The Irrawaddy Magazine(Oct.2014, Nov.21 No.9)

Irrawaddy

TheIrrawaddy

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

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aung Zaw

EDITOR (English Edition): Kyaw Zwa Moe

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sandy Barron

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

CONTRIBUTORS to this issue: Bertil Lintner; Grace Harrison; Kyaw Hsu Mon; Kyaw Phyo Tha; Kyaw Zwa Moe; Lawi Weng; Nyein Nyein; Samantha Michaels; Saw Yan Naing; Simon Lewis; Simon Roughneen; William Boot; Yan Pai; Zarni Mann.

PHOTOGRAPHERS : JPaing; Sai Zaw; Hein Htet.

LAYOUT DESIGNER: Banjong Banriankit

SENIOR MANAGER : Win Thu (Regional Office)

MANAGER: Phyo Thu Htet (Yangon Bureau)

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COVER PHOTO : Piyavit Thongsa-ard

FEATURES

16 | Politics: A Divisive Peace

Deep disagreements and lack of mutual trust on key issues are clouding hopes for a lasting deal

20 | Society: Sex Sells in Sin City

Mostly serviced by women from China, Mong La’s sex industry is becoming a magnet for women from other parts of Myanmar

24 |

Profile: Myanmar’s Mother of Nursing

One woman’s journey from a life of privilege to a lifetime of service

28 | Society: The Muslims of Myanmar

Rhetoric from al-Qaeda firebrand will find no fertile ground here

30 | COVER Malaria’s New Frontline

Drug-resistant malaria is a growing global threat, and eastern Myanmar is at the forefront of efforts to stop it dead in its tracks

BUSINESS

41 | City Plan: Yangon Expansion

Opaque city expansion contract highlights how dodgy deals aren’t a thing of the past

44 |

Interview: Tourism’s New Trails

46 | Business: Gold Leaf Threat

Local manufacturers fear foreign rivals

50 | Signposts: Taiwan ups investment

REGIONAL

52 | Indonesia: Jokowi Era Dawns

As Indonesia’s new president prepares for his inauguration, political jostling continues behind the scenes

ADB on How to Get

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released a 217-page report in September assessing the trajectory of Myanmar’s economy. The report, titled “Myanmar: Unlocking the potential,” predicts that annual gross domestic product growth of 9.5 percent is possible, but identifies the massive scale of investment needed to get there.

More than US$80 billion would be required by 2030, the report concluded, including investing in much needed physical infrastructure, poverty reduction and, crucially, in human capital to create an educated workforce befitting of a modern economy.

ADB’s assistant chief economist Cyn-Young Park and Myanmar country director Winfried Wicklein spoke with The Irrawaddy’s Simon Lewis as the report was launched, discussing what the Myanmar government’s priorities for the economy should be.

What is the general approach you think the government needs to take, to get to your higher GDP growth forecast?

Cyn-Young Park : Doing this study, three things come out very clearly for us. The main thing is stability. Economic, social, political—those things are really fundamental.

In terms of policy priorities, what comes out is that the country needs to make a lot of investment—now— for the future. That includes the infrastructure, that includes the human capital and it includes putting business in an investment-friendly [environment].

Those are the second steps. You do need that foundation of stability. Then you need to make a really core investment. And then, be more strategic in choosing what are the sectoral strengths the country has, and then target them, together with very well defined sectoral and industrial policies. So investment is the key.

So the country has to be more strategic, rather than reactively accepting the projects donors suggest?

Cyn-Young Park : There has to be a little bit of central coordination. One way we try to help the government is by helping to coordinate among all these different things that are going on, in every corner of the economy, every corner of the country.

Finally, what’s really important is to stay open and connected. The country just opened up. And there is a risk, always. If there’s any sort of turbulence, anything that happens, in times of crisis, many countries in the region have also experienced that there’s a backtracking and a retreating from the openness and being connected to other countries. Especially for Myanmar, being strategically positioned, within Southeast Asia, linking to China and India.

You mentioned the country has to invest early. The report shows that government spending is very low compared with other countries in the region. So you’re saying that government spending needs to go up?

Cyn-Young Park: To be able to make that investment, the government does need to accelerate its fiscal reform. They have to start mobilizing more

actively the domestic resources. There are places they can work very hard, like in terms of tax collection, tax administration. They can introduce new taxes. They need to make sure that they get very stable and adequate streams of domestic revenues for that kind of investment. You cannot spend if you don’t have stable sources of income. So the government does need to do that.

What kind of approaches to poverty reduction should the government take?

Get Growth

as we’ve seen with the Japan International Cooperation Agency projects in Kayin State. Is this a concern for you?

Winfried Wicklein : The country had been closed for 50 to 60 years. On both sides there’s a lack of experience and knowledge and confidence—trust. So this has to be built. When you’re new, you have to catch up, so of course it’s a process that will take time. You have to be sensitive to cultural specificities of the cultures of the regions and the states and the villages. And a lot of preparation is needed, a lot of dialogue is needed, a lot of consultation is needed. We, for our part, are careful not to move too fast into areas we don’t know.

Now we are at a stage in our learning process that we are approaching projects through the conflict sensitivity lens. We are putting together a conflict sensitivity strategy for every single thing we do in this country.

We are taking a step in terms of regional strategies into Kayin State. We are working on the east-west corridor, the extension from Da Nang, Vietnam, through Laos, Thailand, and the last stretch now from Myawaddy to Yangon. We are funding about 80-odd kilometers of the road next year.

Cyn-Young Park: In terms of poverty, what strikes us is a really very visible division of poverty along ethnic and Division lines. There’s a tendency if you are living in an urban area, if you are Burman, you are less likely suffering than if you are living in a rural area and you’re in an ethnic minority group; then there are much higher poverty rates.

The growth has to be targeted to be much more broadly based, and it has to be balanced across the different regions. One of the ways the government has to really consider is how to effectively

decentralize some functions. A lot of decentralization efforts are going on, but also the capacity in the regional level is very weak. It needs funding. The regional development has to be funded from the regional base. It’s a very difficult task for the government, because of the situation in the country, but the key, really, to that regionally balanced development, would be much more sensible decentralization, backed by real powers.

In ethnic areas, people have been suspicious of aid projects,

Around that road, through Kayin State, we are now very active in creating opportunities. We are supporting economic corridor towns. We are supporting rural infrastructure—going from the big road into the rural areas, including for regional tourism.

We are now engaging with the Kayin State government and with local NGOs and communities to make sure that everybody is not only OK with it, but really happy and needs it, and that we hit the right spot. 

PHOTO: SIMON LEWIS/THE IRRAWADDY

Cyn-Young Park, an assistant chief economist at the ADB, speaking in Yangon

QUOTES

“We would like Rakhine State to be a fair, developed and prosperous state for everyone, regardless of their race or religion.”

—Ma Wai Wai Nu, Rohingya activist

The Elephant in the Room

“The more that democracy takes hold, the less important the role of the military will be.”

—President U Thein Sein speaking to the press in Switzerland

“Myanmar is a country with many ethnic groups and for economic growth, peace is of course required, and peace requires compromise and tolerance with regard to minorities.”

—German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Myanmar’s President Visits Germany

equality and tolerance towards minorities.

MSF Eyes Return to Rakhine State

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Myanmar’s President U Thein Sein on Sept. 3 in Berlin, where they agreed on some of the priorities for Myanmar, but not on the order in which they should be pursued. Ms. Merkel said that for good economic development in the country, peace was required and that would entail promoting

President U Thein Sein, however, put it the other way round, saying that democratization was made easier if countries first enjoyed economic success. He also pointed out that during three years of democratic reforms, the country had seen many difficulties but that his government had nevertheless been able to pursue reforms without spilling blood. Ms. Merkel acknowledged that a lot had been achieved in Myanmar since its political transition from military rule in 2011 and expressed hope that the 2015 general election would be free, fair and transparent and that all prospective candidates would have the opportunity to represent their party. —Reuters

International medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Myanmar government, paving the way for the group’s return to Rakhine State and the resumption of vital aid operations. In a statement released on Sept. 9, MSF said that it welcomed steps taken by the Ministry of Health to work with the group and establish a framework for their medical activities in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan states, as well as Yangon Region.

In late February, the central government suspended all of MSF’s operations in the country, alleging that it had violated certain conditions of its existing MoU during aid activities in Rakhine State. The new MoU will allow MSF, the Ministry of Health and other departments to work together to ensure the best possible care for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria patients in Myanmar. MSF is the main provider of medical services to over 1 million stateless Rohingya in western Myanmar, some 140,000 of whom remain displaced, living in squalid, overcrowded camps, since sectarian violence broke out in the state in mid-2012. Rohingya are denied full access to basic government services such as health care and education.

—Saw Yan Naing

President U Thein Sein and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) review the guard of honor of the German armed forces before talks in Berlin on Sept. 3, 2014.

New Security Chief Appointed

to his current rank in July. He is a graduate of the 25th intake of the prestigious Defense Services Academy, and is thought to be trusted by those at the highest levels of Myanmar’s military establishment. He had served as chief of staff (army) since 2012.

Thai Director Studies Old Battlegrounds

Myanmar’s military carried out a reshuffle of its top brass on Sept. 8, with former chief of staff (army) Lt.-Gen. Mya Tun Oo appointed to two new roles including head of the military’s security agency. Military sources said the reshuffle sees Lt.-Gen. Mya Tun Oo appointed chief of Military Security Affairs and head of Bureau of Special Operations No. 6 Naypyitaw. Seen as a potential future military Commander-in-Chief, Lt.-Gen. Mya Tun Oo was only promoted from major general

The former Military Security Affairs chief Lt.-Gen. Kyaw Swe takes over as the chief of staff (army), a role he will fill concurrently with his position as head of Bureau of Special Operations No. 5. Commander of Yangon Command Maj.-Gen. Hsan Oo was also promoted to adjutant general, and the former adjutant general Lt.-Gen. Khin Zaw Oo was assigned as the head of Bureau of Special Operations No. 4. Commander of Northern Command Maj.Gen. Tun Tun Naung was appointed commander of Yangon Command, sources said. —Yan Paing

A film director from Thailand’s royal family has visited Myanmar for pre-production research before shooting the latest in a film series about an ancient Thai king. “The Legend of King Naresuan Part VI,” which will be filmed in Thailand, will feature a re-enactment of the Thai king’s attack on Taungoo in Myanmar’s Bago Region. The director, Chatrichalerm Yukol, came to Myanmar in early September to study the historic battlegrounds for two days, according to historian U Mya Thaung, who helped guide the film crew around the city. King Naresuan ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1590 until his death in 1605.

The film crew studied the area near Kywemagu and Yenwe creeks, where Naresuan stationed his troops, and along Sittaung River, where the troops marched on their way to Taungoo. Myanmar king, Bayinnaung, took 9-year-old Naresuan hostage to Hanthawaddy, the capital of the Myanmar kingdom of the same name, in a bid to keep Naresuan’s Ayutthaya kingdom subservient. In captivity, Naresuan learned military and leadership skills at a Myanmar monastery and, after the Myanmar king passed away, Naresuan fought the king’s successor, Nanda, for Ayutthaya’s independence in 1584. Last June, “The Legend of King Naresuan Part V” was shown at cinemas across Thailand by the Thai government in an attempt to boost nationalism. —Yan Paing

Myanmar’s Population Less Than Expected, at 51 Million

Myanmar’s first nationwide census in more than 30 years revealed that the country’s population is just 51.4 million, according to provisional data released on Aug. 30. The figure is significantly less than the government’s widely cited estimate of 60 million. The United Nations Population Fund assisted the census data collection process, surveying almost 11 million households.

Census data collectors also visited hospitals, tea shops and some camps for Internally Displaced Persons to collect information.

