Sunday, June 8, 2025
Home Blog Page 2

Thank You Mr Trump

By
zhm
-

Its has been a little over five weeks, since Trump took over the White House from Joe Biden. He has appointed all ministers of his choosing, albeit many projections and protests from democratic senators over their qualifications to serve in positions of power.
Just to take stock of a few of his estranged decisions, he proceeded to exit from the World Health Organisation (WHO) amid a potential outbreak of measles and another SARs like disease. He quit the Paris Agreement, an international treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. It was adopted in 2015 and entered into force in 2016. With global warming getting worse and climate change heading south, it might have disastrous consequences for the world as a result of one mistake by one key person from the second highest greenhouse gas emitting country globally.

Other executive orders worthy of note included stopping $80 billion a year USAID, stopping security clearances of the previous presidents, and imposing tariffs on friends and foes alike. Gulf of Mexico has been renamed as Gulf of America and news agencies that refused to follow suit were thrown out of the white house press corp.

Among the threatening warnings that have the whole world up in their arms included the intention to make its northern neighbour and long-time steadfast ally the 51st State of America. And taking over the Panama canal is another one of that. Denmark too, has to kowtow somewhat to Trump, by offering him more cooperation and space for military bases, after he threatened to take over the former’s territory Greenland. Gaza was not spared either. Trump suggested that US should takeover Gaza to turn it into a resort after sacking all Palestinians out of the land.

Global economy is not spared either. With the introduction of tariffs even on its staunch neighbours such as Canada, Mexico and EU, and also on its biggest trading partner, China, Trump is creating chaos in global economy as these nations scrambled to put forward a slew of retaliatory measures to counter Trump antics.

Role of Musk
Musk funded Trump elections campaign in a significant way. Using his enormous wealth and technology assets, he turned the election in Trump favour and Trump owed him big. The founder and CEO of Tesla and Starlink, is now the person in charge of DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency, trying to cut as many government jobs as possible.
He sat in cabinet meetings, he was with Trump on important outings, held press conferences together and hold enormous sway over Trump, at least for the time being.
And cut he has. He is instrumental in cutting USAID, digging into Social Security to plough through possible fraudulent claims by dead people and getting into federal employees database to send emails to improve efficiency or else.

What about us?
Trump actions that are likely to impact Myanmar stem from cutting off US Aid funding and not continuing with the $400 million Burma Act. The former $80 billion budget is far reaching, from giving BBC $1.2 billion in 2024 to half of it being dedicated to humanitarian relief. Myanmar got around $250 million of that last year. Even if half of it has gone into helping the wounded terrorists, promoting Christianity and sending economic migrants on a 18 months (extendable) all inclusive trip to the USA, i.e., ‘humanitarian assistance’, the rest were channeled into anti establishment machinery of NNCP terrorists, fake news agencies and ‘very polite’ celebrities, whose speciality seems to be swearing at and throwing vulgarities at the government people who, they think do not follow their way of thinking. More than $100 million for the latter three, even before including the Burma Act.

Their activities would eventually grind to a halt, as bullets run out and the US digital platforms can no longer accommodate these terrorism activities of these agencies and social media celebrities, without the tacit support of the US federal authorities. Digital espionage is also expected to go down as DOGE dig deep into FBI, CIA and NSA spending habits.

So far, based on the recent Guardian UK interview with some exile media in Mae Sot, some are keeping their chins up while trying to get free money from alternative donors. But most are resigned to losing their jobs and having to seek alternative employment, as their fake news agency employers will no longer pay their salaries past February of this year.

Upsides and Downsides
The upsides are obvious; fake news from Siam and Ayutthaya are going down, funding to NNCP would stall and no more effortless migration to the US, by just showing a couple of pictures taken with Su Kyi or some other NNCP leaders. Even in the months of February, terror attacks have gone down. Number of fake news also have gone down significantly. The countering and pinpointing of fake news in government papers have gone down from almost everyday to now a once or twice a-week affair.

