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15726 results in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Page 172 of 787

  • Conclusion

  • Jennifer Rigby
  • Book:
    The Other Ladies of Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    08 June 2019
    Print publication:
    13 August 2018, pp 124-126

  • Summary

    At the beginning of this book, I talked about hope, and how the world's hope in Aung San Suu Kyi has all but died as her government oversees what has all the hallmarks of genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.

    But I also talked about how, for all her faults, it was a speech by Aung San Suu Kyi that first set me on the path of meeting the remarkable women whose stories you have just read.

    “Democracy is belief in the people,” she said, speaking at the rally I mentioned in the Preface, as the sun beat down on the crowds in the fevered last few days before the November 2015 election.

    A few days later, I was in the throng outside the NLD's headquarters in Yangon as the election results came in.

    This time, it was raining, proper big droplet, soak-you-to-the-skin rain, but the mood was jubilant. Many were wearing NLD red, and some had bandanas knotted around their heads. Everyone was singing, and some were crying with joy as they watched the results arrive in Myanmar's first openly contested election in decades.

    One man looked at the sky behind us. “Rain?” he said in English. “No problem!”

    But for me and my kit, it was a slight problem, so I headed off to find shelter for a few hours until the rain eased off. Actually, as I walked towards a nearby café, the rain only got more intense; really hammering it down as my friend and I nudged past the human chain of volunteers forming a protective barrier between the revellers and the traffic.

    With hopeless umbrellas and flooded streets, trousers plastered to our thighs and flip-flops in hand (nearly washed away by the flood), we pushed open the café doorway.

    There was a beauty salon upstairs where we thought we could possibly borrow towels. Walking meekly up the staircase, leaving little rivulets of rainwater cascading down behind us, we were seized and bundled into a side room.

    Switching on the air-con to the highest setting (to heat us up and take away the moisture from — well, us), the beauticians grinned and gestured at hairdryers and towels.

    They didn't speak much English and I hardly speak any Burmese, but the message was clear: get in here, you silly foreigners, and let us help you.

  • 2 - The Feminist Buddhist Nun: Ketu Mala

  • Jennifer Rigby
  • Book:
    The Other Ladies of Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    08 June 2019
    Print publication:
    13 August 2018, pp 14-23

  • Summary

    IN MYANMAR, one of the most common everyday sights is a line of Buddhist monks, barefoot, shaven headed, clad in scarlet robes. Early in the morning, they queue up outside shops, houses and restaurants to receive alms — food and support from lay people.

    For foreigners, they are also one of the most exotic sights, eagerly snapped on smartphones and cameras. But you don't just see monks. There are nuns too, also with bare feet and shaven heads. They normally wear pink robes with an orange sash.

    However, according to the type of Buddhism practised in Myanmar, they are not really nuns at all. According to Theravada Buddhism, women cannot be ordained as nuns, because their order is basically extinct. They are, at best, known as “renunciants”, lay women who have taken vows to live according to Buddha's teachings — and there are 60,000 of them in Myanmar (despite their official non-existence).

    But these nuns can't preach, become senior members of the Buddhist community, or even enter some parts of pagodas. They also don't get anywhere near the respect afforded to monks in this deeply religious country, and often even struggle for food donations. It's hardly the image of equality, tolerance and harmony that Buddhism often has in the West.

    Ketu Mala is a Burmese nun, and she's not happy about this inequality. She's not just any nun, either. She founded the incredibly successful Dhamma School Foundation, which brings Buddhist teachings into education in Myanmar. She recently met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and leads lectures all over Asia. And she's a feminist — a feminist nun.

    We meet in one of her friend's houses near Yangon airport.

    “Let's face it,” she says, speaking partly in English and partly Burmese.

    “Myanmar has and has had a male-dominated, patriarchal society, which also means the majority of religion is also dominated by men. The role of women in the religious sector can sometimes even be remarked upon as non-existent. It's that small. Why? Because the patriarchy is deep-rooted in Myanmar, this is the main point.”

    To even say these kinds of things in Myanmar is pretty incendiary. Ketu Mala explains that the leading monks in Myanmar, known as the Bhikkhu Sangha, find this kind of talk threatening.

  • 4 - The Businesswoman: Yin Myo Su

  • Jennifer Rigby
  • Book:
    The Other Ladies of Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    08 June 2019
    Print publication:
    13 August 2018, pp 33-46

  • Summary

    YIN MYO Su is probably Myanmar's most famous cat-lover. This makes it a little disconcerting when she tells me, moments after we meet for the first time at her floating hotel on Inle Lake, that she doesn't like cats.

    “You will laugh, but I hate cats,” she says, looking down at the bluegrey felines slinking affectionately around her legs. “When I was little, kittens near my house would come and hurt my puppy's nose.”

    The cats blink their golden eyes and look back up at her. “I do not like cats,” she repeats, firmly.

    But love them or hate them, she has become known for them — not just in Myanmar, but across the world. Yin Myo Su, a hotelier by trade, found out in 2007 that the world-renowned Burmese cat barely existed at all in its homeland, Burma. So she began a mission to bring them back.

