MYANMAR and Southeast Asia Globe (LINES OF THOUGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA)

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Jan 18, 2019 • 7 min read
EU Tariffs
Cambodia and Myanmar’s rice farmers under pressure
Cambodia and Myanmar will be forced to pay hefty tariffs to export rice to the European Union – and farmers fear that it will leave both nations’ rice industries in
critical condition
By Robin Spiess
Aug 09, 2018 • 4 min read
Chin tribes
Myanmar’s tattooed women: an artist’s interpretation
The indigenous Chin people have a unique tradition of tattooing the women’s faces. In 2012, Belgian artist Christian Develter travelled to meet these women, which
served as an inspiration for his series Chin Urban & Tribal. He discusses his experience of living with the tribes, and his thoughts on the now-illegal tattooing
practice
By Thomas Brent

Jun 29, 2018 • 2 min read
Kachin conflict
Myanmar’s ‘forgotten war’
The Kachin conflict in Myanmar has been largely eclipsed by the Rohingya crisis. With media attention centred on the plight of Muslim minorities to the west, the
northern conflict over gold and other valuable resources rages on, displacing “thousands of villagers, without as much international condemnation”, says analyst
Eugene Mark Min Hui
By Tom O'Connell

Jun 25, 2018 • 5 min read
Overcoming the outages
How to keep the lights on in Myanmar

With more than four out of ten people in Myanmar without access to electricity, the nation's economic development relies on the government's willingness to pursue
alternative energy sources
By Jeremy Mullins
May 08, 2018 • 3 min read
Win Myint
Myanmar’s ambitious new president pushing for changes to military-drafted constitution
Who is he? Born on the Irrawaddy Delta just three years after his nation declared its independence from the British in 1948, Win Myint’s own foray into political life
came in 1988 when the then-barrister was swept up in the nationwide prodemocracy protests against General Ne Win’s one-party rule. Joining…
By Paul Millar

Oct 13, 2017 • 7 min read
Whatever happened to
Myanmar’s Tiger Girls?
Touted as Myanmar’s answer to the Spice Girls and a potent symbol of change in the country, the Tiger Girls made a huge splash in international media around the
turn of this decade. Four of the five are back and finally tasting local fame in a country now more equipped to deal with their spirited ways
By Sean Gleeson
Feb 06, 2017 • 7 min read
On the road to Mandalay: a cycling tour through rural Myanmar
From magnificent Buddhist monuments to glimpses of traditional rural life, saddling up for a cycling trip is the ideal way to experience Myanmar’s charms
By Graeme Green

Dec 29, 2016 • 7 min read
Mogok
Myanmar’s mysterious mining mecca
Myanmar’s miners have been left with little more than scraps following years of military plunder
By Feliz Solomon

May 16, 2016 • 8 min read
Female Empowerment
The sex educators fighting gender inequality in Myanmar
Women’s rights activists in Myanmar are sweeping aside cultural taboos for a frank discussion on sexuality that they hope will diminish gender inequality
By Holly Robertson

Apr 26, 2016 • 7 min read
Myanmar’s economy opens doors to big brands
From fast food giants to coffee chains, tobacco companies and garment makers, Myanmar’s emerging economy is opening up to the world’s biggest brands
By Holly Robertson

Luxury Strand Cruise gives fine taste of Myanmar’s culture
The road to Mandalay was made famous by an ode in its honour, but the new five-star Strand Cruise along the riverine route to Myanmar’s cultural capital is a far
more enticing way to travel
By Holly Robertson

Better infrastructure critical for Myanmar’s economic success
Martin Jancik and Joshua Brown, country managers for Myanmar and Singapore at Tractus Asia, a leading management consulting firm, give their insights into the
future of Myanmar’s investment climate
By Martin Janick and Joshua Brown
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https://southeastasiaglobe.com/what-the-eus-new-tariffs-mean-for-cambodia-and-myanmars-rice-
farmers/
EU TARIFFS
Cambodia and Myanmar’s rice farmers
under pressure
Cambodia and Myanmar will be forced to pay hefty tariffs to export rice to the
European Union – and farmers fear that it will leave both nations’ rice
industries in critical condition
ROBIN SPIESS
JANUARY 18, 2019
Cambodian farmers carry rice bales through a field in Cambodia's Kampong Speu province, some 60 km south of Phnom
Penh Photo: Tang Chhin Sothy /AFP
Rice farmers across Cambodia and Myanmar have been left
scrambling for new markets for their crop after the European
Union announced on Wednesday that it will now be imposing
hefty tariffs on long-grain Indica rice from both Southeast Asian
nations for the next three years beginning today.
The decision, announced by the European Commission this week,
follows a month-long investigation that confirmed the increase in
Indica imports from Cambodia and Myanmar has been damaging
to EU rice producers.

In December, the Commission held a vote on this issue among its
28 EU state members, but did not receive a majority in favour of
imposing the tariff measures. In the absence of strong opposition
to the proposal, the Commission made the final decision itself on
16 January.
Representatives of European farming groups told Reuters that
they are grateful for the Commission’s decision, as the cheap rice
imported from Southeast Asia has been contributing to farmers’
abandonment of crops and exodus from rural areas.
Farming group Copa-Cogeca said rice imports from the two
Asian countries increased from 9,000 tonnes in 2012 to 360,000
tonnes in 2017, leading to a collapse in prices across the
European continent. In 2018, approximately 30% of all EU rice
imports originated from countries with duty-free status – with the
bulk being shipped in from Cambodia and Myanmar.
“This surge in low-price imports has caused serious difficulties
for EU rice producers to the extent that their market share in the
EU dropped substantially from 61% to 29%,” the Commission
said in a recent statement.
Rice is currently grown across eight southern European countries
including Italy, whose government initially requested the launch
of the Commission’s investigation in March 2018 in the name of
“protecting the Italian and European rice industry”.
Cambodia and Myanmar have enjoyed duty-free rice export to
Europe since 2010, when the EU dropped its tariffs on the crop as
a benefit of the Everything but Arms agreement, a policy which
aims to promote European trade of goods with the world’s 50
least-developed countries. Other more developed countries in
Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Vietnam, have long been
paying tariffs of around $200 per tonne for white rice exports to
the EU.

Impact on Cambodia’s and Myanmar’s Economies
For countries that have long benefitted from free access to the
European market, the new tariffs are a steep price to pay: for the
first year, the two countries’ Indica rice exports will be charged a
duty of approximately $200 per tonne of rice, with the duties
gradually dropping to $171 and $142.50 per tonne, respectively,
over the course of the following two years.
For both Cambodia and Myanmar, rice is a major export – and
Europe has become their most profitable market.
The EU is currently Cambodia’s largest destination for exports,
with nearly 43% of all exported rice – or approximately 270,000
tonnes’ worth – going straight to European markets. But while
Cambodia’s exports to the EU have been on the rise in recent
years, the country’s overall rice exports suffered slightly last year:
the industry took a 1.5% dip in 2018 compared to 2017, with
officials citing high production costs, international competition
and a potential EU tariff as the cause.
Just under a week before the Commission’s Wednesday
announcement of its decision, Cambodia Rice Federation vice-
president Vong Bun Heng told a local news outlet that the very
threat of an EU tariff on Cambodia’s rice has already proven
damaging to overall exports.
“Some international buyers hesitate to place orders when they
hear about implementation of the EU safeguard,” he said. “There
is a need for our rice, but the choice of buyers is limited.”
Chan Sophal, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a research
unit of the Cambodian Economic Association, told the Phnom
Penh Post that the Kingdom could see its rice industry in critical
condition in the face of the EU tariffs. In order to offset the
additional duty costs, he said, local rice farmers will have to focus

on cutting production costs, and may need to switch up their
crops altogether.
“The government should consider reducing the electricity cost
and port fee to help our rice industry to remain or be more
competitive,” he said. “I think [the impact of the tariff] will
depend on the substitutability of the Cambodian rice in EU
market outlets. If they like Cambodian rice, the supermarkets and
consumers in Europe may not mind paying a bit more.”
According to AMRU Rice Cambodia chairman and CEO Song
Saran, Cambodian rice exporters should focus on expanding to
new markets – but for now, it needs Europe.
“We need the EU market and we cannot afford to lose it. So we
will have to find a way to lower our operating costs to improve
competitiveness,” he said.
Myanmar is in much the same boat, as Europe has steadily grown
to become one of the country’s major markets. Myanmar exported
upwards of $320 million worth of rice in 2017, the same year it
reached an all-time high of 293,000 tonnes of rice exported to
Europe.
At a World Economic Forum in September, Myanmar state
counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi noted that Myanmar’s rice exports
have been on the rise for years, achieving “pre-war” levels in
2017 thanks to access to foreign markets.
“[Our rice export success] has not affected the rice exports of
[neighbouring countries like] Vietnam or Thailand,” she said.
“The fact that we have been gaining our position in the world rice
market does not mean that other local markets have suffered.”
But this could change now that the European market has set a
high barrier for entry to the Indica rice market, forcing farmers to
look closer to home as they seek out different buyers.

Last week, general secretary of the Myanmar Rice Federation Ye
Min Aung spoke about the potential negative effects of the EU’s
decision to impose duties on the country’s rice exports.
“We have seen increased income as we are able to export quality
rice to EU market,” he told a local news outlet. “Unless we have
[duty free export] rights, we have to compete more with other
countries. But to do so, we have much difficulty – we don’t have
enough ports and warehouses.”
However, others are for more optimistic about the potential
effects of the new tariff, which some Burmese industry insiders –
including Myanmar Rice Federation joint secretary Lu Maw
Myint Maung alongside several local rice exporters – claim will
only affect about 60,000 to 100,000 tonnes of Indica exports.
Even if only 100,000 tonnes of Myanmar’s exports were to be
affected, however, the new tariff would still result in a loss of
approximately $20 million for the country, should Myanmar
choose to send its rice to the EU in the upcoming year.
According to Hla Maung Shwe, deputy chairman of the Union of
Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, it
could be worse – the EU could have chosen to target duty-free
garment imports, which are the backbone of several developing
Southeast Asian economies.
“This decision will not affect us very much on rice exports to
Europe, but if it were on our garment exports, it would hurt,” Hla
Maung She told Radio Free Asia.
In Cambodia, officials are looking at the new tariff as an
opportunity, and a sign from the EU that the Kingdom no longer
needs preferential treatment. Cambodia’s Council of Ministers
spokesman Phay Siphan told RFA that the government is
unconcerned by the tariff, though he admitted it would have an
impact.

