Rights and Security in India, Myanmar, and Thailand

Chosein Yamahata, Sueo Sudo, Takashi Matsugi, Chosein Yamahata, Sueo Sudo, Takashi Matsugi

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9789811514395
• Topic: Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Subtopic: Entwicklungsökonomie

This book is centred on the role of the triangular interactions among communities, educational sectors, and academic diplomacy in facilitating peaceful societal change by evaluating the common challenges in India, Myanmar, and Thailand. It analyses urban poverty, religious freedom, ethnic diversity, women's rights, development and regional partnership, civil-military relations, and human security in democratic transition and explores in-depth the societal issues from local and international perspectives paying special attention to the protection of 'rights' and promotion of 'security' in these societies.
The book highlights that the continuous application of knowledge across borders and the promotion of international norms are essential tools in enabling social transformations from the bottom. In addition, the contributors promote further discussion on both the process and the outcome from action research projects that shape the lives of the local people and their communities. The book therefore contributes to the existing literature by offering additional insights into the societies of India, Myanmar and Thailand for policy makers, social innovators, researchers, development analysts and planners and the general public including students.

© The Author(s) 2020

C. Yamahata et al. (eds.)Rights and Security in India, Myanmar, and Thailandhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1439-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Crossing Borders in South and Southeast Asia: Assessing Existing Problems through a New Lens

Chosein Yamahata¹ , Sueo Sudo² and Takashi Matsugi³

(1)

Graduate School of Policy Studies, Aichi Gakuin University, Nisshin, Japan

(2)

Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand

(3)

Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

Chosein Yamahata (Corresponding author)

Sueo Sudo

Takashi Matsugi

Keywords

Academic diplomacyPoverty and hungerInequality and conflictRights and securitySocial transformationAction researchBridging divides

End Abstract

Foundation of Academic Diplomacy

From “humanity” to “global village”, these commonly-used catchphrases depict a positive image of the world. However, conflicts, natural disasters and accumulated grievances hinder such visions. They may originate as local issues, but have the potential to spill over into the regional environment and eventually escalate into global crises, spreading across continents and impacting many. The same world is witnessing a continued global population increase at an average growth rate of 1.11 million per year, with its major portion of global increased population concentrated in Africa, Asia and Latin America based on the World Population Prospects (UNDESA 2017). Poverty is one of such global issues affecting billions who live in fear of starvation and disease. The World Health Organization indicated the tipping point—100 million people fall into extreme poverty each year due to health expenses (World Bank 2017). The number of fatalities caused by AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis altogether do not amount to the startling 9 million deaths per year caused as a result of hunger and hunger related diseases (Mercy Corps 2019). In addition, according to the Hunger Map 2019 (World Food Programme 2019), one in nine of the world’s population is starving, while there are 821 million people who do not have enough to eat. The severity of this problem can be highlighted by the figure of the so-called ‘bottom billion’ that constitutes 20 percent of the 7.6 billion, meaning that a total of 1.9 billion people are living on less than 1.25 dollars per day. In fact, 1.9 billion is nearly 31 percent of the developing world’s total population (6.15 billion) and almost 45 percent of Asia’s total population (4.26 billion), while the figure is also equivalent to around 63 percent of the total population of China, India and Indonesia combined (3 billion). Therefore, the implication is that the close, continuous and speedy interconnected and interdependent nations of the globalising world face the ruthless reality of a serious hunger gap. Our world is thus divisive, filled with societies within which multiple layers of social, economic and political divisions exist.

Alleviating poverty is a matter of developing societies afflicted by it on several levels. Methods of alleviating poverty include decreasing unemployment, reducing health risks, improving underdeveloped technological skills, providing housing and shelter, facilitating education and ensuring the sustainable use of natural resources. However, failure in these efforts or delays in poverty eradication missions will worsen inequality of all kinds. New vulnerabilities often surface or emerge as a result of rapid development in regions of developing countries due to the lack of proper distribution or the misallocation and mismanagement of resources and services. The inefficient delivery of lifeline services at local and national levels, scarcity of natural resources coupled with human errors in decision-making, political instability and extreme climate change can cause unpredictable human suffering, especially in the context of both man-made and natural disasters. All these scenarios depict the need for prevention, preparedness, policy planning and priority setting for this weaker segment of society. It becomes equally important to also facilitate programmes to promote participation as well as ensure protection for those who are situated at the bottom layer of each society, region and the world.

A community should therefore be treated as a basic unit to identify a root cause, process and solution. In other words, a community can be understood and analysed as a receiver, evaluator and driver of any change in a given system towards transforming a society. The educational sector has traditionally played a significant role in social transformations. As such, new approaches must be adopted by universities and institutions to address societal challenges from grassroots levels.

Poverty, hunger, inequalities and conflict are the most common crises of local, regional and global populations residing in different corners of the world. The causes, processes and impacts of such commonly identified crises that pose a major challenge for peace, development and ecology, require research and analysis from local case-specific comparisons and policy perspectives for taking further lessons. Moreover, scientific and technological advancements as well as action research driven by ground surveys through local interactions and initiatives are extremely useful, in both conventional and innovative ways, to fully comprehend such issues.

