La Laung Daung Nan vividly remembers the last day of April 2015.

Alone in front of the two-acre plot of land her family had been allocated in a United Nations-led project, she waited for fellow villagers to turn up. They had been sent by officials and were coming to take down the barbed wire that protected her rubber saplings from the trampling of cows and buffalos.

“When they came, I pleaded with them not to do it, that we are from the same village,” she recalled, sitting on the bamboo floor of her stilt home with three other aggrieved farmers. Her words fell on deaf ears. The next day, roaming animals seeking pasture left few traces of the 11-month-old saplings. 

Daung Nan, her husband and 16 others in Naung Chain, a dusty village a 40-minute motorbike ride away from the state capital Myitkyina, are in a legal tussle with village authorities over land they consider theirs, but which officials say is part of the 1,600 acres designated as grazing ground. 

The villagers say they were not consulted about plans to turn their land into grazing grounds and believe it was a ploy by officials who planned to profit from renting out 300 acres to a Chinese company for a banana plantation.

Sa Yaw Haung Khaung, the village administrator, defended the land seizure in an interview with Myanmar Now, saying officials acted according to the law. He played down the impact on villagers, saying the Chinese concession covered only 70 acres for growing watermelons. It would have generated income for the whole village but it was abandoned following protests, he added.

On the other side of Myitkyina, in Shwe Aite village, more than a dozen people braved the cold to tell their stories of loss of farmland to this correspondent. 

Many said the local administrators threatened them with lawsuits for refusing to move to accommodate “village expansion”. Others lost their farms to a new college building. Yet some blame the military, including a 65-year-old who was evicted to make way for a telecommunications tower which never materialised. 

In December 2015, civil society group Land in Our Hands released a report after speaking to more than 2,500 people within 329 villages across six states and seven regions in Myanmar. Based on their findings, Kachin State has the second largest number of land confiscations after Shan State.

These local battles are an illustration of not only of land rights disputes engulfing Kachin, Myanmar’s northernmost state bordering China, but also of the whole country, a largely agrarian nation emerging from decades of brutal military rule where land rights are fragile and victims of injustice have little recourse. 

RAMPANT LAND SEIZURES

“Land confiscations in Kachin have been so rampant there is little vacant land left. Villagers are too scared to speak up. There are more landless people now and many are struggling to survive,” Bawk Ja Lum Nyoi, a fiery political activist known for taking on powerful interests, told Myanmar Now. 

In Kachin, the land disputes have been fuelled by the outgoing Thein Sein government’s liberalisation policies that have driven up land prices and attracted foreign and domestic investment, say analysts.

The renewed Kachin conflict has weakened communities’ rights and displaced more than 100,000 civilians, many of whom worry whether they will still be able to access their farmland when peace returns. They accuse the army of seizing swathes of land.

Meanwhile, junta-era issues such as a heavy military presence across the state, oppression of ethnic minorities and the unchecked exploitation of natural resources persist. 

If land disputes remain unresolved they will be detrimental to the peace process and overall stability of Kachin State, activists say. Many are hoping the new government and parliament led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) will help the situation. 

“We hope the NLD will be fair and come up with good solutions,” said Lahpai Zaw Tawng from Kachin State Farmers Network, who has been helping the Naung Chain villagers. 

“Many farmers do not dare to demand the return of land confiscated by the military. We will have to see if we can push for that under the new government.”

LAND KEY TO PEACE AND DEMOCRACY

Changes in land ownership and use have emerged as one of the key issues during Myanmar's political and economic transition, with deep resentment and protests over land acquisitions - often dubbed "land grabs” - for infrastructure, development or large-scale agricultural projects.

Up to 70 percent of Myanmar's labour force is estimated to be directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture. The sector accounts for 44 percent of GDP, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

All land in Myanmar is owned by the government but farmers are given land use or tillage rights, making land use a particularly sensitive issue for small-scale farmers who make up the majority of Myanmar’s population of 51 million.

Yet these rights are neither respected on the ground in practice, nor provide protection against land grabbing, activists said. 

The 2015 Land in Our Hands report found 42.9 percent of respondents said they possessed legal documents issued by the government when their land was confiscated.

The issue is even more sensitive in ethnic areas. Ethnic minorities make up an estimated 30 to 40 percent of Myanmar’s population, and ethnic states occupy some 57 percent of the total land area.  

Myanmar’s current land problem is “linked to ethnic conflict,” said the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute in its recent report on land issues in the country. 

“Important questions around access to and control of land are at the heart of the civil war, and unless they are addressed well, real peace is likely to remain out of reach,” it said. 

Bawk Ja, chairperson of National Democratic Force (NDF) in Kachin State who took the powerful Yuzana company to court over a land grabbing case and has been jailed for her political activities, agrees. “Without resolving the land issue, there’s no way you can achieve real peace,” she said. 

RULED BY GUNS

Activists like BawkJa and Zaw Tawng are educating villagers of their rights so they are better able to stand up for themselves. It is a long process, however. 

Shwe Aite villagers like ArrTi, 65, and Yaing Myaw, 45, remember shaking with fear during a meeting a few years ago when a senior military official came to their village. 

“He put his pistol down on the table first before telling us we have to move. Then he asked, “Anyone want to say anything?”. I was so scared,” Yaing Myaw said. 

But they’ve become emboldened in the past year or two. With help from Bawk Ja, they sent letters to central authorities about their cases, and defiantly returned to their homes and farms. 

“I’m not giving in. It’s my land,” said ArrTi, who was asked in 2006 to leave her orchard, which she has owned since 1982. The army told her it was confiscated to build a telecommunications tower, but nothing has been built so far.  

Land grabs have become so politically contentious that Myanmar’s military-backed parliament set up the Farmland Investigation Commission in 2012, tasked with scrutinising land grabs. 

“In just under two years, the commission, has received more than 30,000 cases. Of these, only two-thirds have been heard, and in fewer than 1,000 – a mere 4 percent – has it ruled that compensation is justified,” wrote Namati, an international NGO working on land rights in an editorial. 

Many are hoping that the new NLD-led government will keep the promises made in its election manifesto, which include fair resolution of disputes, establishing land tenure security and support for the landless. 

It also says the party would “strive, in accordance with the law, to ensure the return to farmers of illegally-lost land, and payment of compensation and restitution” and “defend against illegal land confiscation practices”. 

Dr.Khun Win Thaung is an NLD lawmaker in the Upper House representing Kachin State Constituency (11). The former veterinarian lost his government job in the 1988 protests and spent five years in jail. He said his job gave him a unique understanding of the struggles farmers face. 

“Farmers are our benefactors and I’m aware of the suffering they have endured. We will try our best to resolve these land issues,” he told Myanmar Now.

Daung Nan and her husband, La Ban Khan Phan, have begun to prepare their land again, while keeping up the fight to save it from becoming a grazing ground. They plan to grow rice this time, in line with the authorities’ edict that slow-growing crops were not allowed within the grazing ground.

“If we haven’t made such a fuss, we would’ve lost all this land to the Chinese company,” said Khan Phan, his hands on the wooden stakes that once fenced off his land.

When her father died of AIDS in 2003, Pyae Phu Khaing* was just three years old, and only two years later her mother died of the same disease. The young girl fell into the care of her grandmother.

But her hardships were not over. When she suddenly began to lose weight while in primary school a doctor advised a blood test, it found she was HIV positive. She was 12 years old.

The shock of the news and subsequent antiretroviral treatment (ART) provided by a private HIV/AIDS clinic in Yangon’s North Dagon Township forced her to leave school for a year. After she regained strength and the condition was brought under control, she returned with the help of the clinic’s staff.

Now she is completing her ninth grade exam and Pyae Phu Khaing says that she wants to become a nurse.

Her situation, however tragic, is better than that of most children in Myanmar who have been infected by HIV/AIDS, or who lost their parents to the disease, according to Nay Linn, operations manager for the Phoenix Association (Yangon), a self-help group for people living with HIV.

Many of the children struggle to continue their education due to a lack of money or because of stigma surrounding the disease, he said, citing a Ministry of Health and UNICEF survey among 1,511 caregivers to children who lost parents to HIV/AIDS in 13 states and regions.

Some 210,000 people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in Myanmar, of whom around 160,000 receive lifesaving ART based on the World Health Organisation’s guidelines, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Services to help children affected by the disease are limited. “Only a few groups are supporting HIV-infected children in our country,” Nay Linn said, adding that these NGOs usually prioritise free healthcare over education support.

From 2005 to 2013, the Phoenix Association funded the education costs for children from HIV-affected and low-income families, but since 2014 a funding shortfall means that it can only provide free stationery, he said.

Myint Zaw, an official in charge of the HIV/AIDS clinic in North Dagon Township, whose organisation helps arrange schooling, tuition and mental health support programmes for HIV-infected children, also said financial support for such programmes was limited.

“Despite our financial support, it is not sufficient. These students are still in need of many other things,” he said.

His organization helps HIV-infected children and also children whose parents are either HIV patients or have died from HIV.

He added that more vocational training programmes were needed to support children who drop out of school, or for programmes that to tackle discrimination against these children while they are at school.

DISCRIMINATION AND DEPRESSION

According to health workers, it is common for HIV/AIDS patients to suffer from depression because they cannot disclose their disease or are shunned by the community if they do.

This is no different for children affected by it. “I fear that my friends will find out that I am suffering from the disease,” said Pyae Phu Khaing, who has kept her condition secret from her classmates.

Phyu Phyu Thin, a National League for Democracy lawmaker and founder of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Centre in Yangon’s South Dagon Township, said the issue often gets worse with age as children realise the limits set by their life-long illness.

“These children suffer more and more depression as they reach higher school classes,” she said.

Phyu Phyu Thin said laws are in place that should prevent discrimination, but that public education on the issue is falling short.

“Myanmar already has adopted a law on infectious diseases. It defines non-discriminatory treatment against the disease-affected persons and guarantees equal rights to education for them,” she said. “But more educative programmes and legal protections are needed for these people.”

(*Names were changed to protect the identity of some persons in this story)

Myanmar’s new Lower House nominated four individuals as presidential candidates on Thursday, with Htin Kyaw, a nominee from the National League for Democracy (NLD), tipped to be president. One name was notably absent - Nobel peace laureate and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi who did not attend the event. 

The military bloc, which has 25 percent reserved seats, has yet to announce its nominee(s). 

Despite a landslide election victory for the NLD, the widely popular Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a clause in the constitution that disqualifies those with spouses or children of foreign nationality - her late husband was British and her two sons carry British passports. Suu Kyi has publicly said, however, that she would rule “above the president”.

The nominations, even without Suu Kyi on the ballot, are a historic moment for this impoverished Southeast Asian nation. It heralds the first genuine civilian government, and a democratically-elected one, for the 51-million citizens since the military coup in 1962. The final vote to determine who will be president is expected next week. 

Unlike the opening of the parliament on Feb 1, however, the atmosphere was more of caution and discretion rather than exuberance.

According to a senior NLD official, Suu Kyi is expected to take the position of foreign minister in the new cabinet. The position would qualify her to be on the powerful, 11-member National Security and Defense Council which makes key security decisions for the country.

As a cabinet minister, however, she would have to give up her seat in the parliament, which would trigger a by-election in the future.  

Two of the nominees - Htin Kyaw and Henry Van Thio - are civilians representing the NLD, raising the prospect of Myanmar being ruled by a non-military general for the first time in half a century.

A third and fourth, former vice-president Sai Mauk Kham and former speaker of the upper house Khin Aung Myint, came from the outgoing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is seen as aligned with the military bloc.

With the NLD holding a majority of parliamentary seats, the party is all but assured of winning the presidency in a vote that is expected to take place in a few days, following a process of vetting. Two of the losing candidates will become vice-presidents.

Speculation is rife that 69-year-old Htin Kyaw, a loyal aide of Suu Kyi, is to become the president and a proxy for Suu Kyi. Fifty-eight year-old Henry Van Thio is an Upper House MP for Chin Constituency (3). The former military officer is a father of three and has a law degree.

PROXY PRESIDENT

Htin Kyaw has an impeccable pedigree and family connections.

The Oxford graduate is the son of late poet and author Min Thu Wun, a highly-respected literary figure in the country and an NLD MP-elect for Kamayut Township in the 1990 elections, the results of which were ignored by the military.