However, media reports suggested that Myanmar authorities failed to collect information from

sensitive conflict-hit regions such as Rakhine and Kachin States. Salai Isaac Khen, director of the Gender and Development Initiative Myanmar who is also a member of the National Technical Advisory Board for the census, said that the census served as a reminder that the government had to be very careful in handling issues of ethnicity. Rohingya living in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State were barred from selfidentifying on the census and most were not enumerated. According to Immigration Minister, U Khin Yi, there are 1.33 million Rohingya living in Myanmar. The lower-thanexpected population total could

impact development planning, said Salai Isaac Khen. When state budgets are devised for townships, they are calculated based on population.

—Yen Snaing

Lt.-Gen. Mya Tun Oo is pictured at the 67th Martyrs’ Day event in Yangon on July 19.

PHOTO: JPAING

THE IRRAWADDY

Salai Isaac Khen, executive director of the Gender and Development Initiative Myanmar

PHOTO: NYEIN CHAN

IN FOCUS

Kachin Weaving

A man dries cotton in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. Traditional Kachin weaving with its special designs and patterns is experiencing a rise in popularity as Myanmar opens up. In Myitkyina, ethnic Kachin and others who have settled in the city told visiting Irrawaddy correspondents that business is expanding along with a growth of visitors to the State capital.

PHOTO: THAW HEIN HTET / THE IRRAWADDY

Just Doing Our Job

But the dangers in carrying out public service reporting haven’t gone away

By KYAW ZWA MOE / YANGON

The Irrawaddy’s Myanmarlanguage journal and its Englishlanguage website first reported that the company belonged to the two Chinese businessmen, Messrs. Xiao Sen and Xiao Feng, who, according to several of our sources, are quite friendly with the chief minister. We reported that the two businessmen had also received business concessions in the past thanks to their close relations with other highranking officials in the former junta, including a retired major-general, former Construction Minister U Khin Maung Myint and former Yangon Mayor U Aung Thein Lin, who is now a member of the Lower House of Parliament.

One week later, as local journals and websites reported on the regional government’s lack of transparency, government officials backed down and said they would put out a tender for the development project in the near future, giving all private companies a chance to participate. However, business circles in Yangon remain skeptical.

Last month, The Irrawaddy disclosed information that the government wanted to keep hidden from the public, and as a result we are now on the “blacklist” of Yangon Region’s chief minister.

That’s what one lower-level minister in the regional government and a lawmaker in the regional legislature voluntarily told The Irrawaddy, though they requested anonymity.

The minister suggested that Irrawaddy reporters use pen names or forgo their bylines if they plan to continue writing investigative stories about the secrets of Chief Minister U Myint Swe.

The lawmaker claimed to have overheard the chief minister telling another official in the regional legislature that he was not pleased by our thorough reporting. “The Irrawaddy

should be put on the blacklist—see the critical stories they keep writing,” the lawmaker quoted the chief minister as saying.

On Sept. 2, an investigation by our news organization revealed the nepotism of U Myint Swe, who awarded the contract for a multi-billion dollar city expansion project to two Chinese businessmen who have had a close relationship with him for years. (To see the original report, turn to the Business section).

U Myint Swe’s regional government awarded the contract secretly to the businessmen’s largely unknown company, Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit. Without any prior consultation, the chief minister announced the decision to the regional legislature on Aug. 22, leading to criticism by lawmakers about a lack of transparency for such a major development project.

Our investigation was not intensive, but it did reveal the tip of a rampant practice of nepotism among highranking officials in the current central and local governments. And while we could have dug much deeper, it was enough to anger the chief minister.

U Myint Swe, however, is not atypical. For decades, government officials in Myanmar have been notorious for padding their pockets by granting lucrative business concessions to cronies and close family members. In the past, censorship prevented anyone inside the country from disclosing these murky deals that affected not only public assets but also natural resources.

“Nothing has changed,” a wellknown and wealthy businessman told me over the phone when I called to ask about U Myint Swe’s recent deal with the Chinese businessmen. He said Messrs. Xiao Sen and Xiao Feng, like some other lesser-known cronies in the country, do not appear on the US sanctions list.

According to a ranking by graft watchdog Transparency International,

Myanmar ranks 157 out of 177 countries on an index measuring the perceived amount of corruption in the public sector. Parliament passed an anti-corruption law in September last year, leading to the formation of an anti-corruption commission that is headed by and largely composed of former military officials.

Upper House Speaker U Khin Aung Myint told The Irrawaddy in early 2012 that fighting graft was the most important issue facing the country in its transition from half a century of military rule. He said he was approving a parliamentary committee to investigate how ministries spent their budgets and that the legislature would urge the government to take action when needed.

Two years later, it seems that little has been done. Last month, President

U Thein Sein acknowledged in a speech that bribery remains rampant. “Civil service officers need to change their morality and spirit to call for an end to corruption,” he said, calling for more progress in the anti-corruption campaign before his term ends in 2015.

The president talks the talk, but he does not walk the walk. If he was serious about tackling this problem, he would encourage the media to uncover the corruption of highranking members of his government who have secret business deals with cronies. Instead, journalists come under fire when they investigate such issues.

In 2012, for example, six key ministries were found to have misused millions of dollars in state funds, according to a government audit

report released to members of the Lower House. Local media wrote about the audit report, and one of the journals, The Voice Weekly, was charged with libel. The charge was later dropped, but nobody from the ministries was prosecuted.

And now The Irrawaddy has landed on the Yangon chief minister’s “blacklist.” These days, it seems to be more dangerous for journalists to report on corruption and nepotism than it is for them to cover political issues. The government may or may not be shifting toward democracy, but clearly it still has many secrets—very profitable secrets—that it refuses to reveal.

Kyaw Zwa Moe is the editor of the English-language edition of The Irrawaddy.

Prospective land buyers visit a village in Twante Township on Aug. 25. A plan to expand Yangon by 30,000 acres, taking in farmland west of the city, including in this township, was kept secret from the public until late August.

PHOTO: SAI ZAW / THE IRRAWADDY

A Divisive Peace

Deep disagreements and lack of mutual trust on key issues are clouding hopes for a lasting deal

By SAW YAN NAING / CHIANG MAI

Myanmar is enjoying a period of praise and support from the international community, even receiving millions of dollars in aid and investment for its reforms. At the heart of all this adulation is the peace process, the best-selling element in the nation’s transition.

Several European countries, the United States, Japan and China are

getting involved in or closely watching the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and ethnic armed groups, who are attempting to reach a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA).

However, deep disagreements and divisions are emerging among ethnic rebels.

Although ethnic pro-government leaders want to sign the NCA quickly, some who doubt the peace process

advise moving cautiously. The Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s longest-surviving ethnic rebel group, is a major proponent for signing the NCA as quickly as possible.

In late August, the KNU suspended its participation with an alliance of 12 ethnic armed groups—the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)— at a congress in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, raising concerns that the KNU would go solo on the NCA.

Karen National Union (KNU) soldiers at rest in Karen State

The KNU maintained that it wouldn’t sign the NCA alone but, rather, would work with the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), a working committee of 16 ethnic armed groups, to negotiate the terms of the NCA instead of working with the UNFC.

“The KNU doesn’t intend to sign a separate nationwide ceasefire accord with the government,” said KNU Chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe, in a statement.

“The NCCT will continue to negotiate the terms of the NCA, and when ethnic armed organizations are ready to sign the NCA, then we will move forward together,” he added.

Observers said that the KNU might be focusing on NCCT work to sideline the role of the UNFC, which the KNU regards as bloc-controlled and ineffective at decision-making.

Some Karen leaders who asked for anonymity said the KNU is not satisfied with the UNFC’s leadership because it is dominated by Kachin and

Mon rebels, who are historic enemies of the Karen.

Also present in the minds of KNU leaders are painful memories of the Kachin and Mon groups signing bilateral ceasefire accords with the government in the mid-1990s, leaving the Karen to bear the brunt of the government’s large-scale military offensives. At the time, the Kachin Independence Organization and the New Mon State Party were accused of signing the accords to benefit from lucrative business deals.

The KNU has faced similar accusations since agreeing to its own bilateral ceasefire in 2012, one year

after the Kachin Independence Army entered into renewed conflict with the government. While maintaining growing relations with the government, the KNU leaders received privileged chances to meet President U Thein Sein and the government army chief, Snr.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and other high-ranking officials in Naypyitaw.

KNU leaders who want to approach the peace-making program cautiously said that a pro-government faction led by KNU Chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe dominates the KNU leadership. This faction, they say, is not transparent about its meetings with government officials.

They don’t inform colleagues about

“The KNU doesn’t intend to sign a separate nationwide ceasefire accord with the government.”

—KNU Chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe

their trips to Naypyitaw, Yangon, and other cities, nor do they brief them properly on discussions with government officials, weakening unity among the KNU leadership and creating conflicts. Commenting on KNU perceptions of the UNFC, Nai Hong Sar, UNFC vice chairman, said,

“We have been practicing our policy for three years. The KNU never criticized it in the past. But now they are starting to criticize us and ask for totally new policies. So, they might have their own opinions.”

When asked if the KNU aims to sideline the UNFC and promote the NCCT’s role in the peace-making process, Nai Hong Sar did not refute it.

“That might be the case. But, it is not good to disclose [details] about it,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the UNFC-held

congress, the Myanmar government including President U Thein Sein and Snr.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing met on Aug. 25 with militarily strong ethnic rebels—the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), and ethnic Mongla rebels—in Naypyitaw, raising concerns that Naypyitaw is trying to catch the ‘big fishes’ of the UWSA, SSPP, and KNU to sign the ceasefire first, only later to open the door to the other ethnic groups, including other UNFC members.

According to sources who work closely with ethnic rebels, the ethnic and opposition armed groups that are likely to sign the NCA include the UWSA, the Restoration Council of Shan State, the National Democratic Alliance Army—also known as Mongla—the All Burma Students’ Democratic

Front, and probably the KNU. The government’s key peace negotiator, Minister Aung Min, is tipped to reach agreements this October.

Instead of addressing the political demands of ethnic rebels, the government appears to be moving forward with development and economic projects that it believes will put an end to the political interests of the ethnic minorities.

That approach has gained support from the international community as it buys into the idea that development and economic projects might push reforms more quickly and effectively than rehashing politics.

After spending millions of dollars in supporting exiled Myanmar dissident organizations, international donors are now channeling financial support to governmental bodies or governmentassociated organizations that promote peace and development.

Most financial support for peace and peace-related programs such as development, health, and education projects, go to the Yangonbased Myanmar Peace Center, the government-affiliated organization that has essentially become a government think tank. This body assists the government in dealing with not only ethnic rebels, but also foreign affairs.

During the meeting between President U Thein Sein and the ethnic rebels in Naypyitaw on Aug. 25, topics for discussion included development programs for education, health care, and rehabilitation work in ethnic areas.

Sources close to the government said that President U Thein Sein’s administration wants to secure the NCA before the end of his term. This, surely, is to enshrine the NCA as his legacy, as well as to move on economic and development projects in ethnic regions rather than working out political settlements.

“[The government] might have hidden ideas in mind,” said Nai Hong Sar. “But, they are also trying to include all [ethnic rebels] to reach the nationwide ceasefire agreement. We can only call it a nationwide ceasefire agreement when all ethnic armed groups sign the agreement.”

Nai Hong Sar, vice chairman of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)

PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY

“Instead of addressing the political demands of ethnic rebels, the government appears to be moving forward with development and economic projects.”

Sex Sells in Sin City

By LAWI WENG / MONG LA, SPECIAL REGION 4

Nowhere in culturally conservative Myanmar is it easier to find sex than in Mong La, a town on the country’s border with China with a reputation for the illicit. Dozens of prostitutes line two bridges in the center of town, scantily clad and freely distributing business cards that offer their bodies to passersby.

Potential customers pull up beside the women, and negotiations begin. Typically, these conversations take place in Chinese, the language used by most residents here. If a price is agreed to, it’s off to a room at one of a growing number of hotels in Mong La, part of an autonomous enclave in eastern Shan State known as Special Region 4.

While the sex industry exists in almost every part of the world, it is difficult to imagine a more open and flourishing trade than you will find here.

