s population—which is now around 166,000 according to the 2014 census— has left over the past decade.
Working on corporate mines is rarely as profitable as locals had initially hoped, and they are no longer permitted to run their own small, independent mining projects. Coupled with the possibility of landslides or work-related accidents, some 135,000 people from Mogok are believed to have sought work elsewhere.
Some stand strong, however, in hope that the ground is still hiding the elusive treasures. “I dream that I will be rich soon,” said U Krishna. “I hope my luck will come.”
Since inter-community clashes broke out in the northern town almost two years ago, a group of religious leaders and youth has worked hard to rebuild good relations
By ZARNI MANN / LASHIOAs Lashio town became a refuge for thousands of people fleeing fighting between the government and Kokang rebels around Laukkai on the Chinese border in February
and March, religious and community leaders rallied to provide aid and shelter in monasteries, schools and other buildings.
It was just the latest challenge for local leaders who for almost two years
have been working quietly behind the scenes to mend the fallout from a previous crisis to hit the town.
In May 2013 inter-community clashes in Lashio left one person dead and others injured. Though the flare-up which followed a spate of similar events in other parts of the country quickly died down, tensions were left in its wake between communities that had previously lived peacefully side by side.
Since then, local leaders have worked hard to maintain peace and good relations between the different religious communities. They have focused on rebuilding trust and on making common cause against the power of rumors to ignite tensions.
It hasn’t always been easy, especially during the first few months after the clashes, said Ko Myo, a Buddhist community leader.
Soon after the May 2013 events, an informal interfaith group was formed that included Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Christian religious leaders as well
as community members and volunteer youth.
It began meeting once or twice a month and focused on charity work. Its teams continue to visit local villages and remote areas to donate to schools and conduct free medical check-ups. Members have also taken aid to Kachin IDP camps.
It was difficult at first to persuade parents to allow their children to attend
inter-religious youth events designed to let children learn about different faiths and living together harmoniously. Some children were also reluctant, Ko Myo said.
But after a time, the children of different religions became friends and were enthusiastic about the events in which they could mingle and discuss their ideas freely, he said.
Dr. Tin Aung, president of the town’s Islamic Religious Association, also said trust-building was hard at first. The inter-faith group was denied permission by some local authorities to visit remote villages as it included Muslim doctors. Some locals also did not wish to be treated by Muslim medics, he said.
The Panzagar (Flower Speech) movement against hate speech initially struggled to gain acceptance in Lashio. Locals were not interested and the authorities were reluctant to allow events seen as potentially raising tensions.
The interfaith group also ran into resistance from locals and authorities when it first tried to address the issue of hate speech.
People feared this was just another way of stirring things up.
But the group worked to show that addressing the issues of rumors and hate speech was a way to control them and the troubles they caused.
Over time, a common understanding about the need to resist rumors gained more traction.
Rumors spread by unknown sources had continued to plague parts of the town after the clashes, community leaders said.
“There were many rumors, and gatherings of angry mobs, any of which could have re-ignited the violence. But the community and religious leaders, with the help of township authorities, were able to control them by giving people the correct news in a transparent way,’’ said Ko Myo.
Rumors still continue, but nowadays most residents no longer automatically believe them, he said. Some people even approach the community and religious leaders to ask for the correct information.
And a network of youth with members in every quarter of the town is also ready to provide accurate information, Ko Myo said.
“Since our town is small, it is very easy to spread rumors. But it’s also easier to control them. It would be very difficult in larger places like Mandalay or Meikhtila,” he added.
The efforts in Lashio received recognition from the United Nations’ special rapporteur Ms. Yanghee Lee after her visit in January.
“In the town of Lashio, in Northern Shan State, I was impressed by the commitment of inter-religious leaders to work together towards maintaining a peaceful community following attacks on the Muslim community in May 2013,” she said at a press conference in Yangon.
But for some, life is still raw. The charred remains of a Muslim orphanage still stands as an ugly reminder of the events of nearly two years ago. That the remains have not yet been cleared or rebuilt indicates the challenges still ahead.
Ma Aye Aye Win, a Buddhist who was burned by gasoline in the incident
Top: Lashio is home to people of many faiths and communities. An elaborate Chinese Buddhist temple draws many worshippers and visitors.
Left: The remains of an Islamic orphanage that was burnt down during inter-religious clashes in May 2013.
that ignited the violence in May 2013, says she and her family are still living in fear after the events.
“We don’t want such things to happen again, in our town or elsewhere,” she said.
Despite all they have achieved, religious and community leaders still worry that violence could break out again.
“We want to rely on the government’s protection. We desperately need fair protection, which provides for no discrimination between different races and religions,” said Dr. Tin Aung.
“At the same time, we have to work on our own to trust each other. No one can break peace and trust that we build with our hands,’’ he added.
It might be fragile, but so far, Lashio’s can-do approach seems to be working. ‘‘The two communities are living in peace like they did in the past. Life here is almost back to normal,’’ Dr. Tin Aung said.
After the recent violent crackdown at Letpadan, Bertil Lintner reflects on the historic significance of student protest in Myanmar
Police at Letpadan attack a vehicle bearing images of Thakin Ba Hein, Preside Aung Kyaw who was killed in protests in 1938.
Once again, Myanmar has been rocked by student demonstrations and, once again, the authorities have reacted with force, to the extent of using hired thugs in Yangon to beat and drag protesters away.
The brutality on the part of the police, who injured dozens during a violent crackdown on student protestors in Letpadan, Bago Region, in March, was condemned by local civil society organizations.
But international reaction to the crackdown was limited to expressions of “concern” and, to the dismay of many, pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed little or no sympathy for the young demonstrators.
Dr. Thein Lwin, a leading figure in the current educational reform movement, was even stripped of his post as a National League for Democracy central committee member in February over a perceived conflict of interest.
Regardless of whether or not one sympathizes with the students’ demands for educational reform and more transparency in such matters, it would be wise to take them seriously and listen to their grievances. Anyone familiar with Myanmar’s recent history knows that student-led movements have been harbingers of upheaval and political change.
That is to be expected in a country with a long and proud tradition of literacy and intellectual life.
Sept. 30, 2014: The National Education Law is enacted. The bill was backed by MPs from both the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and the opposition National League for Democracy.
Nov. 12-13: An emergency student conference convenes in Yangon where the Action Committee for Democratic Education (ACDE) is formed to lead student protests against the new law.
Nov. 14-17: Hundreds of students stage a four-day protest in Yangon and call for amendment of the law within 60 days.
Jan. 20, 2015: Hundreds of student demonstrators begin a march from Mandalay to Yangon.
Jan. 28: President’s Office Minister U Aung Min holds preliminary talks with student protest leaders and agrees to hold four-party talks involving the government, Parliament, the National Network for Education Reform (NNER) and the students’ ACDE.
Feb. 1: Four-party discussions are held in Yangon. Students table an 11-point framework for discussion and both sides reach agreement over eight points, including that talks should continue in Naypyitaw on Feb. 3.
Feb. 3: The government postpones four-party talks to Feb. 12 as agreement cannot be reached over students’ attendance. Students from Pathein in Ayeyarwady Region begin a protest march.
Feb. 7: Home Affairs Minister Lt.-Gen. Ko Ko says that student protesters are threatening the country’s stability and warns that “ex-political hardliners” and some foreign organizations are encouraging them.
Feb. 12: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi meets protesters in Naypyitaw to discuss their demands.
Feb. 14: After a series of talks between the government, lawmakers, students’ organizations and education advocates, an apparent breakthrough agreement is reached over a new bill, incorporating students’ 11 demands. Demonstrators marching from Dawei, Pathein and Monywa decide to cease their protests and return home.
Feb. 16: The bill that was agreed upon by the four parties is sent to Parliament for discussion.
Feb. 19: The main column of student protesters marching from Mandalay announce that they will stay in Letpadan, Bago Region, until Mar. 1, pausing their protests to observe the parliamentary process.
In November 1920, students in Yangon protested against what they perceived as unfair university reforms that the British colonial power wanted to impose. The action gained widespread support and gave new impetus to Myanmar’s independence movement. The day of the “University Boycott,” as it became known, is still commemorated as Myanmar’s National Day, even if the day varies in accordance with the Myanmar calendar.
At the beginning of 1936, the students went on strike again. This time, after the establishment of the Yangon University Students’ Union, they were better organized. The spark was the expulsion of prominent student leaders in the 1930s, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s father Aung San and Thakin Nu, known as U Nu when he became the country’s first prime minister after independence finally arrived in 1948.
Aung San had been expelled because he had refused to reveal the name of the author of an article titled “Hell Hound at Large,” which appeared in the student magazine “Oway.” The article was highly critical of the British rulers and it was only much later that the name of the writer was revealed: Nyo Mya, a close friend of Aung San’s.