HtinK yaw himself is not an MP but has been a close aide of Suu Kyi since her days of house arrest in the military era. He is currently a senior executive in Daw Khin Kyi foundation, Suu Kyi's charity named after her mother. 

His wife, Suu Suu Lwin, is a two-time NLD MP. She won in the 2012 by-elections and also in the general elections last year. Her late father, U Lwin, is one of the founding members of the party.

“U HtinKyaw is a man of personal integrity. He has assisted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi all along. More importantly, he would willingly cede his position in the event of a constitutional change which would allow for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s presidency,” said Ba Myo Thein, an upper house NLD MP from Yangon who was chosen today to be one of the seven-member presidential college that will vet the nominees.

Party lawmakers, aware of the precarious relation between the army and its erstwhile nemesis Suu Kyi, are reconciled to the fact that she will not become the official head of state, at least immediately.

“It’s so delicate and even artistic,” said Khun Win Thaung, an Upper House NLD MP for Kachin State. “We have now reached a stage which we have been waiting for all along. It is important for the public, new government and current government officials to be able to work in harmony.”

Win Zaw, another NLD MP from the town of Hopin in Kachin State, said the party leadership’s decision to appoint a proxy president is the right one since there are no other alternatives following the apparently unsuccessful “national reconciliation” talks between Suu Kyi and the army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

“All of us know she (Suu Kyi) should be the president. She also wants to take that position,” he said. “But the other side (the army) still clings to the constitution… We don’t know if they will keep doing that for the next two years or five years.”

CHALLENGES

Amid the excitement, daunting challenges lie ahead for the new government. These include resolving longstanding ethnic conflicts and building trust with the military leaders who control three key ministries of defence, home affairs and border affairs.

“Our job is how to rebuild this ruined country. Under the direction of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, we hope we will be able to do that,” said Khin Maung Myint, another Upper House NLD MP from the town of Hpakant in Kachin State. “The most crucial thing is to gain peace, without which democratisation cannot be implemented.”

In the coming days, a parliamentary committee will scrutinise the three presidential candidates to determine whether they meet the qualifications outlined in the army-drafted constitution which states that the president of the country must be acquainted with military affairs and not be subject of a foreign power.

After the popular vote electing the president, the formal transfer of power will take place on March 30 in the grandiose parliament in the remote capital Naypyidaw.

The current President Thein Sein, who came into power in 2011 and initiated a series of political and economic reforms, will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new president but will be present at the dinner at the presidential house in Naypyidaw, according to NLD party officials.

Although reforms made by the outgoing Union Solidarity and Development Party improved press freedom in Myanmar – most notably by abolishing pre-publication censorship and granting licences to daily newspapers in 2012 – there’s no doubting that much, much more needs to be achieved. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists’ Freedom Index of 2015, Myanmar is the ninth most censored nation in the world.

With the first democratically elected government in 50 years poised to take over the reins on April 1, the country’s media industry is eager – and expectant – that further relaxations will be granted. However a certain level of anxiety exists as to the details of such reforms, and how soon they can be implemented. The National League for Democracy has an overflowing plate of competing priorities to attend to, which may leave the country’s journalists and media house owners champing at the bit.

Policy Dialogue on Media Development in Myanmar

Mizzima Media Group and Action Aid Myanmar took the initiative of getting the ball rolling by jointly organising a Policy Dialogue on Media Development in Myanmar on 21 February. The who’s who of the country’s media industry gathered at Yangon’s Novotel Max Hotel to discuss ideas about how to move forward, with the aim of being able to convey to the new government the type of support they require to thrive. It may have been the first time that editors and CEOS from the country’s four powerhouse publications – The Myanmar Times, DVB, The Irrawaddy and Mizzima – met in a formal setting to discuss their needs as one. Also present were ambassadors, the general secretary of the Myanmar Press Council and representatives from UNESCO, along with senior personnel from rights, advocacy and research groups. U Aung Shin, a member of the Central Committee of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who is also considered the party's media expert, was also present to take part in discussions and field a flurry of questions. The only vacant seat in the house belonged to the Ministry of Information’s Permanent Secretary U Tint Swe.

“We were informed yesterday that U Tint Swe was unable to attend so we requested another ministry representative to be present. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened,” explained the forum’s moderator on the day.

When U Thiha Saw, General Secretary of the Myanmar Press Council, asked the NLD’s Central Committee member U Aung Shin to address rumours circulating about the dismantling of the Ministry of Information and the privatisation of state-run media enterprises, he replied somewhat drily: “As you mentioned, no one from the ministry is here. We were supposed to share the load of explaining things. As there is no ministry representative here, I will take on the job.”

He went on to say that “whether the NLD will retain the Ministry Of Information is not something that the CEC has said anything explicitly about. My personal opinion is that there are parts of the ministry that we will keep.”

“In terms of MRTV and other state-run broadcasters, as well as state-owned print media such as The Global New Light of Myanmar and The Mirror, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has said very clearly that they need to be privatised. However publishing houses cannot be immediately dismantled. We must ensure that there is no monopoly, but it will take time to really change things.”

U Aung Shin added that the principles of accountability and responsibility are very important to the NLD and that it will “issue press releases and announcements in accordance with Myanmar’s democratic status.”

He concluded by expressing confidence that the NLD will be able to help bring about higher standards of media professionalism in Myanmar.

Privatisating state-run media

However, not everyone in the room agreed that privatisating state-run media is the right step forward for Myanmar. U Thiha Saw countered the proposal with his preferred alternative: turning them into public companies.

“My suggestion to the NLD is to please not privatise state-owned media. Make each a public company and sell shares to the public. Then let them survive in the market. The likes of MRTV should be turned into public service broadcasters that are funded through taxpayers’ money.”

He said he supported NLD’s policy of encouraging strongly independent media but urged the party to reconsider its plans – a sentiment echoed by Mr Gautam Mukhopadhaya, Ambassador of India to Myanmar.

“Similar questions about media privatisation were asked when the Soviet Union collapsed. In my view, privatisation is not the whole answer – it’s also about encouraging competition and breaking down monopolies. In India, we have a state-owned media broadcaster, but it also has ethnic language services,” he pointed out.

Chief Executive Officer of The Myanmar Times, Tony Child, expressed similar reservations.

“I would say that we need to be careful about the process of media privatisation because the NLD won 80 percent of the vote. Being British, I’d point to the BBC as a model of being neither private nor government run.”

U Toe Zaw Latt, Country Bureau Chief of DVB Multimedia Group expressed scepticism that state-run broadcasters will simply go with the flow of privatisation schemes.

He said Myanmar’s advertisement expenditure was worth US$38.6 million in 2009 – by 2013 it was valued at US$151.7 million. Those in charge don’t want to let it go, he said.

“Donations to broadcasters in Burma are very dodgy and licences can be transferred – those who owned the licences were those closest to the government,” he added.

Cross ownership

He said that cross-ownership is an issue of deep concern.

“Myawaddy, for example, has both print and broadcasting licences and the rules do not apply universally. The government can switch broadcasters on and off: Cherry FM was switched off because it was close to U Thura Shwe Mann,” he said. The Ministry of Information stepped in and attempted to stop Cherry FM, after U Thura Shwe Mann was ousted from his party’s co-chair position. But the radio station was allowed to continue after a public outcry over its closure.

U Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of the English language edition of The Irrawaddy, simply called for quick action.

“The NLD should not drag its feet in handling the issue of state media. There is no need for state-owned media enterprises: they’ve given us nothing but propaganda and misinformation since the 1960s.”

Naturally, abolishing state-run media is necessary for Myanmar to be truly democratic; and there are also serious financial considerations at play for those competing for market share. As Glen Swason, Country Coordinator of International Media Support (IMS) pointed out, “state-owned media has received susbsidised operating budgets and gets all its revenue from the state. It also has superior circulation. Funeral announcements and other notices are not considered ‘proper’ unless they are printed in state media – for example, death notices are printed to alert those who wish to contest inheritances.”

Uneven playing field

The uneven playing field between state-owned and private media outlets is a source of great frustration for many, including U Thiha Saw, who spent nine years working for the state-run Working Peoples’ Daily before being forced to resign in 1988 and went on to found Myanmar’s first daily English language newspaper 15 years later. Myanma Freedom Daily’s operations came to an abrupt halt just seven months after it printed its first issue in October 2013 due to a lack of advertising revenue, he said. The media veteran wasn’t alone in underestimating the challenges of running a profitable media venture in the ‘new Myanmar’ – over a dozen other newspapers have come and gone since the draconian registration laws were relaxed. Many others are struggling to stay afloat.

“A great concern for me is that a lot of media houses are losing money. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make money. If the government wants to support the media, they need to do something about the current tax situation and look for other incentives,” said Mr Child.

However, Mr Swanson pointed to findings in the extensive report of International Media Support (IMS) on media development indicators in Myanmar that was carried out in collaboration with UNESCO, research institutes and academics. It found that both government-run and private newspapers have their shortcomings.

“The general public perceives state media as fairly adequate – specifically for getting weather forecasts and which general so-and-so attended a meeting. There is also a perception that state media casts the government in a positive light and doesn’t cover serious issues affecting people’s lives, such as land grabbing. Private media is sometimes perceived as being sensationalist in order to sell copies and make better profits, as well being biased towards the business interests of the owner,” he said.

Until financial pressures ease up for the private media sector, it seems unlikely that these negative perceptions will change.

The push for legal reform

Another item high on everyone’s agenda was the need to create a free and robust media industry via much-needed legal and regulatory reforms.

Swedish Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Staffan Herrstrom, who is also a former journalist, praised Myanmar for “coming a long way in regaining its press freedoms in a remarkably short period of time.”

He emphasised that Myanmar’s legal framework should protect the independence of the media and prohibit all forms of censorship that remain.

“An independent media regulator that is free of government control is vital. The media is a fundamental part of democracy – placing restrictions on journalists and silencing independent media prevents the free flow of information,” he said in his opening address.

Mr Shihab Uddin Ahamad, Country Director of Action Aid Myanmar concurred.

“We have learnt from developing countries around the world that restricting the media leads to destablisation. In a country’s journey to democracy, the media plays a vital role. It is fundamental to political life because it helps us to be better informed and fosters criticism and debate. The media also helps ensure that political power is checked and decision makers are held accountable. The media is crucial to every society that wants to flourish. And it is extremely important in the context of Myanmar, which spent decades under military rule. Media is the medium to bring a democratic culture back.”

Yin Yadanar Thein from the international human rights group Article 19, which promotes freedom of expression and information, called for an urgent review of several laws, including the Official Secrets Act, the News Media Law, the Printing and Publishing Law, as well as laws relating to sedition, obscenity and defamation. She highlighted the need for religious defamation to be a civil, rather than criminal offence.

“The constitution needs to be amended in relation to freedom of expression. It has some provisions to protect freedom of expression, but it must be expressed as a constitutional right and be in line with international norms. There are also a lot of contradictions [in the constitution] that need to be removed. There are journalists in prison or facing trial – they must be released immediately. Myanmar needs to adopt a law for the protection of journalists,” she said.

“We want to keep driving home that legal reforms have not kept pace with the political change that has taken place. We want the NLD to really take this into consideration,” said Mr Swanson of IMS.

Myanmar compared to others in the region

However, Mr Child countered that in comparison with its regional neighbours, Myanmar has taken great strides in media freedoms and that maintaining a certain amount of perspective is warranted.

“We ought to be careful of judging Myanmar too quickly – in Southeast Asia media freedom is going backwards – just look at Malaysia and Singapore. Myanmar may emerge as a beacon of freedom of expression in the region,” he said.

The Irrawaddy’s U Kyaw Zwa Moe appeared unwilling to take heed of Mr Child’s advice. He said he believes that Myanmar’s antiquated laws silence the press more than anything else, while acknowledging that change won’t happen overnight.

“As we all know, in Myanmar it’s the laws that are the biggest problem – and not just the laws affecting the media industry. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us. Although the NLD won the election, they are struggling to change the constitution. Reforming media laws will be our biggest challenge,” he said.

U Thiha Saw took things one step further by suggesting that the sheer number of laws in need of reform require a different – and simple – solution.

