Case Of Myanmar Research Articles

시장개방 도입기 부패 영향요인 연구 - 미얀마 기업을 대상으로-

시장개방 도입기 부패 영향요인 연구 - 미얀마 기업을 대상으로-

Federalism and Gender Equality

Despite the enormous literature on federalism in constitutional design, and the growing attention to gender equality in constitutional design, there has been remarkably little attention paid to the interaction between the two. This article seeks to provide a summary of the existing literature on this intersection, to apply the insights of that literature to the case of Myanmar, and to offer a contribution concerning the theoretical connections between federalism and gender equality. The analysis generates four primary conclusions. First, federalism is inherently neither good nor bad for gender equality: it all depends on the details of the federal system and the context in which they are applied. Second, there are, nonetheless, some guidelines that can be gleaned from the experiences of countries around the world about the design elements that can make federalism more or less useful for promoting gender equality under different conditions. Third, applying these elements in the case of Myanmar suggests that women's organisations might make common cause with the ethnic minority groups that are negotiating with the government and the army over federalism issues because the women share with these groups certain goals with respect to federal systems. And fourth, there is a connection between gender and federalism, not at the pragmatic or design level, but at the theoretical level. This connection concerns the type of (ideal) orientation that is required of citizens in a federal system and the ways in which that orientation might be valuable for gender equality. It is, then, the character of federal citizens, rather than the federal system itself, that could be inherently beneficial to gender equality.

Building Governance from Scratch: Myanmar and the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative

ABSTRACTThe Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative is a set of transnational rules that aims at improving governance in the oil, gas and mining sector. Several resource rich countries have joined the initiative since its inception in 2002. The question is why and with what effect? The article explores the case of Myanmar and argues that both state and non-state actors use the transnational regulations of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative framework for their own ends. While the government attempts to attract broader foreign investment and increased foreign aid, civil society tries to address the human rights situation in the country. While this ultimately leads to conflict and confrontation in a society shaken by a long period of authoritarianism and civil wars, there is potential for the Myanmar Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative to provide an opportunity to improve state–society relations and build inclusive governance structures with an improved human rights record. However, the challenges are massive given the weakness of the state, ongoing armed conflict in ethnic minority areas and low trust between political actors.

Retraction: Understanding Islamophobia in Asia: The Cases of Myanmar and Malaysia

In June 2013, Alvin Tan, a prominent Malaysian blogger, posted on Facebook a picture of his girlfriend and himself eating bak kut teh (pork) with the caption “Selamat Berbuka Puasa” (Happy Breaking Fast). The duo had described the dish as “wangi, enak, menyelerakan” (fragrant, delicious, appetizing) and also included a “Halal” logo. During the same month, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar faced one of the community's worst persecution acts, with several hundred people murdered by Buddhist religious zealots inspired by extremist Buddhist monks. These are but some examples of Islamophobia in Asia. Buddhist nationalist groups such as the Bodu Bala Sena in Sri Lanka and the 969 Movement in Myanmar have encouraged the anti-Muslim violence. In India, the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement has seen the forced conversion of Muslims and increased incidences of violence against Muslims. Despite this endemic rise of Islamophobia, there has been little academic research conducted on Islamophobia in Asian countries. This is contrasted by the trends of Islamophobia as a phenomenon being well-documented in the West. The rise in terror attacks within Europe, the refugee crisis on the same continent, and the strengthening of the right-wing nationalist parties has resulted in the rise of Islamophobia in Europe and North America. This article seeks to better understand Islamophobia in the Asian context through the case studies of Myanmar and Malaysia. It argues that Islamophobia in these countries is largely the result of domestic socio-economic and political issues, rather than the international narrative against Islam and Muslims. There are three parts to this article: first, the discourse against Islam in both countries will be examined. Second, the factors that caused the rise of Islamophobia in both Myanmar and Malaysia will be looked at. Historical ethnic tensions, economic gaps between different communities, state-initiated religious persecution and the rise of right-wing religious organizations will be discussed in this regard. This section will postulate the view that Islamophobia can occur within countries such as Malaysia, especially when the minority groups are dominant in the economic sphere. The article will conclude by analyzing whether the manifestation and raison d'être of Islamophobia in Asia is different from the West. The outcome of the inquiry will provide useful analytical tools in studying Islamophobia within the Asian context.