Along with the illegal gambling and animal trafficking that are also rampant here, Mong La’s sex industry primarily serves demand from China—which is also the source of many of the women selling their bodies here.

While China is frequently the destination for Myanmar victims of human trafficking, here in Mong La some Chinese sex workers have fallen prey to trafficking in the other

Mostly serviced by women from China, Mong La’s sex industry is becoming a magnet for women from other parts of Myanmar

Female sex workers solicit passersby on a bridge in Mong La, eastern Myanmar.

PHOTO: NANG SENG NOM / THE IRRAWADDY

direction. A 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province provided a major source of sex workers, according to an ethnic Shan woman who deals gold in Mong La. Much like Cyclone Nargis forced many Myanmar people into the

sex trade, the devastation wrought by the Sichuan quake left women there vulnerable to exploitation.

Lured by promises of jobs in Mong La, many women have been trafficked across the porous border by Chinese businessmen.

“For a month, they did not put those girls to work. They let them stay at beauty salons, beautified them … and finally they agreed to work as sex workers,” the Shan woman said.

Just as they tolerate a steady stream of illegal Chinese entrants daily, local authorities appear unconcerned that these women, here without visas, are selling sex.

“They sell sex in public, but there is no problem for them. There is no action taken. They are free even though they are illegally staying here,” said U Min Thu, a Mong La resident.

A representative for the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), which governs Special Region 4, declined The Irrawaddy’s interview request.

Business cards offering photos and phone numbers are also slipped underneath hotel room doors. Some hotels are said to take money from women or their pimps to display photos

of sex workers, and a phone number to call, in rooms where hoteliers elsewhere might hang a perfunctory scenic painting.

While most of the prostitutes are Chinese, the town does have at least one brothel offering Myanmar women. More discreetly than the women on the bridges, a dozen or so local women wait for customers inside a shop advertising “cold drinks” on a sign outside. They too find themselves servicing a largely Chinese clientele, and communication can be difficult—even negotiating a price sometimes ends in frustrated failure—but the trade is lucrative, one woman told The Irrawaddy.

Most of the women said that they came from Yangon, where the sex business is more discreet—and far less lucrative. Ma Khine, who only recently arrived from Myanmar’s biggest city, said that women in her industry could earn between 2,500 yuan (US$407) and 4,000 yuan per month in Mong La.

“I just arrived here two months ago,” she said, offering no comment on what she thought of the place. Perhaps she felt no need to; after all, Mong La’s appeal to women in her profession speaks for itself: “We can earn more money here than in Yangon.”

“They sell sex in public, but there is no problem for them. There is no action taken. They are free even though they are illegally staying here.”

Mong La at night

Myanmar’s Mother of Nursing

life in Myanmar, where her father, a railway engineer of Italian descent, raised his children as members of the colonial elite. In her youth, she received an education befitting a young woman of her class, learning all the social graces and excelling in sports, especially golf and horseback riding. She was also exceptionally good at driving—in those days, a skill largely confined to the rich and their servants.

But her views about her comfortable life began to change when, at the age of 17, she won a scholarship to go to university. Her father was adamantly opposed to the idea, believing that there was no need for her to further her education.

By YAN PAI / YANGON

At the end of War Oo Street in Yangon’s Insein Township is a small but neatly built twostory house with a signboard in front that says “Eileen’s Family.” This is the home of Eileen Barbaro, a retired nurse who has been compared to Florence Nightingale.

With its old furniture and only a few photos for decoration, the house testifies to the simple lifestyle of a woman who grew up as a child of privilege but later set out on her own and dedicated herself to serving others.

Born in Kalaw, Shan State, in 1929, Ms. Barbaro has spent most of her

“My father said that if I went to university, I would become a naughty girl,” she recalled. “He thought that because we had money, I didn’t need to study. And so I lost my chance to attend university.”

This setback only strengthened Ms. Barbaro’s determination to grow beyond the confines of her upbringing. As soon as she was old enough, she left her birthplace for Yangon—this time ignoring the wishes of her father, who she never saw again before his death. There, with the help of a friend of her mother, she found work at Yangon General Hospital.

After three years at the hospital, she knew that she had found her calling, and in 1950, she went to England for training as a nurse. She majored in pediatrics, and upon completion of her program of study, she received a license to practice nursing in England and Wales.

At first, she considered remaining in England, where she would be able to earn more money and enjoy a better quality of life. But when her father died, her mother urged her to return to Myanmar. Still reluctant to go back, she finally returned to the country of her birth in 1955 after a senior nurse convinced her that she had a responsibility to care for her mother.

Home Again

As an eager young nurse, Ms. Barbaro discovered that her skills and energy were in great demand in her

One woman’s journey from a life of privilege to a lifetime of service

Eileen Barbaro at her home

PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY

homeland. She soon found work again at Yangon General Hospital, where her friend Dr. Kyi Paw assigned her to the children’s ward. Before long, England was just a distant memory.

“When I returned to the hospital, I found there were many things to do. I could help people a lot here,” she said. “So I buried my dream of returning to England.”

One of the high points of her time at the hospital was helping to deliver Ma Nang Soe and Ma Nang San, twin sisters who were born joined at the chest. But the constant struggle to provide adequate care for her young patients prompted her and her colleagues to push for the creation of a hospital dedicated to treating children.

Their efforts were greatly helped when they won the support of former

nurse Daw Khin May Than, wife of then dictator Gen. Ne Win, who seized power in 1962. The following year, Yangon Children’s Hospital was established at its current location on Pyidaungsu Yeiktha Street in Dagon Township, but the current main building, built with Canadian aid, did not open until 1978.

Not satisfied with this accomplishment, Ms. Barbaro next set her sights on establishing an institution for training nurses. This finally happened in 1986 with the creation of the Yangon Institute of Nursing (upgraded to the University of Nursing, Yangon, in 1991) with the support of the World Health Organization.

Despite her service to the country, however, Ms. Barbaro was not spared the depredations of the ruling military

The Princess Srinagarindra Award

Eileen Barbaro receives the Princess Srinagarindra Award from Thai princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

PHOTO: THE PRINCESS

PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY

regime. Three European-style homes that her father built in Kalaw were taken from her family to be used as part of the Defense Services Command and General Staff College. She never received any compensation for this loss, even after one of the houses was sold to a businessman by a corrupt military commander.

She speaks of this now without bitterness, but it comes as no surprise

to learn that she is a strong supporter of opposition leader and democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose mother, Daw Khin Kyi, was a close personal friend.

“I believe that only she can significantly improve our healthcare system,” she said of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who she knew during her days in England. “With her involvement, we could get the support we need.”

As one practical step toward improving the quality of healthcare, Ms. Barbaro—who has served as the president at the Myanmar Nurses’ Association since her retirement in 1989—suggested drawing on the experience of nurses who are no longer active in the profession.

“Retired nurses have skills acquired over long years of service that could be used to help with the care of the disabled or long-suffering patients. This would benefit both the patients and the nurses, many of whom struggle financially after they retire,” she said.

International Recognition

One of the pictures hanging on the wall of Ms. Barbaro’s Yangon

home is a photo of her accepting the Princess Srinagarindra Award, given in honor of her lifelong service to the advancement of the nursing profession.

This Thai award—named after Princess Srinagarindra Mahidol, a former nurse and the mother of Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and given to Ms. Barbaro in 2012—marked a growing recognition of her efforts, and of the immense needs of Myanmar’s healthcare system.

Despite the work of dedicated professionals like Ms. Barbaro, healthcare in this country declined steadily under the former junta, which formally ended nearly 50 years of military rule in 2011 with the creation of the current quasi-civilian government.

Over the years, countless Myanmar citizens, both rich and poor, have been forced to seek medical treatment in neighboring countries. The famous Mae Tao Clinic, in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, has for more than two decades provided essential services to thousands of refugees and others without the means to pay for treatment, while the world-class hospitals of Bangkok and Singapore have catered to those with money.

To meet needs inside the country, Ms. Barbaro and others like her often had to think beyond the limits of the government-run healthcare system. Some of her initiatives, such as a home-based nursing care program that she started with support from the international NGO World Vision, have won special attention.

“This home-based nursing care system is kind of new, so the program is known to Thailand through World Vision. That’s why they honored me,” she said.

But her modest acceptance of this honor, like the modesty of her home, belies both her background and a lifetime of accomplishment that grew from a longing for independence and developed into a passionate desire to serve her chosen profession and her country.

Eileen Barbaro with fellow nurses in Yangon (above left) and riding a horse in Kalaw, Shan State.

“I believe that only she [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] can significantly improve our healthcare system.”

—Eileen Barbaro

The Muslims of Myanmar

Rhetoric from the al-Qaeda firebrand Ayman al-Zawahiri will find no fertile ground in this country

By BERTIL LINTNER

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman alZawahiri could not have done a greater disservice to the Muslims of Myanmar when, in early September, he claimed that he was going to “raise the flag of jihad,” or holy war, across South Asia. That would, he said, include actions in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and in the Indian states of Assam, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. Not surprisingly, the London-based Burmese Muslim Association issued a statement shortly afterwards, saying that “the Muslims in Burma will never accept any help from a terrorist organization, which

is in principle a disgrace and morally repugnant.”

Mr. Zawahiri, a 63-year-old former Egyptian eye surgeon, is known for issuing long-winded video clips but the al-Qaeda he now leads has lost most of its muscle since its founder and former leader Osama bin Laden was killed inside his residence in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by a squad of US naval special warfare troops on May 2, 2011. Since then, al-Qaeda has become more or less irrelevant, and statements such as Mr. Zawahiri’s should be seen as a desperate attempt by the group to show that it is still alive and kicking

— especially in view of the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). Or, as the BBC reported on Sept. 4, the once-feared terrorist group has withered while ISIS “has grown into everything al-Qaeda tried — and failed — to be.”

It is highly unlikely that Mr. Zawahiri, who is also most probably holed up in a safe house in Pakistan, would be able to carry out his threats. The only proven link between al-Qaeda and Muslims in Myanmar goes back to the early 1990s, when the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) had a camp in Ukhia between Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf in southeastern Bangladesh. At that time, Afghan militants visited the camp and RSO did arrange for some Muslim refugees from Rakhine State to be sent to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban. Tellingly, among the more than 60 videotapes that the American cable television network CNN obtained from al-Qaeda’s archives in Afghanistan in August 2002, one marked “Burma” showed Muslim “allies” undergoing weapons training. But the RSO has never had any camps inside Myanmar, only across the border in Bangladesh. That was where the tape was shot—and among the purported RSO fighters were militants from the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the fundamentalist Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. The activities at the now closed Ukhia camp had more to do with Bangladeshi politics than any ethnic or religious conflict in Myanmar.

In more recent years, a Muslim firebrand calling himself Abdul Kuddus al-Burmi and claiming to be from Myanmar issued video clips with himself speaking in the Myanmar language, followed by footage of armed Muslim fighters on parade. But he is based in a madrassa in Karachi, Pakistan, and the footage was either shot in Ukhia in the early 1990s or in a camp run by Indonesian militants from Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid on Gunung Biru, or the Blue Mountain, in Poso on the island of Sulawesi—thousands of kilometers away from Myanmar, or Bangladesh for that matter.

Apart from such anomalies, Myanmar’s Muslims have never been of the rebellious kind in a religious sense.

U Bo and S.A. Ginwalla, leaders of the Burma Interfaith Relief Committee which delivered supplies to poor neighborhoods in Yangon after the uprising in 1988.

According to Moshe Yegar, an Israeli academic and former diplomat, Muslim seamen from the Arab world first reached Myanmar in the 9th century. Some became traders while others served as horsemen for Myanmar kings, among them Anawratha. Most of them were men, so they usually married local women and became integrated into society. In the 19 th century, King Mindon made sure his Muslim soldiers were served halal food and many helped clear the land for buildings in the new capital, Mandalay. Mindon also appointed a Muslim called Kabul Maulavi to be a judge in charge of Muslim affairs. Apart from being soldiers, many Muslims were traders and shopkeepers.

