"Water in One Hand, Fire in the Other:” Coping with Multiple Crises in Post-coup Burma/Myanmar

This paper discusses how different groups within Myanmar's population respond to multiple crises caused by the 2021 military coup, the economic and social consequences of multiple waves of Covid-19 and increasing global food and fuel prices. It is based on monthly observation reports (MOR) by local researchers to focus on the range of actions taken by Myanmar's silent accommodating majority. Contrary to conventional studies that treat "loyalty” and "passive resistance” as separate categories of individual or collective responses to government failures, this paper introduces "accommodation” as a strategy to reflect actions by those who have engaged in both compliance and passive resistance to deal with the military dictatorship in Myanmar. Those who practice accommodation strategies prioritize safety-first approaches that avoid open resistance to the military regime while simultaneously challenging its claim to legitimacy. Some of the strategies that undermine the military regime's claim to legitimacy, however, such as the civil disobedience movement in education and healthcare, further deprive the state of the resource to serve the needs of the general population and thus have detrimental and long-term impacts on individuals who use these. © 2023 BCAS, Inc.

A/Moral Divide: Questions for an Asian American Studies Research Paradigm

Research for the community ultimately aims to effect social change. Transpacific studies offers an analysis about global power, war and colonial presence, and unequal exchanges between nations that explores the transnational ties of Asian Americans.11 For instance, Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis's work examines the intersection of American empire and the racialized/gendered representations of mixed-race Amerasians. The promise of transpacific studies and critical refugee studies is that they not only assess the traumas, needs, and conditions of Asian American communities, but they also examine the subjectivities, hopes, and futures of migrants and refugees as active, creative agents themselves.14 For example, transpacific scholar Wesley Ueunten writes about resistance to the construction of an American military base in Okinawa: Old people, as old and tiny as my Baban [grandmother] in my memories of her, have come to sit on the beach every day in quiet but unrelenting resistance to American Manifest Destiny and Japanese fatalistic dependency on that Destiny. In theory then, the genealogical and discursive analyses of transpacific studies and critical refugee studies would shed light on how we view social realities, and illuminate what's often missing in the analysis of these concepts.

Documents on Democracy

In a country where every ninth person is suffering food shortage, a country where more than one million civilians have fled their homes and villages and have nowhere to live, a country where everyone has lost a family member or a friend to hunger, exposure, war, landmines, arbitrary killings, or the COVID pandemic the military did their utmost to exacerbate, we are all the victims of the military's crimes. There appears to be a parallel trend of an increased number and length of imprisonments occurring through criminal justice processes, suggesting that the focus of deprivation of liberty has shifted towards imprisonment, on purported grounds of counter-terrorism and counter-"extremism." The systems of arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse in VETC and other detention facilities come against the backdrop of broader discrimination against members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities based on perceived security threats emanating from individual members of these groups. The Government holds the primary duty to ensure that all laws and policies are brought into compliance with international human rights law and to promptly investigate any allegations of human rights violations, to ensure accountability for perpetrators and to provide redress to victims.

Mapping the key challenges and managing the opportunities in supply chain distribution during COVID-19: a case of Myanmar pharmaceutical company

PurposeThis study aims to present a study on the supply chain process of a Myanmar-based pharmaceutical company (named ABC Pvt. Ltd. in this study) that produces pharmaceutical products across Myanmar and aims of bringing quality medical products and best care for Myanmar people's health. The study aims to identify the key supply chain challenges and manage the opportunities executed by this pharmaceutical company to improve the supply chain process during the COVID-19 outbreak.Design/methodology/approachThis work used a case study and conducted semistructured interviews with the manager, senior managers and senior staff of the ABC Company to improve the supply chain process and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them to streamline the uncertainties, real-time information and agility in a digital supply chain using grey relational analysis (GRA) method.FindingsFrom the data analysis and results, "Impact of political factor,” "Delay in import process” and "Weak internet connection,” and "Weak knowledge of the use of digital platform,” "Poor information sharing in online by employees” and "Information flow from top management to operational level” have been identified as top and bottom three key challenges, respectively. "Inventory management,” "Selection of transport method” and "Operational cost”, and "Marketing and brand Innovation,” "Online delivery of products” and "E-commerce enablement (Launching applications, tracking system)” are identified as the top and bottom three managing the opportunities, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study help to supply chain decision-makers of the company in their establishment of key challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 era. As a leading company, it always tries to add value to its product through a supply chain system, effective management teams and working with skillful decision-making toward satisfying the demand on time and monitoring the supplier performance.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities by the GRA method to rank them, considering the case of Myanmar pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era. This work will assist managers and practitioners help to the company to provide optimal services to its consumers on time in this critical situation.

