“There’s no future for the youth.” —Tun Myint, Professor of Political Science at Carleton College VOA In Myanmar, youth are forced to confront a deadly choice. The country’s precarious position is under constant threat from rebel groups. Since the 2021 coup that replaced democratically elected leadership with a military junta, Myanmar has teetered on the […]
Tag: Myanmar
A Call for Unity in Southeast Asia
In early March, Taylor Swift began the first of her six-night residency playing her critically acclaimed Eras Tour in Singapore. The city-state was one of only two countries in Asia hosting the popstar on the international leg of her tour, due to a deal struck by the Singaporean government and Swift regarding the Eras Tour. […]
The Devil Wears Fast Fashion: Myanmar’s Clothing Dilemma
While the usual contenders of Paris, London, and Milan persist in the battle for the fashion capital of the world, their chances in the global arena have recently been trumped by the emergence of a new competitor: Myanmar. Much to the world’s surprise, clothing exports have recently dominated Myanmar’s exports this year, reaching a record […]
Is Biden’s Absence Proof of ASEAN’s Fall Into Vestigiality?
On September 5th, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Jakarta, Indonesia, under the guidance of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The Southeast Asian bloc’s 43rd meeting commenced under tense conditions, including Beijing’s release of China’s newly declared territory map and the marked absence of United States President Joe Biden. Of […]
Snail-Paced “Justice” in Myanmar
One year after Myanmar’s Coup, bullet casings line blood-stained pavements, and the sounds of gunfire, explosions and dampened cries of protest fill the air. In an unprecedented period of civil war, violence in Myanmar has escalated, with intensifying conflict between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s armed forces) and its opposition armed civilian groups. The conflict has resulted […]
China Picks Up Where the West Has Failed
Nobody said democracy was easy, but the concept of a liberal democracy championed by the US and democratic European nations has taken a massive blow in the last year with its two biggest projects. Afghanistan and Myanmar are known as major sources of opium, and now also as failed Western experiments to try and bring […]
Resistance Beyond Borders: HK19 Meets Myanmar’s Anti-Coup Movement
The recent Myanmar Coup is hardly unprecedented. Myanmar was governed by a military dictatorship from 1962 to 2011, leaving the country under the iron fist of the Tatmadaw, the Burmese Military. The strength of the Tatmadaw was enshrined by the 2008 Constitution, which guarantees one third of parliamentary seats to the military, reserves leadership of […]
Facebook: Myanmar’s Misinformation Megaphone
UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee, upon reporting about the Rohingya crisis last March, concluded, “Facebook has now turned into a beast.” Indeed it has. In Myanmar, what was once intended as a harmless social networking platform has warped into a powerful vessel for the government to target its citizens with inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda. In […]
Myanmar’s Swiss Cheese Democracy
The atrocities facing Rohingya Muslims, both inside the Rakhine state of Myanmar and those fleeing into Bangladesh as refugees, are well documented by now. And so is the blanket denial of the government, represented by its de facto leader and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. While world leaders are […]
Aung San Suu Kyi and The Politics of Power in Burma
Power, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Aung San Suu Kyi was once the world’s most famous political prisoner. From her first period of house arrest which was due to her establishing the pro-democracy National League for Democracy to her last day of house arrest in November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was under […]