Myanmar transformed? Probing change and continuity in contemporary Myanmar

The Yangon launch of the Myanmar Update volume, ‘Myanmar Transformed? People, Places and Politics’ (ISEAS, 2018), will be held on 10 November Saturday, at the Goethe Institute in Yangon.

Venue: Auditorium, Goethe Institute, Yangon

About the Seminar

The triumph of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy at the 2015 election was supposed to mark the consolidation of a reformist trajectory for Myanmar society. What has followed has not been so straightforward. This panel discussion, featuring authors of the recently released Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) publication ‘Myanmar Transformed? People, Places, Politics’ (2018), will take stock of the mutations, continuities and fractures at the heart of today’s political and economic transformations.

This panel discussion, including Ben Belton, Lwin Cho Latt, Gerard McCarthy, Si Thura, and Matthew Walton, will ask: What has changed under a democratically elected government? Where are the obstacles to reform? And is there scope to foster a more prosperous and inclusive Myanmar? With the peace process faltering, over 1 million people displaced by recent violence, and ongoing army dominance in key areas of decision-making, the panel will discuss the the structural factors shaping social and economic change, the limits of political change as well as areas of reform possible within the constraints of Myanmar’s hybrid civil–military governance arrangements.

This event is a collaboration between the ANU Myanmar Research Centre, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the Initiative Austausch, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

For catering purposes, please RSVP for the book launch.

About the speakers:

Ben Belton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics at Michigan State university. A rural sociologist, his work focuses on agrarian change, agricultural value chains, food and nutrition security, the political economy and political ecology of aquaculture and capture fisheries development, poverty and social well-being, in Southeast and South Asia–where he has lived and worked for more than a decade. He is currently based in Myanmar, where he leads the research component of the ‘Food Security Policy Project’, a five year project funded by USAID and LIFT. He co-authored the chapter ‘Myanmar’s Rural Revolution: Mechanization and Structural Transformation’, with Myat Thida Win and Ziabo Zhang.

Lwin Cho Latt is an Assistant Lecturer of the International Relations Department at University of Yangon. She is responsible for teaching Political Science and International Relations courses in the undergraduate and postgraduate diploma programs She has taken part in developing curriculum materials and activities for the IR department. Her research interest are in the field of Myanmar’s relations with its neighbouring countries and Myanmar’s Political Transition and Peace Process. Currently, she is involved in a range of research projects, including on trust perceptions in ethnic minority areas. She co-authored the chapter ‘From Ceasefire to Dialogue: The Problem of “All-Inclusiveness” in Myanmar’s Stalled Peace Process’ with Ben Hillman, Marlar Aung and Khin Sanda Myint.

Gerard McCarthy is Visiting Fellow in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore and Associate Director of the Myanmar Research Centre at Australian National University (ANU). His doctoral dissertation in the ANU Department of Political and Social Change examined the historical and contemporary dynamics of market reform and state-society relations in Myanmar. His writing and commentary on Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Sudan and Australia has been published in journals including Conflict, Security and Development, Journal of Contemporary Asia and SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia as well as outlets such as The New York Times, Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS) and New Mandala. He is co-editor of ‘Myanmar Transformed? People, Places and Politics’ (ISEAS 2018) with Justine Chambers, Nicholas Farrelly and Chit Win.

Si Thura is Senior Representative for Community Partners International (CPI) in Myanmar. After he graduated from the University of Medicine in Myanmar, he worked at the Medicine du Monde (MdM), assisting the Cyclone Nargis recovery project in the Irrawaddy Region. During this time Dr Si Thura also cofounded a local organisation called Sympathetic Doctors Group, comprised of young doctors implementing humanitarian assistance programs in Myanmar. Dr Si Thura joined CPI IN 2009 and has since led the successful establishment of in-country operations and programs. In 2013 he was awarded the Australian Leadership Award which enabled him to complete a Master of Arts in Public Health at the Australian National University (ANU). He currently oversees CPI operations in Myanmar and is the senior representative for CPI with the Government of Myanmar, donors and partners. He co-authored the chapter ‘Health Service Delivery and Peacebuilding in Southeast Myanmar’ with Tim Schroeder.

Matthew Walton is an Assistant Professor in Comparative Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was the founding Director of the Programme on Modern Burmese Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford University. His research focuses on religion and politics in Southeast Asia, with a special emphasis on Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar. Matt’s first book, “Buddhism, Politics and Political Thought in Myanmar” was published in 2016 with Cambridge University Press and explores the influence of Burmese Buddhist political thinking on Myanmar’s current democratic transition. He is currently completing a manuscript on comparative Theravada Buddhist political thought in South and Southeast Asia and has just finished leading a 2-year project studying “Buddhist nationalism” in Myanmar. He authored the chapter ‘Reflections on Myanmar Under the NLD so far’.

Image by Paul Arps on Flickr