ေအာင္ျမင္ေသာအိမ္ေထာင္ေရး ေသာ့ခ်က္

ဒီေန႔ မွတ္သားမိတဲ့ က်န္းမာေရးဆိုင္ရာ သတင္းတပုဒ္ကို စာဖတ္သူေတြနဲ႔ ေ၀မွ်ခ်င္ပါတယ္။ ဘန္ေကာက္ပို႔စ္ သတင္းစာကပါ။


ေအာင္ျမင္တဲ့ အိမ္ေထာင္ေရးရဲ့ အဓိကေသာ့ခ်က္ေတြထဲက တခုက ေဒါသေပးထြက္ျခင္း ပါတဲ့။ One of the keys to a successful marriage is to get angry.အေမရိကန္ ဖေလာ္ရီဒါျပည္နယ္တကၠသိုလ္တခုရဲ့ ေလ့လာေတြ႔ရွိခ်က္ပါ။


တခါမွ ရန္မျဖစ္ဖူးဆိုတဲ့ စံုတြဲေတြ ၿမဲဖို႔ ခက္တယ္လို႔လည္း ဆိုထားျပန္ပါေသးတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ခဏပဲ ျဖစ္တဲ့ ေဒါသမ်ဳိးကိုသာ ေျပာတာေနာ္။

ကဲ.... ရန္ျဖစ္လိုက္ ျပန္ခ်စ္လိုက္ေပါ့ေနာ္။ :D :D :D

မူရင္းစာသားကေတာ့ ဘန္ေကာက္ပို႔စ္သတင္းစာနဲ႔ အြန္လိုင္းမွာဆို ဒီလင့္ခ္မွာပါ။ http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/health/308647/want-a-happy-marriage-get-angry

Want a happy marriage? Get angry

• Published: 21/08/2012 at 10:42 AM
• Online news: Health

One of the keys to a successful marriage is to get angry.

At least, that's the conclusion of a recent study out of Florida State University, where researchers examined the complex dynamics of why some relationships last, and others fail.

The findings run counter to the recent trend of "positive psychology" in which couples are taught that forgiveness, optimism, kindness and positive thinking can help heal a broken relationship following a serious transgression, admits lead researcher James McNulty.

But in his research, McNulty found that sometimes the "short-term discomfort of an angry but honest conversation" can be beneficial to the relationship in the long run.

This is particularly true among "disagreeable" spouses who may take advantage of their partner's good nature and willingness to forgive and forget.

"Believing a partner is forgiving leads agreeable people to be less likely to offend that partner and disagreeable people to be more likely to offend that partner," he said in a statement.

Moreover, expressing anger can serve as an important role in signaling that the offending behavior is unacceptable, he added.

"This work suggests people need to be flexible in how they address the problems that will inevitably arise over the course of their relationships. There is no 'magic bullet,' no single way to think or behave in a relationship. The consequences of each decision we make in our relationships depends on the circumstances that surround that decision."

The research was presented at the American Psychological Association in Orlando earlier this month.

Journalists Call for More Freedom as Censorship Lifted

မွတ္မွတ္ရရ ပို႔စ္ ၁၀၀ ျပည့္တဲ့ ပို႔စ္မွာ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ သတင္းဂ်ာနယ္ေတြကို စာေပစိစစ္ေရး ကင္းလြတ္ခြင့္ ေပးလိုက္တာကို ေရးထားတဲ့  သတင္းကို ျပန္ရွယ္တဲ့ ပို႔စ္ေလး ျဖစ္ေနတဲ့အတြက္ ၀မ္းသာမိ၏။  ပစ္ထားမိေသာ ဘေလာ့ဂ္ေလးအား မၾကာခင္က ျပန္လည္မြမ္းမံေနျခင္း ျဖစ္၏။ 

သတင္းမီဒီယာမ်ား စာေပလြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ အျပည့္အ၀ ခံစားရေတာ့မည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ား စာနယ္ဇင္းသမားမ်ား မျမင္ရေသးေသာ ပံုႏွိပ္ဥပေဒသစ္ကို ျပန္ၾကားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက သူ႔သေဘာအတိုင္း ေရးဆြဲေနသည္။ မၾကာမီ လႊတ္ေတာ္သို႔ တင္မည္ဟုလည္း ေျပာလိုက္ေသး။ သို႔ေသာ္ ဥပေဒက ျဖဴသည္ မဲသည္ မသိရေသး။ စာနယ္ဇင္း သမားမ်ားကို ဖိႏွိပ္ခ်ဳပ္ျခယ္မည့္ အခ်က္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ပါေလမလဲ။  ၀န္ႀကီးဦးေက်ာ္ဆန္း ျပဳတ္ေတာ့မယ္လို႔ သတင္းထြက္ေနေပမယ့္ သူကေတာ့ ေတာ္ေတာ္ေမႊပါ၏။  သို႔ေသာ္ ဂ်မ္းပံုစတိုင္နဲ႔ ေျပာရပါရင္ ေမာင္မင္းႀကီးသားမ်ား မသြားခင္ အၿပီးျပတ္ စာေပစိစစ္ကို ဖ်က္သိမ္းေပးသြားမယ္ ထင္ပါတယ္။  သို႔ေသာ္ စာေပစိစစ္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ကေတာ့ တရား၀င္ ဖ်က္သိမ္းတယ္လို႔ သတင္းမထုတ္ျပန္ေသးပါဘူး။ ေနာက္ကြယ္က ျကပ္မတ္ေနမယ့္သေဘာ။ 

