Remarks by President Obama at Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall, 11/14/14 

Yangon University

Rangoon, Burma

3:43 P.M. MMT

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody!

AUDIENCE: Hi!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Myanmar Luu Ngae Myar Min Galarbar! (Applause.) It’s wonderful to be back in Myanmar. Everybody, please have a seat. Have a seat. Oh, we got some signs -- “Reform is fake.” “Change…” -- okay, well, you guys will have a chance to ask questions later. Yeah, you can put them away. That’s why we’re here -- for a town hall. See, that’s the thing, when you have a town hall, you don’t have a protest because you can just ask the questions directly.

Two years ago, I was the first American President to visit this country, and I was deeply moved by the generous hospitality that greeted us here, and the sight of children waving the flags of both of our nations. And I was inspired by the incredible diversity and culture, and the various religious sites from different faiths and communities. And I was inspired again today, when I had the opportunity to visit the Secretariat -- the birthplace of modern Burma; the blueprint for democracy; a home to Burmese, Chinese, Indians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians who lived together peacefully -- an incredible example of multicultural and multi-faith diversity and tolerance. And it’s a profound symbol of this country’s rich diversity and this region’s potential.

Whenever I travel the world, from Europe to Africa, South America to Southeast Asia, one of the things I most enjoy doing is meeting young men and women like you. It’s more fun than being in a conference room. And it’s also more important -- because you are the young leaders who will determine the future of this country and this region. So I’m going to keep my remarks short at the top, because I want to take as many questions and comments from you.

As President of the United States, I’ve made it a priority to deepen America’s ties with Southeast Asia -- in particular, with the young people of Southeast Asia. And I do this for reasons that go beyond the fact that I spent some of my childhood in Southeast Asia, in Indonesia. And that gives me a special attachment, a special feeling for Southeast Asia and this region. But I do it mainly because the 10 nations of ASEAN are home to about one in ten of the world’s citizens. About two-thirds of Southeast Asia’s population is under 35 years old. So this region -- a region of growing economies and emerging democracies, and a vibrant diversity that includes oceans and islands, and jungles and cities, and peoples of different races and religions and beliefs -- this region will shape the 21st century.

And that’s why I launched the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative -- to deepen America’s engagement with the next generation of leaders in government and civil society, in education and in entrepreneurship. And more than 10,000 young leaders like you have joined this Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative network, working to solve the challenges and seize the opportunities of this dynamic region in a spirit of mutual cooperation and respect. So earlier this year, I held a town hall just like this one, in Malaysia. And today, I’d like to take our next steps together with you.

When I took office nearly six years ago, I said the United States would extend our hand to any nation willing to unclench its fist. And here, after decades of authoritarian rule, we’ve begun to see significant progress in just a few years. There is more of a sense of hope in Myanmar, that was once so closed to the world, about the role that it can now play in the region and in the world.

But we know that a journey to progress is not completed overnight. There are setbacks and false starts, and sometimes even reverses. And that was true in America during our 238-year history. It’s happened here in the past two or three years. We’ve seen some progress, and we should acknowledge that progress.

We also know, though, that despite the fact that political prisoners have been released and people are more engaged in political dialogue, there’s a parliament and civil society is emerging -- despite all that, some reforms have not come quickly enough. There are still attacks against journalists and against ethnic minorities. America is still deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Rakhine state, and the treatment of minorities who endure discrimination and abuse.

On this visit, I’ve met separately with President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as members of parliament, and civil society leaders. And we discussed key reforms that have to be made to ensure that human rights and freedoms are respected, and the people of this country can reach for their rightful place in the region and the world. And I was also proud to announce that the Peace Corps will come here, to Myanmar, to deepen the ties between our people. It gives an extraordinary opportunity for young Americans to interact with young people here in Myanmar. And that people-to-people exchange is often as important or more important as government-to-government exchanges.

So progress is not inevitable. History does not always march forward. History can travel sideways and sometimes backwards. Building trust after years of conflict takes time. Being able to look past the scars of violence takes courage. Securing the gains of freedom and democracy requires good faith and strength of will, and tolerance and respect for diversity, and it requires vigilance from all citizens. The American people know well that rights and freedoms are not given; they have to be won through struggle and through discipline, and persistence and faith. And it’s often young people who have led these struggles; who have compelled us to slowly but surely perfect our own union in America over time.

Now, I understand there's a Burmese saying. I've got to make sure that I say this right. Ngote mi thè daing -- help me out. Is that right? -- tet naing hpyar yauk. (Applause.)

So for those Americans who don't speak Burmese as well as I do -- (laughter) -- that means, "Dive until you reach the sand, climb until you reach the top. Keep persevering."

And America is committed to helping the young people of this nation and this region climb until you reach the top. We believe in this nation. That's why I've come and visited twice in the last few years, because we see a future where democratic institutions can be accountable and responsive; where political activists are free; where elections are fair; where journalists can pursue the truth; where ethnic minorities can live without fear.

So we're betting on this country, but we're also betting on this region, because we see young people of different nations and religions and ethnicities who are eager to come together and address all the challenges that are out there: environmental protection; human rights; improving education; combating poverty; advocating for a greater role for women in business, in government and in society; increasing resilience in the face of natural disasters; spurring economic progress so more young people can follow in your footsteps and get a good education and have opportunity.

We see young leaders who embrace the diversity of this region not as a weakness, but as a strength, and who realize that even though we are all individually different and come from different traditions and different communities, we're stronger when we work together.

So the future of this region, your region, is not going to be determined by dictators or by armies, it's going to be determined by entrepreneurs and inventors and dreamers and people who are doing things in the community. And you're going to be the leaders who make that happen. Your generation has greater potential to shape society than any generation that's come before because you have the power to get knowledge from everywhere, and you have more sophistication and experiences than your parents or your grandparents. And you have now the chance to share knowledge and experiences with other young people all across this region and around the world. And that wasn't true 20 years ago or 50 years ago.

La Min Oo uses his power to tell the story of his fellow Burmese. He studied at Gettysburg College in the United States. The transformation that he watched unfold through Facebook inspired him to return home and make an award-winning documentary about the plight of Burmese farmers. And he says, "My country has been closed so long, there are a lot of stories to be told." So you young people have the chance to say -- to tell those stories. You have the power to improve institutions that are very important for democratic governance, like civil society, and an impartial judicial, and a free press, and private enterprise. And there's so much to build here.

In countries like this, it's critical that you get involved in that way. I'll give you an example. Ryan Louis Madrid dreamt of being a journalist. But as he stood surrounded by the wreckage of a typhoon in his beloved Philippines, he made himself into an instrument for his fellow citizens rebuilding. Today the organization he co-founded puts solar rooftops in developing and recovering communities. And he wants to use his skills to encourage other enterprising young people in developing countries to say in their countries and help their own people, to think globally and act locally. You have the power to remind us all that human dignity is not just a universal aspiration, but a human right.

So Wai Wai Nu spent seven years of her youth behind bars as a political prisoner. And she called it her "university about life." Today she uses that hard-earned degree to advocate for tolerance and acceptance, saying, "We too sacrificed many things for the same cause, that that is democracy."

You have the chance to overcome hatred and make sure that freedom rather than repression, hope rather than fear is governing your country. You have the power to set your own countries on a new and different path.

And in all of this, America wants to be your partner. We want to help any way that we can to help you shape your future. We want you to have the tools and the connections and the resources that you need to change the world.

So one way that we can do this, I'm announcing a significant expansion of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellowship, an exchange program that will bring 500 Southeast Asian leaders to the United States every year. And these fellows will have the chance to strengthen their professional leadership skills, network with one another, share experiences and ideas, and then come back home better prepared to lead your region and change the world.

So some of these fellows will benefit from five-week instruction at some of the best universities in America on issues like entrepreneurship and environmental stewardship and civil society and human rights. Others will have the chance to work in professional fellowships at state and local governments and NGOs across the United States. And, by the way, through this program that I hope some of you will be able to take advantage of, when you spend time in the United States our people learn from you. So it's not just you learning from us.