“Imposing a tax on Cambodia is a positive development, which
proves that Cambodia is able to pay duties like other countries,”
he said. “We know that imposing the tax will affect us, but we
must be ready to compete on a level playing field with other
countries in trade.”

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/myanmars-tattooed-women/
CHIN TRIBES
Myanmar’s tattooed women: an artist’s
interpretation
The indigenous Chin people have a unique tradition of tattooing the women’s
faces. In 2012, Belgian artist Christian Develter travelled to meet these women,
which served as an inspiration for his series Chin Urban & Tribal. He discusses
his experience of living with the tribes, and his thoughts on the now-illegal
tattooing practice
THOMAS BRENT
AUGUST 9, 2018
Two examples of Christian Develter's artwork from his series Chin Urban & Tribal
Originally the women of the Chin tribes were tattooed as a form of identification, so that they could not be stolen by kings or other chieftains.
The practice has now evolved into something more aesthetic. Do you feel the tattoos give the woman a sense of empowerment and
independence, or could it be seen as a misogynistic tradition?
I think for many of these women the tattoos were a rite of
passage. It marked an important moment or turning point in their

lives, helped them find their place in the community. But maybe
at the same time, they felt a sense of self – not only through these
special markings on their faces, but the whole experience of
getting through the fear and pain.
I’m not a woman, but I think many women have something –
social or cultural, [such as] makeup, clothing, jewellery – which
helps them feel beautiful and empowered, but nevertheless
answers to certain ideas or ideals of how they should look and be.
I don’t think it’s necessarily ‘misogynistic’, but women, more
than men, are judged by the way they look – both by men and by
women.
Christian Develter with one member of an indigenous Chin tribe
What was it like spending time with the tribes? Did you learn anything from their way of life?
Myanmar has been a fairly closed country until quite recently.
And even as it opens up, it’s not always easy to travel
everywhere: permits, access, and infrastructure [are all obstacles].
It’s easy to wax lyrical about the old way of life: the idyllic
villages, the pace, the traditions; but young people are moving on
as they become more connected and want to see more of the
world. I saw people at the cusp of change and trying to make

sense of the outside world – as they knew it – coming in. What I
did learn was that the Chin were welcoming and non-judgmental
of strangers, and have a amazing sense of humour seriously.
It is possible that their traditions will soon disappear, as the tattooing is now illegal in Myanmar? Do you believe it is important to save these
traditions?
The older generation – women in their 70s, 80s – tell me that the
tattoos will die with the last of them. Some of the younger women
say they will hang on to them as this is their culture and
community. Others are breaking away from the old life and ways.
There is a real interest in learning more and documenting these
traditions – I for one am here and inspired by them. But I think it
is for the Chins to continue with their culture and traditions as
they feel is best for them. It would be a shame if this became just
another ‘tourist showcase’ without the opportunity for the culture
to evolve with time – even if it meant the end of the tattoos. By
painting them I feel I might contribute – in a small way – to
preserve them for future generations.
An elderly woman from a Chin tribe sporting the traditional,
intricate face tattoos
Why did you decide to mix contemporary with traditional in your series of paintings based on the Chin tribes of Myanmar?

I think there’s something timeless about the tattoos – the way the
lines and shapes frame and become part of the women’s faces.
This series was just my way of bringing this to the canvas – as
bold and sublime as the tattoos and the women who carried them.
Why did you decide to mix contemporary with traditional in your series of paintings based on the Chin tribes of Myanmar?
I think there’s something timeless about the tattoos – the way the
lines and shapes frame and become part of the women’s faces.
This series was just my way of bringing this to the canvas – as
bold and sublime as the tattoos and the women who carried them.
Do you have any future projects lined up? If so, what are they?
I always felt there was little attention or nuance in the way
women were portrayed biblically: often two-dimensional saints or
victims waiting to be “saved”. My next project is a celebration of
them: strengths and flaws as I plan to re-interpret depictions of
Eve, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene. For this, I hope to
travel to countries where these women are venerated – maybe to
South America, where Christianity is infused with the lingering
colours and scents of old pagan practices. And certainly also the
Philippines!
Christian Develter’s work is available at One Eleven Gallery in
Siem Reap, Cambodia

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/overcoming-the-outages-how-to-keep-the-lights-on-in-myanmar/
OVERCOMING THE OUTAGES
How to keep the lights on in Myanmar
With more than four out of ten people in Myanmar without access to electricity,
the nation's economic development relies on the government's willingness to
pursue alternative energy sources
JEREMY MULLINS
JUNE 25, 2018
A night-time view of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
Poor electricity access is incredibly disruptive and bad for
business. Tales abound in Myanmar of surgeries completed using
light from cell phones and cars crashing immediately after the
lights go out.
About 41% of Myanmar people are without access to electricity at
all, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This
equates to about 22 million people, or a third of Southeast Asia’s
total of 65 million people who don’t have access to electricity.

Many of those in Myanmar who do have electricity receive
intermittent power from local generators or small solar home
systems, rather than 24-hour grid access. The result is that even
those who have electricity access make relatively little use of it,
with data from the GMS Information Portal showing Myanmar
used 256kWh (kilowatt hours) per capita in 2015, against
335kWh for Cambodia and 1,722kWh for Vietnam.
The lack of electricity is hindering broader economic
development. The IEA’s Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2017
shows over 90% of Myanmar firms experience power outages,
compared with less than 30% in Vietnam and Indonesia. The only
choice for many businesses is to install expensive backup
generators or just locate somewhere else.
Despite the poor state of supply, Myanmar electricity is cheap
when you can get it. Residential use starts at $0.026 per kWh and
commercial use at $0.056.
The problem is electricity is too cheap – cheaper than the cost of
generating, transmitting and distributing it – and the government
faces losses on the average unit of electricity it sells. During the
2018 fiscal year, government subsidies were projected to total
about $275m, and the number is growing.
Basically, the government is spending $275m to pay for richer
people’s electricity. This is money that could be connecting the
59% of the population living in the countryside, but instead it
goes to the 41% living in towns and cities.
Tales abound in Myanmar of surgeries completed using light
from cell phones
One of the main reasons behind the frequent Yangon power
outages is weakness in the transmission and distribution network,
which could be improved if more money were available, and not
going to subsidies.

It’s commonly accepted that tariffs need to be increased to fund
improvements, but awareness and action are two different things.
The reluctance to act stems partly from previous government
efforts to increase prices, which were met by protests – quite
understandably. Ordinary Yangon consumers sweating through
another power outage are probably not too enthusiastic about the
argument that a fundamental problem is they are not paying
enough for electricity.
Mindful of this challenge, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy
has pledged to first improve the quality of electricity before
raising prices, but a price raise is politically untenable the closer
Myanmar gets to the next election in 2020.
Myanmar’s alternatives include hydropower, hydrocarbon and
renewables. Hydropower has traditionally been the main source
of electricity, but most potential sites are located far from
population centres, and large hydro has serious social and
environmental implications. Developments have been slow to
move forward for a variety of reasons, including the 2011
freezing of the high-profile Myitsone Dam project in Kachin
State, which still stings.
The low costs make coal a somewhat attractive alternative.
Concern over environmental and social impacts has essentially
halted progress of coal-fired plants, though the option hasn’t been
entirely ruled out.
Renewables are a promising alternative. Work is underway on the
country’s first large solar farm, and there has recently been a push
to provide off-grid power through solar. But there’s concern over
the price and the ability of the grid to handle fluctuating amounts
of electricity.
Natural gas is becoming Myanmar’s go-to “base load” source of
generation. Currently, about 30% of Myanmar’s installed capacity

is gas-fired. This share has been growing rapidly, and is likely to
keep increasing.
One motivation for the turn to natural gas generation is that
Myanmar has a lot of it. Much of the country’s gas resources are
unexplored, and there are four large offshore areas currently in
production, totalling about 2 billion cubic feet per day. Yet most
of this gas is exported to Thailand and China. Plus, two of the
four offshore areas are nearing the end of their life and new
production is likely several years away.
The most recent solution to the lack of gas supply is importing
liquefied natural gas (LNG) by tanker. On 30 January, the
Ministry of Electricity and Energy announced “Notices to
Proceed” for three large LNG-to-power projects, as well as one
other combined-cycle plant. The four projects would produce a
total of 3,000MW, nearly the same as all the power plants
currently operating in Myanmar, but there’s a chance they won’t
become a reality.
Myanmar is not out of the woods yet. The amount of people
without electricity and the country’s expected rapid economic
growth demands even more power in the future, and the goal of
100% access to electricity by 2030 will remain elusive unless a
broad range of improvements are made.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/myanmars-ambitious-new-president-pushing-for-changes-to-
military-drafted-constitution/
WIN MYINT
Myanmar’s ambitious new president
pushing for changes to military-drafted
constitution
Who is he? Born on the Irrawaddy Delta just three years after his nation
declared its independence from the British in 1948, Win Myint’s own foray into
political life came in 1988 when the then-barrister was swept up in the
nationwide prodemocracy protests against General Ne Win’s one-party rule.
Joining…
PAUL MILLAR
MAY 8, 2018
Myanmar's President Win Myint waits to welcome ambassadors during a reception for newly accredited ambassadors to
Myanmar at the President House in Naypyitaw, Myanmar Photo: Hein Htet / EPA-EFE
Who is he?
Born on the Irrawaddy Delta just three years after his nation
declared its independence from the British in 1948, Win Myint’s
own foray into political life came in 1988 when the then-barrister
was swept up in the nationwide prodemocracy protests against

