New Mandala

New Mandala readers looking to catch up on post-cyclone coverage over the weekend will find this post from Rule of Lords has a great deal of important detail on the theft of aid supplies.  For his analysis, Awzar Thi delves into some of the Burmese language reporting on the relief effort.  It is certainly worth a read.  And the final flourish, in particular, deserves to get as big an audience as possible.

The Burma director of Save the Children, a chap by the name of Andrew Kirkwood, has produced a short blog post each day since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma.  They are being carried by the BBC website and, of course, on savethechildren.org.  Anyone who is even slightly interested in the progress of the relief effort will, I’m sure, appreciate the time that he is putting into his posts and, of course, the rest of his work.  His insights from Yangon offer us a glimpse of the exertions required to get aid out into the delta where it is needed most.

For a flavour of his take on the situation, in his post from 14 May he writes:

Another not-often-reported aspect of this crisis is the impact the cyclone will have on people’s longer-term livelihoods. This is the time of the year when people should be preparing the land for the monsoon paddy crop. For nearly two million people, this hasn’t been possible. So, without a monsoon paddy crop, there won’t be a harvest in October/November.

And this is in an area where at least a third of children were chronically malnourished before the cyclone. Yet another indicator that this is going to be a massive relief effort, which is going to go on for quite a long time.

New Mandala readers keen to learn how The Irrawaddy is getting news out of the cyclone hit delta will find a recent exchange between one of their editors and a field correspondent particularly illuminating.  At the end they note that the correspondent has now fallen ill.  I wish this brave reporter a speedy and full recovery.

Further to my recent post about academic commentary on the current situation in Burma, I came across an article in The San Francisco Chronicle that quotes two scholars who have interesting things to say about the religious dimension: Ingrid Jordt and Bruce Matthews.  Anyone intrigued by some of the karmic implications of aid and disaster in Burma today will find this article is worth a look.

Over at the excellent Rule of Lords, Awzar Thi has announced that the various websites in the stable of Myanmar’s disinformation team are coming back up online.  Since 2 May, when the cyclone hit, they were stuck in time: the anti-CNN, the anti-news.  While they are not, by any stretch, yet back to their “fully functioning” ways, whoever is in-charge of myanmar.com has helpfully uploaded some important material.

One particular upload caught my attention.  It is The New Light of Myanmar from 11 May 2008 - just a week after the unprecedented devastation of a large part of Burma. 

So…what is on the front page of the paper?  What else could it be?  The dictator, and his wife, casting their votes in the constitutional referendum that he didn’t see fit to postpone.  In the face of such a momentous national tragedy it was an astonishing decision by Than Shwe.  And here it is on the front page of the paper, for all the world to see.

And, on 11 May, it is not until page 4 that we see any mention of Cyclone Nargis.  And then all we get are a few pictures of planes loaded with aid and, of course, the “tatmadawmen” clearing roads.  As the ever-astute Awzar Thi says, “lies online, again”.

Update 15 May 2008: After trawling through the rest of the material available on myanmar.com, to my eye the first post-cyclone coverage by The New Light of Myanmar (on 8 May) deserves a wider audience.  It is available here.  It may take some time to download, and then it may take some effort to get through all of the references to “inspections”, “supervisions” and “tatmadawmen”.

New Mandala readers in Canberra will want to know about this upcoming session.

The Department of Political and Social Change presents

BURMA/MYANMAR: THE IMPACT OF CYCLONE NARGIS

11:30-1:00 pm, Friday 16 May

Coombs Extension Seminar Room 1.04

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,

The Australian National University

The 2-3 May cyclone that struck Burma/Myanmar has been described as causing death and ruin on a scale exceeding that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. However, the military government has so far greatly restricted access to international humanitarian relief, including that offered under United Nations auspices, raising fears that a second wave of death could follow through water borne diseases and further bad weather in coming weeks. Compounding these problems, the government has persisted with holding a referendum on a new constitution, and regime representatives are reported to be appropriating some of the aid that has been delivered. Behind all these issues loom concerns over the possible effects of the cyclone on the large agricultural and fishing sectors operating from the affected regions and thus on the entire country’s economy and people.

The Department of Political and Social Change has invited a number of concerned persons to share their views on the current situation and examine what more can be done to respond to Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath.

Please be informed that this event is not open to the media.