ျမန္မာစာနယ္ဇင္းသမားမ်ားသည္ သတၱိေျပာင္ေျမာက္သူမ်ားျဖစ္၏၊ အဖိအႏွိပ္ အျဖတ္အေတာက္ မ်ဳိးစံုေအာက္မွ ရသမွ် တိုက္ပြဲ၀င္ ေရးသားေနသူမ်ားမို႔ ခ်ီးက်ဴးမိပါ၏။ သို႔ေသာ္ ပြဲလန္႔တုန္း ျဖာခင္းတတ္ေသာ၊ ဂုဏ္ေဖာ္တတ္ေသာ စာနယ္ဇင္းသမား ဂ်ာနယ္သမားမ်ားလည္း ရွိ၏။ ျပည္သူ႔အတြက္ သတင္းတင္ျပေနသူဟုဆိုကာ စာနယ္ဇင္းက်င့္၀တ္ကို သိပ္နားမလည္ေသာသူမ်ား အမ်ားအျပားလည္း လူမႈကြန္ယက္ ေဖ့ဘြတ္ စာမ်က္ႏွာမ်ား၊ ၀က္ဆိုက္မ်ားေပၚ အေရးအသားမ်ားမွ ေလ့လာမွတ္သားရပါ၏။ ထိုလူမႈကြန္ယက္မွတဆင့္ ေစတနာမွန္ႏွင့္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနေသာ သတင္းေထာက္ အယ္ဒီတာမ်ား၏ လုပ္ေဆာင္ခ်က္၊ ေရးသားခ်က္မ်ားအား လြန္စာ ေလးစားမိပါ၏။ ၉ ရက္ေန႔က သမၼတရံုးအမိန္႔နဲ႔ ဖြဲ႔ေပးထားတဲ့ အျမဴေတစာနယ္ဇင္းေကာင္စီအဖြဲ႔၀င္ ၂၀ ထဲက ေလးပံုတပံုပါေနတဲ့ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံစာေရးဆရာအသင္း ဦးေဆာင္သူ ၅ ဦးကလည္း ထိုေကာင္စီကို ကန္႔ကြက္ထား၏။  အဖြဲ႔၀င္အျဖစ္ ခန္႔အပ္ခံရတဲ့ သူေတြရဲ႔ ဆႏၵမပါဘဲ သူတို႔လုပ္ခ်င္ရာလုပ္တဲ့ အက်င့္ဆိုးက မေဖ်ာက္ႏိုင္ေသးသကိုး။ 

သို႔ေသာ္ တဖက္မွာလည္း စာနယ္ဇင္းသမားမ်ား၏ သတင္းလြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ ေကာ္မတီက  သတင္းလြတ္လပ္ခြင့္အျပည့္အ၀ရရန္အတြက္ ဆႏၵထုတ္ေဖာ္ဖို႔ ဆႏၵျပခြင့္ရရန္ ဒီေန႔ စာတင္မည္ ျဖစ္သည္။  

Journalists Call for More Freedom as Censorship Lifted
By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 20, 2012 | 

Journalists in Burma welcomed today’s announcement that they will no longer be required to submit articles to the country’s draconian censorship board before going to print, but said the move was not enough to restore full media freedom.

Tint Swe, the head of Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board (PSRD), told the editors of weekly journals on Monday that effective immediately, their outlets “no longer need to pass the censorship board.”

He added that the easing of restrictions was the result of policy changes within the Ministry of Information. Despite the move, however, laws that severely limit press freedom remain in force.

“It’s a real improvement, but the 2004 Electronics Act, as well as the draconian 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act, should also be abolished in order for the fourth pillar to enjoy full press freedom,” said Zaw Thet Htwe, the spokesperson of the Committee for Freedom of the Press (CFP).

In the past, journalists have been given lengthy prison sentences for violating these laws. During the Saffron Revolution, for instance, bloggers and other “citizen journalists” were charged under the Electronics Act for communicating with the exile media through the Internet.

The PSRD itself was formed on Aug. 6, 1964, two years after the 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act was imposed by Burma’s newly formed military junta.

In the past year, the PSRD has allowed some non-news publications to go to print without having to go through censorship first, but this is the first time in 48 years that news media have been permitted to do so. Tint Swe said that the new policy applies to 80 news journals and six religious journals that had remained under censorship until today.

However, the journals are still required to write in accordance with 16 guidelines, under which editors and reporters must follow journalistic ethics and ensure that their stories are accurate and don’t harm national security or “the dignity of the state.”

“We will be able to write news story more freely as there is no more scrutiny over our writing. But at the same, the editors will have to take more responsibility for their publications,” said Thiha Saw, the editor of Open News Journal and Myanma Danna magazine.

Especially sensitive, said Thiha Saw, is the subject of corruption—something that many of the country’s top leaders have been accused of.

Any publication that harms the reputation of a government department can still lose it license under the Printers and Publishers Registration Act, and publishers can also face heavy sentences under Burma’s Penal Code if they they are found guilty of inciting the public to unlawful activity.

However, Thiha Saw said the real problem is not the 1962 act, but the numerous “regulations, orders and directives” that have been imposed over five decades of military rule to restrict the media.

The 1962 press law will remain in place until a new media law is passed by Parliament sometime later this year. The Ministry of Information submitted a draft law to the president’s office on Aug. 7 and it will soon be sent to Parliament, said Tint Swe. After this, he added, the new law will be publicized.

The move comes as members of the CFP plan to hold protests to demand media freedom later this week. The CFP was formed three weeks ago to call for an end to censorship and media oppression. Despite the easing of censorship, the protests will go ahead as planned, said CFP spokesperson Zaw Thet Htwe.

The move is also seen as a green light to publishers who want to publish privately owned daily newspapers. “Ending censorship gives us a chance to publish daily newspapers, since the 1962 act does not prevent publishers from publishing newspapers, but the amended regulations did,” said Thiha Saw.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11933 

UN Calls on Govt to Release Aid Workers Still in Detention

By NYEIN NYEIN and KHIN OO THAR / THE IRRAWADDY| August 20, 2012 | 

 

The United Nations’ top official in Burma said he welcomed the release last week of aid workers detained since violence broke out in Arakan State in June, but urged the government to free others still behind bars.

At a ceremony marking World Humanitarian Day on Sunday, Ashok Nigam, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Burma, thanked the government for releasing the aid workers last Thursday, but noted that “some other UN and INGO staff … are still under detention.”

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, the UN’s chief spokesperson in Rangoon, Aye Win, declined to say how many UN and international aid agency staff had been released and how many remain behind bars, saying that a number of cases are still in court.

According to Myo Thant, a spokesperson for the Arakan State government, five aid workers—two from the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR and three from the Dutch NGO Artsen Zonder Grenzen (AZG)—were released from prison in Sittwe and Buthidaung, respectively, last week.

However, local sources in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe said that a total of nine had been freed, including five from the UNHCR, two from AZG and two from the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).

Sources in Maungdaw said that UNHCR staffer Cho Lay Mar Khar Ton and two WFP employees had been released from the Nasaka Border Security Force’s Kyikanpyin Camp after being taken there from Maungdaw Prison.

