aung san suu kyi

If you find yourself locked up in a foreign prison on fake charges, what would you like your government to do? It's a question that rollicked around economist Sean Turnell's brain when the unthinkable became reality.

In November 2021, Myanmar's military junta arrested Turnell — then an economic advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi — and thrust him into solitary confinement. He would be wrongfully imprisoned for another 650 days in one of Yangon's most notorious prisons. This is the story of how Turnell survived that time, and how a global coalition worked to set him free.

Is it time for Aung San Suu Kyi to make way for a new generation of leaders of the democracy movement in Myanmar.

Jeff Hardy, a Global Change Agent and International Healthcare Facility Futurist, is the founder and president of “Care for Peace-International.” His new book, "The Care for Peace Manifesto: A Global Mandate to Secure the Second Human Evolution in Perpetuity,””

Jef identifies some healthcare projects in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Prior to the military junta seizing control, he had coordinated with Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in developing a grassroots set of health facilities from the bottom up to provide health care to large numbers of remote villages. To participate in lending a hand, people worldwide should join with thousands of faith-based groups, NGOs, businesses, educational institutions, etc. to help achieve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, empower women and girls, and combat climate change. Also, Rotary International and the UN World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the CDC have made Herculean strides in eliminating the scourge of polio through the largest international health project: Polioplus.

The former US ambassador to Indonesia and Myanmar joins Reformasi Dispatch to share his views -- compiled from a career devoted almost entirely to diplomacy throughout the Asean region.  Ambassador Marciel's book uses a wealth of personal vignettes to highlight over-arching themes such as democratization, institution-building, and engaging with the region on its merits -- rather than as a foil to China.  Jeff and Kevin ask the ambassador about legal-system institutions, Indonesian democracy, conditions in Myanmar, and the tools available to US diplomats in SE Asia.

Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extras

Xu Qinduo is a political analyst, news columnist and an adjunct professor at Renmin University’s School of Journalism and Communication. He is also a senior fellow at the Pangoal Foundation and host of the talk show “Dialogue Weekend” at China Global Television Network, CGTN. He was previously posted as China Radio International’s chief correspondent in Washington, DC.

• Why the US and the West are always obsessed with changing China (Global Times)
• China and the U.S.: Equality and Beyond (China Today)
• Xu Qinduo on Twitter
• Dan Banik and In Pursuit of Development on Twitter

https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/
 

Host

Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

Apple Google Spotify YouTube

Subscribe: 

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/

The most shocking political development in Asia so far this year is arguably the seizure of power by the military in Myanmar, and the arrest of the country’s former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The military’s crackdown on protests and other resistance against the coup has so far resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

In this episode we discuss the impact of the coup on the South East Asian nation, which is also often known as Burma, and how the current situation may develop in the months ahead.

Joining us to do so we are pleased to welcome back to the podcast Thant Myint-U, one of the best known historians of the country and the author most recently of ‘The Hidden History of Burma’.

As ever - you can find out more on our website, www.asiamatterspod.com

from time to time, we, in the western liberal democracies, mostly with the best of intentions, from our ivory towers, pick sides rather easily when it comes to politics of Global South, without fully understanding the complexities. 

Don’t believe me? Think about the co-operation that took place between former dictator of Pakistan, Musharraf and the west in early to mid 2000s, he wasn’t democratically elected, in fact he had ousted a democratically elected Prime Minister of his country in a coup de tat, and the west pretty much rolled out red carpets to him while he gave himself the title of “President”, think about how current dictator of Egypt, Sisi, who ousted a democratically elected politician, Morsi, now gets to shake hands with world leaders, clearly in both of these instances the liberal democracies chose to do business with dictators at the expense of our core values.

Therefore, in this blog, I am writing about the supposed political activists or leaders from the Global South that the west is currently siding with and why I think siding with these supposed activists or leaders might be a mistake.

Alexei Navalny:

Alexei Navalny, currently being hailed as a hero in the west, rose to prominence in Russia by his supposed expose of corruption in Kremlin. Although he ran for the office of mayor in Moscow, he lost. A lot of people in the west do not know that Navalny has never held a public office in Russia, in fact he started in politics as a member of Russian liberal party, Yabloko, only to be expelled from the party for his “nationalist activities”. 

Aung San Suu Kyi:

Prior to the events of 2017 in Myanmar, where its military according to credible international organisations allegedly committed a genocide, Aung San Suu Kyi was hailed as a hero across the globe, because she supposedly stood for Democracy and was even awarded Nobel Peace Prize amongst many other accolades. However, since August 2017, she has not only failed to denounce the crimes committed against Rohingyas but also defended Myanmar’s military in International Court of Justice. 

