New Mandala

The capital’s labour force is still busy constructing the capital’s future – an impressive parliament complex and a presidential house are emerging in anticipation of the 2010 general elections. The total cost of building Naypyidaw remains a mystery, although a local businessman points out that about $2 million has been spent for each high-ranking official’s [...]

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Right at the end of the recent TIME cover-story about Than Shwe I was surprised to learn that “[o]ne man controls everything that happens in Burma.”
While I appreciate the intent of this jab — and recognise the significance of TIME’s biographical article — it strikes me as a big, almost impossible, thesis.  Certainly, Than Shwe [...]

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According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, a big Australian fashion company that owns iconic brands including Millers and Katies has stopped sourcing products from Burma in response to Australian Council of Trade Unions/Burma Campaign Australia pressure.  The relevant press release is available here.  Trumpeting this success, Burma Campaign Australia spokesperson, Zetty Brake, argued that, “Corporate Australia [...]

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On Saturday I had an article in The Canberra Times that surveys Burma policy and the ongoing sanctions debate.  A slightly revised version of the article is available here at Inside Story.  One of the key sections argues that:
On the one hand any such change in United States policy will be greeted as a victory [...]

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Should war resume in parts of Burma’s borderlands, the country will simply return to its pre-1989 situation, and the challenges of national reconciliation and local sustainable development will begin again.
- Extracted from David Scott Mathieson, “Peace in name only”, The Irrawaddy, October 2009.

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Adding their voices to the current debate about sanctions against the Burmese government, Alison Vicary and Sean Turnell have used an opinion piece in The Age to argue that “[l]ifting economic sanctions now would not only embolden Burma’s present reform-shy regime, but also greatly deleverage the ability of the US, Australia and like-minded countries to [...]

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New Mandala readers will be interested in the following announcement for the 2nd Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network.  The first of these conferences was held in 2008 in Guwahati, northeast India.  It was a very worthwhile conference and I imagine that the Chiang Mai iteration will be similarly good.
The details are:
Asian Borderlands: Enclosure, Interaction and Transformation [...]

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At The Sydney Morning Herald Mic Looby, who co-authored the 2001 Lonely Planet guide to Burma, has weighed into the ongoing debate about Burma sanctions.  It is well worth reading in full.  One of the key paragraphs launches a broad attack:
If a handful of Australian-based companies are guilty of indirectly supporting an oppressive military regime, [...]

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Further information about this event is available here.

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In terms of engagement, we intend to begin a direct dialogue with Burmese authorities to lay out a path towards better relations. The dialogue will include specific discussion of democracy and human rights inside Burma, cooperation on international security issues such as nonproliferation and compliance with 1874 and 1718, and areas that could be of [...]

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