The sources, who are close to the court in Maungdaw, said that the three had been charged with instigating riots under Sections 153, 147 and 505 (b) of Burma’s Penal Code, but were released under orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a lawyer from Sittwe told The Irrawaddy that two AZG employees—Kyaw Hla Aung, who was arrested under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code, and Win Naing, who was arrested under Section 5 (j)—were among those released last Thursday.

Among those still in detention are Dr Htun Aung (aka) Nu Hauk, who remains in prison in Sittwe. He faces six charges, including instigating a riot and fraud, stemming from a request he made with the local authorities on June 8 to hold a gathering to pray for 10 Muslims killed by an Arakanese mob in Taunggok on June 3. Despite his assurances that the gathering would not result in violence, a riot broke out on the same day and Htun Aung was later arrested.

Several of the released NGO workers were reportedly taken into custody because of their alleged connections to Htun Aung, who is a local religious leader.

Htun Aung’s daughter Mya Nandar Aung was also temporarily detained on June 10 after she was found in possession of “suspicious documents” at Sittwe airport. She was later charged in Rangoon’s Mingala Taung Nyunt Township and now faces trial. She met with the UN human rights expert Tomas Ojea Quintana during his latest visit to Burma.

Meanwhile, Burma’s government on Saturday launched an inquiry into the violence that broke out in early June. The investigation will be carried out by a team that includes both Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the move could create a “conducive environment for a more inclusive way forward to tackle the underlying causes of the violence, including the condition of the Muslim communities in [Arakan State].”

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11914

မန္က်ည္းရြက္ ပုဇြန္အစပ္ခ်က္

ညေနေစာင္း ရံုးကျပန္လာၿပီး ခ်ဥ္ခ်ဥ္စပ္စပ္နဲ႔ ခံတြင္းေတြ႔မယ့္ ဟင္းေလးတခြက္ ခ်က္စားဖို႔ စဥ္းစားမိေတာ့ ပထမဆံုးေပၚလာတာက ကင္ပြန္းခ်ဥ္ရြက္ပါ။ ေလာေလာဆယ္ အိမ္မွာ ခ်က္စရာ အဆင္သင့္မရွိေတာ့ ရွိတဲ့ မန္က်ည္းရြက္ကေလးပဲ သုပ္စားရေကာင္းမလားေပါ့။ ပုဇြန္ေလးကလည္း အရန္သင့္ရွိေနေတာ့ ရွိတာေလးနဲ႔ ဘယ္လို စားေကာင္းေအာင္ ခ်က္မလဲ စဥ္းစားရင္းက တေရးႏိုးအႀကံေပၚ ဆိုသလို မန္က်ည္းရြက္နဲ႔ ပုဇြန္ကို ခ်က္စားဖို႔ စိတ္ကူးရလိုက္တယ္။ (တကယ္က က်မခင္ပြန္းဆီက စိတ္ကူးပါ။) ဒါေပမယ့္ ဟင္းခ်က္ေတာ္လြန္းတဲ့ က်မ (ဟိ တူးတာ မ်ားလြန္းတဲ့ ကိုယ့္ဟာကို ေျမွာက္ၾကည့္တာ) ဘယ္လိုခ်က္ရမလဲ ဆိုတာ ေသခ်ာေအာင္ မဲေဆာက္က မမဆီမွာ လွမ္းေမးရပါတယ္။ အဲလိုခ်က္စားလို႔ရသလားေပါ့။ မမက ရတယ္၊ ဘယ္လိုခ်က္ဆိုတဲ့ ခ်က္နည္းကေလး လည္း ေျပာေပးပါတယ္။ အဲဒါနဲ႔ မန္းက်ည္းရြက္ပုဇြန္ခ်ဥ္စပ္ဟင္း တခြက္ ခ်က္ၾကည့္ပါတယ္။ 

မန္က်ည္းရြက္နဲ႔ ပုဇြန္အစပ္ခ်က္

လိုတာကေတာ့ မန္က်ညး္ရြက္ (အေလးခ်ိန္ ၁ ခစ္၊ ခ်င္းမိုင္မွာက ကီလိုနဲ႔ေရာင္းတာဆိုေတာ့ ၁ ကီလိုရဲ့ ၁၀ ပံု ၁ ပံု ဆို အမ်ားႀကီး ရပါတယ္။)နဲ႔  ပုဇြန္နည္းနည္း (ခန္႔မွန္းေျခ ၂ ခစ္ေလာက္ေပါ့။ ကိုယ္စားခ်င္သေလာက္ ထဲ့လို႔ရတယ္။) ေပါ့။ 

ပထမဆံုး ငရုပ္သီးကိုေထာင္း (၁၀ ေတာင့္ေလာက္ထဲ့ရင္ ေတာ္ေတာ္စပ္ပါတယ္။) ၾကက္သြန္ျဖဴေလးနဲ႔ အနီေလးပါ ေရာထဲ့ၿပီး ပုဇြန္ငပိေလး ထန္းလ်က္ခဲလံုးစာေလာက္ေလးထဲ့ၿပီး ေထာင္းပါ။ မန္က်ည္းရြက္ကို ေရေဆးထား။ ၿပီးရင္ေတာ့ ဆီပူနဲ႔ ေထာင္းထားတဲ့ငရုပ္ ဆီသပ္၊ (မတူးေစနဲ႔ေနာ္။ တူးရင္ ခါးတယ္) ေမႊးလာရင္ ပုဇြန္ထဲ့၊ ပုဇြန္ေကြးလာၿပီးရင္ မန္က်ည္းရြက္ကေလး အုပ္လိုက္တာပါပဲ။ ၿပီးရင္ ေရေလး နည္းနည္းေလးထဲ့။ အေပါ့အငန္ျမည္းၾကည့္ၿပီး လိုရင္ ငံျပာရည္နည္းနည္းထဲ့။ (အခ်ိဳမႈန္႔ စားတတ္ရင္ အခ်ဳိမႈန္႔ေလး နည္းနည္းထဲ့ပါ) ေရက ခန္းသြားၿပီး ဆီျပန္သလို ပြက္လာရင္ေတာ့ ဟင္းက်က္ပါပီ။ ခ်ဳိ ခ်ဥ္ စပ္ အရသာ သံုးမ်ဳိးပါတဲ့ ဒီဟင္းနဲ႔ ကိုယ္ႀကိဳက္တဲ့ဟင္းခ်ဳိရည္ေလး တခြက္ပါထပ္ခ်က္ၿပီး စားရင္ ပိုၿမိန္မွာေပါ့။ 