“The NLD needs to change hundreds of laws – this can’t be done in a few months. Its first job should be to pay attention to the judiciary rather than abolishing laws. Myanmar’s government has been improved, with greater independence given to those in key positions, but the judiciary remains under the influence of the government. Please let it become independent.”

He said that when the country’s media council called for the release of imprisoned journalists; “three times in fact – we were told that President U Thein Sein would wait for the judicial process to be completed. And then he ‘forgot’ when it was over.”

“I believe that my recommendations will make the NLD’s task much easier. I think the honeymoon period will be brief. This is a very sensitive time,” said the former political prisoner.

Nestled among towers of mouldering paperwork, the few flickering computer screens at Myanmar's information ministry are a sign that change is afoot, and nervous bureaucrats expect more to come under the first civilian government in decades.

A novice administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi and her president proxy HtinKyaw takes office later this month, facing a raft of challenges -- including conflict, poverty and a still powerful military.

One of the new government's few stated priorities so far is to streamline the country's notoriously labyrinthine civil service, which bloomed to 36 ministries under military rule and became a byword for corruption and inefficiency. 

"We have no idea what will happen to us, we have had had no clear instruction," said one ministry official on Tuesday, asking not to be named, just hours after MPs across town in the capital Naypyidaw elected the country's first civilian president in decades.

With its dimly lit corridors, papers stuffed into bags and stray dogs snoozing in the afternoon heat, the ministry -- which churned out propaganda under the military -- is emblematic of much of Myanmar's civil service and the junta's legacy.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) have yet to name any ministers. 

But party sources said senior members were hunkered down in private meetings Wednesday with a streamlining plan expected to be announced on Thursday.

"Even we are hoping for change," admitted another information ministry staff member, also asking for anonymity, alluding to Suu Kyi's simple election message, adding that he expects a merger with the culture ministry.

- Changing times –

Myanmar has come a long way since 2011, when the military that drove the country into isolation and poverty for decades suddenly loosened its grip.

President Thein Sein's outgoing army-backed administration unleashed dramatic reforms that saw the end of most Western sanctions and a flurry of investor excitement. 

The resource-rich country now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, forecast to expand around 8 percent this year, and a vibrant young population. 

Foreign visitor numbers have surged from less than a million in 2011 to 4.7 million last year. 

Commercial hub Yangon has morphed from a crumbling relic to a rapidly transforming metropolis where consumers chow down on KFC while browsing once-prohibited news websites on affordable mobile phones.

Hundreds of thousands of poor labourers have been drawn into city slums by the promise of work in factories or copious new construction sites.

Hantha Myint, who heads up the NLD's economics committee, said low-skilled manufacturing will be a key to job creation, as well as improving rural infrastructure and agricultural productivity.

"We have to follow the path everybody has followed, build the toy factories and the garment factories and those cheap exports. We should not talk about high technology things for the coming five years," he told AFP.

But the country remains notoriously bureaucratic -- with reams of paperwork the standard experience for most interaction with government officials -- while entrenched corruption and a vast black economy still thrive.

Rajiv Biswas, of IHS Global Insight, says the hurdles are large given the NLD's "lack of experience in governance". 

Priorities, he said, should include "significant" investment in "power, roads and ports, as well as in education and training to build Myanmar's human capital".

- Hands tied –

Myanmar's civil service will have to be at the forefront of the NLD's change. But in many ways their hands are already tied.

The budget for the coming year was passed by the outgoing army-backed parliament in January. 

Details have not been made public but doctors have complained to local media that the allocation for health, which remains chronically underfunded, is well below what is needed. 

Meanwhile the military still holds a quarter of parliament seats and three key ministries: home, defence and border affairs. It also oversees the General Administration Department, a centralised civil service that sprawls across the country down to the smallest level of officialdom.

The NLD's relationship with the country's generals will remain key. 

The army has pledged to support the democratic transition, on its own terms, and months of tense talks with Suu Kyi failed to remove the junta-scripted constitutional barrier that block her from the presidency. 

After years of mistrust and the burning memory of the NLD's 1990 election landslide that was ignored by the then junta, for many just getting into office will be a major achievement. 

"That will be the most important step for the country to see the smooth handover of power,” said lower house NLD MP Myo Zaw Aung.

© AFP

Khee Khee Phown is torn between her family’s farm and the potential freedom that education might provide her. 

As the 11-year-old girl walks to school through the fields of Pantanaw Township in the Ayerawady Delta she tells Mizzima Weekly of her fears that her struggle for education may come to naught. 

“I have no future. I don’t know what I want to be in future, but I want to attend until the school finishes,” she said. “But my family also needs me to help them on their farm.” 

Five days a week, during school term, Khee Khee Phown walks for about an hour and a half through the fields and forests, come rain or sun, in her quest for education. That’s a three-hour round trip daily.

For the young girl, the long walk to school comes down to a hope of bettering herself.

It echoes Myanmar’s new incoming leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has long stressed its importance of education.

Education vs labour on the farm

Khee Khee Phown’s story is common amongst many families that make up the vast bulk of Myanmar’s population. Over two thirds of the population live and work in the agricultural sector, an industry or way of life that still relies heavily on manual labour - a typically picturesque scene of people in the fields and bullock carts but one that hides a grim reality.

Myanmar’s education system has suffered from decades of neglect. But the situation is particularly acute in the rural areas, as glimpsed here in the Ayerawaddy Delta.

During school term Khee Khee Phown walks with her younger brother Moe Aung Yin, 6, on the long trail to and from school. As the young girl explains, her future appears set – and it is not the future she wants.

Her older brother and two older sisters have all stopped school early, either to help her family with manual labour on the farm, the pursuit of a small-scale family agricultural business, or to work in a city to help bring personal income and support for the family. 

One of her older sisters stopped school at Grade 4, at the age of 12, and is helping on the farm. Her other sister, aged 18, has gone to work in a city in Kayin State, and her 21-yearold brother is also working away from home. This is typical for families in rural areas.

Khee Khee Phown’s family house

– part cement and part wood and bamboo - lies on its own outside the Mayan Village. It’s a typical rural scene with cows, bullocks, chickens and pigs, and the inevitable barking dogs that greet strangers.

It is the only life Khee Khee Phown has known. But in school books she glimpses another future. 

Only she and her younger brother are left to take the lonely walk to school. 

“I am not afraid to go to school. I am not lazy to go to school. I don’t know why I am really enjoy to go to school, but I can’t think what I want to be in the future. Maybe after I finish the school I will help my parents to work in the farm, but I want to go to school until Grade 12 if possible,” she said. 

Makeshift school

Khee Khee Phown’s destination every day is far from adequate. The district school is made of bamboo with plastic sheets and all the desks appear to be broken.

Two teachers pursue a labour of love teaching a total of 60 children, aged from five to 15.

One of the children’s parents says he has called on the government for support, to no avail.

“We have asked for government support, but they were never reply to us. We have to pay the teachers from our own pockets. All people in the villages combine their money and provide rice in order to hire a teacher,” he said.

Most of the children who live far away, struggle to get to the school, most if not all forced to walk. And it is a struggle to get an education. The challenge is not just the fact that little hands could help in labour on the farm.

Even with free education, the families of many students in rural areas are hard-pushed to afford to extra materials or possible transportation to school.

Khee Khee Phown’s parents are lucky their daughter and younger son walk. Given the nature of the trail, the only other option would be to be transported by motorcycle, but the family the family only has a bicycle and that is needed for use on their farm and to reach the market.

Another challenge comes down to gender. Boys tend to take precedence over girls when it comes to schooling. It’s cultural. It’s ingrained. 

Both genders suffer but girls like Khee Khee Phown are more likely to pay a higher price – pulled out of school too early.

Helping the family

For Khee Khee Phown, when it is a holiday or a day off from the school, she always helps her parents.

Khee Khee Phown’s father, U Aung, is not blind to her daughter’s quest for education and the potential it has to better the lives of his children and the family.

“For my children I offer support as best I can, but sometimes the family business is also very important. So I sent my son and daughter away to work and to support our home. For my daughter who goes to school, I would like to her go until Grade 10, because in our family we should have one educated person, because we never went to school before,” the 46-year-old father said. 

“I sell everything I have, I sell chickens, ducks to get money, and I support my children to go to school, and for the family,” the father said.

Not alone

Khee Khee Phown is not alone. She is one of millions of children in Myanmar torn between bettering their life by education and the call to help their family on their farms or in their family businesses.

This is a challenge not only in Myanmar but across Asia. Yet Myanmar has got left behind due in large part to the failure of previous military governments over five decades to provide not only the financial input for education but also the message that education matters.

As the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi comes into power, education will gain in importance.

But there will be no quick fix for Khee Khee Phown. Her chance for education hangs on her father’s ability to rustle up enough money to have one “educated person” in the family. 

It’s a tough call.

In May 1989, as the military junta continued its brutal crackdown on those linked to the ’88 democratic uprising, Chit San, a former soldier, was arrested by Myanmar’s notorious Special Branch police. For the next five months he was held at a military barracks where he faced interrogations and torture.

His daily routine consisted of waiting in a tiny, dark cell for the inevitable beatings. “Usually it was midnight when the lights would turn on and they'd burst into my cell for an interrogation,” he said.

His daily meal consisted of a foul concoction of watery soup with rice and insects, and a cup of water. Later, he was moved to Yangon’s Insein Prison where he spent six years of a life sentence in overcrowded and squalid conditions.

“I spent the whole time thinking I was never going to leave that place, but mainly I worried for my wife,” he recalled recently.

When Chit San was finally released through an amnesty in 1996 his struggle, however, was not over. Like many thousands of former political prisoners in Myanmar, he suffers from symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he developed as a result of the psychological and physical trauma he experienced at the hands of the former regime.

Another legacy of the military government, the country’s wrecked healthcare system, means that many of those suffering from psychological problems, whether from torture or other causes, cannot receive much-needed psychological treatment from government healthcare facilities.

Cultural stigma and a lack of public understanding in Myanmar about common disorders, such as depression and anxiety, further worsens their plight. Many people choose to suffer in silence rather than face being labelled 'ayoo', or crazy.

A LEGACY OF TRAUMA

In the years after he was released, Chit San found it difficult to reintegrate into normal civilian life. “I had no job so it became a daily struggle just to find enough money to provide food for my family,” he said.

No longer wanting to associate with his political past, he cut all ties with his former friends. As the stress of life outside the prison walls built up, he found himself becoming aggressive and losing his temper over the smallest things; sleepless nights became normal, he said.

These symptoms are common among people who have suffered intense psychological and physical trauma. Lifelong symptoms often also affect sufferers’ relationships, employment and their behaviour. It is common to Little is known about how much is spent on mental health in Myanmar, according government health professionals, who could only refer to a 10-year-old World Health Organisation report that says that 0.3 percent of the total health care budget is reserved for mental health care.

With government care almost non-existent, non-profit organisations and overseas supporters have stepped in.
Programs like the Mental Health Assistance Program (MHAP), of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoner's (AAPP), provide such support. Funded by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, MHAP uses a psychotherapy treatment method called Common Elements Treatment Approach, which is suited for low-resource settings like Myanmar.

Saw Thet Tun, chief clinical supervisor at AAPP and a former political prisoner, said since it began in 2013, MHAP has treated 967 clients of which 521 are former political prisoners, with the programme extending to non-political prisoners in 2015. Currently, the programme has 16 counsellors in Yangon with each seeing five to six clients for at least three months of treatment.

This is not enough to meet demand, said Saw Thet Tun. “The people in this country suffered a lot under the military, five teams of counsellors just isn't enough. We can't help all of those that need it so we train the community in basic understanding of our methods so they can provide support also.”

“Our country needs counselling but the government ignores it because they don't understand how important it is,” he said, adding that the government has never offered support or interest to work with AAPP on its programme, partly because those in the former government included those responsible for past repression.

OVERCROWDED MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITALS

The few institutions that do provide mental healthcare are severely overstretched, a situation that is painfully clear at Yangon Mental Health Hospital, one of Myanmar's largest mental healthcare facilities.

Cracked paint comes off the walls of the hospital and its wards are counsellor, suggested he try AAPP’s counselling program he considered getting help for his symptoms.

After explaining the programme to his wife and son, who were unaware of such counselling, they agreed to attend sessions included in his treatment. He has now completed a six-month course of counselling and says he has made significant progress in dealing with the effects of his trauma.