    Working with a couple of heritage organizations, and starting off with just seven cats bought from collectors around the world at eye-watering expense — including breeders in Australia and the pet department of London's Harrods department store — she now has around forty felines, living on an island of their own (I'm not joking) on the picturesque lake in Shan State, attached to the hotel she runs. She lives at another hotel, across the lake.

    The cats are housed in mini-replicas of Burmese royal palaces, a nod to their rumoured heritage as palace guards for Burma's ancient kings and queens. Their home is called the Burmese Cat Village, and signposted as such. They have pedicures and manicures, family planning, a dedicated staff, and even a honeymoon suite. One of them even tweets (@Phyuley).

    Some are given away to locals, and foreigners can also buy the beasts, at a price-tag of US$600. Aung San Suu Kyi even had one, but she had to give it back because her dog was jealous

    The project is about more than just pet cats, though.

    “I see Burma losing the things we have, like jade, and as the country opens up we could do something that would preserve our heritage,” says Yin Myo Su, a petite, forty-four-year-old bustling businesswoman, who usually dresses in jewelled colours and is known to most as Misuu.

  • Agriculture in Johor: What's Left?

  • Geoffrey Kevin Pakiam
  • Book:
    Agriculture in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    27 July 2018, pp 1-38

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    For those living in Singapore or Peninsular Malaysia, accustomed to having fresh chicken eggs every other morning, chances are that your breakfast comes from one of 17 million broody hens raised in the Malaysian state of Johor. If this comes as a surprise, you are probably not alone. Most recent commentaries concerning Johor's economic growth give the impression that agriculture is now a historical relic. The Iskandar Malaysia development project — accompanied by glittery real estate, oil and gas refining, complex manufacturing, mass tourism, and sophisticated healthcare offerings — now hogs the limelight. Indeed, even for field-leading scholarship on greater Malaysia's economic development, agriculture has been conspicuous by its relative absence, sidelined by an overwhelming focus on manufacturing and services.

    This essay represents an initial attempt to redress this imbalance. I ask two basic questions: what is left of agriculture in Johor? And why? My argument is similarly direct: although agriculture's share of Malaysian gross domestic product (GDP) and employment has fallen significantly, much remains, particularly in Johor. Amidst rapid urbanization and industrialization, agriculture's economic contribution in Johor has actually held steady and witnessed resurgence over the past decade. Johor's present-day agricultural strengths lie in oil palms, livestock farming, and certain forms of ornamental products. These agricultural activities are underlined both by high output and productivity relative to the rest of Malaysia. The clusters of trade networks and expertise underpinning these developments were already being developed in Johor prior to independence, and were given additional support from the 1960s onwards through policies linking industry with agriculture.

    Johor's unusual situation can be best understood by comparing its present-day context with its past. The following section briefly outlines Southeast Asia's and Malaysia's agricultural transformations since the 1960s. A subsequent section places Johor squarely under the lens, comparing the size and productivity of its farm sector with the rest of Malaysia's. A third section examines the key historical drivers behind Johor's long-standing agricultural prominence. A fourth segment reviews the overarching roles that Malaysia's federal and state governments have played in shaping Johor's resource-heavy economy. I then offer some concluding remarks about Johor's past, present and future agricultural developments, pointing to a number of major uncertainties hanging over Johor's farmscape.

  • Agriculture in Johor: What's Left?

  • Geoffrey Kevin Pakiam
  • Book:
    Agriculture in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    27 July 2018, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • • Despite decades of industrialization, Johor remains an agricultural powerhouse.

  • • The state is Peninsular Malaysia's largest contributor to agricultural gross domestic product, and its official agricultural productivity is Malaysia's third highest.

  • • Johor's agricultural strengths lie primarily in product specialization, namely the farming of oil palms, various fruits and vegetables, poultry, pigs, cut flowers, and ornamental fish.

  • • Johor's production clusters have taken decades, if not centuries, to build up their regional dominance. Urbanization, often blamed for diminishing agriculture's importance, has actually helped drive Johor's farm growth, even until the present day.

  • • Johor's agricultural sector will persist for at least another decade, but may become even more specialized.

  • Foreword

  • Geoffrey Kevin Pakiam
  • Book:
    Agriculture in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    27 July 2018, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

  • The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor: Trends and Prospects

  • Meghann Ormond, Chee Han Lim
  • Book:
    The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    23 July 2018, pp 1-40

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The Iskandar Malaysia (IM) special economic zone (SEZ) was established in Malaysia's southernmost state, Johor, in 2006 and is now beginning its third and final phase of development, with a targeted completion in 2025. IM is jointly operated and regulated by the Malaysian federal government and Johor state government under the statutory body called Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), which is charged with the development of IM as a “strong and sustainable metropolis of international standing” (IRDA 2016a). To do this, IRDA focuses on economic sector and infrastructural planning, the promotion of IM to the general public and potential investors, and coordinating and facilitating investment in the SEZ. It promotes nine economic sectors within IM: healthcare, financial and business services, tourism, education, logistics and creative services make up the service sector, while electrical and electronics, petrochemical and oil and gas, and food and agro-processing comprise the manufacturing sector. From IM's inception in 2006 to mid-2016, the manufacturing sector (27 per cent), retail/mixed-development (26 per cent) and residential property segments (20 per cent) comprised the bulk of investment in IM, with the services sector accounting for only 8 per cent during that period (IRDA 2016a, p. 64). Healthcare made up only 1 per cent of total investment, or RM3.16 billion, in the same period (IRDA 2016a, p. 65).