ရုံးကို ဒီဟင္းနဲ႔ ထမင္းခ်ဳိင့္ယူသြားေတာ့ ရံုးက ေဘာ္ေဘာ္ေတြလည္း ခံတြင္းေတြ႔တယ္ဆိုေတာ့ ပီတိ ျဖစ္ရေသး။ ခ်က္နည္းေပးတဲ့ မမကို ေက်းဇူးတင္တဲ့အေနနဲ႔ သူေပးတဲ့ ဟင္းခ်က္နည္းေလးကို ဒီလိုမွတ္တမ္းတင္လိုက္တာပါ။

ေကဇီလင္း

 

NGO Registration Law to be Drafted

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 17, 2012 | 

 

The drafting of a new registration law specifically for non-governmental organizations was approved by Burma’s Lower House of Parliament on Thursday while existing legislation will also be reviewed.

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann responded favorably to a proposal “urging the government to draft an NGO registration law commensurate with the age as the president called for cooperation with civil societies in the democratic transition.” The matter was first brought up last week by Thein Nyunt, an MP for the New National Democracy Party.

Shwe Mann instructed the Lower House Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission, Bill Committee, interested MPs and the respective ministry, “to revise the orders and regulations and to draft new legislation as necessary.” He said they should “submit the report as soon as possible assuming it as a special case” as the procedures for NGO registration should be handled smoothly.

Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Brig-Gen Kyaw Zan Myint objected to drafting a new NGO law during the debate. “There is no need to draft new legislation as the current registration law is still sophisticated and their regulations have nothing to amend.” Instead he recommended putting the matter on record.

Shwe Mann said current regulations and bylaws are insufficient and so necessary amendments needed to be made. He told MPs that the current rules, regulations and orders of the registration law “lack practicality and flexibility” as they “went beyond the purpose of the original law.”

As well as the new legislation specifically for NGOs Shwe Mann said that the existing 1988 Registration Law should also be reviewed.

“The speaker’s decision to make amendments by the parliamentary committee and parliamentarians will be effective as it would be quicker than the government drafting legislation,” Thein Nyunt added.

Thirteen lawmakers—from the main opposition National League for Democracy, National Unity Party, Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party and National Democratic Front—discussed the need to have flexible procedures for NGO registration on Wednesday and Thursday.

NGOs inside Burma have to register under the restrictive 1988 Registration Law which was enacted in September 1988, shortly after the nationwide Aug. 8 popular uprising in Burma and in time for the 1990 general election. Any associations which are not registered under this law can be charged with the Unlawful Association Act which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Thein Nyunt said the law was enacted to restrict any organization from political activities at that time, but now the country is reforming and so the political landscape is different. He added that fresh legislation is needed as there are no specific guidelines for NGOs that would help socioeconomic development in Burma to operate officially.

Shwe Mann also pointed out the inclusion of “unpractical requirements” in the rules such as the high cost of registration. NGOs must pay 100,000 kyat (US $110) and submit report every two years under the regulations, but in reality sources say that groups must pay up to 500,000 kyat ($550) to be registered.

There are currently around 270 NGOs registered at the Ministry of Home Affairs while more than 1,000 are actually working inside Burma, according to Kyaw Zan Myint.
 

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11784 

Constitutional Tribunal Could Face Impeachment

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 16, 2012 | 

 

Shwe Mann, the speaker of Burma’s Lower House of Parliament, told MPs on Tuesday that they can begin impeachment proceedings against members of the Constitutional Tribunal next week if President Thein Sein fails to take action to overturn a controversial tribunal decision.

Last week, 301 Lower House MPs signed a petition calling on the tribunal to withdraw a judgment reached in March that declared it unconstitutional to designate “committees, commissions and bodies formed by each Hluttaw [Parliament]” as “Union-level organizations.”

The decision by the nine-member tribunal, which consists of judges selected by the president and the speakers of both houses of Parliament, is controversial because it was seen as undermining the role of MPs.

“The Constitutional Tribunal is now assuming a position above Parliament that harms its legislative powers,” said Ba Shein, a Lower House MP from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party. “If they continue to exercise their influence in this way, what is left of the role of legislators?”

In April, 191 MPs appealed to the president to do something about the tribunal’s decision, but no action was taken, said Shwe Mann, who called on Tuesday for the tribunal members to resign voluntarily. If they don’t, he said, the MPs can move to impeach them on Aug. 22, after Thein Sein has had a chance to respond to calls to reverse the March ruling.

“If the president acts as requested, the impeachment will not proceed,” the speaker added.
The dispute began in February, when the attorney-general, acting on behalf of the president, asked the tribunal to decide on the status of committees and other bodies formed by Parliament.

The tribunal determined that these bodies could not be designated “Union-level organizations” because,
under Parts I and II of Section 97a of the Constitution, Union-level bodies can only be appointed by the president with the approval of the Union Parliament.

This was immediately criticized as an excessively narrow interpretation of the Constitution. According to Deputy Lower House Speaker Nanda Kyaw Swa, any committee formed by Parliament is a Union-level body under Section 140 and 160 of the Constitution.

Although the dispute has been left unresolved for the past five months, it has received very little public attention. It was only raised in the state media this week, when The New Light of Myanmar reported that Shwe Mann had sent a letter to the president regarding the MP’s concerns.
 