Establishing a Mindful Leadership Development Pilot Programs to Determine its Effectiveness in Reducing Employee Burnout and Improving Work Performance: A Case Study at Z&A Company, Myanmar

Purpose: In today's turbulent world, Organizations are under pressure to perform and adapt to an ever-changing environment, creating stress on the employees, translating to direct and indirect costs to the organization. Among the difficulties the leader of today are facing, those of adaptive challenges are especially difficult. Mindful leadership pointed out that seeing the positive potential of change honestly and assessing a situation and have prospects for the future make people more effective leaders. Mindful leadership skills, mindset and practice are recognized as an effective approach to managing stress, and has benefits of attention, well-being and improve work performance which long been major concerns in organization in Myanmar, in the region and around the world. Power Systems of Zeya and Associated Company Limited (Power Systems of Z&A Company) with 44 employees was selected as a focal company for action research. A total of 16 attributes of the 3 variables: Mindful Leadership, Workplace Burnout and Work Performance had been identified.Design/Methodology/Approach: This research applied action research method which is comprised of mixed-method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative research design. Action Research Model was employed in conducting this research which focused on studying the impact of ODI on Mindful Leadership Development to reduce Employee workplace Burnout and Improving Work Performance. Quantitative data collection has made used of survey questionnaires and qualitative data was collected through observation method. The respondents were chosen from the employees of Power System Z&A Company.Findings: This research study was focused on a mindful leadership development pilot program that can aim to reduce the employees' work burnout level to improve the work performance at Z&A Company. The analyzed data prove that mindful leadership was improved, workplace burnout level was reduced in Post ODI period and they proved that they can handle their stressful and burnout condition. And work performance also improved after ODI. Therefore organization development intervention was significantly impacted on work performance.Practical Implications: According to this research, the researcher suggested two research titles to Z&A Company for further research consider on "Changing organizational culture's effectiveness on work burnout and work performance” and "Motivation in work from home life to reduce work burnout and improve work performance”.Originality/Value: The research contributes the conceptual framework, theoretical framework and action research framework in order meet the objectives of the study as well as contributing the guidelines of the organization for the next level of action plans to overcome the challenges in the uncertainty situation and Covid-19 Pandemic.

Five Years Lost: Youth Inclusion in the Rohingya Response

While youth are routinely lauded as "change-makers,” they are often underserved and unsupported in refugee responses. As the Rohingya face protracted displacement in Bangladesh, what is the state of youth inclusion in the response? Do youth and adolescents feel supported, or are they ignored and left behind?To answer these questions, the paper uses: Literature on youth participation and inclusion in humanitarian programming;Key informant interviews with practitioners from national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies;Focus group discussions and key informant interviews with refugee individuals and groups across nine camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It finds that: Refugee Rohingya youth and adolescents remain firmly on the margins of humanitarian programming, and are largely excluded from decision-making processes;Approximately 96 percent of surveyed youth between 18 and 24 years of age report being unemployed;For surveyed women aged 18–24 years, unemployment rates bordered on 99 percent;and Stress and anxiety are omnipresent amongst the community: an overwhelming majority of respondents reported experiencing disturbing thoughts and resorting to negative coping mechanisms. The paper ends with a series of recommendations to the Strategic Executive Group (SEG) and the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), to donors, the international community, and the government of Bangladesh. 1

Corporate social responsibility and public diplomacy as formulas to reduce hate speech on social media in the fake news era

