“Fragmented Sovereignty” over Property Institutions: Developmental Impacts on the Chin Hill Communities

In a regime in transition with a legacy of civil war, in which institutions that govern a society are often destabilized as a host of state and non-state authorities vie for legitimacy in order to gain or maintain power, land often becomes central to such power struggles. This is the case in Myanmar - a country that is undergoing a regime in transition and which has faced challenges to unification since its independence in 1947 as a result of armed conflict between numerous ethnic minority groups and the Burman-dominant state. To understand how this impacts the local communities, research was conducted since 2013 about Chin State. This study uses the concept of “fragmented sovereignty”, which refers to how state and non-state actors compete to define institutions that govern society, to explain the way not only the land itself, but also the institutions that govern it are fought over. Referred to as property institutions, this indicates that there are relations among social actors with regard to the land that “exist at the level of laws and regulations, cultural norms and social values” backed up by “the state or some other form of politico-legal authority”. Applying this lens to this empirical case, this study discusses how in recent post-conflict context such as Myanmar, property institutions are being co-produced rather than determined by any one source of authority—leading to varying outcomes within one country. At times, the state’s sovereignty is further challenged; at other times, it could cohere further as state authority is appealed to for the protection of property rights. In the meantime, the impositions of state-backed private property laws on Chin State are leading to worsened livelihoods and greater vulnerability to poverty in some areas, as demonstrated by reduced land access for some communities. The article concludes that various Chin political entities and the communities they represent are brought more closely in contact with the state in negotiations over the construction of property institutions— which have largely been left undisturbed by state law for centuries. This in turn can further shape state-subject relationships as hill communities increasingly recognize that the state can create and sustain property rights

From impediment to adaptation: Chinese investments in Myanmar's new regulatory environment

Myanmar's political transition of 2011 was followed by changes in the political and economic realms of society. The transition emboldened social activism, expressed as protests regarding the injustices suffered by people under the military regime. Many of these protests were related to large-scale extractive investments that had little regard for local communities and the environment. After the West lifted most of its sanctions, transnational capital actors who had been absent for the previous two decades returned to the country, many of them offering higher investment standards. In response to the "push" of public pressure and the "pull" of new investments, reformists in the Government of Myanmar (GoM) are now attempting to implement a stronger investment regulatory framework. The GoM's new demands on foreign investments to comply with higher investment standards are strengthened by Chinese state reformers' own nascent efforts to curtail the excesses of that country's state-owned enterprises globally. As a result, prominent SOEs are being pressured to adapt to the new operating environment, resulting in observable changes in investment behaviour. We conclude that reform efforts are challenged by limitations on reformist state actors' autonomy and capacity to regulate investments

Post-Nargis Needs Assessment and Monitoring: ASEAN's Pioneering Response

__Abstract__ Just after Cyclone Nargis struck the coast of Myanmar on 2 and 3 May 2008, the Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Dr Surin Pitsuwan, called on all Member States to provide urgent relief assistance through the framework of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER). A few days later, the Government of the Union of Myanmar agreed to work in coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat to assemble and deploy an ASEAN-Emergency Rapid Assessment Team (ERAT), made up of Government officials and disaster management experts from ASEAN Member States. In the first ever such mission for ASEAN, the ASEAN-ERAT was deployed to Myanmar from 9 to 18 May 2008. Its report was submitted to the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 19 May 2008 in Singapore. At the meeting, the Foreign Ministers agreed to establish an ASEAN-led coordinating mechanism to “facilitate the effective distribution and utilisation of assistance from the international community, including the expeditious and effective deployment of relief workers, especially health and medical personnel.” The result was a two-tiered structure, consisting of the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force for the Victims of Cyclone Nargis (AHTF), and a Yangon-based Tripartite Core Group (TCG), consisting of ASEAN, the Government and the United Nations (UN), to facilitate day-to-day operations and oversee coordination. The constructive solution that was worked out, that of a tripartite structure involving ASEAN, the UN and the Government, turned out to be not only a successful formula for ensuring access, but also an effective forum for achieving a close and productive relationship with the authorities. This did not exist to the same degree before Nargis. As a result, there was significantly more humanitarian space in the Delta than in any other part of the country, and the TCG played a key role in securing this. This is relevant for Myanmar, as it paved the way for access for information collection in a country where otherwise little was known. All assessments and monitoring exercises were conducted with full access permitted by the Government. This was almost unprecedented for Myanmar. This book documents the types of assessments and monitoring exercises that were carried out under the auspices of the AHTF and TCG, including the deployment of the ASEAN-ERAT; the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) consisting of the Village Tract Assessment (VTA) and the Damage and Loss Assessment (DALA); the Periodic Review (PR) monitoring assessments that followed the PONJA; and the Social Impact Monitoring (SIM) studies. It also includes a section on the Recovery Information Accountability System (RIAS), which tracks funding streams from pledges to outputs received during the Post-Nargis and Regional Partnership Conference (PONAC) on 25 November 2009