During the British time, many Muslims immigrated from British India, but they also took part in the independence movement. The most prominent was M.A. Raschid, a close friend of Gen. Aung San’s. Mr. Raschid was born in Allahabad in India but grew up and was educated in Myanmar. In 1936 he became the first Secretary General of the Rangoon University Students’ Union and later its president. During the parliamentary era, 19481962, U Raschid, as he was then known, served in several ministries under prime minister U Nu. Like other state leaders, he was interned for some time after the 1962 coup. And two Muslims were among the martyrs who were assassinated along with Gen. Aung San on July 19, 1947: U Abdul Razak, a native of Meiktila and a cabinet minister, and his young body guard Ko Htwe. U Kha, another prominent member of

Yangon’s Muslim community, served as minister of education in the 1950s. And who would forget Maung Thaw Ka, the former naval officer turned popular writer and poet, who was one of the original founders of the National League for Democracy? He was arrested in July 1989, beaten and tortured and died in Insein Jail on June 11, 1991. He is buried in Yangon’s Sunni cemetery beside his brother, U Ba Zaw, or U Gholan Marmed, a Myanmar army captain.

During the darkest weeks after the massacres in August and September 1988, people of different religious persuasions got together and formed the Burma Interfaith Relief Committee. In a unique show of inter-religious harmony, they delivered supplies to Yangon’s poor neighborhoods in a battered, World War Two-era truck with a banner displaying symbols of their respective faiths: the Buddhist dhammachakka wheel, the Christian cross, the Muslim crescent and star, and the Hindu om symbol. Although it was never registered as such, the group could be seen as one of modern Myanmar’s first community-based NGOs. Among the leaders were S.A. Ginwalla, a Muslim, and U Bo, the head

of the well-established Young Men’s Buddhist Association. According to Chris Lamb, Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar at the time: “They did not come from particular designations within their faiths, but rather everyone wanted to make sure that the IFRC had the capacity to reach the most vulnerable irrespective of their religion or other status.” Piety, not fanaticism, was the guiding principle of those NGO pioneers.

On the more humorous side, everyone in Myanmar loves U Shwe Yoe, the jolly dancer with his broken umbrella and ill-fitting longyi who for almost a century has been a major figure in any pwe. The character was invented in 1923 by Ba Galay, a prominent Myanmar actor, comedian, dancer and cartoonist. Ba Galay was a Myanmar Muslim, born in Pathein, and his other name was Mohammed Bashir. And is there anyone who would seriously suggest that U Shwe Yoe was or is a jihadist and a proponent of shariah law? Zawahiri may be fooling himself, but nobody else, when he issues silly videos like the one recorded from his hideout in Pakistan in early September. There is no fertile ground for that kind of gobbledygook in Myanmar.

“Myanmar’s Muslims have never been of the rebellious kind in a religious sense.”

The battered old truck of the Burma Interfaith Relief Committee is draped with a banner displaying the symbols of members’ different faiths.

MALARIA’S NEW FRONTLINE

Drug-resistant malaria is a growing global threat, and eastern Myanmar is at the forefront of efforts to stop it dead in its tracks

By SAMANTHA MICHAELS / HTEE KAW HTAW, KAYIN STATE

Seventeen-year-old Ma Win was exhausted, to put it mildly. During the rainy season this year, the young woman fell sick with chills, body aches, joint pain and dizziness—not once, but twice, within two months. “I couldn’t walk,” she said in July, just days after recovering.

She had malaria again, a common illness in this Kayin State village that was isolated for several decades by armed conflict and poverty. In the past she might have been hard-pressed to find medicine without crossing the border to Thailand, but today it’s a different story.

Htee Kaw Htaw, a small community of farmers near the Moei River, may seem an unlikely place for some of the world’s top malaria experts to focus their attention. But the village is now at the epicenter of a massive global push to beat the mosquito-borne disease that already kills 660,000 people every year, and which, if left to follow its current course, could soon do much greater damage.

Race against Resistance

During the rainy season here, the air is fresh as cows graze in a lush green valley of the Dawna Mountains, while barefooted children walk to school on a dirt path.

Htee Kaw Htaw seems calm these days, perhaps belying tensions still simmering under the surface as it recovers from a civil war that left its people vulnerable to land mines, shelling and forced displacement.

A ceasefire almost three years ago ended clashes between the government and the Karen National Union (KNU), and today most of the village’s 650 people make their living as farmers, growing corn, beans and rubber. But they say this land was once covered with virgin forest—a fertile breeding ground for the mosquitoes that now continue to proliferate in rice fields and streams, making malaria a normal part of life.

As common as it may be, the disease is not always easy to identify in its early stages. Passed from person to person through the bite of infected

PHOTO: PIYAVIT THONGSA-ARD

At the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, a migrant woman from Myanmar provides tender care to her husband who is recovering from malaria. The man’s family survives on his work as a day laborer and his illness results in hardship for them.

mosquitoes, it often begins like the flu, with headaches, fatigue, fever and nausea. But as parasites from the mosquito spread to the kidneys, lungs and brain, the symptoms can be horrifying: bone-piercing chills, uncontrollable trembling and severe pain that was described by one victim as akin to stings from an electric shock gun. If left untreated, organs can fail, leading to seizures, coma and death, sometimes less than 24 hours after the onset of symptoms.

For a while, people living in malaria hotspots around the world seemed to have found some relief. A so-called malaria wonder drug was

discovered in China, and when it came to the Myanmar-Thailand border in the 1990s the number of cases dropped dramatically. But lately the news has been less rosy—indeed, recent developments in Southeast Asia have left some scientists feeling panicked— and in the turn of events, Htee Kaw Htaw and other Kayin villages have landed on the world health radar.

The deadliest type of malariacausing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, has been evolving here along the border and elsewhere in the Mekong region, and in doing so it has developed resistance to drugs. Today, the wonder drug, known as artemisinin, is taking longer to clear parasites from the blood of infected people, and if it fails to work completely, the results could be catastrophic.

Scientists fear that if malaria is not totally eliminated from the region soon, resistance to artemisinin could make its way west to India and then Africa, where the disease already kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, mostly children. Resistance has spread this way at least three times in the past with other drugs, but this time there is a greater sense of urgency: Currently, no other replacement drugs are available. And while some new options are in the pipeline, it will likely be years before they are on the market and available for widespread use.

“This is an emergency,” says Prof. François Nosten, a French malaria expert who has been studying the disease along the Myanmar-Thailand border for about three decades. “We are in a race against resistance, and we are losing because we are too slow to react.”

Governments and international donors have spent billions of dollars to stop drug resistance from spreading, but it’s not working. The wonder drug is taking longer to clear parasites in northern Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and here in eastern Myanmar, while there are indications that resistance is also emerging in central Myanmar, southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia.

“We need to do something different,” Dr. Nosten says.

He and other scientists are turning their attention to Myanmar, which, at a crossroads between India and China, borders about 40 percent of the world’s population.

‘Healthy’ Carriers

More than two-thirds of Myanmar’s population lives in malaria-endemic areas, from the upper reaches of Kachin

“As parasites spread, the symptoms can be horrifying: bone-piercing chills, uncontrollable trembling and severe pain.”

PHOTO: SAMANTHA MICHAELS / THE IRRAWADDY

A Myanmar migrant is very weak from malaria and the hard life he lives as a laborer in Mae Sot. His wife and children have moved to be with him at the town’s Mae Tao clinic during his long recovery from ill-health.

Ma Win: Two times unlucky with malaria this year

State to Myeik in the far south. The number of people dying from the disease fell sharply after artemisininbased combination therapies became more widely available, but the country still has by far the largest malaria burden in the Mekong region, with more than 480,000 cases reported in 2012, leading to about 400 deaths, according to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO).

And the toll goes beyond health: By keeping people away from school and work, malaria hits education and the economy, making it tougher for already impoverished villages to develop. Worldwide, the cost in lost economic growth from the disease is likely higher than US$12 billion every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.

In Myanmar, many people lack access to medicine, particularly in rural states along the country’s borders

PHOTO: PIYAVIT THONGSA-ARD

that are still recovering from war. “Government hospitals are far away, and most people are too poor to spend on health care,” says Saw Soe Win Kyaw, director of the Back Pack Health Worker Team, a network of medics who carry supplies on their backs from village to village.

While the government’s health budget remains minimal, one of the leading international funders for malaria control is stepping in to help. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has pledged $100 million to fight drug resistance over the next three years in the Greater Mekong region, and of that money, $40 million is going to Myanmar. Another $3.3 million will be spent along the Myanmar-Thailand border, in part to set up hundreds of malaria clinics throughout Kayin State, where medics can test anyone with a fever and offer medicine to those who are infected.

But even with more manpower, a serious challenge remains. Not everyone with malaria shows symptoms, so many are never tested. In some villages, more than half the population carries parasites in their blood, though they appear healthy. They go about their daily lives without the slightest awareness that something is wrong, but there is a chance they will pass parasites to mosquitoes that bite them, and those mosquitoes can infect other people down the line.

Medicine for the Masses

That’s why the Global Fund has set aside $400,000 of its $3.3 million cross-border interventions for a more controversial strategy: giving medicine to everybody in malaria hotspots, including those who are not sick.

This strategy, known as mass drug administration, is a departure from current efforts to control the disease in Southeast Asia. It has been tried in the past but with mixed results, leading the WHO to stop recommending it decades ago. Debate is ongoing, but some scientists believe it is the only feasible option left to tackle drug resistance.

“Targeted malaria elimination is considered a pilot,” says Izaskun Gaviria, a senior fund portfolio manager

at the Global Fund, using another name for mass drug administration along the Myanmar-Thailand border, and adding that other partners were funding similar pilots in Cambodia and Vietnam. “If successful, it might be expanded to all the borders.”

In Myanmar, perhaps before the year’s end, mass drug administration will be proposed in villages where a high number of people are found to be infected with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. In small villages, everyone might line up at a clinic for treatment, while people in larger villages might receive it from medics traveling from house to house. Whenever possible, the medics will also watch to ensure that the medicine has been taken properly: once per day for three days, and with a meal such as rice, vegetables and curry to reduce possible side effects like stomachaches and dizziness.

The three-day supply will be distributed once every month for three months, but only after the plan is approved by an ethics committee under Myanmar’s Department of Medical Research, and only with consent from the villages themselves. Before any medicine is given out, medics will hold focus group discussions with community leaders, school teachers and other residents, who can ask questions about mass drug administration and why it has been recommended. If the plan goes forward, everyone will be given a chance to participate except pregnant women and babies, and at any

“In some villages, more than half the population carries parasites in their blood, though they appear healthy.”

point—even during the second or third months—anyone can decide to opt out.

Dr. Nosten, the French malaria expert, will help implement the project with his Thailand-based malaria research team, the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit. He hopes eight out of every 10 people in selected villages will take the medicine, but it might be tough to reach migrant workers who are on the move. “If you clear the malaria parasite only from half the population, the other half may continue to transmit,” he says.

Not Black and White

Mass drug administration is nothing new. It’s an accepted strategy for fighting other diseases, including river blindness in Africa and filariasis in Asia, but for malaria it’s more controversial.

Since the 1930s, mass drug administration has been tried in malaria hotspots around the world, including in Europe, back when Italy still saw cases of the disease, but the results have not been black and white. That’s partly because there are so many variables. In each attempt, different drugs and regimens have been used, while the mosquitoes carrying the parasites have been different depending on the location, as have the people taking the medicine.

On some islands the strategy has been successful, according to Dr. Nosten, but in other cases it has led to undesired consequences, including a worsening of drug resistance. This happened in the 1950s in Cambodia, when experts from the WHO mixed antimalarial drugs with cooking salt and distributed it to villages. People ate the salt and absorbed the drugs into their blood, but the parasites grew resistant because the doses were low and uncontrolled.

