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Pundit: Ethnicity and democratization can go together
Oldest Gecko Fossil Found in Amber
Suu Kyi rejects meeting with junta liaison: state media
Suu Kyi's refusals indicate anger over slow reform
Burma’s junta ‘gave best help in cyclone’
Time For A Revision

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Pundit: Ethnicity and democratization can go together
www.ShanLand.org
No.04-9/2008 : 4 September 2008 : Politics 

Ethnic nationalism can, under the right conditions, work for rather than against democracy’s rise and consolidation, says a professor from Princeton University in the latest issue of Journal of Democracy.
 
While not denying the conventional scholarly wisdom that ethnic diversity generally dims democracy’s prospects, such as:

* Lowering of aggregate economic rates, especially under authoritarian regimes
* Poorer governmental performance
 
Mark R. Beissinger, the author of Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (2002), argues that these effects can be remedied through “nation building reforms that build trust across groups.”
 
Mark R. Beissinger

One of the remedies he suggests is federalism. “Federalism is widely believed to harm chances for stable democracy in ethnically diverse countries, yet has also been known to aid democratic stability if the country’s majority ethnic group lacks a core home region and if the federal bargain is reached consensually by ethnic elites rather than imposed from outside or above,” he writes.
 
In fact, there are even cases where ethnic nationalism is the drawing force behind democratization efforts, according to him. Extremely diverse societies like India and Papua New Guinea for example, rate as successful democratizers.
 
Soviet experience also shows that while republics with less ethnic diversity tend to have more ethnic protests, others such as Lativa and Armenia, each with widely different demographic make-ups, became models of democracy and development. “Globally, ethnic diversity is generally a poor predictor of civil wars,” he says.
 
Beissinger however is not an unquestioned champion of ethnicity. “Not all ethnic nationalisms are born equal. Nationalism that targets members of other groups with the goal of creating an ethnically pure state is likely to end in bloodshed and the wreck the basis for democratic stability and the rule of law,” he says.
 
He also warns against politicians playing the ethnic card in order to consolidate their rule.
 
The late Senator Patrick Moynihan had counseled: The challenge is to make the world safe for and against ethnicity.
 
For details, please read A new look at ethnicity and democratization, by Mark R. Beissinger, www.journalofdemocracy.org

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Oldest Gecko Fossil Found in Amber

September 3, 2008

Is finding the world's oldest gecko so easy a caveman could do it?

Sadly for fans of the Geico insurance company characters, the answer is: Probably not, as scientists say they were "very fortunate" to unearth in Myanmar (Burma) a piece of fossilized tree sap known as amber containing parts of a hundred-million-year-old gecko.

A foot, toes, and part of the tail (seen above at left) are all that remain of the recently found reptile, which the researchers say is a new species that is 40 million years older than the previous record holder.

The foot is so well preserved that scientists can clearly see its intact toe pads, or lamellae, covered with the microscopic hairlike structures that give modern geckos (right) the ability to stick to walls and ceilings. (Related: "Gecko, Mussel Powers Combined in New Sticky Adhesive" [July 18, 2007].)

Based on the number of lamellae present, the team, based at Oregon State University, estimates that the ancient gecko was a youngster that was less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) long when it died. The animal could have grown to be as much as a foot (a third of a meter) long, the team suspects.

According to the researchers, the discovery shows that geckos lived in Asia during the lower Cretaceous period, 97 million to 110 million years ago, and that the animals had already evolved their unusually adhesive feet.

Left photograph courtesy George Poinar, Jr./OSU; right photograph by Robert Clark/NGS

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080903-gecko-amber.html

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Suu Kyi rejects meeting with junta liaison: state media
AFP
Wed Sep 3, 3:52 AM ET

Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet with the junta's liaison officer and declined a visit from her personal physician, state media said Wednesday.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years, but in recent weeks has refused even the minimal contact that the regime allows her with the outside world.

The military had arranged for her to meet Tuesday with Labour Minister Aung Kyi, who is tasked with coordinating official talks with her, the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar said.

But she informed her lawyer Kyi Win during a meeting on Monday that she would not speak with the minister, and also refused to see her doctor who had been set to give her a medical check-up, the paper said.

"For the time being, she wanted to meet no one, except advocate U Kyi Win," the paper said.

The talks with the liaison officer had been arranged at the request of the United Nations, following the visit of UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month, it added.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, refused to meet with Gambari during his six-day mission here. He was also shunned by the junta leader Than Shwe, who did not even invite the envoy to visit the capital Naypyidaw.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has been at a loss to explain her actions, but analysts have said that she could be protesting the dialogue with the regime, which has yielded no tangible results.

