Medical News Today – First Direct Evidence Of Effect Of Malaria On Fetal Growth
Article Date: 13 Feb 2012 – 1:00 PST

A study of almost 3,800 pregnancies has provided the most accurate and direct evidence to date that malaria infection reduces early foetal growth. Low birth weight is the most important risk factor for neonatal mortality in developing countries. The research, carried out on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), highlights the importance of preventing malaria in pregnancy.

According to the World Malaria Report 2011, malaria killed an estimated 655,000 people in 2010. It is caused by parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax that are injected into the bloodstream by infected mosquitoes.

Malaria is one of the most common parasitic infections to affect pregnancy. Previous studies have suggested that infection with both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria during pregnancy reduces birth weight whether or not maternal symptoms are present. However, these studies have been hampered by difficulties in estimating gestational age accurately and diagnosing malaria infection in early pregnancy

Now, in a study published in the open access journal PLoS One, researchers at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, part of the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Programme, have used ultrasound scans to provide the first direct evidence of the effect of malaria on foetal growth in pregnancies.

Antenatal ultrasound, which is essential for dating pregnancy accurately, is becoming more widely available in developing countries. The technology also allows doctors or locally trained workers to measure the diameter of the foetus’s head. For infections that occur in early pregnancy, the researchers believe that the size of the head may be the most appropriate indicator of growth restriction.

The ultrasound scans revealed that the diameter of the average foetus’s head was significantly smaller when malaria infection occurred in the first half of pregnancy when compared to pregnancies unaffected by malaria. On average, at the mid-pregnancy ultrasound scan the foetuses’ heads were 2% smaller when affected by malaria. Even a single infection of treated P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria was associated with reduced foetal head diameter, irrespective of whether the woman had shown symptoms or not.

However, although a single early detected and well-treated malaria episode had an effect on foetal head size at mid-trimester, this was not seen at delivery, suggesting that early treatment with effective drugs may allow for growth to recover later in pregnancy.

“By using antenatal ultrasound screening, we have provided clear evidence that malaria infection affects the growth of a child in the womb, even when the infection is caught early and treated. This can increase the risk of miscarriage and affect the child’s health in later life,” explains Dr Marcus Rijken, first author on the study.

“Strategies to prevent malaria in pregnancy have focused on the second half of pregnancy, when most of the foetal weight gain takes place, but our works suggests that we need to broaden our efforts to focus on the first trimester, too. We need to make sure that pregnant woman are educated about the risks of malaria in pregnancy and where possible in areas of high risk, offer preventative medication from early pregnancy onwards.”

TwoCircles.net – Myanmar foreign trade to grow by 30 percent
Submitted by admin4 on 13 February 2012 – 9:38am
International By IANS,

Yangon : Myanmar’s foreign trade will grow by more than 30 percent to $16.1 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal year, the commerce ministry said. It was $12 billion in the previous fiscal.
Driven by increased natural gas exports, the trade volume hit $14 billion in the first 10 months (April-January) of 2011-12.

Of the total trade volume during the period, export accounted for $7.1 billion and import $7.3 billion. Besides natural gas, marine products, rice, minerals, beans and pulses accounted for the bulk of trade, Mizzima News reported Monday.

The government has exempted commercial tax on a number of export items such as rice, beans and pulses, corn, sesame, rubber, freshwater and saltwater products, animal products and value-added products made of timber, bamboo and rattan.

Myanmar mainly exports agricultural, mineral, forestry and finished goods, while it imports cement, agricultural machinery, motor cars and electronic devices, among others.

Myanmar’s GDP (gross domestic product) is expected to increase by about five percent in 2011-12 financial year and six percent in 2012-13 fiscal, driven by commodity exports and higher investment supported by robust credit growth and improved business confidence.

The Irrawaddy – No Breakthrough in Strike Talks
By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 13, 2012

Workers at the Chinese-owned Tai Yi Slipper factory in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone (3) said that they have yet to reach an agreement with their employers, despite talks on Monday that included senior government labor officials.