Nyo Mya went on to study journalism in England and the United States and became both a prominent author and a member of parliament representing Monywa constituency. Aung San had shown both courage and outstanding professionalism by upholding a fundamental principle that every journalist in Myanmar today should adhere to: never reveal your sources, and protect the identity of those who want to remain anonymous.
The 1936 student strike was a success, and both Aung San and Thakin Nu were reinstated. But the students pressed on, now even more vocally, calling for independence from Britain.
On December 20, 1938, during a third student boycott, the movement suffered its first casualty. Aung Kyaw, a young student, was hit on the head by a baton-wielding mounted policeman and died. He was posthumously
conferred the title Bo (leader), and there is a street in downtown Yangon named after him, Bo Aung Kyaw Street. Even today, Dec. 20 is remembered as Bo Aung Kyaw Day.
From this and other events in 1938, there was no way back. Nothing could stop the independence movement. Unsurprisingly, independent Myanmar’s first government—and parliament— included many men and women who had been student activists in the 1930s.
But independence did not mean that the student movement was dead. Shan and Kachin students met secretly at university campuses in Yangon and Mandalay, giving birth to powerful nationalist movements among those two ethnic groups. Mainstream student unions organized strikes and boycotts to press for changes in the education system and for peace in a country being ravaged by civil war.
Then came the March 2, 1962 coup d’état, which terminated Myanmar’s experiment with democracy and federalism. The students were the first to protest.
There were huge student-led demonstrations in early July and, on the 7th, the military opened fire. According to the government, 17 students were killed, while independent sources put the figure at more than 100.
The night after the massacre, the historic Yangon University Students’ Union building was demolished— dynamited by the military. Only a monument erected in honor of Bo Aung Kyaw was spared.
The military had seized power, it claimed, to “prevent the disintegration of the union.” In reality it led to intensified civil war. Many students from the various ethnic minorities joined their respective rebel armies.
Among them was Sao Tzang Yawnghwe, the son of Myanmar’s first president, the Shan prince Sao Shwe
Thaike. Many Burman students fled to other, jungle-clad parts of the country where they teamed up with the then fledgling forces of the Communist Party of Burma.
The 1970s saw even more student unrest, first in December 1974 when the body of U Thant, the former SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations and a critic of the military regime, was brought back to Myanmar for burial. The students seized the opportunity— and even U Thant’s coffin—to launch protests against Gen. Ne Win’s junta. Scores were killed and many survivors again took to the jungle, where they joined non-communist rebel forces led by deposed prime minister U Nu.
On March 23, 1976, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, considered the father of Myanmar’s nationalist movement, the students demonstrated again, leading to yet more arrests.
None of the movements of the 1970s, however, matched the massive
student-led uprising for democracy that shook all major cities and towns in Myanmar in August and September, 1988.
Today, the students who led that uprising belong to what is known as “the 88 Generation” and include some of the country’s best-known political activists. Many of them spent years in jail, some in solitary confinement, but that has only made them even more respected and popular. “Our heads are bloodied but unbowed,” has been their slogan throughout the struggle.
Other, smaller student-led protests occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s while students, together with Buddhist monks, were also at the forefront of renewed mass demonstrations for democracy in August and October, 2007.
Against this background, it is hardly surprising that many young protesters now feel let down by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In 1988, she emerged as a key leader in the movement for political and social change, but now seems to have forgotten what young people in Myanmar have been fighting for since the days of her father’s activism.
It is worth remembering what Myanmar scholars Josef Silverstein and Julian Wohl wrote in a 1964 study of the country’s student movements.
“The students at the university still can be aroused and become militant in response to university student issues,” the authors’ wrote. “This could grow into full involvement in national politics if the students become convinced that this is necessary to win their cause. For, if they see the military regime as a resurrection of the old colonial system with a privileged caste of leaders and restrictive laws, they also may see themselves as the legatees of the revolutionary tradition of Aung San, Maung Nu [U Nu] and others, and assume an active political role which could have real consequences.”
Little has changed since that was written more than fifty years ago and, as we have seen, Myanmar’s students have more often than not been on the right side of history.
Feb. 22: Student leaders and the NNER accuse the government of violating the conditions of the Feb. 14 four-party agreement on drafting a new education bill. They say the Education Ministry circulated its own alternative draft to undermine the agreement.
Mar. 1: The Home Affairs Ministry releases a notification dated Feb. 28, calling for an end to protests as parliamentary discussions on amending the Education Law are in progress. The notification also warns that actions will be taken against continued protests.
Mar. 3: Students at Letpadan announce they will resume their protests and attempt to march to Yangon. Authorities respond by increasing police deployment to more than 300 officers, greatly outnumbering the roughly 100 students, who begin a sit-in protest.
Mar. 5: Students and activists gather at Yangon’s Sule Pagoda to urge authorities not to launch a violent crackdown on the Letpadan protest. Riot police and dozens of plainclothes thugs violently disperse the protest. Five men and three women are arrested. They are later released and charged under Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law.
Mar. 8: Students at Letpadan issue an ultimatum to authorities, asking for free passage to Yangon by March 10, at 10 am.
Mar. 10: After a week-long blockade at Letpadan, police violently crack down on students and their supporters. Dozens are injured and 127 people are arrested. Members of the media are also targeted.
Mar. 10: President U Thein Sein orders the creation of a commission of inquiry into the violent dispersal of the protest in Yangon on Mar. 5 by police and plainclothes men, according to state-run media.
Mar. 16: ACDE student representatives attend a hearing of the Upper House Bill Committee in Naypyitaw where they discuss their 11-point reform demands. Student attendees tell the committee that all those arrested during the Letpadan crackdown should be released and the charges against them dropped.
Mar. 17: The Ministry of Home Affairs says it released 28 students and two reporters between Mar. 12-17 who were arrested during the Letpadan crackdown.
Mar. 17: Representatives from the ACDE and the NNER put their case for amending the bill in line with the Feb. 14 agreement during the Upper House Bill Committee’s final hearing session on the law.
—Thet Ko Ko, Wei Yan Aung, Paul Vrieze This publication went to print on Mar. 21.
“Thamaga,” a Myanmar word adopted from the Pali language, carries incredible political and moral weight in Myanmar. Literally, it means union; association; and society. In the context of the country's modern history, it unambiguously signifies the student union, its spirit and its long-standing symbol of the fighting peacock flag.
From the independence movement in the early twentieth century to the democracy movement of the late 1980s, student unions, or Thamaga, have not only challenged autocrats in Myanmar but also given birth to new leadership in national politics.
It is little wonder, then, that when police staged a violent crackdown on unarmed student protesters and their supporters on March 10 in Letpadan town, 90 miles north of Yangon, they targeted flag-waving demonstrators first and vengefully stamped on their fighting peacock flags.
The protests had intensified since January when thousands of students, including high schoolers, began to march—in some cases for hundreds of miles—from major provincial cities towards Yangon. They did so in protest over the new National Education Law, passed in September 2014, which they believe is explicitly designed to inhibit the formation of student Thamaga and curb academic freedom.
After a series of talks with student
representatives, the government agreed to amend the controversial law and a special parliamentary committee began debating the proposed changes. But the students pulled out of the discussions in the first week of March, in response to a police blockade of their main protest group in Letpadan, Bago Region.
On March 5, in Yangon, police and pro-government plainclothes thugs violently dispersed a protest held in support of the students blockaded in the north. Five days later, at Letpadan, after negotiations about a continued march broke down, police beat students and their supporters, injuring dozens. At least 127 people were arrested.
In the past, the regime has successfully combined harsh crackdowns with political ploys to weaken the opposition, confuse the public, and defuse international pressure. Perhaps Naypyitaw is now reading from this same familiar playbook. If so, we can expect several rounds of talks between President U Thein Sein or Commander-inChief Snr.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Though these talks are not likely to facilitate a political breakthrough, they will eclipse the earlier headlines about students being beaten and
imprisoned. If previous patterns are any indication, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will probably swallow the bait again and seize the opportunity to advance her political agenda, while downplaying the student movement.
In her response to questions from the media about the crackdown she said, the “NLD never supports the use of violence. There is nothing special we have to say. The rule of law is for everyone.” Of course, the NLD later joined growing condemnation, stating that the clampdown was “not appropriate in a civilized society.”
In fact, both the government and the mainstream opposition led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi view the student protests as an unwelcome challenge.
For elements of the government, the students are a conspiracy of radical veteran communists seeking to unseat the regime through confrontation. In late February, the
Ministry of Education circulated a confidential memo among senior university administrators alleging that the education bill the student protesters proposed was nothing more than a communist attempt to overthrow “the current democratic system of governance.”
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi views the protests as a distraction from her agenda of constitutional reform. More cynically, it is a distraction from her effort to become the country’s next president. In speeches and interviews, the Lady has cautioned protesters not to pressure the parliament about the education bill, and has urged the public not to lose sight of the priority of constitutional reform.