General Ne Win’s one-party rule. Joining the National League for
Democracy (NLD), the young lawyer’s early electoral success
was marred by a series of arrests by the military government –
even forcing the budding politician to miss his critically ill son’s
death and funeral for refusing to sign a promissory note
renouncing political life.
Illustration: Antiochus Omissi for SEA Globe
Why is he in the news?
Following President Htin Kyaw’s retirement in March after long-
running rumours of ill health, Win Myint – who had been serving as

speaker of the house – was elected by the parliament as the nation’s
new president. A close ally of state counsellor and de facto leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains barred from the presidency by
Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, Myint is the first president
in decades not to have ties with the nation’s mighty armed forces.
Despite holding what is largely seen as a ceremonial role, Myint’s
pledge to amend the nation’s constitution may be the mark of a man
with grander designs than his ailing predecessor.
What does this mean for the NLD?
With the constitution still mandating military control of a quarter of
parliamentary seats and absolute dominance over the nation’s security
forces – the prime drivers of the devastating Rohingya crisis for
which Suu Kyi has borne so much international condemnation – the
fact that Myint made a point of promising constitutional change is
promising. According to Khin Zaw Win, director of policy advocacy
group the Tampadipa Institute, though, Myanmar’s new president
may well lack the autonomy to pursue this promise to the fullest. “To
those who are asking, he will be forever Aung San Suu Kyi’s
henchman,” he told AP. “I don’t expect much change in the
presidency, unless Win Myint puts the country’s interests before
Aung San Suu Kyi’s and that of the military.”
Could he be Aung San Suu Kyi’s successor?
With Suu Kyi dogged by suggestions of failing health – she had to
cancel a much-anticipated appearance in Australia during the Asean
summit earlier this year – Myint’s close ties to the woman once
heralded as Myanmar’s great democratic hope may signal that the
newly minted president is more than just a loyalist stooge. “[The
military] must be prepared to deal with a more ambitious president,”
China-based Myanmar analyst Liu Yun told the South China Morning
Post. “Win Myint will lead this country not only as a president
empowered by the constitution, but also a successor to ‘the Lady’.”

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/tigergirls-myanmar/
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO
Myanmar’s Tiger Girls?
Touted as Myanmar’s answer to the Spice Girls and a potent symbol of change
in the country, the Tiger Girls made a huge splash in international media around
the turn of this decade. Four of the five are back and finally tasting local fame in
a country now more equipped to deal with their spirited ways
SEAN GLEESON
OCTOBER 13, 2017
The ‘Girl Power’ revolution came late to Myanmar, the audience
wasn’t ready when it arrived and by the time the country was
prepared to embrace it, it was over.
It began when a Burmese man and an Australian woman crossed
paths in Yangon eight years ago and quickly recognised a shared
musical passion: Moe Kyaw was a music producer with a few

local successes under his belt; Nicole May a dance teacher flitting
about the city and doing volunteer work. It wasn’t long before
they were business partners.
Fifteen years had passed since a casting call in central London
first brought together the Spice Girls, giving birth to the original
‘Girl Power’ crusade, which turned out to be the biggest musical
juggernaut of that decade, inspiring a legion of copycat acts
across the world. Now it was Myanmar’s turn.
Nearly 200 women showed up for the audition staged by May and
Kyaw in early 2010; by day’s end, there were five remaining.
That week, Ah Moon, Htike Htike, Cha Cha, Wai Hnin and Kimi
were taken to a makeshift studio in Yangon to begin a gruelling
regimen of singing and dance training.
The Tiger Girls debuted three months later in Mandalay during
the country’s Thingyan festival, the annual bacchanal of teenage
drinking and public water fights that heralds the Myanmar New
Year. Their provocative dress prompted a hostile reception,
though. According to a contemporary account by British
journalist Rosalind Russell, the women were pelted with plastic
water bottles and footwear.
Yet in the three years that followed, they became an international
sensation – if not one that ever found a sizeable following in their
own country. As Myanmar began its slow transition away from
decades of military rule, the Tiger Girls became, in the eyes of
foreign media, an exemplar of the profound political changes
taking place. They spoke publicly about their commitment to
challenging the entrenched discrimination facing Myanmar
women and their absurd battles with geriatric censorship
authorities, such as when they were banned from performing in
coloured wigs. After several performances in the region and
further abroad, they were offered a recording deal with the Power
House music label in Los Angeles.

The three member who comprise the MyaNmar Girls in a
promotional photograph for the latest album, Shake It!
But just as they seemed to be breaking through to a domestic
audience, it fell apart. Moe Kyaw and May had parted early on in
the venture, after the producer was frustrated in his efforts to tone
down the act’s flirtatious image. He reserved his rights to the
group’s name, though, forcing a reluctant rebrand as the Me N
Ma Girls. Then, soon after releasing their second album, Wai
Hnin left the group, ostensibly because of pressure to take care of
her elderly family. Six months later, Cha Cha and Htike Htike
also went their own way, after learning that their record deal left
Power House with rights to their solo work. The remaining two
members persevered for a month, before Kimi resolved to focus
on her own solo career.
As difficult as it was at the time, it was ultimately fortuitous for
the group’s breakout star and youngest member. “I was the only
one who was left in the group!” Ah Moon told Southeast Asia
Globe. “People have this myth that Ah Moon left the group and
became popular, when the truth is everyone left to do their own

things, and I was left sitting here. Then management asked what
are you going to do, and I said: ‘I’m gonna keep singing!’”
Ah Moon spoke with Southeast Asia Globe from a rooftop wine
bar in Yangon’s Myaynigone neighbourhood. Born in the Kachin
capital of Myitkyina, in Myanmar’s far north, she began her
music career at the age of four while performing in church halls
and inked a deal with Myanmar Beer as a touring performer
straight after finishing high school.
Now 26, she had just returned from a whirlwind tour of Japan,
performing for the Myanmar migrant community there and
filming two music videos from her forthcoming album. Now
undoubtedly a national phenomenon, Ah Moon has attained 2.5
million Facebook fans in the three years since her solo career
began.
It’s getting easier now… Back in 2014 I was called slut, bitch,
told to get out of the country… But those words are not from the
crowd; those words are only from the people that see the pictures
[of me] on social media.
After the split, the other four Tiger Girls pursued their own solo
careers with varying degrees of vigour. Then, in 2015, a year after
the group’s final official single, the foursome announced their
return as a group, reinvented once again to become the MyaNmar
Girls.
Both Ah Moon and Cha Cha, who spoke on behalf of the group,
said there was no acrimony on either side over the split and the
formation of a new group that excluded one of its founding
members. For Cha Cha, the group wanted to build their careers on
their own merits, while Ah Moon continued with her overseas
management.
“When we decided to leave the group, we were all prepared to
leave all the things of the old group, the support, the international

interest and especially the budget,” Cha Cha said. “So as a result,
we had to face all these challenges without the support which we
had [come to expect].”
A year after they got back together, Wai Hnin suddenly stopped
appearing on the group’s promotional material. Ah Moon
suggested she had been kicked out, something Cha Cha denied.
She did admit there had been disagreements but said that Wai
Hnin had decided to stop pursuing a career in music and now
works at a private company, regularly catching up with the other
three.
Ah Moon poses in Yangon last month
While the remaining trio have become national celebrities,
appearing regularly on magazine covers and at high-society
events, it has been challenging to work in a music market
dominated by a small number of acts with big financial backing.
The group’s debut last year, the up-tempo and raunchy Shake It!,
was entirely self-funded without the resources for a big
promotional campaign on billboards and in print media.
But unlike when their careers began, the audience is there. A
market for the assertive, come-hither style of pop music on which

the Tiger Girls built their brand now exists in Myanmar. The
credit is all theirs.
“It’s getting easier now,” Ah Moon said. “Back in 2014 I was
called slut, bitch, told to get out of the country… But those words
are not from the crowd; those words are only from the people that
see the pictures [of me] on social media. I had the love of all my
fans who saw me face-to-face. They loved my performances; they
supported me. I had the courage and the energy to overcome
that… and that moment of being criticised is kind of over.”
Yet, in other respects, breaking out as an artist has become harder.
The new government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has long been
accused of a puritanical streak that rivals that of its predecessor
and has made regular noises about the need to tone down the
excesses of the Thingyan holiday. One of the MyaNmar Girls’
first public performances in 2015 was a headline slot in front of a
rapturous Thingyan audience in Mandalay, the same time and
place where five years earlier they’d been heckled mercilessly.
This year, a ban on commercial stages at the festival meant the
MyaNmar Girls couldn’t perform at all.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/biking-burma-a-two-wheel-tour-through-rural-myanmar/
On the road to Mandalay: a cycling tour
through rural Myanmar
From magnificent Buddhist monuments to glimpses of traditional rural life,
saddling up for a cycling trip is the ideal way to experience Myanmar’s charms
GRAEME GREEN
FEBRUARY 6, 2017
Off track: cycling in Myanmar provides plenty of chances for unusual exploration. Photo: Graeme Green
From magnificent Buddhist monuments to glimpses of
traditional rural life, saddling up for a cycling trip is the ideal
way to experience Myanmar’s charms

Sightseeing from the saddle: a group of cyclists pedals away from
giant Buddha statues near Monywa in Myanmar. Photo: Douglas
Long
It’s easy to see where we’re going. In the distance, a massive
white face is visible high above the treeline, balanced on golden
shoulders shining in the hot sun. As we ride along country roads,
the figure of Laykyun Setkyar, the second-largest standing
Buddha in the world, draws us in, like a beacon.
Our cycling group pedals toward the serene-looking statue on
quiet country lanes, passing farmers shepherding goats to new
pastures and through villages of thatched bamboo houses. Rarely
out of sight, the Buddha, standing tall on the hazy hills, soon
looms large directly ahead.
The giant statue was built in 1995 and stands at 116m. Laid out in
front is a 91-metre-long statue, the largest reclining Buddha in the
world, and at the foot of the hill below, smaller statues: 1,000
Buddhas sitting cross-legged. There are 700,000 Buddha statues
scattered across this area around Monywa in central Myanmar.
Despite being an obvious point of interest in the newly open
Myanmar, the statues of Monywa aren’t on many tourist
itineraries. Most travellers still stick to the ‘classic’ sites:

Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Bagan with its splendid array of
temples, the cultural hub of Mandalay and the much-
photographed Inle Lake. “By bike, you get to see the rural areas
not many tourists see,” suggests our cycling guide, Aung Zaw.
“Bikes are the way to see the country. You see the country inch
by inch. You hear things, smell things.”
Since the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from
house arrest in 2010, curious tourists have flooded into the
country. There were just 791,505 foreign visitors in 2010, but
figures from the tourism ministry show 4.68 million international
arrivals in 2015. Avoiding the back of a tour van and increasingly
crowded tourist hotspots, a bike saddle provides the perfect
vantage point from which to discover the country.
After a flight north from Yangon to Nyaungshwe on the edge of
Inle Lake, the cycling trip heads northwest into the highlands of
Shan State before tacking south again to the temple city of Bagan.
Early on the first morning, we gear up outside the hotel as monks
walk the misty streets of Nyaungshwe collecting alms. Our group
rides out of town against the flow of traffic, as villagers old and
young, with noses and cheeks daubed in the yellow paste known
as thanakha, travel into town on bikes, tractor carts and loaded
trucks. Visible through the mist are silhouettes of fishermen
working nets out on rivers and lakes, the water turned gold by the
morning sun.

