With respect to Burma, a fair number of New Mandala readers are interested in debates about foreign investment and economic sanctions. In recent memory there was a spate of NM action on these topics: here, here and here. Today I note that The Sydney Morning Herald includes an ambiguous fragment about an Australian company whose Burma interests have been subjected to anti-investment campaigning. Oil exploration and Burma are, of course, a potentially fraught (if lucrative) combination.

Comments from readers on this topic are, as ever, very welcome here. This fragment is perhaps an early sign that, in this contentious Burmese election year, the sanctions debate may yet re-emerge onto the wider public agenda.