And when these fellows then return home with these new ideas and new experiences, our embassies and USAID missions will reach out and offer the support and resources to help make your dreams a reality. So today I'm proud to announce that America will convene a young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Summit in this region every year, giving fellows the chance to share their successes with each other and strengthen their network to accomplish even more.

So I hope some of you will take advantage of this. I expect many of you will take up the mantle of reform from student activists like Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing; take your rightful place as leaders in a stable and prosperous and progressive Southeast Asia. And as you do, I promise you will have no better friend and partner than the United States of America.

So thank you very much. Kyeizu tin ba de. I now want to take your questions. (Applause.)

And I hope you don't mind, because it's a little warm in Myanmar, I'm going to take off my jacket. (Laughter.)

Okay, so there should be -- I've got a microphone, and there should be mics in the audience. And I'll take as many questions as I can before I have to go to Australia.

All right, who wants to go first? This young man right here.

Q I'm (inaudible.) I'm a third-year student, majoring in English at Sittwe University, Rakhine state, or as you would say, Rakhine state.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm still working on my pronunciation. (Laughter.)

Q I've experienced some sectarian and racial balance firsthand in my region. So the question I would like to ask you to answer is: How can I be part of educating my generation to promote tolerance and respect cultural differences, and most of all, eradicate extremism among different ethnic groups?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's a great question. Thank you so much. I had a chance to meet with some civil society groups, and I had a press conference earlier today. Yesterday, I had a chance to meet with parliamentarians, including the speaker -- the two speakers, as well as Aung San Suu Kyi, and then spoke with the President. And to all of them, I said this: There is no example of a country that is successful if its people are divided based on religion or ethnicity. If you look at the Middle East right now and the chaos that’s taking place in a place like Syria, so much of that is based on religious differences. Even though they’re all Muslim, Shia and Sunni are fighting each other. If you look in Northern Ireland, then Catholics and Protestants fought for decades and only now have arrived at peace.

So in this globalized world where people of different faiths and cultures and races are going to meet each other inevitably -- because nobody just lives in a village anymore; people are constantly getting information from different places and new ideas and meeting people who are different from them –- it is critical for any country to abide by the basic principle that all people are equal, all people are deserving of respect, all people are equal under the law, all people can participate in the life of their country, all people should be able to express their views without fear of being repressed. And those attitudes start with each of us individually. It’s important that government play a role in making sure that it applies laws fairly, not arbitrarily, not on the basis of preferring one group over another.

But what’s also true is that each of us have to cultivate an attitude of tolerance and mutual respect. And for young people, we have to try to encourage each other to be tolerant and respectful. So in the United States, obviously one of the biggest problems historically has been the issue of racial discrimination. And part of our efforts to overcome racial discrimination involve passing laws like the Civil Rights Law and the Voting Rights Law, and that required marches and protests and Dr. King. But part of the effort was also people changing the hearts and minds, and realizing that just because somebody doesn’t look like me doesn’t mean that they’re not worthy of respect.

And when you’re growing up and you saw a friend of yours call somebody by a derogatory name, a rude name because they were different, it’s your job to say to that person, actually, that’s not the right way to think. If you are Christian and you have a friend who says I hate Muslims, then it’s up to you to say to that friend, you know what, I don’t believe in that; I think that’s the wrong attitude, I think we have to be respectful of the Muslim population. If you’re Buddhist and you say -- you hear somebody in your group say I want to treat a Hindu differently, it’s your job to speak out. So the most important thing I think is for you to, in whatever circle of influence you have, speak out on behalf of tolerance and diversity and respect.

If you are quiet, then the people who are intolerant, they’ll own the stage and they’ll set the terms of the debate. And one of the things that leadership requires is saying things even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it’s unpopular -- especially when it’s unpopular. So I hope that as you get more influence, you’ll continue to speak out on behalf of these values.

All right, who’s next?

Okay, I’m going to go –- now, the one thing I’m going to do is I’m going to go boy, girl, boy, girl to make sure that it’s fair, because one thing I didn’t say in my initial speech is societies that are most successful also treat their women and girls with respect. Otherwise, they won’t be successful. (Applause.)

The young lady in the yellow, right there, who had her hand up. Okay, hold on so we can get a microphone.

Q I am (inaudible). I am Kachin and Burmese. I would like to ask about the ASEAN affair. So my question is, there are different political system and different level of democratic freedom in ASEAN. Do you think those differences will cost challenges to ASEAN integration? And do you believe it is the right time to push for ASEAN integration? Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Of the 10 countries in ASEAN, I just had a chance to meet with all their leaders at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit. And the good news is that ASEAN has become more ambitious over the last several years in trying to promote integration, to work together on issues like disaster relief or public health or maritime security or improved education. And I think it’s inevitable that integration is going to happen more and more.

And my hope is that by encouraging integration, that the countries who are doing better on issues like democracy and human rights have a positive influence in bringing up those countries that don’t have such a good record. And we’ve actually I think seen that happen. Listen, when I first came into office, Myanmar was still very much a dictatorship. And there was some controversy about me participating in an ASEAN Summit because there was still no freedom in Myanmar. And I think that President Thein Sein, because he was with leaders like SBY of Indonesia -- (applause) -- see there, all right, the Indonesians started cheering -- who had traveled the path of democracy, I think President Thein Sein began to see how more open societies were becoming more successful, and I think had a positive influence on -- I think his participation in ASEAN had a positive influence in providing an opening to begin the process of transition here in Myanmar.

But it’s important I think that even as we engage with countries that are less open or less democratic, that we also continue to apply constructive criticism where they fall backwards, where they fall short. And sometimes that’s hard to do. I think a lot of the leaders of ASEAN don’t like to criticize each other because they think that it’s not respectful. And no country is perfect, so they worry that if we criticize one country then somebody will criticize us.

But I think the goal should be for all of us to try to improve what we do on behalf of our people every single day. I’m very proud of the United States. I believe that the United States is a force for good around the world. But I wouldn’t be a good President if I don’t listen to criticism of our policies and stay open to what other countries say about us. Sometimes I think those criticisms are unfair. Sometimes I think people like to complain about the United States because we’re doing too much. Sometimes they complain because they’re doing too little. Every problem around the world, why isn’t the United States doing something about it. Sometimes there are countries that don’t take responsibility for themselves and they want us to fix it. And then when we do try to fix it, they say why are you meddling in our affairs. Yes, it’s kind of frustrating sometimes.

But the fact that we are getting these criticisms means that we’re constantly thinking, okay, is this how we should apply this policy? Are we doing the right thing when we provide aid to a country, but the country is still ruled by a small elite and maybe it’s not getting down to the people? Are we doing the right thing when we engage in training a military to become more professional, but maybe the military is still engaging in repressive activity? If we’re not open to those criticisms, then we won’t get better, we won’t improve.

And I think all of us should be interested in trying to get better, because none of us are perfect and no country is perfect. So I do think ASEAN has an opportunity to play a very important role. But integration is inevitable just because of the nature of economies today. There’s too much travel, there’s too much Internet, there are too many smartphones. When I was driving through here, everybody had a smartphone. I saw a bunch of people -- they didn’t have any shirt, but they had a smartphone. So what that means is -- and most manufacturing today of various products, the parts are made in, like, five different countries, and then they become integrated in some fashion. And then they’re sold all around the world. So integration is going to happen no matter what. The question is, do we integrate at a high level that improves freedom and improves opportunity, or are we integrating at a low level, where there’s less freedom and less opportunity. And I believe integrating at a high level, and I hope most members of ASEAN do also.

All right, it’s a guy’s turn now. I don’t want to discriminate against the men. This gentleman right here. Yes, with the mustache and the beard. There you go. There’s a microphone coming right here. You can just stay where you are. Careful. Hold on to her, so she doesn’t fall.

Q Hello, Mr. President Obama. My name is (inaudible) and I am studying law. My question is, now we are in the democratic transition, so our country is facing so many challenges in every sector. So if you were the President of Myanmar -- (laughter and applause) -- which sector you will focus on first? And how you will make our country develop? Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me just say, you’re always popular in somebody else’s country. (Laughter.) When you’re in your own country, everybody is complaining. I think you’re right, Myanmar has so many challenges. I think the most important challenge right now is completing the transition to democracy. And so my first focus is I think the focus that many people have already talked about.