Today’s talks, which come a week after workers at the Tai Yi factory went on strike to demand wages deducted for an unofficial holiday to mark the Chinese New Year, were the first since the labor unrest began.

The talks brought together 38 workers’ representatives, the owner of the factory and three senior labor officials, including Chit Sein, the director general of the Department of Labor.

As the three sides met, some 1,800 workers continued their strike outside the factory.

Phoe Phyu, a lawyer who is acting as a consultant for the workers, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that no agreement was reached, and that there were no plans for further negotiations.

The workers have made 17 key demands, including an hourly pay raise from 75 kyat to 150 kyat (US $0.09-$0.18) and an increase in the monthly bonus from 6,000 kyat ($7.50) to 8,000 kyat ($10.00).

The employer has only agreed to pay 85 kyat ($0.11) per hour and 7,000 kyat ($8.75) for bonus pay.

“Those wages are not enough to cover living expenses, so the workers could not accept them,” said Phoe Phyu.

Most of the workers are young women who say they struggle to live on the wages they receive. One said that their peaceful strike would continue until the factory meets their demands.

This is not the first time that workers at the Tai Yi factory have gone on strike to demand higher wages. A strike last year lasted three days.

According to one leading worker, Chit Shein took part in talks on that occasion as well, interceding on behalf of the workers. This time, however, he didn’t do anything, the worker said.

“Last year, U Chit Shein got involved in solving the problem on the first day, but this time he waited a week,” he added.

Meanwhile, workers at the New Way factory who also went on strike last week have reached an agreement with their employer and have gone back to work.

The Irrawaddy – EDITORIAL: Burma’s Trust Deficit
Monday, February 13, 2012

There are few national anniversaries in Burma more significant than the one it commemorated on Sunday. It was on this day 65 years ago that Burmese independence leader Aung San and his Shan, Chin and Kachin counterparts signed the Panglong Agreement, which served as the basis for the creation of a federal Union of Burma.

But Union Day is not just one of Burma’s most important occasions—it is also one of its most bizarre.

After all, a military coup that ended parliamentary rule just 15 years later also effectively nullified this historic agreement. Fifty years after taking power, the military continues to impose its own narrow notions of “unity” on the country’s many ethnic minorities.

However, the fact that Burma still marks Union Day on Feb. 12 is some cause for hope. It shows that Aung San’s vision of a federal union, which he did not live to see, remains the most viable alternative for a country that desperately needs to heal its internal divisions. Half a century of unity at gunpoint, which has left the country weak and vulnerable to exploitation by its far more powerful neighbors, has only served to underline the need to return to sounder principles.

Amid all the talk of “reforms” since last year, countless voices have chimed in about what Burma really needs in order to move forward. Generally, the West has called for free and fair elections and an end to ethnic conflict, while the rest of Asia has stressed the need for economic development through foreign investment.

While these are indeed essential to creating a peaceful and prosperous country, they will have little positive impact if one other key ingredient is missing: trust.

Trust will be the single most important factor in determining whether Burma is ready, at long last, to realize its true potential as a nation. Without it, even the progress that we have seen since last year would have been unthinkable. If opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi hadn’t decided that she could trust President Thein Sein, Burma would still be stuck in the stalemate of the past two decades.

But Burma still suffers from an enormous trust deficit. Beginning with its negation of the Panglong Agreement, and culminating with its refusal to recognize the results of Burma’s 1990 elections, the military has a long record of broken promises. Just last week, it resumed attacks on Shan rebels two months after reaching a ceasefire deal, indicating that it still sees little need to honor agreements.

On the political front, things are, at least so far, somewhat better. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has been able to prepare for upcoming by-elections without facing the sort of harassment it has had to deal with in the past. Moreover, a visiting UN envoy has said that Burma might allow election monitors to observe the polls—a sign that at least some in power recognize the need to win the trust of others, rather than simply demanding it.

While many still feel that the government is merely taking a calculated risk in allowing the NLD to make a comeback, in the expectation that this will lead to a lifting of sanctions, it would be making a serious mistake if it believed that this alone will be enough to save Burma’s economy. Although potential investors are now lining up for a chance to see what the country has on offer, few will stick around when they realize that it lacks any meaningful system of legal protections, as British risk assessment research company Maplecroft highlighted last week.