Challenges in the post-justice-seeking regime: the cases of Myanmar and Sri Lanka

This paper aims to shed light on the by-products of ‘justice seeking’ and challenges faced by the justice seekers in the post-justice-seeking regimes. Justice seeking might be desirable when it brings institutional changes that lessen the degree of unfair treatment. However, justice seeking, regardless of how it is sought through, might not always lead to institutions that ensure better distributive justice compared to the status quo due mainly to contestants’ failure of omission. Two justice-seeking episodes are illustrated to examine this hypothesis. Myanmar’s transition to democracy, considered as justice by the pro-democratic parties, was sought for a long time and finally achieved in 2015 through a peaceful parliamentary election. In contrast, the government of Sri Lanka, and the mass population as well, wanted justice against the insurgencies caused by the LTTE which finally achieved through armed confrontations. The case of Sri Lanka tells us that justice-seeking activities occasionally lead to such outcome as weakening of organizational ability to self-control or govern the organization that the justice seekers belong to. Likewise, Myanmar may possibly fall into the same dilemma of causing the slow pace of change associated with the general frustration in the people who want to feel tangible results immediately.

The politics of counting and reporting conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: the case of Myanmar

ABSTRACTScholars, states and international organizations have begun to systematically count, document and compare sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict-affected countries. Qualitative and quantitative studies point to a “tip of the iceberg” phenomenon, where there is a high prevalence but low level of actual reporting of SGBV. We investigate the conditions in which SGBV is reported or, more significantly, is not reported to discover the trends of reporting in politically oppressive environments where SGBV is thought to be occurring. We ask how the power to report in local conflict-affected areas is affected by national political tensions and pervasive gender discrimination. Reporting of SGBV in Myanmar, a country that has experienced multiple, protracted conflicts since independence, is examined. Analysis of open-access reports over a fifteen-year period reveals a pattern of silence that we argue is rooted in pervasive discriminatory civil and physical practices against women. Engaging with the deeply politicized and gender discriminatory context of conflict-affected societies enables us to see the anomalies of SGBV data and to highlight significant gaps in our knowledge about SGBV.

The ASEAN Human Rights System: A Critical Analysis

AbstractThis article offers a critical analysis of the human rights system established by ASEAN. It first investigates concrete evidence of the system’s ineffectiveness by comparing the cases of Myanmar and Thailand, which illustrate ASEAN’s failure to address human rights violations both before and after the creation of the ASEAN system. It then examines the substantive and procedural limitations of the ASEAN human rights instruments and mechanisms. Specifically, while restrictions on rights and freedoms contained in the instruments undermine the universality of human rights, ASEAN’s mechanisms lack independence and offer only weak protection mandates to address rights violations. In addition, the absence of a judicial body to hear complaints and issue binding remedies makes the system incomplete. The article recommends the creation of an ASEAN court of human rights and suggests changes to the existing instruments and mechanisms that might accommodate the new court.

An Analysis of the Relationship between Foreign Trade and Economic Growth in Myanmar during 1990-2014

This study analyzes the relationship between foreign trade and economic growth in Myanmar over the period 1990-2014. It covers the annual data of GDP, Export and Import of Myanmar from 1980 to 2014. This study adopts two major methodological approaches – exploratory data analysis and descriptive analysis. For the first approach, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test and Granger causality test are used under the framework of Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model, which have almost never been studied for the Myanmar case. The second approach includes the analysis of Myanmar’s foreign trade trend with descriptive statistics. The results show that foreign trade did not generate a significant effect on the economic growth of Myanmar. Rather, import growth was negatively influenced by the economic growth of Myanmar. It is found out that exports had been determined by the GDP growth. Thus, growth-driven export strategy had been applied for the period of 1990-2014. Also, there was only one causal run from export growth to import growth. The results conclude that foreign trade did not have significant impact on the economic growth of Myanmar over the period of 1990-2014.

Examining A ‘Micro–Macro Paradox’: Did Poverty Really Fall in the Union of Myanmar?

AbstractThere is a ‘micro–macro paradox’ in poverty measurement. In a number of countries, declines in income or consumption poverty found in nationally representative household survey data are at odds with people's perceptions of worsening poverty or deprivation. This article suggests a number of potential explanations for the paradox and presents the case of Myanmar where many of these same issues have recently played out. It is argued that there are plausible explanations that reconcile, in part, apparently conflicting positions in Myanmar's ‘Great Poverty Debate’. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In Search of Stability

This article accounts for how authoritarian regimes use elections to achieve stability (and, thus, longevity). At the domestic level, elections are deployed to either feign conformity to established rules and/or shared beliefs about how political power should be maintained or mobilise citizens in a unanimous show of manufactured support for the ruling party. At the international level, elections are employed to simulate compliance to international democratic norms about the appropriate method of selecting political authority. It validates this theory using the case of Myanmar, where three different ruling cliques have sanctioned elections in the pursuit of this dividend. The institutionalisation of this function over time has in turn contributed to the stabilisation of autocratic rule, which has occurred through a combination of endogenous self-reinforcement, exogenous reinforcement and reciprocal reinforcement. This positive relationship offers further opportunities for within-case and cross-case comparisons to be made in the future.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Maritime Delimitation: The Bangladesh v. Myanmar Case

This article considers the law of maritime delimitation as applied by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the 2012 Bangladesh v. Myanmar case. The dispute concerned the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the two states in the northern part of the Bay of Bengal. The decision demands a particular examination since it was the first delimitation dispute decided by the Tribunal. The article traces how the ITLOS applied and developed the methodology of maritime delimitation. It also analyzes the ascertainment of a true nature of international instruments as well as unilateral acts of states before international courts and tribunals.

