TEMPO.CO, Yangon - Just a day after Myanmar’s historic 2015 elections and already anticipating victory at the polls, opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi stressed that she does not condone hate, regardless if it is against ethnic groups or minorities in the country.
"Hate leads to violence, and it could destroy the society,” she said in an interview with the BBC. "It is something we all have to work together (to resolve)."
So-called ‘hate speech’ has become a serious concern in Myanmar in the last few years, with its spread helped largely by the increasing popularity of Facebook in this sprawling Southeast Asian nation. And while trolling or pranking online is nothing new and far from being unique to Myanmar, the cyber vitriol that has been spewed by anonymous Facebook users here have either contributed to or directly led to several instances of communal violence. In one instance, two people were even killed and several others injured.
More often than not, the target of the online hate speech, which includes unfounded stories, are the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who live mostly in Myanmar’s southwestern state of Rakhine. (Myanmar is predominantly Buddhist, representing 80 percent of the population.)
It’s unclear how and when it all started, but in the last two years, the ‘hate’ posts seem to have picked up steam, with individuals apparently hiding behind fake Facebook accounts churning out hundreds of pages against the Rohingya in particular. And while the Rohingya have long been outcasts in Myanmar society, the hate speech aimed at them have only made them more vulnerable to abuse. (Courtesy of TEMPO.CO)
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Tuesday, December 1, 2015
The Burmese twin
Anyone who believes in the transmigration of souls might be forgiven for thinking that the spirit of the late Benazir Bhutto has been reincarnated in another Daughter of the East: Aung San Suu Kyi. No two female leaders in this region share such telling similarities. Not the Sri Lankan Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike nor her offspring daughter Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga, not India’s Mrs Indira Gandhi, nor her daughter-in-law Mrs Sonia Gandhi, not the Bangladeshi Sheikh Hasina nor her nemesis Khaleda Zia.
Most of them were either widows or daughters of martyrs. Each of them has had to pay that cruel admission fee to enter a political arena in which the gladiators are men. Unlike their sisters in arms, Benazir Bhutto and Aung San Suu Kyi (the Burmese call her Daw Suu) had to suffer years of unconscionable imprisonment. Both survived debilitating years in exile (Benazir Bhutto outside Pakistan, Aung San Suu Kyi within Myanmar).
Both, nourished over the years by the droplets of continuous support from their followers, gradually crystallised into fragile stalagmites of democracy.
And, finally, when allowed by generals to contest in a general election, both campaigned tirelessly, won with commanding majorities, but then found power denied them by a military junta. To gain what was rightfully theirs, they had to agree on an unworkable compromise which left them sandwiched between a khaki-minded president above and a khaki-uniformed army chief below.
It must be galling for Daw Suu as it was for Ms Bhutto to be conjoined to the military, to be treated as a weak supplicant, just as it cannot be easy for any democratically elected leader to accept that the ballot paper, in dexterous hands, can be folded like some malleable origami into a bullet. (Courtesy of Dhaka Tribune)
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Most of them were either widows or daughters of martyrs. Each of them has had to pay that cruel admission fee to enter a political arena in which the gladiators are men. Unlike their sisters in arms, Benazir Bhutto and Aung San Suu Kyi (the Burmese call her Daw Suu) had to suffer years of unconscionable imprisonment. Both survived debilitating years in exile (Benazir Bhutto outside Pakistan, Aung San Suu Kyi within Myanmar).
Both, nourished over the years by the droplets of continuous support from their followers, gradually crystallised into fragile stalagmites of democracy.
And, finally, when allowed by generals to contest in a general election, both campaigned tirelessly, won with commanding majorities, but then found power denied them by a military junta. To gain what was rightfully theirs, they had to agree on an unworkable compromise which left them sandwiched between a khaki-minded president above and a khaki-uniformed army chief below.
It must be galling for Daw Suu as it was for Ms Bhutto to be conjoined to the military, to be treated as a weak supplicant, just as it cannot be easy for any democratically elected leader to accept that the ballot paper, in dexterous hands, can be folded like some malleable origami into a bullet. (Courtesy of Dhaka Tribune)
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Monday, November 30, 2015
Myanmar couple arrested for dealing meth
PHUKET: Police arrested two Myanmar nationals in possession of more than 250 grams of crystal methamphetamine (ya ice) on Friday.
Thiha Soe, 32, and his wife, referred to by police only as Moe, were apprehended after officers received a tip-off from Rassada Subdistrict Chief (Kamnan) Chanchai Tantawacheerapan.
“Mr Chanchai contacted officials after hearing complaints about two plant workers selling drugs at the entrance to the Chai Taweekit fish processing plant,” said Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada at a press conference on Saturday.
Police then waited for the pair at their rental room, about 200 meters from the plant.
Once the couple arrived, officers performed a search yielding 252.12 grams of ya ice, with an estimated value of about 886,000 baht. (Courtesy of Phuket Gazette)
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Thiha Soe, 32, and his wife, referred to by police only as Moe, were apprehended after officers received a tip-off from Rassada Subdistrict Chief (Kamnan) Chanchai Tantawacheerapan.
“Mr Chanchai contacted officials after hearing complaints about two plant workers selling drugs at the entrance to the Chai Taweekit fish processing plant,” said Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada at a press conference on Saturday.
Police then waited for the pair at their rental room, about 200 meters from the plant.
Once the couple arrived, officers performed a search yielding 252.12 grams of ya ice, with an estimated value of about 886,000 baht. (Courtesy of Phuket Gazette)
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Myanmar's president and military chief to meet election victor Suu Kyi this week
The most powerful figures in Myanmar's transition following its historic elections are to meet this week in separate talks that could set the course for the incoming government dominated by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
In a post on the presidential office Facebook page, Myanmar president Thein Sein confirmed he had extended an invitation to meet Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday morning at the president's house in Naypyidaw.