While Suu Kyi has often correctly stated that Burma needs to restore rule of law if it wants to develop as a nation, she has also noted that this is more than a matter of introducing new laws. Even the most enlightened laws have little value if no one has any confidence that they will be properly enforced and fairly applied.

If Burma’s rulers truly want to end the country’s disastrous isolation, they will have to begin by proving  that they can be taken at their word. This will mean going beyond the current charm offensive and taking measures to rein in elements of the military that still regard themselves as laws unto themselves.

It will also require an acknowledgment of how far the country has strayed from its founding principles,  and a firm commitment to keeping promises made to its ethnic peoples.

Without this, Burma will be hard-pressed to emerge from the past half-century of unmitigated misery.

The Irrawaddy – NDF Feeling Vindicated by NLD About-turn
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN / THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 13, 2012

RANGOON—For Burma’s hard-pressed political parties, small and ramshackle offices are the norm, and for the National Democratic Force (NDF), the narrow four-story house in a Rangoon suburb is no exception.

Party banners hang either side of the new Republic of the Union of Myanmar flag outside the building, a 20-minute taxi journey from the city’s downtown, but otherwise it looks just like the rest of the row of houses lined along the gravel-covered street.

Upstairs, former political prisoner and party leader Khin Maung Swe confers with colleagues about preparations for the upcoming April 1 by-election, when the party will attempt to add to its 16 seats in Burma’s Upper and Lower Houses of parliament.

Those seats were won in a November 2010 national election dismissed by most observers at the time as a farce. This time, as well as challenging the mass-membership army vehicle known as the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the NDF will compete against its mother organization, the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party which won Burma’s last free and fair election in 1990 and whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi has drawn tens of thousands of supporters on recent campaign trips to Pathein and Tavoy.

Khin Maung Swe says that the NDF can win six or seven seats out of the 48 up for grabs in the April 1 vote, hoping for roughly 50 percent return from the 13 candidates that the party will run. “We think we can win in Kachin, in Yangon, in Irrawaddy,” said Khin Maung Swe.

He says that the NLD will not sweep the board in the upcoming elections. “The USDP is giving money to farmers, promising benefits to people,” he said. “I think that even in a free vote they will take some seats.”

Controversially, the NDF split from the NLD prior to the 2010 vote, believing that despite likelihood of a rigged vote, it was better to try to work the system from the inside. “We were completely right. The NLD is now following us,” said Khin Maung Swe. “They are joining the process and running in the elections now.”

Asked if he feels vindicated by the NLD decision, and the recent reforms undertaken by the Burmese government, he said, “The Thein Sein government has to do many things to fulfill the wishes of the people, and we think we can push them better from inside the Parliament.”

One reason given by the NLD for refusing to go along with the 2010 electoral process was the country’s controversial 2008 constitution, railroaded through in a rigged plebiscite shortly after the Irrawaddy delta region was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, a disaster that killed an estimated 140,000 people.

The Constitution gives overwhelming powers to the country’s army, making it difficult to make changes without military consent. Khin Maung Swe says that the NDF and NLD are on the same page on the Constitution. “It is not democratic. It must be revised,” he said, echoing recent remarks by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Like many of Burma’s politicians, Khin Maung Swe did jail time for his political beliefs—16 and a half years in all. But it is the split with the NLD that clearly rankles more than the lost years behind bars. “I was so proud to have been chosen by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to join the CEC [Central Executive Committee] of the NLD,” he recalls, eyes cast downward as he speaks.

“With their decision to run for election, the only difference between the parties now is the logo and the flag,” he said. He confirmed that the NDF has made overtures to the NLD about re-amalgamating their parties.

However, speaking at the party’s HQ in Rangoon on Friday, NLD spokesman Ohn Kyaing told The Irrawaddy that more discussions are needed between his party and the NDF if any rapprochement is to be achieved. “They need to tell us the reasons why they broke away in the first place,” he says.