Rural idyll: such scenes are not uncommon when traversing
Myanmar’s back roads. Photo: Graeme Green
We pedal through sugar cane fields and little farms, past villages,
ornate golden pagodas and a weatherbeaten teak monastery.
White herons stalk through waterlogged fields.
At the village of Inthein, we park our bicycles on a bridge to
watch buffaloes wading in the river, before walking up to the
hilltop Shwe Inn Thein Pagoda with its 1,000 crumbly conical
stupas.
The afternoon is spent cruising around Inle Lake’s villages of
stilted houses and floating gardens. As the boat travels across the
lake, local fishermen hunt for their catch in the traditional way:
standing upright, paddling with one leg, keeping both hands free
to fish.
Smells of burning incense, kitchen fires and manure drift across
our path the next morning. It’s a deceptively tranquil start to a
challenging day of riding from Nyaungshwe up into the Shan
highlands. Some of Myanmar’s roads are surprisingly new and
smooth, others bone-rattling and pothole-riddled. Soon, there are

long, steep climbs, including a leg-burning 8km uphill ascent in
the scorching afternoon sun. Relieved to reach the summit, we
freewheel down the other side.
Climbing 1,000 steps up a mountain doesn’t seem an obvious way
to end a day riding 95km of challenging, uneven roads, but that’s
how we expend the last of our energy, making our way up to
reach Shwe Oo Min pagoda. With bare feet, we enter the
limestone cave, which glows with 8,094 golden statues of the
Buddha. From the high viewpoint, we can see Boke Ta Lote
Lake, also shining gold, but this time from the setting sun. Not
too far off is our overnight stop, Pindaya. Cold beers at the hotel
at the end of the day feel well earned.
Sweaty travellers sporting Lycra are still a relatively new sight in
Myanmar, especially for people living in little-visited rural areas.
There’s curiosity and a warm welcome as we ride through rolling
hills the next day, working our way through tough climbs and
cool avenues shaded by gum trees. Schoolchildren cluster
together, calling out “mingalabar”(hello). Monks nod from the
roadside and road crews wave as we zoom past. There are no
other tourists, only locals on motorbikes, farmers riding on
overloaded ox carts and women carrying baskets on their heads.
Suu Kyi has called Myanmar a land “of charm and cruelty”, a
country that’s endured suffering and poverty through 50 years of
military rule, but the people we encounter face daily life with
zest.

Land of temples: Myanmar is famed for its dazzling array of
Buddhist shrines. Photo: Graeme Green
It would be wrong to suggest Myanmar has been magically
transformed overnight or that the country’s issues have been
resigned to history. Complex problems remain, and armed
conflict continues to plague some regions. The military has
proved reluctant to relinquish power. Political prisoners remain in
jails. Poverty remains a pressing issue for many in the country.
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party have
failed to prevent state-sponsored violence against the persecuted
Rohingya Muslim minority.
“Change will not happen overnight,” Zaw says. “It will take
time.”
The next morning we ride through Mandalay, weaving to avoid
dogs, stray cows, spluttering trucks and women carrying baskets
of flowers and vegetables to market. “This is where I was born,”
Zaw tells me, riding alongside. He is pleased to now have the

freedom to show it off to tourists. “We’ve been waiting a long
time for this,” he says, smiling.
We cycle to U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world
and an iconic sight, where ox carts cross through the water,
fishermen cast nets and boatmen shepherd fleets of ducks across
the river. Riding on through the back streets, blasts of music and
clanking workshop machinery hit me. We join the flow of the
traffic to cross the industrial Yatanarpon Bridge, which has views
of boats on the Irrawaddy and gleaming pagodas downriver.
At Mingun, we walk around the town’s famed pagoda, an
ambitious project by a former king to build the largest pagoda in
the world – 170m high of solid brick. He only made it to 60m, but
it remains an impressive achievement.
Pedal power: a woman cycles in Mandalay with her child in the
front seat. Photo: Graeme Green
The following day’s ride takes us to Monywa and those giant
Buddhas. We make our approach and follow a steep winding road
up to the feet of the standing Buddha. The floors of the interior

are filled with artworks, including gruesome depictions of sinners
skewered on spears roasting over flames.
The next day, we carry our bikes onto a wooden boat to cruise
down the Irrawaddy, alighting on the other side to pedal into
Bagan, which has about 2,300 pagodas within 42 square
kilometres. We make our way around the highlights, including the
oldest, Shwesandaw Pagoda, and the area’s most holy site, the
gold-covered Shwezigon Pagoda. At Shwesandaw, we climb
steps to the top for a view of the temple city: countless spires of
brick red, gold and white point up out of the trees. Chanting drifts
across the sun-bleached landscape.
It is a magical end to the penultimate day of touring. Our last day
of riding starts from the hilltop monastery at Mt Popa. I savour
every gruelling climb and hair-raising descent of our last 60km
before returning to Yangon; taking it all in, inch by inch.
Essentials
The author traveled with Exodus on their Cycle Myanmar
(Burma) trip. The 16-day trip costs from $2,400 per person,
excluding flights. For more information, visit exodus.co.uk

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/myanmar-mogok-rubies/
MOGOK
Myanmar’s mysterious mining mecca
Myanmar’s miners have been left with little more than scraps
following years of military plunder
FELIZ SOLOMON DECEMBER 29, 2016
Myanmar’s miners have been left with little more than scraps
following years of military plunder
Children sift through mine waste for pebbles. Photo: Taylor Weidman
High in the hills of northeastern Myanmar, past a few sleepy army
checkpoints on a stretch of road where mobile phones lose their
signal, an ageing signpost set against a mountainous landscape reads:
“WELCOME TO RUBY LAND”. This is the entrance to a little-
known and seldom-visited town called Mogok, which is said to be the
source of 90% of the world’s finest rubies.
Mogok’s narrow, dusty roads wrap around the curves of its valley
slopes, where tiny shops tucked between houses bustle with
antiquated artisanship. In one, a group of women power stone-cutting

equipment by pushing wooden pedals back and forth with their bare
feet to set a rough, round stone spinning on a table. Their hands hover
over it with machine-like precision, cutting and polishing rubies,
spinel and sapphires into uniform shapes in a matter of minutes.
A few blocks down the road, a handful of apprentices solder away at a
neighbourhood goldsmith’s. Their workbenches are set before the
shop’s large front window, and every few minutes they hold up their
work to check the contours against the sunlight streaming in. They are
focused, steady handed, skilled in traditional craftsmanship. Watching
them through the glass is akin to peering in on a bygone era, as they
handcraft designs that look back to the baroque tastes of days before
modernity.
“I learned in my teacher’s workshop; I was an apprentice,” says Myo
Win Aung, the shop’s 50-year-old founder. He says business has
slowed in recent years, as local people no longer have stones to set.
He still receives orders from “businessmen”, though, who collect his
handiwork and ship it to China or Thailand.
But over at the market, the beating heart of most towns in Myanmar,
traders still empty bags of assorted stones onto plastic-coated tables
shaded by umbrellas in the blazing heat. Blue sapphires, bright
pink rubies and chunks of quartz and diamond are laid out, shifted
around, quickly sorted and swapped. At the end of the day, the
tabletops are cleared and the gem dealers head home with clinking
pockets full of precious stones.

Workers toil underground in a Mogok mine. Photo: Taylor Weidman
Until about two years ago, Mogok, in Mandalay Region, remained
one of Myanmar’s so-called ‘black zones’, a hidden valley accessible
only through a few government-controlled roads guarded by armed
state security forces. Today, with the travel ban eased and sanctions
lifted, the mysterious mining mecca is open for business. It is known
around the world for producing some of the finest quality rubies,
known as “pigeon blood” for their deep, pinkish-purplish hue and
crystalline purity. In April, the Jubilee Ruby, a 15.9-carat Burmese
stone set in a gold ring, sold for more than $14m. A similar 10-carat
piece was going up for auction at Christie’s Hong Kong in late
November with an expected price of up to $12.5m. Natural, untreated
Mogok rubies of fine colour can be valued at $80,000 per carat,
according to the Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative.
It is unclear whether the army left much inside the mountains: in the
1990s, the military seized swathes of hillside land and consolidated
the mining industry into the hands of a few well-connected elites.
They tore the earth open with heavy machinery, digging tunnels that

dive up to hundreds of metres below the ground. “If they told us to
stop digging today, we wouldn’t care – there’s nothing left,” the
manager of one of Mogok’s biggest mines, who wished to remain
anonymous, told Southeast Asia Globe.
Many locals, who had independently mined the area for centuries,
were either employed to carry out poorly paid manual labour or sift
through the industrial waste for pebbles. Today, when school is not in
session, whole families gather outside some of Mogok’s biggest
mines, panning the adjacent waterways for tiny red rocks that slipped
out into the waterways. Others spend their days on the side of a steep
mountain road, chopping up rocks with hammers in hopes of finding a
valuable nugget inside.
On 7 October, US President Barack Obama officially lifted a ban on
Myanmar ruby imports that had been in place since 1997, when
Congress ratified the Junta Anti-Democratic Efforts Act. The law was
imposed to stem the tide of funds flowing to Myanmar’s notorious
generals by blocking trade in two of the country’s most valuable
resources: rubies and jadeite, a green stone sourced almost entirely
from Myanmar’s conflict-ravaged Kachin State. The jade trade is
known to be a dark and deadly one: poor miners are routinely killed in
landslides, many suffer from drug addiction and disease, and the jade
mining area of Kachin State’s Hpakant region is literally surrounded
by active militants, both Kachin rebels and Myanmar Army troops.
Mogok’s status as a no-go zone prompted much speculation about
what exactly was going on in the mines. Reports occasionally
emerged of children as young as 12 being forced to break rocks or
perform other hard labour. Rumours abound that a heavily secured
nearby army compound was actually a uranium mine, though the
claim is impossible to verify and has been officially denied. On a visit
in March, Southeast Asia Globe found few signs of egregious labour
abuses during our mostly chaperoned tour, but the scars of past abuse
and deeply entrenched inequality are everywhere apparent in this
dusty and developmentally stunted outpost.