Myanmar also tried mass drug administration in the 1990s. The number of malaria cases dropped initially, but the disease later came back, and with even greater force. That might have been due to the medicine that was used: sulfadoxinepyrimethamine, an antimalarial drug that turned out to encourage, rather

PHOTO: PIYAVIT THONGSA-ARD

At the Mae Tao clinic, U Naing Naing, 40, a father of three, is lovingly looked after by his wife as he suffers through the high fevers that come with malaria.

than prevent, the passing of parasites from infected people to mosquitoes.

Two years ago, a small study of mass drug administration began in four villages along the Myanmar-Thailand border, with a different combination therapy that contains the wonder drug artemisinin and is recommended by the WHO.

Buying Time

Under normal circumstances, before launching a larger pilot project with the Global Fund, Dr. Nosten would wrap up this study along the border and publish the results. “But that would be in three years’ time, and in three years it will be too late,” he says. “Next year

mean by working. If we manage at least to reduce malaria so much that for the next five years there are virtually no more cases—if every time there is a case, we can detect it and treat it—at least we buy time. Maybe we buy five years, maybe 10. Maybe in 10 years we have a vaccine or a new drug.”

Dr. Thaung Hlaing, deputy director of Myanmar’s national malaria control program, says that despite the uncertainties, he supports the Global Fund’s pilot of mass drug administration and is eager to see results after one year. “We are optimistic,” he says.

Meanwhile, the US government— the biggest donor country to the Global Fund—is not yet ready to integrate the strategy into its own international malaria program.

“The jury is still out, from our perspective. The science isn’t there for us to be ready to invest funding and deviate from what we know are proven, effective interventions,” says Rear Admiral T imothy Z iemer, who leads the President’s Malaria Initiative, launched by former US President George W. Bush in 2005, adding that he would consider supporting mass drug administration in the future if it was found to work well.

Led by Dr. Nosten, the study is ongoing until mid-2015, but preliminary results are encouraging. “Before, many people were sick. Now it’s very rare to find malaria here,” says Saw Slight Naw Nyo, a medic who works for Dr. Nosten in Htee Kaw Htaw, one of the four villages.

Still, some have continued to fall ill. “I was out in the fields when the medicine was given out,” says Ma Win, the 17-year-old who suffered through two bouts of the disease this rainy season. “But none of my friends have been sick,” she adds.

U Ohn Myint, a Buddhist community leader, says he was glad to participate, even though he did not feel ill. “If there was any malaria in my body, I wanted to make it disappear,” he says.

will be too late—resistance will already have reached a proportion that we cannot control.”

It may seem premature to try mass drug administration elsewhere, but in the race against resistance, he says it’s the only option. The current strategy to control malaria—distributing bed nets, spraying insecticides and treating only those who test positive for the disease—can eventually eliminate malaria, “but it takes many, many years, and we don’t have those many years,” he says.

It would be too expensive and technically impossible to identify “healthy” carriers by testing everyone in villages, he adds, so “the only alternative is to treat everyone.”

“No one knows for sure that it’s going to work, but it depends what we

“The current Global Fundsupported pilot … will provide valuable information that will inform the [Myanmar] Ministry of Health and the global malaria community on whether this strategy is effective,” he told The Irrawaddy.

The WHO, which discouraged mass drug administration for routine malaria control after its failure in Cambodia, is now also considering whether the strategy is necessary.

“We are in a critical period of losing the powerful drug. It is an exceptional situation, and we are looking at old interventions and bringing them back to see if this would help,” says Krongthong Thimasarn, a malaria specialist at the WHO office in Yangon.

But because Myanmar is such a dangerous place for artemisinin resistance, she adds, mass drug administration should be applied with extreme caution. “It is like a surgeon operating at the heart of a patient.”

Poe Chit, 7, receives his first dose of medicine after his blood test at the Mae Tao clinic was positive for malaria.

PHOTO: PIYAVIT THONGSA-ARD

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THE YANGON PLAN THAT SPARKED OUTCRY

Opaque city expansion contract highlighted how dodgy deals aren’t a thing of the past

By KYAW PHYO THA / YANGON

Farmland near a village in Twante Township which is set to be developed.

Old habits die hard, especially in Myanmar.

With the recent revelation that Yangon Region’s chief minister secretly awarded a multi-billion dollar development project in the former capital to a little-known company, it seems clear that Myanmar hasn’t yet shaken off the chronic cronyism that its former military rulers embraced for decades.

In his message to lawmakers in the Yangon Region Parliament on Aug. 22, Chief Minister U Myint Swe said his government had awarded the contract for the Yangon city expansion project to a company called Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit because it was, in his opinion, financially strong.

However, sources close to the project plans, government officials and businesspeople interviewed by The Irrawaddy told a different story.

A minister in the Yangon Region government said the company, which has since had the contract revoked following a public outcry, was run by two low-profile Chinese businessmen, Xiao Feng and Xiao Sen, who have a close relationship with U Myint Swe. Their names do not appear on the US sanctions list.

The minister said the Chinese executives have lived in Myanmar for many years, including back when exYangon Mayor U Aung Thein Lin—the predecessor to the current mayor, U Hla Myint—was head of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), a municipal body that also oversees land use in Yangon.

“They were introduced to U Aung Thein Lin via a middleman. When U Aung Thein Lin was gone in 2011 and U Myint Swe became the chief minister of Yangon Region, they approached him through his son. Xiao Sen is always around him [U Myint Swe],” said the minister, requesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the case.

Before becoming chief minister, U Myint Swe served as a lieutenantgeneral in the Myanmar army and was involved in the crushing of the Saffron Revolution in 2007.

Widely known as a favorite of Myanmar’s then-dictator, Snr.-Gen. Than Shwe, the chief minister was even nominated for vice president in 2012 but could not take the position because of a family member’s Australian citizenship. Myanmar’s Constitution forbids people from serving in either of the country’s two highest offices if

they have family members who are foreign citizens.

A high-profile businessman in Yangon confirmed that the Chinese executives were friendly with the chief minister, and wondered whether they received the multi-billion-dollar contract fairly to develop and expand the city.

“They are very close to U Myint Swe as well as ex-Construction Minister U Khin Maung Myint, a former majorgeneral in the army. They are Chinese. Given the opaque manner in which they were chosen for the project, it might be cronyism,” the businessman told The Irrawaddy.

U Myint Swe was not available for comment. But after facing criticism from lawmakers for a lack of transparency, the Yangon Region government backpedaled on its decision to grant Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit the contract. Instead, it said it would put the development project to tender in the near future and would give all private companies a chance to participate. It did not specify dates for the tender.

According to a company registration list available from the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit was registered as a public company last year. When The Irrawaddy visited the company’s official address in Shwepyithar Township, it found an apartment building with no office spaces inside.

Interestingly, although the company had vowed to complete 70 percent of the development project within three years at a cost of US$8 billion, with an initial investment of 1 billion kyat ($1 million), The Irrawaddy found that it had not yet received an operating license number as of the end of August.

And even though it registered with the government as a public company only last year, Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit has been active in the country for several years under different names.

According to Yangon business sources, during U Aung Thein Lin’s mayoral term from 2003-11, the company signed a deal with him to convert People’s Park into a glitzy shopping mall. U Aung Thein Lin

People make inquiries about land prices and new development projects to local property agents.

previously served as a brigadier-general and currently sits in the Pyithu Hluttaw, or Lower House of Parliament.

The Chinese executives behind Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit are also believed to be running other companies in the country, including Natural World Company, which developed a controversial handicrafts center in People’s Park. The center was so tall that members of the public complained about its proximity to Shwedagon Pagoda, the most famous Buddhist monument in the country, and as a result its third floor was demolished in 2013.

Natural World, which said the YCDC approved its application to build the handicrafts center in 2009, declined to respond to rumors that it was owned by Chinese executives, the Myanmar Times newspaper reported.

Early last year, under the name Crown Advanced Construction, Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit won

an 8.6-acre (3.5-hectare) plot of land owned by the YCDC to develop a residential complex on the grounds of a used-car market in front of Junction Square shopping mall in Yangon. An official from the construction project confirmed to The Irrawaddy that his company is owned by Xiao Sen.

“We also belong to Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit public company, which is run by the same owner,” he said under condition of anonymity, adding that Xiao Sen was in charge of Natural World as well.

The Yangon expansion plan will see the city’s official limits expanded by some 30,000 acres (1,200 hectares), into Kyeemyindaing Township in the western part of the city and Seikkyi Kanaungto and Twante townships, southwest of the city on the opposite bank of the Yangon River. The plan will include the construction of affordable apartments, a school for 1,000 students, a home for the aged, and five six-lane bridges.

In Alat Chaung, a village in a part of Kyeemyindaing Township that lies west of the Yangon River, Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit had urged residents to leave their homes by October to make way for a river-crossing bridge that would connect to Yangon.

During a recent public consultation meeting with the residents,U Thet Oo, the managing director of Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit, said the company would provide new housing by January, according to a video of the meeting viewed by The Irrawaddy.

But when The Irrawaddy contacted U Thet Oo to inquire more about the development project, the managing director declined to comment.

As for the leadership of Myanmar Say Ta Nar Myothit, he said, “I’m the president of the company.”

Hte t Naing Zaw and Thalun Zaung Htet contributed to this report.

Tourism’s New Trails

Yangon – The government expects some 3 million tourist arrivals this year and is targeting 5 million for 2015. However, many ongoing issues continue to hamper the local industry. The Irrawaddy’s Kyaw Hsu Mon spoke with U Phyo Wai Yar Zar, chairman of All Asia Exclusive Travel, as well as chairman of Myanmar Tourism Marketing and Joint Secretary of the Myanmar Tourism Federation, on the recent rise of the tourism industry.

What were the difficulties when you first started?

I’ve always believed these are not difficulties, these are challenges. If you can pass over these challenges, you will be able to reach the next stage. The first challenge was in getting customers in that period. And then, poor communication [infrastructure] in Myanmar created further challenges even after we got customers. The internet connection was very slow. We’ve now tried to upgrade our own website to promote the company and seek new customers. The big challenge was how to receive payment from customers as we didn’t have foreign bank accounts here. Myanmar companies were facing problems regarding payment by foreign customers due to US sanctions at that time. So the options were that we received payment when the customers were in Yangon or by using our relatives and colleagues’ bank accounts. It was no issue for joint-venture companies but, for small companies, we faced this problem. After three or four years, hotels and airlines started to know what we were doing. The relationship with them has become stronger.

Where were the main tourist destinations at that time? Have

any destinations changed?

Major destinations have not yet changed. [They still include] Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay, Ngapali Beach, Ngwe Saung beach and Kyite Htee Yoe in Mawlamyine. After the country has fully opened and we have ceasefire agreements with armed groups, there will be many new potential destinations in Karen State and Mon State. There are no big difficulties in developing new tourist attractions there. For example, Myawaddy on the ThaiMyanmar border is very easy to access for tourists. There are no restrictions at all now. [In the past] we had to obtain permission to enter from the local authorities.

Has the government’s decision to open more border checkpoints helped increase tourist arrivals in Myanmar?

There is no disadvantage by opening border checkpoints. We were only selling Myanmar packages before but now we can sell package tours to Myanmar and Thailand’s north and west together. We can also sell tour packages to Muse [in Shan State] and Shwe Li [in China] areas. There are some restrictions on the China side, but the Myanmar side is ready. There

are many new tourist destinations in Myanmar and we have more than 130 ethnic groups living here. There are very big changes in cities like Mandalay, with some people saying that it has become a Chinese city. It has become popular with foreign visitors. If the transportation infrastructures get better, we can reach many new destinations. A new Loikaw [Kayah State] to Mae Hong Son [Thailand] road will open in the coming peak season. The road to Dawei from Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province will also boost tourism, although we will have to wait for better road conditions.

Can you see any other new potential destinations in Myanmar for the future?

The Myeik Archipelago is also a potential tourist site. Many foreign investors are quite interested to invest there. There are many places to visit in Dawei city too. With better road conditions in this area, tourists can go through Thailand from Mawlamyine [Mon State] within one day.

How important is the role of State and Regional governments to improve the tourism industry in Myanmar?