“This type of programme is very unusual for this country, but the counselling lets me cope in daily life and helps my family cope as well,” Chit San said, adding that he hoped Myanmar’s mental health services could be expanded to help former prisoners like him.

(Additional reporting by Phyo Thiha Cho)

As darkness fell in Khanwebo on the night of February 3, a sudden ruckus erupted when dozens of policemen entered the coastal village in Ayeyarwady Region. They were looking for farmers locked in a long-running land dispute with a local company.

A scuffle ensued as angry villagers confronted armed police and one was allegedly stabbed by a police rifle mounted with a bayonet. “I felt warm under my left armpit. I realised I was cut only when I saw blood there,” Win Kyaw claimed. The police operation was one of several rounds of recent arrests of Khanwebo villagers who are reclaiming land they once farmed.

Khanwebo, Kyatkhattaw and Khattiya are three poor villages in Ayeyarwady Region’s Pantanaw Township affected by a large land dispute involving several thousand farmers and PhoeLamin Company Ltd. The firm was granted control over some 2,800 acres of land by the former junta government 16 years ago.

The land dispute in Pantanaw Township is one of Myanmar’s largest and the tensions and unresolved conflict here are representative of the land issues that have affected farm communities across the country.

During the former junta, huge tracts of farmland were seized for army and government projects, or given to well-connected ‘crony’ companies. Myanmar’s democratic transition of recent years has created political space for farmers to protest and reclaim their land, but this rise in activism has often lead to a confrontation with authorities.

For the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government resolving the widespread land disputes and amending land laws to better protect farmers will be a key issue during its term.

‘WE ARE FIGHTING TO GET OUT LAND BACK’

Than Shin, 49, a Khanwebo community leader, said he lost about half of his 15 acres of paddy field to PhoeLamin Company. In a type of protest that has become increasingly common in Myanmar, he and hundreds of farmers went to plough farmlands controlled by the firm in mid-2014. “We have owned these land for generations, so we are fighting to get them back,” he said.

The company filed a complaint and police subsequently charged 19 community leaders, including Than Shin, with trespassing, theft, and damaging property - criminal charges that carry punishments of up to several years in prison. He has evaded arrest so far. Villagers are on the lookout for approaching police and have even organised a night watch to avoid further arrests.

Than Shin said the land dispute has taken a heavy toll on the villagers, pushing them deeper into poverty and affecting their sense of security. “Many girls have left and are now working as the housemaids, or as labourers in garment factories in the cities,” he said.

The farmers allege police are acting to protect the interests of PhoeLamin Company and have made hundreds of arrests across Pantanaw Township in the past decade to crush resistance against the land grabs. 

“Locals could not avoid confrontation with authorities as they suffered a great of loss of income and unfair police actions,” said Kyi Soe, a 40-year-old villager.

Capt. San Yu Naing, an officer at Khanwebo Village Police Station, said farmers had violated the law through their ploughing protest and should face punishment. “The villagers tried to illegally trespass on the company’s land…the company has an official land use permit,” he said.

San Yu Naing strongly denied police used rifles mounted with bayonets in the village in February. It is rare for Myanmar security forces to use such lethal force against farmers, though soldiers were photographed deploying such weapons to quell a protest over a large land dispute in Sagaing Region’s Kantbalu Township in 2014.

KyinNyein, managing director of PhoeLamincompany, said his firm obtained the land with permission from high-ranking military officers in the year 2000. “The land use permit was personally approved by former General Thura Shwe Mann,” he claimed during an interview at the company’s office in Khanwebo Village, referring to the former parliament speaker and ousted Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) chairman.

In recent years, PhoeLamincompany returned about 2,300 acres to villagers to address their complaints, but it remains embroiled in conflict over another 500 acres under its use.

A LEGACY OF LAND GRABS

Land rights activists and the NLD have long called for a return of seized lands and changes to Myanmar’s land laws, which provide little legal protection of land ownership. President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government and the previous USDP-dominated parliament undertook some efforts to this end.

The Land Utilisation Management Central Committee, a governmental body formed in 2013 to resolve land disputes, received a total of 17,718 complaints and managed to resolve 1,065 cases through the return of land or by offering financial compensation, according to a recent state media article.

However, the Land in Our Hands Network, a coalition of land rights activists, farmers and NGOs, researched land disputes involving some 2,000 farmers across Myanmar. Its December 2015 report found that, “All are ongoing: none have been resolved in a way that provides justice and closure for the farmers. The problem has simply accumulated and expanded over time.”

In 2012, parliament approved two new laws governing land, the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow, and Virgin Land Management Law, but the report said, “The new laws are mainly benefitting commercial interest and have sparked a new wave of land confiscation.”

NLD TO IMPROVE LAND RIGHTS

A new National Land Use Policy was drafted late last year and its introduction will be an important task for the incoming NLD government. Ruling party lawmakers said they were determined to improve land rights during their term.

Sein Win, a NLD MP who chairs the recently formed Farmers, Workers and Youth Affairs Committee of the Lower House, said, “Land laws are weak, they need to be amended and by-laws should be added.”

“The previous parliament had only two solutions for land grabs: returning lands to farmers and compensating farmers (for loss of land). But then the government didn’t implement parliament’s instructions,” he said. The NLD will work to improve land rights without undermining the interests of the powerful military, Sein Win said, adding, “We will try to maintain political stability while we push for the truth.”

Ali Hines, a land rights campaigner with London-based resource corruption watchdog Global Witness, said the NLD government should address past and ongoing land seizures by “the passing of a strong Land Law which prioritises the protection of smallholder farmers, human rights and the environment in line with international standards and with the full participation of civil society,”

Hines said that the NLD government should set a moratorium on granting new land use permits to firms until such a law is in place. 

Shortly after newly elected President Htin Kyaw completed a swearing-in ceremony in Myanmar’s parliament on Wednesday morning, the country’s new leader, a ‘proxy’ of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, headed to the Presidential Residence in Naypyitaw.

In its stately diplomatic hall, Htin Kyaw met outgoing President Thein Sein. An aired video recording of the hand-over ceremony shows Thein Sein, silent and emotionless, give his presidential sash to his successor and quickly exit the building.

It was a quiet event that marked the end of a historic and tumultuous five-year presidential term of Thein Sein. He was believed to have been handpicked by former military supremo Than Swe to carry out Myanmar’s democratic transition under quasi-civilian rule.

Thein Sein’s presidency has drawn mixed reviews, with most observers acknowledging its dramatic democratic reforms, while many criticise its continued repression, outbreaks of communal violence and conflict, and limited socio-economic progress.

‘MYANMAR SPRING’

“This was ‘Myanmar Spring, Burma Spring’,” Zaw Htay, the director of the President’s Office, said in a recent interview, favourably comparing Thein Sein’s reforms and smooth handover of power with the violence that followed the ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions in the Middle East.

 “The president had to accommodate (the interests of) the old (military) era and also create a new era. He was the leader during this very difficult transitional period,” Zaw Htay said. Without elaboration, he added that Thein Sein was able to carry out reforms for only two of his five years in office.

The remarks raise questions about whether the retired Than Swe or current army chief Sen-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing put the brakes on further reforms by the Thein Sein government.

Thein Sein will continue to function as chairman of the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which he represented as president following the party’s win in a rigged 2010 election.

When he took office, he declared in his inaugural public speech in 2011, that he would fight corruption, reform the judiciary, introduce democratic reforms and boost the economy to raise livings standards of Myanmar’s people. He subsequently freed thousands of political prisoners and initiated a nationwide ceasefire process to end long-running civil conflict.

CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE

Yet, his term also saw the break-down of a long-standing ceasefire with the ethnic Kachin rebels, continued clashes with other rebel groups in northern Shan State, and outbreaks of inter-communal between Buddhists and the Muslims in western Rakhine State and in central Myanmar. Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced during the violence and conflict that occurred during his term.

No sooner had the number of political prisoners dipped than a new class of them emerged, this time mostly activist students calling for education reform and farmers resisting a rise in land confiscations, another hallmark of Thein Sein’s term. Early on, in November 2012, a violent crackdown on a protest against an unpopular, China-backed copper mine in Sagaing Region had already raised doubts about his government’s commitment to freedom of expression.

“If we have to distinguish between the bad things and the good things of President Thein Sein’s term, then we would have to say that all the good things he did in the first two years were overshadowed by the bad things that followed later,” said Mya Aye, a former political prisoner and member of the influential 88 Generation Peace and Open Society activists. 

Matthew Burgher, a lawyer with Thailand-based human rights group Fortify Rights, said, “It’s undeniable that Myanmar is a freer and more open country and its citizens now have great hope for the future. Thein Sein's name will forever be associated with this period of dramatic reform.”

But he said, “Thein Sein's legacy will be permanently tarnished by his government's active undermining of fundamental rights and freedoms. In particular, the continued crackdown on activists, which accelerated at the end of his term, and the systematic persecution of Rohingya” Muslims in Rakhine.

ECONOMIC PROGRESS

On the economic front, Thein Sein successfully reengaged with international financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF. With it came access to aid and loans, and a slashing of Myanmar’s massive debts. Other reforms saw him open up some sectors of the economy for international investors, most notably oil and gas, and telecoms. GDP growth and foreign investment figures jumped.

In terms of achieving his publicly stated goals of raising living standards of Myanmar’s population, however, there were few achievements, according to Sean Turnell, an Australian economist specialised in Myanmar who advises the NLD.

“Indeed, given rising prices, land insecurity and a society more aggressive in its pursuit of material gain, considerable numbers of people in Myanmar are worse off at this conclusion of the Thein Sein government than they were at its commencement,” he told Myanmar Now in an email.

“Overall, the Thein Sein government laid down some good foundations, but these have not been sufficient to build the structure of change needed to improve the lives of the Burmese people. Accordingly, his legacy is a mixed one, and has left the new government a heavy burden,” Turnell said.

I was 10 years old when I first found out there was something seriously wrong with my country.

It was March 1988 and I had overheard bits of conversations between lugyis (Burmese for adults) about scuffles between students from the engineering university and security officials. As a kid, I wasn’t privy to the thoughts of the adults, but I could sense they were troubled.

Then one late afternoon, as I was talking on the phone to a friend, I could hear a song wafting through the air. As the noise came closer, my curiosity got the better of me. I hung up and ran upstairs two steps at a time to the shrine room, where a balcony overlooks the tree-lined avenue on which we lived.

Suddenly I saw prison vans. I can’t remember how many there were and all I could see were hands holding on to the metal bars of the small windows. The people inside were singing Myanmar’s national anthem, “Ka Bar Ma Kyay,” in a most mournful way I have not heard since.

Without having to ask anybody, I knew these must be students I had heard of or people with links to them. I remember bursting into tears. The lens through which I looked at my country changed forever.

Today, 28 years later, as I scrambled up the steps of the country’s bicameral parliament in Naypyitaw, I thought of my 10-year-old self.

I also thought of the millions of fellow Myanmar citizens whose lives have been irrevocably changed by decades of brutal military rule and who, like me, never thought this day would come in our lifetime.

I came to the pristine capital, with its impossibly lush grounds and unbelievably wide boulevards, to cover the historic swearing in of HtinKyaw, a close confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi, as Myanmar’s first elected civilian president since 1962.

The parliament was abuzz with anticipation. The NLD MPs had a spring in their steps. I spied parliamentary staff posing for photos with NLD MPs and taking pictures with their phones.

Minutes before the parliament was due to begin, Suu Kyi appeared, flanked by HtinKyaw and Lower House speaker Win Myint. As they entered, I glimpsed civilian parliamentarians standing up as a gesture of respect, and I felt a lump in my throat.

As a Myanmar citizen, I rejoiced at finally having a civilian president - especially one that, from all the accounts I’ve heard, is a very decent man - and a (mostly) civilian cabinet. I also happen to be a big fan of HtinKyaw’s father, the renowned poet Min Thu Wun, whose nursery rhymes I grew up with.

As a journalist, however, I have many questions, concerns and misgivings about the idea of a NLD proxy presidency, the military’s continued grip on many levers of power, and the appointment of Myint Swe, a hardliner linked to bloody crackdowns on Myanmar citizens, to vice-president.  

