Myanmar's Long Road to National Reconciliation (36 page)

¹²
   Although cooperatives in Western societies are considered part of civil society, in Burma/Myanmar they have been under the control of the state through the Ministry of Cooperatives, and cannot be considered part of civil society.

¹³
   David Steinberg, “A Void in Myanmar: Civil Society in Burma”, in
Strengthening Civil Society in Burma: Possibilities and Dilemmas for International NGOs,
edited by T. Kramer and P. Vervest for Burma Center Netherlands & Transnational Institute (BCN/TNI), (Chiengmai: Silkworm Books, 1999), p. 8. This sentence has been extensively quoted.

¹⁴
   Heidel makes the point that even in the pre-colonial period, elements of “civil society” existed. See Heidel, “A Cubit a Day”, and Steinberg, “A Void in Myanmar”.

¹⁵
   After 1988, the state limited the number of approved Buddhist sects and the curricula of Buddhist higher educational institutions.

¹⁶
   In one of the very early village studies, the author found that villagers had little interest in banding together in civil society organizations except for religious functions, which were important. See Charles S. Brant, “Tadagale: A Burmese Village in 1950”, Data Paper No. 13, Southeast Asia Programme, Cornell University, 1954.

¹⁷
   See, for example, Christina Fink,
Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule
(Bangkok: White Lotus, 2001), pp. 56–58.

¹⁸
   Heidel, “A Cubit a Day”. Of the religious groups surveyed, 43.2 per cent were Buddhist, 43.2 per cent Christian, 6.6 per cent Muslim, and 4.5 per cent Hindu. Although the Ministry of Information listed twenty-six indigenous NGOs, Heidel believes only five qualify in his system.

¹⁹
   See
Directory of Local Non-Governmental Organizations in Myanmar, March 2004
(Yangon, n.d.). This study also lists 205 NGOs nationwide by state and division, but a far larger figure at a township and ward level. The reasons for the discrepancy are unclear.

²⁰
   Zunetta Liddell, “No Room to Move: Legal Constraints on Civil Society in Burma”, in
Strengthening Civil Society in Burma: Possibilities and Dilemmas for International NGOs,
edited by T. Kramer and P. Vervest for Burma Center Netherlands & Transnational Institute (BCN/TNI), (Chiengmai: Silkworm Books, 1999), p. 67.

²¹
   Thirty-three are listed in: Burma UN Service Office (and The Burma Fund),
Humanitarian Assistance to Burma
(New York: March 2003). This is a pro-NLD publication. The number of such organizations is certainly higher. A study dated August 2004 lists forty-four such organizations plus two Red Cross groups. See
Directory of International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) and Red Cross Movement Organizations Working in Myanmar,
compiled by International NGOs (Yangon: August 2004).

²²
   For recommendations to the Japanese government and Japanese NGOs, see David I. Steinberg, “Myanmar’s Minority Conundrum: Issues of Ethnicity and Authority”, paper given to Japan Institute of International Affairs conference, “At the Front Lines of Conflict Prevention in Asia”, held 6–7 July 2001, Tokyo.

²³
   For a study of these external forces, including “computer-mediated communications”, see Sandra Dudley, “‘External’ Aspects of Self-Determination Movements in Burma”, QEH Working Paper No. 94, February 2003.

²⁴
   Some members of the SLORC were in favor of the idea. It was explained that ceasefires with minority groups could only continue if the state provided the goods and services that had been promised. Where funding and capacity were lacking, the international NGOs could help fill the gap, and thus it was in the interests of the government and people to encourage more such activity. However, the government’s fear of foreign involvement and separatism prevailed. Since then, this writer has brought the subject up repeatedly at high government levels, but without success. The list of such “challenges” to international NGOs is long. See Burma UN Service Office,
Humanitarian Assistance to Burma,
p. 17.

²⁵
   One might remember that all the ceasefires with the various minority groups are verbal agreements, and to date none has been agreed in writing, although
the Karen National Union, now in process of negotiating a ceasefire, is reported to want a written agreement.

²⁶
   For one such position, see Zarni and May Oo, “Common Problems, Shared Responsibilities: Citizens’ Quest for National Reconciliation in Burma/Myanmar”, Report by a Citizen Exiles Group, The Free Burma Coalition, October 2004.

²⁷
   In 1979, under the Carter administration, when human rights were supposedly being pursued by the United States government, this writer negotiated the reentry of the USAID programme into Burma. No mention, let alone consideration, of human rights was ever discussed at a substantive level within USAID or with the Burmese authorities.

²⁸
   Ashley South, “Ceasefires and Civil Society: The Case of the Mon”, Unpublished paper, n.d., p. 14.

²⁹
   Muthiah Alagappa,
Political Legitimacy in Southeast Asia: The Moral Basis of Governance
(Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1997).

³⁰
   The fact that the government has not delivered needed goods and services should not be equated with the expectation that the regime will collapse. Furthermore, differential access to state services and benefits keeps a substantial, if minority, portion of the population quiescent even if they are not satisfied.

³¹
   Reported at the FDL-AP Conference on “New NGO Strategy for Democratization of Burma”, held in Seoul, 23–24 June 1999, p. 35.

³²
   Over the last four decades, the various military governments have constantly emphasized the issue of chaos versus stability, claiming that only the military is able to ensure the latter.

