Banking Reform Is Central to Burma’s Economic Progress

From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English.

Burma's financial industry has suffered from years of mismanagement under military rule. But more recently, the government has pushed through economic reforms. Those measures are changing the nation’s banks and reenergizing businesses. There are even hopes that Burma could become one of Asia’s fast growing economies: an Asian Tiger.

Burma had the one of the best-performing economies in Southeast Asia before the military seized power in 1962. Many years of state control over the economy followed. Widespread corruption and international sanctions left it one of the poorest countries in the area.

Global think tank honors Thein Sein, ignores Kachin state war crimes allegations

KNG

In recognition of President Thein Sein's “bold and visionary reform initiatives” the International Crisis Group (ICG), dubbed the world's largest think tank, will bestow the ex-general turned civilian politician with its annual Pursuit of Peace Award next April.
The ICG has chosen to celebrate General Than Shwe's hand-picked successor in spite of the fact that the army ostensibly under Thein Sein's control has committed what human rights groups describe as war crimes against civilians in Kachin state. The ICG however has opted to overlook this serious blemish on Thein Sein's record focusing instead on his much heralded peace initiative.

Thein Sein “has made vast strides in ending the decades-long conflict affecting Myanmar,” said the ICG in a brief bio which accompanied last month's press release announcing the award. Since Thein Sein came to office “all but one of the ethnic armed groups have signed preliminary ceasefires with the government, and it is hoped that an agreement will also soon be reached with the Kachin Independence Organization,” said the ICG press release.

National reconciliation vital: Suu Kyi

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, delivering her keynote address at the ASEAN 100 Leadership Forum in Yangon, Myanmar. Picture: BT/ Raul Padernal

The Brunei Times

 BASIC human rights, was the foundation in which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate and chairperson of the National League for Democracy, built her oration on at the annual ASEAN 100 Leadership Forum.

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient, addressed over 180 ASEAN 100 participants and international ambassadors in Myanmar, including Singapore and Australia.

Her topic was "Resilience in Turbulent Times". She said that Myanmar has faced turbulence in the past, and that there still is turbulence in the country now. "When I first entered politics in 1988, I entered as one of those working for democracy and human rights because I believe in the value of human rights and democratic institutions," she said.

Burma accused of pursuing nuclear weapons

Report says intercepted alloy shipment could be used in program

 WND
Japan claims it has confiscated a shipment of aluminum alloy bound for Burma that could be used in a nuclear enrichment program.
The East-Asia Intel report said a cargo ship en route from North Korea was transporting the alloy through Japan, with the intention of transferring it to China, then Burma.

Dictator Watch President and Burma analyst Roland Watson says he isn’t surprised by the report and adds that the seized materials confirm the existence of an ongoing weapons program.
“I wasn’t shocked by the news out of Japan at all,” Watson said. “I have always assumed that the program is ongoing.”

AP Exclusive: Myanmar launches operation to verify citizenship of Muslims in strife-torn west

AP: SIN THET MAW, Myanmar — Guarded by rifle-toting police, immigration authorities in western Myanmar have launched a major operation aimed at settling an explosive question at the heart of the biggest crisis the government has faced since beginning its nascent transition to democracy last year.
It’s a question that has helped fuel two bloody spasms of sectarian unrest between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims since June, and it comes down to one simple thing: Who has the right to be a citizen of Myanmar, and who does not?

A team of Associated Press journalists that traveled recently to the remote island village of Sin Thet Maw, a maze of bamboo huts without electricity in Myanmar’s volatile west, found government immigration officials in the midst of a painstaking, census-like operation aimed at verifying the citizenship of Muslims living there, one family at a time.

REVIEW: The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma

 

Reviewed by Sumera S. Naqvi
BURMA, or present day Myanmar, shares a battered colonial history with the subcontinent and is still in the process of resurrection. These countries share common political nuances with a marked political significance of women leaders who suffered either by losing a father or a husband to political struggle. Aung San Suu Kyi is a name in the league of such women leaders.

While Burma still reels from the torments of a dictatorial-cum-military dispensation, Suu Kyi, one of the most powerful pro-democracy politicians in the region today, is an iconic factor in keeping hope alive for a peaceful political transformation that will eventually smooth the way to democratic governance.
Journalist Peter Popham’s book, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi is a well-documented biography of a life devoted to the cause of freedom.