A beauty queen’s Buddhist-themed costume at a pageant in Yangon sparked calls for her arrest, reviving old debates about the role of nationalist monks in policing religion and influencing politics in Myanmar.
BY Frontier
A former spokesperson of Christian anti-drug movement Pat Jasan, Nhkum Tang Gun, now directs the youth department of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, also known as Wa Ma Ra. He spoke to Frontier about Pat Jasan, whose vigilante methods are controversial but continue to enjoy local backing due to the havoc drugs have wreaked on Kachin communities.
Millions of dollars in American aid have been pledged to fund “locally-driven” solutions to rampant drug addiction in Kachin, where local church-backed groups have so far led the response, sometimes taking the law into their own hands.
Improvements in education since 2011 are bringing positive change for children in the remote hills of the Naga Self-Administered Zone.
The early delivery of vaccines is one of the many boons of the country’s geopolitics, but to really take advantage, Myanmar must bury the legacy of its isolationist past.
Support our independent journalism and get exclusive behind-the-scenes content and analysis.
Take a a team membership today so that your organisation is always on top of the latest news from Myanmar.
Sign up for Frontier Fridays, our free weekly round-up, and get access to one article a month on the Frontier website.