Ruefully, Khin Maung Swe says that “we have not heard back from them [NLD] about this.” He says he is hopeful, however, that after the April 1 by-election, it could be possible for the two sides to discuss their future together.

“I think you will see more changes here in Myanmar soon,” he says. His party is pushing an anti-monopoly in the country’s parliament, something he says will be vital in reforming Burma’s sclerotic, non-performing economy.

“When the government gets more confidence in the democratic process, we hope this country will be transformed,” he said. “The only way we can revise the constitution is from inside the Parliament.”

Latecomer Burma potential ‘economic power house’
Monday, 13 February 2012 17:01 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – If Burma makes the right investments in education and health, it can become the next “economic power house in the region,” the U.N. assistant secretary-general 2, Ajay Chhibber, told government officials on Monday.

With its strategic locations, natural resources and young work force, it has important advantages, he said.

“Despite this, Burma still sits at the lower rungs of the human development rankings for countries in the region,” he said.

“Burma has historically been a country with a good basic education system. This is illustrated by a high degree of adult literacy at 91 percent according to UN published statistics. Burma’s literacy rate is higher than that of Bangladesh (56%), India (63%), Cambodia (77%), and very close to other ASEAN countries. Despite this, Burma’s education system exhibits relatively low rates of secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratios. For example, at 49% Burma’s secondary school enrolment is much lower than that of Indonesia (76%) or India (76%) and Vietnam (67%). The mean years of schooling in Burma were estimated to be just four years, compared with 9.5 years in Malaysia, 8.9 years in the Philippines and 7.5 years in China.”

He said the situation in the health sector for Burma is similar. “Between 1996 and 2006, the UN published data inform that under-five mortality declined from 83.7 live births to 76.1 per thousand while its infant mortality rate declined from 70.3 to 68.3 per 1000 births. Maternal Mortality also declined significantly from 420 in 1990 to 240 per 100,000 live births in 2008. Despite this progress, Burma lags behind the Asean league table in these health indicators.

“For example, Burma’s life expectancy of 65.2 years is much less than that of 75.2 in Vietnam, 74.1 in Thailand and 73.5 in China,” he said.

Since the 1980s, Asia has been growing around 7.6 percent annually, which helped lift 700 million people out of extreme poverty, he said. Available statistical sources indicate that the Burmese economy has ben growing at a moderate rate of just over 5 percent per annum in recent years, he said. “Poverty incidence has also declined in the past five years or so. Yet, the current level of poverty at 26 percent is high given the potential of the economy. Moreover, there is a huge disparity among geographic regions. Some states/regions are significantly poorer than others, such as the Chin state, with a 73 percent poverty rate.”

Access to education, sanitation, and jobs vary from rural to urban areas and from state to state. “Development experiences have shown that growth will be inclusive when it occurs in sectors where poor are employed most, such as in agriculture in the case of Burma,” he said. “Despite its vast agricultural resource base, the economic growth in Burma is increasingly relying on extractive industries. Extractive industries use capital-intensive technologies that tend to generate fewer jobs for the unskilled without linkages to the rural sector. In a country where almost 70 percent of people live in rural areas, rural development is crucial.’

Burma must develop its agriculture, agro-based industries, light industry and tourism for job creation, he said. Officials should implement
“pro-poor macroeconomic policies together with competitive and stable exchange rates to encourage investment in the tradable labour-intensive sector.”

One of the challenges in Burma is “the distortion in the foreign exchange rate market – huge difference between official and unofficial black market rate,” and development cannot take off without an integrated financial system.

A second major area of reform is in the agricultural sector. “Burma has substantial agricultural potential which has been held back by restrictions and policies,” he said. “The removal of these restrictive policies will immediately bring huge benefits to the country, by increasing its productivity, helping reduce poverty, and by increasing its exports.”

A third area that could benefit from quick reforms is the financial sector. “The new micro finance law is already a step in the right direction but more reform to increase access to finance and reduce the costs of financial intermediation is a vital key to accelerating growth and ensuring that the fruits of growth are spread more widely,” he said.