Number one, there needs to be an election next year. It shouldn’t be delayed. Number two, there should be constitutional amendments that ensure a transition over time to a fully civilian government. Number three, there needs to be laws put in place to protect freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom to politically organize.

And I think that if that process is fixed and institutionalized and made permanent, and you now have the tools to deal with all the other challenges, and I think that inevitably what would happen if you had a genuine democracy in Myanmar is the focus next would then be on providing economic opportunity, because Myanmar is still a very poor country. And what we know in the 21st century is, is that the most important tools for economic opportunity are making sure that young people are getting a good education. And my understanding is, is that the education system in Myanmar is still under-developed. I think all of you represent the best of Myanmar’s students. But my understanding is there are many villages you go to where there’s really no schools, as a practical matter, and many of the schools still teach just how to memorize certain things rather than how to think critically about problems.

And every country at this point, if it wants to succeed, needs to put in place free, compulsory education for its young people -- because they just can’t succeed unless they have some basic skills. They have to be able to read. They have to be able to do mathematics. They have to have some familiarity with computers. They have to be able to understand basic principles of science. If you don’t have those basic tools, then it’s very hard to find a decent job in today’s economy.

Now, because Myanmar is still very agricultural, I think issues of land reform and trying to increase productivity in the agricultural sector is also a very immediate and urgent problem. This is true not just in Myanmar; this is true in many relatively poor countries. In Africa, for example, we initiated something called Feed the Future, and the whole goal is to improve the productivity of farmers. And farmers in many poor countries, they still use the same techniques that they used 200 years ago. They’re still using a buffalo or an ox, and waiting on the rains. And sometimes the new techniques, they're not necessarily expensive; it's just a matter of applying them scientifically.

And if you double yields for a farm and double income for farmers in a country like Myanmar, suddenly you have increased wealth, which means that some people now can start businesses. Maybe now somebody can take some of the profits they made and invest in a tractor, or they can start processing the rice that they produce so that they can gain more value. Or they may be able to buy a smartphone so they know what the prices are in the market, and not get taken advantage of. So just small changes are really important.

Now, my understanding, and I'm not expert, is that some of that will also require some reforms in terms of land ownership and leasing so that people can keep the products of their labor, as opposed to just being essentially what we call sharecroppers in the United States, where you're working the land, but you're giving it over to somebody else and never getting ahead.

So those are just two examples of things that I think will happen naturally if you've got a democratic system in place.

All right, it's a young lady's turn. So this young lady in the glasses right here. She's waving very hard, so she must have an excellent question.

Q Good morning. My name is (inaudible).

PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's afternoon, though. (Laughter.) Maybe you've been waiting here since morning. (Laughter.) But now it's the afternoon.

Q But you can call me Amy (ph). I want to ask one question. My question is, now we are working on IT, so America is already doubled up in IT. So can you provide any development center of IT and job opportunity for youth?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I was just talking to the civil society groups, and there was one person there who mentioned that Internet penetration in Myanmar is still only about 9 percent, which means there's enormous room for growth. The issue for IT in a country like Myanmar is, first of all, setting up the infrastructure -- whether it's wireless or other methods -- so that people can start communicating. And once the hardware is in place, then where the real development happens is in the software. And that's where it's really a matter of education, training, and developing a homegrown capacity.

And so what we'll do is we'll work with both civil society groups, as well as the government, to find opportunities where we can promote the building of the infrastructure that's required. But what's really required is also making sure that young people are trained.

And part of what's going to have to happen is, in the United States most of the IT development happened through the private sector. Government invested in research, and so the idea of the Internet was developed with the help of government funding. But what became then the World Wide Web and then all the applications and social media and all that was really developed through the private sector. So part of what has to happen once democracy is installed in Myanmar is then also looking at how are you structuring laws to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

So, for example, one of the debates that we're having in trade negotiations with Asian countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the big trade initiative that we're moving forward, is the need to protect intellectual property. If you invent a better tractor, then in the United States, you go to a patent office and you register your patent. You show that this is a new invention. And if anybody then wants to produce this new tractor, they have to pay you for using your idea. The same is true for intellectual property. If you come up with the idea of Facebook, then you need to be able to get a benefit from this idea.

And one of the problems I think that you still have in many countries in Southeast Asia and around the world is weak intellectual property protections, which means that if you're an entrepreneur with a good idea, you don't want to start your business here, because next thing you know somebody steals your idea and they just start their business. So you'd rather start the idea in the United States where you know that it will be protected. And then maybe you will lease to other countries, but the jobs and the opportunities will have been created someplace else.

So setting up regulatory structures, protections for intellectual property, all those things are also going to be very important in order to get a strong IT culture and an innovation culture here in Myanmar and throughout the region.

Okay, it's a man's turn. Let's see. I'm going to go with this guy right here. Hold on a second. Now, you're not going to read that whole thing, are you? (Laughter.) Because --

Q I read you a question --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think you have to summarize it quickly because we don't want --

Q Yes, yes, just want to give you a kind of sheet, cheat sheet.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, I'll take the sheet. (Laughter.)

Q Okay.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: There you go. All right.

Q I have only one question.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: There are like -- there are 20 questions on here. (Laughter.)

Q Just want you to know --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Why don't you just ask me one of them? I'll read the rest.

Q My question, as you know -- may I know your opinion about like how to create national identity, or like Myanmar identity -- different, strong identity in our country?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes. That's a great question. Yes, I was talking about this with the civil society groups because we are very supportive of the efforts to get a ceasefire and a peace process with the ethnic groups that have been engaged in armed conflict for a long time. And we've already talked about some of the problems that the Muslim populations have faced in Rakhine state.

But what I said to the civil society groups is, yes, it is important to protect specific ethnic groups from discrimination. And it is natural in a democracy that ethnic groups organize among themselves to be heard in the halls of power. So in the United States, for example, as its democracy developed, the Irish in big cities, they came together and they built organizations, and they were able to promote the interests of Irish Americans. And African Americans, when they were seeking their freedom, you had organizations like the NAACP that promoted the interests of African Americans. So there's nothing wrong with groups organizing around ethnic identity, or around economic interests, or around regional concerns. That's how a democracy naturally works. You get with people who agree with you or who are like you to make sure that your concerns are heard.

But what I said is that it is important for a democracy that people's identities are also a national identity. If you walk down the streets of New York City, you will see people looking more different than this group right here. You'll see blue-eyed, blonde people. You'll see dark-skinned, black people. You'll see Asians. You'll see Muslims. You'll see -- but if you ask any of those people, “What are you?” -- I'm American.

Now I may be an African American or an Asian American or an Irish American, but the first thing I'll say is, I'm an American.

And if you don't have that sense of national unity, then it's very hard for a country to succeed -- particularly a small country like Myanmar.

If people think in terms of ethnic identity before national identity, then I think over time the country will start breaking apart and democracy will not work. So there has to be a sense of common purpose.

But that's not an excuse then for majority groups to say, don’t complain, to ethnic minorities -- because the ethnic minorities may have some real complaints. And part of what is important for the majority groups to do -- if, in fact, you have a national identity, that means that you've got to be concerned with a minority also because it reflects badly on your country if somebody from a minority group is not being treated fairly.

America could not live up to its potential until it treated its black citizens fairly. That's just a fact, that that was a stain on America when an entire group of people couldn't vote, or didn't have legal protections. Because it made all the Declarations of Independence and Constitution and rule of law, it made that seem like an illusion.

And so when the Civil Rights Movement happened in the United States, that wasn't just a victory for African Americans, that was a victory for America because what it showed was that the whole country was going to be concerned about everybody, not just about some people. And it was a victory for America's national identity that it was treating minorities fairly.

And that's I think how every country in ASEAN, including Myanmar, needs to think about these problems. You need to respect people's differences. You need to be attentive to the grievances of minorities that may be discriminated against. But both the majority and the minority, the powerful and the powerless, also have to have a sense of national identity in order to be successful.