But while the protests may have become a distraction, at least temporarily, from much-needed constitutional reform, this has less to do with the students’ demands than with the government’s crackdown and the opposition’s inaction.
It is true that some student leaders hold increasingly radical views and employ increasingly radical tactics. It is also true that some veteran activists, who the government alleges are communists, want to employ the students in a bigger struggle. But the overall objective of the current
student movement is still confined to the goal of educational reform. And the reason for the students' continued efforts is that they have noted the negligence, broken promises, and delaying tactics the government has employed since the education bill was put on the table early last year. None of the conspiracy theories address the people’s genuine grievances or offer any viable resolutions.
The movement has been able to gain momentum because the NLD leader has failed to speak out against—let alone offer any solutions for—injustices ranging from land grabs to ethnic conflict to labor strikes to educational reform. Of course, it is also possible that the opposition feels intimidated because the student protests mark the
first national grassroots movement in 25 years that stands outside the political patronage of the established opposition, which has been effectively co-opted into the system.
For this reason, the significance of the current student campaign goes well beyond education reform. The students’ new activism may also signal a major generational shift within the opposition. Intriguingly, it is a reminder of the similar shift during the independence movement under British colonial rule.
After Britain coopted Myanmar nationalists of the 1920s, a new generation of leaders emerged from
It is entirely possible that this current student movement could herald a new generation of activist leaders.
student unions in the late 1930s. They protested against British rule and later called themselves “Thakin” or “Master,” indicating that they were the masters in their own country. It was the generation of independence hero Aung San, the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who once chaired the student union and is still a model for student activists.
British rulers, who then experimented with “guided democracy” in the country, and conservative Myanmar, condemned Aung San and other student Thakins as hotheaded, radical and even militant youth. But they emerged as popular leaders who helped liberate the country from British rule.
It is entirely possible that this current student movement could
Students on a recent march. The key demands of student protesters include: the right to establish teachers’ and students’ unions; inclusive education; a much greater education budget; increased representation of teachers and students in the legislative process and the right to mother-tongue-based multilingual education for ethnic groups.
herald a new generation of Myanmar activist leaders. In the short term, however, the scenario is rather more complicated and even bleak.
Myanmar social media users have waged a campaign of support for the students, adopting the message “Students are the winners.” No doubt the campaigners feel that this brutal crackdown only damages the quasicivilian government’s legitimacy and exposes its true colors. But in reality, two potential winners may emerge when the dust settles on the students’ latest sacrifice.
Ironically, the first may be Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. Since the government’s crackdown only reminds the public of the military’s past brutality, people may be more likely to cast protest votes against the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party in the next general elections, scheduled for later this year. This would be a decisive boost to the NLD, which already commands strong public support.
If more urban protests continue, however, and if instability intensifies as a result of current military offensives in ethnic regions, the military could step in to declare a state of emergency and postpone the general elections. Myanmar’s current constitution, drawn
up by the military, allows it to sideline parliament and rule the country directly when a state of emergency is declared. In this case, the army would be the real winner.
Meanwhile, those who suffered during the authorities’ thuggish response to peaceful protests would not likely see the perpetrators held accountable.
Myanmar students, however, know well that beating them and stamping on their flags will not lead them to bow down to autocrats and abandon their cause.
After the historic Students’ Union building at Yangon University was dynamited by members of General Ne Win’s coup-making junta on July 7, 1962, Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, who was perhaps the most powerful moral figure in modern Myanmar politics since the early years of the independence movement, told aggrieved students, “They can destroy the Thamaga building but they can never destroy the Thamaga spirit in your hearts.”
History has indeed proven Thakin Kodaw Hmaing right. The Thamaga spirit endures.
By FELIZ SOLOMON / YANGON
Making a living has never been easy for Daw San San Oo, who at 44 has lived most of her life with a prosthetic leg and one functioning eye. When she was about 5 years old, an untreated ulcer in her toe soon became a brutal infection, coursing through the right side of her body. After three amputations, little was left of her leg and her vision was permanently impaired.
Despite living very close to a primary school, Daw San San Oo was
not allowed to enroll. She never went to school and she never learned how to read or write. Eventually, she taught herself to count as being able to read numbers and count cash was necessary for just about any kind of job. She spent years eking out a living as a vegetable vendor, but the work was hard and the income unstable.
“I was tired all the time,” she recalled, sitting on the floor of a small wooden house in Dala Township, just across the river from the heart of Yangon.
downtown Yangon Left: Daw San San Oo and her colleagues at work making cards.About one year ago Daw San San Oo joined the team of Pann Nann Ein, an organization that employs people living with a disability while providing a vocational skill set. Since it was founded in 2012, Pann Nann Ein has grown into a successful business producing quality hand-crafted greeting cards, with 18 full-time employees earning a steady and livable wage.
All of Pann Nann Ein’s craftspeople live with some type of disability. Some are hearing impaired, some have Down syndrome and several—like Daw San San Oo—have lost limbs. They all live within an hour’s commute from Dala, where they convene once a week to restock materials and spend a day working and studying together. While five of the staff are hearing impaired, all are learning Myanmar sign language so they can communicate with each other.
The degree and nature of disability among Pann Nann Ein’s staff varies wildly, but some experiences were shared by all, namely, discrimination in social life, in schools and in the workplace. For many of Myanmar’s disabled, lack of access to schooling causes enormous difficulty in adult life, further disadvantaging already marginalized people. While some educational reformers are pushing for inclusive education, disabled children are often not allowed to attend government schools and are offered few alternatives.
Myanmar only has about 15 special education schools for the deaf, blind, physically and intellectually disabled. Government figures indicate that only about 0.5 percent of the country’s school-aged children living with a disability are enrolled in governmentrun schools. While there are a few
other specialized institutions operated by NGOs, basic education is largely limited to those who live in one of the country’s two largest cities: Yangon and Mandalay.
“Accessibility is the main problem,” explained Daw Hnin Phyu Kaung, one of the founders of Pann Nann Ein and
a former employee of The Leprosy Mission International. She said that attitudes and misconceptions about disability—even among education professionals—make it difficult for children with disabilities to attend local schools, while many have no access to special education programs.
“If they change their attitudes, there's no need for special schools. We’re all people, we’re part of the same community, we can attend the same schools,” she said.
Daw Hnin Phyu Kaung said she helped establish Pann Nann Ein after working for seven years with people affected by leprosy, a curable infectious disease that can lead to severe disfigurement. It has been eradicated in many parts of the world, but South and Southeast Asia still have some of the highest prevalence rates globally.
After years of experience with leprosy patients, Daw Hnin Phyu Kaung surmised that one of the biggest problems for people living with a disability is a significant disadvantage in gaining employment, stemming from both poor education and social stigma.
“I found that sustainable livelihood is important for them,” she said. “If we give them sustainable work, it supports their skills. It makes them more sociable, more confident.”
She seems to be right, according to several of the organization’s staff. U Nay Linn Aung and his wife, Daw Khin Moe Win, joined the team together in late 2013. She was born without full use of her left arm and leg; he lost a leg in a machine-related accident while farming only a few years ago. For some time after the accident, U Nay Linn Aung was depressed; he said that people suddenly treated him differently. “Even my friends looked down on me,” he said.
With limited options, U Nay Linn Aung struggled to get by making baskets and fishing nets, but he and Daw Khin Moe Win are now able to earn a steady income. They share a small home in Dala and hope to have children. Glancing at his wife as she nonchalantly trimmed away at textile swatches, he smiled and said, “I like working here.”
Attitudes and misconceptions in society make it difficult for children with disabilities to attend school.
Natural medicines remain an important alternate remedy in Myanmar as local and foreign pharmaceutical companies look to gain a foothold in the market. A pioneer in the field of alternative medicine, Dr. Khin Maung Lwin founded Fame Pharmaceuticals in 1994. He graduated from the Institute of Medicine 2 (Yangon) in 1984, served in the Myanmar Army Medical Corps for more than five years and has also pursued post-graduate studies in the US and the UK. Dr. Khin Maung Lwin spoke with The Irrawaddy’s Kyaw Hsu Mon about the alternative medicine market in a country better known for its counterfeit drugs.
What were the major challenges when you first began producing alternative medicine products in Myanmar?
It’s been 21 years since I founded Fame Pharmaceuticals. Before I started my own factory, I worked with the government-owned BPI [Burma Pharmaceutical Industry]. Now it’s called the Myanmar Pharmaceutical Factory. The BPI welcomed the private sector to work with them. So we bought raw materials and equipment from foreign countries and provided them to BPI. We shared 50 percent of the finished goods [we purchased] between us. I also distributed products to states and divisions. I worked with BPI for 10 years and gained experience and knowledge. The major challenge was competing with fake medicines on the market. We could not compete with the price. Even though we knew they were fake, we couldn’t do anything. People were buying them and I had a terrible feeling about that. But this challenge remains today.