The NLD has said that Aung San Suu Kyi has stopped collecting her food supplies, but stressed that the circumstances were unclear and has not called her actions a hunger strike.

Lawyer Kyi Win said after his meeting with her Monday that she had lost weight but seemed to be feeling well.

He said they discussed a planned appeal of her current detention, which began more than five years ago.

She has met with her lawyer three times over the last month. Before August, she had not been allowed to see him since 2004.

The NLD won elections in 1990, but has never been allowed to take office. The regime now says it is preparing new polls for 2010 under a new constitution, which the party says will merely entrench military rule.

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Suu Kyi's refusals indicate anger over slow reform
AP
Wed Sep 3, 3:29 AM ET

Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet her personal physician and a top government minister, indicating her continued frustration at the slow pace of reform in the military-ruled country, her spokesman said Wednesday.

Suu Kyi refused to attend a Tuesday meeting with Relations Minister Aung Kyi at a government guest house in the city of Yangon, according to Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Myanmar's junta appointed Aung Kyi last year to facilitate talks aimed at bringing democratic reforms to the impoverished and isolated country.

Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, also declined a checkup from her personal physician, Dr. Tin Myo Win, Nyan Win said. The Nobel Peace Prize winner's last checkup was Aug. 17, when her doctor said she was well.

Nyan Win said he did not know for certain why Suu Kyi had refused the meetings but that it was likely to do with the government's failure to embrace a timetable for democratic reform.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is dissatisfied with the lack of progress from the talks and also unhappy with the lack of a timeframe," he said.

The 63-year-old Suu Kyi has repeatedly turned away food deliveries to her house in recent weeks and refused to meet U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari when he visited Myanmar last month.

Suu Kyi's lawyer Kyi Win visited her on Monday and later said she had lost weight and was shunning food deliveries. He would not comment on rumors that the opposition leader had gone on a hunger strike.

She has been detained under house arrest for years and relies on food delivered to her home by her party. Supporters said last week she had not accepted food deliveries since Aug. 15.

Kyi Win declined to say why Suu Kyi was refusing food deliveries.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in a political deadlock since 1990, when Suu Kyi's party overwhelmingly won general elections but was not allowed to take power by the military.

The United Nations has tried with little success to nudge the government toward talks with the opposition. But the junta has not responded to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation following its violent suppression of massive anti-government protests last year.

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Burma’s junta ‘gave best help in cyclone’
By Andrew Jack in London
Published: September 3 2008 17:18 | Last updated: September 3 2008 17:18

The Burmese authorities were by far the greatest providers of medical assistance to its population after cyclone Nargis despite the widespread international criticism of a poor response by the military junta, according to an analysis released on Wednesday.

A report summarised in the latest issue of the World Health Organisation’s Bulletin says government doctors, nurses and midwives were far more active in offering treatment and medicines to cyclone survivors than non-governmental organisations and individual volunteers.

The findings partially contradict perceptions based on the reluctance of the Burmese authorities to reveal the extent of the crisis and its slowness in allowing foreign official and private charitable assistance to help with relief operations.

While there were widespread unmet medical needs after the cyclone in May, Richard Garfield from the WHO’s health and nutrition tracking service, who co-ordinated the study, said: “We discovered to our surprise because of such bad PR that there was large-scale mobilisation by government around the country.”

Although the study was conducted on behalf of the Burmese authorities, the UN and Asean, Mr Garfield insisted that the findings were objective.

The study, which covered nearly 3,000 households most affected by Nargis in south-west Burma, also identified that among the survivors, diarrhoea and the common cold were by far the most widespread problems, rather than trauma, wounds and more serious infectious diseases such as cholera, as some experts had warned.

Of the 85,000 estimated killed and a further 54,000 missing after the cyclone last May, there were twice as many women who died as men. That confirms for the first time anecdotal evidence never previously quantified from other natural disasters, including the 2004 Asian tsunami which claimed more than 200,00 lives.

Mr Garfield said the reasons included the fact that many women in the region had never learned to swim, were killed while trying to save their children, or were too weak to hold on to trees and other objects to keep them safe over long periods until water levels dropped.

He said one set of lessons from Nargis should be the introduction of swimming lessons for women, and family evacuation training designed to encourage men to look after older children – which requires greater strength – while women should care for babies.

