Alongside a team of talented cartographers and GIS specialists from the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific I have recently been working on a large series of maps designed to help illustrate the changing political geography of Myanmar. We hope that in the years ahead these maps will become a useful resource for scholars, students, analysts, journalists and others hoping to come to grips with the 2010 general election, and also with the 2012 by-election. Of course, the planned 2015 general election is when such mapping products, and the databases that drive them, could prove most compelling.
For the moment, and in an effort to begin introducing this project, I recently recorded a short video presentation. In that presentation I begin to talk about some of the key elements of Myanmar’s changing political geography. I have plans to continue this project and to record further episodes in what may become a substantial series of discussions dealing with these issues of political geography. If there are particualr topics you would like to see discussed through these maps then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or get in contact at the usual place. As I am learning, almost anything is possible when it comes to the wizardry of cutting-edge cartographic work.
Nick, you failed to point out that Naypyidaw voters, almost all of whom are civil servants or military, voted NLD in 2012. Significant?
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Thanks him moderator,
I judge it a significant issue. Of the 37 lower house seats the NLD won in April 2012 four are in Naypyidaw (Ottarathiri, Dekkhinathiri, Pobbathiri and Zabuthiri). Those are seats that were won, predictably enough, in the 2010 general election by the USDP. In 2010 the margins were some of the very highest in the land: 80.3 (U Myint Hlaing), 81.1 (U Tin Aung Myint Oo), 82.6 (U Thein Sein) and 92.8 (U Shwe Mann) percent margins of victory respectively. And when the seats changed hands in 2012 the “swings” against the USDP were just as incredible.
In an (as yet unpublished) analysis I write:
As an anecdotal aside, last time I was wandering around Naypyidaw I noticed some of the Aung San Suu Kyi/Aung San paraphernalia that has proliferated elsewhere in the country in recent years. You could buy all of the normal stuff at the Naypyidaw market. My best guess is that Naypyidaw may, once all is said and done, tilt ever further from the old regime. It wouldn’t be the only capital city of my acquaintance where almost irrespective of the national mood there is a tendency to vote in what could be considered progressive directions.
Canberra, of course, goes to the polls this Saturday…
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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Look forward to your predictions for the Australian Capital Territory election Nich. Given your poor predictive performance for the Thai election you have some ground to make up. Readers can see the evidence here and here.
My prediction for ACT – 8 to Labor (one more than at present); 6 to Liberal (same); and 3 to the Greens (one less).
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Great job Nich
A follow up must to Andrew Selth bibilio.
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Over here at The Border Consortium, we’ve recently released our annual survey of displacement and poverty in South East Burma/Myanmar. This year’s report includes 27 maps representing contested areas, economic development projects, displacement and a series of poverty indicators. The full report is available from http://www.tbbc.org/resources/resources.htm#idps and the maps are available as separate files from http://www.tbbc.org/idps/maproom.htm
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