How well are your natural medicines performing on the market among the many varieties of medicine available?
There are two types of medicines in Myanmar. The first is TMHS [traditional medicines and health supplements] and the second is drugs from foreign countries. Even imported drugs include traditional medicines. We can calculate that about one third of imported drugs will be TMHS. Local manufacturers only produce traditional medicines here. Against both foreign-made health supplements and locally-made traditional medicines, we have about a 30 percent share of the market.
What are some of the difficulties in competing with other local medicine manufacturers?
I registered my products with the Department of Traditional Medicine and obtained a license. But we aren’t directly competing with other local companies; we’re going for organic products and they’re going for traditional medicine. We are the only company producing organic medicines here. Now organic products are becoming more popular in Myanmar. People are acquiring knowledge about the side effects of using chemical fertilizers. Organic farming is becoming popular too. It is not only about food but medicines too. We produce our products from organic farming without using fertilizers— so-called organic medicines. That’s why we have no competitors in the market, including even foreign TMHS companies.
Do you have your own organic farm?
We started our first organic farm in Pyin Oo Lwin Township, Mandalay Region, in 2003. It’s about 55 acres. But we couldn’t certify it then, because we don’t have a certification body here. We couldn’t just say by ourselves that it was an organic farm. We needed thirdparty certification. So we founded the Myanmar Organic Association here in 2006. The Myanmar Organic Agriculture Group under the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry checked over three years and approved us as an organic farm in 2010. So then it was only approved by a Myanmar independent body not by a foreign body, that’s why we contacted the Germany-based International
Federation of Organic Agriculture about certification in 2010. Finally, we received a certificate from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last year.
Do you think people in Myanmar prefer imported drugs over local, natural medicines?
Yes I do. That’s why I am currently talking to people from around the country on the benefits of natural medicines. Just promoting awareness that if we continue to use chemical fertilizers, our generation will soon be harmed. We will have to transform: number one, consumers and number two, farmers. If they keep using these chemical fertilizers, they will poison their bodies. I am currently promoting awareness on the side-effects. These poisons circulate from the soil, flow into streams after rains and then marine animals also suffer. There are a lot of difficulties in setting up organic farms. I’m writing books that promote the benefits of organic farms as well as appearing on talk shows via Myawaddy TV and also holding talks in universities.
What are the most sought-after natural medicines in Myanmar at the moment?
Number one is Uro Crush medicine. Many people are suffering from renal disease. Myself and my master Dr. Khin Tun were working on research about this disease. Three patients are currently suffering from it in Thingangyun General Hospital. This medicine is most in-demand and we can’t produce enough of it. All stocks have been sold out even before we’ve produced more. Demand is huge. Other popular medicines are also related to urinary diseases.
As far as I know, products derived from organic farming are expensive, how do you balance price and demand in the market?
Our products give value for money. I know that organic farming is quite expensive to set up. I have just spoken
with farmers who want to set up organic farms. But low demand for organic products here, combined with high production costs, means the product prices are also high. Organic foods are also smaller than other generic foods. That’s why we need more public awareness about this. But for us, we don’t have competitors, so our fixed price becomes the market price at the time. People want the best medicines because they want to be well as soon as possible, that’s why they often don’t mind the price.
Do you export your organic products to foreign countries?
How will your business be impacted by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) due to come
We have to compete with other ASEAN countries first. There are few organic TMHS medicines in the other 9 countries. So… we have a possible market. We’re always in touch with these other countries to discuss the issue. That’s why we’re starting to export these medicines to ASEAN countries, as well as defending our market too. We opened a showroom in Singapore in January. The biggest market in the world is the US, so as a second step, we’ve appointed an agent in the US to distribute our natural medicines. It’s not that easy to sell our products in the US, although we’ve had our farm approved by USDA now. It is just the
first step to launching our products there soon.
We are producing 76 items. We will sell 10 items in the US market first. We will also sign a memorandum of understanding with one of Thailand’s medicine distributors. Seven countries [Kuwait, India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand] already sell FAME products through local distributors. What I want to say is we won’t just defend our products to compete with other countries in the AEC, we will counter-attack. We’re now preparing everything from prices to packaging and quality to be able to compete. If we can offer good service as well as quality, we will be ahead of the game.
often adorned with ornate and intricate carvings.
“As a broker, I earned little. Sometimes they failed to pay me the price they had promised. That forced me to learn more about the trade and set up my own business,” the 60-year-old recalled recently. Named after U Kyaw Kyaw’s son U Aung Aung, who is also the store’s manager, today that business is doing an increasingly brisk trade as more and more customers both at home and abroad seek out his retro wares.
More than 20 years ago, U Kyaw Kyaw wandered the streets of Yangon asking people if they had any old, disused housewares to sell. His purchases would run the gamut from taxidermic stag heads
and grandfather clocks to furniture shoved into cobwebbed corners in their neglectful owners’ attics.
He then supplied what he had bought to local curio shops and worked as a broker for a handful of dealers who took great interest in old teak furniture,
Since Myanmar reconnected with the outside world four years ago, U Kyaw Kyaw has seen a surge in business, as have other antique furniture dealers scattered across town.
With more foreigners in residence as well as a shifting interest to old furniture among a modest but growing number of Myanmar, many of these pieces are enjoying a popular revival.
“They are all still usable with a few minor repairs,” U Aung Aung told The Irrawaddy. “Foreigners buy them not just as souvenirs but for their everyday use.”
“Local people who are trying to open hotels or start companies are eyeing old furniture to decorate offices because this old stuff can give a more varied and unique ambiance than modern furniture,” he added.
U Aung Aung’s Furniture Shop is well stocked to meet its customers’ needs. On a recent afternoon, a cluster of re-polished easy chairs with designs dating back to Myanmar’s preindependence era sat outside the shop to dry in the sun. Dining tables from the 1960s stood in one corner, while postcolonial black wooden wardrobes with intricate Myanmar traditional carving patterns were packed into the entrance
of the shop. Some already bore labels reading, ‘Sold Out.’
“If you compare with the last 10 years, nowadays we have a stream of customers every day. In the past, I hardly sold a single item in a week,” said U Kyaw Kyaw.
With their ornate craftsmanship and the use of teak, a valuable hardwood known for its durability and rich color, Myanmar furniture and artifacts crafted more than 50 to 100 years ago have caught the attention of antique collectors from all over the world.
In the Thai-Myanmar border town of Mae Sot, a riverside market is scattered with kitsch shops that sell old furniture along with ancient Buddha statues and other handicrafts smuggled from Myanmar. In Chiang Mai’s Ban Tawai, a tourist destination famous for wood carvings and furniture, an easy chair from Myanmar’s colonial era sells for around US$1,300 while it costs only about $200 in its native country.
U Kyaw Kyaw said cross-border sales hubs are a legacy of a thriving
trade in smuggled antique goods that saw its heyday about 15 to 20 years ago, when Myanmar was cut off from the outside world because of its then-ruling military government.
“At that time, dealers here smuggled everything via Myawaddy—ranging from a bust of Buddha statue to old clocks to chairs—that might be in the interest of prospective buyers from Thailand,” he recalled. Myawaddy is just across the Moei River from Thailand’s Mae Sot.
“I’m not sure whether the dealers I supplied at the time were involved or not. But the situation today is a lot better because we can deal with our customers directly,” he added.
Daw Wah Wah, an interior designer for 7 Mile Highland Residence and Montage Café in Yangon, said she decorated the residence and restaurant with refurbished furniture because she likes the aesthetic qualities of bygone eras in Myanmar.
“They look elegant and royal. Modern furniture is beautiful, of course,” she said, “but these look fancy.”
But for U Kyaw Kyaw, hunting for old furniture scattered across the country is not an easy job. He used to scour every township in the Irrawaddy Delta in search of disused furniture. Once he was even robbed at knifepoint by a group of thugs, after they lured him by claiming to have antiques that he might be interested in purchasing.
“Nowadays I no longer travel. I now have brokers,” he said.
In spite of a growing interest in old furniture among local people, nearly 70 percent of customers at his shop are foreigners, U Kyaw Kyaw said.
“Maybe partly because of their superstition. For example, many Myanmar rarely buy an old bed as they think someone may have died on it, so using an old bed is quite inauspicious. Most wouldn’t take it even if you gave it to them free of charge,” he explained.
“But it depends on the eyes of beholder. If you love old stuff, it would be all right. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of old wood just as well used to fuel a fire.”
Florida-based power company APR Energy announced in March that it will step up the amount of power it sends to the grid from its gas-powered plant in Mandalay Region. The company said in a statement that it would expand its plant in Kyaukse by 20 megawatts to provide a minimum of 102MW to the state-owned Myanmar Electric Power Enterprise.
