Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902625
M. Gravers
Abstract:The military coup February 1, 2021, in Myanmar came as a surprise for many observers. This article argues that the Constitution of 2008 has the script for a future coup should the military lose power and control over civil society, state administration, and the political process. Since 2015, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has warned of the "disintegration of the main national causes" meaning that national unity, protection of race, and Buddhism, and the Tatmadaw's leading role was in danger. He constantly referred to the emergency clauses in the constitution. After 2015, Western media focused on the "democratic transition" but tended to overlook how the military undermined Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's government. Since 2017, they have blamed Daw Suu for the military's atrocities and eviction of the Rohingya. The article analyzes how the military network destabilized the civilian government, using examples from Karen State to illustrate that process.
{"title":"Preparing the Coup in Myanmar: The Military's Strategy for Undermining the National League for Democracy Government","authors":"M. Gravers","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902625","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The military coup February 1, 2021, in Myanmar came as a surprise for many observers. This article argues that the Constitution of 2008 has the script for a future coup should the military lose power and control over civil society, state administration, and the political process. Since 2015, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has warned of the \"disintegration of the main national causes\" meaning that national unity, protection of race, and Buddhism, and the Tatmadaw's leading role was in danger. He constantly referred to the emergency clauses in the constitution. After 2015, Western media focused on the \"democratic transition\" but tended to overlook how the military undermined Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's government. Since 2017, they have blamed Daw Suu for the military's atrocities and eviction of the Rohingya. The article analyzes how the military network destabilized the civilian government, using examples from Karen State to illustrate that process.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"361 - 398"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46229849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902621
Khen Suan Khai
Abstract:Japanese Official Development Assistance has benefited educational development by hook or by crook. Japan has been providing grant aids for grassroots development in Myanmar for more than half a century, which has had a significant degree of effectiveness for the recipients. The Japan Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has specifically benefited the education sector in Chin State, Myanmar, especially in building infrastructures for schools, including providing buildings, desks, and plumbing facilities. It is suggested that there are still quite a few primary factors requiring development to access quality education in Myanmar. Based on extensive research among educators and relevant officials in Chin State, this research surveys existing issues for educational infrastructure in the state and assesses some of the challenges for educational development in the region. It also assesses how Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has assisted the barriers. The scope of this research is from 2015 to 2020.
{"title":"Assessing the Effectiveness of Japanese Official Development Aid in Myanmar: A Case Study of the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects in the Chin State Education Sector","authors":"Khen Suan Khai","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902621","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Japanese Official Development Assistance has benefited educational development by hook or by crook. Japan has been providing grant aids for grassroots development in Myanmar for more than half a century, which has had a significant degree of effectiveness for the recipients. The Japan Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has specifically benefited the education sector in Chin State, Myanmar, especially in building infrastructures for schools, including providing buildings, desks, and plumbing facilities. It is suggested that there are still quite a few primary factors requiring development to access quality education in Myanmar. Based on extensive research among educators and relevant officials in Chin State, this research surveys existing issues for educational infrastructure in the state and assesses some of the challenges for educational development in the region. It also assesses how Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has assisted the barriers. The scope of this research is from 2015 to 2020.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"221 - 259"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47085821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902622
N. Win, A. Naing
Abstract:Urban expansion is associated with the emergence and transformation of marginal labor. In this context, labor migration from rural areas increasingly includes younger migrants, as generational agricultural vocations decline. This, in turn, challenges conceptions of child labor, where younger migrants are engaged in labor which is spatially remote from their families. In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, urbanization has drawn in large numbers of children from rural areas. Many of those children supply labor in nonformal contexts. One such practice is the hospitality industry, where young children are sent to work in the many tea shops in the city, supplying labor in exchange for lodging, food, and nominal wages. In such settings, their labor is provided not only away from parental control but also outside of formal employment structures. The spatial arrangements of tea shops reflect an "in-betweenness" which occupies a liminal place between formal and informal, neither a home, nor a "restaurant," and where the boundaries of public and private space are blurred. This in-betweenness enables a context for tolerance and forbearance of child labor, which is viewed by patrons as a benevolent welfare arrangement, rather than as waged employment; the same patrons would view these children very differently if they saw them at work in a place classified as a restaurant. This example highlights how the contexts of space and place intersect with cultural values to give specific local framings of social issues.