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11677 

President Thein Sein Discusses the Situation in Rakhine State

ဒီႏွစ္ ဇြန္လ ၈ ရက္ကစလို႔ အၾကမ္းဖက္မႈေတြေၾကာင့္ ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္ေျမာက္ဘက္ပိုင္းမွာ ရခိုင္တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြနဲ႔ ဘဂၤလီေတြအၾကား တိုက္ခိုက္မႈေတြဟာ ေဒသတြင္းအေျခအေနကေန ႏိုင္ငံတကာက အာရံုစိုက္လာရတဲ့အေျခအေနထိ ျကီးထြားလာပါတယ္။ ဒီအေျခအေနေတြကို ဗီြအိုေအ အေမရိကန္အသံ ျမန္မာဌာနက ဌာနမွဴး ဦးသန္းလြင္ထြန္းက သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္နဲ႔ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၁၃ ရက္ တနလၤာေန႔မွာ ေနျပည္ေတာ္မွာ ေတြ႔ဆံုေမးျမန္းထားတဲ့ ဗီြဒီယိုဖုိင္ပါ။

Media Objects to Interim Regulatory Body

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 14, 2012 |

Myanmar Journalists Association (MJA) representatives have told Information Minister Kyaw Hsan that they will not take part in the new 20-member Myanmar Core Press Council (MCPC) until changes are made to its powers and obligations.

The MCPC was formed to regulate the press until the new Media Law is passed later this year, but five MJA members on the council told a meeting on Sunday that they will not take any part until amendments are made to its authority.

“MJA representatives will not take part in the interim press council unless the unacceptable points in the MCPC obligations are amended,” said an earlier statement issued on Friday. After the new Media Law is passed a permanent press council is due to be formed to oversee journalistic ethics.

Thiha Saw, a MCPC member and vice-chairman of the MJA, said, “We asked to amend eight points in the MCPC’s obligations and authorities as it now looks like it will be replacing the tasks of the censorship board.”

“We cannot perform the censorship board’s job,” he added. “It is also against international standards. The council is to protect journalists and the freedom of the press.”

The MJA said that the current regulations contradict discussions with officials from the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) from a couple of months ago.

Journalists asked to delete four points—to supervise the work of the press which is deemed detrimental to the public interests, dignity of the state and national sovereignty; to scrutinize imported publications so they conform with the national interest; exercising authority in accordance with the Evidence Act, Penal Code, Code of Civil Procedure and Tort; and MCPC members enjoying immunity from prosecution.

They also asked for other points to be reworded—that journalists must approve the draft Media Law instead of the legislation being solely compiled by the Ministry of Information; and combining sections 3 (c) and (i) to “settle disputes” regarding journalism ethics instead of “summoning, educating and taking action” over breaches.

Kyaw Hsan said that the MCPC’s activities will be postponed until the dispute with the MJA is settled, said Maung Wuntha, a MCPC member and chairman of the MJA.

“When the demanded points are changed and announced, we will join MCPC meetings,” Maung Wuntha told The Irrawaddy. However, Kyaw Hsan did not say whether their objections would be granted or turned down and there was no further discussion at the meeting about abolishing censorship in line with previously stated policy, added Maung Wuntha.

In the meantime, the PSRD informed journals on Sunday that they must continue to submit stories to the censor board as usual.

The MJA was formally established on Saturday during a nationwide journalists’ conference, a day after the formation of the MCPC was announced by the government. Five leading MJA members—Patron Khin Maung Lay, Chairman Maung Wuntha, Vice-Chairman-1 Ko Ko, Vice-Chairman-2 Thiha Saw and Foreign Relations chief Aung Hla Htun—were also named as representing one quarter of the MCPC.

The MJA also asked Kyaw Hsan to inform members in advance before any further announcements regarding the MCPC. Apart from the MJA contingent, there are 15 other MCPC members including lawyers, judges, academics and publishers appointed by the government.

Kyaw Hsan is known to be a hardliner in President Thein Sein’s administration and there are persistent rumors that he will be relieved of his cabinet post in a reshuffle to take place in the next few days.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11471

Burma Govt Forms Interim Press Council

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 10, 2012 | 

 

Facing growing criticism for stalling on promises to abolish its draconian censorship board, Burma’s government has announced that it has formed a new 20-member interim press council, state media reported on Friday.

Called the Myanmar Core Press Council (MCPC), the new body will be chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge and include academics, lawyers and members of press associations.

The move comes two months after Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told journalists that the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), Burma’s censorship board, would soon be abolished and replaced by an independent press council.

However, that council has yet to materialize due to delays in drafting a new media law, which is due to be passed during the current session of Parliament, which ends in September. The government-appointed MCPC will serve in its place until the new law has been enacted.

The MCPC’s duties will include dealing with ethical issues, providing journalistic training and resolving disputes among media practitioners, according to a notification order published in the state-run media.

The council will also draft a Press Council Bill—one of the demands made by journalist associations after they rejected regulations for the council proposed by the Ministry of Information in June.

“There have to be meetings between the Information Ministry and the members of the press council, because its members were appointed by the government but haven’t even met yet,” said Ko Ko, the secretary of the Myanmar Journalists Association, who was named secretary of the MCPC.

Despite Kyaw Hsan’s promises in June to limit the PSRD’s responsibilities to registering publications,  it continues to act as a censorship board. Ko Ko says, however, that it could now be abolished within weeks.

After it is abolished, “around six daily newspapers will be established,” according to sources in the Information Ministry.

Criticism of the PSRD became more outspoken last week after it suspended publication of two journals—The Voice Weekly and Envoy—at the end of July. The move prompted protests in Rangoon and Mandalay, and the PSRD announced earlier this week that the two journals would be allowed to resume publication in the third week of August.

Despite the formation of the press council, however, some publishers say they are still not satisfied.

Aung Paw Htun, an editor with the Messenger journal, said that the members of the council should have been elected independently by journalists. “Only an independent press council can protect journalists in accordance with journalistic ethics,” he said.

The Eleven Media Group said on its website that it cannot accept the government’s formation of this interim council and does not believe that it can work for journalistic ethics.

The Myanmar Journalist Network, an association consisting mostly of young journalists, recently decided that it would not join the council, a quarter of whose members are from the Myanmar Journalists Association.
 

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11336 

New Curfews Imposed in Arakan State

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 9, 2012 | 

 

Three more townships in northern Arakan State imposed curfews on Wednesday following fresh clashes earlier this week between Buddhists and Muslims in the strife-torn region, where a total of nine townships are now under lockdown.

The curfews—in Kyauktaw, Minbya and Mrauk-Oo townships—are in response to a series of incidents in Kyauktaw on Aug. 5-6 that left property destroyed and an unspecified number of people dead.

“The curfews were ordered to prevent any further violence in the area after the clashes in Kyauktaw,” said Myo Thant, a member of a special media team set up by the state government in the wake of violence that first broke out in early June.

