Wai Yan Hpone

WITH general elections in Burma drawing ever nearer, questions arise over the future of the key political players beyond this exciting milestone. Many are convinced that the incumbent Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has very little chance of securing another victory, while the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and other big ethnic parties are in the box seat. If this turns out to be case, and we see a primarily civilian government, what will next year’s political landscape look like, and how can we expect the relationship between civilian politicians and the military to evolve? We have seen a new institutional framework emerge from the 2008 Constitution, in which a new generation took over the reins of government from a single strongman. We also saw that the new constitutional structures and decision-making forums did not yield any intense frictions among the new elites as they assumed key positions. This is no surprise, and it is not for nothin...

EU Ambassador to Burma Roland Kobia poses for a photo with members of the Myanmar Police Force. (Photo: Facebook / European Union Delegation to Myanmar) The police’s handling of protesting students this week at Letpadan in Pegu Division has appalled much of the world, yet again putting Burma in international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Photos of baton-wielding police savagely beating up helpless students and their supporters immediately spread via social media, drawing heavy condemnation from domestic and international audiences alike. Perhaps more deplorable than the brutal use of force against the demonstrators is that this same police force has been receiving training from the European Union since September 2013, a program that is described as seeking to professionalize this checkered institution. The European bloc has poured €10 million (US$11 million) into training the police, one component of the program being lessons in crowd management and riot policing. Brussels decid...