If you ask the senior civil servants to name one major issue for the government now, they would be pointing out fake news as the one. With Trump’s action on foreign aid, the elephant in the room would have been addressed. His actions seem to be all positive for the current administration. What a good president for Myanmar, may be Russia perhaps judging from the latest antics with Zelensky in the White House.

The downside is sort of hidden in plain view. It relates to the performance analytics of ministers and cabinet members. A few of them are in charge of fighting fake news and for the past four years, they have been at it, but more or less about to accept the unavoidability of defeat, after trying out many unproductive counter measures and appointing oldies to combat new age weapons. Now they would be all ready to steal someone’s thunder. So the top dogs have to watch out for a few ‘good’ men who would claim credit for the performance that they did not create and hyper vigilant against giving green lights for funding the activities that are a waste of national resources, in the context of fighting fake news.

The order of the Phoenix
The world’s order is in dynamic shape at the moment. EU is even trying to drag Canada into its grouping. They are in full support for Ukraine. China is getting the upper hand in diplomacy as US funding to overseas stopped. Russia is getting much needed support from its new found ally in Washington. May be the oligarchs can pay Trump back by donating $5 million each to buy into his ‘gold card’ residency scheme!

Thai PM Declares Her Assets

By
zhm
-

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra declared more than $400 million in assets, her party said, including more than 200 designer handbags worth over $2 million and at least 75 luxury watches, valued at almost $5 million.

The youngest daughter of telecom billionaire and ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn took office in September as the fourth member of the clan to lead a Thai government in 20 years.

She was obliged to declare her assets and liabilities to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). She identified 13.8 billion baht ($400 million) in assets, a document posted on media websites showed. Her investments were worth 11 billion baht and she had another billion baht in deposits and cash, her declaration said.

Her other assets included 75 watches valued at 162 million baht and 39 more timepieces, plus 217 handbags worth 76 million baht, as well as property in London and Japan, among other holdings.

She also declared liabilities of nearly five billion baht, according to the NACC document posted by local media, giving her a net worth of 8.9 billion baht ($258 million).

Thailand has lead the way in ASEAN in terms of transparency of disclosure of assets of top politicians. Don’t expect to see it in Myanmar during our lifetime.

Trump Threatens to Take Control of Panama Canal, Seize Greenland and Make Canada part of the US

By
zhm
-

Incoming US president Donald Trump on Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington. He also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, a worrying trend for American interests as US businesses depend on the channel to move goods between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Panama Canal, which was completed by the United States in 1914, was returned to the Central American country under a 1977 deal signed by Democratic president Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control in 1999.

Canadians might be relieved to learn that the president-elect would not be sending the military to their sovereign land. Unlike the canal, he said he’d only use economic force to annex the democratic country to the north and make it the 51st state.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America may be a strategy to divert his lack of ideas on executing campaign promises such as reducing groceries prices, but asking Denmark to cede Greenland to the USA may be a bridge too far even for the Greenlanders.

America has elected a president who cares nothing about his own ethics and the opinions of the world. His insistence on measuring everything on financial grounds and cost benefit analysis should allow current Myanmar government to ‘carpe diem’ for the next couple of years at least.

Myanmar Population Shrinking

By
zhm
-

Myanmar population is shrinking, according the the latest census conducted in October 2024. Even though 30% of the country has been surveyed in details, amidst constant threats of terrorist attacks on census personnel, the published figures provided a guide to extrapolate the direction of the population growth.

The total population of Myanmar as per the 2024 census is announced to be 51.3 million including 32.2 from the census and 19.1 from estimated data. A gender ratio of 46.9% males and 53.1% females were recorded.

The most populous region is Yangon with 14.4% of the population, and the least populous region being the Kayah State with 0.6%. Based on historical census data, Myanmar population was only 7.7 million in 1891, 10.5 million in 1901, 28.9 million in 1973, 35.3 million in 1983 and 51.5 million in 2014. The government attributed the population decline are due to birth rates, death rates, and migration.

However, if you do take into consideration of Myanmar diaspora overseas, the population among people of Myanmar origin might have increased. Considering Thailand alone, the diaspora is estimated to be between 5 and 10 million.