He said Burma has some advantages by being a latecomer to economic development in the region. Burma has abundant natural resources and it “must now ensure that it does not follow an environmentally destructive development strategy as some of its neighbours have done.” He cited Mongolia as a country that has recently created a Human Development Fund (HD Fund) based on its booming mineral revenue to promote human development.

“Experience shows that, effective and efficient revenue” Transparency, sound long-term development planning, strong anti-corruption laws, high civil society participation, and economic diversification are other common elements of effective management,” he said. Ensuring that the local areas where mining resources are extracted also benefit is vital to avoid conflicts, he said.

He said many first-generation Asian tigers focused exclusively on fast growth but neglected to build the social policies and social protection needed to ensure that their citizens acquire the resilience needed to manage economic and health crisis and natural disasters. “Burma has the resources to invest in increasing its resilience through social protection,” he said.

The agricultural and tourism sectors also offer tremendous economic growth areas, he said. “Burma’s underexploited coastline and its huge potential to increase the value added of its exports are a benefit of a latecomer,” he said.

Mizzima News – Now is time to invest in health, education: Nambiar
Monday, 13 February 2012 15:36 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – The special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general told Burmese officials on Monday that more support for health and education programs is crucial for sustained development in Burma.

During a development conference in Naypyitaw, Vijay Nambiar told government officials and expert panelists that health and education are vital to human fulfillment and dignity.

“They are crucial for fuelling innovation and growth,” he said. “Investing in people is therefore not an option – it is a precondition for any government to deliver on society’s needs and to compete in today’s economy.”

Many countries in the region, including Burma, are facing “a youth bulge,” he said. “If well managed, investing in youth can yield great dividends for building a sound political and economic system… . But if action to meet their needs and aspirations is not taken urgently, prospects for social peace and economic prosperity may suffer.” He said development is not sustainable “unless it is equitable.”

“In Burma, this entails equal access for all peoples in both central and border regions. Investment in development is also the best prevention against social strife,” he said. “Both state and society therefore have a stake in improving living standards as necessary conditions for the country’s unity and progress.”

He noted that during the past year since President Thein Sein’s began a series of reforms that great progress has been made in many areas, but three ingredients are now needed to keep reforms on track: participation by a wide cross-section of the public; partnership with the private sector, civil society and academia; and working with regional and international bodies, including the U.N.

“An engaged society can help the government improve policy-making, reflect the people’s legitimate interests and – as the President has noted – help ‘guarantee fundamental rights of citizens” in the process,” Nambiar said.

Citing various U.N. human development programs, he said, “It is possible to multiply national efforts in a way that would not be achievable without such partnerships. Combining the UN’s convening authority and technical resources with the various strengths of government, business and civil society, can be a formidable force for good.”

Nambiar said this is the moment for Burma “to make use of the U.N.’s unique services – from facilitation and technical assistance to capacity-building and policy advice – in the political, humanitarian and development spheres. Solidarity also depends on resources.”

A tight budget and the current economic crisis is no excuse for inaction, he said, and “Better national budget allocations and coordinated donor support can make a significant difference.”

“The government’s new budget plan to reorient and increase spending to health and education is both necessary and welcome,” he said. “No government can afford to shy away from such responsibilities. The budgetary priorities and allocations made by the government and Parliament will be an early test of Burma’s commitment to reform.”

He urged government officials to implement reforms in health and education “to serve its people better and build the economic conditions for durable peace and stability.”

Mizzima News – Dunkley talks about his arrest, changes in Burma
Monday, 13 February 2012 13:20 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – The Australian publisher of The Myanmar Times, Ross Dunkley, was interviewed last week about the political changes in Burma and his role now on the English-language newspaper.

“I’m back to normal” as editor of the newspaper, Dunkley told the Australian Broadcasting Company in a wide-ranging interview.

Dunkley, who has worked in Burma for 10 years, said he was appealing one minor conviction and an immigration violation.

Rumours circulated widely that the publisher was “set up” by someone in government regarding incidents between him and a Burmese woman.