MIXED EMOTIONS

Prevented by a military-backed Constitution from becoming the president, Suu Kyi has publicly said she would be “above” the president and has been made minister with control over four portfolios: foreign affairs, education, energy and the President’s Office. What will this mean in practical terms?

From the appointment of cabinet ministers and chief ministers to the selection of media invited to cover the dinner tonight at the Presidential Residence, the NLD’s decision-making during the government formation has been far from transparent.

Would it be humanly possible for Suu Kyi to handle four very important portfolios? Also, should we be entrusting our country and economy to ministers who admitted they were duped into believing their fake PhDs as real? Why isn’t the cabinet and parliament more inclusive and diverse, given the make-up of Myanmar? Why aren’t there more ethnic representatives in the government? I haven’t seen any Hindus or Muslims either.

Where are the women in important decision-making roles? Out of 35 positions, there is only one female cabinet minister (Suu Kyi) and two female chief ministers. And how open and honest will the NLD-led government be, given that the party’s decisions up to now have been shrouded in secrecy?

As a journalist, my job is to question and to hold power to account. Seeing how the party and its supporters have treated anyone who is critical of the NLD has not been encouraging.

With all these thoughts whirling in my head, it was easy to forget that just a year ago, a day like today was completely unimaginable. A year ago, we were writing about the government’s brutal crackdown on student protesters, worried about the return of state-sponsored thugs, and alarmed by the rising Buddhist nationalism.

Even in the past few weeks, the behaviour of some members of the outgoing government have been far from gracious. Arrest and harassment of critics continued unabated. Ministers ignored parliamentary invitations to answer questions, the then-Minister of Information said the incumbent government may not be accountable to the new parliament. We read about officials stripping their government residences bare before leaving. 

Today, we heard from the new president his vision of a new Myanmar - achieving peace, national reconciliation, a democratic Constitution, a genuine federal union, and better standards of living for ordinary citizens.

The three-minute speech was short on details but long on symbolism. But to many who witnessed it, including myself, it was still historic. Local journalists are already hailing what they hope would be a pattern during HtinKyaw’s presidency - short speeches.

It will be a very long and hard road ahead, not just for the government and parliament but also for ordinary citizens who have suffered so much yet remained hopeful.

So despite misgivings, I’m trying to stay alert but positive. My country has had enough of negativity.

It’s hard enough for a widowed mother to support seven children, but 43-year-old Jar Raw also struggles with HIV. She has lived with the infection at the Jar Mai Kaung (St. Paul) refugee camp in Myitkyina in Kachin State for the past four years.

The sole breadwinner for her family, she’s overwhelmed by the obstacles she faces, like many refugees, and worries about her childrens’ future while she struggles to find the money to buy her children school supplies and other essentials.

Jar Raw’s husband died of HIV in 2012 and their youngest daughter is also infected by the disease.

Before reaching the refugee camp, she and her husband worked as agricultural laborers, while she also worked as a midwife. She believes she may have contracted HIV during her work as a midwife.

“I delivered many child in my life,” she said.After one of the children was delivered, she said she learned that the husband died of HIV, and she made contact with blood from that delivery.

“This is the only possibility I can recollect,” she said.

The other refugee families in her camp know she has HIV, she said. At first she suffered discrimination, but it lessened over time because of the camp’s HIV education campaign. Jar Raw teaches at the school in the refugee camp, and she sometimes counsels other women with HIV.

“I tell them, ‘Don’t be upset, take your medicine regularly. Don’t have insomnia or sleeping disorder. Don’t lose your appetite. Then you will be okay and be normal soon.”

“When we were in our village, I was very afraid of people living with HIV. Now I understand, and  we have no discrimination against these people. Previously, we used to say, hey, this woman has HIV, stay away from her, don’t mingle with her family…” Jar Raw said.

Four other widows with HIV live in the camp. “All of their husbands died of this disease,” she said

HIV positive women in the camp receive free drugs at a government hospital. The camp also has a high incidence of people receiving HIV drug therapy because they contracted the disease due to drug abuse problems. Government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offer assistance to victims.

The UNAIDS program operates a needle exchange program, an addiction treatment service, and conducts awareness and education campaigns on drug abuse in collaboration with NGOs.

A survey conducted by the Substance Abuse Research Association (SARA) in Myitkyina found that  three out of 10 drug users are infected with HIV, SARA Director Dr. Tun Tun Bren told Mizzima.

According to UNAIDS, there are 210,000 people living with HIV in Myanmar, and 30 people are infected with HIV everyday. According to the Ministry of Health, more than 100,000 people living with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy drugs from the government or NGOs.

Win Thida Seint had a bright future to look forward to last August. The 23-year-old was heavily pregnant with her first child and she and her husband had just borrowed money to buy two pigs, hoping to increase their monthly income now that the family was expanding.

Three days after the purchase, however, disaster struck. Following days of heavy rain, flash floods hit their village in Pwint Phyu Township in central Myanmar’s Magwe Region one early morning, sweeping away her home, the pigs and everything else she owned.

“I couldn’t bring any belongings because of my pregnancy,” she recalled during an interview at Sipintharyar village. “My biggest fear was that I was going to lose my child.”

Eight months on and she has not been able to rebuild her small wooden house on the bank of Mone Creek and she has had to find refuge in her mother’s house in the same village.

Sipintharyar - meaning “prosperous and pleasant” in Burmese language - was one of the villages that was inundated last year during the worst flooding to hit Myanmar in 50 years.

Vast swathes of Myanmar were inundated between June and August, affecting 12 out of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions. The biggest losses were suffered in Sagaing and Magwe regions, and in Chin and Rakhine states.

Official figures showed floods killed 120 people and affected more than 400,000 households.

In the aftermath of the disaster, Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Rescue and Resettlement said it had provided assistance worth nearly 686 million kyats until Aug. 27 last year. The government has yet to release data on how much support it has given to the disaster victims since.

International aid organisations also stepped in and launched large-scale emergency operations followed by rehabilitation programmes. The UN World Food Programme will continue its food recovery response to a total of 104,000 people until mid-2016, while the Food and Agriculture Organisation will provide assistance to around 150,000 farmers and fishermen, the organisations said in a statement accompanying a flood recovery report released in March.

It urged the government and aid groups to implement a range of measures in order to ensure food security and help communities get back on their feet. Recommendations included cash donations so that families can buy rice, free distribution of seeds, rebuilding livestock, and supplying fishing equipment.

Families like those of Win ThidaSeint said they are still deeply affected by the floods and needed more support to rebuild their lives.

“I don’t expect any handouts. All I want is to be able to reestablish my livestock again,” she told Myanmar Now.

‘STRUGGLING FOR DAILY INCOME’

PwintPhyu Township was hit hard by last year’s flash floods and thousands of families in the area are still trying to reestablish their livelihoods.

When the floods hit, water flowed over from two dams in the area and caused Mone Creek to suddenly burst its banks; PwintPhyu’s town’s four wards and 205 villages around it were inundated, according to data from the local township administrative office.

Some 355 houses, 12 schools and two hospitals were damaged or destroyed, while 17,951 livestock animals and 8,317 acres of agricultural land were affected, figures also showed.

Villager Aung Kyi, 60, said he lost more than 30 chickens in the floods. “Previously, there was enough to eat for our six family members, but we are now struggling for daily income as a day
labourers,” he said, adding that he earns about US$1 per day.

For many, the damage to their farmland has been severe; huge swathes of land were covered with a layer of mud that has made it impossible to replant.

“I can no longer use my land to earn an income,” farmer Aye Aye, 44, said, adding that the poor villagers lacked the heavy machinery needed to remove the top layer. If machinery is not moved in soon, they said, this year’s harvest - which is planted shortly after the first rains start - will be late or could be lost.

Heavy floods also caused the banks of Mone Creek to collapse, reducing the safety of some houses built nearby.

PhyoPhyo Mon, whose home now stands dangerously close to the banks, said, “We cannot sleep safely when heavy rains falls at night as we have experienced land erosion. But we cannot leave here as there is no empty land in nearby areas for us.”

FURTHER ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Nay MyoKyaw, a lawmaker in Magwe Regional Parliament, said the government or aid groups should provide cash or long-term loans so that farmers could buy livestock and have capital for farming.

Nay MyoKyaw, who is with the National League for Democracy (NLD) and representing constituency No. 2, said the new Magwe Region lawmakers were forming several committees to study how policies and laws could be introduced to help flood-affected communities.

He said the MPs were, however, working with limited funds and capabilities, adding, “The allocated budget and technical support are major challenges for us.”

Nay MyoKyaw said the new NLD government would prioritise environmental sustainability and disaster management in order to prevent future flooding with heavy impacts.

Some villagers complained that authorities had come to their homes to collect data on their needs, but that the aid provided fell short of what most households require to survive.

“We don’t know if we were to depend on the government or the international organisations but ultimately, we couldn’t depend on anyone,” said Aye, 44.

Local civil society groups have also played an important role in the flood response, especially early on when an outpouring of sympathy across Myanmar led to a large-scale fundraising campaign among the public and the private sector.

Thant Zin, who is the spokesperson for Western Ayeyarwady Development Association, said the small organisations had to end its support for affected communities along Mone Creek after its funding ran dry.

“Even though we can no longer support them financially, we are still documenting the needs of the villages as much as we can,” he said.

Parliamentarian Nay MyoKyaw told Myanmar Now that lack of capital is hindering the rebuilding of flood-affected villages.

“It would be helpful if the new government or private sector would offer long-term lending programmes. Even if it doesn’t solve all the problems, it would make their lives much easier,” he said.

The creation of Pat Jasan and its ‘people’s war on drugs' have brought to light a number of key drug-related problems facing not only the Kachin State but also the rest of the country. Praised by some Kachin activists for finally addressing drug problems, they are also criticized by others for violating human rights and not providing any services to marginalized communities, including drug users and poppy farmers.

Communities in the Kachin State have launched a ‘people’s war on drugs’. Known as Pat Jasan (‘Prohibit Clear’), a new organisation was formed two years ago to combat the worsening drug problem among the local population. The self-appointed committee decided to take law enforcement into their own hands as they feel the government is not doing enough to stop the flow of harmful drugs into their communities.

The Pat Jasan vigilantes, often dressed in military-style uniforms and armed with stick and batons, have arrested and beaten drug users and put them into forced treatment camps, and they have sent teams into opium-growing areas to eradicate poppy fields. The Pat Jasan has been praised by some Kachin activists for finally addressing drug problems, but criticized by others for violating human rights and not providing any services to marginalized communities, including drug users and poppy farmers. Most recently, their poppy eradication efforts led to open conflict with opium farmers and local militia groups.

The creation of Pat Jasan and its war on drugs have brought to light a number of key drug-related problems facing not only the Kachin State but also the rest of the country.

First, there are widespread and serious drug-related problems in Myanmar. Problematic drug use has been reportedly rampant for at least two decades, and there is little evidence to suggest that the situation is improving. Some areas in the country, especially Kachin and northern Shan States, are facing a heroin epidemic, with devastating consequences for local communities. Injecting heroin use is one of the main drivers of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, and HIV prevalence among injecting drug users in the Kachin State is, according to statistics released yearly by the Myanmar Ministry of Health, among the highest in the country and in South-East Asia. Scores of young people die prematurely every year of drug use problems, including overdoses, although reliable data does not exist. Problems caused by drug addiction within families and communities have never been more acutely felt. According to a representative of a Kachin civil society organisation: “More Kachin people have died of drug-related problems than because of armed conflict."

Second, current policies to address these problems are clearly failing. The response by the central government and local authorities to this tragedy is very inadequate. The current legal framework focuses on arresting and criminalizing drug users. Arrests conducted by law enforcement agencies mostly target drug users or small-scale dealers. In contrast, very few major traffickers, corrupt officials or militia leaders involved in the drug trade are ever prosecuted. As a result, a very large part of the prison population in Myanmar, especially in northern regions, consists of drug users.

Drug treatment facilities, too, are largely insufficient. There are only two public hospitals offering drug detoxification services for the entire Kachin State – in Myitkyina and Bamaw, and not a single government-run rehabilitation centre is operational at present. Overall, the weakness of the national response starkly contrasts with the enormous show of opportunism and business priority that are deployed to exploit the rich natural resources of the Kachin state, including jade, timber and gold.