We need their involvement. I heard that they have been given authorization by the Union Ministry to improve the tourism industry. Many State chief ministers are very eager to promote tourism in their region. Kayah Chief Minister U Khin Maung Oo and Karen

State Minister U Zaw Min are very willing to promote tourism in their areas. There will be a workshop for Tourism and the Peace process in Kayah State next month. In Chin State also, there are many potential tourist sites and their chief minister is also very willing to promote the region.

How have the conflicts in northern Kachin State and western Rakhine State impacted the tourism industry?

Security and tourism are directly related. Local or foreign visitors won’t go to such conflict areas. As I am chairman of Myanmar Tourism Marketing, I have to lobby my industry to other people too. When I met British Ambassador Andrew Patrick last week, I informed him on the current situation. Some countries have told their citizens which places they shouldn’t visit. In Mrauk U, Rakhine State, there is no more conflict but they will have to pass through from Sittwe where there is still some conflict. So I requested that the Ambassador reduce some warnings telling their citizens not to go there. He said, he would like to do it, but it depends on the political situation here, and he has a responsibility to his country’s citizens. He said there were no changes to warnings for British citizens to avoid Rakhine State. The conflict in Rakhine State is still hard to solve, it will take time. Kachin State is not worse than Rakhine State, because conflict is not happening in city areas.

Do you agree that air safety in Myanmar is an issue for foreign visitors?

My view on the air industry is that there will be internal and external factors that impact it. What I see in this sector is the impact of external factors. Internal factors, such as regulations by the Ministry of Transport, are not the issue. There are no restrictive rules for the air industry; they can buy new aircrafts freely. But regarding external factors, travel insurance for travelers, life insurance and flight insurance are still causing difficulties. Some local airlines are trying their best, but I understand that some are still having problems. So I see growth happening in some years.

Do you think the government is going to allow home stay services for foreigners? What about the bed & breakfast program that the government is going to initiate?

The government definitely won’t allow home stay for foreigners. Home stay means visitors can be living in local people’s houses. [Although] before hotels and guest houses, visitors stayed in their houses in the past. I expect that the government is going to enact a policy for Bed and Breakfast services soon. When that happens, small enterprises will grow, as well as many job opportunities for local people. The tourism industry will also grow.

U Phyo Wai Yar Zar in his office

PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY

PHOTO: THE IRRAWADDY

Handmade Gold Leaf Industry Under Threat

As foreign gold leaf makes its way to Myanmar, local manufacturers fear their gilded age could be coming to an end

By ZARNI MANN / MANDALAY

In Myat Par Yat, an area in Myanmar’s second biggest city, the rhythmic sound of hammering never stops. Halfnaked men in more than 20 gold leaf workshops sweat profusely as they pound pieces of the metal into the thinnest foil—an essential product for Buddhist life.

Beside the row of hammerers is a small room where women transfer the delicate gold foil onto pieces of paper, producing ready-to-use packages for sale—each includes 100 sheets of gold leaf, weighing about 1 gram.

Mandalay is the birthplace of gold leaf in Myanmar, and that produced in Myat Par Yat has long traveled across the country to glitter the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Phaung Daw Oo’s images of the Buddha at Inle Lake, the Mahamyatmuni image in Mandalay, and hundreds of pagodas and Buddha statues in Bagan, Bago and elsewhere. It is also used to decorate lacquerware and it can also be found in Myanmar traditional medicine and in cosmetics.

But as the country’s economy opens up, people in the local gold leaf industry are concerned that an

influx of imported gold leaf—which is machine-made and apparently of lower quality—is threatening their business. Recently, a local merchant won an auction to sell machine-made gold leaf to the Shwedagon Pagoda, and those in the Mandalay industry believe imported foil is now being used on Myanmar’s most important Buddhist site.

The claim could not be independently verified, but traders said that in the past Thai and Chinese businessmen visited their workshops to see how gold leaf is made, and are now copying

Men work with hammers at a gold leaf workshop in Mandalay.

ALL PHOTOS: TEZA HLAING / THE IRRAWADDY

their techniques to make gold leaf that is being imported to Myanmar.

“The pagoda trustees said the machine-made gold foil is much cheaper than handmade, and this is the reason the [merchant’s] bid won,” said Daw Chaw Su, the owner of one of Myat Par Yat’s workshops.

Local handmade gold leaf costs 32,000 kyat (about US$32) for a pack of 100 sheets, while the machine-made alternative costs only 25,000 kyat. Mandalay’s gold leaf makers say the price reflects the purity of their product and the labor that goes into it—hours of hammering and extremely careful handling of the foil. The paper that carries the foil to the consumer is also handmade, adding more time to the production process.

“We’ve seen machinemade foil but it is not thin enough like ours, and the quality of gold is not comparable with our product. And the paper that holds their foil is not convenient in the glittering process. The gold foil does not come off easily when you apply it on a pagoda or Buddha image,” Daw Chaw Su explained.

She said that trustees of the Shwedagon Pagoda have even asked Mandalay’s gold leaf makers to transfer the machine-made gold leaf onto local handmade paper to make it easier to transfer.

A gold leaf artisan at work.

“Since the paper-changing process also has some cost, and the foil is not good enough like local products, what is the point in choosing this cheap product?” Daw Chaw Su asked.

A spokesperson for Shwedagon Pagoda’s trustee committee told The

Irraw addy that the machine-made gold leaf it buys—from the unnamed trader—is comparable in quality to handmade foil.

“We already inspected the quality and it is good quality. We looked at the price and the machine-made leaf was cheaper, so that’s why they won the bid,” said the spokesperson, who requested anonymity because members

of the committee have been barred from speaking with the media.

“We do not have information about whether this foil was imported from foreign countries,” the spokesperson added.

In recent years, Buddhist pilgrims from Thailand and China have brought their own gold leaf to offer at the country’s famous pagodas and images, but have regularly been blocked by some pagoda authorities from adding imported foil to Myanmar places of worship.

“If we allowed such action, every foreigner will bring imported foils,” said a spokesperson for the Mahamyatmuni Pagoda in Mandalay, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We cannot know if their leaf is pure gold or fake gold, or bronze or silver. If we allowed it, some would bring fake gold and bronze foil, which will cause future damage to the image and pagoda if applied in a large quantity.”

Whether the competing product is imported or not, the Mandalay handmade gold leaf makers say their business is under threat.

“Actually, our industry mainly depends on pagodas and pagoda trustees, and gold leaf merchants across the country are also our loyal customers. What if the other customers follow in the footsteps of the Shwedagon Pagoda?” said U Kyaw Shwe, another gold leaf producer.

“If the merchants and the trustee committees want machine-made foil, our handmade workshops will no longer exist and only belong to history. If that day arrives, more than 20 workshops and more than 100,000 workers [in the entire gold leaf industry] will become jobless.”

“We’ve seen machinemade foil but it is not thin enough like ours, and the quality of gold is not comparable with our product.”

Taiwan Ups Investment

Bridge to Boost Trade

A new commercial traffic bridge is to be built across the Moei River, which forms part of the border between Myanmar and Thailand.

It will cost about US$94 million, mostly paid for by Thailand, and will supplement the old bridge linking Mae Sot on the Thai side with Myanmar’s Myawaddy, said World Highways magazine.

Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2015 and be completed within a year, it said. The new bridge will have a weight capacity of 100 tons.

Tiny Taiwan is bidding to upstage its giant neighbor by investing heavily in Myanmar while Naypyitaw’s relations with China remain cool.

After a series of recent small-scale Taiwanese investments, the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA) has announced plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars developing an industrial park in the Ayeyarwady Delta.

TEEMA said it wants to invest US$468 million to provide a base for possibly dozens of Taiwanese electrical-component makers. If it goes ahead the project would create hundreds of semi-skilled jobs.

“According to industry insiders, TEEMA has already signed a letter of intent with its Myanmar counterpart to solicit 1,400 hectares (3,458 acres) of land from the government there,” said the China Economic News Service.

Taiwan has stepped up its interest and investment in Myanmar over the past year.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council opened an office in Yangon last November. In June, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission gave the green light for three Taiwanese banks to pursue the establishment of representative offices with a view to opening branches in Yangon.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council hosted a four-day auto parts trade fair in Yangon during July.

Taiwan’s level of investment in Myanmar to date remains modest compared with mainland China and other countries such as Thailand, Singapore and even Vietnam. However, input is growing. Bilateral trade in 2013 grew by more than 15 percent over the previous year.

Taiwan’s Pou Chen Group, one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers of footwear, announced in June it would invest $100 million in a production factory in Yangon. —William Boot

The Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing carries most of the land trade between the two countries. A new bridge was mooted in 2009 by the chamber of commerce in Thailand’s Tak Province, which said the old bridge was inadequate for growing trade.

The Mae Sot area is one of several Thai areas being considered for special border trading status under a plan put forward in August by the military-installed National Council for Peace and Order. —William Boot

Vietnam Interest

Vietnamese business investment in Myanmar could top US$1.5 billion by the end of 2015, a trade association predicts.

At present, Vietnam has seven projects in the country totaling $600 million in value, the biggest of which is Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group’s hotel, apartments and offices complex in Yangon, with a price tag of $440 million, said the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).

“The Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar (AVIM) hopes Myanmar will accelerate the licensing process for Vietnamese projects in the fields of textiles, agriculture, health care, energy, construction material production, finance and banking,” said the VNA.

AVIM chairman Tran Bac Ha announced the $1.5 billion target at a meeting with the Speaker of Myanmar’s Parliament, U Shwe Mann, who was visiting the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, said the VNA.

AVIM members include Vietnam’s stateowned oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam and Vietnam Airlines. —William Boot

PHOTO: STEVE TICKNER

Myanmar is attracting interest from Taiwan business groups.

Anti-Money Laundering Watchdog Formed

Myanmar now has an anti-money laundering watchdog charged by the government with investigating and prosecuting individuals and businesses suspected of illegally processing cash, a report said.

The 15-member Anti-Money Laundering Central Board was formed at the end of August and will be led by the Home Affairs Ministry, said Eleven Media quoting a government statement.

Its members include the governor of the Central Bank, deputy ministers from the Home Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry, the deputy attorney-general and the country’s chief of police.

The only non-government official invited onto the board is U Win Aung, the president of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“The board has nine tasks, including adopting policies related to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing; taking legal action…in coordination with respective government departments and other agencies; and laying down a national strategy to combat the crime,” said Eleven Media, citing a government gazette statement. —William Boot

Five Airports Get Go-Ahead

Five of Myanmar’s 30 small airports have been given approval to proceed with plans to sell or long-lease them to private operators, a travel trade report said.

The Civil Aviation Department named the five to be privatized as Bagan-Nyaung U, Heho, Tachilek, Thandwe and Kyaukphyu airports.

“Bagan-Nyaung U Airport, which has seen a massive influx of tourists, could draw the most attention from private companies,” the chief of the Directorate of Civil Aviation, U Kyaw Soe, was quoted by TTR Weekly as saying.

“The Directorate was given the job of overseeing the privatization of 30 airports, which will be leased or sold to private companies,” the trade paper reported.

“However, only five of the airports have the green light to negotiate with private firms at present and many of the airports listed are decades away from being profitable ventures.” —William

Boot

Heho Airport in Shan State

Jokowi Era Dawns

As Indonesia’s new president prepares for his inauguration, political jostling continues behind the scenes

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN / JAKARTA

JAKARTA – When Joko Widodo starts settling into the Merdeka Palace after his inauguration on October 20, he’ll have a lot to contend with.

After all, Jokowi, as he’s widely known, will by then be president of the world’s 4th most populous country, a 3,000 mile long archipelago that by some counts isalso the world’s 10thlargest economy.

If the low-key new president has a minute, however, he’ll surely muse upon how far he has come in the last 10 years. He’s been told it often enough on his surprise visits to neighborhoods and markets in Solo and Jakarta, when he engages in the flesh-pressing that is known as blusukan in Indonesia.