Are the Odds of Justice “Stacked” Against Them? Challenges and Opportunities for Securing Land Claims by Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar

textabstractIn 2012, the Government of Myanmar passed the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow, Virgin Land Law, with an aim to increase investment in land through the formalization of a land market. Land titling is often considered “the natural end point of land rights formalization.”11 Hall et al. 2011, 35. A major obstacle to achieving this in Myanmar is its legacy of multiple regimes which has created “stacked laws.”22 Roquas 2002, 11. This term refers to a situation in which a country has multiple layers of laws that exist simultaneously, leading to conflicts and contradictions in the legal system. This ambiguity is often manipulated by those who have more access to political and economic resources, particularly those who received large land concessions under the 1988–2010 military regime. In this context, this paper attempts to answer the question: In Myanmar, how do smallholder farmers engage with a stacked legal framework, which is ambiguous and unfairly applied, to defend themselves against land dispossession? The analysis seeks to contribute to the literature on the contest over land control and access through an analysis of how a stacked legal framework can be used to further disenfranchise farmers by elites, or on the contrary, by farmers to gradually reclaim this control through strategic political maneuvering

Fish farms and land confiscation in the Ayeyarwady delta: History, impact and prospects for restitution

This policy brief draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Maubin township, Ayeyarwady – one of the most important locations for aquaculture (fish farming) in Myanmar. Local officials, community members, civil society leaders and operators of large fish farms were interviewed about the history and consequences of land confiscation for use in aquaculture, and the prospects for land restitution.Non-PRFeed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Food Security Policy (FSP); IFPRI5DSG

Fish Farms and Land Confiscation in the Ayeyarwady Delta: History, Impact and Prospects for Restitution

This policy brief draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Maubin township, Ayeyarwady – one of the most important locations for aquaculture (fish farming) in Myanmar. Local officials, community members, civil society leaders and operators of large fish farms were interviewed about the history and consequences of land confiscation for use in aquaculture, and the prospects for land restitution

Are the Odds of Justice “Stacked” Against Them? Challenges and Opportunities for Securing Land Claims by Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar

textabstractIn 2012, the Government of Myanmar passed the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow, Virgin Land Law, with an aim to increase investment in land through the formalization of a land market. Land titling is often considered “the natural end point of land rights formalization.”11 Hall et al. 2011, 35. A major obstacle to achieving this in Myanmar is its legacy of multiple regimes which has created “stacked laws.”22 Roquas 2002, 11. This term refers to a situation in which a country has multiple layers of laws that exist simultaneously, leading to conflicts and contradictions in the legal system. This ambiguity is often manipulated by those who have more access to political and economic resources, particularly those who received large land concessions under the 1988–2010 military regime. In this context, this paper attempts to answer the question: In Myanmar, how do smallholder farmers engage with a stacked legal framework, which is ambiguous and unfairly applied, to defend themselves against land dispossession? The analysis seeks to contribute to the literature on the contest over land control and access through an analysis of how a stacked legal framework can be used to further disenfranchise farmers by elites, or on the contrary, by farmers to gradually reclaim this control through strategic political maneuvering

Sharing the Spoils: Winners and Losers in the Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar

This article studies the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on economic actors in Myanmar. It hypothesizes that the BRI has strong transformative potential, because Chinese projects are likely to transform Myanmar’s economy on different scales and influence the allocation of economic benefits and losses for different actors. The study identifies economic actors in Myanmar who are likely to be most affected by BRI projects. It also discusses how BRI-related investments could affect the country’s complex conflict dynamics. The article concludes with policy recommendations for decision makers in Myanmar, China, and the international community for mitigating the BRI’s possible negative impacts. The analysis draws on secondary sources and primary data collection in the form of interviews with key actors in Hsipaw, Lashio, and Yangon, involved with and informed about the BRI in Myanmar at the local, regional, and national levels