Pardoned prisoners return to Burma’s old games
Myanmar blogger and prominent political activist Nay Phone Latt walks out of the prison following his release from detention in the eastern Karen state. Nay Phone Latt was among activists rounded up for their links to the Saffron Revolution in 2007, and believes he was punished for both his blogging and his support for opponents of the generals. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Jacqueline Menager, ANU

For many years Yangon has been a city of hushed, heavy silences, but in recent months these weighted and worried daily interactions have given way to new sentiments.

Some old hands, who are well acquainted with the silencing methods of the past, have recently been allowed to take part in this new mood. Read more…

Burma in 2011: contradictory impulses
Myanmar President Thein Sein, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during a meeting in Naypyidaw, Myanmar Thursday. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Jacqueline Menager, ANU

Contradiction is a mainstay in Burmese life. In downtown Rangoon, a giant new Toshiba TV screen hangs over the street, while rickety cars and taxis from the 1970s whir past below. Crumbling colonial-era buildings are mixed with shiny new Chinese-funded monoliths.

But nowhere is the country’s inherent contradiction more apparent than in the developments of 2011. Primarily, the new parliament’s formation must be juxtaposed against resumed violence in border regions. And we must decide which of the two dynamics to take as the year’s prevailing reality. Read more…

Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s change of heart
Pro-democracy leader of Burma Aung San Suu Kyi is surrounded by her supporters at a monastery where she celebrated the 49th birthday of Min Ko Naing, a 1988-era student protest leader who is still locked up in prison, on Tuesday, 18 Oct 2011, in western outskirts of Yangon, Burma. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Jacqueline Menager, ANU

Gandhi once said that ‘the spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires a change of heart’.

Almost a year since the November 2010 elections, a change of heart in Burma has not been easy for the country’s democratic icon, Aung San Suu Kyi. Read more…