{"title":"Tolerant Tea Shops: The Social Construction of Forbearance in Child Labor","authors":"N. Win, A. Naing","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902622","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Urban expansion is associated with the emergence and transformation of marginal labor. In this context, labor migration from rural areas increasingly includes younger migrants, as generational agricultural vocations decline. This, in turn, challenges conceptions of child labor, where younger migrants are engaged in labor which is spatially remote from their families. In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, urbanization has drawn in large numbers of children from rural areas. Many of those children supply labor in nonformal contexts. One such practice is the hospitality industry, where young children are sent to work in the many tea shops in the city, supplying labor in exchange for lodging, food, and nominal wages. In such settings, their labor is provided not only away from parental control but also outside of formal employment structures. The spatial arrangements of tea shops reflect an \"in-betweenness\" which occupies a liminal place between formal and informal, neither a home, nor a \"restaurant,\" and where the boundaries of public and private space are blurred. This in-betweenness enables a context for tolerance and forbearance of child labor, which is viewed by patrons as a benevolent welfare arrangement, rather than as waged employment; the same patrons would view these children very differently if they saw them at work in a place classified as a restaurant. This example highlights how the contexts of space and place intersect with cultural values to give specific local framings of social issues.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"261 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46747448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902623
Michael B. Griffiths
Abstract:Special economic zones (SEZs) attract investment and political support based on promises of both macroeconomic growth and local economic benefit. Myanmar has numerous SEZs, including those in Thilawa, Dawei, and Kyaukphyu. Recent SEZ legislation requires investors and administrators to maintain the standard of living of communities displaced by the SEZ development. This paper studies the socioeconomic impact on households which have been relocated by the Thilawa SEZ, comparing them with those which remained in their original communities. Relocated households have experienced significantly higher rates of unemployment, debt, and lack of livelihood/income diversity. Due to a greater reliance on food purchases and income insufficiency, relocated households reported higher rates of food insecurity, and nearly one-third reported having taken out loans to meet food shortages in the past year. Overall, the pattern of coping amongst relocated households demonstrates significantly lower levels of resilience than non-relocated households, which results in a rapid erosion of economic capital, and subsequently a decline in future coping capacity. These findings challenge the assumptions around capital-based compensation approaches to relocation programs and argue instead that the process of relocation is best compared to a shock transition to an urban state, characterized by a rupturing of the relationship to land. The ensuing precarity demands a high level of adaptive capacity, which, in turn, requires not only new skills but access to resources, markets, and welfare mechanisms, many of which are not available. If SEZs are to fulfill both the wider economic promise and the legal requirements, a radically different approach to the processes of relocation is needed.