“People are very happy about the lifting of US sanctions,” says
Sawthaung Tin, a regional lawmaker for the National League for
Democracy, “but mostly, it doesn’t affect the poor people very
much.” The reason, he says, is that a new law governing gem mining
is still in the works, and the draft does not include adequate measures
to ensure that small-scale miners have the access and support they
need to benefit from the industry. Simply put, locals lost their land,
which held stores of precious material, and the government has not
yet found a way to ensure they will get back whatever is left of the
ravaged hillsides.
“We are hoping for the best,” Tin tells Southeast Asia Globe.
“Anyway, the people thank the US very much with all our heart and
soul.”
In July 2015, 400 small-scale mining permits were issued to locals
who could prove that they had lived in Mogok for more than 20 years.
Each awardee had to pay a fee ranging from $400 to $500 in order to
claim it. Locals welcomed the opportunity to mine legally—many
people literally dig deep into their own back yards for scraps—but
some of the select few that attained the permits complained that they
were not good quality lots.
Kumar, a trader who earns a few dollars a day in the local market,
said he believed Aung San Suu Kyi – a Nobel laureate and the
country’s de facto leader – would usher in a renaissance. Her party,
the NLD, secured a landslide win in elections last year, flushing out
the military-backed government. Despite her electoral mandate, Suu
Kyi is constitutionally barred from becoming president, and serves
instead as state counsellor, a role she invented for herself upon taking
power in April.
“She is my president,” Kumar said, casting eyes over the rough road
and scarred hillsides beyond. “She is the mother of our country, and
she will do better.”

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/women-gender-inequality-myanmar/
FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
The sex educators fighting gender
inequality in Myanmar
Women’s rights activists in Myanmar are sweeping aside cultural taboos for a
frank discussion on sexuality that they hope will diminish gender inequality
HOLLY ROBERTSON
MAY 16, 2016
On a mission: Akhaya Women founder Htar Htar wants to empower women in Myanmar. Photo: Lauren DeCicca
Hanging out the washing in Myanmar requires careful navigation
of major cultural taboos. A woman’s longyi, or traditional
wraparound skirt, cannot be hung above a man’s, and nor can her
underwear. This puzzling domestic decree is all about protecting a
man’s hpoun, or masculine ‘power’.

“As you are a man, you have that invisible superpower by birth.
But as a woman you don’t have it. You are born as a lower hpoun
person, simply because of your gender,” explains women’s rights
activist May Sabe Phyu. “Womenswear – this being the sarong or
underwear – is not supposed to be washed together with men’s
clothes, because if the man’s clothes touch a woman’s underwear
or clothes it will reduce their hpoun. It’s a very silly idea. It’s
simply not acknowledging that men are also born from the
woman.”
The practice is widespread in Myanmar, encompassing all strata
of society and spanning religious beliefs, according to Htar Htar,
founder of the local NGO Akhaya Women. And not only must
women’s garments be kept separate from men’s, they cannot be
hung to dry in public areas.
“This is even among the educated. Even those who’ve been
educated abroad, Master’s and PhD – they come here, they
practise this. They practise this. Across religions. This is not
about Buddhism, but this is culturally very heavily related,
ingrained. So we have the Christians, Muslims, practise the same
thing,” Htar says.
“It is really rooted in [the idea that] menstrual blood is dirty and
rotten. So when a man is sitting like this,” Htar adds,
demonstrating a seated position with her legs stretched out in
front, “women cannot, and even girls cannot, pass over his legs
because they are dirty. All the time there are messages around that
women are low, women are dirty, women are not good.”
Beyond simply creating more work for those charged with doing
the laundry, the activists agree that the practice has wider
implications for the way men and women interact outside the
home, reinforcing gender inequality by categorising women as
second-class citizens.

Greater understanding: Moe Moe, 38, (left) and Ngnu Khine, 42,
say that Akhaya Women’s sex education course has been
invaluable. Photo: Lauren DeCicca
Sabe Phyu says that many people – both men and women – fail to
recognise that gender inequality persists in Myanmar and is
closely tied to such societal norms. As the director of the Gender
Equality Network, which counts more than 120 organisations as
members, she says she often encounters surprise or dismissive
reactions when advocating for women’s rights.
Closely connected with the cultural politics surrounding clothes
washing is the ignominy that shrouds the female anatomy. It is
telling that there is no word for vagina in Burmese, the country’s
lingua franca. The only polite way to refer to the female sex organ
translates to the rather euphemistic phrase ‘woman’s body’.
This linguistic oversight is illustrative of the cultural obstacles
faced by Htar and her organisation as they lead the drive to get
women in deeply conservative Myanmar talking about – and
gaining a deeper understanding of – their own sexuality through
pioneering sex education classes.

One of the first activities on the agenda is for participants to pick
up a pencil and draw a vagina.
“No one starts; [no one] dares to draw,” recounts Htar of a typical
class. “Sometimes they are really funny drawings – they never
[did it before]. So, with Myanmar women, talking about the
vagina and these things are really helpful practices.
“When you deliver [a baby] in a normal delivery with a doctor at
a hospital, a private hospital, they cut the vagina instead of
waiting until it’s open. So almost every normal delivery has this
cut. They don’t know what is vagina, even doctors, they don’t
know what is vagina,” she adds.
Although the programme initially drew criticism for its
contextually revolutionary content, Htar says that, to date, nearly
2,500 individuals have attended the two-day workshops,
including Buddhist nuns, police officers and some men.
“Sexuality is amazing in Myanmar. We’re so popular because we
talk about this topic… Actually we’re not doing any sophisticated
training, it’s basic sex education and [explaining] rooted causes
[of gender discrimination], pointing out [issues such as] the virgin
concept,” she says in reference to the societal value placed on
virginity.
A lack of sex education can have serious consequences in a
country where sexual violence is a major concern. According to
Myanmar Now, an independent news website, national police
records show that 700 rape cases are reported in the country each
year, but many more go unreported amid a culture of silence and
victim blaming. Publicising a rape by taking the matter to court is
viewed as ‘turning one shame into two’.
Zin Min Thu, a workshop leader at Akhaya Women, says that
participants are usually extremely reluctant to discuss their
anatomy or sex lives at the start of the two-day session. While

men are apparently comfortable conversing about sex with their
peers, it is still seen as unacceptable for women to do so – even
with their female friends.
By the end, however, the women are having frank discussions
about topics canvassed during the classes, such as orgasms – a
concept that was previously a complete unknown for most – and
how to approach delicate conversations with their husbands about
the fact that they, too, would like to reach climax during sex.
“Women from other countries might think that this is very simple,
and this is usual, but for us this is unusual. This is very unusual.
The women never talk about orgasming or having sex with their
husbands; they never discuss within their family or within their
friends, so this is a very big achievement for us within this
training,” Min Thu says.
The programme, Htar is keen to stress, is not simply focused on
sexuality but aims to give women the means to confidently
question entrenched cultural and societal norms that augment
gender inequality and sexual violence. It includes serious
discussions of women’s roles in society, sexual violence against
women and children, and the need for women at the decision-
making level in public life.
“This curriculum is based on learning about our own bodies and
women feeling empowered, and from there we started to question
and discover and talk about these ‘normal’ practices – daily
practices – that influence us and reinforce us into being second
citizens, as well as gender inequality issues,” says Htar.
A simple, but key, theme that runs throughout the programme is
that, contrary to common beliefs, menstrual blood is not dirty.
“This concept is very rooted in our lives, and also every woman
has this attitude. And they tell themselves that they are inferior to
men, and it’s because of this concept,” says Min Thu. “So we are
talking about menstrual blood, that this blood is very clean, and

this blood is very neutral, and this blood can make a baby and this
is the power of the uterus.”
Ngnu Khine, 42, a mother of four who has completed the
workshop, says the experience was eye-opening. “Before the
training, I didn’t even know the nature of men and women and
how to teach my sons to treat their partners,” she says. “I learned
about the process of genitals – that women have their own. I
didn’t even know that I had my own,” she adds.
Gender struggle: prominent women’s rights activist May Sabe
Phyu. Photo: Lauren DeCicca
Perhaps even more importantly, she gained a more nuanced
understanding of issues such as sexual harassment and rape. “I
learned a lot about gender, how to protect myself, and everything
about women.” She now actively works to pass on her newfound
knowledge to other women in her village, and supports victims of
rape by reminding them they are not to blame.
After the two-day workshop, women are introduced to the
concept of non-violent communication. It may seem unconnected,
but Htar says this is a crucial step in the process: after coming to
the realisation that they had, for many years, erroneously believed

their body’s natural processes to be unclean, and their female
organs something to be ashamed of, many of the participants feel
combative.
“They feel empowered, but at the same time they feel aggressive
– they want to fight back. They say: ‘I’m going to talk to my
husband and fight back.’ But I say: ‘Fighting back is not
something that we [should do].’ We can do it, but we will fall.
We will fall apart. Because this needs a societal change,” she
says.
Yet it is clear that wholesale change is still some way off. Min
Thu joined Akhaya’s staff three years ago and has been leading
women’s empowerment workshops since October 2015. The 27-
year-old is passionate about her role, saying that learning about
her sexuality allowed her to find “the spice of life”. However, she
has not yet worked up the nerve to tell her father exactly what it is
that she does for a living.
“My family knows that Akhaya is working for women’s
empowerment, but not exactly [what I do]. Especially my father
does not know the details about this – he just knows that we are
providing the sexuality health knowledge. But what he knows
about sexuality health is not the real sexual knowledge,” she says.
“I think if he was listening to what I’m talking about in the
facilitation training he would be shocked.”