Juan Guaido:

According to Sanctionskill.Org “Guaidó showed total unrestraint at the use of thug violence to meet his political goals. Before 2019, the only knowledge that the Venezuelan public had of him, outside of his constituency, was that he was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the violent roadblocks that took the country to the brink of civil war in 2017. Numerous photos showed Guaidó, grinning ear to ear, alongside armed fascists who were responsible for the deaths of over a hundred people.”

ASEAN leaders will meet in Jakarta on April 24 to discuss the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, which has shown no sign of abating since a military coup deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the beginning of February.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets daily to demand a return to democracy - and the military has sought to quell the anti-coup movement with lethal force. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands detained. 

Much hope has been placed in the international community to mediate an end to the turmoil - particularly in the regional stakeholders represented by ASEAN. 

But Myanmar will be represented at the Jakarta summit by the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing - something that's raised a fair few eyebrows and has highlighted the limitations in what ASEAN can be expected to - and is prepared to - do. 

To discuss the issue we are joined by two brilliant guests, who both have extensive experience at the very heart of the region's politics. Bilahari Kausikan is the former Permanent Secretary of Singapore's Foreign Ministry, and now the chair of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. Our other guest, Hoang Thi Ha from the ASEAN Studies Centre of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, has nine years experience at the ASEAN Secretariat itself and also used to work  at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. 

Our host this week is Bill Hayton, Associate Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. 

The coup in Myanmar on February 1 took the world by surprise as the military arrested civilian officials, including Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in November 2020. Many in the international community have condemned the coup, and thousands of protestors have taken to the streets this week.

Sana Jaffrey, a nonresident scholar in Carnegie’s Asia Program, joins Laura to talk about how Myanmar got to this point and how the region and the West are responding.

"Our country was a bird that was just learning to fly. Now the army broke our wings," said one activist. "What was granted by the generals is now being taken back," declared another.

It’s been a dramatic few days in Southeast Asian nation Myanmar - or Burma. The country’s military has seized power again, and arrested several of the country’s civilian leaders, including national figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi. Her party, the National League for Democracy, had won a convincing victory in elections last November.

To those who used to live under Myanmar’s decades-long military dictatorship, it’s a hugely concerning turn of events. Of course, Myanmar’s democratically-elected civilian government, including Ms Suu Kyi herself, has come under intense criticism from overseas in recent years owing to the alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority in the country’s north west.

The situation is obviously quite fluid, but we wanted to bring you analysis of these events and their background, and ask what next for Myanmar's relationship with the outside world following this dramatic move. 

Joining us to do so, we are pleased to have Dr. Champa Patel (@patel_champa), head of the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House; and Tin Htar Swe (@tinhtarswe), the BBC’s former Burmese editor and now an independent analyst based in London.

On this “Special International Edition” of Indonesia In-depth - A wave of optimism flowed over Myanmar in 2010 when the military leadership began the slow process of opening up the country and implementing both economic and democratic reforms. At the same time, the government began new efforts to establish peace with more than a dozen armed ethnic minority groups, which has been one of the world’s longest civil wars. This was followed by historic general elections in 2015 and a new government. International leaders lifted sanctions on the country and competed with each other to meet the defacto leader and face of the democratic movement, Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Now, peace negotiations have stalled, new concerns that the economy may not live up to its full potential and reports of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya have gone unanswered. Suu Kyi has dramatically fallen from grace. What are the major obstacles for the peace negotiations? What might the upcoming election results in 2020 look like? What’s the latest situation with the Rohingya crisis? We discuss these issues and much more with the former Myanmar deputy minister of information and presidential spokesperson, Colonel (ret.) U Ye Htut.

To learn more about U Ye Htut and his insights, check out his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ye-htut-76522a80/ or his Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ye.htut.988 / /

Podcast hosts: Shawn Corrigan & Tanita / Read text version of this episode: www.indonesiaindepth.com  / /Say hi to us! Email   : info@indonesiaindepth.com / /Twitter: @IndoIndepth / LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-corrigan/ /

We are also available on Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Music and other podcast players!

All music licensed. 

Rohingya Muslims are fleeing "textbook ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar. So why hasn't country's leader Aung San Su Kyi spoken up?

Former Burmese Buddhist nun and anthropologist Ingrid Jordt takes us inside the spiritual culture of Burma, exploring the meaning of monks taking to the streets there in September, the way in which religion and military rule are intertwined, and how Buddhism remains a force in and beyond the current crisis. See more at onbeing.org/program/burma-buddhism-and-power/75

A look inside the spiritual culture of Burma, exploring the meaning of monks taking to the streets there in September, the way in which religion and military rule are intertwined, and how Buddhism remains a force in and beyond the current crisis.