Myanmar's Long Road to National Reconciliation (2 page)

U Myint

14.     A Comprehensive International Approach to Political and Economic Development in Burma/Myanmar

Morten B. Pedersen

Index

As co-convenor of the 2004 Myanmar/Burma Update Conference and editor of this volume, I am indebted to Professor Jim Fox, Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University for giving me this opportunity to bring together a wide range of viewpoints on Myanmar/Burma at this defining moment, and for his strong personal commitment to the Conference. I am grateful to my co-convenor, Dr Ron May, for his assistance, as well as for his patience and for passing on the benefits of his experience in organizing previous update conferences at the ANU. Similarly, I thank my ANU colleague Morten Pedersen for his strong support and wise advice, as well as for his invaluable assistance on the ground in Yangon. My warm thanks go above all to those who have contributed to this volume, for their confidence in me and their unflagging support, both for the Conference and for this publication. I also appreciate the firm backing of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for the ANU Conference and for the publication of this volume. Last but not least, I wish to thank my wife, Christine, who, in her usual meticulous fashion, undertook the copy editing at my request, despite her many other commitments.

This book generally follows UN practice in using the name Myanmar when referring to the country. However, it also follows the growing practice of respecting the personal preference of the authors of individual chapters in how they wish to refer to the country. The conference title uses “Myanmar/Burma” to reinforce the continuity with previous ANU Update Conferences, which used the name “Burma” in their title.

Graeme Batten

Dr Graeme Batten, Professor of Irrigation in the School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University, gained Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Rural Science from the University of New England in 1969 and 1977 respectively, and a PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra, in 1985. During his career, he has specialized in the links between fertilizers, soils, plant nutrients, food quality, and the sustainability of agro-ecosystems. Dr Batten teaches soil science, irrigation, water management, and rice production, and supervises postgraduate students, while maintaining strong links with farmers, agri-business, and research and extension staff in regional Australia and in other countries. In recent years, he has concentrated on establishing links with producers and researchers in developing countries, and on identifying ways to encourage technology transfer to enhance the amount and quality of food produced.

John Copland

Dr John Copland is Research Program Manager (Livestock/Animal Science Program Manager for Myanmar, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia) at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Canberra. He has been working in Asia and the South Pacific for almost two decades, developing livestock research projects and programmes. He was the foundation Research Program Manager for two Animal Science programmes and for the Fisheries programme in ACIAR in collaborative research and development projects that involve a partner country and Australian institutions. He visited Myanmar several times prior to the commencement of the two small ACIAR projects in 2003. Prior to 1975, Dr Copland spent seven years working in the livestock sector,
National Veterinary Laboratory, Port Moresby. Subsequently, he was based in Jakarta and for two years served as team leader of a review of the Indonesian agricultural sector.

Karl Dorning

Mr Karl Dorning joined the Burnet Institute, Centre for International Health, Melbourne in 2003, after spending nearly eight years in Burma with World Vision Myanmar. During this time, he was responsible for the oversight and management of government and multilateral-funded programmes in a broad range of areas including HIV/AIDS, children in difficult circumstances and child rights, trafficking, and community development programmes more broadly. He maintains a particular interest in the impact of HIV/AIDS on youth and children and has published work on HIV and mobility and the impact of HIV on street children. He coordinated a five-country study into child abuse and neglect for World Vision International and was a senior child rights advocate for some years, representing World Vision at international forums such as the UN Special Session on Children in May 2002.

Larry Jagan

Mr Larry Jagan works as a freelance journalist in Bangkok. He is a specialist on Southeast Asia, especially Myanmar. He has been reporting from Bangkok for four years, during which time he has been one the few journalists allowed to visit Burma regularly. He reports predominantly for the BBC and the
Bangkok Post,
but also contributes regularly for Radio Australia, the
South China Morning Post
and Deutsche Welle. Previously, he was the BBC World Service’s Regional News and Current Affairs Editor for Asia Pacific for more than ten years. He has been a prolific writer on Burma for more than twenty years.

Richard Jones

Mr Richard Jones was a Director of First&42nd where he lead the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team. He has worked extensively with multinational companies in planning and delivering on CSR strategies. Companies he has advised operate in many areas, including in oil and gas (Premier Oil, Norsk Hydro), in chemicals (BASF), in tobacco (British American Tobacco), and in mobile telecommunications (Orange). He was
closely involved in Premier Oil’s CSR initiatives in Myanmar from 1999 to 2003. After leaving First&42nd, he started CSR Africa, a management consultancy with a focus on sustainable business strategies for companies with corporate responsibilities at their core. He is currently working with Total, Premier Oil, Marathon Oil, and Philosophy Design.

U Myint

U Myint has a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. In Yangon he has held the posts of Head, Economics Department, Institute of Education, and Chief, Economic Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Subsequently, he served for a number of years as Senior Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. He is now retired and lives in Yangon.