{"title":"Citizens and Land: Socioeconomic Effects of Relocation and Resettlement by the Thilawa Special Economic Zone","authors":"Michael B. Griffiths","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902623","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Special economic zones (SEZs) attract investment and political support based on promises of both macroeconomic growth and local economic benefit. Myanmar has numerous SEZs, including those in Thilawa, Dawei, and Kyaukphyu. Recent SEZ legislation requires investors and administrators to maintain the standard of living of communities displaced by the SEZ development. This paper studies the socioeconomic impact on households which have been relocated by the Thilawa SEZ, comparing them with those which remained in their original communities. Relocated households have experienced significantly higher rates of unemployment, debt, and lack of livelihood/income diversity. Due to a greater reliance on food purchases and income insufficiency, relocated households reported higher rates of food insecurity, and nearly one-third reported having taken out loans to meet food shortages in the past year. Overall, the pattern of coping amongst relocated households demonstrates significantly lower levels of resilience than non-relocated households, which results in a rapid erosion of economic capital, and subsequently a decline in future coping capacity. These findings challenge the assumptions around capital-based compensation approaches to relocation programs and argue instead that the process of relocation is best compared to a shock transition to an urban state, characterized by a rupturing of the relationship to land. The ensuing precarity demands a high level of adaptive capacity, which, in turn, requires not only new skills but access to resources, markets, and welfare mechanisms, many of which are not available. If SEZs are to fulfill both the wider economic promise and the legal requirements, a radically different approach to the processes of relocation is needed.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"291 - 328"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45806793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902624
Wah Wah, A. Naing
Abstract:Since 2018, a steady stream of media reports has described the rapid expansion of tissue banana plantations in the Waingmaw area of Kachin State in Northeast Myanmar, noting the widespread environmental degradation and disenfranchisement of local residents. We conducted field research in two villages connected to banana plantations, interviewing residents, plantation workers, government officials, and health workers. Using assemblage theory, we analyze the local political ecology of food production, and how the particularities of local geography, especially in peripheral regions, result in different practical political settlements. These settlements involve a range of different actors including ethnic armed organizations, foreign merchants, government officials, and local brokers. Arrangements of power in border areas are implicit and negotiated, rather than explicit and formalized. These are appropriated through new spatial arrangements (e.g., banana plantations) and spatial relationships (e.g., migrant workers from Rakhine State) in which older identities and modes of living are redefined. A key component of this frontier assemblage is the banana itself, in particular, the practice of cultivating imported tissue strains which are reliant on imported technology and fertilizers. This, in turn, influences the form of the assemblage and power relations within it, illustrating the critical role of material and technological elements within assemblages.
{"title":"The Politics of Banana Planting in Waingmaw Township","authors":"Wah Wah, A. Naing","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902624","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Since 2018, a steady stream of media reports has described the rapid expansion of tissue banana plantations in the Waingmaw area of Kachin State in Northeast Myanmar, noting the widespread environmental degradation and disenfranchisement of local residents. We conducted field research in two villages connected to banana plantations, interviewing residents, plantation workers, government officials, and health workers. Using assemblage theory, we analyze the local political ecology of food production, and how the particularities of local geography, especially in peripheral regions, result in different practical political settlements. These settlements involve a range of different actors including ethnic armed organizations, foreign merchants, government officials, and local brokers. Arrangements of power in border areas are implicit and negotiated, rather than explicit and formalized. These are appropriated through new spatial arrangements (e.g., banana plantations) and spatial relationships (e.g., migrant workers from Rakhine State) in which older identities and modes of living are redefined. A key component of this frontier assemblage is the banana itself, in particular, the practice of cultivating imported tissue strains which are reliant on imported technology and fertilizers. This, in turn, influences the form of the assemblage and power relations within it, illustrating the critical role of material and technological elements within assemblages.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"329 - 360"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41372760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1353/jbs.2023.a902620
Tual Sawn Khai
Abstract:Malaysia is a primary destination country for many economic migrants from Myanmar, including those from Chin State. Their remittances are essential sources of income for their families' survival. However, the diversity of workers' migration experiences, the challenges to finding regular migration pathways, and finally, the benefits of working in Malaysia remain unclear. This study employed nongovernmental referrals and snowball sampling to explore the above research questions. Findings indicate that the primary driving factors for Chin people's migration are poverty, a decline in agricultural production due to climate change, and a lack of employment opportunities at home. In addition, in Myanmar, people in Chin State experience structural discrimination based on ethnicity, religious affiliation, military oppression, and human rights violations. Barriers to regular migration include: (1) access to broker services; (2) the high cost of a legal work permit; (3) complicated paperwork and lengthy bureaucratic procedure; (4) geographical challenges to accessing the registration center; and (5) the high cost of living in the city while waiting for application results. For many, the irregular migration journey is a huge sacrifice, though female migrants are especially vulnerable, including to sexual harassment by brokers. However, the higher wages they can earn in Malaysia sometimes enable them to repay their debts and support their family's basic needs and welfare. The findings suggest that the national and local governments must enhance the socioeconomic conditions of the Chin people to minimize the "push factors" as well as streamline the regular migration process to facilitate those who choose to migrate.