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/18670-2-myanmar-economy-open-big-brands/
Myanmar’s economy opens doors to big
brands
From fast food giants to coffee chains, tobacco companies and garment makers,
Myanmar’s emerging economy is opening up to the world’s biggest brands
HOLLY ROBERTSON
APRIL 26, 2016
From fast food giants to coffee chains, tobacco companies and
garment makers, Myanmar’s emerging economy is opening
up to the world’s biggest brands
It is just after 2pm at the newly built Pizza Hut on Yangon’s
Dhammazedi Road. Clusters of staff throng around the entrance
and waiters’ station as businessman Sein Min, who also goes by
the name of David, sits down to eat with his family on his second
visit to the chain.
Photo: Lauren DeCicca
Enjoying a shared meal comprising of pizza, seafood spaghetti
and a rice dish, David sees a future for the restaurant, and believes

consumers are likely to become hooked through the novelty
factor. “Now, Burmese people they want to taste the different
kinds of food available. In the last ten years, 20 years, we saw it
on the television but we couldn’t taste it,” he says. “I think Pizza
Hut will get success in Myanmar because people want to try it.”
The restaurant chain, which launched in Yangon late last year and
intends to open up to 20 new outlets in the next five years, is
among a slew of recognisable brands that have been lining up to
enter the former pariah state, long closed to foreign influence and
investment, in the hopes of positioning themselves as familiar
favourites with local consumers.
South Korean chains were among the first fast food outlets to set
up shop, with the arrival of Lotteria and BBQ Chicken in 2013.
Purveyor of fried chicken KFC flung open its doors in June 2015,
becoming the first major US restaurant chain to establish itself in
the country. Australia’s Gloria Jean’s Coffees opened two outlets
in Yangon in recent months.
This ‘fast food invasion’, as a local newspaper dubbed it, came
hot on the heels of economic and political reforms in a country
that had been ruled for decades by a military junta. A
transformation to civilian-led governance – followed in
November 2015 by free elections that saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s
National League for Democracy (NLD) sweep to power – has
held a magnetic allure for investors who had long been on the
outside looking in.

“If you look at the demographics, it’s a very young population,
not to mention large,” said Simon Arnold, general manager of
Pizza Hut Myanmar. “So that in itself for any consumer brand is a
big tick. It’s not particularly affluent yet, but the growth rate has
potential to be fast.
“So, the fundamentals are there but the question is also: ‘Is this a
market you can afford not to be in, and how many other markets
have that untapped potential at this stage?’ And I think there
aren’t many, so short of going into Iran or Cuba… Myanmar is
one of the few remaining.”
With a virtually untapped consumer market of more than 50
million people, growth potential is clearly a major draw. Brands
such as drinks manufacturers Coca-Cola and Pepsi, carmakers
Ford and Chevrolet, and British American Tobacco have been
quick to establish sales offices in the country. Cheap labour has
also lured major garment manufacturers.
But it is the influx of internationally pervasive fast food chains
that are the most visible markers of economic progress. Professor

Nicholas Farrelly, a research fellow at Australian National
University’s School of International, Political and Strategic
Studies, told the Myanmar Times that the new operations are
significant beyond an expansion in culinary options.
“The arrival of the global fast food heavyweights marks a turning
point for supply chains, middle-class waistlines and international
perceptions. Many will resent the arrival of such unhealthy
harbingers of Western ways. But there will still be a level of
excitement as some of the most recognisable brands and recipes
in history sweep across the country,” he said.
Such brands are pursuing a strategy of early expansion in
an emerging market where, despite Myanmar’s growing middle
class, incomes generally remain low. Many will struggle to afford
K5,000 ($4) for a two-piece chicken meal at KFC or K10,000
($8) for one of Pizza Hut’s basic offerings. Last year, the
government set a minimum wage of K3,600 ($2.90) a day.
GDP per capita is, however, set to rise, with BMI Research’s Asia
Country Risk team forecasting that it will more than double
between 2014 and 2019, from $1,480 to $3,052, fuelling “rapid”
growth in food and beverage sales. Rising disposable incomes
and optimistic consumer sentiment will be key drivers in this
growth, according to the research firm’s Food & Drink Insights,
while foreign investment is likely to continue picking up pace.

“Myanmar represents a long-term opportunity in the food and
drink industry, which has been compared to Vietnam around 20
years ago,” it said. “Western companies, using joint ventures with
local firms, will continue laying the foundations over the next few
years for much larger manufacturing presences going forward.”
Pizza Hut’s Arnold said there are plenty of challenges for
franchises opening in Myanmar, key among them attracting and
retaining good staff. Jardine Restaurant Group, which operates
Pizza Hut Myanmar in a joint venture with local firm City Mart
Holding, sent its core management team to Ho Chi Minh City for
three months of training.
“Myanmar is a very hot market at the moment when it comes to
F&B, and any professional service as well, so once you’ve got an
element of experience and training at an international company, I
suppose you become very attractive in the talent pool and there’s
definitely an imbalance between supply and demand,” he said.
Logistics are another test for those dipping their toes into the
emerging market, an issue Pizza Hut hopes to overcome as it
expands to other parts of the country. “Talking to suppliers on a
one-store basis in a market that is problematic to deliver to is not
a very attractive offer to them, but as we get a critical mass that
should be easier, and as time goes on the local infrastructure will
improve,” he said. “We’re already seeing from when I started the
feasibility study one and a half to two years ago, the warehousing
and cold chain have come a long way.”
In the end, however, the biggest test is whether these unfamiliar
flavours can capture the loyalty of Myanmar’s diners. Ma Thet Su
Wai, 27, a business owner, explained that she – and most
Burmese people – generally preferred spicy and sour foods, but
she was eating at a KFC in Yangon for the second time.
“I don’t like bread, just rice, but my husband likes burgers,” she
explained, adding that she could, however, see some benefits in

the advent of US fast food in Myanmar. “It’s good for our health
because everything is clean like the oil and the chicken. It’s better
than other food shops, like the roadside vendors.”
Both KFC and Pizza Hut – which are subsidiaries of Yum Brands
but operated by different franchisees in Myanmar – have tried to
tailor their menus to the local market, each offering rice dishes
and dialing up the spice factor.
“We set up a test kitchen in May last year and we spent a lot of
time with consumer groups, because it’s a very unique and rich
culture here, so I don’t think you can just cut and paste something
that’s worked in another market,” says Arnold. “While we
weren’t necessarily changing the concept, we would tweak it and
refine it to match local taste palates or preferences. [This is a]
very Buddhist country, so there’s no beef on our menu [and]
dialing up the spiciness of dishes was a big thing, hence [we
have] 12 times the spiciness of some of our other markets.”
And although a 2013 report by the Boston Consulting Group
estimated that less than 40% of Myanmar consumers frequented
restaurants, Luc de Waegh, managing partner at Myanmar-based

business advisory firm West Indochina, said this would still leave
roughly 20 million restaurant-goers that such franchises can
target. “This is bigger than many markets in the world,” he said.
“It is very wise to expand as fast as possible. The price of
expansion will only go up.”
De Waegh, however, cautioned that Myanmar was a unique
market, and “replicating an entry strategy from another country
will likely not work”. “You need to do homework on the
ground… understand the consumers, meet people and align
interest with a local party.”

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/18574-myanmar-travel-strand-cruise/
Luxury Strand Cruise gives fine taste of
Myanmar’s culture
The road to Mandalay was made famous by an ode in its honour, but the new
five-star Strand Cruise along the riverine route to Myanmar’s cultural capital is
a far more enticing way to travel
HOLLY ROBERTSON-APRIL 21, 2016
The road to Mandalay was made famous by an ode in its
honour, but the new five-star Strand Cruise along the riverine
route to Myanmar’s cultural capital is a far more enticing
way to travel
When the snow in the highest Himalayas melts, the Irrawaddy
river swells almost to bursting each August. Yet by January, the
water lapping at the banks of Myanmar’s life-giving river had
receded so far that our ship occasionally had to alter its course.
Kick back: the inviting pool deck on the Strand Cruise in
Myanmar

Jutting out from the coffee-coloured waters were ridges and
mounds of sand that the captain was no doubt keen to avoid. After
all, the Strand Cruise, the floating offshoot of Yangon’s famed
colonial-era hotel, had only been in service a few short months.
An upside was found to those pesky sandbanks, however, in a
manner typical of this trip: they provided the setting for imbibing
glasses of champagne as twilight fell on the penultimate evening
of the journey.
The Irrawaddy flows from those northern snow-capped peaks
through the heart of Myanmar before emptying into the Andaman
Sea, making it the country’s longest river. It is navigable for
about 1,500km from its mouth, but for those who wish to soak up
Myanmar’s key cultural sites, the stretch between Bagan and
Mandalay holds the greatest allure.
Tourists have been traversing this course for several years, but the
arrival of the Strand’s custom-built vessel, which took three years
from conception to completion, makes it possible to do so without
sacrificing the standards associated with the most luxurious of
hotels.
At 23 square metres, with a full-sized bathroom, sitting area and
sliding doors that open directly to river views, the size and
comfort of my Strand Cabin defies expectations. The space is
easily equivalent to land-lubbing accommodations, with classic
teakwood furnishings, white linens and splashes of muted greens.