PurposeAnalyse the presence of hate speech in society, placing special emphasis on social media. In this sense, the authors strive to build a formula to moderate this type of content, in which platforms and public institutions cooperate, from the fields of corporate social responsibility and public diplomacy, respectively.Design/methodology/approachTo this aim, it is important to focus efforts on the creation of counter-narratives;the establishment of content moderation guidelines, which are not necessarily imposed by unilateral legislation;the promotion of suitable scenarios for the involvement of civil society;transparency on the part of social media companies;and supranational cooperation that is as transnational as possible. To exemplify the implementation of initiatives against hate speech, two cases are analysed that are paradigmatic for assuming two effective approaches to the formula indicated by the authors.FindingsThe authors analyse, in the case of the European Union, its "Code of conduct to counteract illegal online hate speech”, which included the involvement of different social media companies. And in the case of Canada, the authors discuss the implementation of the bill to include a definition of hate speech and the establishment of specific sanctions for this in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Penal Code.Originality/valueThe case of the European Union was a way of seeking consensus with social media companies without legislation, while the case of Canada involved greater legislative and penalisation. Two ways of seeking the same goal: curbing hate speech.

Improving Governance of Tenure in Policy and Practice: Agrarian and Environmental Transition in the Mekong Region and Its Impacts on Sustainability Analyzed through the ‘Tenure-Scape' Approach

Land relations in the Mekong Region are marked by the densely populated and intensively cultivated lowlands and the more extensive settlement and cultivation areas in the uplands. Land-use changes in the lowlands and uplands are interlinked and are a key process of agrarian and environmental transition. The ‘tenure-scape' approach is introduced as a qualitative analysis combining integrated landscape approaches, governance and rights-based approaches, while underlining the centrality of legitimate tenure rights, limitations and obligations. This approach is used to analyze the impact of the Green Revolution and the global commodity boom, in particular the growth of rubber and coffee, on sustainability in the Mekong countries, i.e., Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam. The way forward points to the use of the elements of the ‘tenure-scape' approach to re-valuate the potential contribution of smallholder farmers to the wider physical and societal landscape. The ultimate goal is to go from transition to transformation toward a more secure, equitable future for those at risk of being excluded from effective access to, use of, and control over land, fisheries, forests and water resources, which are providing the basis for their livelihoods if the concession model of land-based investments were to be continued.

Gender equality boost for regenerative tourism: the case of Karenni village Huay Pu Keng (Mae Hong Son, Thailand)

Purpose>This paper display how “objectifying” forms of tourism can be converted into a more gender-equal regenerative tourism.Design/methodology/approach>The methodology generates shared understandings about the opportunities and challenges of implementing regenerative tourism by stimulating gender equality. The research design is based on qualitative research methods. Using a transformative tourism development process of the Karenni village Huay Pu Keng in Thailand, which is the first and only village that made this transition, the results of a process to stimulate the empowerment of women have been described.Findings>The desk research and conversations reported in the findings of this paper provide important insights in the social impacts in relation to gender equality and women empowerment. The community has become a role model for transformative tourism in relation to gender equality. Findings included that women are more involved in tourism activities, which has created a positive shift towards a gender balance. However, there is still a difference in education and participation between men and women. The study further reveals how tourism contributes to enliven the indigenous traditions and cultures and be a model for future developments in creating life-long meaningful experiences.Originality/value>Insights of the first and only Karenni village that made a transition to community-based tourism demonstrate how the community has been empowered. It improved the gender balance to make strategic decisions towards transforming their futures. Exploring this process is therefore valuable, as it contains knowledge that can be advantageous for other communities and research.

Students’ future on hold as govts put malls before schools

Speed read Foundational years of schooling vital for overall development Lack of digital infrastructure impedes remote learning Children’s education a priority for most parents in the region A “generational catastrophe” looms as governments prioritise opening of malls over schools, resulting in huge learning losses with some 117 million children globally still affected by full school closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Lost formative years Children have missed the hands-on experience of learning and face-to-face engagement with teachers. Since the onset of the pandemic, schools have been completely closed for an average of 16 weeks in the Asia Pacific region comprising 47 countries. If partial closures by locality or educational level are factored in, the average duration of closures represents 29 weeks across the regions, according to the latest data from UNESCO’s HQ’s Global monitoring of school closures. A UNESCO study shows that over 100 million children will fall below the minimum proficiency level in reading due to the impact of COVID-19 school closures.