“Oh, look, there’s many different rumours that float around about that,” he said, “but there can be no doubt that someone was trying to interfere in the process. I think it’s too much of a coincidence to assume otherwise.”

Dunkley told the broadcasting service that he was not a saint and because of his position, he lived his life in a semi-public way “out in the open. So I guess you get warts and all.” Dunkley is the subject of an ABC documentary “Dancing with Dictators.”

“I mean, I knew from a long time ago, well before I was arrested, that there were people out to get me,” he said. “There was no doubt about that. I saw that coming.” He said earlier he had received a letter from a government minister that said he was no longer trustworthy.

He said 47 days in Insein Prison wasn’t too harsh, and because he was well known many people looked after him, but the prison was overcrowded.

“In my cell block there’s – there were nine rooms, each room about 110 people, so that’s more than 1,000 people per block. I think that you’ve probably got no more than, you know, a couple of square metres, enough to lie down with your bedding at night time and otherwise you’re pretty crowded up together in what is fairly hot circumstances.”

A founder of the Myanmar Times, Dunkley was accused of violating the Immigration Act and assaulting a woman. He was arrested on February 10, 2011.

His high-profile case attracted worldwide interest in the media community. Dunkley is also the publisher of the The Phnom Penh Post, and prior to working in Burma worked in journalism in Hanoi.

Originally from Perth, Australia, Dunkley was the first foreigner to enter the Burmese domestic newspaper market in 2000 when he joined forces with Sonny Shwe, the son of a close ally of then military intelligence chief and junta prime minister, Khin Nyunt. Less than a year after Khin Nyunt’s purging from the military junta, Sonny Shwe was arrested and new Burmese co-owners took over his stake in the paper.

Dunkley told ABC that coming to Burma and working under the military junta was “a lot more smoother than I anticipated it to be.” He began working in Burma, he said, without kowtowing to the government, but he had to follow their rules “to get in the playing field.”

“I think you have to be there at the very minimum to be able to institute change,” he told the ABC interviewer.

He strongly defended his newspaper staff, rebutting people who said he had no chance working under Burma’s tight censorship rules prior to publication. They said, “’Oh, you had no chance with them because they had the red pen out at all times.’ Well, maybe sometimes the red pen was put away on occasions when perhaps it should have been out, and I think that that was the ability of our staff to push the envelope forward and to train people about the role of media.

“We’ve always attempted to tell the truth and we’ve always told the story as we see it and the censors cut it. We don’t alter our copy or alter our articles because of the censor. We only write as we see it and then if the red pen comes out, it has to run like that,” he told the interviewer.

Progress may be “only incremental and it’s only a little bit, but every time you do it, you – it’s a small victory for you. That’s not to say that it doesn’t hurt every time someone cuts the red – puts the red pen and crosses out the story. It’s like a knife in your guts. That feeling doesn’t go away.”

He said he never had close ties with government officials.

“I mean, I had no friendships inside the government at all. So, I operated almost completely independently,” he said.

Regarding people who believe that the recent democratic changes in Burma are a well-crafted tactic that will lead to continued control by former generals, Dunkley said the current changes are continued steps in a process that has been underway for a long time.

“The fact is that this is their country, they’ve made a decision to move in this direction, and it wasn’t an instant decision,” he said. “It was – these motions were put in place a long, long time ago. There was a seven-step road to democracy going back six or seven years. This is no surprise.

“It always was going to move that way. It’s just that the suddenness of the change, the rapidity of the change and the breadth of the change is what has surprised a lot of people.”

DVB News – ASEAN chief warns of reform ‘exploitation’
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 13 February 2012

Burma risks being exploited by foreign investors keen to plant an early stake in the country as it transitions away from military rule, the head of the regional ASEAN bloc has warned prior to a visit there next week.

Surin Pitsuwan, who is nearing the end of his tenure as secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, will travel to Burma on 20 February. There he will assess the quality of change in the country, which is due to take the ASEAN chair in 2014.

But in an interview with the Myanmar Times, he said that unless properly managed, a looming rush for Burma’s riches by overseas companies risks bringing “more inequality and more disruption”.