Drink it in: the onboard Sarkies bar
The journey begins in the ancient city of Bagan, the awe-inspiring
home of more than 2,000 Buddhist temples. Even the drive from
the airport to the boat is captivating, with tantalising glimpses of
dozens of shrines rising up from the green fields that unfold in
every direction. The first day’s itinerary includes stops at some of
the area’s most celebrated sites: the ornate Ananda temple, built
way back in 1091; Shwezigon Pagoda, with its gold leaf gilded
stupa; and Gubyaukgyi temple, famous for its colourful yet
gracefully worn wall paintings.
Overnight, the vessel remains docked in Bagan to allow a visit to
Tant Kyi Taung pagoda, also known as the glass monastery, set
on a hill overlooking the watercourse and the city beyond.
Channe, our guide, herself a Christian from the Karen ethnic
minority, explains that it is one of four holy sites where Burman
Buddhists believe they must pray in order for a specific desire to
come to pass. But there’s a catch: they must visit all four before
midday. Its position across the river makes Tant Kyi Taung more
difficult to reach, meaning that pilgrims visit it first, arriving soon

after the sun begins to rise. By the time tourists start trickling in,
it is nearly empty, save for a wizened monk smoking a cheroot
with detached aplomb.
Interspersed with the consumption of temple architecture is the
opportunity to explore the varied cuisine of chef Deang and his
team. New à la carte menus appear at every meal, and sampling
the array of Western fare interspersed with less-familiar Myanmar
dishes is a highlight for many.
The itinerary is designed to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace, a
welcome tempo for those envisioning the typically hectic
schedule of many cruises. Afternoons are best spent sunning by
the green-tiled pool, the contents of which swish back and forth
with every bend in the river. On the banks, bucolic scenes of
untouched rural life drift by, as farmers transport their produce on
ox carts or tend their fields by hand. Come evening, guests make
their way into the elegantly understated Sarkies Wine Bar, named
after the Armenian brothers who founded the Strand back in
1901, where likeable staff mix up signature cocktails and more on
request.
Of course, with such indulgences at hand, passengers might
choose to spend the entire journey onboard – there is no
obligation to join the excursions. One day when I’m feeling
unwell – thanks to a bug picked up in Yangon – I opt out of
touring Mingun, one of the country’s former capitals, and instead
make use of the onboard spa. Choosing the one-hour ‘Sagaing
Voyage’, the masseuse has magic fingers, although sadly not
magic enough to cure my ails.
Even with all the onboard accoutrements, it is the cultural
experiences that stick in the memory long after the journey has
ended. There is a clear focus on introducing passengers to the
country’s heritage, and with guided transport awaiting at the dock
for each outing, along with the ever-attentive staff anticipating

one’s needs on return, with iced drinks at the ready, joining in is
rendered effortless.
A highlight of these cultural encounters is the pulsating ‘elephant
dance’ at the foot of the hill leading to the glass monastery.
Traditional musicians provide the live soundtrack for wiry young
men who enter a multicoloured elephant costume and bring it to
life with leaps and jumps, enthralling both tourists and the village
children who gather to gape at the spectacle. During the course of
the trip, guests are also treated to a captivating puppet show and
invited to learn about traditional basket-weaving techniques.
Intimate: the boat can take 55 passengers
Four days in, and the ship departs for its end destination.
Mandalay, Myanmar’s cultural capital, is a striking bookend to
the first day in Bagan. In the early morning, we visit U Bein
Bridge, thought to be the oldest and longest teak bridge in the
world. The 1.2km-long structure spans Taungthaman Lake, near
Amarapura, another former capital situated 11km south of
Mandalay. Not just a tourist site, the bridge remains in active use:

locals wheel their bicycles across the rickety planks and saffron-
robed monks stride purposefully by, while fishermen hunt for
their catch in the still waters below.
Next, the group is whisked to Sagaing, the most important
religious centre in Myanmar, for a speedy look at the area, which
is famous for its many hundreds of pagodas and monasteries that
dot the hillside in white, silver and gold.
In the late afternoon, the ship pulls up to Ava, the famous ancient
imperial capital, where brightly painted horse-drawn carts await
to transport us around the key monuments. Our chocolate-hued
mare is amenable and clip clops along the red dirt paths in
surefooted fashion. Ava, which played host to successive
Burmese kingdoms from the 14th to 19th centuries, is now little
more than a series of villages that provide a base for the sites –
and is a personal favourite. Perhaps it’s the coolness of the dark,
stone interior of Mae Nu Oak Kyaung monastery or the amiable
feel of the 15th-century Yedanasimi pagoda, with its three
Buddhas and crumbling brick stupa surrounded by working
fields; it could just be down to soaking up a slightly less sanitised
experience. Whatever the key ingredient, it makes for a magical
send-off.
Keep reading:
“Down in the delta” – Captivating riverscapes await on the Aqua
Mekong, a ship that sets five-star standards for regional river
cruising

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/18549-2-myanmar-economy-analysis-tractus-asia-focus-asean/
Better infrastructure critical for
Myanmar’s economic success
Martin Jancik and Joshua Brown, country managers for Myanmar and
Singapore at Tractus Asia, a leading management consulting firm, give their
insights into the future of Myanmar’s investment climate
MARTIN JANICK AND JOSHUA BROWN
APRIL 19, 2016
Work to
do: Myanmar’s competitors for foreign investment will not stand still, according to management consulting group Tractus
Asia. Photo: EPA/Lynn Bo Bo
Myanmar has received outsized media attention since its
transition to civilian power in 2011. The country’s election of
the first civilian president in more than 50 years has unleashed yet
another torrent of global headlines.

For foreign companies interested in doing business in this new
market, analysing political developments play by play is energy
poorly spent. Investors should think ‘big picture’.
While Myanmar’s transition from pariah to darling of the
investment community has been eye-catching, very few
individual political events have the weight to sway the long-term
trajectory of the economic growth path the country is now on.
Myanmar’s economy grew at an average rate of 6.7% between
2009 and 2014. Excluding mega-projects in oil and gas, electric
power and mining, foreign investment approvals have
skyrocketed from $32.9m to $4.4 billion between 2011 and 2014.
Large swathes of the economy have been liberalised.
Telecommunications licences granted to Norway-based Telenor
and Qatar-based Ooredoo have helped bring in $3.3 billion in
direct investment. Banking licences have been granted to 13
foreign banks and insurance licences are expected to follow.
The country has kicked off keystone economic reform that is
bigger and more irreversible than almost any political change. But
for a newly sprung military coup and a complete shutdown of
economic and political affairs, like that of 1962, or more recently
in 1990, little stands in the way of Myanmar’s economic path. If
Myanmar achieves IMF economic growth forecasts of between
7.7% and 8.5% between 2015 and 2020, the country’s GDP per
capita will reach $1,977 – an increase of 677% since the start of
economic reforms in 2003 and a 98% increase since the start of
political reforms accelerated in 2010.
When we take clients through the analytical process of defining
the critical and important factors that drive their decision-making
on new investments, few are swayed by the stories that make up
many of today’s headlines on Myanmar. The most important
question investors should be asking themselves is: ‘Can the newly
elected National League for Democracy (NLD) keep growth on

track in the long term?’ Provided the military doesn’t stop the
music, the new government will be hard pressed to derail growth.
Myanmar is starting from such a low base, and has had growth in
productivity, artificially constrained through political will for so
long, that the country will enjoy robust growth north of 6%
almost without trying.
The risk to foreign investors considering deploying fixed capital
is that the NLD-led government is either too distracted by social
and peace deal issues and/or lacks the experience and capability
to deliver critical hard and soft infrastructure needed for long-
term growth.
If Myanmar’s economy continues to grow at north of 7.7%,
robust performance will threaten to breed complacency. Pressure
on electric power, ports and industrial zone infrastructure limiting
more rapid, job-creating industrialisation is going to become more
acute. Investors must be confident that newly appointed President
Htin Kyaw’s government will have the foresight to prioritise
building a foundation for long-term growth.
To provide an objective picture of Myanmar’s attractiveness as a
place to invest, we compared it to other countries (Vietnam,
Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand) by identifying quantitative
metrics for eight measures of investment attractiveness. We then
scored each country’s individual factor score against that of each
other. We gave the country with the best factor a score of 100
points, and the country with the worst factor a score of 0 points.
Myanmar today scores the lowest on almost every criteria, except
availability of unskilled labour.
In an effort to imagine scenarios for improvement, we adjusted
Myanmar’s scores in a range of possible configurations.
In scenario one, we increased metrics for political stability, rule of
law and regulatory quality – all things investors hope the new

administration will improve – by 25%. With all other factors
weighted equally, Myanmar’s combined score triples, but its poor
performance on individual factors still makes it the poorest
scoring economy in the group, with only 18 out of 100 points.
Imagining a more optimistic scenario of what Myanmar’s
investment attractiveness fundamentals might look like if the new
administration gets everything right during its first term, we made
a second set of changes.
Increasing political stability, rule of law and regulatory quality by
75% and all other factors (excluding availability of unskilled
labour) by 50% causes a bigger jump in Myanmar’s relative
ranking. In this second scenario, Myanmar scores 67 out of 100
points bringing it into the same league as the Vietnam of today.
Dramatic improvements like these will not come easy, and
Myanmar’s competitors for foreign investment will not stand still.
While Myanmar is likely to enjoy strong, region-leading growth
in the short- to medium-term, major investments in critical hard
and soft infrastructure are needed to improve its competitive
position as a destination for FDI relative to its peer group. While
optimism runs high on the heels of Myanmar’s first
democratically elected president in 50 years, hard work lies ahead
for this young government.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/nld-myanmar-suu-kyi-southeast-asia-globe/
Myanmar’s newly elected NLD takes stock
of political landscape
The hard work starts now for Myanmar’s opposition National League for
Democracy. After election success the party faces myriad challenges, not least
the delicate task of dealing with the powerful military
SEBASTIAN STRANGIO-DECEMBER 3, 2015
The hard work starts now for Myanmar’s opposition National
League for Democracy. After election success the party faces
myriad challenges, not least the delicate task of dealing with
the powerful military
Few guessed at the scale of the victory. Myanmar’s citizens lined
up on the morning of November 8 under a shade of uncertainty.
Euphoric campaign rallies hinted at a convincing win for the
National League for Democracy (NLD), but faint suspicions
remained that the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP), the military’s political proxy, would find some
underhand way of bending the result in its favour. As the sun rose
on Myanmar’s historic election, the atmosphere was one of
trepidation mixed with mute, cautious determination.

Tally time: election commission officials count ballots after the
close of polls in Mahaaungmyay township, Mandalay. Photo:
Sebastian Strangio
And then, as the predawn gloom gave way to a hot high noon, any
lingering concerns were washed out in a blizzard of red. In
Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, voters emerged from
polling stations beaming out their allegiance to the NLD and its
beatific leader.
“This election is very important. That’s why I got here early,”
said Tin Maung, 60, shortly after casting his vote for Aung San
Suu Kyi’s party. “We want a good government, a clean
government for our country.”
Ma Nila, a 32-year-old accountant, said: “People here have
received a lot of pressure from the government in the past, so it’s
time for that to change. I think there will be big changes.”

