HBF’s Southeast Asia Regional Office advocates a potentially fruitful approach by challenging the current, highly polarised nature of the international politics towards Myanmar/Burma, and the way in which international policy and popular discourses frame the problems faced by the country. Towards that end, the HBF Myanmar Program advances a more balanced perspective on Myanmar/Burma which is pragmatic and reflective of voices and perspectives from within Myanmar/Burma – that were hitherto hushed by moral purists in international media, politics and policy circles. We intend to encourage intellectual exchange and professional networking between the international community and Myanmar citizens.

Consequently, HBF is initiating and organizing discussion forums, conferences and roundtable talks in Europe and Southeast Asia on contemporary political, social and humanitarian challenges that Myanmar/Burma faces.

For background information and analyses of political, social and cultural developments in Myanmar/Burma, check the website: http://www.networkmyanmar.org

Book publication: “Active Citizens under Political Wraps: Experiences from Myanmar/Burma and Vietnam”

In November 2006, HBF’s Southeast Asia Regional Office published, in both book and PDF formats, the proceedings of the Roundtable “Societal and Political Change in Vietnam: An instructive Example for Myanmar/Burma”, held in Berlin/Germany, March/April 2006. The publication compiles a collection of essays which reflect critically on the experiences and developments of civil society in Vietnam and Myanmar/Burma in their pursuit for pro-democracy and pro-change politics in the two paternalistic states. This intellectual work confronts the conventional view that civil society neither exists nor functions in one of the few remaining socialist countries, Vietnam, and the military-ruled Myanmar/Burma. The publication was met with great enthusiasm and sparked numerous requests from various international quarters. 

Download here (pdf, 1.3 MB)

Myanmar/Burma pro-engagement policy advocacy events 2006 in review