The company says the plant—which has been running since May 2014 on natural gas taken from the Shwe gas pipeline running through from the Bay of Bengal to China’s Yunnan Province—provides electricity to more than 6 million people.
Yoma Strategic Holdings said in March that it had received confirmation that its lease on the site of its “Landmark” downtown Yangon hotel development would be extended.
In an update to shareholders, the company said the Meeyahta International Hotel Limited, in which it owns a controlling stake, had received a letter dated Mar. 10 from the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC).
The MIC said “it had approved the extension of the lease in accordance to the Myanmar Foreign Investment Law for the redevelopment of the former headquarters of the Burma Railways Company into a five star hotel as a Build-OperateTransfer project,” according to the statement, which was filed with the Singapore stock exchange, where Yoma Strategic’s shares are listed.
The letter directs the Ministry of Rail Transportation to extend the lease, the update from Yoma Strategic CEO Andrew Rickards said. Alongside the hotel, the company is planning to build a massive mixed-use development that will replace the Meeyahta hotel, which closed in late 2013.
The interests of the sprawling conglomerate controlled by tycoon Serge Pun include the Star City development and the Pun Hlaing Golf Estate, both in Yangon; a business selling New Holland tractors in Myanmar; and the Balloons Over Bagan tourism operation. Mr. Pun also controls Yoma Bank.
Also in March, Yoma Strategic announced financial results for the first nine months of the 2014-15 fiscal year, disclosing that an issue of rights to new shares was oversubscribed, and that the issue had generated US$118.52 million to go toward the purchase of the Landmark development site and other investments.
The company’s revenue grew by 15.3 percent year on year to $60.4 million in the nine month period, the results said.—Simon Lewis
The fast-installation “turn-key” project is one of a series of contracts the government signed with companies in order to provide short-term power generation while longer-term solutions to Myanmar’s energy shortage are put in place.
When APR Energy first announced the Kyaukse plant, Clive Turton, the firm’s managing director for the AsiaPacific told The Irrawaddy that the company was looking at several other projects in the country. No other deals have since been announced, however.
A spokesman for APR Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Mr. Turton was quoted in the company’s statement saying: “We look forward to playing a continued role in helping Myanmar supply reliable, efficient power to its people and industries, supporting economic growth and improving overall quality of life.”—
Simon LewisMyanmar’s former capital may be about to face an epidemic of HNWI, according to a report. This is not reason to panic, however, since the initials don’t stand for a new virulent strain of influenza, but for high-net-worth individuals—the description chosen by real state consultancy Knight Frank for US-dollar millionaires in its recently published “Wealth Report 2015.”
The global report predicts that Yangon will be home to more than 3,500 such people by 2024, more than double the current number, making the city “a classic example of emerging market wealth creation.”
“Benefiting from the gradual opening up of its economy, following the introduction of democratic reforms in recent years, the city has seen strong employment growth and inward investment, with annual GDP growth at a national level predicted to eclipse that seen in India and even China in 2015 and 2016,” the report says.
“Accounting for a fifth of overall economic output, Yangon is set to be the lead beneficiary of this process.”
Simon LewisThe winning bids for development of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State could be announced at the start of the next fiscal year, a project official said, after the second selection deadline came and went with no resolve.
U Aung Kyaw Than, secretary of the Kyaukphyu SEZ bid evaluation committee, told The Irrawaddy in midMarch that the committee is still in a “negotiations stage.”
“This is the final stage of negotiations. We still need to discuss more about the processes with the winners,” said U Aung Kyaw Than, who declined to reveal the frontrunners.
After failing to meet an earlier deadline in midJanuary, the committee told The Irrawaddy that the
winning bidders would be announced in late February.
The government called for infrastructure tender bids in September 2014, a few months after awarding a massive consulting contract to Singaporean CPG Corporation. Bidding closed on Nov. 24, with a total of 12 proposals submitted by one local and 11 international firms.
U Aung Kyaw Than said three contracts will be awarded for development of the site’s deep sea port, petrochemical processing plant and a variety of industrial factories.
“That’s why it’s taking so long,” he said. “This is a huge project and it will impact the country’s economy, that’s why we’re discussing this cautiously with them.”
Kyaw Hsu Mon
The Ministry of Commerce said limited foreign wine imports will be legalized this month at the start of the 2015-16 fiscal year, in the first stretch of phasing out a decades-long ban on alcohol imports. Import restrictions on other varieties of foreign alcohol will be eased later on, according to U Yan Naing Tun, deputy director general of the ministry.
“We’re now finalizing the import policy for foreign wines, and we will make a public announcement soon,” he said, adding that the specifics of the new rules, such as company criteria for licensing, have not yet been determined.
Kyaw Hsu Mon
Nestled among hundreds of identical white and brown two-storey homes crammed in this neighborhood for factory workers is a house with a trick— one not immediately apparent from its green-painted drywall and grey shade panels.
Hidden under the house and its wraparound porch are steel pontoons filled with Styrofoam. These can lift the structure three metres off the ground if this area, two hours north of Bangkok, floods as it did in 2011 when two-thirds of the country was inundated, affecting a fifth of its 67 million people.
The 2.8 million baht (US$86,000) amphibious house in Ban Sang village is one way architects, developers and governments around the world are brainstorming solutions as climate change brews storms, floods and rising sea levels that threaten communities in low-lying coastal cities.
“We can try to build walls to keep the water out, but that might not be a sustainable permanent solution,” said architect Chuta Sinthuphan of SiteSpecific Co. Ltd, the firm that designed and built the house for Thailand’s National Housing Authority.
“It’s better not to fight nature, but to work with nature, and amphibious architecture is one answer,” said Chuta,
who is organizing the first international conference on amphibious architecture in Bangkok in late August.
Asia is the region most affected by disasters, with 714,000 deaths from natural disasters between 2004 and 2013—more than triple the previous decade—and economic losses topping $560 billion, according to the United Nations.
Some 2.1 billion people live in the region’s fast-growing cities and towns, and many of these urban areas are located in vulnerable low-lying coastal areas and river deltas, with the poorest and most marginalized communities often waterlogged year-round.
For Thailand, which endures annual floods during its monsoon season, the worsening flood risks became clear in 2011 as panicked Bangkok residents rushed to sandbag and build retaining walls to keep their homes from flooding.
Vast parts of the capital—which is normally protected from the seasonal floods—were hit, as were factories at enormous industrial estates in nearby provinces such as Ayutthaya. Damage and losses reached $50 billion, according to the World Bank.
And the situation is worsening. A 2013 World Bank-OECD study forecast average global flood losses multiplying from $6 billion per year in 2005 to $52 billion a year by 2050.
In Thailand, as across the region, more and more construction projects are returning to using traditional structures to deal with floods, such as stilts and buildings on barges or rafts.
Bangkok is now taking bids for the construction of a 300-bed hospital for the elderly that will be built four
metres above the ground, supported by a structure set on flood-prone land near shrimp and sea-salt farms in the city’s southernmost district on the Gulf of Thailand, said Supachai Tantikom, an advisor to the governor.
For Thailand’s National Housing Authority (NHA)—a state enterprise that focuses on low-income housing— the 2011 floods reshaped the agency’s goals, and led to experiments in coping with more extreme weather.
The amphibious house, built over a manmade hole that can be flooded, was completed and tested in September 2013. The home rose 85 cm (2.8 feet) as the large dugout space under the house was filled with water.
In August, construction is set to begin on another flood-resistant project—a 3 million baht ($93,000) floating one-storey house on a lake near Bangkok’s main international airport.
“Right now we’re testing this in order to understand the parameters. Who knows? Maybe in the future there might be even more flooding... and we would need to have permanent housing like this,” said Thepa Chansiri, director of the NHA’s department of research and development.
The 100 square metre (1,000 square foot) floating house will be anchored to the lakeshore, complete with electricity and flexible-pipe plumbing.
Like the amphibious house, the floating house is an experiment for the NHA to understand what construction materials work best and how fast such housing could be built in the event of floods and displacement.
The projects in Thailand are a throwback to an era when Bangkok was known as the Venice of the East, with canals that crisscrossed the city serving as key transportation routes. At that time, most residents lived on water or land that was regularly inundated.
“One of the best projects I’ve seen to cope with climate-related disasters is Bangkok in 1850. The city was 90 percent on water—living on barges on water,” said Koen Olthuis, founder of Waterstudio, a Dutch architecture and urban planning firm.
“There was no flood risk, there was no damage. The water came, the houses moved up and down,” he said by telephone from the Netherlands.
Olthuis started Waterstudio in 2003 because he was frustrated that the Dutch were building on land in a floodprone country surrounded by water, while people who lived in houseboats on the water in Amsterdam “never had to worry about flooding.”
His firm now trains people from around the world in techniques they can adapt for their countries. It balances high-end projects in Dubai and the Maldives with work in slums in countries such as Bangladesh, Uganda and Indonesia.