{"title":"Decision-Making, Irregular Migration, and Benefits: A Case of Chin Migrant Workers in Malaysia","authors":"Tual Sawn Khai","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.a902620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.a902620","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Malaysia is a primary destination country for many economic migrants from Myanmar, including those from Chin State. Their remittances are essential sources of income for their families' survival. However, the diversity of workers' migration experiences, the challenges to finding regular migration pathways, and finally, the benefits of working in Malaysia remain unclear. This study employed nongovernmental referrals and snowball sampling to explore the above research questions. Findings indicate that the primary driving factors for Chin people's migration are poverty, a decline in agricultural production due to climate change, and a lack of employment opportunities at home. In addition, in Myanmar, people in Chin State experience structural discrimination based on ethnicity, religious affiliation, military oppression, and human rights violations. Barriers to regular migration include: (1) access to broker services; (2) the high cost of a legal work permit; (3) complicated paperwork and lengthy bureaucratic procedure; (4) geographical challenges to accessing the registration center; and (5) the high cost of living in the city while waiting for application results. For many, the irregular migration journey is a huge sacrifice, though female migrants are especially vulnerable, including to sexual harassment by brokers. However, the higher wages they can earn in Malaysia sometimes enable them to repay their debts and support their family's basic needs and welfare. The findings suggest that the national and local governments must enhance the socioeconomic conditions of the Chin people to minimize the \"push factors\" as well as streamline the regular migration process to facilitate those who choose to migrate.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"191 - 219"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46837761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"About the Cover","authors":"","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.0007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"121 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135525457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:In this article, I argue that the punk community Rebel Community mirrors, to a certain extent, Bamar-Buddhist-justified gendered inequalities. Although the punks identify structural inequalities and the discrimination of women and minorities, they are themselves not free from the heteronormative and structural discriminations they criticize and oppose. Basic rules within the community include that fascist, racist, and sexist behavior is not tolerated. These punks regard humans as equal, no matter their gender, ethnicity, or religion. Therefore, they counter the institutionalized separation of the population of Myanmar but also turn a blind eye to intersectional discrimination. Through a dogmatic approach to egalitarianism, women have a hard time sharing their experiences of sexism and being acknowledged instead of silenced. Since harassment, for example, is an experience the male members share, they have a hard time acknowledging that the harassment the women must endure is not about them being punks but that they are punished—through being objectified and sexualized—for betraying nation and culture.
{"title":"The Gendered Rebel: Challenging Gendered Norms through Punk in Urban Yangon","authors":"C. Hirsch","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In this article, I argue that the punk community Rebel Community mirrors, to a certain extent, Bamar-Buddhist-justified gendered inequalities. Although the punks identify structural inequalities and the discrimination of women and minorities, they are themselves not free from the heteronormative and structural discriminations they criticize and oppose. Basic rules within the community include that fascist, racist, and sexist behavior is not tolerated. These punks regard humans as equal, no matter their gender, ethnicity, or religion. Therefore, they counter the institutionalized separation of the population of Myanmar but also turn a blind eye to intersectional discrimination. Through a dogmatic approach to egalitarianism, women have a hard time sharing their experiences of sexism and being acknowledged instead of silenced. Since harassment, for example, is an experience the male members share, they have a hard time acknowledging that the harassment the women must endure is not about them being punks but that they are punished—through being objectified and sexualized—for betraying nation and culture.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"139 - 169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46694331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La réforme politique en Birmanie pendant le premier moment colonial (1819–1878) by Aurore Candier (review)","authors":"Penny Edwards","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2023.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2023.0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"187 - 190"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46800759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：