Suspects Arrested for Using Fake Passports to Send Workers Overseas

By
zhm
-

Security forces of the Myanmar – Thai Friendship Bridge I in Myawaddy – Mae Sot crossing seized 11 fake Myanmar passports from 11 Myanmar youths, in December 2024.
Investigations found that Managing Director Nwe Ni Hlaing Min and Director Khin Maung Shwe (aka) Bala of One Asia job agency from Kyauk Ta Dar township of Yangon took 8 million Kyats from each nine people out of 11, whereas Managing Director Su Myat (aka) Su Myat Nanda Win from Hlan Htet travel agency from 3rd floor of Central Tower in Kyauktada township took 7 million Kyats each from the remaining two. In exchange the eleven received fake Myanmar passports from these agencies to cross the border into Thailand via Myawaddy.

They also arranged to send them to Malaysia from Thailand through illegal routes. The Myawaddy Myoma police station filed cases against the above owners/directors of these agencies. Police in Yangon has also apprehended the suspects in Yangon. The agencies also admitted to making fake legal residence permit card TR-38 pink cards issued by the Thai government. The creator of fake passports, John Ko, now under arrest, has admitted to making around 750 fake Myanmar passports so far.

Is Ai Really that Deep?

By
zhm
-
Deepseek (shēndù qiúsuô – which literally translated as ‘depth seek search’) is the latest
deep learning Ai (Artificial Intelligence) model coming out of China and taking the the Ai world by storm. Headlines included:
-Insane Performance
-Ai Breakthrough
-Deepseek is Insane
-This is scary
-OpenAI (Chat Gpt) replacement
-Next revolution in coding
-Best LLM (Large Language Model)
-Deepseek shocks Ai industry
Deepseek just revolutionise Ai forever among many other positives that Ai experts and reviewers have attributed to the newly appeared open sourced LLM model by a Chinese Ai company.
The Company itself is fully funded by Chinese hedge fund High-flyer. Both Deepseek and High-flyer are stationed in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The city known as the ‘House of Silk’ during old times, now houses many of the China and global tech giants. Advanced manufacturing, IT, research, Ai, all happening in this city of 13 million people.
Trump vision of keeping America ahead of China in the Ai world may now be in tatters. Even Eric Schmidt (ex-google CEO) has to revise his statement of last year that China is behind US by at least 2-3 years in the world of Ai. He recently said, after the unveiling of Deepseek, that China did a lot of catchup in the past six months to get to par with the US. Sam Altman, CEO of open Ai, even took a jab at Deepseek, saying, “It is relatively easy to copy something that you know works. It is extremely difficult to do something new, risky, and difficult when you don’t know if it will work”.
The bottom line is that Deepseek is performing at par or exceeding the OpenAI at benchmark tests and that’s when the pricing comes into play. Deepseek model delivers almost the same performance at around 96% discount. ($100 vs $4).
What is Deepseek R1?
Deepseek R1 model is gunning straight for OpenAI’s throne. Imagine getting performance similar to OpenAI’s o1 or even the o1 Pro, but for free (or 4%% the cost for the API). Deepseek lets you run R1 on your own machine or the cloud if you prefer. And yes, Deepseek also have an app version.
Unlike o1, which locks researchers out with a black-box approach, R1 offers transparency. It’s open-source, meaning developers can study, modify, and even fine-tune it freely under an MIT license. This openness has drawn praise from AI experts, many of whom describe it as the next big thing in AI.
While o1 Pro costs a steep $200/month, DeepSeek-R1 provides nearly the same functionality for free—or at an unbelievably low price. This has got a lot of users thinking on whether they should continue or cancel their $200 OpenAI subscriptions.
How deep is your learning?
DeepSeek-R1 excels in multiple domains:
Reasoning and Analytics: Matches OpenAI o1 in chemistry, mathematics, and even coding challenges.Efficient and Runs Locally: Deepseek can run smoothly on devices with limited computational power, such as smartphones or personal laptops, thanks to “distilled” versions of the model. Versatility: Runs both locally and on servers, giving users control over their data and processes. This flexibility extends to features like accessing the web, handling complex tasks, and processing uploaded PDFs, which it performs seamlessly.
However, as with most models, it occasionally hallucinates answers to abstract questions. But its ability to execute practical tasks outweighs these quirks. A couple of reviewers did complain about bias in answers generated out of Deepseek too.Value proposition

One of Deepseek R1’s most game-changing aspects is its cost-effectiveness. For example, tasks that cost $300 on OpenAI o1 can be executed for under $10 with R1. This affordability has made high-performance AI attainable for smaller businesses, researchers, and developers without significant budgets.