Third, there are many links between drugs and the continuing conflict in the country. After decades of civil war, many conflict actors rely on the drug trade to finance their armies and operations. Corruption is a big problem in Myanmar, and many representatives of government agencies and the Tatmadaw also profit from the drug trade. In consequence, drug producers and traffickers appear to have been given a free hand by the authorities.

Myanmar government officials privately admit that several Tatmadaw-supported militias are heavily involved in amphetamine and heroin production and trade. However, their relationship with the Tatmadaw, whose priority is security and not drugs, makes these militia groups untouchable. Many of these militias have no other political objectives than to maintain the status quo and continue with their businesses. Some of their leaders have even been elected into parliament in the 2010 and 2015 general elections.

At the same time, there has been a tendency to blame ethnic armed opposition groups for the drugs trade, some of which have strong anti-narcotics policies and who are calling for federal reform, based on democratic principles, to resolve the country’s social and political problems. This marginalization of those calling for reform has greatly frustrated local communities and raised serious questions about the sincerity of central governments to address the country’s drug problems, listen to ethnic nationality grievances and aspirations, and achieve a sustainable peace.

Against this backdrop of failure, communities in the Kachin State have decided to take things into their own hands. Initiated by members of the Kachin Baptist Convention, the Pat Jasan was set up. But the movement has rapidly gained momentum and is now gathering support way beyond its KBC start. Its popularity is the result of long-time accumulated frustration and anger endured by communities living in the Kachin State over neglect and ineffective drug policies.

Supporters of the Pat Jasan movement are happy that finally someone is taking action against the drug problem in the Kachin State. However, without addressing the root causes of problematic drug use, production and trafficking in the Kachin State and country as a whole, the problem is unlikely to go away. Blaming and targeting the weakest links in the drug trade – marginalised drug users and opium farmers – is also problematic as these people need social support rather than punishment. It will not solve the underlying crisis. Punishing them will only push them into further misery and poverty. Instead, it is time that the government and other concerned actors start targeting those really controlling and profiting from the trade: i.e., the larger traffickers and those who support them.

In the field, the problems do not end here. In recent months, the militant activities of Pat Jasan have risked creating new conflicts among the local population. In particular, Shan communities in the Kachin State have complained that the arrest of members of their community by ethnic Kachin Pat Jasan members, and sometimes handing them over to the armed opposition Kachin Independence Organisation, is feeding into existing tensions between Shan and Kachin communities. At this critical period in the country’s history, this is a very sensitive issue that needs to be handled carefully. As Myanmar’s political transition continues, it is important to promote peace and inclusion rather than aggravating community grievances and conflicts.

In summary, among the many challenges facing the country today, it is now vital to acknowledge the magnitude of the drug use epidemic in the Kachin State and other northern regions, and to develop a set of policies that will match the severity of problems caused by drug use and production. To be successful, such policies should be made in consultation with affected communities, who include drug users themselves and impoverished poppy-farmers growing opium as a means to survive.

A real debate also needs to be held around the different strategies that can be adopted to tackle the detrimental problems caused by drug use and production. After decades of the international ‘war on drugs’, a growing number of countries are moving away from this one-dimensional approach and are recognizing that strategies merely based on repression have actually failed to produce results and only made matters worse. Most recently, the United States of America, which has long led this international endeavour, has begun considering different approaches to drug control because of this history of failure. Therefore, as international strategies change, the question is whether another ‘war on drugs’ in the Kachin State, launched out of frustration, is really the best option.

The encouraging news is that there are alternative methods that have proved effective in addressing the most serious problems caused by drug use and production. Many countries have already introduced them with success, and there are many experiences and materials available that can be learned from. In general, such policies consist of placing the focus of interventions on supporting the most vulnerable – the drug users and small-scale impoverished farmers – rather than punishing them, while police and judicial efforts are re-directed on dealing with major drug-related offences.

Based upon these experiences, what will be needed at the community level in Myanmar in the coming years is the provision of effective treatment and services for drugs users in different parts of the country, which are voluntary, based on needs and respect human rights. Similarly, as most opium-cultivating communities grow poppy as a livelihood strategy, the development of their communities should be prioritized rather than arresting individuals and destroying their livelihoods.

In short, the drug crisis in the Kachin State is an urgent warning of the failures of anti-narcotic policies in the past and a wake-up call for inclusive, informed and reflective actions that are in partnership with the local peoples in the future.

https://www.tni.org/en/article/peoples-war-on-drugs-in-kachin-state-indication-of-failed-policies

In one of the many rooms of Myanmar’s massive parliament building in Naypyitaw, the country’s sprawling military-designed capital, Bo Bo Oo is busy reviewing a stack of letters on his desk.

The newly minted National League for Democracy Lower House MP is going through numerous invitations, meeting requests from foreign embassies, and several letters from businessmen seeking appointments.

Bo Bo Oo, the secretary of the Lower House’s International Relations Committee, said he would politely decline the latter since he does not want to be persuaded into serving any business interests. “Many positive things are coming our way. It is very important that we are not tempted by some of them,” he said.

For the 52-year-old, his new place in the halls of power presents a sharp contrast with how he spent most of his adult life. Bo Bo Oo was jailed by the former military junta at age 26 for participating in the 1988 democratic uprising; from 1989 to 2009 he was held in different prisons across the country.  

“These days, people often ask me if I ever imagined these changes in the past. I say I never even thought about it,” he told Myanmar Now in an interview in the capital. 

Bo Bo Oo's move from the dank, dark prison cells to a key legislative position is dramatic, but he is just one of many former political prisoners in Myanmar who suddenly find themselves with great leg-islative and executive powers after their NLD party won a resounding election win last year. 

The former inmates turned politicians are now faced with the tremendous task of reforming and developing a country left crippled by decades of authoritarian rule, conflict and economic mismanagement. While doing so, they have contend with a still powerful military. 

20 YEARS BEHIND BARS

Bo Bo Oo came from a wealthy Yangon family and was a final year English major student at the Yangon University when the ’88 uprising changed his life. Like so many people of his student generation, he spent the prime of his life behind bars, and it changed his goals forever. 

“My childhood dream was to become a successful businessman, but for the sake of democracy and human rights, I became involved in politics,” he said.

During his long incarceration, he experienced solitary confinement, hunger and illness, and saw friends die due to ill treatment. While in prison, his father passed away and his then-wife, the daughter of a top-ranking military officer, abandoned him.

When he was released in 2009, he married a former political pris-oner who was set free on the same day. He opened an art gallery in Yangon and immediately returned to politics.

Bo Bo Oo became an active member of the NLD and is known for his social skills and organisational capacities. He became a member of the party’s disciplinary committee for Yangon and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi put him in charge of organising fundraising events. 

In the 2015 elections, he won a Lower House seat in Yangon’s  Sanchaung Township. 

FORMER PRISONERS UNDER THE SAME ROOF AGAIN

Now, he lives with many other new lawmakers at the residential quarters in Naypyitaw, located a few miles from parliament. These house many longtime NLD members, some of whom are former cell mates.

The residences are so simple that they have been compared to students hostels; they have bare concrete floors, an attached toilet, and three wooden single bedsteads. Most MPs do not bring their families to the remote capital and its spartan government residences.

“One thing that is similar to prison life is that you have to sleep all alone at night. We have no social life, no personal life, here. I swim or read for leisure.” Bo BoOo said. “Sometimes, I cannot sleep at night because it is too hot,” he said about his room, which is only equipped with one electric ceiling fan.

But Bo Bo Oo quickly brushed away comparisons with prison to ex-press his joy about being part of democratically elected parliament. “Everything is so good now,” he said.

Bo Bo Oo is the NLD’s party whip for Lower and Upper House NLD MPs from Yangon Region, an important position that sees him ensure that lawmakers follow the party leadership. Every Monday, he manually delivers the NLD’s weekly paper - called “D-Wave” - to each MP, so that they stay informed of the party’s plans. 

Fighting corruption among the newly powerful NLD MPs is another important task, he said, adding that he regularly meets with more than 50 lawmakers to brief them on party plans and check on their personal situation.

“Bribery and corruption can sometimes happen due to individual difficulties. That’s why I ask my fellow members of parliament to tell me if they need money, and I would lend them some. It’s very important; (being incorruptible) is the lifeblood of our party,” he said. 

Bo Bo Oo is hopeful that the NLD government and the party’s parliamentary majority will be able to push through comprehensive reforms, despite resistance from the army, which controls a quarter of parliament and many other levers of power. 

“Bit by bit, things will improve. I am full of optimism about the country’s future,” he said, before adding that sometimes he is overcome with sadness when he remembers those who died in prison before they could witness democratic change. 

Asked whether he wants the army generals responsible for their deaths to be brought to justice, Bo Bo Oo shook his head and said the focus should be on national reconciliation. 

“We must let go of the past. Seeking redress is a form of revenge. It is still a very delicate job to make sure that the generals exit smoothly (from the political stage),” he said.

Two years ago, Kyar Yin was in the forest near his village collecting bamboo to sell when he stepped on a landmine.

Alone and his left leg badly injured, the 56-year-old farmer was forced to take drastic action. 

“I sat up and pulled out my knife and started to cut my leg away myself,” he said. “It hurt so much, but I kept cutting the meat from my leg and throwing it away.

“I had no choice but to cut my leg by myself because if I didn’t, it would get worse.”

Aung Chan Thar, Kyar Yin’s village in Kyaukkyi Township in eastern Myanmar’s Kayin State, was once the frontline in a bitter conflict, once dubbed the world’s longest-running civil war, between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar military. 

As is common in Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts, land mines were a weapon of choice for both sides and the jungle around Aung Chan Thar is littered with them. 

But the forest also provides the villagers, many of whom survive on subsistence farming and trading in products from the rainforest, with everything - from wood and leaves for their homes to betel nuts and bamboo to sell at the market. 

Every time the villagers enter the forest, they are conscious that their lives are at risk, a situation faced by millions of villagers in Myanmar’s conflict-scarred ethnic borderlands. 

Across Myanmar, hundreds fall victim to this hidden weapon every year. According to Landmine Monitor, Myanmar is the third worst country in the world for annual landmine casualties. There were at least 3,745 reported casualties between 1999 and the end of 2014, though it is thought the real figure could be much higher.

Today, Kyar Yin envisages a different use for his knife. 

“If I met the people who made me like this, I would want to kill them with my own knife,” he said, leaning against a tree to take the weight off his wooden prosthetic leg.

FIVE LEGS BETWEEN SIX PEOPLE

Kyar Yin is not alone in having been maimed by landmines: six members of his family, including himself, have also been injured. They have five legs between them.

Kyar Yin’s brother Kyar Khin was in the jungle with his wife collecting bamboo when he stepped on a mine. He lost both his legs.

“I remember it was raining, and there was a lot of blood,” he says. “My wife put me on my side and covered my lower half with a blanket.”

Men are most commonly the victims of landmines around Aung Chan Thar because they are normally the ones working in the forest. Kyar Khin, a father of four, now struggles to provide for his family.

“My wife is finding money at the moment,” he says. “She collects leaves and she sells those. It is not enough… Sometimes, I make bamboo baskets. I can earn 500 kyats ($0.42) a day. With the leftover money, I buy my medicine.”

KyarKhin’s cousin Ngwe Yin was the village’s first land mine victim 40 years ago.

Standing in the bamboo field where she lost her right leg, she points to the spot where she was injured and recalls how when her mother and aunt came to help her, they too stood on land mines.

“My aunt lost both of her legs, and my mother had severe injuries to her abdomen and face,” she says.

Since her injury, she says 20 people have been killed and 12 more disabled by landmines in the village of 700 people.

FUELLED BY CONFLICT 

Kyar Yin, Kyar Khin and Ngwe Yin all blame the Karen National Union for the landmines that injured them. They accuse the KNU of not just laying landmines in the conflict with the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s army, but also to protect teak trees that they did not want villagers to cut down, and as a punishment for not paying taxes. 

A KNU spokesman said both the KNU and the Tatmadaw had laid land mines in the area. However, he denied the group had used mines to protect trees or as a punishment against villagers.