Living in the Shadows: Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia

Denied citizenship and persecuted in Myanmar, the Rohingya have fled to various countries, including Malaysia. However, Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. It also has weak domestic legal and regulatory mechanisms to protect refugees and asylum-seekers. In this paper, the authors study the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and suggest how the Malaysian legal system can better protect them by adapting international legal practices.

Law and Religion: Asia as Critical Ground for Rethinking Existing Frameworks and Dominant Paradigms

The first is illustrated by Benjamin Lawrence’s article in this issue of the Journal of Law and Religion: framing the starting point of any constitutional-state relations as entangled, rather than as separated. 4 His account of Buddhist monks in Cambodia seeking exemption from universal suffrage, as supposedly befits their politically neutral status, and the extent to which this is contested on the ground by a number of monks, suggests that one could not start to understand the complex interactions of Buddhism and the state through the lens of secularism as separation, which grew out of the historical context of a powerful church in competition with a powerful state. The study of such regulations would be critical not only for understanding but also for critiquing their impact on religious practices specifically and on society and politics more generally. 5 The methods and impact of state bureaucratization of religion, a form of direct regulation, was aptly explored in the JLR symposium “The Bureaucratization of Religion in Southeast Asia,” guest-edited by JLR co-editor Mirjam Künkler. 6 A regulatory or entanglement framework could further surface the multifarious ways in which religion engages the state beyond the usual, though always important, constitutional claims premised upon equality and freedom of religion. [...]contextualization should be a primary orientation for law and religion scholarship: lived experiences and thick description enrich our understanding of law. [...]to the extent that existing scholarship has employed a Judeo-Christian framework for the study of law and religion—a perspective that tends to emphasize textual authority, voluntary inner faith, and individual rights—the viability of such scholarship requires rethinking.

Drivers of Economic Catch-up in Asia: A Study of ASEAN Countries with Comparative Views of China and India

This paper conducts a comprehensive examination of the sources of economic growth and catch-up of ASEAN countries since the Asian Financial Crisis, with comparative views ofChina and India. The study employs different decomposition frameworks to gain insights into the drivers of the Association's economic performance over the 1997-2017 period. Three findings are most notable. First, all ten member states, except for Brunei, recorded a strong catch up performance, with labour productivity being the leading driver in most countries. Second, the drivers of labour productivity catch-up exhibit some distinctive patterns among countries, which depend on the level of income and economic structure. Third, in all decomposition analyses, ASEAN countries are well below China and India across sources of growth, which tends to suggest that countries in the grouping could improve their performance by enhancing market integration and policy coordination. Although the long-term prospect of ASEAN is bright, the COVID19 pandemic and the recent military coup in Myanmar have indicated that the road to future prosperity of the region is expected to face formidable challenges.

The Disease Called Fear: Reading Narayan Ganguly's Short Story "Pushkara"

The fatal shadow of an all-pervasive epidemic may have become a distant memory for our generation because modern medicine and therapy have progressed and our longevity is blessed. Along came Corona virus and the proverbial world of our knowledge went through chaos. We witnessed a new threat along with the microscopic virus- the banality of posttruths. This fear rapidly gets transmitted into the psychology of everyone. And how that fear can infiltrate the common judgement of populace, is the focus of this paper through reading Bengali novelist Narayan Gangopadhyay's short story, Pushkara. The story is set against the cholera epidemic in rural Bengal, where a priest prepares for a midnight Kali Puja at the cremation ground to ward off the evil of Cholera. The offal offered at the altar is consumed by a local vagrant woman, but the intoxicated and hyper tensed priest and his acolytes assume the woman in the dark to be the corporeal form of the goddess itself. Out of abject psychosis, a divine myth is born. Death and disease mark our existence as Susan Sontag called our duality as realm of night and realm of well-being. To attain the realm of well-being, we are often seen to give in to sad repercussions to mete out our existential dread. This essay will show how that fear is no less powerful than the disease itself.