DeepSeek’s success is not just about technical breakthroughs but also about overcoming geopolitical challenges. Despite U.S. export restrictions on latest Nvidia advanced AI chips, DeepSeek built R1 efficiently and affordably using older chips. This demonstrates that innovation is not solely dependent on massive budgets or cutting-edge hardware.
The AI community has taken notice, with users worldwide testing and integrating R1. Developers are using it to create tools like Perplexity AI clones, chat apps for PDF analysis, and browser-based AI solutions—all at remarkably lower costs and faster speeds.

Open AI has introduced o3 mini, a new reasoning model, now available for free. Plus-tier subscribers also benefit from extensive o3 mini usage. However, while Deepseek AI offers unlimited access and o3 mini comes with significant limitations. This still makes OpenAI much more expensive than DeepSeek, which remains essentially free.
The potential applications for DeepSeek R1 are limitless. DeepSeek is transforming AI from an elite tool into a universal resource—accessible, affordable, and open for everyone. The question isn’t whether it will change the game. It already has. In a world where AI seems to be getting more expensive and exclusive, DeepSeek feels like a breath of fresh air. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s close enough to make the big players nervous. And that’s saying something. From political perspective, it could be the evidence of China rolling out the concept of ‘shared prosperity’ globally.

Let’s use it now!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, go to chat.deepseek.com to try out the depth of its brain. You can also install the Deepseek app available on the App Store and the Google Play Store. It has the logo of a light blue whale.

The Rebels’ Swan Song or Tatmadaw Pyrrhic victory?

By
zhm
-

Previously in my article on how to know if the Myanmar military is losing, I stated inter alia that, losing the regional command centres would be a canary in the coal mine. Regrettably it happened and now the rebels and the terrorist forces have significantly more territories under their control than a year ago.

I don’t want to be a wet blanket to those who are hoping for the Tatmadaw to recover the lost ground. The writing is already on the wall when these regional command centres fell. It surely is a bitter pill to swallow in the history of Tatmadaw.

Until the first week of January 2025, Yangon – Nay Pyi Taw expressway seems to be a sanctuary and out of harm’s way for civil servants and other travellers plying this route. They neither have to hide their identities nor dress differently. They need not be in fear of being identified as civil servants and get kidnapped or killed. That all changed on the January 11 when PDF terrorists came up to 110 mile marker, along the highway, trying to do the same thing that they did along Nay Pyi Taw – Mandalay expressway last month. Security forces nearby quickly arrived before they can terrorise and start blackmailing the travellers and civilians. Things did not end there. On January 14 early morning, another group of terrorists tried the same trick again, attempting the same terrorist propaganda show on the freeway near Thar Ga Ya at 170 mile marker. This time security forces were closer and fired the some artillery at the upcoming terror brigade. The terrorists quickly

retreated into dense woods and villages in between.

There is no denying that NNCP terrorists become more emboldened as the fake news media spread numerous successful campaigns by the EAOs and rebel forces, on the northern and western fronts. This salient might be one of the series of rebels’ swan songs but unsuccessful it might be, the victory on the Tatmataw side may turn out to be a

pyrrhic one eventually.

After these events, even some ministers chickened out and travelled with all this entourage by plane to Yangon, instead of the usual land route.
On the individual front, I would urge people, especially civil servants and media personnel, to be doubly cautious and take extra precautions when travelling along the Yangon – Nay Pyi Taw expressway now. Better be safe than sorry. You will thank me later.