The fast-changing socioeconomic boundaries, ethno-religious barriers and politico-cultural influences call for more new and indigenous approaches. The key to the development of societies is the continuous application of knowledge across borders to induce the sustainable process of improving the society concerned. In most cases, this originates in the educational sector where the activities of individuals and groups of universities and research institutions are the main pillars in making, gaining, sharing and debating knowledge. The recognition and the influence of such institutions are dependent on their local socio-political settings as well as their related facilitating environments. Another important source of knowledge is traditional indigenous knowledge, deeply rooted and practised in the local communities throughout their ethno-cultural and historical backgrounds. It is crucially important to bridge these two sources of knowledge to function as a workable tool in tackling local problems with regional attention.

This implies an urgent need to find the means for a new approach—a social innovation-driven academic approach that can integrate any applicable non-academic means as the new agenda of the educational sector. In other words, a diplomacy of academia that can offer new additions of knowledge through providing both challenges and opportunities in its wake. The Academic Diplomacy Project (ADP) was initiated in 2014 by forming the Asian University Network Forum on Advances in Research (AUNFAIR), which was a follow-up academic forum of past academic activities, including the Burma Review and Challenges International Forum (BRACIF).

Many techniques of diplomacy are very familiar to experienced negotiators in many fields, and over the past few years a sizeable literature on bargaining and negotiation has evolved, including those on cross-cultural elements (Cohen 1991). The dictionary definition of diplomacy is “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations,” and the “skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility”. Reaching back into antiquity, diplomacy involved mediation, a managing entity or an individual’s relationship with an “other”. It was only with the development of the modern state system dating from the sixteenth century that diplomacy took on its narrower current contemporary meaning: managing the foreign affairs of states at the governmental level. Today, both scholars and practitioners suggest this narrow interpretation has lost its utility. Moreover, global trends, international affairs and regional complexities have all caused many changes in the world that, in turn, expand the scope for diplomacy that goes beyond traditional western views. The concept of the state, the emergence of multinational (corporate, political and non-governmental) and sub-national (cities, states and provinces) actors, political and economic interdependence, and emergent cultural clashes have gradually changed and weakened. Subsequently, this has resulted in complicated analysis, while also paving the way for a more general definition of diplomacy and its application to be adopted.

The ADP’s practical activities are designed to activate its engagements in action research projects with respect to any targeted communities of the case countries through the use of academic and non-academic networks. The ADP is a group of networked individuals belonging to different educational institutions and civil society organisations, as well as media persons and independent citizens working together. The ADP applies a peaceful academic means to solving critical problems, issues and challenges faced by communities, societies and nations, focusing on Asia. It aims to engage in (1) conducting surveys and scholastic investigations on the ground, (2) reaching out to locals and enabling their capacity promotion, (3) organising international and local academic gatherings where academic and non-academic sectors engage with each other to collaborate in making meaningful impacts, (4) publishing interim progress reports, as well as providing feedback meetings and outcome consultations and (5) activating public/international campaigns through academic functions to make positive transformations.

Therefore, the ADP is being pursued through the designated programmes by collaborating with the voluntary sectors, media sectors and public sectors of the areas and regions under the umbrella of our studies. It especially focuses on the successful implementation of the following functions: absorbing, sharing, surveying, learning, innovating, empowering, disseminating, monitoring and activating. Essentially, academic diplomacy works towards benefitting the targeted populations, including students and citizens of different communities, regions and nations, even if it is done so on a small tangible scale (see Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

A conceptual framework of academic diplomacy and its functions

The common logic behind all study projects is applying academic diplomacy to the root causes to produce tangible impacts. In the process, academic diplomacy can be portrayed as a more neutral counterpart of traditional diplomacy, yielding different benefits, including access to a broader target population and community. It has great potential to influence public opinion for courses of necessary actions with urgency and priority. Diplomacy has evolved in its applicability: private citizens, as well as city and state officials, have increasingly begun to use diplomacy as a means to negotiate with the corresponding entities, including foreign ones. Academic diplomacy is fundamentally different from the traditional diplomacy...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Crossing Borders in South and Southeast Asia: Assessing Existing Problems through a New Lens
• 2. Addressing Urban Poverty through Empowerment and Inclusion in India
• 3. Development Efforts towards Ecological Sustainability in Calcutta: Transformation of a Metropolis
• 4. De facto State Religion as a Threat to Freedom of Religion and Belief: Case Study of Ethnic Chin Christians in Burma/Myanmar
• 5. Escalation of Ethno-Cultural Tensions in Southern Thailand in the Midst of Assimilation and Homogenisation
• 6. The Rakhine (Arakan) Buddhists: A Little Known Minority in Myanmar
• 7. Promotion of Women’s Rights in ASEAN: Myanmar Women’s Organisations for Sustainable Unity in Diversity
• 8. Online Political Parody in Thailand: Political Communication under the Computer Crime Act (No.2) 2017
• 9. Japanese Development Assistance, Geopolitics, and “Connectivity” in the Mekong Region: Implications for Aid to Myanmar
• 10. Japan’s Mekong Policy and Myanmar: Complementing a Viable Strategic Partnership
• 11. Arch-Royalist Autocracy Unlimited: Civil-Military Relations in Contemporary Thailand
• 12. Basics of Human Security, Principles of Democracy and Reality of Transition: Implications for Myanmar
• Back Matter