According to Thar Kyaw, a member of the state legislature, at least 300 homes owned by both ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims were destroyed by fire after riots broke out on Aug. 5 in five villages—Apauk Wa, Shwe Hlaing, Gut Pi Taung, Ywar Nyar and Taung Pauk.

The situation in the area is now “stable,” he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

Local residents in the affected townships said the curfew is from 7 pm to 5 am in Kyauktaw, and from 10 pm to 4 am in the other two townships.

“Township authorities have also ordered people to hand over any knives, slingshots and jinglees in their possession,” said Thar Kyaw, who is a resident of Minbya. Jinglees are sharpened bicycle spokes that are used as arrows, often with poison applied to their tips.

Residents of the three townships said that schools and shops are open as usual, but there is a heavy security presence in the streets. Around five or six policemen or soldiers have been assigned to guard each school and Rohingya village in the area, said residents.

In the predominantly Muslim townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, however, schools have been  closed since the violence began in early June and markets are allowed to open only in the mornings. Sources in the area say that security has been tightened since yesterday amid fears of bomb attacks.

In Mrauk Oo, local resident Maung Than said the situation appears to be stable, despite a relatively minor confrontation on Wednesday between Arakanese and Rohingyas in a village about 6 km from the town.

Residents of Kyauktaw said that this week’s violence was much worse than the clashes in the area two months ago. At that time, several houses were burned down, but no casualties were reported.

This time, an unknown number of people were killed. “We’re still in the process of counting and identifying the dead,” said Myo Thant.

Maung Maung, a resident of Kyauktaw, said the renewed violence stemmed from two recent attacks on Arakanese-owned properties.

On Aug. 2, which marked the beginning of the Buddhist lent period, a group of Rohingyas allegedly destroyed a bus station in Kyauktaw, and on Sunday, a small rice mill in the village of Taung Pauk was allegedly burnt down and looted by a Rohingya mob.

A state-wide state of emergency was declared after the strife started in Maungdaw in June 8 and curfews have been in place in Sittwe, Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Kyaukphyu, Thandwe and Ramree townships since June 10.
 

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11252 

Rights Envoy Meets Burmese Exiles

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 8, 2012 | 

 

The United Nations human rights envoy for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, was in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on Tuesday to discuss rights issues with Burmese exiles and ethnic groups based in the area.

Representatives of 10 groups, including health care providers, refugee relief agencies, prisoners’ rights advocates, ethnic organizations and students’ and women’s groups, were present at the meeting.

According to sources who attended the consultation, a wide range of issues was discussed, including continuing conflict in ethnic areas, the ongoing detention of political prisoners, land confiscation, proposed refugee resettlement programs and landmines in former and current conflict zones.

Saw Albert, the field coordinator for the Karen Human Rights Group, said he told the UN envoy that any effort to repatriate refugees—many of whom have been in Thailand for more than two decades—should be carried out systematically and with guarantees for their safety and well-being.

He also added that despite the current ceasefire in Karen State, human rights abuses continue, albeit not  in the same form as before, when civilians were routinely targeted by Burmese military offensives.

Now, he said, many are forced off their land by development projects that have been packaged as part of the “peace process” in the state.

Another major concern, he said, is the presence of landmines throughout the area, where conflict has raged for more than six decades.

Others expressed concern about the uncertainty surrounding the future of refugee camps in Thailand, which house around 160,000 people displaced by fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Union. Since Burma launched its reforms last year, many say that aid has shifted away from the border into projects inside Burma.

“Cutting humanitarian assistance to the refugee camps is also a form of human rights violation,” said Dr Naing Aung of the Forum for Democracy in Burma.

One problem with cutting back on funding for the camps and other projects on the border, he said, is that it is still far from clear if reforms inside the country are irreversible, and if they will bring a real improvement in the rights situation.

“Civil society groups should pay closer attention to the ceasefire process and the international community should set up a body to monitor whether or not human rights violations are continuing,” said Naing Aung.

Another issue raised at the meeting is the continuing detention of political prisoners. Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said his group informed the UN envoy that there are still 442 detainees in Burma’s prisons for political offenses.

Besides issues affecting political dissidents and ethnic minorities, there are also widespread abuses against farmers and workers, who make up the vast majority of the country’s population. Quintana heard how land confiscation has become a growing problem in rural areas amid increasing domestic and foreign investment in Burma’s economy, while workers who strike for higher wages face dismissal.

Quintana’s trip to the Thai border follows a fact-finding mission to Arakan State, where clashes between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless.

Before starting his week-long visit to Burma, the UN envoy said that the human rights situation is still a major concern that demands much closer attention. He made the same point during his visit to Mae Sot.

“Mr Quintana said that the international community is paying much more attention to the current reforms than to the human rights situation,” said Naing Aung.

Quintana is expected to submit his report to the UN Human Rights Council in October.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11153

Suu Kyi to Head ‘Rule of Law’ Committee

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 7, 2012 |

National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi was approved by Burma’s Parliament on Tuesday to chair the newly formed Committee for Rule of Law and Stability, according to sources in her party.

It is the first committee that Suu Kyi has been appointed to since she and other elected members of her party entered Parliament last month.

Commenting on her new position, Suu Kyi told reporters in Naypyidaw on Tuesday that “Rule of law is not about control, but about protecting society.”

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann announced the formation of the new committee during Tuesday’s parliamentary session.

Win Myint, the NLD MP for Pathein constituency and the secretary of the committee, said that the vice-speaker of the Lower House, Nanda Kyaw Swar, informed the committee of its responsibilities.

“It is to supervise whether the four important pillars—the legislature, the judiciary, the civil service and the media—are following the rule of law,” Nanda Kyaw Swar told the committee members.

Win Tin, a leading member of the NLD, said Suu Kyi’s appointment to the chairmanship of the committee was appropriate because she has often stressed the need for rule of law as part of her party’s platform, along with establishing peace and amending the Constitution.

“It is a chance for her, as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly raised the issue of rule of law in her addresses to the public, in Parliament and to the international community,” said Win Tin.

Three NLD parliamentarians are listed in the committee, which is comprised of 15 members, including MPs representing the Chin, Kachin, Karenni, Arakanese, Mon and Shan ethnic minorities.

Some politicians said they could not predict how effective the committee will be, given the fact that its members come from many different parties.