³³
   A commission has been proposed by the government in South Korea to investigate collaboration with the Japanese in the colonial period. Some have charged the administration with partisan designs against the opposition, but the first victim turned out to be the chairman of the government’s own political party.

³⁴
   See David I. Steinberg, “Military Rule and the Undermining of Civil Society”, in
Social Cohesion and Conflict Prevention in Asia: Managing Diversity Through Development,
edited by Nat Colletta and others (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001), pp. 269–70.

³⁵
   Personal communication, Yangon, 1989.

³⁶
   Although the government has said it has “written off” the official United States community, the U.S. Track II avenue could still be useful.

³⁷
   South, “Ceasefires and Civil Society: The Case of the Mon”, p. 1.

³⁸
   When Philippine President Cory Aquino complained that her own government could not implement programmes and that NGOs were her favored groups, the wives of many Philippine officials formed their own “NGOs” in order to receive government largesse.

³⁹
   International Crisis Group,
Myanmar: Aid to the Border Areas.

⁴⁰
   Kyaw Yin Hlaing, “Social Capital in Burma”, Draft paper presented at the Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University, October 2004.

⁴¹
   Clifford Geertz, ed.,
Old Societies and New States. The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa
(London: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), p. 136.

⁴²
   For an analysis, see David I. Steinberg, “Burma: The Roots of the Economic Malaise”, in
Myanmar: Beyond Politics to Societal Imperatives,
edited by Robert Taylor, Kyaw Yin Hlaing, and Tin Maung Maung Than (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, 2005).

⁴³
   See Michael Aung-Thwin,
Pagan: The Origins of Modern Burma
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985). There is anecdotal evidence that some of the problems of the administration are, at least in part, caused by the conflicting economic interests of the children of the leadership. Such conflict was widely rumored to be the reason for the supposed “coup” mounted by General Ne Win’s son-in-law and grandchildren.

⁴⁴
   Ironically, as power and authority are personalized in Burma/Myanmar, so too has U.S. policy towards Myanmar become personalized: it is focused on Aung San Suu Kyi, who in effect controls US policies.

⁴⁵
   For example, Burmanet, 1 September 2004; Voice of America and Democratic Voice of Burma.

⁴⁶
   South, “Ceasefires and Civil Society: The Case of the Mon”, p. 20.

⁴⁷
   Christina Fink,
Living Silence,
p. 253.

⁴⁸
   Stress on infrastructure construction seems not only to have resulted in less funds being available for the social sector, but has also produced an increase in the money supply, and perhaps in the use of corvee labor. In some sense the regime has used its construction programme, which it feels is completely and inappropriately ignored abroad, as an important basis for its legitimacy.

Directory of Local Non-Governmental Organizations in Myanmar, March 2004.
Yangon n.d.

Directory of International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) and Red Cross Movement Organizations Working in Myanmar.
Yangon: Compiled by International NGOs. August 2004.

Dudley, Sandra. “‘External’ Aspects of Self-Determination Movements in Burma”. QEH Working Paper #94, February 2003.

FDL-AP Conference on “New NGO Strategy for Democratization of Burma”. Seoul, 23–24 June 1999.

Fink, Christina.
Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule.
Bangkok: White Lotus, 2001.

Heidel, Brian. “A Cubit a Day: Progressing Civil Society in Myanmar”. Draft paper, also PowerPoint presentation. UNICEF, Yangon, April 2004.

International Crisis Group.
Myanmar: The Role of Civil Society.
Asia Report No. 27. Brussels, 6 December 2001.

International Crisis Group.
Myanmar: Aid to the Border Areas.
Asia Report No. 82. Yangon and Brussels, 9 September 2004.

Kramer T. and P. Vervest, eds, for Burma Center Netherlands & Transnational Institute (BCN/TNI).
Strengthening Civil Society in Burma.
Chiangmai: Silkworm Press, 1999.

Burma UN Service Office (and The Burma Fund).
Humanitarian Assistance to Burma.
New York: March 2003.

Kyaw Yin Hlaing. “Civil Society in Authoritarian Burma: Skirting the Regime’s Rules”. In
Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space,
edited by Muthiah Alagappa. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2004.

Kyaw Yin Hlaing, “Social Capital in Burma”. Draft paper presented at the Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University, October 2004.

Position Paper, adopted by the Third Congress of the Members of Parliament Union (MPU)-Burma. 24 March 2004. Washington, DC.

South, Ashley. “Ceasefires and Civil Society: The Case of the Mon”. Draft paper, n.d.

South, Ashley. “Political Transition in Myanmar: A New Model for Democratization”.
Contemporary Southeast Asia,
Vol. 26, Number 2, August 2004. pp. 233–55.

Steinberg, David I.
Burma: The State of Myanmar.
Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001.

Steinberg, David I. “Military Rule and the Undermining of Civil Society”. In
Social Cohesion and Conflict Prevention in Asia. Managing Diversity Through Development
, edited by Nat Colletta and others. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2001.

Steinberg, David I. “Myanmar’s Minority Conundrum: Issues of Ethnicity and Authority”. Paper presented at Japan Institute of International Affairs Conference, “At the Front Lines of Conflict Prevention in Asia”. 6–7 July 2001, Tokyo.