I got time for two more questions. Two more. He said one, but I'm going to take two.

See, it's going to be one of you three. What do you think? Who should -- out of the three of you, who should I call on? Are you friends? Okay, so why don't you decide? (Laughter.) What do you think? Okay, yes, rock, paper, scissors. Let's see. (Laughter.) Who won? Okay, go on. There you go. (Applause.)

What did you win with? Were you scissors or rock? Were you rock or scissors or paper?

Q Rock.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Rock.

Q I rock!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You rock?

Q Yes.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes.

Q Mingalaba, Mr. President. I am from Burma from (inaudible) in American Center. Right now we're working on a documentary on Yangon University, Congregation Hall where you spoke the last time you came.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, last time I was here.

Q Yes. So as you know, Yangon University has reopened last year, 2013. So do think it is a good start to rebuild the higher education system in Burma?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think it's a great start. But I think -- as I said before, one of the biggest challenges Myanmar is going to face is rebuilding its education system. And I think it has to start early. It has to start from the youngest ages.

One of the things that we've learned from science is that the most that you will ever learn in your entire life happens from the time you're born until you're three years old. Between your birth and the age of three, that's when your brain is developing the most. And what we've learned, for example, is that when you read -- when parents read to young children even before the children know how to read, the children are building a vocabulary that will put them in a strong position then to learn how to read later on because they've heard the words over and over again.

And so I just make that point because it shows that if you're only worried about university education, but you're not worrying about what happens to children when they're three, four, five, six years old, then you're missing the foundation for a good education system.

And this is true in the United States, as well. We've got the best university system in the world. Obviously I'm biased because I'm the President of the United States, so I think everything in the United States is the best in the world.

But I think anybody objectively would say that we have a system of universities and colleges that is unequaled anyplace else. But we still have problems. And one of the things that I'm spending a lot of time on reform is the elementary, secondary school levels. And also, even earlier having what we call early childhood education to get children off to a good start so that by the time they go to school, they already know their alphabet and they can already start reading at an early age. And I hope that that ends up being a basic emphasis here in Myanmar.

But I also think that from what I've heard, one of the reforms that will need to take place in universities here is to make sure that in all the departments there is the ability for universities and students to shape curriculums and to have access to information from everywhere around the world, and that it's not just a narrow process of indoctrination. Because the best universities are ones that teach you how to think not what to think, right? A good education is not just knowing facts, although you need to know facts. You need to know that two plus two is four; it's not five. That's an important fact. But you also need to know how to ask questions, and how to critically analyze a problem, and how to be able to distinguish between fact and opinion, and how to compare two different ideas.

And I think there's a danger sometimes in countries that are -- don't have a long tradition of higher education to try to narrow the learning process, as opposed to open it up. And I think that that's something that I'm sure university students here in Myanmar will want to express during the course of this transition period and the reforms that are taking place.

All right, I've got time for one more question. Wait, wait, wait. No point in yelling. First of all, all the women have to put their hands down because I told you it was going to be boy, girl, boy, girl. And the second thing is, how many students are there from countries other than Myanmar who are here? Okay, so I think that in the interest of ASEAN unity, and because this is a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Forum, I've got to ask --

Q (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: No, no, no, first of all, you can't -- I told you already that women aren't going to get a chance to ask the next question. Where are you from?

Q (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you're still in Burma. All right. Where you from? (Laughter.) Sit down. Where you from? All right, let me -- I'm going to ask this guy, guy from the Philippines right here. Come on. (Applause.) You just started yelling. I didn't even call on you. (Laughter.)

Q Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Ryan Louis Madrid. I'm from the Philippines. I'm one of the person you --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I was just talking about you.

Q Yes. And, yes, it gave me a little tear in my eyes. I thank you so much for putting us -- making me as, like, one of the models maybe for what youth can do for change.

But my question really is, I just learned recently that the U.S. and ASEAN will be making a climate change statement. I'd like to know if you could tell us what this is all about, and how this would be different from the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change efforts in making real efforts towards curbing climate change. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good. So first of all, let's just establish the science and the facts. The planet is getting warmer. The reason the planet is getting warmer is because human activity is releasing greenhouse gases that is trapping heat and increasing temperatures. And because you start getting a negative feedback loop, as it gets hotter, ice melts. The permafrost in places like Siberia start releasing methane gases. Ice packs in Greenland start melting. That then makes it even warmer. And we're on a trajectory in which the temperatures could rise so high that it would have catastrophic impacts around the world because temperatures start changing, weather patterns shift. Traditional monsoon seasons might completely reverse themselves. Areas that once used to have arable land suddenly now have long droughts. Areas that used to be temperate suddenly get floods. We're seeing the impacts in developed countries. We see it in my own country. And we're seeing impacts in poor countries. And we're seeing impacts, obviously, in island nations where if the temperatures continue to rise, we'll end up with oceans that are two feet or three feet higher, and it could swallow up entire countries.

So this is perhaps the central challenge, the most important challenge facing humanity in the 21st century, is getting control of this.

Now, the good news is that we can begin to slow down that process so that the temperatures only go up a certain level, and although we'll have to make some adaptations, it doesn't become catastrophic. But in order to do that, we have to start transitioning our economies to clean energy rather than dirty energy. It means that we have to start developing wind power and solar power. It means that societies have to use energy more efficiently. It means that we have to find ways to use safe nuclear power because they don't -- that doesn’t emit greenhouse gases. So there's no single answer. There's a group of answers to the problem.

And some of you may be aware that the United States and China are the two biggest emitters in the world. The United States had been the biggest emitter; China overtook us. In fairness to China, each individual Chinese person probably uses less energy and emits less greenhouse gases than an individual American. But there are a lot more Chinese than there are Americans.

And if, as China continues to develop, they start matching the United States in how much carbon they release, we'll never survive. None of us. Same is true with India -- just because of the size of its population. And the same is true with Southeast Asia, which, as I said before, contains one out of every 10 people in the world.

So all of us are going to have to be a part of this. And the United States and China -- in a meeting with President Xi -- we announced that we are both going to set bold targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2020 forward.

What we're encouraging ASEAN to do, individual ASEAN countries, is also to come up with goals for how they are going to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And if all countries around the world put forward ambitious goals at a Paris conference that we're going to be having in 2015, then this can serve at the basis for collective action in reducing greenhouse gases.

But although we know what we need to do, the transition will be difficult because -- just to give you one example -- Indonesia.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You might not want to cheer about this -- has been cutting down its forests at a very high rate in order to accommodate the palm oil industry. Now the palm oil industry is very lucrative, and you have some very big landholders and big companies who are making a lot of money from the palm oil industry. And they create some jobs. But when you just deforest entire sections of Sumatra or Borneo, that can end up having a devastating effect on the climate.

There are countries in ASEAN that subsidize energy. Now, oftentimes this is with the best of intentions. The idea would be we want to make gasoline cheaper or electricity cheaper so that poor people can afford it. The problem is that when you subsidize energy, there's no incentive to use less energy. So typically when you have a lot of fuel subsidies, those economies are very inefficient in how they use energy, and they generate more pollution.

The countries that are most efficient in energy use, not only do they not subsidize energy -- in fact, they tax energy use. So you look like -- in a country like Norway, which produces a lot of oil, but gasoline there is still $6 or $7 a gallon, which in liters -- who wants to do a liter conversion for me? Anyway, it's very expensive.

So part of what we hope each country in ASEAN commits to is to take the steps that will be required to reduce or at least slow the growth of its carbon emissions, and then slowly start reducing them. And it doesn't have to be overnight, but the transition has to begin.

So if you look at a country like Indonesia, making a commitment to reduce deforestation, reduce and eventually end fuel subsidies, those two things alone could probably help Indonesia meet a very bold carbon reduction goal.

In the United States, I've instructed my Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the amount of greenhouse gases that power plants can send into the atmosphere. And we've doubled fuel-efficiency standards on cars. So in a few years, by the middle of the next century, by 2025, you won't be able to sell a car in the United States unless it is delivering twice as much mileage for every gallon of gas.