The Rejection of a Theoretical Beauty: The Foot of the Continental Slope in Maritime Boundary Delimitations Beyond 200 Nautical Miles

This article addresses maritime boundary delimitation concerning the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. The focal point is how the foot of the continental slope can be used as the point of departure in drawing the provisional equidistance line in outer continental shelf boundary delimitations between neighboring states. The article examines the strength and weaknesses of this approach and asks whether the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea indirectly rejected this approach in the 2012 Bangladesh v. Myanmar Case.

La contribution au droit international de l’affaire de délimitation maritime Bangladesh/Inde dans la baie du Bengale

The arbitration case concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and India provides an original contribution to international law. The delimitation made by the Arbitral Tribunal is a classic application of the method of equidistance and relevant circumstances. However, the Tribunal analyses finely the value to be attributed to ancient maps and confronts itself to the thorny issue of the effect to be attributed to climate change when drawing a border. It contributes greatly to the future of the law of delimitation anchoring strongly the delimitation exercise in a well-defined time frame : the moment of the judgment. This case is also the second maritime delimitation case dealing with the delimitation of the outer continental shelf. By using the principles established by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Bangladesh/ Myanmar case and by affirming its jurisdiction vis-à-vis the extended continental shelf, the jurisprudence of this Arbitral Tribunal strengthens the implementation of the legal regime continental shelf and advocates a harmonious joint work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and of International Courts and Tribunals.

Democratic Transformation and Regional Institutions: The Case of Myanmar and ASEAN

The focus of this article is Myanmar's transition to democracy, which is taking place after almost half a century of military rule. The former military rulers are themselves the architects of transition. This article notes that one of the key challenges faced by military regimes during this kind of transition is the problem of “credible commitments”. In short, the issue is this: a transition will only be successful if it has the support of the political opposition and the public at large. But why should these groups believe in the promises of former tyrants? Problems of credibility and low expectations about the intention and capacity of the military to effect reform can cause destabilisation and undermine prospects for a successful transition. In worst case scenarios, instability leads to a resurgence of authoritarianism, or to a(nother) military coup. This article highlights the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in assisting the transition and stabilisation of Myanmar's fledgling democracy. The argument is that ASEAN provides a means whereby Myanmar's leaders can make credible commitments about their intentions in relation to liberalisation and democratisation, lending support to Myanmar's reformist government at a crucial time in the transition to democracy. The article concludes that under certain circumstances, even regional organisations such as ASEAN, which are not comprised of a majority of democratic states, can (to a degree) influence perceptions about a democratising regime's commitment to reform.

The Nature and Management of Myanmar's Alignment with China: The SLORC/SPDC Years

Recent research has focused increasingly on the strategies that Southeast Asian countries have adopted vis-à-vis a rising China. This article aims to contribute to the literature by discussing Myanmar's alignment posture towards China under the post-September 1988 military regime. In particular, the purpose is to specify and explain the nature and management of this alignment. The argument is as follows: first, during the two decades of SLORC/SPDC (State Law and Order Restoration Council/State Peace and Development Council) rule, Myanmar sought only limited alignment with China, focused primarily on diplomatic support and protection, with only a moderate record of bilateral defence and security cooperation. Second, Myanmar's alignment with China after 1988 was shaped by at least three important factors: the core principles of the country's previous foreign policy after colonial rule, a deeply embedded sense of nationalism among the military elite, and Burma's Cold War interaction with China. Third, in managing its alignment with China over the last decade, the SPDC avoided compromises perceived as unpalatable in return for the promise of diplomatic protection and instead ‘rewarded’ Beijing by consenting to economic and infrastructure projects that were considered to advance the regime's interest in either generating state revenue or contributing to the consolidation and expansion of control over state territory. The SPDC also pushed Beijing into reconsidering its position on the sensitive issue of armed ethnic groups in the Sino-Myanmar border region. The Myanmar case thus shows that lesser powers can obtain security benefits from a major power without this necessarily requiring more than limited alignment or entailing a serious erosion of political autonomy, particularly when the former possesses valuable natural resources and enjoys considerable geo-strategic significance for the latter.