Sunset on the Horizon

By
zhm
-

According to the opinion of the majority, the Facebook has become a repertoire of Myanmar culture and civility online. Everyone in Myanmar under the disguise of anonymity seems to be somehow involved in trolling, swearing, slander and hate speech. With Facebook management now removing the factchecking algorithms to appease Trump, the aforementioned behaviours are likely to exacerbate. The elderly wonder why such type of uncouth behaviours and insolent curses come out of the most peaceful minds of the majority Buddhist populace.

Funding no longer comes easy

Along with obscenity, expletives, profanity and vulgarism, the keyboard warrior arm of NNCP terrorists thrive on the same Facebook. The West is always against calling them terrorists, preferring may be ‘Freedom fighters’ perhaps, but let’s keep the champagne on ice first, till after you finish reading this whole article. Targeting the military, government officials, pro government individuals and those they deem somehow related to the current administration, these terrorists had enjoyed support of the majority of the plebeians in 2021 and 2022. Their main aim is fund raising, even if the generosity of the educated segment has now run dry. In order to continue to receive funds from Myanmar diaspora and sympathisers, they have to be seen to continue to wage war against the current regime.

And waging wars is expensive. The NNCP forces do not have the complete control of specific territories. The ones that they are in are under the EAO’s (Ethnic Armed Organisations) authority. EAOs have income from land such as Wa from selling rare earths to China, Kachin from selling Jade to China and Kayins (Karens) getting rent for operating scam cities like Shwe Kok Ko on their lands near the border. Unlike the EAOs, NNCP group does not have income from the territories since they own none. Donations made up of the majority of their incomes. With Trump issuing executive order on January 24 to halt all foreign aid for 90 days, the funding for NNCP terror group, including their associated fake news media channels out of Chiang Mai, would not be as liquid as before. This change of US administration would push them to look for more retail donations. At the same time, since the latter is drying up too, they have to muster their performance to continue to squeeze blood out of the stone.

That means more assassinations, extra violence, new robberies, further kidnappings and guerrilla attacks. They may have to upscale their targets too, as the murders of teachers, civil servants, ward administrators would no longer wet their mob’s appetite. These actions also have turned off many who originally supported their cause, in the early years of the campaign. NNCP terrorists are in fact hoist by their own petard.

Beating a dead horse

The elections is support to be happening at the end of the year. So far there is no indication that the military government is not stepping down. They will be transition to the civilian government after the elections. Thereafter the country can continue to move forward. Then, why beat a dead horse!

With support from India and China and perhaps Thailand, the government can function without the West or ASEAN. There is no need to negotiate with NNCP people or give in to their demands. The fight for territories, win or lose, NNCPs are just pawns in the game of chess played between the government and the EAOs.

The only danger for the population is the one that I have mentioned above; more violence, new assassinations, etc., to enrich a few remaining ‘smart’ leaders of the terror group.

Trying to take out a journalist

On January 13, I received a message from my father, conveying the fact that the leaders of military intelligence and counter terrorism units warned him of myself being in the hit list of people to be assassinated within the month of January. Sure, I am pro Myanmar, hence anti disintegration of the country. Knowing the facts and extent of voters’ fraud, I cannot support someone who cheated in the election and the group trying to restore that administration. I strongly believe elections is the start of the way forward for the country.
Yet, as with all terrorists, any opinion holder who do not agree with them is their enemy. Even though I was totally not involved in the production of the infamous video of cele Phyu Phyu Htwe, I was targeted as the newsman who would stand for the truth and not stand on their side.

I had to temporarily move out of my house and stay in a hotel as a precautionary measure. The fake news agencies will shout their hearts out about press freedom and security of journalists, provided it concerns the journalists who agree with them. The ones who preach the truth based on hard facts, like myself, would have support of neither the government nor these news agencies, who extol the freedom of expression so much.

