Principal speaker
Dr Andrew Selth
The National League for Democracy has been in power in Myanmar for one year, following its landslide election victory in 2015. In March 2016 a new president was sworn in and in April Aung San Suu Kyi became the country's de facto leader, under the title of State Counsellor. Hopes were high that the new government would introduce sweeping changes to the country, which had endured more than 50 years of military rule. However, the verdict on the NLD's first year in office, by international commentators at least, has been almost uniformly negative. There has been some progress but the government, the armed forces and Aung San Suu Kyi herself have been criticised for failing to deliver the promised political, economic and social reforms. Military operations against the Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic minorities have been condemned as 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing'. Domestic criticism has been more muted, but clearly the shine has come off the new government, and its leader. This seminar will survey these and related developments, and look at possible scenarios for the future of the NLD government, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar.
Andrew Selth is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Griffith Asia Institute. He has been studying international security issues and Asian affairs for 45 years, as a diplomat, strategic intelligence analyst and research scholar. He has published six books and more than 50 peer-reviewed works, most of them about Myanmar (Burma) and related subjects. Dr. Selth's latest major work is Burma, Kipling and Western Music: The Riff From Mandalay (New York: Routledge, 2017).
Event categories
RSVP
RSVP on or before Monday 3 April 2017 , by email events-gai@griffith.edu.au , or by phone x54705
Event contact details
- Christine Kowalski
- x54705