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Myanmar, an isolated country in Southeast Asia, held general elections for the People¡¦s Assembly in 2010, the first in twenty years and the second in fifty years. The military junta that has ruled the country for decades has been facing strong criticism from the international community. This research has systematically examined the historical development of the electoral laws and the overall electoral system of the Union of Myanmar (since October 2010 officially known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) during the period of 18 June 1989 up until the latest elections on 7 November 2011. Why did the military bother organizing elections? The latest elections were meant to give the impression that they would create a legitimate government. In reality, they were designed to preserve military rule under a façade of democracy. The junta learned a valuable lesson from the last free elections in 1990, which ended in a fiasco for the pro-junta parties, and did not leave it to the people's will in 2010. In order to effectively extend military rule, in 2008 the junta used a flawed referendum to approve a supremacy constitution, according to which the military automatically receives 25% of the seats in parliament. This constitution helped the junta impose several severe limitations on parties willing to participate in the 2010 elections, thus ensuring that the military-backed political parties would win most of the seats at stake. This thesis attempts to show the powerlessness of the masses against a system based on the creation of self-serving laws used by the ruling junta to control the society.

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-132).

This dissertation examines the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan’s ambitious attempt to create a new order in East Asia. Most studies on Japan’s new order focus on either the imperial center (Japan) or the periphery (individual East or Southeast Asian nations). This dissertation, however, brings together both. It discusses the Japanese effort to envision a postwar world, and at the same time shows how Japan’s new order was mobilized and co-opted by nationalist leaders in the Philippines and Burma. By focusing on dynamic imperial networks rather than simple models of unidirectional diffusion, this dissertation seeks to paint a more nuanced picture of World War II in the Asia-Pacific. Simple dichotomies fail to capture the complicated nature of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Co-Prosperity Sphere was neither a mere euphemism for Japanese imperialism and wartime actions, nor a sincere project aimed at the liberation of Asia. Instead, the Sphere is better understood as a process or contest of beliefs, one that could not be controlled by any single group or invading force. This process took shape as an effort to envision a postwar world while in the midst of war. Elites in Tokyo dreamed of a postwar Japan-led international order. Elites in Burma and the Philippines, on the other hand, remained focused on their domestic orders, and viewed independence as of paramount importance. This study highlights the evolution and contested nature of Japan’s new order, and shows how multiple parties—both in Japan and across Asia—impacted the shape the wartime empire would take. Moreover, my dissertation makes an important contribution to the history of empire and decolonization by unpacking the significance of the Japanese interregnum in Southeast Asia. It demonstrates that decolonization in Southeast Asia was more than an unintended consequence of World War II. Whether through extended participation in government, state building measures, or the creation of new governmental institutions, Southeast Asian leaders made conscious use of the Japanese empire to prepare for postwar independence. / History

This thesis examines the relationship between energy, development and human security in Sino-Myanmar relations. Rapid economic growth and increased urbanisation have intensified China’s industrial and domestic energy consumption, drastically increasing demand and overwhelming national supply capacities. Chinese foreign policy has responded by becoming more active in securing and protecting foreign energy resources and allowing Chinese companies more freedom and opportunities for investment abroad. Consequently, Chinese foreign investment and policies have become increasing sources of scrutiny and debate, typically focusing on their (presumed) intentions and the social, economic, environmental and political impacts they have on the rest of the world. Within this debate, a key issue has been China’s engagement with so-called pariah states. China has frequently received substantial international criticism for its unconditional engagement with such countries, often seen as a geopolitical pursuit of strategic national (energy) interests, unconcerned with international opprobrium. In the case of Myanmar, traditional security analyses interpret this as, at best, undermining (Western) international norms and, at worst, posing a direct challenge to international security. However, traditional security analyses rely on state-centric concepts of security, and tend to over-simply Sino-Myanmar relations and the dynamics which inform it. Conversely, implications for human security are overlooked; this is in part because human security remains poorly defined and also because there are questions regarding its utility. However, human security is a critical tool in delineating between state, corporate and ‘civilian’ interests, and how these cleavages shape the security environment and potential for instability in the region. iv This thesis takes a closer look at some of the entrenched and changing security dynamics shaping this Sino-Myanmar energy cooperation, drawing on an extensive literature in human security rarely applied in this context. This includes a brief review of human security and Sino-Myanmar relations, and is grounded in an empirical analysis of Chinese investment in Myanmar’s hydropower and oil and gas sectors. Ultimately, this thesis argues that, while insightful, many traditional interpretations of Sino-Myanmar energy cooperation overlook the security interests of those worst affected. Furthermore, that the worst excesses of Chinese companies in Myanmar are not unique to China, but common across all investors in the regime, Western or otherwise. / Graduate

In this thesis, I describe how women who are forced to migrate from Burma into Thailand manage their fertility, unwanted pregnancy and pregnancy loss. The study was initiated by Dr Cynthia Maung, a Burmese medical doctor, herself a stateless person who coordinates a refugee-led primary health service five kilometres inside Thailand. Unsafe abortion is a common problem and much time and resources are taken with the care of women suffering haemorrhage, infection and pain after self-induced abortion in both Thai and Burmese-led health facilities. The thesis examines the characteristics of Burmese women admitted to health facilities with post-abortion complications and their chosen methods of self-induced abortion. Local meanings of abortion and post-abortion care are explored. Lay midwives play a central role in fertility management and some are abortionists. Men’s role in the management of fertility is also presented. The women are generally married with children. Considered illegal migrants, they are employed and work in Thailand without work permits. Many women have a history of escaping human rights abuses and entrenched poverty in Burma. At least a third of women admitted into care with post-abortion complications had induced their abortion with oral herbal preparations, pummelling manipulations or stick abortions. Most of the abortion services were provided by Burmese lay midwives. Reasons for terminating the pregnancy include: poverty, gender-based violence and the local illness of ‘weakness’. In addition, low sexual health knowledge, and difficult access to reproductive health services play a part in mistimed pregnancy. / There is no commonly agreed definition of abortion between formal, informal health workers or women. Most people considered it against cultural lore and in some cases judicial law but still felt it was necessary. Women’s perceptions of the viability of their pregnancy and its outcome prevailed. Men played a limited role in fertility management. I argue that a lack of rights to work and earn a fair wage; to move without fear, a lack of sexual health information, and the ability to safely control fertility increases women’s risk of unsafe abortion. Furthermore, violence perpetrated at the individual and state level contributes to unsafe abortion. Burmese women’s mortality and morbidity associated with unsafe abortion is largely unrecorded by Thai processes and unknown to the Burmese military government. Unwanted and mistimed pregnancy can be avoided through reproductive technologies, education programmes, and access to modern contraceptives. To safely terminate unwanted pregnancies and to treat the complications of pregnancy loss is not only possible but a woman’s right as delineated in the international treaty CEDAW, to which Burma and Thailand are signatories. Yet Burmese women continue to suffer: become sterile, socially vilified, unemployed or repatriated against their will due to their reproductive status. Their sickness and deaths are secondary to the economic imperatives of Burma and Thailand and their human rights continue to be violated.....

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Ecology and Environment))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0022 ; please contact computer services.

Slightly rev. ed. of the author's thesis, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [407]-472).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2007. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.