Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Kyaw San Wai, Yangon
With an official total of 351 cases and six deaths four months after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed, Myanmar appears to be weathering the pandemic. Despite limited testing, the combination of government responses, community involvement and arguably sheer luck has so far spared the country’s long-neglected and under-resourced health system from being overwhelmed. Read more…
Author: Sean Turnell, Macquarie University
On 1 July 2020, the European Union and six of its member governments announced a moratorium on debt repayments due from Myanmar. The agreement allows Myanmar to ‘focus efforts on economic recovery from COVID-19’ and is worth almost US$100 million — 20 per cent of Myanmar’s current debt payments schedule.
Authors: Melissa Conley Tyler and Tiffany Liu, Asialink at the University of Melbourne
In February, experts from government, think tanks, civil society and academia met in Bangladesh for the ninth meeting of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADFM) to address the challenge of people movement and displacement in the region. The dialogue has already seen some positive outcomes, and it highlights an important role for non-official actors in diplomacy.
Author: Thomas Bernhardt, Vienna
When Myanmar’s military regime began opening up the country politically and economically in 2010, one motive was to alleviate the country’s overreliance on China. Ten years down the road, in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the threat of new Western sanctions triggered by human rights violations against the Muslim Rohingya minority, China’s influence appears hardly diminished. Read more…
Author: Murray Hiebert, Bower Group Asia
COVID-19 has been tough on the health and economies of Southeast Asia, but the region’s fledgling quasi-democracies are also under threat. Efforts to control the virus are giving authoritarian rulers the perfect cover to adopt draconian levers to rein in their opponents and critics. Read more…
Author: Hunter Marston, ANU
The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic may be yet to come for many Southeast Asian countries, though some, such as Vietnam, have seen relative success in containing the virus. Read more…
Author: Richard Roewer, Oxford University and GIGA
Myanmar’s governing National League for Democracy (NLD) receives frequent criticism for failing to repeal repressive legislation and for supporting the military’s persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority. The NLD still fails to understand the grievances of ethnic minorities throughout Myanmar and its national reconciliation process lacks transitional justice mechanisms. But the party’s increasing centralisation and inability to institutionalise internal democratic processes adds further repercussions for Myanmar. Read more…
Author: Heidi Dahles, Griffith University
As China shows signs of recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, speculations abound about what a post-COVID-19 future will look like. Amid the cacophony of voices, consensus is gathering that global power balances will shift. What this shift might entail is fiercely debated. Some see China rising to global leadership and offering resources and experience to those currently battling the pandemic. Others suspect that China is engaging in a sinister campaign to push other countries further into dependency. Read more…
Author: Adam Simpson, University of South Australia
Since the communal pogroms of 2012 razed the villages of Muslim Rohingya across Myanmar’s Rakhine State, there have been debates about how to protect Rohingya populations through international legal mechanisms. The search for legal avenues gathered pace following insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in August 2017 that resulted in a disproportionate collective punishment response from the Myanmar military. Read more…
Authors: Champa Patel and Ruma Mandal, Chatham House
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the genocide case against Myanmar in January is refocusing attention on the desperate situation facing the Rohingya. It is also raising questions about whether the ICJ might be an effective route for pursuing accountability, given that the case was brought by a state not directly affected by the alleged violations of international law. Read more…
Author: Kilian Spandler, University of Gothenburg
At the 35th ASEAN Summit held in Bangkok in November last year, the ASEAN Prize 2019 was awarded to Jemilah Mahmood, founder of Mercy Malaysia and a high-level official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. By honouring a luminary of humanitarian activism in Southeast Asia, ASEAN leaders demonstrated their eagerness to upgrade their organisation’s profile as a linchpin in regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Author: Ali Riaz, Illinois State University
In Bangladesh the ruling Awami League has established total control over state machinery and politics since the managed election of December 2018. Simmering popular discontent found expression in agitations against the killing of a student, price hikes and government-appointed university administration corruption in 2019.
Author: Soe Nandar Linn, Yangon
Myanmar’s efforts to reverse a legacy of isolation began with the quasi-civilian government led by then-president U Thein Sein. From 2011–2015, his government undertook a series of political, economic and social reforms that built the foundation for future democratic development. Read more…
Authors: Champa Patel, Chatham House, and Rudabeh Shahid, University of York
Bangladesh is a country often subjected to the whims of its geography. Being surrounded by India and Myanmar means that ensuring good relations with its neighbours is paramount to maintaining regional cohesion but these relations are coming under strain as India’s and Myanmar’s majoritarian impulses resonate across their borders.
Authors: Jonathan T Chow, Wheaton College, and Leif-Eric Easley, Ewha Womans University
Myanmar and North Korea were long known as Asia’s ‘pariah states’ — internationally sanctioned and ostracised for human rights violations, authoritarian repression and, in North Korea’s case, persistent efforts to develop nuclear weapons. But in 2011, Myanmar’s ruling junta surprised observers by making a strategic decision to reform and open, ushering in a quasi-civilian government. Meanwhile, North Korea pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs, hardening its pariah status. Read more…
