UPCOMING EVENT: 3rd International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies [Online, 5-7 March 2021]

12:30-14:00 Myanmar / 13:00-14:30 Thailand on 5 March, 2021, Online and at Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Carl Middleton (CSDS) and Vanessa Lamb (University of Melbourne) will convene a roundtable session titled: “Knowing the Salween River: Reflections on activism, resource politics and peace” for the 3rd International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies. The session will be held on 12:30-14:00 Myanmar / 13:00-14:30 Thailand on 5 March, 2021.

The Salween River basin, shared by Myanmar/Burma, Thailand and China, is dynamic system and a site of long-standing contests over territories, resources, and governance. More recently, it is also increasingly recognised as a site for peace and collaborative water governance. This panel will provide inter-disciplinary perspectives by civil society and academic researchers on the unfolding dynamics on the Salween River in and from Myanmar and in a regional context. We will discuss the politics, activism, and policies linked to intensifying resource extraction, hydropower dam construction as well as conservation and development schemes, and how this is unfolding within a complex terrain of local, national and transnational governance and activist networks. Panellists were all contributors and researchers linked to the 2019 collaborative book, “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River”, which was also the first book dedicated to understanding this complex river system.

Panelists

 Speakers:

• April Kyu Kyu, Researcher, SaNaR (Save the Natural Resource)

• Saw John Bright

• Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director, International River

• Alec Scott, Independent Researcher

Discussant:

• Professor Saw Win, Senior Research Associate, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University 

Co-Chairs:

• Vanessa Lamb, Senior Lecturer, School of Geography, University of Melbourne

• Carl Middleton, Director, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

The conference will be hybrid: 80% online and 20% onsite. As most sessions will be organized online, the registration fee is waived for all conference participants. All participants, please register here to participate in the conference.

For more information about this conference, please visit the organizer’s website here.

The International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies was first organized in July 2015 at Chiang Mai University in collaboration with the University of Mandalay. ICBMS was attended by 543 participants from 29 countries, with 48 sessions of paper presentation and 7 roundtables. The conference brought together scholars, researchers, journalists, NGO workers and observers from Burma/Myanmar, as well as from around the world to engage in discussion on Myanmar’s transition.

ICBMS is organized every two years, with Chiang Mai University and the University of Mandalay taking turns as conference host, and with the possibility of extending collaboration with other universities in both Myanmar and Thailand.

ICBMS3 will happen onsite, in person, at Green Nimman CMU (Uniserv), in Chiang Mai, from 5-7 March 2021.

CSDS Statement: Military Coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021

The Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University stands in solidarity with those who condemn the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021.

UPCOMING ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSION: Building Power from Within: Rural and Indigenous Community Organizing

The 2020 Rotary Peace Fellows’ Working Group and the Center for Social Development Studies at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University present an interactive dialogue with community leaders from Lower-Mekong countries on participatory processes to decrease power disparities and foster meaningful social change.

Tuesday 31 March 2020, start from 14:00 GMT+7/Thailand Time (the panel will be for 90 minutes)

Due to the current public health measures, this event will be an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom. You can join the event via the link provided here. The meeting room will be open before 14:00 so please be prepared to be online and join the meeting room beforehand so you can be ready to join the discussion on time. Following brief presentations by the panelists, participants can engage in a group discussion.

Topics:

• Rural people's issues in the greater Salween River basin near the Thai-Myanmar border with Shan State

• The growth of community organizations and networks within and between ethnic communities in Northern Thailand's three Mekong border districts

Speakers:

• Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers Thailand Campaign Coordinator

• Kru Tee Niwat Roykaew, Chair of Chiang Khong Conservation Group and Director of Mekong School - Institute Of Local Knowledge (in Thai with consecutive translation to English)

• Nang Shining, Founder and Director Mong Pan Youth Association

Moderator: Andrew Stone, 2020 Rotary Peace Fellows' Working Group

Concluding Remarks: Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies

The Panel will be in English.

For inquiries about this event, please contact communications.csds@gmail.com.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Change and Resistance - Future Directions of Southeast Asia [Taipei, 5-7 December 2019]

SEASIA Biennial Conference 2019

Change and Resistance: Future Directions of Southeast Asia

5-7 December 2019, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Panel 8.4: Social Movements and Political Participation in Southeast Asia

Friday, 6 December 2019, 10:50-12:20, Room 904 (9th Floor)

Chair: Chia-Chien Chang (National Chengchi University)

Panelists:

• Social Movement and Political Participation: Fortification of Identity in Malaysia's Bersih Movement by Lim Hui Ying (Doshisha University)

• The “People Power” People Power Monument of the Philippines by Gil D. Turingan (University of the Philippines Diliman)

• Liberal Democracy and Civil Society: The Co-Production of Education Services by John Mark Hernandez Villanueva (Mapua University Manila)

• The Hybrid Public Sphere in Myanmar and Implications for Civil Society  by Carl Middleton (Chulalongkorn University)

• Activist Lawyering in an Emerging Democracy: the Case of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation by Timothy Sinclair Mann (University of Melbourne)

• Articulating a Broken Polity Social Movement and Political Party's Role in Organizing Cleavages by Zahra Amalia Syarifah (The University of Chicago)

For more information about the conference, please visit this link here.