Needless to say, few equated change with the USDP, the political
incarnation of the military that had ruled Myanmar as a
dictatorship between 1962 and 2011.
The official results were stunning: by November 15, the Union
Election Commission had declared the results of 488 seats in the
Union Parliament, of which the NLD won 390 – just shy of 80%.
The USDP won a paltry 41, with the rest going to smaller parties.
An estimated 30 million people took part in Myanmar’s historic
election on November 8 – the first free national poll since 1990,
when the NLD won a landslide victory that was disregarded by
the army. By evening, thousands of red-clad NLD supporters had
gathered at the party headquarters in Yangon, singing and dancing
as the first euphoric figures were displayed on a massive screen.
Aye Lwin, the convener of the Islamic Centre of Myanmar, said
the NLD had clearly benefited from “love votes” – votes for
Aung San Suu Kyi’s charm, poise and charisma. But just as
telling were the “hate votes” directed against a decrepit, military-
crony establishment that has dominated the country for so long.
“People were fed up with those guys,” he said at his home in
Yangon. “Every strata of society: farmers, labourers, students,
and on top of this, civil servants – people were really fed up.”
The USDP’s defeat was encapsulated by the poor electoral
showing of key party officials, many of them former top-ranking
officers in the military junta that handed power to the semi-
civilian government of President Thein Sein in 2011.
Among them was the once-powerful parliamentary speaker Shwe
Mann, a perceived ally of Aung San Suu Kyi who was ousted
from the USDP leadership in an internal party coup in August.
Another was the USDP’s acting chairman Htay Oo, who
conceded his constituency in Hinthada, west of Yangon, telling a
reporter deflatedly: “We lost.”

Best symbolising the atmosphere of change, perhaps, was a
military constituency near the capital Naypyidaw, where the
former defence minister Wai Lwin lowered his colours to a poet.
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet,” the NLD’s Maung Tin
Thit, also a former political prisoner, told the New York Times.
First the election; now the long road ahead.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch,
said the NLD government, which is expected to take office in
April next year, had a chance to make a “clean break” from the
past. “With its overwhelming parliamentary majority, the best
place to start is to take out the broom and get rid of the dozens of
rights-abusing laws that have piled up over the course of British
colonialism and 50 years of military dictatorship,” he said.
The new government will inherit some intractable – perhaps
impenetrable – problems. Since its independence from Britain in
1948, Myanmar has been wracked by near-constant civil war and
tensions between the ethnic Burman heartland and the country’s
rugged peripheral regions, home to a diversity of ethnic minority
peoples.
Then there is the alarming rise of anti-Muslim nationalism, which
has created a dire situation in Rakhine State, on the country’s
west coast. Violence that broke out there in 2012 drove 140,000
Muslim Rohingya into internal displacement camps.
These issues bled into the November 8 election: most of the
estimated one million Rohingya were barred from voting or
standing as candidates. Scores more ethnic minority voters were
unable to cast a ballot after voting was cancelled in parts of
Kachin State, Shan State and other areas plagued by instability.
“Despite the overwhelming NLD victory… there are millions of
people left behind by the reforms and election,” said Mark
Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK.

As a result of pressure from nationalist zealots, few parties –
including the NLD – ran any Muslim candidates. This means that
the new parliament will be the first in Myanmar’s history with no
Muslim members. “People are scared,” said Kyaw Min, the
Rohingya president of the Human Rights and Development Party.
“For a long time, Muslims have not felt free or secure in this
country.”
While the election represents a new beginning for a long-
suffering country, deep-rooted challenges and the harsh realities
of power in Myanmar are set to reimpose themselves.
For its own part, the outgoing USDP government has promised a
peaceful and timely handover of power. At a gathering of
Myanmar’s political parties on November 15, President Thein
Sein said: “We will make sure it will be smooth and stable
without having to worry about anything.”
Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has also said it will abide by
the result – and it well might. Analysts say part of the reason for
the military’s quiescence is that it more or less anticipated the
outcome and has contingencies in place to safeguard its power.
Chief among these is the country’s constitution, drafted by the
military junta and passed in a flawed referendum in 2008. The
constitution reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military
candidates and ensures the most powerful ministries – defence,
home affairs, and border affairs – will remain under military
control.
This means that budgets and bureaucracies reaching down to the
township level will remain under military control, regardless of
which government is in power. Sealing the military’s domination
is a keystone provision, Article 436, which requires a 75%
supermajority to amend the charter, effectively giving the military
a veto over any changes.

All this suggests serious limitations to the power the NLD
government will have to usher Myanmar toward peace,
democracy and economic development.
Tom Kramer, a researcher at the Amsterdam-based Transnational
Institute, said the opposition would have to establish a stable
working relationship with the military to end the country’s
endemic ethnic conflicts.
“The army is still there and they’re very, very powerful,” he said,
“and that means a lot of negotiation, a lot of give and take by the
NLD. You cannot rule the country without them.”
This in turn implies a tough choice for the NLD between the
imperatives of peace – of a lasting, inclusive solution to the strife
in Myanmar’s troubled ethnic areas – and other core aims.
On several occasions, Suu Kyi has stated her chief priority will be
to reform the constitution, targeting two provisions: Article 436,
the ‘keystone’ provision; and Article 59(f), which bars Suu Kyi
from holding the presidency on the grounds that her late husband
was a foreigner and their two children are British citizens.
Ko Ni, a lawyer who serves as an advisor to the NLD, and the
author of the book How to Amend Myanmar’s Constitution,
admitted that amending the constitution formally would be
impossible without the consent of the military commander-in-
chief, Min Aung Hlaing. Which, of course, is exactly the point.
The party’s only other option would be to pursue an “extra-
constitutional” strategy, tabling a proposal to scrap the charter,
rewriting it and holding new elections. All this, he said, requires
just 50%+1 of the vote in parliament. “If we write a proposal, we
can show many reasons why this constitution is not actually
a democratic constitution, and not a federal constitution,” he said.

True enough. But whether the party can press for this goal in the
next five years without risking friction with the military, and
therefore marring progress on other fronts, remains doubtful.
Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK said there was little chance the
military would acquiesce to rewriting of the constitution. “People
keep talking about the elections as a step in a process of
transition, but as far as the military are concerned the transition is
now complete. No further steps are required,” he said.
Whatever happens, Myanmar’s next government will include, in
uneasy proximity, two long-time rivals: an NLD still flush with
victory and a chastened, yet still powerful, military. Some irony:
for years, these two parties represented the poles of the country’s
political struggle. Now the future may well hinge on how they
manage to get along.
Keep reading:
“Vice City: Myanmar” – From flagrant prostitution to brazen
wildlife hawking, Southeast Asia Globe explores Mong La, one
of the region’s most lawless towns

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/screaming-trees-myanmar-guitars/
Screaming trees: Myanmar guitars
With the woods required to craft guitars in dangerously high demand, an
experienced yet enterprising Yangon luthier is championing sonic sustainability
by utilising obscure local timbers
MANNY MAUNG
OCTOBER 29, 2015
With the woods required to craft guitars in dangerously high
demand, an experienced yet enterprising Yangon luthier
is championing sonic sustainability by utilising obscure local
timbers

“I think I came into the world to make guitars,” Ko Cho says,
sitting outside his modest home in northern Yangon. “When I’m
sleeping, I’m thinking about guitars; when I’m eating, I’m
thinking about guitars.”
Sounding off: Ko Cho,
a self-taught luthier with
a big reputation in Yangon. Photo: Andre Malerba
As he moves his fingers up and down the fretboard, while gently
plucking the strings, a sweet smile widens across his face, making
him appear younger than his 62 years.
Ko Cho’s love affair with the instrument began decades ago
when, as a teenager, he was given his first custom-built guitar by
his parents. A luthier who lived on the same street had been
commissioned to make it, and a young Ko Cho was fascinated by
the way the craftsman bent and shaped the wood. Ko Cho often
visited the luthier, watching as he carved the wood into form.
After travelling the world as a merchant seaman for 20 years, Ko
Cho decided in 1993 that he needed a new direction. “I’d had this
dream to make guitars since I was a kid, but I thought of it again
and again while I was at sea,” he says.
He eventually returned to his native Yangon in 1998, opening a
small guitar store and workshop downtown. Slowly, Ko Cho’s

reputation grew by word of mouth. His clients now range from
beginner guitar hacks to some of Myanmar’s most famous
rockers, such as Zaw Win Htut and Myo Gyi of Iron Cross fame.
But it is the local timbers he uses that sets Ko Cho apart from
other luthiers in more established guitar-producing nations such
as the US. The materials that he works with are unconventional
tone woods that have a surprising depth of sound and tone, yet
they are also unique and durable.
Entirely self taught, apart from those visits to the local luthier as a
child, Ko Cho learned his craft by trial and error. In the industry,
luthiers are generally limited to a few types of tone woods. The
tops of the guitars are made of softwoods such as spruce, with the
backs and sides made from denser, harder woods such as
mahogany and rosewood.
Of all the tone woods, mahogany is probably the most versatile,
and it is sometimes also used for the soundboard (front) and in
necks due to its lighter weight. A timber’s colour is also
significant, and mahogany is revered for its lustrous dark-pink to
magenta hues that lend a unique character to the instruments.
While softwoods such as spruce are difficult to acquire in
Southeast Asia, luthiers in North America can rely on exotic
hardwoods from throughout the world: mahogany from
Honduras, rosewood from India and cedar from Alaska. Teak is
also prized but rarely used as it is difficult to obtain.
However, these popular tone woods are becoming increasingly
rare and overharvested, posing a problem for luthiers the world
over. Ko Cho has met the dilemma head on and made it his goal
to find as many indigenous tone woods as possible.
“I thought about my country and what is available here,” he
explains. “In fact we have many resources. Everything we make
at the workshop, I’ve researched and combined from local woods.

MYANMAR and Southeast Asia Globe (LINES OF THOUGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA)

MYANMAR and Southeast Asia Globe (LINES OF THOUGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA)

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MYANMAR and Southeast Asia Globe (LINES OF THOUGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA)