In this webinar, Dr Nick Cheesman and Professor Melissa Crouch discussed Myanmar’s political and social crisis in the context of the state of terror and loathing of “national politics” in Myanmar, and the constitutional implications of the February 1 coup.
In this webinar, Ms Moe Thuzar and Mr Romain Caillaud discussed the desperate situation in which Myanmar finds itself in the context of the mounting need for mediation and a coordinated international response to Myanmar’s crisis.
In this webinar, four speakers with research expertise in these different aspects of Myanmar’s transition will share their thoughts on what comes next after the vote, for the country and the diverse communities within it.
The ISEAS Myanmar Studies Programme organised a webinar on “Myanmar’s 2020 Vote: A Post-Election Analysis” to hear different perspectives and research viewpoints on some of the key factors that contributed to the election outcome, and looking ahead to how this outcome would shape the post-election landscape.
This webinar presented insider views on how mainstream and new media in Myanmar report on issues that are deemed important in the country’s transition. Panellists at this webinar addressed the question of whether or how media reporting in an election year informs and influences voters’ views and attitudes, especially those of young (and first-time) voters.
This webinar by Alex Aung Khant, Executive Director of Urbanize, a local policy institute on urban and regional planning, and former independent candidate for the 2019 Yangon municipal elections, discussed the topic of youth and elections in Myanmar.
In this seminar, y Mr Mratt Kyaw Thu, Mr Kyaw Min Swe, Dr Nwet Kay Khine, Ms Nyein Ei Ei Htwe, and Mr Ye Htut discussed the changing attitudes towards media in Myanmar after the NLD government took office.
In this webinar, Dr Sean Turnell shares insights from the inside on Myanmar’s plan to tackle the impact of the pandemic and recover its economy amidst continuing Covid-19 concerns.
In ISEAS’ first webinar, Dr Andrew Ong examines how Wa political culture and its understanding of the political world shape the UWSA’s relations with Myanmar, China and the international community. He also lays out a set of considerations for engagement with the UWSA and the implications of those considerations for the peace process in one of the world’s longest-running civil wars.
MYANMAR STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
Myanmar’s Constituency Development Funds (CDF) were introduced in 2014 by the first post-junta Union legislature. Popular in developing countries and emerging democracies alike, CDFs are funding arrangements that channel public money from the government directly to electoral constituencies for small infrastructure and local development projects. Members of parliament commonly hold sway over the way these funds are allocated annually. CDF schemes have long remained controversial among communities of donors, anti-corruption agencies and civil society watchdogs for their potential for corruptive business and political clientelism. Drawing on recent field research, this lecture will investigate initial patterns of “pork barrel” politics in Myanmar under both the late USDP government (2014-16) and early NLD administration (since 2016). How have elected legislators used their annual CDFs? How has “pork” been allocated and distributed? Has the process been monitored and evaluated? What impact have these “pork barreling” programs had on local economic development? Has there been any indication of partisan use of these funds? The long-term objective of this study is to better understand how the politics of distribution and legislative pork barreling are emerging in post-junta Myanmar, and whether the negative impacts observed in other sociopolitical contexts and post-authoritarian societies, such as corruption, vote-buying, and political clientelism, can also impede, or foster, citizen participation and government accountability in the country.
About the Speaker
Renaud Egreteau (PhD Paris, 2006) is Visiting Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He previously taught comparative politics at Sciences Po Paris, France and the University of Hong Kong, and was a recipient of a 2015-2016 fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He recently authored Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar (Oxford University Press and Hurst, 2016) and co-edited Metamorphosis: Studies in Social and Political Change in Myanmar [with Francois Robinne] (Singapore: NUS Press, 2015).
Registration
For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 26 April 2017.