Myanmar’s ethnic armed conflicts are at the heart of the landmine issue, and much hope rests on getting all ethnic armed groups to sign up to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

“If all the stakeholders are signing the ceasefire agreement then the landmine issue will be automatically included,” National League for Democracy patron Tin Oo told Myanmar Now. 

“We are very hopeful during this government this land mine issue will be sorted out.”

WHEN WILL THEY BE CLEARED? 

International NGOs are ready to start the process of clearing land mines, but to date not a single landmine has been officially removed.

Ingeborg Moa, acting country director for Norwegian People’s Aid, said before Myanmar began its democratic transition in 2011, you could not even use the phrase “landmine” when talking to government officials.

“We would rather talk about ‘threats to life and health’ as a sort of code-word for these hazards,” she says. 

“This has completely changed, and both the authorities and the different ethnic armed organisations are now willing to discuss landmines and mine-clearance issues openly with us.”

Norwegian People’s Aid has carried out broad surveys to try and gather information on where land mines may be located, but has not been given the green light to carry out the technical surveys that would specifically locate the devices.

Moa says the progress already made in achieving peace - eight armed groups signed the NCA in October last year - is enough to start landmine clearance procedures.

LIFE-LONG IMPACT 

For the villagers in Kyaukkyi Township, the sooner something happens the better. They say land mines do not just cause physical loss, but also lasting psychological damage.

In KawtByinn village, Ngwe Yee, 31, provides counselling to disabled people. She was 21 when, in November 2004, she was taking food to her parents in the forest and her bicycle hit a landmine. She lost her right leg.

She says: “Most people (with land mine disabilities) just stay at home; they don’t normally go out and work because they are depressed. A lot of the men become alcoholics.

“So I say to the girls: ‘Let’s go out sometimes, this is not shameful. We can go out together and we can be involved in social activities’.”

Ngwe Yee is putting on a brave face. The mine not only shattered her leg but also her dreams of running her own shop. 

“Now I have no dream anymore, because I can’t do it,” she said, sitting outside her parents’ home, with tears welling in her eyes.

“Though I am not feeling very good myself, I cannot show this to other disabled people because I am supposed to help them. I need to stay strong in front of them.” 

When Myo Arkar returned to his home in Yangon’s North Dagon Township after working through a long, hot day, he opened a cold bottle of purified of water to quench his thirst, but as he drank he sensed a rusty smell and taste, and then noticed brown particles swirling in the bottle.

Disgusted, he threw it away. “I informed everyone I know of this incident, and reminded them not to drink that brand,” he said of the water, which is produced at a small purifying facility in Shwepyithar Township.

Many residents in Myanmar’s towns and cities consume bottled water that they presume is properly purified. But a rapid growth in demand for such water and a lack of government oversight means many small, unlicensed operators produce questionable quality water that regularly leaves consumers with a bad taste in their mouths.

“I have used more than four brands of drinking water last year. The new brand that I am using now has had no problem yet,” remarked Thura, a taxi driver from Sanchaung Township, who said he switches brands after drinking bad quality water, rather than file a formal complaint with health authorities.

UNLICENSED BRANDS ON SALE

Among Myanmar’s towns and city residents, around a third drink bottled water, according to data from the 2014 census, as urban water supply systems are often of a poor standard. Though urban consumers’ drinking water problems pale compared to those in the countryside - where many poor households rely on tube wells, ponds and lakes that might be unclean or even toxic - they could easily be consuming an unlicensed brand.

Dr. Tun Zaw, director of the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said an inspection of markets in Yangon and Mandalay last December found 21 unlicensed bottled water brands on sale.

A countrywide FDA survey of bottled water conducted early last year approved some 750 brands, but found 73 - or close to 10 percent - of brands lacking in quality, or having failed to register with the FDA. The FDA subsequently released a list of these banned brands and their production locations.

By law, drinking water producers are required to register with the FDA and allow it to inspect their facilities for hygiene, production methods and quality tests.

Dr.Kyaw Linn, a former FDA director, told Myanmar Now that consuming unlicensed drinking water could carry health risks. “Fungus and bacteria in this drinking water can pose health hazards, such as diarrhoea and worms, as well as other bad consequences depending on the harmful chemicals in the unhygienic water,” he said.

More needs to be done to improve enforcement of FDA standards, he said, adding, “Unregistered brands will not guarantee hygiene, they might even use tap water.”

GROWING THIRST FOR BOTTLED WATER

Myanmar’s economic growth of recent years has led to rising demand for bottled drinking water in both urban and rural areas, said Ba Oak Khaing, chairman of Consumer Protection Association of Myanmar. Setting up a small-scale purification facility is fairly simple and can even be done in a residential house or a compound, he said, adding that small facilities produce about fifty to a hundred 20-litre bottles per day.

Dr. Tun Zaw said such facilities had proliferated in recent years and it was impossible for the FDA to inspect all new brands coming on to the market, adding that enforcing a ban on brands was also difficult. “If we announce that a brand name produces unhygienic drinking water, they will just change their name, for example from ‘Sein’ to ‘Shwe’,” he said.

Dr. Tun Zaw said the FDA works with municipal authorities to enforce drinking water controls. The agency conducts tests and checks, and issues recommendations, while local authorities are responsible for granting licenses and implementing a ban and shutdown of facilities.

OUTDOOR PRODUCTION

Ba Oak Khaing said his association, the FDA, staff of Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and the police conducted surprise inspections of water producers’ facilities in Yangon in February and found that 13 failed to meet hygiene standards.

“These small water-purifying facilities are built in the compound of regular houses. They do not observe the rules of hygiene,” he said, explaining that some operations were situated in the open air, sometimes even near grazing cattle or sewage run-off.

Ba Oak Khaing said the FDA and municipal authorities issued bans against the 13 companies, but no further checks have been carried out since to enforce the order.

ArKar, the owner of Pin Lone Water, a large, licensed purifying plant in Yangon’s Hlegu Township, said many small operators had entered the growing drinking water market in a bid to capture a share, and some cared little for quality and hygiene standards.  

“Some purified water might be tainted with dust and smells because the old water bottles were not thoroughly cleaned when they were re-used,” he said. “Such small water-purifying plants are copying our brands and these things may tarnish our popularity.”

One small, unlicensed bottled water producer from South Dagon said his facility turned out about fifty 20-litre bottles per day, which were sold in two residential quarters in the township. The man, who asked not to be named, admitted to not registering with the FDA, but said consumers of his water have nothing to fear.

“Most of the market for my brand is only in the nearby area, and I am focused on the hygiene of the water,” he said.

Ywel Jer remembers a time when Saijarbon, an ethnic Kachin village perched upon a hilltop in Hpakant Township, was surrounded by mountains.

In the past 10 years, however, vast mountain areas around the village here in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State have been turned into rubble by large-scale jade mining operations using dynamite and heavy machinery. The changes in the landscape now threaten Saijarbon’s very existence.

“In the past, the mountains near our village were higher than us, but now they have been reduced by 400 or 500 feet,” YwelJer said, looking out from the village where some abandoned houses are situated on the edge of a sheer 30-meter drop created by ongoing mining operations below.

“We cannot sleep well here as we fear possible landslides,” the 58-year-old woman said, adding that the rainy season was a particularly perilous time for those living near the mining sites. 

Local authorities, she complained, did nothing to regulate mining’s impacts on the landscape, nor did they monitor the safety of the huge, unstable piles of waste the industry creates. Officials only ever asked villagers to make way for jade mining, YwelJer said, adding she was forced to relocate four times since 1989.

Myanmar’s multi-billion dollar jade industry has come under increased scrutiny in the past year after an investigation by resource corruption watchdog Global Witness revealed some of the hidden, often army-linked holders of lucrative mining licenses. A string of deadly accidents in recent months involving labourers scavenging through mining waste has highlighted a lack of safety measures on site.

Now, local activists and communities have also begun asking for changes in the industry. They demand that authorities mitigate its heavy environmental impacts and offer communities some of the benefits.

On March 25, 10 civil society organisations from Kachin and Yangon held a press conference in Hpakant calling for a suspension of all mining activity until authorities enforce existing environmental regulations. They ask that officials set up a commission to reveal individual company ownership, revenues of firms, and whether they adhere to rules and regulations.

Mike Davis, Global Witness’ Asia Director, said, “Local people are calling for a suspension of jade mining because of its severe environmental and social impacts until reforms are put in place. We support that idea.”

NLD pledges reforms

The new National League for Democracy (NLD) government said this month that it has suspended the issuing of further jade mining licenses and pledged to reform the sector. It has started with improvement of safety around waste dumping, before moving on to reducing environmental impacts and eventually increasing openness about licensing and revenues.

Win Htein, director-general of the Mining Department of the new Ministry for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, was quoted as telling state media on May 20 that safety is an “urgent consideration for the government” and that measures are being taken on the ground.

The report said local authorities had tightened dumping restrictions for companies and attempted to move ‘at-risk’ workers camps to safer areas.

Minister Ohn Win told the Upper House on May 11 that experts will be invited to join a ministerial committee to draft new environmental rules for the jade industry.

Disappearing mountains, dangerous waste heaps

Lama Lataung, chairman of the Kachin National Development Foundation, estimated that in past decades as many as 50 mountains within a 30-kilometre radius of Hpakant have been reduced to rubble by miners.

Since 2005, mining companies have begun using heavy machinery to speed up jade extraction, according to a recent state media report, which said the number of migrant labourers doing dangerous scavenging through the increasing waste heaps rose through a staggering 300,000 workers in 2015.

Since November, there have been 13 landslides in Hpakant, state media said, including a Nov. 11 landslide that buried 114 labourers and a May 8 incident that killed 13.

Kai Ring, a community activist with Kachin National Development Foundation, said companies nor authorities take responsibility for managing mining tailings. “Waste heaps are not pressed together with machinery to be compact, and then landslides happen,” she said, adding that dynamite explosions and heavy rainfall sometimes trigger the landslides.

Kai Ring also said huge mining trucks of large and medium-sized mining operators often pass through villages at dangerously high speeds, leading to traffic accidents that prompted community protests, most recently on April 2.

Another serious issue is pollution of water resources, Kai Ring added, noting that 12 companies mining next to Uru Creek were dumping waste directly into the creek or onto its banks.

“Flooding will probably more serious this year for the 10 villages along the creek as companies have put huge amounts of waste into it,” she said, adding that according to government rules companies can only dump waste at 12 designated sites and not within 100 meter of the creek.

Gems Law revisions increase license duration

In January, President Thein Sein’s then-outgoing government revised the 1995 Gems Law and it was passed by Parliament in February, shortly before the transfer of power to the NLD.

The revised legislation did little, however, to better regulate jade mining’s environmental impacts and amendments mainly concerned lengthening the duration of mining licenses, said Khin Maung Myint, a NLD Upper House MP for Hpakant.

Previously, the maximum duration of a license was five years, but under the revisions a company with an area greater than 50 acres can now hold a 10-year license, a medium-sized firms a five-year license, and companies with less than 30 acres can obtain a three-year license.

Khin Maung Myint said a five-year license would cost an operator around US$130,000, adding that there are some 350 companies licensed to mine for jade, but only around 100 large firms are actively mining.

Davis, of Global Witness, said bringing transparency and reforms to the revenues and contract conditions of the jade industry - which he described as “a slush fund for powerful hard-liners” - would be a daunting task. But he urged the government to create “early momentum” by trying to include the sector in its 2016 report to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Myanmar became a candidate for this voluntary revenue transparency scheme in 2014 and has pledged to publish annual reports on revenue earnings, but so far these have concerned oil and gas, and some mining sectors, though not jade. 

For much of the past two decades Maung Aye’s life has revolved around a daily routine that mixes the hope of finding sudden riches with constant danger and back-breaking work.

Every morning, the 36-year-old jade labourer gets up in the bamboo shack that he shares with other workers and walks down from the heap of mining waste on which it sits.

He goes down into one of the many mining pits that scar Hpakant’s mountains and takes out a small hammer mounted on a stick. One by one he taps rocks in the rubble dumped by mining companies, carefully listening to see if the sound could indicate precious jade mineral inside. 

At the end of recent, hot April day, he returned to his miners’ camp with a rock half the size of a football, which he inspected with a special flashlight and valued it as low-grade jade worth around 30,000 kyats (around US$26).