One common solution for vulnerable communities has been to relocate them to higher ground outside urban areas—but many people work in the city and do not want to move.
Olthuis says the solution is to expand cities onto the water.
Waterstudio has designed a shipping container that floats on a simple frame containing 15,000 plastic bottles. The structure can be used as a school, bakery or Internet cafe.
Waterstudio’s aim is to test these containers in Bangladesh slums, giving communities flood-safe floating public structures that would not take up land, interfere with municipal rules or threaten landowners who don’t want permanent new slums.
“Many cities worldwide have sold their land to developers... and now when we go to them, we say, ‘You don’t have land anymore, but you have water,’” Olthuis said. “If your community is affected by water, the safest place to be is on the water.”
“It's better not to fight nature, but to work with nature.”
—Architect Chuta SinthuphanPHOTO: REUTERS
Culture: Women Pull the Strings
OF INDIA
Forgotten forts along the Ayeyarwady River mark the dying days of Myanmar’s last royal dynasty
By ZARNI MANN / MIN HLA, MAGWE REGION
The dusty roads and high temperatures at Min Hla, a small town in Magwe Region resting on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, recall any other central Myanmar locale. But any apparent ordinariness is belied by the site's rich history of bitterness and bravery, invasion and resistance, irrevocably linked to the waning days of the Konbaung Dynasty.
After the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, the British had annexed all of lower Myanmar, including Yangon and Bago. In 1854, British troops were deployed at Thayat, about 60 miles south of Min Hla and close to territory still held by the Myanmar kingdom.
The Royal Palace took this as a sign of another impending invasion and Crown Prince Kanaung, the younger brother of King Mindon, began preparations to establish forts at Min Hla and Kway Chaung on opposing banks of the Ayeyarwady River in 1860.
Now over 150 years old, the gigantic red brick Min Hla fort on the river’s edge, built with the assistance of two Italian engineers, Commotto and Molinari, is a lasting relic of an era of upheaval.
According to historical records, 35 cannons were installed at Min Hla fort, which also housed a small telegram room, soldiers’ quarters, an armory and commanders’ offices. Located about 300 yards north was a small telegram office which relayed communications to the fort.
Min Hla fort was called into action in November 1885 when the British sailed up the Irrawaddy River to claim the Royal Palace at Mandalay during the decisive Third Anglo-Burmese War.
After war was declared, Myanmar troops readied cannons and other weapons at Min Hla fort, Kway Chaung fort and Sin Paung Wae fort and at dugouts at Pan Daw Pyin and Htoo Pauk, all located along the Ayeyarwady River.
Myanmar vessels, including some steamers armed with small cannons and canoes with armed rowers, spread out along the river and waited for the appearance of one of the world’s strongest navies.
The British overcame the downstream defenses only a few days after the war began on Nov. 14. Min Hla fort and its sister fort of Kyaw Chaung became the last major hope of defending the royal capital. The commander of the frontline forces sent an urgent
telegram to Mandalay requesting reinforcements.
On Nov. 17, the British laid siege to Kway Chaung fort with naval and infantry units. It was soon abandoned by Myanmar troops after their commander and dozens of soldiers were killed.
Around this time, a telegram from the Royal Palace had arrived at Min Hla. It read: “Do not defend against the British. Defenders will be noted as rebels.” At the same time, another contradictory telegram reached the front lines: “Go on with the battle. The
reinforcements will be there soon.”
The two opposing telegrams, the result of fissures within the country’s leadership, confused commanders and soldiers on the front line. At Min Hla, commanders ordered their troops to fight back against the British.
One of the commanders, Min Htin Min Hla Yekhaung Thurein, was noted as saying, “I will never take the British as my lord. Just let me die while fighting them.”
However, by the evening of Nov. 17, Min Hla fort had fallen to the British.
The triumphant British troops then sailed up the Ayeyarwady River to Mandalay, swiftly overcoming other Myanmar fortifications with heavy artillery. At Thabyaytan fort located near Amarapura, Myanmar troops who had received the royal order not to resist, stood silently with gritted teeth as they watched the British navy pass by.
These days, the historic forts of the last Myanmar royal dynasty are under the care of the Ministry of Culture. However, most have long been abandoned to nature. A sign outside the Min Hla fort says the ministry assumed responsibility for its maintenance in 1957.
Min Hla fort is a major tourist attraction for those who take a cruise along the Ayeyarwady River. However, the façade of the fort has partially collapsed into the river due to the erosion of the riverbank. Local residents in Min Hla said the government had neglected to maintain the historically significant structure.
“Since the history of this fort is failure, the authorities show no interest in its maintenance,” said U Hla Maung Win, a 62-year-old elder in the town.
Proof of the fort’s neglected place in history was evident in 2013, when locals and amateur historians planned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Min Hla and Kway Chaung forts. According to local residents, a permit to hold a ceremony, donate alms to monks and read aloud patriotic poems at the Min Hla fort site was denied.
“The group went to Kway Chaung fort to hold the ceremony. But after about 30 minutes, some men who called themselves [officials] from the Ministry of Culture arrived and forced them to stop without giving any reason,” U Hla Maung Win said.
“It is such a shame they want to wipe out this history from the present. Failure or triumph, history is history and these forts are heritage we need to maintain.”
Min Hla can be reached by bus or car from Magwe. The journey is around 37 miles. Small motorized boats can be hired at Min Hla to cross the river to Kway Chaung fort. There are several local travel agencies operating cruise tours along the river between Pyay and Mandalay which pass through the Min Hla area.
Ma Toe Toe was in her twenties when a senior male puppeteer and close friend first taught her the art form that would eventually become her profession.
“I was introduced to puppetry in 1998, and I soon got hooked,” recalled the puppeteer who now manipulates the strings nightly at the Mandalay Marionettes Theater and whose sister is a harpist with the group.
Traditional puppetry was once performed as entertainment for Myanmar’s royalty and on street stages during carnivals and events, including Buddhist full moon days.
The shows thought to date back to the late 1700s were also popular among rural populations, and
performances often lasted an entire night.
Under the previous military junta, Myanmar’s marionette operas became a dying art and were only performed for a handful of foreign tourists. For some years, Ma Toe Toe worked primarily entertaining
The revival is owed most to the chair of the Myanmar Puppeteer Association Daw Ma Ma Naing, who co-founded the Mandalay Marionettes Theater in 1990.
Public interest is growing again at last, she said.
“These days, the art is transforming,” she said, explaining that puppetry is now also taking on current issues such as health awareness and human trafficking.
Beginning earlier this year, puppeteers now perform shows twice a month at the Mandalay National Theater. One performance is a 45-minute awareness-raising drama, “Tear from the Sky,” which explores the issue of child trafficking, Daw Ma Ma Naing said.
The troupe appeared at an event to mark the 100th birthday of Gen. Aung San in Nat Mauk, Magwe Region, in February, together with the Yangon-based Htwe Oo Myanmar Puppetry group.
Left: Ma Toe Toe and Ma Han Su Yin
Below: Marionettes at rest backstage
tourists at hotels in Bagan in central Myanmar and her career looked precarious.
Now with nascent political and economic reforms since 2011 and a boom in tourist arrivals, the culturally significant art form is back in the spotlight and the role of
the puppeteer is increasingly being viewed as a potential career option for young artists, including women.
In September 2014, the Myanmar Puppeteer Association was formed, and performances now take place in some schools and at the National Theatre in Mandalay.
ALL PHOTOS: NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY“Many people in the audience showed a lot of interest in this rare art,” Ma Toe Toe recalled with a broad smile.
Daw Ma Ma Naing has helped lead the way in recent years to ensure the unique art retains its place in Myanmar’s cultural landscape.
In a globalized economy, she warned, “Our culture is in danger of extinction due to foreign cultural influences.” She said a firm commitment to her work and a healthy dose of stubbornness had helped her to continue.
Daw Ma Ma Naing performed street puppet shows to rural audiences in more than 50 villages across Mandalay and Sagaing Regions from 1995 to 2007. Though she was not from a puppetry background, she was a quick learner.
Since founding the Marionettes Theater, she has recruited both professional puppet masters and a new generation of performers.
It's vital to have a real “interest in the art,” according to Ma Toe Toe, as the skills for mastering puppetry
only develop with plenty of practice. She learned the basics in ten days, but mastering the ability to play all the characters took a lot longer
She has now been a puppeteer for more than 17 years.
Today Ma Toe Toe is one of seven women pulling the strings at the Marionettes Theater, the only venue in Mandalay where tourists can enjoy the traditional artform. One-hour shows take place every night from 8.30 pm and are primarily targeted at foreign tourists.
Egyptian tourist, Susanne, told The Irrawaddy, “it was a special show” after a recent performance. But while the shows are popular with foreigners, so far few Myanmar attend, according to Daw Ma Ma Naing.