Investigation on an outbreak of measles caused by new virus (d11 genotype) imported from Myanmar

To study the relevant factors on an measles outbreak caused by imported new virus (d11 genotype) from Myanmar and to develop effective strategies and measures. On-site investigation on the outbreak was carried out. There were four townships (66%) in Menglian county reported 15 cases of measles, with 7 cases aged 6 months to 5 years old, 2 cases with the history of measles vaccination (MV). Another 8 cases were 21 to 49 year-olds but their histories on immunization were unclear. 14 of the measles cases with Myanmar citizenship came to China for treatment. They were aged 10 months to 13 years old, with only one case had ever received MV vaccination. For all the 29 cases, except for one case who did not adopt the sample case of Myanmar, the remaining 28 patients were positive for measles IgM antibodies. 6 cases of measles virus RNA were detected in the amplified sequence which showed genotype d11, and was considered Myanmar imported wild virus. 184 people received the MV inoculation, with a rate of 61.96% and the serum samples showed a measles IgG antibody positive rate of 87.50%. Manner MV emergency vaccination was carried out timely in that county so the measles outbreak was effectively controlled. Imported measles cases from foreign countries might lead to epidemic, indicating the difficulty and challenge in the elimination of measles in our province. Emergent vaccination of MV could interrupt the transmission of the disease. Our experience showed that MV was effective in the prevention of d11 genotypes measles infection in the area.

Development failure and the resource curse: the case of Myanmar

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to examine development failure in Myanmar and explore alternative ways forward.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative data drawn from sources including newspaper and media accounts from inside and outside Myanmar, reports from NGOs and field observations. The data are analysed using a framework developed by combining the theoretical perspectives of the resource curse and governmentality.FindingsEvidence of developmental failure in Myanmar is found. The nation is in an economic, social and political mess due to the actions of an incompetent and corrupt robber regime that has misused and misappropriated much of the wealth being produced from the nation's large mineral and energy reserves. Action by the international community has so far proved ineffective in improving the situation.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this paper is the difficulty in obtaining accurate and reliable official economic and social indicators. However, it does illustrate the value of combining the resource curse thesis and governmentality for understanding development failure.Practical implicationsThis research has practical implications in that by illustrating the unsustainable nature of the “grabber governmentality” and providing an alternative “producer governmentality” it is clear that even the most authoritarian regimes are susceptible to change.Originality/valueThe resource curse thesis and governmentality have so far not been used together in the analysis of development. In this paper these concepts provide a way to critically examine the association between resource richness, poor governance and development failure.

The resource curse and development failure: The case of Myanmar

The resource curse and development failure: The case of Myanmar

Myanmar, the Responsibility to Protect, and the Need for Practical Assistance

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the invocation of the responsibility to protect (RtoP) in the face of the Myanmar authorities' problematic response to Cyclone Nargis. It is animated by four main questions: (1) What were the dynamics leading to calls for the application of the responsibility to protect? (2) In what ways did the invocation of the RtoP affect the provision of humanitarian assistance to cyclone survivors? (3) How has the international response to Cyclone Nargis compared to the way in which Western powers in particular have responded to Myanmar's armed ethnic conflict? (4) What implications and conclusions follow from the Myanmar case for putting RtoP into practice? The article argues that while the applicability of RtoP was much in doubt with respect to the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, its principles nevertheless served as a rhetorical device for Western countries to influence both Naypyidaw and ASEAN as regards the practical need of facilitating humanitarian relief. Noting the available diplomatic support Myanmar enjoys in the UNSC, the paper suggests that the variation characterizing the international response to Myanmar's practices in the Ayeyawady delta and in the ethnic areas is also partly due to the different scale of fatalities and insufficient independent verification of claims regarding atrocity crimes. Generally, the Myanmar case has nevertheless accentuated the need for considering further what practical assistance regional and international actors can render to protect those that are or may become caught up in atrocities.

Doing Business with Rights Violating Regimes Corporate Social Responsibility and Myanmar’s Military Junta

Whether to do business with rights violating regimes is one of many dilemmas faced by socially responsible corporations. In this article the difficult case of Myanmar is considered. Ruled for decades by a closed and sometimes brutal military elite, the country has long been subject to informal and formal sanctions. However, as sanctions have failed to trigger political reform, it is necessary to review the policy options. The focus here is on the contribution socially responsible corporations might make to change. The article sketches contextual features of the case, examines the recent history and present pattern of business links with Myanmar, and assesses whether current approaches can stimulate reform. Concluding that they cannot, it considers fresh possibilities for corporate engagement. The argument is that socially responsible corporations, committed to improving individual life chances through engagement with developing societies, should undertake collaborative and principled direct investment in Myanmar. The underlying strategy and problems of codification and implementation are all analyzed. To close, the article contends that, by doing business with Myanmar’s rights violating regime, multinational corporations can extend the frontiers of global corporate social responsibility.