The chief of Myanmar's defence forces, Min Aung Hliang, has also confirmed he has agreed to meet the head of the victorious National League for Democracy (NLD) later that day, according to ABC Radio Australia's Burmese service.
Ms Suu Kyi has sought to take a conciliatory approach following the elections, dampening victory celebrations and requesting talks with the president and the army chief in the weeks following the NLD's overwhelming win in the November 8 poll. (Courtesy of ABC news)
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In a post on the presidential office Facebook page, Myanmar president Thein Sein confirmed he had extended an invitation to meet Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday morning at the president's house in Naypyidaw.
The chief of Myanmar's defence forces, Min Aung Hliang, has also confirmed he has agreed to meet the head of the victorious National League for Democracy (NLD) later that day, according to ABC Radio Australia's Burmese service.
Ms Suu Kyi has sought to take a conciliatory approach following the elections, dampening victory celebrations and requesting talks with the president and the army chief in the weeks following the NLD's overwhelming win in the November 8 poll. (Courtesy of ABC news)
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Attack breaks post-martial law calm in Kokang region capital
The military newspaper Myawady reported that “rebels” of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) had opened fire on military columns in Laukkai on November 27. It gave no word on casualties and said the “rebels” retreated to the north-east, toward the border with China, when the army returned fire.
The military was combing the area for their hideouts but none of the rebels involved had been identified, the newspaper said.
A police major told The Myanmar Times that no one was killed in the November 27 attack.
President U Thein Sein ended nine months of emergency rule in the Kokang Self-administered Zone on November 17. “The situation has since returned to normal and the rule of law has been restored in the zone,” his decree said.
Residents contacted by The Myanmar Times yesterday confirmed they had heard gunfire in or near the town on November 27. They said this was not the first such incident, raising fears that the MNDAA still had the resources to harass the Tatmadaw after months of fighting resulted in the ethnic Chinese insurgents being pushed back to remote border areas. “We usually don’t go outside at night. The situation is not so different from under military administration. Sometimes we hear shooting from remote areas,” said one local. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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The military was combing the area for their hideouts but none of the rebels involved had been identified, the newspaper said.
A police major told The Myanmar Times that no one was killed in the November 27 attack.
President U Thein Sein ended nine months of emergency rule in the Kokang Self-administered Zone on November 17. “The situation has since returned to normal and the rule of law has been restored in the zone,” his decree said.
Residents contacted by The Myanmar Times yesterday confirmed they had heard gunfire in or near the town on November 27. They said this was not the first such incident, raising fears that the MNDAA still had the resources to harass the Tatmadaw after months of fighting resulted in the ethnic Chinese insurgents being pushed back to remote border areas. “We usually don’t go outside at night. The situation is not so different from under military administration. Sometimes we hear shooting from remote areas,” said one local. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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CB Bank chair to open industrial zone
Chair of Co-operative Bank U Khin Maung Aye also chairs the Kaung Myanmar Aung (KMA) Group of Companies which has interests from hotels and real estate to mining, forestry, agriculture and automobiles.
Another of his businesses, Kaytumadi Development Company (Public), recently bought over 1000 acres of land in Bago Region where it plans to open an industrial zone this December or in early 2016, he told The Myanmar Times. The land is near to the 150 mile point along the highway from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, in Taungoo, he said.
“We have permission to build an industrial zone, and now need to present our plans to the Myanmar Investment Commission and other government departments.”
He has already invited investors from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to consider opening businesses in the new zone, he said.
The project will cost between K20 billion and K50 billion to build, he said, and the company plans to issue shares to the public worth K10,000 each, to raise the necessary funds. A number of investors from Taungoo will also put up capital. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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Another of his businesses, Kaytumadi Development Company (Public), recently bought over 1000 acres of land in Bago Region where it plans to open an industrial zone this December or in early 2016, he told The Myanmar Times. The land is near to the 150 mile point along the highway from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, in Taungoo, he said.
“We have permission to build an industrial zone, and now need to present our plans to the Myanmar Investment Commission and other government departments.”
He has already invited investors from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to consider opening businesses in the new zone, he said.
The project will cost between K20 billion and K50 billion to build, he said, and the company plans to issue shares to the public worth K10,000 each, to raise the necessary funds. A number of investors from Taungoo will also put up capital. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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DICA issues revised list of ‘out of touch’ companies
The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration has published a revised list of companies to be struck off its register, after receiving a number of complaints from businesses named on the list that are still operational.
In August, the regulator issued a request for confirmation from all companies still in business, as it seeks to clean up its database by removing out-of-date company names.
However, the list of 20,165 local and 2015 international “out of touch companies” published earlier this month contained a number of errors.
Some companies such as Myanmar Red Dot Network and Capital Diamond Star Group confirmed that their companies are currently active in Myanmar and that they have submitted documentation notifying DICA.
Others said that former incarnations of their business were named on the list, leading to confusion among clients. These included international companies such as Singapore-based Surbana International Consultants, who have since confirmed their operating subsidiary status in Myanmar with DICA. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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In August, the regulator issued a request for confirmation from all companies still in business, as it seeks to clean up its database by removing out-of-date company names.
However, the list of 20,165 local and 2015 international “out of touch companies” published earlier this month contained a number of errors.
Some companies such as Myanmar Red Dot Network and Capital Diamond Star Group confirmed that their companies are currently active in Myanmar and that they have submitted documentation notifying DICA.
Others said that former incarnations of their business were named on the list, leading to confusion among clients. These included international companies such as Singapore-based Surbana International Consultants, who have since confirmed their operating subsidiary status in Myanmar with DICA. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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