“I’m worried about all these people who are already gathering in Bangkok and Singapore and who are bent on exploiting Myanmar’s [Burma’s] resources and opportunities,” he told the paper.

“We have to ensure that there is a human face to the management of the country’s resources and opportunities. The entrepreneurial spirit must not overshadow the need for schools, hospitals, utilities, clean water and so on.”

Burma has vast natural energy capabilities, including gas and hydropower, but scant legal mechanisms to monitor or avoid any harm to the local environment and communities.

Many focal points for energy investment are in the border regions, which have bountiful hydropower potential but which are home to ethnic minority populations that for long have been denied the profits from these projects. Moreover, thousands have been displaced to make way for large-scale dam developments and to clear routes for oil and gas pipelines.

Kraisak Choonhavan, vice president of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said that competition for these resources would increase as Burma enacts various economic reforms aimed at making it a safer and less controversial investment environment.

He warned however that there is “great concern” for ethnic groups, and huge tasks ahead to prevent Burma from the threat of being “swallowed up by global capitalism”. He pointed to Nigeria as an example of how a wealth of energy can be disastrous for the local population.

“Poverty there is mind boggling. [In Nigeria] you have what we call a weak government, and I don’t want to see Burma become like that. It’s all about whether it [the government] is socially and environmentally conscious – that is how long-term investment will benefit the country.”

Burma’s chairing of ASEAN will come a year before the 2015 target for full economic integration of the bloc, but analysts have expressed concern that allowing in a country whose own economic and governance record has been so tainted by decades of military rule will be an over-ambitious challenge.

Others say however that the prospect of chairing the bloc could spur the reform process, given the humiliation for Burma if by 2014 it still holds hundreds of political prisoners and abuses by the military against civilians continue.

DVB News – Student army latest to join peace talks
By PETER AUNG
Published: 13 February 2012

A group of one-time students who fled to the jungle and took up arms following the 1988 uprising in Burma says it has met with government officials across the border in Thailand for talks that could pave the way for a ceasefire.

Representatives from the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) say they will move on to the next step after negotiations in the Thai town of Mae Sot last week. Myo Win, deputy chairman of the group, said union-level talks would follow in Rangoon, although no date has been set.

“We were able to have a forthright discussion and raised opinions that we both agreed upon – from here, we hope that we will get the chance to find an answer to the issues [obstructing] peace making, the ceasefire and political problems.”

At its peak in the 1990s the group had around 10,000 members, and waged guerrilla warfare against the Burmese army largely from the mountains of Karen state in Burma’s east.

The ABSDF has been linked with the Karen struggle ever since its formation in 1988, when thousands of students fled to the jungle and were sheltered by the Karen National Union.

A split in the early 1990s presaged its decline, but last year the group announced it would again fight alongside the KNU against the government.

But the installation of a quasi-civilian government following elections in 2010 has led to attempts by Naypyidaw to broker peace in the border regions. Both the KNU and the Shan State Army have held ceasefires talks that appeared to net something of a result, although fighting has continued.

DVB News – As confidence grows, the regime’s vice-like grip loosens
By CLIVE PARKER
Published: 13 February 2012

Among the small but growing number of foreign journalists that nervously gathered at the eastern end of Rangoon’s University Avenue Road on 12 November 2010, there were two distinct schools of thought: the first said every one of them would be rounded up, yelled at by a high-ranking police officials backed by plain-clothes spooks and promptly dispatched to the airport to catch the first plane to Bangkok. The second argued the exact opposite – that at this particularly time foreign journalists were, for once, welcome in Burma.

Had the government preferred to expel this couple of dozen foreign journalists during the period of Aung San Suu Kyi’s release it would have done, but it didn’t. So despite efforts by the BBC’s John Simpson to sex up his subsequent interview with Suu Kyi, putting the footage in one car and himself in the other before heading straight to the airport, the truth is there was little or no threat. For the regime, releasing its archenemy was a good news story and it wanted the world to know about it.

