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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:33 pm
Time: 10:33 pm
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1 results foundAuthor: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Myanmar Maneuvers: How to Break Political-Criminal Alliances in Contexts of Transition Summary: The Myanmar case study analyzes the complex interactions between illegal economies - conflict and peace. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the effects of illegal economies on Myanmar's political transitions since the early 1990s, including the current period, up through the first year of the administration of Aung San Suu Kyi. Described is the evolution of illegal economies in drugs, logging, wildlife trafficking, and gems and minerals as well as land grabbing and crony capitalism, showing how they shaped and were shaped by various political transitions. Also examined was the impact of geopolitics and the regional environment, particularly the role of China, both in shaping domestic political developments in Myanmar and dynamics within illicit economies. For decades, Burma has been one of the world's epicenters of opiate and methamphetamine production. Cultivation of poppy and production of opium have coincided with five decades of complex and fragmented civil war and counterinsurgency policies. An early 1990s laissez-faire policy of allowing the insurgencies in designated semi-autonomous regions to trade any products - including drugs, timber, jade, and wildlife - enabled conflict to subside. The incorporation of key drug traffickers and their assets into the state structures significantly strengthened the state and the military regime. The Burmese junta negotiated ceasefires with the insurgencies, and underpinned the agreements by giving the insurgent groups economic stakes in resource exploitation and illegal economies. Under pressure, including from China, opium poppy cultivation was suppressed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, even as unregulated and often illegal trade in timber, jade, and wildlife continued. Although local populations suffered major economic deprivation, the ceasefires lasted. The armed ethnic groups, however, did not lose their source of revenues, compensating for the diminished heroin business by switching to methamphetamines and, with the participation of Chinese businesses, augmenting the legal and illegal extraction of other resources, such as timber and gems. Since the middle of the 2000s, however, the ceasefires have started to break down, and violent conflict has escalated. As of this writing in February 2017, it is probably at its most intense at any time since the early 1990s. Among the reasons is the effort of the previous Myanmar government and military since 2008 as well as powerful Bamar and Chinese businessmen and powerbrokers (many linked to the military and military business conglomerates) to restructure the 1990s economic underpinnings of the ceasefires so their economic profits increase. Business conglomerates linked to the Tatmadaw, such as Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), came to enjoy special access to the significant gem mines and other resource economies and trade more broadly, serving crucial political survival interests of the military. Control of the jade economy became a key enrichment and strategic priority for the junta. The military also sought to guarantee a steady pension for former Tatmadaw officials and soldiers and thus keep them from potentially rebelling. The MEHL and other military-linked economic conglomerates and cronies hence were accorded monopolies on the import of various consumer goods. Meanwhile, however, illegal and unregulated resource economies, including the drug trade, logging, mining, and wildlife trafficking, have thrived and devastate Burma's ecosystems, even as the plunder-underpinned peace has slid into war again. In 2011, the Myanmar military embarked on political and economic liberalization that, though a miscalculation of the military, culminated in the election of the Aung Sang Suu Kyi government in November 2015. However, the military has retained significant formal and informal power. Indeed, despite the military's electoral miscalculation, the entire transition had been at the discretion of the junta. Illicit economies played an integral part of the transition process, being a crucial element of the golden parachute that the junta awarded itself. Moreover, with its continuing lock on constitutional power, the military regime also guaranteed itself a sufficient budget. Any reforms that took place, including those directed at illicit economies, such as the embrace of greater transparency measures in mining, greater enforcement in logging, and the significant weakening the power of the cronies, were still at the direction of the military. Reforms and actions against illicit economies and organized crime that would not be advantageous to the military's institutional power or enrichment of key individuals have not taken place and could be subverted or vetoed by the key powerbrokers of the military. Similarly, the selective suppression of organized crime and aspects of the illicit economies has served crucial political and strategic objectives of the military. Nonetheless, under President Thein Sein, significant economic liberalization was in fact undertaken, with a surprising willingness to change economic arrangements with privileged economic actors. As a result of growing economic competition, the footprint of the military conglomerates and crony companies in the formal economy was reduced. Thein Sein also launched an anti-corruption drive, limited in its reach and determination mainly to the civil service, but nonetheless not insignificant. A comprehensive new land law was passed, and some stolen land was returned to local populations as a result of civil society mobilization. Details: Tokyo: United Nations University, 2017. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Crime-Conflict Nexus Series: No 9: Accessed June 19, 2017 at: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2445/Myanmar-Maneuvers-How-to-Break-Political-Criminal-Alliances-in-Contexts-of-Transition.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Burma URL: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2445/Myanmar-Maneuvers-How-to-Break-Political-Criminal-Alliances-in-Contexts-of-Transition.pdf Shelf Number: 146260 Keywords: Crime-Conflict NexusIllegal DrugsIllegal LoggingResource ExploitationTrafficking in MineralsTrafficking in WildlifeWildlife CrimesWildlife Trafficking |