Chirohepevirus from Bats: Insights into Hepatitis E Virus Diversity and Evolution

Homologs of the human hepatitis E virus (HEV) have been identified in more than a dozen animal species. Some of them have been evidenced to cross species barriers and infect humans. Zoonotic HEV infections cause chronic liver diseases as well as a broad range of extrahepatic manifestations, which increasingly become significant clinical problems. Bats comprise approximately one-fifth of all named mammal species and are unique in their distinct immune response to viral infection. Most importantly, they are natural reservoirs of several highly pathogenic viruses, which have induced severe human diseases. Since the first discovery of HEV-related viruses in bats in 2012, multiple genetically divergent HEV variants have been reported in a total of 12 bat species over the last decade, which markedly expanded the host range of the HEV family and shed light on the evolutionary origin of human HEV. Meanwhile, bat-borne HEV also raised critical public health concerns about its zoonotic potential. Bat HEV strains resemble genomic features but exhibit considerable heterogeneity. Due to the close evolutionary relationships, bat HEV altogether has been recently assigned to an independent genus, Chirohepevirus. This review focuses on the current state of bat HEV and provides novel insights into HEV genetic diversity and molecular evolution.

The specter of empty countrysides and wetlands—Impact of hunting take on birds in Indo‐Burma

Hunting for the wild meat trade, medicines and other human uses has decimated Indo‐Burma's vertebrate biota and has led to widespread defaunation. Yet, there is surprisingly little data on how hunting impacts wild bird assemblages in different landscapes here. Based on concurrent snapshot surveys of bird hunting, food markets and hunting attitudes across six Indo‐Burma countries, we found that hunting threatens species not only in forested landscapes but also wetlands and farmlands such as orchards and paddy fields—ecosystems overlooked by past studies, with at least 47 species associated with wetlands and agricultural lands identified from market surveys across the region. High rates of mortality are suffered when hunting tools such as nets are used to exclude perceived bird pests in both aquaculture and agricultural landscapes, with over 300 individual carcasses of at least 29 identifiable species detected in one aquaculture landscape sampled in Thailand. We warn that the potentially unsustainable trapping of species for consumption and trade in Indo‐Burma, coupled with high incidental mortalities, could decimate the populations of erstwhile common and/or legally unprotected species. There is an urgent need for stronger regulatory oversight on the hunting take of wild birds and the use of hunting tools such as nets. Alongside this, conservation practitioners need to better engage with rural communities to address unsustainable hunting practices, especially outside of protected areas.

Implementation of a Community-Based Psychosocial Support Focal Point Response for Internally Displaced Persons in Myanmar During COVID-19.

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Mental Health research group at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health worked with three local partner organizations in Myanmar to develop a psychosocial support (PSS) program that could be delivered by community-based focal points in internally displaced persons camps. This PSS program was designed to be delivered in communities with limited access to regional mental health services due to pandemic travel restrictions. The content of the PSS program was based on materials from an ongoing Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) mental health program; CETA counselors based in the three partner organizations were available to provide telephone-based CETA counseling. In April 2020, the partners organizations recruited and trained PSS focal points in 25 IDP camps to establish a multi-tiered system of MHPSS supports. Implementation: The PSS program including psychoeducation handouts focused on stress and coping during COVID-19 and skills for cognitive restructuring (i.e., changing unhelpful thoughts) in simplified terms, audio recordings of the content of these handouts and referral opportunities for telephone-based services by CETA counselors located outside of the camps. PSS focal points distributed the handouts, had the recordings played via radio and loudspeaker, and were available to answer questions and provide access to a PSS program phones to connect with the CETA counselors. After 6 months of implementation, program monitoring logs were reviewed and a cross-sectional evaluation was conducted to assess the PSS program's reach, understanding, and perceived utility. Evaluation: Forty-one focal points implemented the PSS program in 25 IDP camps in Kachin and northern Shan States. From May to September 2020, the focal points distributed handouts to 5,725 households and reported 679 visits by IDPs, including facilitating 332 calls to a CETA counselor. Data from the program evaluation (n = 793 participants) found high levels of handout readership and perceived utility of the information, and good comprehension of the content and application of skills. Discussion: Findings suggest that provision of a multi-tiered MHPSS program, with PSS focal points providing direct information and linkages to further mental health services via telephone, was feasible despite the constraints of the pandemic. Utilizing camp-based focal points was acceptable and successful in delivering basic psychosocial supports to a broad population while serving as points of contact for individuals who wanted and needed telephone-based counseling services.