Prominent local writer Hus Nget said many youth still lacked appetite for the art.
“Despite it being a career option for young artists in this touristdriven economy, we don't see many youth interested in the art itself,” he said.
It was fortunate that puppet lovers such as Daw Ma Ma Naing and a few other small troupes were trying to maintain the art, Hus Nget said, but it was a difficult job.
Artists also needed to master the singing techniques that accompany traditional Myanmar puppetry, he added.
“Mandalay lost its good vocalists in puppetry about forty years ago,” he said.
The small Mandalay theater employs about 30 staff who balance multiple roles including making the puppets, dancing, singing, playing the harp, and manipulating the puppets for the audience.
“I dance when we need a dancer, I play harp when we need a harpist and I pull the strings when we need a puppeteer to make the dolls dance,” said another female puppeteer, Ma Han Su Yin.
Now 27, she developed her skills from an early age with the help of a special tutor: her mother, Daw Ma Ma Naing.
“At that time, we lived in the theater, which was a stage at night and a home as well,” Ma Han Su Yin said.
A puppeteer by night and a hairdresser during the day—while also running a beauty salon— Ma Han Su Yin shared her hope that the art form her mother helped to preserve will once again attract a local audience.
“As a youth, I try to balance work and my interest in the traditions we should maintain,” she said.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked by a pro-junta militia, leading to the deaths of up to 70 of her supporters.
“That time, Aung San Suu Kyi was campaigning in a long convoy from place to place, which was a concern for our government,” the book reads. “When the convoy of Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Monywa from Mandalay, the SPDC chairman [Than Shwe] summoned me and four or five other senior leaders and told us to stop the convoy by all means. I said we should not use violence and the leader did not agree with me. Then he did not assign the duty to me, instead asking Lt-Gen Soe Win to handle it.”
should I apologize?” U Khin Nyunt infamously retorted in 2013 when asked by a reporter whether he would express contrition for his role in Myanmar’s former military junta. If the former prime minister’s new autobiography is any measure, his quest to find a suitable cause for atonement continues.
To
Released in early March, the Myanmar-language “My Life Experience” covers the former general’s rise through the country’s armed forces to the head of Military Intelligence (MI), his role in negotiating peace with the disparate ethnic armies and drug lords, and his rocky tenure as prime minister of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which ended in his unceremonious dumping and detention in October 2004.
As a protégé of former dictator Gen. Ne Win, U Khin Nyunt remained a resolute defender of the crackdown on nationwide democracy protests in 1988, which ushered in 22 more years of military rule.
“It was not a coup, but an action by the army to ensure the
safety of the people,” he wrote.
The former prime minister’s esteem remains intact for Snr.-Gen. Than Shwe, the long-serving former chairman of the SPDC, with the new memoir fondly reflecting on their 50year association.
“We discharged military and State duties together for a very long time and it is true that we had mutual respect,” he wrote. “I accomplished any duty assigned by Snr-Gen Than Shwe as he was my superior and leader of the State. I believe he also had trust in me and was friendly toward me.”
The former prime minister appears to bear no animosity toward Myanmar’s last dictator, despite U Khin Nyunt’s 44-year sentence on corruption charges being widely viewed as the endgame in a power struggle between the two figures.
“It can’t be that I was punished solely through his desire,” he wrote. “There were certain persons who persuaded him and made him take action against me, and I know who they are. But, I don’t want to reveal them. Let it be.” Nonetheless, U Khin Nyunt readily implicates Snr.-Gen. Than Shwe in the 2003 Depayin Massacre, during which a convoy transporting National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman
U Khin Nyunt’s 2004 downfall was soon followed by the dissolution of Military Intelligence, a sprawling network of agents across the country which spied on government officials and detained opposition activists, and which formed the core of the former prime minister’s support base. Many senior MI members were imprisoned as a result.
In his new book, U Khin Nyunt said he had petitioned the government to release his former MI staffers, and promised to ensure their fealty to the new, nominally civilian government.
“My staffers are not political prisoners and not rebels,” the book reads. “Maybe they did wrong out of their greed. In December 2013, I sent a letter to President U Thein Sein, telling him that I would take responsibility for my staffers who are still behind bars and I would make them pledge that they would be loyal to the country.”
While not confessing to any misdeeds of his own, U Khin Nyunt said he regretted the disbandment of Military Intelligence for the wrongful actions of a few, and accepted responsibility for the shortcomings of the unit.
“In fact, it is not that the entire MI was not good,” he wrote. “There were many good staffers. I couldn’t put any blame on them because I am a responsible person. I take it that I am responsible for all. I apologize on behalf of my staffers who did wrong.”
Excerpts from “My Life Experience” were translated by Thet Ko Ko.
“
whomU Khin Nyunt's new book
By NORA SWE / YANGON
Writers seek inspiration where they can, but rarely do strategies that don’t involve just buckling down at a desk actually work.
So it was when renowned writer Khin Myo Chit sought to ‘meet’ with ghosts of times past to help her write the book “Anawrahta of Burma.”
Alas, no ghosts appeared during Khin Myo Chit’s meditation sessions under a tree, says her grand-daughter Junior Win, who tried a similar
gambit while rummaging about in history herself.
Researching the 100-year-old story of Daw Khin Myo Chit and her husband U Khin Maung Latt, Junior Win closed her eyes and tried “meeting them in a dream” to find out what they would like to say.
The ghost-summons attempt didn’t work for her either. So now she just has to hope that the couple, whose lives crossed many significant events in Myanmar in the previous century, would be satisfied with her efforts at “digging through their
rubbish and memories, not knowing which should be disclosed and which kept secret.”
Junior Win’s self-produced book, “A Memory of My Grandparents,” to be released before Thingyan, opens in 1915, the year the couple were born within a few months of each other.
They met and married during the Second World War period, when times were exceedingly difficult. At one point during the Japanese occupation the cash-strapped couple tried their hand at selling slippers on
the streets of Yangon.
But they were also close to many of the most significant figures of the day, including Bogyoke Aung San and other leading political figures, as well as many writers, poets and journalists.
Khin Maung Latt was a tall, bookish-looking man whose “smiling lips showed kindness and sympathy,” says his granddaughter. He was a teacher most of his life, and a chief editor of the Working People’s Daily from 1963 to 1968.
Khin Myo Chit, whose birth name was Khin Mya, had a “tall, slim and rather weak body,” Junior Win writes. “But her stern face, sharp eyes, and firm voice showed her strong mind and her stubborn spirit.”
She was a resolute nationalist and a longtime contributor from the late 1930s to publications such as Dagon magazine, The Burma Journal, Oway,
The Working People’s Daily and The Guardian.
In her fifties, when she began publishing books in English, Khin Myo Chit started to make a wider mark.
There were shades of Agatha Christie in the title of the book “The 13 Carat Diamond and Other Stories” that came out in 1969.
Later books such as “Colourful Burma” (1976), “Burmese Scenes and Sketches” (1977) and “A Wonderland of Burmese Legends” (1984) went on to find avid local and international audiences at a time when Myanmar was sinking deeper into isolation and censorship was curtailing the topics writers could tackle.
As writers and educators in difficult times, life was rarely simple or carefree for the couple, but their airy wooden house in a tree-filled compound on Pyay Road was always a rich site of teaching, talking and writing among family, friends and visitors.
Khin Maung Latt died in 1996 and Khin Myo Chit passed away three years later.
Their home remains almost as they left it; its legacy of ideas and intellectual life spanning much of modern Myanmar’s history is kept quietly alive today by family members who work as writers, editors and translators and who all took part in this memory-filled work of research headed by a proud granddaughter.
“A Memory of My Grandparents” by Junior Win will be in local bookshops before the Thingyan holiday.
A richly textured new book captures the human stories behind many of Yangon’s beautiful but neglected old buildings
By THE IRRAWADDY
“
There is a Burmese saying that you will have your golden umbrella once in your lifetime,” says Daw Thida, who has lived all her life in a once all-teak wooden house called the Pinlon Lodge on Kabar Aye Pagoda Road.
Daw Thida’s formerly prosperous trading family bought the property in 1950 from a relative of the flamboyant Chinese tycoon Lim Chin Tsong.
When she was a girl, the house hummed with the noise and bustle of relatives, visitors, servants and nannies. But after the family’s importexport business was nationalized, gradually, “we seemed to become poor,” says the granddaughter of nationalist Daw Kyin Ein who was a founder of the Burmese Women’s Association in 1919.
Today, ceramic tiles dated from 1886 occasionally fall from the roof and the home's intricate parquet flooring “sounds like a xylophone.”
The mansion's golden years are long gone, but for Daw Thida and her husband Professor Saw Tin, it is still a warm home; patched up and altered, but rich beyond any developer’s price with its dignified, modest routines and its trove of memories.
