“#DASSK There is no Genocide in Myanmar. We stand together with our leader. #Myanmar” -RangoonToday 12/10/2019

Rangoon Today seems to be a media source or news group that reports news that goes on in the Myanmar city of Rangoon, which is now known as Yangon. This tweet, made by RangoonToday, claims that there is no genocide going on against the Rohingya peoples. The current crisis in Myanmar involving the military acting against the Rohingya insurgents, and intern is driving Rohingya citizens of Myanmar out to surrounding  countries is being called a genocide by officials from multiple groups around the world. Currently, the UN is looking into whether or not these acts could actually be classified as a genocide.

I would say, based off of prior research, that this is a case of media outlets in Myanmar being influenced in some way by the state. People in Myanmar and even across the world are calling the current crisis a genocide. In mass, Rohingya are being arrested and even killed by military operations to root out Rohingya insurgents. I wonder if this is a case of government involvement in media or if Rangoon Today is just another anti-Rohingya source in Myanmar. There seems to be a lot of anti-Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar due to the fact that they are not originally from Myanmar from Buddhists in the state.

Adam Roberto

“Free #Rohingya Coalition is going to launch an online campaign called “Boycott #Myanmar” on December 9. On this day in 1984, UN General Assembly adopted the #genocide convention. We urge all to join our campaign.” -Ro Nay San Lwin

 

In 2015, Myanmars military began forcing out a group of people called Rohingya from the Myanmar state of Rakhine. The Rohingya are an ethnically muslim group that have lived in Myanmar for many years. Since the start of this attack on the Rohingya by the Myanmar government, tens of thousands have been forced from their home to places like Bangladesh due to the increasing violence. There has been public outcry from all across the globe to stop these acts. Now, it is being brought to the United Nations to charge the Myanmar government with genocidal acts and an organization called Free Rohingya Coalition are calling for a boycott against Myanmar.

 

I find this tweet and this movement to be very interesting. Just by looking at this tweet, it doesn’t give the reader much on what exactly is being boycotted, it only states that the country is being boycotted. It causes the reader to have to look more into the whole crisis in Myanmar, or if they already know about it, it at least causes them to look into this specific Boycotting Myanmar movement. I would like to know if the person who made the tweet wanted people to look more into the movement by being vague, or does not want to say a lot about the movement for another reason. This could also be to avoid censorship by the Myanmar government.

http://drlunswe.blogspot.com/ 

          The blog I chose is a privately-run blog that covers current events involving the Burmese government called Dr. Loi Swe Swe. The page is on Blogspot and its primary language is Burmese. Dr. Lwin, who is the primary writer for the page, uses this blog to make comments on the current situation with the government. It is clear that Dr. Lwin is not very happy about the state of the government based off of the many negative blog posts. For example, the first post talks about Suu Kyi, the current State Counsellor of Myanmar. Dr. Lun talks mostly about her struggles as a politician as well as her possible mental health issues, a comment made based off of a picture that the author believed made her look mentally ill. On the side of the page you can use links that connect you to different forms of Myanmar media, including TV news, radio, websites, and foreign news sources. As for content on the page itself, you could find all kinds of entertainment, news, and essays.  

          I find this blog very interesting. The content on the pages seems to vary but is focused primarily on current news. I think it’s a good idea to have a blog that passes on information that likely would not be allowed on mainstream news outlets. I know through looking into Myanmar’s government in the past that they have been struggling with making their new government work the way they intended it to. This page targets the misconduct of government officials which is very important, and I believe would have a positive effect on the public of Myanmar because people can see a lot more of what is happening in different parts of the country.  

           It does lead me to some questions. First off, how accurate is the information that the authors use. It is somewhat difficult to find out how much of it is reliable due to the lack of civil liberties that the people have. One thing to keep in mind when looking at the information on the page would be if is at all biased, which most information sources are. My next question would be the authors motivation for starting the blog. It is clear that there are a lot of anti-government posts, but there are also nonpolitical posts made.    

           Summary: A major issue in recent years that Myanmar has been dealing with is the genocidal acts by the Myanmar government in the region of Rakhine. The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar who live in this region has been under attack and have fled over the Bangladesh border by the masses. Now, after the governments have both been in communication, the Rohingya are refusing to return to Myanmar. Even with promise of repatriation by the Myanmar government, the Rohingya will not return until they are guaranteed rights. Multiple representatives from the Bangladesh refugee relief office have interviewed over 200 families, almost all of which wanted to stay in Bangladesh. There is widespread fear amongst the Rohingya that they will face the same issues they faced before they left.  

          This was not very surprising to me, due to how long this issue has gone on and the lack of government response to fix the crisis. In the article, many of the interviewed families still referred to the government as the Burma government. That says to me that the Rohingya people don’t see much of a change in the government at all. The many promises that were made when the government began to transition to a democratic system in 2008, but many, including the Rohingya, do not feel there has been much change at all. It does seem, however, that the Rohingya have not tried very much to negotiate what those rights are. After reading other articles, it appears that they are just demanding rights with no real open line of communication other than through the Bangladesh government.  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/not-without-our-rights-rohingya-refugees-refuse-to-return-to-myanmar  

 

          The Burmese Legume Company was very micromanaged. Employees were always left in the dark on what decisions were being made and the CEO did not let any employees know anything they didn’t need to. He made it clear that there was a lot of business that was being conducted that was better left unknown to the companies’ employees. After some legal struggles and pressure from other business leaders, the CEO of Burmese Legumes left the company. Naturally, a new CEO stepped in.  

          The new CEO came in and wanted to bring some change to how the company was being run. He even rebranded the company and renamed it back to its original name, Myanmar Legumes. However, there was not as much change as the company and its employees would have liked to see. Similar company policies were left in place, and many employees felt that there was no change at all. This bothered many, including the other companies that had just recently put pressure on the old CEO to resign. The new CEO seems fearful of involving the company’s employees in on important information. 

          This is not how a company should be run. It is unfair to the employees and the company will not be able to succeed without everyone being on the same page on company affairs. Whether it calls for a second change to the company’s CEO or an extreme change in new company policy, there are changes that need to be made. There is and likely will be more pressure from other companies on Myanmar Legumes to make these changes, and it is agreed upon by many of the bigger companies in the Legume market that there needs to be changes due to the treatment of many employees.