“To get good quality jade depends on luck. Sometimes it is hard to find a jade stone worth 10,000 kyats in a week,” said Maung Aye, thin and muscular, wearing a traditional bamboo hat and shorts.

Though the money made in treacherous jade scavenging might seem small to some, it represents a good income to the tens of thousands of men who migrated here from poor, rural communities across Myanmar.

“Life is too hard for us in our home village, we can’t earn enough income, while we can easily get 5,000 to 10,000 kyats per day here,” said Maung Aye, who left his family home in Magwe Region’s Gangaw Township, central Myanmar, in 1996.

He recalled how he decided to go to Hpakant after fighting with his father. “At the time, I told my mother: I don't want to live in this house, please give me money and I will go away. She gave me 25 kyats,” he said, adding that he followed his older brother who was already working at the mines.

According to a recent state-run media report, there are some 300,000 men like Maung Aye toiling in the jade mines in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State.

Local journalists and activists said the numbers of men who migrated here has probably doubled since 2010, perhaps because stories of jade mining opportunities have spread more easily to remote communities in recent years as mobile phones and internet connectivity have become more widely available.

An increase in large-scale mining by companies using dynamite and heavy machinery has also increased the amount of rubble available for scavenging.

Those who own the companies that dump the waste on which Maung Aye and many like him live, make enormous, unregistered profits. Myanmar’s opaque jade mining industry has been estimated by resource corruption watchdog Global Witness to be worth up to US$31 billion per year and is controlled by hidden license holders mostly linked to the military elite.

Dangers and dreams of fortunes

The migrant miners are aware of the risks they take by working and sleeping near unstable piles of waste. These are dumped by the companies which have little regard for the largely unenforced safety regulations. The new National League for Democracy government has pledged to improve safety in Hpakant.

Maung Aye is stoic about the dangers and confident he can stay safe after many years in the mines. “I have got a lot of experience and know how to keep away from the falling waste, I was never injured,” he said.

Deadly accidents are a regular occurrence. A night-time landslide last November buried 114 migrant miners, according to the official death toll. Several accidents have killed groups of workers since then. Most recently, on May 23, at least 13 miners died in pit collapse.

Maung Aye said the November accident occurred near his camp and he saw the aftermath, adding that the number of deaths was probably several times higher than official figures as authorities had stopped searching for buried corpses after two days.

“Scavengers and machinery drivers from mining companies died, maybe 300 in total, under waste dumped near the site of Mya YaMone Company,” he said.

The poor men are willing to face such deadly risks as many dream of finding a large, valuable jade stone that will lift them out of poverty.

Maung Aye got his break in 2002, making a small fortune by Myanmar standards when he and his friends found a jade boulder worth around $7,000.

Maung Aye said the gem find turned his life around and he went back to his home village to enjoy his newfound riches and to kick a drug habit he had developed a few months before. Heroin and opium are easily available and used by many workers.

“I was so happy at home as I could save and bring a certain amount of money for my family. I drank alcohol almost every day with my friends and forgot about the (withdrawal symptoms) I got from quitting drugs,” he said.

Yet, he struggled to use his savings to set up a profitable business in his impoverished village and after eight years at home he returned to Hpakant. He now plans to stay until he feels he has enough income.

“I feel life is more meaningful here than in my village, I can expect to make a lot of money. This is our dream as scavengers,” Maung Aye said. “I can send money to my family and stay here with friends - but I am lonely.”

Aung Kywe remembers how he had to stand by helplessly last year when massive floods in the wake of Cyclone Komen affected Ayeyarwady Delta and destroyed half of his 14 acres of paddy.

That traumatic experience came on top of years of decreasing yields, Aung Kywe said, adding that this monsoon season he will leave much of his land in  Kawkatkyi Village, Zalun Township, fallow to avoid loss of money with another failed harvest.

“Paddy plots on the lower-lying land are almost sure to be flooded,” he said, adding, “Paddy yields have also decreased year by year, from 100 baskets per acre to 75 baskets.” A basket of rice weighs around 25 kilograms.

In neighbouring Maubin Township, also located in the heart of Myanmar’s ‘rice bowl’ delta region, farmers spoke of similar measures to limit exposure to what many believe are increased occurrences of climate change-related extreme weather, such as drought, heat and floods.

Kyaw Minn, from Palaung village, said, “I will not grow monsoon paddy this year, but will cultivate other seasonal crops when the water level drops after the rainy season.”

Farmers in the delta generally grow two rice crops, one in the rainy season and one in the cooler season in lower-lying areas that are fed with receding flood waters. They might also grow a third, short-cycle crop, such as beans, in the hot months before the monsoon.

Thein Aung, chairman of the Independent Farmers League in Ayeyawady Region, said that because of rising concerns among farmers vast areas of land will go uncultivated this year.

“The farmers from our villages will not be growing paddy in a total of 200,000 acres situated on the low lands,” he said, before adding that the impact on overall paddy production would probably be limited as these fields are some of the least-productive tracts.

The Ayeyarwady Delta is home to many millions of subsistence farmers whose income and food security relies on their annual harvest, and to a lesser extent fishing. 

The drop in rice production follows the devastating impact of Cyclone Komen, which ravaged the farm sector with heavy flooding in 12 out of 14 states and regions from June to August last year.

Some 260,000 acres of monsoon paddy fields were flooded and 52,000 acres damaged, according to official figures, which showed that the cyclone killed 120 people and affected more than 400,000 households.

Sein Win Hlaing, chairman of the Paddy and Rice Producers Association, said, “Rice production declined by 20 percent last year due to the weather’s impact.” He added that the fall in rice production would hamper Myanmar’s export, which stood at around 1.5 million metric tons of rice before 2015. 

Cyclones and other extreme weather are set to increase further and this trend should ring alarm bells with the agriculture sector and the new National League for Democracy government, said Tun Lwin, an independent meteorological expert and former government official.

“Traditional agricultural methods are no longer suitable for the changing weather conditions,” he warned, adding that the monsoon would be shorter and produce more volatile weather.

Ba Hein, the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock, Natural Resources for Ayeyawady Region, said development of the agriculture sector and of the water management infrastructure was ignored by previous, military-led governments.

“The delta has many rivers and streams, and these have not been properly managed,” he said, adding, however, that the state government had limited funds to improve water management infrastructure and that it was unlikely that the central government would provide more resources soon.

His administration, Ba Hein said, would focus on helping farmers find solutions to the changing weather conditions and boost overall agricultural development by, for example, launching new contract farming systems in cooperation with the Myanmar Rice Producers Association.

Thike Soe, an officer of the Agricultural Department in Maubin Township, said his department was trying to educate farmers about the changing weather patterns and the need to use different rice varieties in order to adapt to the changes.

“There will be a shortage of water supply for cultivation and crop yields may decline. So, they should grow rice seeds that can be harvested in a shorter period,” he said, adding that such varieties were available to farmers on local markets.

Soe Tun, chairman of the Myanmar Rice Association, echoed this idea but stressed water management should be improved in order to harness available water resources in times of drought. 

“Myanmar has some alternative sources of water supply, including four major rivers. If the water from these rivers can be used efficiently, the country’s agricultural sector is sure to resurge,” he said.

Courtesy of Myanmar Now

During a power blackout on a hot night in May, Thidar Han heard a baby crying at around 9 pm in back lane of Yangon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, where she works as a ward administrator.

Thidar Han ventured into the dark alley and saw no one, but the crying continued. As she moved closer she was shocked to find an abandoned newborn, lying face down and with its umbilical cord still attached, in a plastic bag. 

“The baby was fortunately alive and without breathing problems,” she said, adding that shocked by-standers gathered around and a lactating mother among them breast-fed the poor newborn. The baby, weighing 4 pound and 12 ounces, was brought to Yangon Central Women’s Hospital just in time and survived after receiving intensive medical care.

According to officers at the Yangon Police Headquarters, it was the second baby to be abandoned by its mother in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in May. The other sadly died while it was being treated in hospital.

Records kept at the headquarters show the recorded cases of abandoned newborns nationwide. Though these are likely to be far from complete, they indicate a rise from 6 cases in Myanmar in 2011, to 4 in 2012, 9 in 2013, 12 in 2014, and 20 cases in 2015.

“Only unsolved child abandonment cases are reported to the police. So there might be other, unrecorded cases,” said an officer who asked not be named. Most cases occurred in Shan State and in Yangon, Mandalay and Magwe regions.

Some cases involved newborns who were left at back streets or at door steps, while most often new mothers left their babies behind in hospital after giving birth. Yankin Children’s Hospital recorded 5 such cases in 2015, 4 in 2014 and 2 cases in 2013, according to police records.

Desperate single mothers

Ma Htar, director of Akhaya Women, a women’s rights NGO in Yangon, said the tragic cases probably involved desperate women who had an unplanned pregnancy and felt they could not care for their babies due to poverty or because the father had abandoned them.

She said being a single, unmarried mother carries great stigma in Myanmar’s conservative society, while there are few services, either government or NGO, available that support such mothers.

“Single women are blamed for their fatherless child,” said Ma Htar, adding that services to help them “will emerge when Myanmar people have more knowledge about human rights.”

Ma Htar said old laws that punish abortion probably also put women in a situation of continuing an unwanted pregnancy, adding that politicians should reflect on the impacts of these laws.

Illegal abortion

Under the Penal Code, abortion can lead to 10 years imprisonment, though court cases are rare and usually result in a two- or three-year sentence. Due to such penalties, Myanmar has no official abortion clinics, forcing women wanting the procedure to do so through secret, unregulated medical practices.

Abandonment of a child younger than 12 year is also punishable and carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

Nyein Nyein, 45, a widow and mother of four from Yangon’s Latha Township, said raising children was hard for poor women in Myanmar. She believes better contraception and legal options for choosing an abortion should be made available to women and girls.

“Abortion should be allowed systematically, as it is now being carried out illegally,” she said.

Under Myanmar’s civil law, a women who bore a child from a man who abandoned her can file a complaint to demand financial support.

A police officer in Panzundaung Township, who declined to be named, said such cases were rare. “Women do not file lawsuits against their irresponsible partners as they feel ashamed for the pregnancy. But actually, these men must be ashamed for their lack of care,” he said.

Kyee Myint, a Yangon-based lawyer who works on child rights cases, said more government funding should be made available to support vulnerable children and single mothers.

Government measures

The phenomenon of abandoning babies, either to be found or left to die, is sometimes called ‘baby dumping’, and occurs in many countries. It often involves unprepared young women, teenage pregnancy, and children born out of wedlock.

In Southeast Asia, the issue has reportedly become increasingly common in Malaysia in recent years, with 517 babies found abandoned between 2005 and 2011, often for reason of stigmatisation associated with having illegitimate children born outside of marriage.

In some Western countries, authorities have installed so-called ‘baby box’ or ‘baby hatch’, where a baby can be anonymously abandoned while ensuring that the child will be cared for.

Phyu Phyu Thin, a National League for Democracy Lower House lawmaker from Yangon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, said sex education and family planning programs would help address the issue of unwanted pregnancy in Myanmar, adding that such measures should precede discussions on legalisation of abortion.

“The main cause of this problem is that young people don’t have sufficient knowledge about sex. Since they don’t understand it, they have to cope with unwanted pregnancies. That’s why we have cases of abortions and newborn babies abandoned on the roads,” she said. “I think sex education and family planning would help decrease these cases.”

Aung Kyaw Moe, director of the Department for Child Care at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said poverty and the lack services for single mothers should be addressed, adding, “Educative programmes on reproduction should be conducted for young people to reduce abortion and child abandonment.”

Aung Kyaw Moe added that abandoned babies would be cared for at state orphanages.

According to the ministry’s website, there are five government child care centres for orphans and abandoned children in Yangon, Mandalay, Magwe, Mawlamyine and Kengtung. Children administered here are supported to complete primary school and are then sent to two centres in Yangon, where they can stay until the age of 18 and receive vocational training.

In Yangon, at the Shwe Gone Dine Orphanage Center, Principal Khin Yu Dar Yee said the regional government’s Ministry of Health and Directorate of Social Welfare had put 128 children under her care in the past five years, 45 of whom were later adopted by families.

She said she could not comment on how many children there were abandoned, but stressed that regardless of particular background all are in dire need of care.

“I hope that kind and good parents can adopt them,” she said.