Win Myint said that no exact schedule has been established yet for committee meetings.

Some of the committee’s members remarked that they had not not been informed in advance of their new appointments.

“I only learned that I was on the committee when the house speaker read out the names of the committee members,” said Thein Nyunt, the New Democracy Party MP for Rangoon’s Thingangyun Township.

Dr Zaw Myint Maung, an NLD MP from Kyaukpadaung constituency, said he also had no idea that he would be on the committee.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/11057

Children of Migrants to Get Burmese IDs

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 6, 2012 | 

 

Peace negotiators claim that birth certificate will soon be provided to the Thailand-born children of Burmese migrants after a second successful meeting with Dr. Cynthia Maung at Mae Tao Clinic, in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, on Sunday.

Collaboration between Myawaddy Hospital, Mae Tao Clinic and Mae Sot General Hospital is also being discussed by Dr. Cynthia and Burmese volunteer doctors including Dr. Wai Wai Thar, the wife of Railway Minister Aung Min who acts as Naypyidaw’s chief peace negotiator.

The Burmese delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Health, doctors from Myawaddy and Mandalay hospitals along with Aung Min, Immigration Minister Khin Yi, Industrial Minister Soe Thein, Karen State Chief Minister Zaw Min and Wai Wai Thar, from the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association.

Aung Min told a previous meeting that he will coordinate with Dr. Cynthia and his wife to discuss details of the process.

“We agreed on the formation of the patient transfer system as well as disease controls in the cross-border areas,” said Dr. Cynthia. Another important matter discussed was the “issuing of birth certificates for Burmese children born in Thailand,” she added.

“We come here to support [Dr. Cynthia’s] needs and we will collaborate with her,” Aung Min told journalists in Mae Sot. “Issuing birth certificate is really easy—we can just do it right away.”

According to the Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Child Rights, there were 20,661 children registered at Mae Tao Clinic between 2003 and 2011, while “tens of thousands more may be left behind due to a lack of knowledge among the migrant workers and the barriers of travelling without legal documents,” said General-Secretary Naing Min.

The clinic also raised the issue of staff being able to return over the border to provide healthcare in rural areas of Karen State, and the government ministers said they would support this.

Dr. Cynthia said that Mao Tao Clinic will continue working on some necessary projects even when migrant workers can receive full healthcare and treatment at Mae Sot or Myawaddy hospitals. But currently, “I do not see better services for migrant workers yet,” she said.

Community groups and Mae Tao Clinic are working together with the Burmese Immigration Department to help local migrant children with the details of implementation to be discussed in future meetings.

Ministers said the government will improve facilities at Myawaddy Hospital so it will be able to accept patients from Mae Tao Clinic. This second meeting focused on collaboration and finding practical solutions to unresolved problems, but did not cover funding issues.

Aung Min also met with Zipporah Sein, general-secretary of the ethnic rebel Karen National Union, in Myawaddy on Sunday morning before visiting Mae Tao Clinic in the afternoon.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/10946
 

Accused Thingyan Bomber Pardoned

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 3, 2012 | 

Phyo Wai Aung, an engineer who was sentenced to death in May for allegedly carrying out a bombing during Burma’s Thingyan water festival in 2010, has been released from custody after receiving a pardon from President Thein Sein.

The move comes four days after the UN’s special rights envoy for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, met with Phyo Wai Aung on July 30 during his latest visit to the country.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Phyo Wai Aung said he always believed he would be freed one day because the allegations against him were completely false.

“I was arrested mistakenly,” he said.

Phyo Wai Aung was arrested on April 23, 2010, for his alleged involvement in a spate of bombings at the Thingyan water festival in Rangoon earlier that month. The explosions killed at least 10 people and injured around 100 others.

During his subsequent interrogation, he was allegedly tortured and has since suffered from a variety of health problems. He was sentenced to death at a closed trial in May and two days later admitted to Insein General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with liver cancer.

When asked to comment on his treatment and the trial proceedings, he said that the system was at fault and declined to point any fingers.

Htay Htay, Phyo Wai Aung’s wife, said she was informed of her husband’s pardon two hours before his release.

“The chief warden told me to come to the hospital at about 10 o’clock this morning because they were planning to release him,” she said. “He read out the president’s order, which said that Ko Phyo Wai Aung would be freed under Section 401 [of the Criminal Procedure Code].”

Due to his rapidly deteriorating health, which went largely untreated until May, Phyo Wai Aung now suffers from paralysis of the lower half of his body. His family said their next step would be to transfer him to Rangoon General Hospital, where he can receive treatment from liver specialists.

“His health condition needs urgent medical attention and closer care,” said his brother, Dr Htet Wai Aung.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/10808 

Worker Strike Probe Shot Down by MPs

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 2, 2012 | 

 

A proposal to form a committee to investigate worker strikes, which took place in Rangoon factories to demand wages hikes over the past year, was rejected by Burma’s Lower House of Parliament after a vote on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy after the decision, Thein Nyunt, a Lower House MP for the New Democracy Party, said he proposed forming the new committee in order to keep tabs on the current political and economic situation.

Labor Minister Aung Kyi said in the Parliament session that, “labor laws are already enacted and it needs some time to be in effective. Therefore, there is no need to form such an investigation committee.”

But Thein Nyunt replied that sidelining the issue will not bring benefits to workers. “It is not enough just enacting a law,” he said. “Although there are labor councils for workers in accordance with the 1964 Labor Rights and Responsibilities Act, the workers strikes emerged since 1974 as a political issue.”

He added that it is difficult for Burma to move forward towards parliamentary democracy if people continue to deny there is a labor problem in the country.

Opposition parliamentarians Myint Thein, the National League for Democracy MP for Magwe constituency, and Khine Maung Yi, the National Democratic Front MP for Rangoon’s Alone constituency , backed Thein Nyunt’s call. Aung Thein Lin, the controversial Unity Solidarity and Development Party MP for Rangoon’s South Oakkalapa constituency, spoke against the move.

The proposal was rejected by just 43 votes in favor compared with 288 against and 17 abstentions. But Thein Nyunt said the proposal can be resubmitted during the next parliamentary session.

Aung Thein Lin, who is currently being investigated for a damning interview in China’s Southern Weekly journal, said that officials at the Ministry of Labor were working hard to solve strike issues, according to the Parliament website.