Zaw Oo

Zaw Oo is a Myanmar national with graduate degrees in international affairs and international development from Columbia University and American University. He is the Director of the Burma Fund, a Washington-based think-tank working on the issues of democratization in Burma and on overseas policy research projects on democratization, civil-military relations, economic transition, transitional justice, reconciliation and migration. Zaw Oo has over fifteen years of experience in working with marginal communities in Myanmar and has served as a consultant for the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the Center for International Private Enterprise, and Radio Free Asia. He has attended the annual sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva between 1989 and 1991 to testify on human rights violations and the issue of protection of Myanmar refugees in Thailand.

Morten B. Pedersen

Mr Morten B. Pedersen is a research scholar in the Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University. Since 2001, he has worked as a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Brussels, and as a consultant for various governments and international organizations on Burma. He is the co-editor and co-contributor to the book
Burma/Myanmar: Strong Regime, Weak State
(Crawford House, 2000)
and the author of a number of reports on international policy on Burma and on political, social, and economic developments within the country.

Martin Smith

Mr Martin Smith is a writer and analyst who has reported about Burma/ Myanmar for a variety of media, non-governmental, and academic organizations during the past two decades. He is author of
Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity
(Zed Books, 1991 and 1999) and
Fatal Silence? Freedom of Expression and the Right to Health in Burma
(Article 19, 1996). His most recent publications include
Burma (Myanmar): The Time for Change
(Minority Rights Group International, 2002) and “Burma: The Karen Conflict”, in
Encyclopedia of Modern Ethnic Conflicts,
edited by J. Rudolph (Greenwood Press, 2003).

David I. Steinberg

Dr David I. Steinberg is Distinguished Professor and Director, Asian Studies, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He is the author of four books and monographs on Burma/Myanmar, the latest being
Burma: The State of Myanmar
(Georgetown University Press, 2001,) and of some forty-five articles and book chapters about that country. As Director of Philippines, Thailand and Burma Affairs in the United States Agency for International Development, Department of State, he negotiated the reentry of United States’ foreign assistance to Burma in 1979. From 1958 to 1962 he was Assistant Representative of The Asia Foundation in Burma. He was educated at Dartmouth College, Lingnan University (China), Harvard University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He also writes extensively on Korean affairs.

Robert H. Taylor

Dr Taylor is Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. He was formerly Professor of Politics at the University of London, Pro-Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham. He studied at Yangon University in 1978 and 1982 and has been a frequent visitor to Myanmar since 1975. The author and editor of a number of volumes including
The State in Burma
(1987) and
The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia
(1995), he is a contributor to a new history entitled
The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia
(2005), edited by Norman Owen. He is joint editor of
Myanmar:
Beyond Politics to Societal Imperatives
(2005). He lives in London, from where he provides consultancy services on Southeast Asian affairs, especially Myanmar.

David Tegenfeldt

Mr David Tegenfeldt is currently based in Yangon as Senior Advisor, Hope International Development Agency, working on issues of conflict, peace-building, reconciliation, social development, and social change. From 1993 to 2001, he worked as Country Director for World Concern, working at first in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with responsibility for Thailand and Myanmar (1993–1995), then moved to Yangon and was responsible for Myanmar. For the past ten years he has been a regular speaker at conferences on Burma/Myanmar. He has a BA in Sociology from Westmont College, Santa Barbara; a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Management from the University of Michigan; and a Master’s degree in Conflict Transformation from the Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. He was born in Burma and has spent twenty years living in Burma.

Kyaw Than

Dr Kyaw Than obtained his Bachelor of Agriculture degree from the Institute of Agriculture of Myanmar in 1966. He continued his studies at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, in 1974 and received his doctorate in 1978, his studies specializing on Insect Systematics. He joined the Institute of Agriculture (now Yezin Agricultural University or YAU) in Pyinmawa, Myanmar, as a member of the teaching staff in 1966. He was promoted to Professor of Entomology in 1992. In the last twenty-six years he has been heavily involved with teaching and research at YAU. He has published extensively on the prospects for agricultural development and agricultural education in Myanmar. He is presently Rector of YAU and is a member of the Academy of Myanmar Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Fishery Sciences.

Sean Turnell

Dr Sean Turnell is an economist and former central banker with a longtime interest in Burma’s financial system. Based at Macquarie University in Sydney, he teaches and undertakes research in the Economics Department. He is currently completing a book on the political economy of money and banking in Burma for the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Since 2003 he has edited
Burma Economic Watch,
an on-line newsletter on the Burmese economy.

Trevor Wilson

Mr Trevor Wilson is a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University, Canberra. He retired in August 2003 after working for more than thirty-six years for the Australian Government, thirty years of which was spent with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He served as Australia’s Ambassador to Myanmar for three years from mid-2000 to mid-2003. He was assigned to Australia’s Embassy in Tokyo three times, first in the late sixties, then in the early eighties, and finally as Deputy Head of Mission in the second half of the nineties. He also had tours of duty in Washington and Laos. In Canberra he also worked in the Defence Department, the Prime Minister’s Department, and in the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gareth Evans.