Speakers:

Monique Skidmore, Associate Dean Postgraduate, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU

Trevor Wilson, Visiting Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU, former Australian Ambassador to Myanmar (2000-2003)

Sarah Gowty, CARE Australia

James Holgate, former Manager Direct Assistance Program, Australian Embassy, Yangon (2003-05)

Nicholas Cheesman, PhD Candidate, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU

Chair: Greg Fealy, Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU

I am not in Burma and am not an aid worker. For that reason I am ready to be convinced that there are logistical reasons why dump-and-run operations from ships offshore are impractical, even if Rangoon airport remains closed. I am less persuaded by the Pentagon’s reluctance to extend possibly hostile activities this far into south-east Asia, or by some aid agencies who value their relations with odious regimes too much to welcome unauthorised drops.

- Extracted from Simon Jenkins, “As Burma dies, our macho invaders sit on their hands”, The Guardian, 14 May 2008.  Thanks to long-time New Mandala reader Matt for pointing out this piece from Britain’s major center-left daily.

From the Thailand-Laos-Cambodia mailing list I learned of the Asian Human Rights Commission statement regarding legal action being taken against Fa Diew Kan and Prachatai.  Among Thailand-related websites, these two are some of the few that often carry material that is also debated here on New Mandala.  For that reason, among many others, it makes sense to offer our humble support as they face the challenges of running their websites over the coming weeks and months. 

The AHRC statement notes that:

According to news reports, on April 28, the owners of two Thai websites, Fah Diew Kan and Prachatai were charged under Article 116(2) of the Thai Criminal Code in Khon Kaen province for publishing discussions on their website forums regarding Chotisak Oonsoong who refused to stand whilst the Royal Anthem was being played at a cinema. According to the reports, the complaint alleges that most of the comments on the websites supported Chotisak’s act and showed a desire to abolish the monarchy.

Any readers with more information on the current status of the action against the websites, or just keen to continue previous discussions of Chotisak and his predicament, can feel free to weigh in here.

Update 15 May 2008: Bangkok Pundit reports that both the Fa Deow Gan and the Prachatai websites are blocked in some parts of Thailand. The Pundit’s discussion is available here. Apparently the error message received by some readers of Prachatai looked like this.  Are these websites that dangerous?  Readers with more information can, of course, post it on NM.

During last year’s uprising against the military dictatorship in Burma I put together a summary of academic opinion.  It has continued to serve as a useful resource for readers looking to find out what the world’s scholars made of that all-too-brief period when the world watched Burma and waited for change.  The current crisis - which I have no doubt is far from over - has again generated much commentary from academics. 

Here I have selected some of the statements made during the past few days.  As the humanitarian response to the cyclone continues I expect that experts, of all sorts, will have much more to say.

• The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything…If they can’t handle the situation and they let Westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military…They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives.

- Sean Turnell, Macquarie University quoted in “Observers say Myanmar has history of xenophobia”, Associated Press, 9 May 2008. 

• Hell, us nosy, arrogant Americans will ask questions, and maybe lecture them.  Other American instincts are optimism, a we-can-do-anything spirit and good will in times of disaster, but this time Myanmar’s leaders are determined to turn help away in order to keep their oppression a state secret. While driving to work, I was stung by the BBC report in which Myanmar warned that international air drops of food and health supplies would be interpreted as “incendiary acts.” Fine. A lot of Americans are feeling less charitable anyway because of $4 per gallon gas here and a chippy democratic election. Anyway, most citizens probably didn’t know there was country that was renamed and now sounds like marshmallow-chocolate treat. Tragically, nothing sweet is going on.

- Wayne Dawkins, Hampton University writing in “The Bitter Taste of Mass Death”, Politics in Color, 11 May 2008.

• The military regime really worries only about keeping the support of the army. It doesn’t care about the people, as can be seen in its failure to respond to the cyclone…

- Win Min, independent academic in Chiang Mai quoted in Emma-Kate Symons, “The deluge to come”, The Australian, 14 May 2008.

• Aid and support must flow freely, massively, competently and quickly, regardless of social class, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of whether or not it was invited. Will disasters continue to strike and affect us? Definitely. Will logistics, planning, response and communication again prove not adequate enough? Possibly. Lessons will continue to be drawn from our mistakes as well as from our successes. Those lessons need to inform future preparedness and response and will have to be offered to and, if necessary, pushed upon those in immediate need. Systems may fail. However, humanity cannot.

- Andrea Allen, Barry University writing in “Valuable lessons should be learned from natural disasters like Myanmar”, The Sun-Sentinel,  12 May 2008.

• They believe that the countries of the outside world are eager to defeat them and take over their country

- Josef Silverstein, Rutgers University quoted in Marcus Gee, “Myanmar’s generals are ruled by paranoia”, The Globe and Mail, 13 May 2008.

