What a difference a year makes!

Last year, EngageMedia collaborated with Phandeeyar and the Myanmar ICT Development Organisation (MIDO) to hold a one-day event in Yangon to discuss digital rights with human rights organisations and other allies. That event was attended by 18 participants, and tackled the basics of relating digital rights to human rights with a focus on the Myanmar context.

Last week, for a day and a half, the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum (MDRF) was held -- with over 90 participants, including 10 from outside of Myanmar. The MDRF was the product of the continued partnership among Phandeeyar, MIDO, the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), and EngageMedia. But more than that, the MDRF was a milestone in the digital rights movement -- a result of the years of policy advocacy and awareness raising, capacity building, participation in regional and international events, and hard work by the local groups to bring to the foreground the issues of internet freedoms.

In the last year alone, the MDRF collaborators have been busy playing critical roles in events in Myanmar. Phandeeyar organised a Tech Camp to Strengthen Transparency and Accountability in April, a meet up on the Violence Against Women in the Digital World in July, and a Right to Information Law event in November. Between traveling around Myanmar to raise awareness on responsible internet use and internet rights, running campaigns against hate speech, conducting research on internet usage in Myanmar, and implementing a telecentre initiative with Telenor, MIDO co-organised a camp on the Politics of Data with Tactical Technology Collective (TTC) in September. MCRB has continued to hold consultation meetings with various stakeholders to discuss the implications of the different laws and bills on human rights in Myanmar over the past year.

Unfortunately, all of these initiatives were triggered by troubling trends in Myanmar in relation to digital rights and internet freedoms. Journalists, bloggers, activists and ordinary internet users have continued to be arrested under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law -- as of end of November 2016, 20 individuals have been arrested. Hate speech online has continued to be an issue in Myanmar, and the increasing instances of harassment of women and LGBT individuals have worsened. Beyond these on-going issues, another has emerged in the last month -- the Privacy and Protection Law that the Parliament is rushing to pass. According experts, how that particular law has defined ¨privacy¨ is problematic in its vagueness and its lack of comprehensiveness. More than that, there has been no public consultation on the law.

Needless to say, it´s been a busy year for digital rights in Myanmar.

And the MDRF came at exactly the right time. The MDRF allowed the long-time advocates for digital rights (both those working locally and internationally) the platform to discuss issues with different stakeholders. The topics tackled in the MDRF reflect the current and emerging trends in and threats to digital rights in Myanmar: surveillance, content restrictions, and lawful interception standards; freedom of expression and hate speech; harassment of journalists; policy reform; right to information; national identification; and privacy issues in the current laws. The MDRF was also an opportunity for digital rights movements from across the region to learn from each other -- and to encourage the growth of the Myanmar digital rights movement -- with sessions that shared experiences around building social movements on policy reform, and looking back on the digital rights movements in India, the Philippines and Myanmar.

The MDRF also created a space where the participants could brainstorm what actions to take to address the daunting digital rights issues in Myanmar. On the second day, specifically, the participants formed themselves into groups to discuss specific action ideas and initiatives:

• Engaging Facebook on Hate Speech
• Anti- Hate Speech campaign
• Open data basics and awareness-raising
• Law review towards policy reform
• Campaign against the 66(d) arrests
• Addressing online harassment of women and LGBT
• Building the capacity of the youth on digital rights

At the end of the MDRF, a range of concrete actions and plans were made. Of these, a statement against the Privacy and Protection Law was signed by the participants of the forum, and sent to Parliament at the end of day two.

EngageMedia is fortunate and thankful to have been able to be part of this, and to witness the continued growth of the digital rights movement in Myanmar. And we will continue to support this growing movement.

After our first screening in Yangon on the 26th of October 2016, we then moved on to our next screenings in Mandalay and Sintgu, which were held in collaboration with Metta Campaign and Rainbow Organisation Sintgu on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of November.

There were over 300 people in attendance at the screenings and a high level of engagement in the discussions held after the films. Among the films screened was Lei Lei Aye’s women’s rights film ‘My Mother is Single’ along with her film ‘Soul Mate’ which was recently awarded at &Proud Film Festival.

Along with Lei Lei Aye’s contributions, we screened the Khaw Than collection's most popular documentary, ‘Sound of Silence’, winner at the Spain Gerona Film Festival, and ’I Wanna Go to School’ which was awarded at the Human Rights & Human Dignity Film Festival.

Ma Phvo, a transgender woman of Rainbow Organisation Sintgu stated, "These screenings have revolutionised our thoughts on minorities. Through these video interviews, we have gained a deeper understanding of our rights and can now peace build more effectively within the current situation in Myanmar".

Watch out for our next blogpost on the two final Khaw Than screenings in Yangon.

On 12 April 2016, nine women from Mount Kendeng, Rembeng regency of Central Java encased their feet in cement in front of the State Palace, Jakarta in protest against the construction of a PT Semen cement plant.

The women hoped that the protest would symbolise the ‘shackling’ of their lives and their environments by cement. Riem Ambarwati, one of the protesters, described cement as ‘dead earth’ because no living thing can grow within it (Coconuts).

PT Semen began construction of their plant in June 2014 and have since experienced massive community backlash. The communities of Kendeng and also Pati, Grobogan and Blora, where other cement companies have plans to build; are mostly farmers and are concerned that the plant, being build upon the Watuputih groundwater basin area will greatly diminish their primary water source and so impact upon their livelihoods as farmers. The communities also point out that they have always been able to support themselves through farming and do not need or desire the jobs that the cement plants will provide.

The plant could potentially cause the loss of 51 million litres of water. Aside from community opposition the construction of the plant has met with opposition from environmental activists and academics who insist that the mountainous karst area must be preserved. The mining of limestone in the karst region, necessary for the production of cement will have detrimental impacts on the mountains underground water channels that provide water not only to the immediate area but also carry water farther afield.

The Kendeng community were granted an audience with President ‘Joko’ Jokowido who ordered further strategic environmental assessment (KLHS) and all permits to be annulled for the duration of the study. The assessment will involve the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and is estimated to take one year.

The affected communities still fear that this will not deter activities at the plant and plead for  a respect of their environment and for dialogue between industrial contractors and local land holders, who in this case had never been previously consulted regarding the construction of the plant.

Update:

On 4 December 2016, Kendeng farmers set out to undertake a 150 km march from Rembang to Semarang. PT Semen Indonesia has not stopped its illegal activities at the cement plant and the villagers are petitioning the Supreme Court to take action. The week leading up to the march also saw a huge spike in cement factory advertising across Indonesian mass media channels, this may have fueled the decision to take further action against the large corporation.