A man of the people, 10 years ago, then aged 43, Mr. Joko was selling furniture in Solo–his Java hometown an hour or so flight east of Jakarta.

He was elected mayor of Solo in 2005, making a name for himself with initiatives such as cleaning up street markets and rebranding Solo as an old-style Javanese tourist destination, bringing it out of the shadow of nearby Jogjakarta.

Mr. Joko is the first president without connections to Indonesia’s New Order era or its long-standing political e lites. Or at least, his connections don’t go back very far–say much past 2012–when some of the country’s political grandees, including future rival Prabowo Subianto, sawhim as

a backable candidate to run for the governorship of Indonesia’s trafficclogged capital, Jakarta.

And while Mr. Joko didn’t spend very long in office in Jakarta–in a job often described as the 3rd most powerful in Indonesia–he did enough to convince former President Megawati Sukarnoputri–daughter of Sukarno, the country’s first president–to set aside her ambitions to run again and throw her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) behind Mr. Joko.

Jeffrey Neilson, an Indonesia watcher at The University of Sydney, said that Mr. Joko has shown a commitment to “cleaner government and improved efficiency in terms of service delivery.”

“His success in negotiating a highlyfavorable contract for Jakarta’s much-needed MRT project alsosuggests that he could make some inroads into Indonesia’s serious infrastructure bottlenecks,” Mr. Neilson wrote in an email.

Mr. Joko’s ascent is the latest adornment to an Indonesian democracy that is now routinely described as the fairest in Southeast Asia–much less violent and somewhat less oligarchic than that of the Philippines, the sole serious rival.

Like an Indonesian Pope Francis–whose impromptu meanderings into the masses in St Peter’s Square have a bit of blusukan aboutthem–Mr. Joko is already showingthat he might

spurn some of the gilded trimmings of office, indicating that his ministers can use the current fleet of official cars, rather than splurge on a new garagefull of alloyed Mercs or BMWs.

It is the kind of attitude that, if not overdone, appeals in a country where cynicism about politicians is widespread. Speaking in Solo three days before Indonesia’s Aprilpar liamentary elections, the town’s tourism official Patrick Orlando spokein glowing terms of his former boss.

“Everything developed and grew soquickly,” he recalled, discussing Mr. Joko’s impact as mayor. So popular did the local boy born in a riverside slum become, that he was re-elected in 2010 in a 90 percent landslide.

“The people really respect him,” Mr. Orlando said, an assessment meant as an understatement.

Hernawan Tri Wahyudi, a teacher in Solo, said that he was disappointed by Mr. Joko’s precocious ascent. Mr. Joko has since resigned as governor of

Jakarta to take up the presidency,but had he stuck out his second term as mayor of Solo, he would still be there into next year.

“His job [was] not finished here when heleft,” grumbled Mr. Hernawan, whose chagrin relented enoughfor him to concede that Mr. Joko would make a good president.

But while Mr. Joko’s popularity

made himodds-on favorite to win the presidency when his candidacy was pitched in early 2014, “the Jokowi effect” only went so far,it seems.

The PDIP reckoned it could win 30 percent or more of the parliamentary vote by tailgating their new poster-boy. In the end, it got less than 20 percent, while Mr. Joko’s chaotic presidential campaigning almost succumbed to rival Prabowo Subianto’s bombast and smearing–with a double-digit poll lead cut to next to nothing by the eve of the vote.

Mr. Joko won in the end by 8.4 million votes, or 6 percent, though Mr. Prabowo, his chest puffed out to the end, took some convincing–only conceding after a Constitutional Court ruled that the election did not feature the sort of massive fraud that the loser had, to sometimes comic effect, alleged.

At the time of writing, Indonesia’s parliament was mulling a last-ditch move to abolish direct elections for mayors and local heads of government. This would make it muchless likely

that another Jokowi could emerge. The lawmakers behindthe proposal supported the losing Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa ticket in the July presidential election, and the word is that the defeated former armyman was behind the maneuver–piqued, even burned, after seeing his protégé win highest office, something Mr. Prabowo had been chasing for adecade.

As things stand, Mr. Prabowo’s supporters make up more than 60 percent of MPs for the next parliament–those lawmakers elected last April who will succeed the current crop of MPs who themselves seem fixated on belying their lame-duck status bypushing through the local election regression.

Such a parliament could make life veryhard for the new president, stymieing his efforts at reforms, such as cutting a fuel subsidy that will absorb around 20 percent of government spending in 2015.

But negotiations are ongoing behind the scenes to try to cajole some of the parties who joined Mr. Subianto’s Laskar Merah Putih, or Red and White coalition, across to the Joko side. The coalition was announced in July and was described, in what would be a truly revolutionary development in Indonesian politics, as “permanent.”

But Mr. Joko’s vice president, Jusuf Kalla, is an old stalwart of Golkar, the party of former dictator Suharto and a part of outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s all-things-toall-men coalition.

Mr. Jusuf might try to sway Golkar’s 91 MPsto cross over. Others to court may be the United Development Party–now under new leadership after former religious affairs minister and Prabowo allySuryadharma Ali was ousted in September, after being snared byIndonesia’s hyperactive anti-graft commission on charges of manipulating a fund used to send Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.

Hasto Kristiyanto, a member of Mr. Joko’s “tr ansition team” and a key player in the PDIP, told media after Mr. Suryadharma was removed that “we’ll see if Suryadharma’s dismissal will indeed end up with the party joining Jokowi-Kalla.” 

Joko Widodo signs a guitar at an event organized by supporters in south Jakarta in July.

ALL PHOTOS: SIMON ROUGHNEEN / THE IRRAWADDY

Mr. Joko is already showing that he might spurn some of the gilded trimmings of office.

INLE SPECTACLE

People row long-boats with their legs to pull a replica royal barge during the annual Phaung Daw Oo festival.

By ZARNI MANN / NYAUNG SHWE

Inle Lake in northern Shan State is showing off its traditional best in October during the unique spectacle that is the annual Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda festival.

The event that sees long boats holding around 100 leg-rowers in traditional costume tow a stately gilded replica of a royal barge from lakeside village to village, marks the end of Buddhist Lent.

It started this year on Sept. 24, and the 18-day royal barge journey stopping at 14 villages continues until Oct. 11.

At a practice session in mid-September, the view was breathtaking. Oars-men on low boats looked almost as though they were walking on the surface of the water. Behind them, the golden barge headed by a carving of a traditional hintha bird glided silently on the sapphire-colored lake, framed by green mountains.

The festival will reach a rousing climax when the barge carrying Buddha images returns to the pagoda and during traditional boat races which will take place from Oct. 8-11.

The races between teams of up to 100 rowers per boat are a splendid sight and a reflection of the rich culture of the local Inthar people.

But the tradition has experienced some pressure in recent years, locals said.

“In the past we would choose around 20 teams to race, out of around 50 wouldbe entries. But in recent years no more than 20 teams have applied,” said U Toe Aung, Chairman of Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Trustees Committee and a member of the Competition Committee.

The higher cost of repairing or hiring boats has contributed to the lower numbers of participants.

“To prepare a boat for competition costs around 300,000 kyat, and that is expensive for most people,’’ said U Toe Aung.

Many competitors now just hire a race

boat for around 80,000 kyat a day (US$81), which also isn’t cheap.

A rise in the use of motorized boats locally is another factor. ‘’Some of us may no longer row well enough with one leg to be able to compete,” said U Toe Aung.

Racing enthusiast U Thar Gyi, 38, says many former rowers, including himself, are now working in cities and are no longer able to practice or take part in their beloved traditional races.

Racing takes a honing of skills, energy, practice and team work, said U Aung Ngae, 27. “I don’t have the time now, as I have to work,’’ he said.

Female racing teams have also decreased from about 10 teams a decade ago, to two.

“Young women nowadays are unable to spend time practicing. They just don’t have the energy as many of them are working in hotel jobs in cities,’’ said Pao Myaing, 58. “I can’t race now as I’m too old. But I never fail to turn up and cheer at the races.”

Locals also fear that development and environmental change in the region is impacting their traditions.

“Changes in the climate and the environment have caused severe summer droughts. That’s why many villagers are walking instead of using boats. We are afraid that the tradition of leg-rowing will fade away sooner or later,” said U Damadaza of Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda.

“That is why we have tried our best to maintain the annual competition. I want to encourage the youth to maintain our culture.”

Inle Lake can be reached by air, vehicle or train from Yangon and Mandalay. Heho airport is 21 miles away. The lake is 410 miles north-east of Yangon and 205 miles south-east of Mandalay. 

The fabulous annual Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda festival continues this month

Yangon

Inle Lake

Heho

Mandalay

From Plastic, Ex-Political Prisoner Makes Art

By KYAW PHYO THA / YANGON

Give him plastic bags of any color, and this former political prisoner will turn them into a work of art.

Instead of acrylic paint and brushes, San Zaw Htway opts to work with not only plastic bags, but also cardboard, instant coffee packets and other recycled goods. He taught himself to make painting-like collages with these materials while he was serving time under the former military regime.

“They’re all I need,” boasted the 40-year-old, pointing to scissors and adhesive containers littered across

the floor of his studio in Yangon. In one corner of the second-floor studio sits a pile of smoothed plastic wrappings that otherwise would have been destined for a garbage can.

Since his release from prison in 2012, San Zaw Htway has held five solo shows in Myanmar, in addition to teaching his collage techniques to orphans and children living with HIV.

Now his work is gaining international attention. In late September he won a 2014 Artraker Award for Impactful Conflict Art. The UK-based Artraker awards recognize artists who are making a difference in highly challenging environments. The works of 12 candidates from 10 countries, including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were exhibited from Sept. 18-25 at London’s a/political gallery.

Even being shortlisted was a boost to the artist. “It meant a lot to me because recycled collage art is still not well embraced in Myanmar,” said San Zaw Htway at his home, while preparing for his trip to the UK capital.

“Despite my access to paint and brushes now, I still stick to recycled collage art because it’s environmentally sustainable and I want the art trend to develop in Myanmar,” he added.

Painting was a childhood hobby for San Zaw Htway. When he was sen-

No matter how tough the situation, there is always a way to achieve what you want to do, says San Zaw Htway

The artist at work

tenced to 36 years in prison for his anti-government political activities in 1999, he was only a college freshman majoring in history. He spent 13 years in prison, during which time he was put in solitary confinement and went on hunger strikes.

Prisons in Myanmar are notorious for their squalid conditions and restrictions on prisoners’ rights, with even reading and writing prohibited. San Zaw Htway said he saw art as a way to defy prison authorities. “I intentionally did it to show them that they can’t control everything in our lives,” he said. “But the problem was how to make it happen, since painting materials were not allowed.”

The student activist decided to make collages with materials within his reach. When his family sent him foods wrapped in plastic bags, he turned the bags into a canvas on which he plastered colorful cuttings from instant coffee packets and shampoo sachets. He scavenged prison garbage cans for plastic sheets in colors that caught his eye. He washed them, smoothed them out and applied them onto the makeshift canvas with the help of smuggled scissors and glue.

Working late at night under the faint glow of a light bulb that dangled on the ceiling of the corridor outside his cell, he was careful to hide his work from prison authorities, taking days to finish a single collage. He produced portraits of Nobel Peace Laureate and democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and collages of peacocks, the emblem of Myanmar student and democracy movements. Some of his works reflected his longing for freedom, including “Blue Moon on the Highway,” one of the three collages that have been chosen

for the exhibition in London.

“I was lying awake one night in 2009 and I heard the occasional swishes of buses on the highway outside the prison. I felt a surge of longing to be on one of those buses, so I poured out my feeling onto the collage,” he said.

Htein Lin, a prominent contemporary artist and another former political prisoner, said the Artrakar recognition of San Zaw Htway’s work would be a source of pride for Myanmar artists and their country.

“I like his recycled artwork, not only for its promotion of environmental sustainability, but also for its reflection of an important message behind all forms of prison artwork: You can lock up our bodies, but not our emotions and our creativity,” he said.

