ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. (March 24, 2008) - Professor Win Min of Chiang Mai University in Thailand will give a lecture on the continuing struggles of the Burmese people, Monday, March 31, from 7:30-9 p.m. in the Cole Cinema of the St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) Campus Center. The lecture is for a general audience, and is free and open to the public.
The Burmese people are living under one of the longest-lasting military dictatorships in the world. Win Min will give an overview of Burmese history and politics, focusing on Burma's struggle for democracy and human and ethnic rights. He will explain why the monk-led "Saffron Revolution" took place last September, what has transpired since, and whether political reform is likely in the future.
He will also touch on the role of the international community, and especially the U.S. government, in the Burmese political situation. This topic is particularly timely given the current unrest in Tibet.
Win Min is a lecturer for various Burmese education programs at Chiang Mai University and teaches an annual course on Burma at Payap University in Thailand. From 2001 to 2005, he was a researcher at the Burma Fund, a think tank for the Burmese government in exile. The focus of his past and present research is comparative studies of civil-military relations for a democratic transition in Burma.
He is the co-author of Assessing Burma's Ceasefire Accords, published in 2007 by the East-West Center, Washington D.C. He is also the author of "Burmese Military Government: Crony Capitalists," in Burma's Modern Tragedy. Win Min received a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2001. He was a student activist in Burma in 1988, and a member of the All Burma Students Democratic Front from 1988 to 2000.
This event is jointly sponsored by the College's Center for the Study of Democracy, Department of Economics and the Asian Studies Program.