And so you can build in transition times to get this done. But we have to start now. And this is probably a good place for me to end by just saying that the issue of climate change is a perfect example of why young people have to lead.

Because old people, they've created a mess, and then they'll be gone. And then you -- (applause) -- you're the ones who have to deal with it. And also what happens is old people get set in their ways. So the older you get, the more likely you are to say, that's how it's always been so that's how I'm going to keep on doing it -- even if there's a better way to do things.

Young people, they're asking, well, why do I have to do it that way? Let's try it this way. And that kind of willingness to accept challenges and try things in a new way, to not be stuck in the past, or to look towards the future, that's what all of you represent.

So I'm hopeful that you have a chance to participate in our Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows Program. Maybe I'll see some of you in the United States. I'm sure all of you are going to do great things. And I hope all of you dream big and then work hard to achieve those dreams.

Okay? Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)

END

5:01 P.M. MMT

Original here.

By Emanuel Stoakes

Foreign Policy

November 14, 2014

Harassment. Arbitrary arrest. Torture. Over the course of the last two months, Myanmar's Rohingya minority has faced a brutal campaign of subjugation by the state.

On Oct. 3, while sitting at home in an isolated village close to Myanmar's border with Bangladesh, Farid Alam, a 36-year-old businessman and community leader, was summoned by the local border police to one of its bases in a nearby camp. On arrival, he was arrested and quickly driven to the agency's headquarters. There, he was brutally tortured to death -- a visitor from out of town who saw his body noted that one of his legs was broken, his penis burned, and his testicles smashed.

Alam's murder is part of a recent escalation of violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state perpetrated by state forces against an ethnic minority known as the Rohingya, according to the Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based rights-monitoring group. Since September, the group has documented a spike in abuses, such as arbitrary arrests and even torture, by the Border Guard Police (BGP), a government agency that deals with suspected illegal immigrants, and by the military. At least four people, the group says, were confirmed to have been either beaten or tortured to death in custody.

The spike in violence has driven thousands to flee Myanmar via the sea in what has been described by the Associated Press as "one the largest boat exoduses in Asia since the Vietnam War." Some 16,000 Rohingya have fled the country by boat since mid-October, according to the latest estimates by the Arakan Project -- a figure nearly double that which it recorded during the same period last year.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is visiting Myanmar this week, has claimed the country as one of his chief foreign-policy successes. However, Myanmar's transition has been undermined by ongoing human rights abuses, particularly in Rakhine. The predominantly Muslim Rohingya community has faced dire circumstances since sectarian conflict broke out between the group and its largely Buddhist ethnic Rakhine neighbors in June 2012. According to Human Rights Watch, pogroms committed against the Rohingya in 2012 at the hands of ethnic Rakhine mobs and state forces amounted to a "campaign of ethnic cleansing." Following this, the Rohingya endured a series of deadly sectarian attacks perpetrated by groups of Rakhine, typically with impunity. In all, as a result of these events, several hundred have died, and around 140,000 Rohingya remain confined to squalid camps for the displaced. Yet in the months leading up to Obama's visit, as documented in a series of Arakan Project reports given exclusively to Foreign Policy, the Rohingya have faced perhaps the most sustained campaign of targeted abuse by security forces in years.

In mid-October, Abu Tayab, a 27-year-old man, was arrested by the BGP after returning to Myanmar from a visit to neighboring Bangladesh. Brought to an immigration facility in Nga Khu Ya, his dead body, riddled with signs of torture, would be released the next day to a medical clinic for a postmortem, according to the group.

About a week after this incident, another man was found dead. Locals had witnessed the 42-year-old man being apprehended in Kyauk Pyin Seik village. Showing signs of assault, his body was later found in a river.

In addition to the killings, the Arakan Project has documented 144 arbitrary arrests in 28 locations in recent weeks. (Ye Htut, spokesman for Myanmar President Thein Sein, did not respond to a request to respond to the allegations.)

The allegations have emerged as Myanmar's government has begun to implement its recently announced "Rakhine State Action Plan." The strategy's exact details have not been made public, but leaked draftsoutline the government's plans. The policy offers members of the minority group two options: either present official proof of their family's long-term presence in Myanmar while self-identifying as "Bengali" -- in line with the government's belief that the minority is largely composed of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh -- or face confinement to internment camps and eventual resettlement abroad. Those who comply will be granted the chance to achieve a form of second-class citizenship. (Rohingya would be granted what amounts to citizenship, though the government could revoke it at any time pursuant to controversial junta-era legislation.)

Currently, very few look likely to assent to the government's plan. Lewa reported that communities have been subjected to beatings, looting, and blockades by the security forces for not complying with "family list verification" exercises led by visiting immigration officials. 

"It seems that the authorities may have been trying to get some Rohingya to classify themselves as Bengalis without their consent," as per the requirements of the Rakhine State Action Plan, she noted.

With the issue of Rohingya migration being placed center stage in mediacoverage of Obama's trip to Myanmar, the president has taken the opportunity to speak out against the Rakhine State Action Plan and emphasize his support for full citizenship rights for members of the group.

Yet it is unlikely that these statements can stem what Lewa calls "new surges of violence." Matthew Smith, executive director of Bangkok-based NGO Fortify Rights, amplified these concerns, observing that attempts to force some Rohingya into referring to themselves as Bengalis, combined with the abuses outlined by Lewa, are likely to continue, contributing significantly to the increases in Rohingya maritime flight.

The persecution, he said, represents "various forms of ethnic cleansing at work."

To some advocates, the timing of the recent abuses suggests some sort of coordination. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, observed that "an escalation of these attacks, especially at the outset of the traditional sailing season, when the weather in the Andaman ocean calms down, is far too convenient to be a complete coincidence."

"It appears that the ethnic Rakhine and their allies in Burma's security forces are doing what they can to empty Rakhine state of the Rohingya," he added, "one boatload at a time."

By Feliz Solomon 

The Irrawaddy

November 14, 2014

RANGOON —“You’re always popular in someone else’s country,” US President Barack Obama told a beaming audience of Asean’s young and ambitious at a town hall-style meeting in Rangoon on Friday.

Hundreds of young civic leaders, students and activists welcomed Obama to Rangoon University, where he fielded questions about education, regional integration, climate change, national identity and what he would do “if [he] were the president of Myanmar.”

Most attendees were delegates of the White House-backed Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI), who were invited by the president at the end of his second visit to Burma in the past two years.

While the enthusiastic and elegantly dressed delegateswarmly greeted the president, many made sure to register their disappointment in what they viewed as America’s “soft stance” toward Burma’s leadership.

“Why is America so soft on the issue of minority rights in Burma?” asked Wai Wai Nu, a Rohingya activist, former political prisoner and member of YSEALI. The president spoke at length about the importance of distinguishing between national and ethnic identity, but he made no mention of the country’s most contentious designation, Rohingya.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” said Wai Wai Nu, “but I understand his difficulties.”

Wai Wai Nu, who at 27 is already an award-winning peace advocate, urged the United States to “re-evaluate its policy toward Burma” with a particular focus on human rights and equal access to citizenship.

Several of her peers expressed similar views. Khun Kit San, an ethnic Shan activist, greeted Obama with a banner reading “reform is fake.” One attendee, when given the president’s ear, handed him a two-page letter penned by “Young People from Myanmar” denouncing Burma’s reforms as fraudulent and driven by capitalist interests.

Obama did acknowledge that “some reforms haven’t come quickly enough,” but urged patience among the country’s future leaders.

“The most important challenge is completing the transition to democracy,” he said, reiterating the importance of free, fair and timely elections, amending the Constitution and instating laws to protect press freedoms.

Friday’s town hall meeting was the last stop on Obama’s second visit to Burma as head of state, devoting a full hour and a half to young intellectuals from all 10 memberstates of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). When Obama visited in 2012, he also made an historic appearance at Rangoon University, which had been shuttered for most of the past two decades because of its history as a breeding ground for dissidence under the former military regime.

Obama arrived in Naypyidaw on Wednesday to attend the Asean and East Asia summits. On Friday, Obama met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon, where they pledged continued cooperation through Burma’s long and turbulent transition to democracy.

