Page 21 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL13

Focus on New MyanmarWith its transition towards civilian rule and rapid growth, the country is making great strides into the future – although the military remains politically strongand ethnic conflicts continueThe country needs a balance between foreign investment and environmental conservation. Local communities have started protesting development projects such as the deep sea port in Dawei and dam projects funded by ChinaMedia reports have compared the political changes in Myanmar – from military rule to a civilian-led government – to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Europeans might disagree but no one can argue that the transformationin Myanmar is not a seminal moment for the region. It offers hope and a counterbalance to growing authoritarianism around the world.Winning an election and running the country are different matters, however. Critics will be assessing whether Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi can lead a country of 55 million people.There are myriad challenges to overcome for Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Buddhist nationalists and anti-Muslims may renew human rights violations, while Suu Kyi is being lambasted in the Western media for the cold shoulder she has given the plight of the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority in Rakhine State. Along the Thai-Myanmar border a ceasefire is easing hostilities, but the border areas are rich in natural resources and it remains to be seen how the central government and ethnic groups will allocate the benefits.The country needs a balance between foreign investment and environmental conservation. Local communities have started protesting development projects such as the deep sea port in Dawei and dam projects funded by China.Various outside perceptions of Myanmar may or may not align with modern realities. In the West, Myanmar has long been perceived as an enigmatic authoritarian Orwellian state needing to be rescued by democracy. For neighbouring countries, Myanmar is an example of political transformation, emerging from economic doldrums as a hot emerging market in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In Thailand Myanmar is perceived as a source of cheap labour for backbreaking work in the fishery and farm sectors.“Myanmar, of course, is not the old Burma. And so far the change in Myanmar is also good for Thailand,” said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS).A veteran journalist and expert on ASEAN, Mr Kavi was speaking at a Q&A session with journalists who have been covering Myanmar for many years, an event held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in late April. Others speakers included Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina bureau chief of the Straits Times, and Gwen Robinson, chief editor at the Nikkei Asian Review and a senior fellow at ISIS.Elite+ 19