Volume 5, Issue 24

January 23, 2020

Volume 5, Issue 24

‘This evil thing’: Kawlin’s drug epidemic

Drug addiction is blighting communities throughout Myanmar, but in one Sagaing Region township a woman bearing a bucket of used syringes has galvanised a fightback.

BY Kyaw Lin Htoon

Editorial, Opinion

Myanmar is the master of its own destiny

It’s tempting to see Xi Jinping’s recent visit as China coming to collect on an IOU, and Myanmar not having much choice but to pay up.

BY Frontier

News Feed, News, Affairs, Features

Deadlock likely on the way to charter reform

The NLD’s push for constitutional change is likely to result in a vote in parliament in the coming weeks or months. It will almost certainly end in defeat, but could give the party a helpful election boost.

BY Lun Min Mang

News Feed, News, Affairs, Features

The illegal detention of young offenders in Monywa

Juvenile detainees in the Sagaing Region capital are being held in police custody in violation of the Child Rights Law, and are allegedly deprived of meals and physically abused by older inmates.

BY Win Zar Ni Aung

News, Affairs, Business, Features

Chinese companies hope to cash in on cannabis

Investors from China are keen to grow non-intoxicating strains of cannabis in Myanmar for medicinal or industrial use, but that won’t happen without change to the anti-narcotics law.

BY Hein Thar

Bizfeed, Affairs, Business, Features

Block A-6: Getting the deal done

The government’s need to secure new supplies of natural gas and a desire to send a positive signal to investors has likely helped a consortium including Total, Woodside and MPRL negotiate favourable fiscal terms to develop the A-6 block.

BY Thomas Kean

News Feed, Bizfeed, News, Business, Features

KBZ takes Yangon port operator to court over massive debts

KBZ Bank is suing the owner of Myanmar Industrial Port over alleged unpaid debts of more than US$200 million, in a case that is symptomatic of the problems facing the country’s leading banks as they seek to resolve legacy non-performing loans.

BY Thomas Kean & Kyaw Lin Htoon

Photo Essays, News, Affairs, Business, Features

The women who mine jade

Kachin’s jade industry is heavily dominated by men, but with the male workforce ground down by drug addiction, more and more women are taking up dangerous work at the mines.

BY Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe

Sithu Aung Myint, Opinion

Broken trust: The NLD and ethnic forces

The National League for Democracy government has failed to win the trust of ethnic armed groups and has also damaged its relationships with ethnic political parties, raising questions about its commitment to building a democratic federal union.

BY Sithu Aung Myint

News, Opinion

A new era for China and Myanmar, but old constraints still hold

President Xi Jinping’s visit underscores that his country has regained its dominant position in Myanmar after setbacks under the U Thein Sein government, but China will need to be careful how it exerts its influence in the years ahead.

BY Yun Sun

News Feed, News, Affairs, Features

Myanmar’s military ‘justice’ system

Soldiers who commit abuses are largely tried in secret by military-run courts, whose workings have become central to Myanmar’s defence against genocide allegations.

BY Ye Mon

Features, Culture

Where are the curators in Myanmar’s art scene?

The development of contemporary art in Myanmar has been hampered by a paucity of curators, with most galleries asking artists to arrange, fund and promote their own exhibitions.

BY Min Pyae Sone

Backpage, Opinion

Myanmar’s peace god

The guns of civil conflict fell silent during the visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping – a pause in fighting that not even State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi can achieve.

BY Kyaw Lin Htoon