A similar process is happening now. Enter the words Burma or Myanmar into Google News and the result is a list of headlines littered with words such as ‘reform’, ‘change’ and ‘democracy’.

Inside the country it is little different. Not so long ago the prospect of The Irrawaddy’s exiled editor Aung Zaw visiting Burma, or a political prisoner staring out from the front page of a news journal, or representatives of the BBC or VOA taking part in a media workshop in Rangoon, would have been unthinkable. Yet all have happened in the past few weeks.

So is this the end of more than half a century of censorship in Burma? That depends on just how comfortable this increasingly confident regime feels and what threats it fears remain. In every single country that implements censorship the reason for doing so is always the same – to prevent the spread of information deemed a threat.

Only when that threat is diminished or ceases to exist do governments ease censorship, such as in England at the end of both the first and second world wars when there was no longer an enemy to take advantage of perceived military secrets. Or in South Korea in 1987 when the new government saw press liberalisation as a means to fend off the threat posed by seemingly endless demonstrations.

In Burma, while the regime apparently feels confident a number of its chief threats have waned, others still remain. This is clearly demonstrated by the government’s current policy on censorship which, far from being rigidly codified in theory, is in practice as fluid as the political tides of the time.

In a video conference organised by the US council on Foreign Relations at the end of November, Suu Kyi picked apart what had become acceptable in new Burma’s rapidly evolving public sphere. In negotiating with the authorities the publication of some of her writings, it was decided the term ‘political prisoners’ at that time was still unacceptable. Could the simple term ‘prisoners’ be used instead, the censors wondered? Suu Kyi replied this was not acceptable because she was referring specifically to people put in prison for their political views. Eventually, the term ‘prisoners of conscience’ was deemed suitable by both sides.

Two months later, after the regime released a wave of political prisoners and journalists, including a number from DVB, their images appeared on the front pages of Burmese journals including The Messenger. For the regime, it was the latest of an ever-growing number of good news stories it wanted people inside and outside the country to know about. Threats to the regime remain, however, and these remain off limits in the Burmese press.

Censors in recent weeks have continued to block any reference to the extent to which the November 2010 elections fell below international standards or criticism of the 2008 constitution. For the Burmese government, these two subjects remain the foundation – however flawed – on which it has managed to annul the results of its landslide election loss in 1990 and reverse this loss with a heavily criticised win of equal proportions 20 years later. The truth that Burma’s path to democracy originates with a process of wholly undemocratic proportions remains the main threat to the legitimacy of the new nominally civilian government.

The other main thorn in the regime’s side is, of course, Suu Kyi but the nature of this threat has altered significantly and can at times be used as an opportunity, especially in the current climate of positivity.

With Suu Kyi’s 1990 election win officially annulled and the process of a stage-managed transition to democracy all but complete, her threat has changed into one which is much more easily contained. Having been married to a foreigner she cannot assume power, according to the new constitution, and so the government is happy for her and the NLD to contest April’s by-election for a fraction of the available seats in parliament. This will surely lead to further praise from the international community and depends on the likes of the US, EU and the UN knowing about it as far and wide as possible, which is where the media comes in.

While the government’s mouthpiece the New Light of Myanmar no longer feels it necessary to run crude propaganda pieces criticising opponents of the regime, it still feels much more comfortable running articles on failed interventions in places like Afghanistan than it does human rights violators under scrutiny. While the crackdown on the Syrian uprising has dominated headlines across the world, not a single mention of the violence there has made it into Burma’s state-run press. Similarly, no mention has been made of China and Russia coming to Syria’s rescue in the UN Security Council, a situation the Burmese regime itself faced almost exactly five years ago.

The much celebrated press law currently under consideration by the government and due for discussion in parliament later this year will surely consider all these threats and opportunities in defining the parameters of what can and cannot appear in Burma’s rapidly reforming public domain. Given the recent confidence demonstrated by President Thein Sein’s government, Burma’s media, public and the international community have every reason to expect something approaching freedom of the press.

Clive Parker is a freelance journalist and has worked as a reporter at The Myanmar Times and The Irrawaddy.