    Despite its relative insignificance in the SEZ's broader investment portfolio, healthcare — a driver for other health-related industries (e.g., biotechnology, medical devices and equipment, pharmaceuticals and education) — has been thought to be a more solid and steadier growth catalyst over the last decade than other projects that IRDA initially saw as significant growth catalysts (Whang and Lim 2016). This is due in part to healthcare, like schools and transport infrastructure, functioning as a key infrastructural anchor and “enabler” to render retail/mixed-development and residential property development more attractive to investors and consumers.

    In the following pages, we provide a contemporary snapshot of the key policies and players shaping the development of private healthcare in Johor in order to inform policymakers, current commercial stakeholders and potential investors, and residents and civil society actors in the region about the latest trends, concerns and opportunities linked to the private healthcare sector in Johor.

  • The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor: Trends and Prospects

  • Meghann Ormond, Chee Han Lim
  • Book:
    The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    23 July 2018, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    Executive Summary

  • • The future of the private healthcare in Johor and in the Iskandar Malaysia (IM) special economic zone in particular is intimately tied to larger property developments and trends in the region, both because private healthcare developers are increasingly the same as property developers and because IM's future population growth relies heavily on corporate settlement in IM and the jobs that such settlement generates. Volatility in corporate investment and settlement in IM may have significant consequences for the sector's development.

  • • The Federal and Johor State Governments intend to turn IM into a world-class private healthcare destination for local residents and foreign visitors alike. A range of strategies and policies have been launched to develop IM's medical care, aged care, and lifestyle and well-being sectors.

  • • It is essential to track the impact of federal and regional fiscal incentives for private healthcare development and monitor actual demand for private sector capacity in order to assess the value and utility of such incentives, especially given the potential for such incentives policies to promote the generation of excessive private sector hospital and clinical capacity if left unchecked.

  • • Private healthcare providers in the region depend mostly on local residents as their consumer base because Johor and IM are not (yet) significant medical tourism destinations. Given the current rate of expansion of existing hospitals and construction of new ones in Johor and specifically in IM, local demand must be secured via measures that increase the Johor household income base, foster interstate migration, attract higher income talent in larger numbers to live in the region, and improve quality of life in the region.

  • • To strengthen medical tourism, private players — both large and small — require greater coordination and cooperation at the regional level in promoting medical tourism and in setting up centres of excellence and medical tourist-friendly services that cater to the actual needs of international patients.

  • Foreword

  • Meghann Ormond, Chee Han Lim
  • Book:
    The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    23 July 2018, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

  • U.S. Relations with Southeast Asia in 2018: More Continuity than Change

  • David Shambaugh
  • Book:
    U.S. Relations with Southeast Asia in 2018
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    18 July 2018, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • • The United States maintains a comprehensive and robust presence throughout Southeast Asia that has grown dramatically since the 1980s. It includes the commercial, security, education and diplomatic, and other domains. America's strengths and contributions to the region lie particularly in both hard and soft power, but the U.S. economic footprint is both broad and deep.

  • • However, this presence is not very well appreciated or reported by regional media — whereas China's presence and influence is pervasive. Most Southeast Asian governments are often reluctant to recognize or publicize the U.S. presence or contributions to regional security, stability, and growth.

  • • America's diplomatic engagement of ASEAN and the region has rightly been criticized for its episodic engagement, and Washington should substantially elevate Southeast Asia within its broader Asian and Indo-Pacific diplomatic priorities. Southeast Asia was made the highest priority ever for Washington during the Obama administration. While receding somewhat under the Trump administration, the region remains an important priority — but Washington must devote sustained attention to match the region's importance to American national interests.

  • • As U.S.–China competition escalates, Southeast Asia will become an epicentre of this competition. Southeast Asian states and societies may not realize the significance of the escalating U.S.–China competition for them, as most countries are internally preoccupied and buy into ASEAN's rhetoric of inclusive engagement of external powers. Southeast Asian countries are likely to become increasing objects of this competition, and it will be become increasingly difficult for them to ignore it.

  • • Meanwhile, Southeast Asian states and ASEAN must elevate their own emphasis and engagement with the United States. The U.S. brings many more strengths and benefits than does China and is a far more comprehensive actor in the region. In particular, it would be helpful if ASEAN and its member states would more publicly recognize the contributions and importance of the United States.

  • Foreword

  • David Shambaugh
  • Book:
    U.S. Relations with Southeast Asia in 2018
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    25 August 2018
    Print publication:
    18 July 2018, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asiaseries acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

Page 172 of 787