Audacity of Hope

By
zhm
-

If we are strictly following the 2008 constitution, an interim government has to be formed before the elections can take place. And the emergency government in charge now apparently cannot do that, according to the constitution. The latter is tasked with the main aim of trying get the country into stability (which obviously has not happened, hence rounds of six months extensions).
In an ideal situation, with enhanced security, the SAC is supposed to return the power to the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC). NDSC would form an interim government mainly tasked with holding the free and fair elections. You can obviously see the dilemma here, when the Senior General give the power to the NDSC, where the head of NDSC is the President.
Anyhow, we can see the shift in focus of the current regime from just simply playing the role of an emergency administration to focusing on the duties of a full fledged government; the forming of three commissions long overdue, after slight reshuffling of top defence positions within Tatmadaw.
First, one of the only two Navy Seals in Myanmar, Admiral Tin Aung San is no longer the Defence Minister. The writing is already on the wall, probably due to his over achievements on the rebels salients. He is still holding onto the DPM post after getting reassigned as a Minister for the PM office. It also means that two (navy) admirals are now ministers for PM office.
The second major shift happened when Joint Chief of Staff (for Army, Navy and Airforce) Maung Maung Aye was removed from the potential to be the future Senior General to become Tin Aung San’s replacement and take the position of one of the many DPMs. This position as the joint Chief is now occupied by a 53 years old young and upcoming Kyaw Swar Lin, who is currently in the best position to succeed the Senior General.

Trio of Committees
The first of the long overdue committees/commissions to address lack of co-ordination among ministries is the one for industrial development, headed by former #3 man himself, General Mya Tun Oo. Supported by ministers from industry, natural resources, electric power, energy, science and tech, construction, this commission is tasked with bringing Myanmar out of raw exports of agriculture and natural resources into becoming an industrial state.
But there can be no industrial development without sufficient and regular supply of electricity. Hence, the second commission: Electricity and Energy Development. Chaired by Admiral Tin Aung San, and supported by ministers of electric power, energy, investment, agriculture, rural development, natural resources, industry, commerce and science and tech, this ministers abundant commission is supposed to address the most pressing issue of everyone in the whole country. Whether this is just for PR or the top echelon of ministers can really do something to untie this Gordian knot, for the betterment of the country, only time will tell.
Last but not least, the agri and livestock development commission hopes to address consistently low yields in agri and livestock sectors, hoping to rescue the sector that employ 70% of the population, out of the backyard of productivity scores. Chaired by General Nyo Saw, the all powerful economic tsar who control the Tatmadaw economic enterprises. The team includes ministers from agriculture, investment, rural development, natural resources, industry, and commerce, this commission will really test the leadership skills of the General, whether he can really drive the development of these sectors or just a star behind the unpublished financials of MEC (Myanmar Economic Corporate) and MEH (Myanmar Economic Holdings).
In summary, the position of our top leadership has changed from just being here for just a while to planning for the development of country for the long term. How it would translate into specific actions and time horizons is up to anyone’s guess for the time being.

EV Bus Services in Yangon

By
zhm
-

Yangon is going EV all the way. EV private vehicle boom has been encouraged by the government through the abolition of import taxes on EVs. The imports become so popular that some auto traders are setting up entities to operate taxis from unsold stocks. Then came the coaches. Some of the popular coach companies are using EV tour buses to ply Yangon – Nay Pyi Taw route.The tide is not ending there. Now, another company has planned EV buses to be used in public transportation service in Yangon, said an official of the company.
“It is still underway. We need to seek approval for some requirements. The process is very strict so we need to ensure making our proposal more complete,” he said. Power Eleven Company is willing to test EV buses in YBS service so that weaknesses and advantages can be identified, and current buses are old, he said.
“We can identify weaknesses and advantages if we test it now. We will use EV buses in YBS services. It is very expensive and no one will consider trying it. But we won’t give up. It is less possible but we need to acquire feasibility. The problem is the project is very expensive so it might be difficult to ensure cost-effective. But we have planned to run on a trial so that we can identify its feasibility. It was not easy to run air-conditioned buses last seven or eight years, but we acquired feasibility to implement but lost as expected. However, we will have to try again after making calculations based on the data we acquired. It is impossible to do public transport like a commercial business,” he said.

123...239Page 2 of 239

Latest Videos

video
Video

Interview with Alison Fox Principal of The British School Yangon

Interview with Alison Fox Principal of The British School Yangon

Recent Posts

© 2019 Myanmar Insider. Website Maintenance by Myanmar Web Designer.