Apart from being a collage artist, San Zaw Htway is a counselor for former political prisoners and their families. Earlier this year he joined a training program—organized by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) with support from Johns Hopkins University—and now he offers counseling sessions five days per week.

“As a former political prisoner myself, I know very well to what extent we and our families have been mentally affected by what we faced for years. Counseling is one of the best ways to cure their traumas,” he said.

When asked how he felt to be participating in the exhibition in London, he said he was happy.

“My prison experience has taught me that no matter how dire the situation is, there is a way to achieve what you want to do,” he said. “That is my message to anyone who sees my art.” 

“I heard the occasional swishes of buses on the highway outside the prison. I felt a surge of longing to be on one of those buses, so I poured out my feeling onto the collage.”

—San Zaw Htway

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

A Shan migrant makes her way as a model

By NYEIN NYEIN / CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

As a young girl, Nang Nauk hoped that one day she might become a famous model.

Instead, after moving to this northern Thai city with her mother, the 25-year-old ethnic Shan woman found construction, agriculture and domestic worker jobs until landing a waitressing gig five years ago at a local Thai restaurant, where she worked every day from 11 am until 9 pm.

She had to earn a living, but that didn’t discourage her from pursuing her dream. Three years ago she started posing for magazines and advertisements for online shops in her spare time, until eventually customers in the restaurant began recognizing her and asking to take photographs with her.

Today, the Lap Tom Yum Restaurant, located on the outskirts of Chiang Mai in the city’s San Pi Seua Sub-district, attracts many customers who come just for a chance to see its locally famous waitress. “I did not expect to be this kind of model, although I had a dream in my

childhood,” she told The Irrawaddy recently. “If possible, I want to be a model in my country.”

Born in a village near Taunggyi, Shan State, Nang Nauk is the youngest daughter in a family of three children. After completing high school, she moved to Thailand at the age of 17 to meet her mother, who was already living and working in the country.

“My family used to have farmland [in Shan State], but the income from the farm was not enough to support me and my sister, so my mother went to work in Thailand and she sent money back to us. After I finished Grade 10, I joined my mother to help her,” shesaid.

“I faced many difficulties, such as the language barrier and the different kinds of food,” she said of her early days in Thailand. She now speaks fluent Thai.

As a young, attractive woman living the precarious life of a migrant worker in Thailand, Nang Nauk could easily have fallen into the sex industry—either voluntarily, as a means of earning more money, or as a victim of trafficking. But by remaining clear-sighted about the dangers of that path, she has managed to avoid a fate that has claimed many women from Myanmar forced to earn a living outside their own country.

“I knew I had to avoid falling into that kind of life, no matter what,” she said. “I can use my physical strength to earn a living. I believe that if you do your best, one day you will be recognized for your work.”

At Lap Tom Yum, her efforts certainly seemed to have been appreciated. Although she had only one day off a month and earned just the minimum wage of 300 baht (US$9.30) a day, she said she was happy there because it was like working with her family.

That’s why she only reluctantly decided to start a new job in midSeptember, taking a position as a receptionist for a car company in Lampang, a smaller city not far from Chiang Mai. She said she discussed the move with the owners of Lap Tom

Yum for four months before leaving.

“The restaurant hired a new employee, so I was free to leave,” she told The Irrawaddy after her first day at her new job.

So far, she said, she likes being a receptionist. “It’s a lot less tiring than being a waitress,” she said, although she still has to work very long hours— from 9 am to 8 pm.

When she isn’t working, Nang Nauk plans to spend more of her free time participating in cultural events in order to remain connected with the local Shan community.

“I will be singing at the Shan New Year’s festival for the first time this year. Until now, I couldn’t do this, because most of my time in Chiang Mai was spent working.” 

Nang Nauk has been found by fame in northern Thailand.

Eat, Drink, Explore

Whether you’re just wandering in Yangon or setting off on an upcountry adventure, Off the Beaten Track has lots to offer

By GRACE HARRISON / YANGON

Bringing together adventure and creativity, with a good dash of experience, Off the Beaten Track (OTBT) travel café on the strip inside Kandawgyi Nature Park is filling a need for more than just good food. Guests can chill over a wide selection of drinks and tasty snacks for reasonable prices while learning about Myanmar.

Experienced tour guide Ko Nay Lin Htike and his partner Bryan

Berenguer describe OTBT as a “notonly-for-profit business.” After 5 pm they’re around to welcome and share their knowledge of this country, down to detailed itinerary planning, free of charge. There’s a tiny kiosk inside with maps, some loud yellow and black OTBT t-shirts, and a secondhand book exchange.

We asked for the house special and were steered towards the rural Myanmar selection. Our choices of country-style chicken curry and dried snakehead fish with peanut oil (3,500 kyat each) were both fantastically

strong flavored, but too salty for my palate and a little overdone.

Still, the local fare on offer looks appetizing. Try the Kachin-style watercress (2,000 kyat) or spicy green mango salad (1,500 kyat), ginger or green tea leaf salad (1,000 kyat), chicken or prawn salad (3,500 kyat), or the seaweed or baked eggplant salad (2,000 kyat) for classic joy.

There are also Chinese dishes of pork and chicken with paprika, capsicum or cashew nut (3,500 kyat) and fish specials include gingerflavored fish in lemon sauce, Britishstyle fish and chips, or fish fingers (3,500 kyat).

Of course, chicken or pork fried rice or noodles (2,000 kyat) find their way onto the menu. Our exploration of the European cuisine found a truly disappointing salade Niçoise (4,000 kyat).

Informal comfort at the travelers’ restaurant

Perhaps for Western fare we should have tried one of the sandwich selections, all served with French fries, including tuna (3,000 kyat), club (4,000 kyat) and cheese (6,000 kyat), as well as beef burgers for 4,000 kyat.

Clearly plenty of thought went into the planning of this unusual alfresco dining place with atmospheric romantic lighting and cute gazebos with draped gauze curtains (no, not mosquito nets) dotted around.

Another tiny gripe is the uncomfortably hard, narrow bench seating. Maybe it’s to encourage diner turnover? Though that’s hardly necessary, with monsoonshy diners opting for indoor options until November, when this place should really take off in the dry, cool evenings.

OTBT signature dishes include The Deltan, which is fried rice with

dry fish and a gin and tonic (4,800 kyat); The Upper Burman, consisting of assorted dried beans and one Mandalay Rum and coke (2,500 kyat); The Yangonite, a tea leaf salad and small bottle of Myanmar Whisky (2,800 kyat); and The NGO Worker, a plate of French fries and a shot of vodka (3,000 kyat).

Along the same vein, there are the OTBT owners’ special sets. These are The Lin Htike (pickled tea leaf rice and one Johnny Walker neat for 3,900 kyat), The Bryan (garlic chili French fries and one Jack Daniels on the rocks for 4,400 kyat) and The Zin Zin (banana-flower salad and one bottle of Spy Wine for 3,900 kyat). Yes, a bit of fun.

It’s a fine spot to pull into after a park saunter, take some rest and enjoy refreshments— at anytime, as

Off the Beaten Track

OTBT is open 11 am to 11 pm daily. The menu touts tempting caffeineenhanced delights, juices, smoothies and cocktails.

Special frappes or vanilla, blueberry, raspberry, hazelnut cappuccinos (2,200 kyat) invite the curious. The mango, pineapple, apple or strawberry smoothies just may be your pick-me-up. Or perhaps a chocolate, papaya or avocado milkshake would be more to your liking? For the tamer park stroller, there’s a range of teas, from iced lemon or raspberry tea to good old English breakfast. Squeezed carrot, honey lime, mango or tomato juice (1,600 kyat) might get you back on your feet.

But if you need something stronger, OTBT serves Myanmar or Tiger beer (2,200 kyat) and a-little-bit fancy cocktails for very reasonable prices. The whisky sours (2,500 kyat) and the Bloody Mary (3,800 kyat) are recommended. Once you’re inside the park, you’re there until they roll you out! 

Enter Kandawgyi Park at the Nat Mauk Road and Kyaik Ka San Road intersection near the Chatrium Hotel; it’s about 50 meters inside to the right.

Tel: 09-510 2657, 09-2540 18889

Email: offthebeatentrackmyanmar@gmail.com Website: www.otbt-myanmar.com Facebook: OFTBMYANMAR

Triumph in Tatters

Beauty can be a beastly business

By NYEIN NYEIN / YANGON

Myanmar is still recovering from the loss of its first international beauty queen crown in 50 years, as a dispute continues to sizzle between South Korean beauty pageant organizers and a local beauty queen.

The public’s appetite for good news was more than satisfied last May when 16-year-old Ma May Myat Noe won the Miss Asia Pacific World contest in Seoul. Sadly, the rejoicing soon turned to astonishment after a series of increasingly unseemly rows broke out between the star and her sponsors.

In August the pageant organizers dethroned Ma May Myat Noe for her “bad attitude and lies.” Following the decision, organizers claimed she had run off with the expensive crown she was originally awarded, labeling her actions “ungrateful” and “unappreciative.”

The teenage beauty queen, who has strongly rejected allegations against her, has even lost the support of her former trainer Daw Hla Nu Tun, who guided her to be a talented model, but

grew fed up with her poor attitude. She is national director for the Miss Asia Pacific World in Yangon and a trainer at the StylePlus H’s school of Personality Development, where she trains young models.

Soon after claiming the pageant title, Ma May Myat Noe and Daw Hla Nu Tun had a disagreement over the signing of a contract. Daw Hla Nu Tun, who had a verbal agreement over the contract, which was never signed, had hoped to draw upon the returning model’s experiences for future budding beauty queens.

“I stepped aside on June 15 and passed all responsibility to her mom,” Daw Hla Nu Tun wrote in an email to The Irrawaddy. Ma May Myat Noe said she did not want any more guidance from Daw Hla Nu Tun and that she had been in contact with the Korean pageant organizers directly.

While the pageant rules stipulate that contestants should be 18-years-old, Daw Hla Nu Tun said they did not lie about Ma May Myat Noe’s age. “[She] entered the competition at the age of 16 with the consent of her mother and we brought her back safely after the competition with the crown. The mother and daughter left again for Korea [in August] without informing me.”

Within a week after losing her title, Ma May Myat Noe told a press conference in Yangon that “she did not steal the crown as the organizers claimed.” But she requested an apology from pageant organizers for calling her a liar and a thief before she would hand back the crown.

The now ex-beauty queen claimed that pageant organizers—who have faced criticism over claims of sexual harassment of beauty queens in the past—had pressured her to undergo plastic surgery and to work as an escort to help raise money for her album to be released in South Korea. She has denied accepting free breast implants, as alleged by pageant organizers.

In mid-September, unconfirmed reports suggested that Ma May Myat Noe would return her crown. However, she remained estranged from her former trainer. 

Myanmar in Love in Bangkok

Apredictable

but charming little love story, a new movie titled “Myanmar in Love in Bangkok” follows a Myanmar migrant worker who falls in starry-eyed loveat-first-sight with a troubled Thai tattoo artist.

He is sweet and earnest, while she is tough and sassy with a complicated past. But despite the language barrier and her penchant for bad boys, she eventually warms to him.

With a healthy dose of drama and some comedy provided mostly by the duo’s goofy sidekick buddies, the plot moves along easily and enjoyably.

The colorful cinematography beautifully depicts the hazy, gritty, neon-lit and often surreal concrete jungle of Bangkok as seen through the wide eyes of a love-struck Myanmar boy.

While the characters lack depth, the romantic storyline builds gradually and believably and makes the viewer root for this unlikely love match.

The film also marks an interesting change in mainstream Thai depictions of Myanmar migrant workers— which in the past have been less than kind. There are over two million Myanmar migrants living in Thailand and “Myanmar in Love in Bangkok” helps shed muchneeded light on their lives.

The movie is directed by Nichaya Boonsiripan and premiered in Thailand on Sept. 18. 

After claiming her crown, Ma May Myat Noe greets well-wishers, including her trainer, Daw Hla Nu Tun (right).