By Todd Pitman and Julie Pace

Associated Press

November 14, 2014

By Stanley Weiss

Huffington Post

November 13, 2014

Given the five decades it spent as one of the most repressive countries in recent history, it's hard to imagine that Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was once considered an empire. But 190 years ago this past March, after the Burmese Empire conquered two large Bengali territories across its western border and undertook a series of raids into British-held lands, the British Empire had had enough. British India launched a counter-insurgency that would drag on for two years and take thousands of lives. With some of the heaviest fighting concentrated in Islamic border communities, thousands of Muslims were forced to flee, eventually settling along frontier areas in India and Myanmar.

The Muslim families driven into Burma as a result of Burmese aggression -- known as Rohingya Muslims -- never left, despite being persecuted ever since. A grisly modern chapter began in 2012, when the alleged rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in western Rakhine State led to mob violence that took the lives of hundreds of Rohingya over the next two years and saw 135,000 Rohingya held in squalid camps for their own "safety." Seemingly oblivious to global concerns sparked by the persecution of this Muslim ethnic minority, the Myanmar government last week announced a repulsive new policy: All Rohingya must prove that their families have lived in Myanmar for at least six decades. For those we cannot, the penalty is either a refugee camp or deportation. For those we can, the prize is second-class citizenship, but with a catch: They must first renounce the term "Rohingya" and agree to be classified as a "Bengali." It's little wonder that more than 100,000 Rohingya have reportedly escaped Myanmar the past two years.

Coming on the eve of President Barack Obama's trip to Myanmar this week for the East Asia Summit, the new policy set off a round of stories about how the country was backsliding on democracy and human rights just two years after it held parliamentary elections and began to open itself up to the world. But when it comes to the way that the ethnic Burman majority treats the 135 different ethnic minorities that make up roughly 40 percent of Myanmar's population, "backsliding" is not the right word -- because that would presume that progress has been made in the first place. In Myanmar today, the new war is the same as the old.

In reality, the brutal civil war that has raged since 1948 between many of Myanmar's ethnic groups and the ethnic Burman military -- a war that has left 600,000 dead and a million homeless -- continues to rage deep in the jungle where most journalists don't travel. One journalist who did was freelance reporter Aung Kyaw Naing. While covering the fighting between the army and ethnic Karen rebels along Myanmar's southeastern border a few months ago, Naing was captured and murdered by the Burmese military, which accused him of acting as an "insurgent communications officer" for the Karen rebels. He was left to rot in the jungle.

Naing's death received global attention. But receiving far less attention in recent years were the 7,800 acres seized from ethnic minorities to build a Chinese-financed copper mine. Or the 15-year-old ethnic Kachin girl who was reportedly gang-raped by government troops. Or the one ethnic killed, five wounded, and 1,000 ethnic Shan villagers forced to flee their homes this past June after the Burman army, according to one report, left "temples, vehicles, houses and other properties destroyed... and farmers' crops set on fire."

Just this week, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic released the results of a four-year investigation that found that "the Myanmar military committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2005-2006" and that those responsible "continue to serve at the highest levels of the country's government." In areas presumed to have ethnic minorities hostile to the Burman majority, one former soldier recalled being told to "do whatever you want" -- which included "mortar attacks on villages, the destruction of civilian property, 'shoot-on-sight' incidents, and the placing of land mines in locations that indicate a clear intent to cause civilian casualties."

The findings echo the conclusions of similar study by the Karen Human Rights Group, which found thousands of incidents of "abuse, destruction of property, pollution, theft, and confiscation of land" in southern Myanmar from 2011 to 2012 -- six years after the focus period of the Harvard report.

The continuing atrocity isn't just what the military is doing outside the law, but what the government is doing within the law. The Rohingya are a good example of the institutional dehumanization of ethnic minorities at work in Myanmar today. But the discrimination isn't limited to the Rohingya: The largely Christian inhabitants of Chin State, for instance, can't build their own churches or attend college within Myanmar.

There is a reason why ethnic minorities were excluded from the referendum that produced the 2008 constitution -- a constitution that gives few if any of the rights of citizenship to minorities, while mandating central government control over all ethnic lands. In a country where the most lucrative trade routes and natural resources -- from rubber to jade and timber -- rest along the border areas where ethnic minorities live, the constitution itself is designed to keep ethnic minorities indefinitely subservient. Since the very military that benefits most from the illegal sale of natural resources also has a constitutionally-mandated 25 percent of parliamentary seats -- and since it requires greater than 75 percent approval to change the constitution -- the system locks in place a vicious cycle in which the same army that has tormented ethnic minorities for more than half a century are also their judge and jury.

It is, by any definition, a slow-motion ethnic apartheid in the making -- one that Western nations, eager to tap into a market of more than 50 million potential consumers, tacitly endorse every day they remain silent.

This week, as President Obama participates for a second time in his tenure in meetings in Myanmar, the U.S. and its Western allies should use every bit of leverage in their power -- working through its allies in the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, for which Myanmar is the current chair -- to focus on three necessary changes.

First, Western leaders should insist that the Myanmar constitution be changed to represent all citizens of Myanmar, and not just the 60 percent who are ethnically Burman. Western leaders should make clear that any future Western aid, development and business investment -- as well as any future trade agreements between the U.S., the EU and ASEAN -- will rest in part on equal rights for all ethnic tribes. The last thing Western businesses want is to be perceived as supporting a new apartheid for the 21st century.

Second, the West should insist that Myanmar recognize land rights, including the ancestral land of ethnic minorities. For Western investors who have are already shying away from investing in large swaths of Myanmar for fear of having their investments and property stolen out from under them, it will help ensure that Myanmar is a place worth investing their time and resources -- both of which are crucial to Myanmar's future growth.

Third, the West should accelerate its military-to-military ties with Myanmar -- including both ethnic Burman and ethnic minority leaders. For decades, Western sanctions meant that China and Russia were the only role models for Myanmar's military leaders. With the Obama Administration already committed to rebuilding ties, fast-tracking their exposure to Western ideals and democratic leadership can only help move Myanmar's military in the right direction.

In the end, the country is called Myanmar, not Burma. Every single time we in the West insist on calling it Burma, as many publications and governments still do, it simply reinforces the notion that the only people who count in that southeastern Asian nation are the six in 10 who are ethnic Burmans. It's long past time for the world to also stand up for the four in 10 who are not.

Stanley A. Weiss, a global mining executive and founder of Washington-based Business Executives for National Security, has been widely published on domestic and international issues for three decades. Tim Heinemann is a retired Special Forces officer and a mobile training team leader at the U.S. Department of Defense for counterterrorism professional development of U.S. allies around the world.

By Jessica Meyers

Boston Globe

November 13, 2014

Rohingya family members rode a trishaw at Thet Kel Pyin Muslim refugee camp near Sittwe, Rakhine State, this week as Myanmar awaited President Obama’s visit. (Photo: Nyunt Win/European Pressphoto Agency)

By Charlie Campbell

TIME
November 13, 2014

The country's future may depend on it

When U.S. President Barack Obama visited Burma, officially known as Myanmar, in November 2012, he found it abuzz with promise. Sanctions had been eased, political prisoners released and Rangoon hotels were teeming with foreign executives eager to harness the nation’s abundant natural resources, cheap workforce and enviable location between regional titans India and China.

So giddy was the postdictatorship atmosphere that Obama planted an agonizingly inappropriate kiss on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Not that any of the traditionally conservative Burmese minded, however, because the democracy icon was finally free after 15 years of house arrest and relishing life as an elected lawmaker.

But on Wednesday, Obama returned to a very different Burma. Economic liberalization has proved woefully inadequate and human-rights abuses continue unabated. Journalists must once again muzzle their criticism or face persecution. The military continues its assaults on ethnic rebels and, as Suu Kyi said last week, the democratic transition is “stalling.”

“Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began four years ago,” Obama told the Irrawaddy magazine before his arrival in Naypyidaw for the East Asia Summit, a meeting of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members plus other world powers including China, Russia, India and the U.S. “In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward.”