• That said, if intervention does not take place, we should be honest with ourselves and ditch any pretence that the “responsibility to protect” and the “liberal humanitarian project” mean anything beyond generating warm and fuzzy sensations for Western academics. We should be urging governments to consider the long-term moral implications of not intervening in Burma to prevent the certain deaths of tens of thousands of children and adults from the fury of nature and the epic callousness of their own Government.

- Andrew O’Neil, Flinders University writing in “Kosovo aid the model”, The Australian, 14 May 2008.

• The government’s very bad; they’re dictators…The food and supplies will get to the people, but the whole amount will not be given to them. They (survivors) have no choice…Even if the villagers think it’s wrong, they don’t dare utter anything because they’d be in trouble…If anyone went against them (the government), they’d arrest them, torture them and keep them in prison.

- Angelene Naw, Judson University quoted in Erin Calandriello, “Judson U. prof from Myanmar seeks storm aid”, The Courier News, 13 May 2008.

• And the fourth one, probably the most important one, is the military regimes inside — within the military regime, there is a humane leaders — there are humane leaders within the regime, and there are the people who disagree with the top generals, but they are living in their lifeline. So I think this…

- Tun Myint, Carleton College interviewed on NewsHour’s “Myanmar’s Rulers Hold Tight to Power Amid Cyclone Crisis”, 12 May 2008.

Other interesting comments by academics include:

• Monique Skidmore (Australian National University)
• David Steinberg (Georgetown University)

The list of experts available for comment from the University of Michigan also makes for interesting reading.  Over the coming days, and if there is demand, I am happy to update this consolidated document for those who find it useful.  It has been assembled in something of a hurry and as a result any omissions or apparent biases are, I assure you, quite unintentional.

In her book Behind the Teak Curtain, Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung suggests that farmers in Myanmar often assign the causes of their suffering to local authorities rather than those higher up. Asked who is responsible for their problems, many are inclined to blame the nearby administrators who meddle in the details of their lives, whose excesses are known and measurable, rather than those far away. This tendency to attribute blame to lower rather than higher agents and agencies, Thawnghmung proposes, may be one of the reasons that the military has been able to stay in power for so long, keeping superficial distance between itself and the messy business of petty bureaucracy.

If she’s right, then the generals are in big trouble. They now have a mess, largely of their own making, that doesn’t leave any room for distance. They’ve denied and played down natural disasters in the past and even arrested people who have taken photographs or video of flood and fire affected areas. But those events were nothing compared with what has happened during the past week and a half. In fact nothing was anything when compared with what has happened this time around. There’s no denying Cyclone Nargis, its sheer size and brutal consequences. There’s no turning up to say, if only we at the top had known sooner, then we could have done something about it. They were in on it from the start.

Very few among the millions in Yangon, already embittered by last September, will be convinced by the propaganda images of armed forces’ largesse in the aftermath of the storm. They need not go anywhere to distinguish fantasy from reality. The city remains virtually at a standstill, without water and electricity in most parts; prices are skyrocketing, relief goods are allegedly being sold in shops and markets. On the outskirts, private citizens and welfare groups trying to assist affected people are being harried and threatened. Homeless survivors have been forced out of schools and other public buildings and told to go back to houses that they no longer have. But few in the delta will have seen the propaganda at all, let alone given it any thought. The lives of hundreds of thousands there that have not been lost, yet, have been shattered. The true extent of what has been wrought upon them has not yet been fathomed, the efforts to bring aid into the region continuously restricted, sometimes obstructed.

And people in the rest of the country are not, contrary to the misunderstanding of some writers abroad, ignorant of happenings elsewhere in its borders. Keeping up with news by word of mouth, spreading stories and rumors, is a part of daily life in Myanmar. The government may have a monopoly on the official version of events but it does not have one on how things are interpreted and communicated from person to person and place to place. Many are trying to contact family and friends in the affected areas and learn more about what is really going on. Others are getting news from relatives working abroad who have uninhibited access to the Internet and television. Monasteries and welfare groups as far away as Mandalay have been collecting money, clothes and food for victims, which some intend to take to the recipients in person. And townsfolk and villagers here and there are tuning in to short wave radio news broadcasts from the BBC, VOA and RFA, and recounting what they’ve heard for the benefit of their neighbors.

So is the military government finally done for? Has it mishandled the cyclone so badly, going ahead with its constitutional referendum rather than concentrating on relief efforts, playing games with international agencies and even appropriating what has been sent, that it is finally at the beginning of the end? [Read more →]