Today, Myanmar's political landscape and the mass uprising against military dictatorship continue to intensify. The grand drama of the anti-junta revolution is building momentum. The leading actors on both sides are locked in a tense standoff.

However, the AA's determination is more practical than the military regime's promise for Arakan State's military, political, and Chinese projects.

In the video clip released Monday, the AA warned: "If you surrender early, you can be relieved and meet your families and relatives early, but if not, it won't be a happy New Year for you."

The Tawphyarchaung region is made up of 51 villages mainly populated by ethnic Arakanese, Khami and Mro people.

The area can only be reached by boat, and its relative inaccessibility has meant that Tawphyarchaung's development has lagged in significant ways.

As I ascended from the banks of the Kissapanadi River and entered Tinma Village in Kyauktaw Township, I observed a community that had markedly changed. Along the way, I saw old houses that had been burnt down or stood in disarray, while some homes were newly rebuilt, temporary dwellings.

Having suffered losses and hardship for generations, MSME entrepreneurs are nonetheless hopeful that a so-called "Arakkha People's Government" might turn the tide. The term presumes an AA takeover of Arakan State and the new governance that this would bring to millions of people.

The cash crisis has become a problem on top of other problems for locals who were already facing shortages of food, consumer goods and medicines, seriously impacting various aspects of everyday life for the people of Arakan State.

The end of May ushers in busy weeks for farmers in Myanmar as they prepare to grow paddy with the monsoon rains. But in war-torn Arakan State, farmers are reluctant to go to their fields.

As extreme heat and severe water shortages are taking a heavy toll on people in many parts of the country, with record-breaking temperatures in some townships in central plains, many are eagerly anticipating the rains. But not everyone.

Casualties have been reported in Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Myebon and Ramree townships. Minbya Township has been hit hardest by the junta’s airstrikes in terms of civilian casualties.

After Myanmar’s military regime lost control of nine towns in Arakan State and Chin State’s Paletwa, it began to oppress not only local people in Arakan State, but also Arakanese people in mainland Myanmar.

Pauktaw, a once peaceful town in northern Arakan State, has become a battlefield in the latest fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA).

Many Muslims were killed and houses were torched when the Myanmar military conducted its so-called area clearance operations in response to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacks on more than 30 border guard police outposts in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships on August 25, 2017.
 

Currently, there are no military activities in the Yoe Chaung area, and neither side has deployed troops there. Despite the calm, displaced people from Yoe Chaung settlements have refused to return home, as they have access to healthcare services and education at the displacement camps where they currently live — in contrast to their home villages, where they have no public services.

The apparent river was in fact paddy fields that were flooded in early August. At places, water stood five feet above the ground in paddy fields, utterly submerging many of the rice stalks.

Despite reports that the international community has provided significant aid to the junta for distribution to those in need, effective aid has reportedly failed to reach many storm-affected people on the ground.

Myanmar’s military government, which is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has committed human rights violations against both ordinary people and the disabled.

As more than 90 percent of businesses in Myanmar are MSMEs, the growth and decline of the country’s economy is directly tied to the success or failure of MSMEs.

Written by Gaung

“Every crop grown in this soil turns into a bumper harvest, and rice and fruits are abundant in the land of Arakanese people.” 

So goes a lyric from the song “This is the Arakanese nation, this is Arakan land,” written by Arakanese composer Ko Than Maung, describing how fertile the soil is, and how successful the agriculture industry is, in Arakan State.

But things are quite the opposite in Arakan State today, with the agriculture industry on...