Visitors to Burma may find this surprising. Rangoon is a cacophony of building work, and the battered death-trap taxis of yore have been replaced by Japanese and South Korean imports. Illicit money changers have been swapped for ATMs. Cellphone SIM cards are no longer restricted or prohibitively expensive, meaning the once ubiquitous phone kiosks, where ordinary Burmese queued up to pay for a few minutes’ use of a fixed-line handset, lie largely idle — an anachronism for tourist snaps.

Yet this progress is a mere facade. “Aung San Suu Kyi may say that reform has stalled, but the reality is that it has regressed,” says Khin Ohmar, coordinator of Burma Partnership, a network of civil-society organizations. Like many longtime democracy activists, she still complains of “surveillance, scrutiny, threats and intimidation.”

Burma is unusual amongst authoritarian states embarking on reform, in that the same figures who ran the previous military dictatorship remain in charge today, and so practically all changes have benefited this coterie. Foreign direct investment, for example, has been confined to the extractive industries that are the purview of tycoons with military connections.

“The changes put in place by the [President] Thein Sein administration are not, for the most part, liberal market reforms, but simply expanded permissions and concessions, often given to the crony firms that dominate parts of the economy,” says Sean Turnell, a professor and expert on Burmese economics at Australia’s Macquarie University. In fact, he adds, “protectionist and antireform sentiment is building.”

Certainly, there is no significant economic legislation pending. Foreign banks have been allowed to set up shop, but can only work with other foreigners, using foreign currency and cannot offer retail services. This means the industry remains plagued by crippling inefficiencies.

Meanwhile, some 70% of Burma’s 53 million population toil in agriculture, where there have likewise not been any meaningful reforms. Poverty, exploitation and land grabs are rife. “The economic circumstances of Myanmar’s majority rural population are now marginally worse than before the reforms were launched,” says Turnell.

The media is once again manacled. The death of noted journalist Aung Kyaw Naing in military custody last month has been the nadir of a year that has also seen 10 reporters jailed. “Obama’s got to see it as another indication of sharply deteriorating press freedoms,” says David Mathieson, senior Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch. In fact, of the 11 reformist pledges Thein Sein made to Obama back during his last visit, says Mathieson, “only about half of them have been met.”

Political reform is also backsliding. Suu Kyi will most likely romp home in next year’s national polls, provided they are as unfettered as the by-election that saw her enter the national legislature amid a landslide for her National League for Democracy party in April 2012. However, she remains constitutionally barred from the nation’s highest office. Negotiations to amend these restrictions — owing to her marriage to a Briton and sons who are foreign nationals — have broken down. Asked what the response would be should Obama try to press the issue, a Burmese government spokesman deemed constitutional reform “an internal affair.”

But it is the plight of the locally despised Rohingya Muslim population that is most pressing (not even the 69-year-old Suu Kyi has the moral fortitude to speak up for them). More than 100,000 of this wretched community fester in squalid displacement camps following attacks by radical Buddhists. They suffer restrictions on movement, marriage and education and thousands are planning to flee during the current “sailing season” on rickety boats to perceived safe havens like Malaysia, as thousands have before them. Many die every day.

However, analysts believe there is a political element to this humanitarian catastrophe. Resentment toward Muslims is a relatively recent phenomenon, with sporadic attacks on Muslim communities punctuating the past three years. Some say the unrest is being inculcated and encouraged in order to give the military continued justification for its wide-ranging powers. Government complicity in recent sectarian clashes has been alleged by the U.N. and Human Rights Watch (though furiously denied by Naypyidaw). And the tactic has been used before: anti-Muslim violence also curiously erupted amid the 1988 pro-democracy rallies.

Discontent is also brewing over myriad issues domestically: garment workers strike over pay and conditions; victims of land grabs are descending on the capital; activists protest Chinese-owned mines; farmers rally against dams that ravage the environment. But sectarian violence, or the threat of it, would be the trump card that would allow the army to suspend reforms. Military spending has already increased in absolute terms during Thein Sein’s time in office. Now there are rumors that army chief Min Aung Hlaing is maneuvering for a run at the presidency. If so, there will be precious little hope for reforming the military, which is the single greatest impediment to tackling Burma’s abysmal human-rights record.

The Rohingya crisis is a gift to Burmese generals hoping to shore up their positions and the military’s, and for that reason the Rohingya lie at the core of the Burma’s economic and political transition. Obama “is dealing with a time bomb,” says Khin Ohmar. “He may face resentment for saying something about the Rohingya, but he has to.”

By Tom Andrews

Huffington Post

November 13, 2014

When President Obama steps off Air Force One in Burma today, he will have an opportunity to do something effective about the escalation of human suffering since his visit two years ago. 

He can start by speaking up for the 1.3 million members of the Rohingya ethnic community who are under siege verging on genocide by the military dominated government. Denied citizenship, all members of this Muslim minority are forced to live in apartheid conditions where they are unable to work, travel, marry or have children without permission. 

Having lost their homes and villages to violence, 140,000 have been forced into what can only be described as concentration camps. Untold numbers have died because of the government expulsion of their principle source of health care, Doctors Without Borders. 

Now the government is denying their very existence, prohibiting the use of their name in public discourse, and pressuring foreign officials not to utter the word, as the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma has noted with alarm. 

President Obama must recognize that, however well intended, his administration miscalculated when it lifted most sources of economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime two years ago. It was precisely this type of pressure that led to reforms that the administration and Congress celebrated two years ago, including the release of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and her election to the Parliament. 

The reforms have stalled, however, and conditions for ethnic minorities like the Rohingya have gotten alarmingly worse. In one of the largest boat exoduses in Asia since the Vietnam War, over 100,000 Rohingya, Asia's new "boat people," have attempted to escape in rickety boats. Most of those who survived the perilous journey became victims of human traffickers in Malaysia or Thailand. 

The Early Warning Project at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum places Burma at the very top of the list of countries most likely to see state-sponsored mass killings. 

The UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide has expressed deep concern for targeting of the Rohingya and warned of a "considerable risk of further violence." Hardly surprising given Burmese President Thein Sein's statement, two years ago, that the "only solution" for the Rohingya was deportation or camps. Quite surprising, however, was the U.S. announcement, hours later, lifting investment sanctions.

The slowing or reversal of reforms since President Obama's last visit to Burma is striking. The constitution still bans Aung San Suu Kyi from running for President. Political prisoners continue to be arrested. Attacks on civilians, rapes, and other severe human rights abuses continue to be reported against ethnic minorities in Kachin, Shan, and other states. Attacks on the press are on the increase, as highlighted by the recent killing of a prominent journalist while in military detention. 

Last week Aung San Suu Kyi noted: "We do think there have been times when the United States government has been overly optimistic about the reform process." Of 11 reform commitments Thein Sein made to President Obama, only one has been fully met.

The Rohingya Muslim minority continues to suffer mightily. Earlier this year, Thein Sein expelled Doctors Without Borders, their primary source of health care. Last month, he declared, "[T]here are no Rohingya among the races [in Burma]" and stipulated that their only path to citizenship required that they renounce their identity and call themselves "Bengalis,' thereby accepting status as illegal aliens. 

Too often foreign officials comply with this effort to "disappear" the Rohingya. When Secretary of State John Kerry visited Burma in August he did not utter their name, at least in public. President Obama reportedly mentioned the Rohingya in a call with the Burmese President on October 31, but whether he will use that word while in the country remains to be seen. 

In addition to saying the forbidden word, President Obama should address the root causes of the crisis by urging the Burmese government to reform its outdated laws that base citizenship on ethnic identity. He should hold more Burmese officials accountable by increasing the targeted sanctions list. He should also push the Burmese government to open a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, perhaps the easiest of the remaining 10 commitments that President Thein Sein made to him.

President Obama is up against a formidable challenge and is understandably reluctant to give up what he hoped would be a great foreign policy success. But while responding to the promise of Burmese reforms is understandable and appropriate, turning a blind eye to the warning signs of genocide against the Rohingya would be indefensible.