He explained that 90 factories, mostly in Rangoon, went in strike in May and June but all are now back on track after officials helped in negotiations between the employers and employees.

In June, the Ministry of Labor imposed a minimum wage for workers, Aung Thein Lin added, and more than 100 worker associations have been formed in accordance with the new Labor Association law and bylaws.

Meanwhile, the Minimum Wage Bill is due to be discussed in Parliament this month.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/10695 

Burmese Officials Told to Declare Assets

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 1, 2012 | 

Despite an order by Burmese President Thein Sein last week for government officials to declare their assets by Aug 1, few expect to see an honest accounting of the personal wealth accumulated by former members of the country’s defunct military junta.

Local media reported this week that Thein Sein made the decision to call on officials to disclose the extent of their wealth after Win Myint, a National League for Democracy (NLD) Lower House MP for Pathein constituency, urged the move in Parliament on July 25.

In a formal proposal submitted to the country’s military-dominated legislature, the opposition MP called on “Union government members [and] Region or State government members” to declare their assets “for emergence of good governance and clean government.”

The proposal was accepted for consideration, and a day later, the President’s Office ordered all officials appointed by the president to submit lists of their assets and businesses no later than Aug 1, in accordance with Section 101 of the Union Government Law, which was enacted in October 2010.

However, the news was greeted with doubts about whether any officials who profited during their tenure in the former junta would come clean about how much they owned thanks to their former and current positions.

“I don’t think those at the government level will honestly declare all of their assets because most officials in the new government are in one way or another implicated in the corrupt and unfair practices of the previous regime,” said Win Tin, a leading member of the NLD.

However, he added, it was the government’s responsibility to continue pushing for greater accountability from officials.

Among the officials to whom Thein Sein’s order applies are members of the president’s cabinet, chief justices and Supreme Court judges, the chairman and members of the Constitutional Tribunal, the attorney-general, the auditor-general, divisional or state chief ministers and ministers, and divisional or state chief justices and judges.

Win Tin said this was no enough to ensure clean government. “I urge the president to include parliamentarians and cronies in his order. They should also be included in the investigation,” he said.

Thein Nyunt, a Lower House MP for the New Democracy Party, said that if an anti-corruption bill is discussed and approved, everyone in the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government should be forced to declare their assets and those who are found to be corrupt should be charged by an anti-corruption commission.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/10666 

World bank statement on Aug 1

ကမၻာ့ဘဏ္က ျမန္မာျပည္ကို ပထမဆံုး ကူညီမယ္ဆိုတာ ထုတ္ျပန္တဲ့ ေၾကညာခ်က္-- ဒီလင့္ခ္ကေန ၀က္ဆိုက္မွာ ၾကည့္လို႔လည္း ရတယ္။


http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/08/01/world-bank-group-prepares-first-grants-support-myanmar-reforms

PRESS RELEASE

World Bank Group Prepares First Grants to Support Myanmar’s Reforms

August 1, 2012

YANGON, August 1, 2012 – The World Bank Group is stepping up its support for reforms in Myanmar and opening a new country office. The Bank is preparing to present to its Board up to $85 million in grants to benefit men, women and children through community driven development programs which will allow communities to decide whether to invest in schools, roads, water or other projects.
"We are committed to eradicating poverty and the new office opening in Myanmar will allow us to reach some of the poorest people in East Asia. They have been cut off from the global economy for too long and it's very important that they receive real benefits from the government's reforms," said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President.

World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Pamela Cox announced the grants in Yangon where she opened a new World Bank Group office jointly with the International Finance Corporation Vice President for Asia Pacific, Karin Finkelston.
“Myanmar is among the poorest countries in the region. The needs of the people are great – and the World Bank Group is working with partners to support government reforms that will improve people’s lives, especially the poor and vulnerable,” said Ms. Cox. “This will help lay the foundation for broad economic growth, creating opportunities for all.”
Ms. Cox and Ms. Finkelston met with President U Thein Sein, cabinet members, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and other members of parliament. This was the first visit by Bank senior leadership since Myanmar began undertaking reforms.
The World Bank grants will support a national community driven development program providing funds to people in local communities, including in border conflict areas. Community members will select development projects they need and transparency will ensure that everyone can track the use of funds.

The grants are intended to build confidence in the reform process. A recent World Bank development report on fragile and conflict affected countries stresses the importance of generating real economic benefits for people in fragile situations to increase the prospects for lasting peace.
The Bank is also expanding technical assistance and providing global expertise to help the Government deliver services to the people. The Bank is now conducting economic research in Myanmar to gain a better understanding of the extent of poverty, to help expand and modernize the financial system, and enhance the business environment.
"Actions in these areas will help the government attract responsible foreign investment, expand trade, manage its resources better and create more jobs and opportunities for people,” said Ms. Cox.
IFC, the member of the World Bank Group focused exclusively on private sector development, has begun assessments in areas critical to private sector growth such as access to finance, investment climate, and infrastructure. The results of these assessments will form the basis of IFC’s future program in Myanmar.
"As we have witnessed in other economies in transition, the private sector plays a critical role in job creation and in providing the means for all to benefit from economic growth," said Ms. Finkelston. "We are committed to helping the people of Myanmar in the reform process and to supporting the private sector to create jobs and opportunities for businesses to grow.”
As a multilateral financial institution with 188 member countries, the World Bank will coordinate with other development partners to ensure the needs of the people of Myanmar are met effectively.
Additional Facts:
• Myanmar will have access to interest free loans from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, after it clears arrears of $397 million to the World Bank.
• The World Bank Group is working on a new “Interim Strategy” with the Government of Myanmar and development partners, which will guide the Bank’s work as it prepares for a full country program.
• Mr. Kanthan Shankar has been appointed Myanmar Country Manager to lead the World Bank team in the country. Shankar has over 15 years of experience working in conflict and post-conflict environments, including in Timor-Leste, West Bank, Gaza and Kosovo.
• Mr. Charles Schneider has been appointed IFC Resident Representative to lead development of its program in Myanmar. Schneider has over 15 years of private sector experience including in Southeast Asia where he has worked in Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR. 
• Myanmar became a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) in 1952. The Bank has approved no new lending since 1987. In 1998, the Government went into arrears but has remained a member of the Bank.