That sense of dignity and warmth pervades the new book “Yangon Echoes,” which collects, in their own words, the stories of residents living in many of the former capital’s gorgeous but frequently neglected old buildings.
Behind the facades of buildings of high architectural worth live families whose relatives were connected to the Mandalay Palace and Myanmar’s
independence, and people barely scratching a living in structures that are little more than husks.
There’s the now empty and ghostly but still grand home of the ‘Stable’ faction of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League leader U Kyaw Nyein on University Avenue, whose visitors before Gen. Ne Win’s 1962 coup included U Nu, Chou En Lai and many other notables.
U Kyaw Nyein’s sons U Tun Kyaw Nyein and U Bo Kyaw Nyein were jailed for their part in protests over the funeral arrangements for U Thant in 1974 and eventually made successful lives in the United States. They now come back regularly and
Daw Khin Myat Thu, or ‘Mary,’ relaxing at home in Bo Yar Nyunt Street.are photographed reminiscing in their childhood home which has been unlived in since 1992.
Former civil servant U Aung Pe, 70, lives with his family under opensided corrugated iron on the roof of the historic Balthazar building on Bank Street. The perch might be leaky in the rainy season and the whole structure is falling apart, but they like living downtown. And, rooftop shacks have great views and a breeze.
Also downtown in a handsome but decrepit building slated for demolition are the family of a former longtime chef at the Strand Hotel who, when home, “would never explain a dish.” The family is beautifully captured here preparing to leave the mold and falling plaster
of their much-loved home behind, after they eventually agreed to move out while a new apartment block is constructed.
Many of Yangon’s old buildings look set to disappear and with them will go the stories and memories captured with charm and empathy in this beautifully presented and timely book. Some century-old structures featured here have already gone, just a blink in time following the 18 months that the author and photographer spent finding them. One hopes that many more, and the resilient people in them, will find a way to survive.
“Yangon Echoes,” by Virginia Henderson and Tim Webster, is published by River Books this month.
U Tun Kyaw Nyein and U Bo Kyaw Nyein in their now-empty former family home. that he has called home for more than 50 years.The award-winning restaurant chain Bawarchi comes with high expectations, and its mouthwatering curries don’t disappoint
By OLIVER GRUEN / YANGON
From Shan to Kachin to Japanese food, speakeasies to pizzerias, the area between Yangon’s central railway station and U Wisara Road has become a hot spot for lively bars and diverse cuisine.
There are fresh vegetables, fruit and fish served at street markets; fast food prepared by street vendors;
noodles and sushi; tea and cocktails— all within walking distance of Bogyoke Market.
Amid this hubbub of activity, where competition is high and choices abundant, award-winning Indian restaurant Bawarchi has now opened its doors.
First established in 1998 in Bangkok, Bawarchi has earned a reputation for delivering excellent traditional northern Indian cuisine.
With five branches in the Thai capital and eleven across India, the restaurant chain has expanded to cities as far-flung as Auckland, San Antonio and Dubai.
Bawarchi’s latest venture opened in Yangon’s Dagon Township near the Park Royal Hotel in late 2014.
After making reservations for a Sunday lunch a few days in advance, this reviewer arrived to find an ornately decorated interior dominated by wall-to-wall ebony woodcarvings. The smattering of Indian diners was the first good sign the restaurant would meet expectations.
The Hindi word “Bawarchi” means “chef” and in India almost everyone knows the 1972 film of the same name about a family with such a bad reputation that nobody wants to work as a cook for them. The opposite is true of this restaurant chain that has been awarded “Best of Bangkok” on numerous occasions.
Soon after placing our orders with the attentive and friendly staff, complimentary starters arrived—a very crisp flatbread with red sweet and sour sauce and a green spicy herbal dip. Perfect to awaken our appetites.
While our selections remained on the traditional side, we soon found the dishes retained a welcome modern twist.
The classic “Mulligatawny” (3,500 kyat), a lentil soup, was a rich yellow color, mildly seasoned and perfectly balanced, with an optional dose of lime juice added for a kick of freshness. It remained at almost the same temperature for minutes and was an ideal entrée.
We decided against beer, since the spices in the food would dominate. Instead we ordered lime juice (3,000 kyat) which, with a dash of salt and sugar and a slice of fresh lime, made for one of the best yet sampled in Yangon.
Other fresh fruit juices, soft drinks, cocktails, beers and whiskeys were available, including the astronomically-priced Johnnie Walker King George V Scotch Whiskey, at 40,000 kyat per glass.
All the main dishes were served simultaneously. “Bharwa Paneer Tikka” (5,500 kyat), made of chunks of paneer (a non-melting curdcheese) grilled on the tandoor, was tender on the inside and crisp on the outside. Served with tomatoes and loads of fresh coriander, it was an explosion of tastes and textures and a superb vegetarian alternative to chicken tikka.
“Raita” (3,500 kyat), a cool condiment made of cumin and black mustard, fresh vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, and fresh yoghurt, was a great partner for the “Karela Fish Curry” (6,500 kyat).
The Karela, a bitter melon also known as a gourd that is widely grown in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, was offset by the coconut milk and curry leaves and therefore shone through very elegantly. The fish was well textured and evenly cooked; not at all dry, but glossy and compact.
While there wasn’t much room left for the “Dal Bawarchi” (4,000
kyat), a vegetarian curry, it was hard to resist the slow-cooked black lentils and the creamy texture that was meltin-your-mouth stuff.
Ideal to wipe up the remainder of our curry and dal were servings of “Roti” (1,000 kyat), a flat, crispy type of bread from Punjabi roasted on the tandoor, and “Kulcha” (1,800 kyat) which was stuffed with onion and fluffy on the inside with a hint of sweetness.
Wine was not yet available, although the Bawarchi website lists an array of wines from all over the world. My one quibble is that none of these wines are from India. Last November, I sampled at least 10 different Indian wines during the Asian Wine Fair in Hong Kong, all of which would have met Bawarchi standards.
The chain plans to open two more restaurants in Yangon in the near future—a sign it is anticipating success in a city strongly influenced by Indian cuisine. Next time, appetite permitting, I’ll stay for dessert.
By KYAW HSU MON / MOGOK TOWNSHIP, Mandalay Region
Nestled in Pyaung Khaung Valley in the Shan Hills, some 20 kilometers east of Mogok, lies the town of Ywar Thar Yar, also known by its old name Bernardmyo, or Bernard Town.
Named after Upper Burma Chief Commissioner Sir Charles Edward Bernard, who founded it as an army garrison town in the early 1880s, Bernard Town is home to a remarkable piece of British-Myanmar heritage.
Overgrown with bushes and weeds on a beautiful Shan hillside, the 19th century British cemetery provides a sense of serenity and history, but also of sad neglect.
The tombstones offer sparse details on the lives of British soldiers who died between 1886 and 1893, following the Third Anglo-Burmese War, which estab-
lished British rule over Upper Myanmar but was followed by years of insurgency among the population.
The soldiers who died in Her Majesty’s name abroad have only their army units and date of their death mentioned. One tombstone reads: Pte. J. Pierree, 2nd Bttn, Cheshire Regn, died 16.4.1890.
The men came from four British regiments: the Devonshire, Hampshire, PWO Yorkshire and the Border Regiment.
According to a book titled The History of Mogok, written by Mogok resident U Htet Naing, British authorities decided to base troops at a military head office in Mogok in 1886, when the region was already known for its ruby wealth, and to station a garrison in the Pyaung Gaung region. Later, Bernard Town sprung up around the garrison, which constructed weapons depots, roads and bridges in the region.
Originally, the cemetery had some 100 tombstones to mark the graves of the fallen soldiers, according to elderly local residents, but these days only about 20 remain standing.
Bernard Town residents lamented the fact that the site has fallen into neglect and said authorities should take steps to preserve it, in particular since it has been attracting a rising number of foreign tourists in recent years.
“When I was child, there were many grave stones around the cemetery. We used to play around here, but later some residents took some of the grave stones to use as a slab to wash clothes on,” said Ko Aung Naing, 35. “There is no one to take action against it, that’s why there are fewer and fewer grave stones left.”
Another threat to the site is the region’s mineral wealth: Just meters from the graves is a massive, red-colored mud stream that has washed down from a mining site on a hilltop where workers are searching for rubies and sapphires.
Foreigners have been allowed to visit Mogok, considered sensitive by authorities because of ruby mining, since 2013. They are required to first gain prior government permission for a tourist visit, a process that can be facilitated by a local travel agent but may take up to two weeks.
Ko Aung Naing said since the rise in tourist visits authorities paid some more attention to the site and built a boundary around it, but otherwise nothing was being done to preserve it.
U Htet Naing, author of the history book, said Mogok Township authorities should take steps to protect the graves and improve access for those who want to visit. “This is our Mogok history, we will have to maintain it and prevent it from being wiped out because of natural disasters and man-made mistakes,” he said.