The study also found that the most effective assistance came from countries near Burma. “It was more culturally appropriate and got there in time,” he said.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0036148e-79d3-11dd-bb93-000077b07658.html

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Time For A Revision
The Times of India
LEADER ARTICLE: 4 Sep 2008, 0005 hrs IST
Baladas Ghoshal and Ian Holliday

Caught between engagement and isolation, Burma, renamed Myanmar by its dictatorial military junta, is in a state of decline. What was once the richest land in South East Asia is now one of the poorest. What was once a vibrant nation is now subject to strict control by a clique of generals determined to countenance no dissent.

Although two political crises have rocked Burma recently, neither has loosened the tight political grip of the junta. Rather, each has amply exposed the impotence of western powers in dealing with a regime widely viewed as odious.

Last September, nascent monk-led democracy protests were brutally crushed. This May, attempts to mount a rapid global response to cyclone devastation in the Irrawaddy delta were severely hampered. In neither case, however, were the US and the EU able to develop an effective policy response.

Indeed, it was striking that even a natural disaster of the magnitude of Cyclone Nargis did not create an opportunity to unlock a closed political process. When the tsunami hit Aceh in December 2004, a window for dialogue and communication among opposing parties opened up and became one of the key catalysts for peace. In Burma, despite loud calls from many western powers for global engagement with humanitarian relief efforts, no such political shift has taken place.

The inability of western powers to craft a viable Burma policy means that attention turns back to Asia. In both crises, China used its unrivalled access to open up some communication channels and facilitate a measure of engagement with Burma's reclusive junta. ASEAN moved beyond its standard practice to express 'revulsion' at the state-sponsored violence against monks, and to lead humanitarian responses to cyclone damage. However, real change inside the country seems unlikely to come by either route.

There is, then, an important opportunity here for India. Following a brief flirtation with Burma's democracy movement in the late 1980s, New Delhi has since the mid-1990s taken a hard-nosed strategic interest in building close ties with the military government. To date, however, those efforts have met with limited success.

This is chiefly because a security dynamic has been allowed to predominate. India is determined to defeat insurgents in its restive north-east who find refuge across the porous Burmese frontier. It is also keen to counter what it sees as a creeping Chinese security presence in Burma. For these reasons, military links are now well developed, and Indian supplies to the Burmese army have passed from the non-lethal to the lethal.

Yet there can be much more to the bilateral relationship. New Delhi is interested in Burmese oil and gas reserves, and has had some success in securing contracts. In addition, the Look East Policy launched some 15 years ago must run through Burma if links with South East Asia are to be enhanced. India is also involved in infrastructure projects designed to upgrade major roads and port facilities.

At present, however, these are little more than necessary foundation stones for a comprehensive Burma policy.

Trading links can be pursued not just through natural resources, but also through small-scale cross-border commerce that helps to enrich marginalised and impoverished parts of both Burma and India. Currently, however, such trade is constrained by restrictive travel regulations informed by security concerns rather than development perspectives.

Cultural diplomacy is another important area that should rise up the agenda. Only 60 years ago, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Burma's first premier, U Nu, were good friends and often consulted each other on international issues. Twenty years ago, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a personal friend of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. However, several decades of xenophobic rejection by successive Burmese generals mean that New Delhi must now work hard to re-establish friendly relations.

Education also holds the key. The shambolic state of teaching and learning in Burma means that the country is in desperate need of outside help to train future generations. Indian schools, which have been successfully opened in many parts of the world, have a crucial role to play.

The Burma problem runs deep and will not be solved in a matter of months or even years. To build a platform for long-term engagement with its strategic neighbour, India's foreign policy elite needs to be more creative.

By taking its Burma policy beyond military and natural resource issues, New Delhi can both enhance its security leverage, and recapture a relationship that was once cordial. Promoting this policy shift is also in the interests of the wider world that desperately wants to facilitate long-term change inside Burma. Indeed, if India were able to gain the confidence of military leaders in Burma through multiple strands of engagement, it could start to promote multilateral talks bringing ASEAN, China and Japan from Asia together with the EU and US from outside to engage in talks with the Burmese junta and, ultimately, leading opposition forces.

In charting a new Burma policy for India, it has to be acknowledged that greater engagement by New Delhi will not generate immediate political reform. However, it will mean that when fresh crises create new opportunities for mediation, India will be better placed to step up to the plate.

Ghoshal is senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and Holliday is dean of social sciences, The University of Hong Kong.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/Time_For_A_Revision/articleshow/3441750.cms

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