No Longer a Pariah, but Still Near the Back of the Pack

Myanmar’s international standing has greatly improved, but it is still in bad company as far as human rights are concerned

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN / YANGON

Sept. 13 should have been a joyous day for the Le Quoc family in Hanoi. But with prodemocracy campaigner Le Quoc Quan in jail since late 2012 on charges of tax evasion, the detained lawyer’s birthday made for a somber occasion.

The day came and went, and Le Quoc’s fate was still up in the air. “Noone knows when he will go to trial,” his brother Le Quoc Quyet told The Irrawaddy after a June hearing was suspended because it clashed with a visit to the US by Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang. It was not until a week after his birthday that the lawyer was given a new trial date, Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, land rights activists Tep Vanny and Yorm Bopha have been or are in jail over protests about Boeung Kak, a landfilled lake in the heart of Phnom Penh near which the two women live. Some 3,500 families have been evicted from the lakeside to make way for offices and apartments to be built by a company owned by a senior lawmaker from Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

This correspondent spoke to both women at the Phnom Penh prison where Yorm Bopha is halfway into a two-year jail sentence for assault— charges which sound as trumped-up as those against Le Quoc Quan.

Yorm Bopha protested on behalf of Tep Vanny when the latter was in jail. Now the favor is being returned, with Tep Vanny visiting Bopha in jail and protesting for her release. “We are like sisters now, we think the same and support each other,” Tep Vanny told The Irrawaddy in early September.

Stories like these—which could be told about dozens of activists in both countries—show how far these two latecomers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have yet to go to establish even the most basic standards of human rights. And they are not alone.

The two other countries that have joined Asean since 1995 are also showing little or no progress on rights reforms. Communist-ruled Laos, which entered the regional bloc in 1997 alongside Myanmar, is coming under increasing pressure over its suspected involvement in the disappearance of prominent activist Sombath Somphone. Sombath—a winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often called Asia’s Nobel Prize)—vanished without a trace last December.

Myanmar, a country that held free and fair by-elections last year, would at least seem to be doing better than Cambodia, where the ruling CPP is accused of cheating in a closely fought election in July. And possible plans to amend Myanmar’s draconian Internet laws stand in stark contrast to Vietnam’s recent retrograde steps to restrict social media users from posting news online.

But none of this means that the former black sheep of Asean is now a beacon. The cyber code hasn’t been changed yet, and there’s a draft law that reads like a government ploy to curb civil society.

Even Myanmar’s much-lauded release of political prisoners over the past two years is looking a lot less impressive these days, as a growing number of protesters opposed to land grabs land in prison—like Naw Ohn Hla, a regular protester against injustices under Myanmar’s former military government, who was summarily sentenced to two years with hard labor on Aug. 29 for demonstrating against the Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Region.

For now, then, Myanmar barely rises above being the best of a bad lot—not high praise for a country that has become Asean’s poster child of reform.

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Mention “Myanmar’s former capital” and most people will assume you’re talking about Yangon, the nation’s largest city and its seat of power until it was supplanted in that role by Naypyitaw in 2005. But actually, Myanmar has had many capitals over its long history, all of which make fascinating travel destinations for visitors looking for a glimpse into the country’s ancient past.

If you’re travelling to Mandalay, there are several you could visit— including Mandalay itself, which was Myanmar’s last royal capital until it fell to the British in November 1885. Founded in 1857 by King Mindon, it was preceded by Amarapura, which was established by another member of the Konbaung dynasty, King Bodawpaya, in 1783.

These days, urban sprawl has turned Amarapura—located just 11 km south of Mandalay—into part of Myanmar’s second largest city. But go another 10 km to the south and cross the Myitnge River, and you will find yet another erstwhile capital that still stands apart from the rest: Inwa.

Built in 1364 by King Thadominbya, who claimed descent from the Bagan kings whose mighty empire fell to the Mongols at the end of the 13th century, Inwa went on to serve as a center of power for successive dynasties until the early 19th century. Although it was not the capital for five unbroken