Abstract for The Hybrid Public Sphere in Myanmar and Implications for Civil Society

by Carl Middleton*, Tay Zar Myo Win

Myanmar was under a military junta government for almost six decades, during which time the state heavily controlled the population’s access to information through maintaining an ‘authoritarian public sphere,’ including via severe control over civil society and independent mass media. In 2010, Myanmar held elections that, although highly flawed, resulted in a semi-civilian government. Whilst the military maintained considerable influence, a degree of electoral competition and civil, political and media freedoms were introduced, all within the constraints of the 2008 constitution. This melding of liberal and illiberal elements within an electoral system is best understood as a hybrid regime (Diamond, 2002). In this paper, we analyze the emergence of a ‘hybrid public sphere’ in Myanmar since 2010 that maintains some elements of the previous authoritarian control of the production and circulation of critical discourse, combined with more liberal elements that reflect recently gained civil, political and media freedoms and a greater role for civil society, journalists, and interaction via social media. The paper develops its analysis first through an assessment of the political transition at the national level, and then in a case study in subnational politics in Dawei City with a focus on local planning of electricity supply. We argue that for Myanmar to shift from a procedural to substantive form of democracy, independent civil society require strategies that link (and deepen) recently gained formal freedoms to ensuring the accountability of state and powerful non-state actors via the creation and maintenance of a substantive public sphere.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

UPCOMING EVENT: "Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River"

Saturday, 7 September 2019, Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Utthayanin Building (อาคารเกษม อุทยานิน), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (guide to the venue here)

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) and Salween Studies Network

The Salween River, shared by China, Myanmar, and Thailand, is increasingly at the heart of pressing regional development debates. The basin supports the livelihoods of over 10 million people, and within it there is great socioeconomic, cultural and political diversity. The basin is witnessing intensifying dynamics of resource extraction, alongside large dam construction, conservation and development intervention, that is unfolding within a complex terrain of local, national and transnational governance. With a focus on the contested politics of water and associated resources in the Salween basin, in this seminar we will explore the possible futures of the Salween basin through the lens of: resource politics; politics of knowledge making; and reconciling knowledge across divides. The seminar will also launch the new book: “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River”.

Program and List of Panelists:

08.30 - 09.00  Registration

09.00 - 09.15  Welcome remarks 

• Dr. Ake Tangsupvattana, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

09.15 - 10.30  Panel 1: Resource politics and the Salween River

Chair: Vanessa Lamb, University of Melbourne

• “From Hydropower Construction to National Park Creation: Changing Pathways of the Nu River” by Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University [with Chen Xiangxue]

• “Hydropower Politics and Conflict on the Salween River” by Alec Scott, Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) [with Carl Middleton and Vanessa Lamb]

• “Local Context, National Law: The Rights of Karen People on the Salween River in Thailand“ by Laofang Bundidterdsakul, Legal Advocacy Center for Indigenous Communities (LACIC)

10.30 - 10.45 Coffee Break

10.45 - 12.00 Panel 2: Politics of knowledge making

Chair: Professor Saw Win, Retired Rector of Maubin University

• “An Ethnobotanical Survey in Shan State, Myanmar: Where Thanlwin Biodiversity, Health, and Deforestation Meet” by Mar Mar Aye, Lashio University [with with Swe Swe Win]

• ‘'Not only Anti-dam: Simplistic Rendering of Complex Salween Communities in Their Negotiation for Development in Thailand” by Paiboon Hengsuwan, Chiang Mai University

• “Opportunities and Challenges for Salween Water Governance: Lessons learned from Daw La Lake and Kaw Ku Island, Karen State” by Saw Tha Phoe

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 13.15 Short film showing: “Salween Stories” with introduction by Carl Middleton

13.15 - 14.30 Panel 3: Reconciling knowledge across divides

Chair: John Dore, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia

• “A State of Knowledge of the Salween River: An Overview of Civil Society Research” by Vanessa Lamb, University of Melbourne [with Carl Middleton, Saw John Bright, Saw Tha Phoe, Naw Aye Aye Myaing, Nang Hom Kham, Sai Aum Khay, Nang Sam Paung Hom, Nang Aye Tin, Nang Shining, Yu Xiaogang, Chen Xiangxue and Chayan Vaddhanaphuti]

• “Fisheries and Socio-economic Change in the Thanlwin River Estuary in Mon and Kayin State, Myanmar” by Cherry Aung, Pathein University

• “The Impact of Land Cover Changes on Socio-economic Conditions in Bawlakhe District, Kayah State” by Khin Sandar Aye, Loikaw University [with Khin Khin Htay]

14.30 - 14.45 Coffee Break

14.45 - 16.00 Panel 4: The future of the Salween River: Policy, politics, and practice

Chair: Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University

• “Positioning the Salween in Myanmar’s River Politics” by Khin Maung Lwin, Advisor to the National Water Resources Committee, Myanmar

• “What’s Next for the River? Is the Thanlwin ‘Under Threat’ or ‘on the Thread’” by Nang Shining, Weaving Bonds Across Borders and Mong Pan Youth Association

• “Salween as a Site for Transboundary Justice and Activism” by Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers

16.00 - 16.30 Book Launch and Concluding Remarks

This event will be broadcasted on Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/CSDSChula/

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to  Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at communications.csds@gmail.com. The seat is limited and registration will be accepted on first come first served basis. 

For the most updated information, you can also visit the event’s landing page here.