'Rohingya' is not just a name, it is 1.3 million people and a culture at risk of being erased. Join those urging President Obama to http://JustSayTheirName.org.

Tom Andrews is President of United to End Genocide. 

By Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

November 13, 2014

NAYPYIDAW — Burmese government officials on Thursday criticized UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over the use of the term Rohingya, after the visiting leader had called for better treatment of the stateless Muslim minority.

The secretary general said in a reaction later on Thursday that the government’s focus on the terminology was “unnecessary” and could “lead to entrenched polarization.”

Shortly after arriving for the Asean and East Asia summits on Wednesday, Ban had told journalists that he “encouraged Myanmar leaders to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement, and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions.”

This irked the government, however, and prompted a response from Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Thant Kyaw, as well as from Arakan State Chief Minister Maung Maung Ohn.

“We’ve repeatedly explained that we’re not happy with the use of the word Rohingya by the United Nations, or by neighboring countries, including Bangladesh,” Thant Kyaw told journalists at the Asean conference center I Naypyidaw.

“We duly understand the humanitarian issue facing this minority and we’ll keep supporting them,” he said, adding, “[But] whenever the United Nations has used the word Rohingya, we keep telling them we do not accept it.”

Arakan Chief Minister Maung Maung Ohn sent a letter to the secretary-general, which was distributed among journalists at the Asean Summit.

Maung Maung Ohn wrote that Ban’s use of the term Rohingya “can have lasting detrimental impact on our ability to do the work needed on the ground to bring the [Muslim and Buddhist] communities together.”

“The term ‘Rohingya’ has fostered distrust and further led to a greater divide between the [Arakanese] and the Bengali populations as well as between the Myanmar people and the international community,” he wrote, adding that use of the term “has alienated the [Arakanese] population and further fueled their distrust of all the United Nations agencies and international organizations.”

Since 2012, Arakan State has been wracked by outbreak of deadly inter-communal violence between Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya that have displaced 140,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Burma’s Buddhist-dominated government is accused of imposing a range of human rights-violating restrictions on the stateless Rohingya, who are not allowed to travel and lack access to basic government services such as education and health care.

The government and the Arakanese population reject the group’s claims to citizenship and right to self-identify as Rohingya—the government insists on calling the group “Bengalis” to suggest they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Asked by The Irrawaddy about the government’s criticism, Ban said, “There should be no misunderstanding on the conditions of the United Nations on this terminology; I’m appealing to you, let us overcome this issue of terminology, if you continue to talk about terminology it may lead to entrenched polarization, this is not necessary.”

“Whatever the terminology, Rohingya or Bengalis, what is important is that we create the conditions where two communities can live harmoniously and where the United Nations can give assistance for communities to develop… That is more important,” he told a press conference.

Maung Maung Ohn is a former Burma Army general who was put in charge in Arakan State in recent months. Since then, the government has put forth a controversial Action Plan for Arakan State that involves permanent segregation of the communities, and internment of Rohingya who refuse to register as “Bengalis.”

A United States official said on Thursday that Washington calls for a completely new Action Plan.

Ban also said on Thursday that he met with President Thein Sein, Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to discuss Burma’s peace process, the Arakan crisis, and next year’s general elections.

He urged all parties to push the stalled nationwide ceasefire negotiations forward as such a ceasefire is “a pillar of the reform process.”

“Compromise will be critical as the parties reach the final stage of a nationwide ceasefire agreement and the framework for political dialogue. The reappearance of clashes shows that the mindset of the past needs to be overcome by a leap of faith on both sides,” he said.

“The status and lives of the people of Myanmar, especially those of the minority communities, who face daily discrimination, oppression and injustice, is a core concern of the United Nations.”

By Jared Ferrie

Naypyidaw -- The United States on Thursday urged Myanmar to draft a new plan to allow the ethnic Rohingya minority to become citizens and to scrap a proposed plan to send them to detention camps if they decline to identify themselves as Bengalis.

Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state in the west of the predominantly Buddhist country. Almost 140,000 were displaced in clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.

The Rakhine State Action Plan will require Rohingya to identify themselves as Bengali – a term most reject because it implies they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived in Myanmar for generations – in order to possibly get citizenship. 

According to a draft of the plan obtained by Reuters, the government has proposed that authorities build camps "for those who refuse to be registered and those without adequate documents".

The plan violates "universal rights" and challenges Myanmar's reforms, said U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes.

"We would like to see a new plan that will allow the Rohingya to become citizens through a normal process without having to do that type of self-identification," he told reporters in Myanmar's capital where U.S. President Barack Obama is meeting leaders at a regional summit.

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had expressed his concern to Myanmar about the Rohingya "who face discrimination and violence".

That prompted a backlash from Myanmar officials, many of whom reject the term Rohingya, insisting the population was historically known as Bengali.

Rhodes said the Obama administration understood there were "contested views of history" but they should not interfere with human rights.

Obama will travel to Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, on Friday to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home where she spent more than 15 years under house arrest because of her opposition to the former military junta.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been notably quiet on the plight of the Rohingya.

Rhodes urged her to speak out.

"Her voice is obviously critically important," he said.

Myanmar emerged from 49 years of military rule when a semi-civilian government took power and initiated reforms.

Obama told the Irrawaddy magazine in an interview published on Wednesday Myanmar was "backsliding" on reforms, citing issues including a crackdown on journalists and the treatment of Rohingya.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Robert Birsel)

Washington Post

November 12, 2014

By Sean Gleeson & Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

November 12, 2014

RANGOON/NAYPYIDAW — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has used a press conference in Naypyidaw on Wednesday to call for greater protections for ethnic minorities in Burma.

While his earlier address to the 6th Asean-UN Summit praised the steps taken by the Burmese government to foster a democratic transition in the country, the UN chief told journalists that he had raised human rights issues in a meeting with the Vice President** and senior government leaders.

“I encouraged Myanmar leaders to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement, and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions,” he said.

Ban says he will reiterate this message when he meets with President Thein Sein Thursday morning.

Reiterating concerns expressed by Ban in an earlier report to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, the Secretary-General said that the plight of stateless Rohingya in Arakan State was of the utmost concern, adding that concerns remains over the government’s unilateral efforts to offer conditional citizenship to some members of the Muslim minority

“Myanmar authorities are carrying out a verification exercise in Rakhine [Arakan] to process the granting of citizenship to people in Rakhine. While the process is being carried out in accordance with national law, it should also be in line with international standards and guidelines,he said.

Ban also said the UN would stick to using the term Rohingya, despite objections by the Burmese government and Arakanese Buddhist community.

“The affected population—referred to as Bengalis by the government of Myanmar but known as Rohingya in the United Nations and in much of the international community—the United Nations uses that word based on the rights of minorities. I also urge the authorities to avoid measures that could entrench the current segregation between communities… Efforts must be made to foster interfaith dialogue and harmony to bring communities closer together, he said.

Asked about the case of shot journalist Par Gyi, Ban said that he would make representations to the Burmese government about the necessity of protecting freedom of expression during the country’s transition period.

“Myanmar is making progress in strengthening its democratic institutions and achieving rapid economic development and national reconciliation,” he said. “In the course of that, when they have a political reform process, I have been asking leaders to fully guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”

The United Nations cautiously welcomed the adoption of a human rights declaration by member countries in the aftermath of the 21st Asean Summit in Phnom Penh in 2012.

Navi Pillay, the then-High Commissioner for Human Rights, has expressed concern that the declaration fell short of international standards.

Addressing the opening of the 6th Asean-UN Summit in Naypyidaw earlier on Wednesday, the Secretary-General praised the Burmese government’s reform efforts while restating the UN’s call for regional partners in protecting human rights.

“I congratulate Myanmar on its achievements, including ambitious reforms aimed at improving the lives of its people,” he said. “As the country prepares for a general election in 2015, it will face a critical benchmark. The government and people of Myanmar can count on the support of the United Nations as they continue the process of democratisation, development, and national reconciliation.”

“Discrimination against minorities and vulnerable groups and violence against women are serious challenges in the region… We rely on the support of member states and regional organisations to enact this ambitious agenda,” he added.