Myanmar jails another video reporter
Published: Feb. 1, 2010 at 11:41 AM
YANGON, Myanmar, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Paris-based charity Reporters Without Borders has condemned the jailing of a second video journalist by Myanmar's ruling military within four weeks.
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association, run by exiled Myanmar journalists based in Thailand, said the 13-year jail sentence passed on Ngwe Soe Lin shows the junta's "phobia of uncontrolled video reporting."
Ngwe was sentenced by a special court inside Insein Prison in Yangon, the name given to the city of Rangoon by the military and the former capital of what was called Burma.
He is the second video reporter for the Myanmar exile radio and TV station Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Oslo, to be convicted in the space of a month, a joint statement by the two pressure groups said. "He should be freed at once, as should Hla Hla Win, the young woman reporter who was given a 20-year sentence four weeks ago after providing DVB with video material."
Hla, 25, was arrested on Sept. 11, 2009, after visiting a monastery in the city of Pakokku in central Myanmar and given a seven-year sentence the following month under the Export Import Act for using an illegally imported motorcycle. She was given her later sentence of 20 years under the Electronics Act and the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act, as was Ngwe.
A person who accompanied Hla at the time of her arrest was also given a 26-year sentence.
Ngwe was arrested on June 26, 2009, as he left an Internet cafe in a Yangon suburb with one of his friends, also arrested and interrogated by the police for nearly two months before being released, Reporters Without Borders said.
Between 15 and 20 journalists and ordinary people who provide material including amateur video and reportage via the Internet are currently detained in Myanmar, the Reporters Without Borders statement said.
"As regards media freedom, we believe that none of the conditions are being met for this year's elections to be considered free and democratic."
The ruling military has on several occasions promised international organizations that elections will be held sometime this year. But the generals have not as yet given a date, creating some frustration for pro-democracy groups inside and outside the country.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, now under house detention, and her lawyers were angered at recent comments by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo, who said she would be released in November. This will be too late for her to take part in an election, according to many dissidents.
Much media attention has been focused on Suu Kyi and her detention. The Nobel Peace laureate and her party the National League for Democracy won the last general election, held in 1990. But the results were not acknowledged by the military, which has ruled the country for most of the time since 1962. Suu Kyi has spent around 14 of the past 20 years under some form of detention including jail.
But the military government has also had its frustrations, in particular with insurgent groups deep in the jungles of the interior. While the army has been fighting some groups, it has also been talking to others to hand over their weapons in return for helping them reintegrate into society.
Police gave what the media said was a rare news event last week where they said they had proof that insurgents were plotting to disrupt the upcoming general election.
They said they had arrested 11 people with explosives, guns and bomb-making equipment, according to Myanmar Police Chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi. He said the arrested people were planning to "jeopardize peace, stability and destroy the coming election."
They had been working closely with Myanmar dissident groups based in Thailand, including the Burma Lawyers Council, the Karen National Union and All Burmese Students Democratic Front.
Published: Feb. 1, 2010 at 11:41 AM
YANGON, Myanmar, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Paris-based charity Reporters Without Borders has condemned the jailing of a second video journalist by Myanmar's ruling military within four weeks.
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association, run by exiled Myanmar journalists based in Thailand, said the 13-year jail sentence passed on Ngwe Soe Lin shows the junta's "phobia of uncontrolled video reporting."
Ngwe was sentenced by a special court inside Insein Prison in Yangon, the name given to the city of Rangoon by the military and the former capital of what was called Burma.
He is the second video reporter for the Myanmar exile radio and TV station Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Oslo, to be convicted in the space of a month, a joint statement by the two pressure groups said. "He should be freed at once, as should Hla Hla Win, the young woman reporter who was given a 20-year sentence four weeks ago after providing DVB with video material."
Hla, 25, was arrested on Sept. 11, 2009, after visiting a monastery in the city of Pakokku in central Myanmar and given a seven-year sentence the following month under the Export Import Act for using an illegally imported motorcycle. She was given her later sentence of 20 years under the Electronics Act and the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act, as was Ngwe.
A person who accompanied Hla at the time of her arrest was also given a 26-year sentence.
Ngwe was arrested on June 26, 2009, as he left an Internet cafe in a Yangon suburb with one of his friends, also arrested and interrogated by the police for nearly two months before being released, Reporters Without Borders said.
Between 15 and 20 journalists and ordinary people who provide material including amateur video and reportage via the Internet are currently detained in Myanmar, the Reporters Without Borders statement said.
"As regards media freedom, we believe that none of the conditions are being met for this year's elections to be considered free and democratic."
The ruling military has on several occasions promised international organizations that elections will be held sometime this year. But the generals have not as yet given a date, creating some frustration for pro-democracy groups inside and outside the country.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, now under house detention, and her lawyers were angered at recent comments by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo, who said she would be released in November. This will be too late for her to take part in an election, according to many dissidents.
Much media attention has been focused on Suu Kyi and her detention. The Nobel Peace laureate and her party the National League for Democracy won the last general election, held in 1990. But the results were not acknowledged by the military, which has ruled the country for most of the time since 1962. Suu Kyi has spent around 14 of the past 20 years under some form of detention including jail.
But the military government has also had its frustrations, in particular with insurgent groups deep in the jungles of the interior. While the army has been fighting some groups, it has also been talking to others to hand over their weapons in return for helping them reintegrate into society.
Police gave what the media said was a rare news event last week where they said they had proof that insurgents were plotting to disrupt the upcoming general election.
They said they had arrested 11 people with explosives, guns and bomb-making equipment, according to Myanmar Police Chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi. He said the arrested people were planning to "jeopardize peace, stability and destroy the coming election."
They had been working closely with Myanmar dissident groups based in Thailand, including the Burma Lawyers Council, the Karen National Union and All Burmese Students Democratic Front.
************************************************************
North Korean weapons mystery continues
By JANE FUGAL, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 1, 4:54 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand said Monday that an aircraft loaded with North Korean weapons was flying to Iran when it was intercepted in December but the ultimate destination of the arms is still not known.
Thai authorities seized the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane and its five-man crew as it landed to refuel on a flight from Pyongyang Dec. 12. Found on board were 35 tons of weapons.
A Thai government report to the U.N. Security Council, leaked to reporters in New York over the weekend, said the aircraft, which had violated U.N. sanctions against North Korea, was bound for Tehran's Mahrabad Airport.
But Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayarkorn said Monday that "to say that the weapons are going to Iran, that might be inexact."
"The report only says where the plane was going to according to its flight plan, but it doesn't say where the weapons were going to," he said. "It's still under investigation, and the suspects are under our legal system."
The five-man crew — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — remain under detention. The crew has been charged with illegal arms possession, but the charges are expected to be stiffened once the investigation wraps up, police have said.
The weapons found on board the aircraft were reportedly light battlefield arms, including grenades — hardly the ones Iran's sophisticated military would need.
From the start there has been speculation that the weapons were to be shipped on to some of the radical Middle Eastern groups supported by Tehran.
The U.N. imposed sanctions in June banning North Korea from exporting any arms after the communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. Impoverished North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
Investigations by The Associated Press in several countries showed the flight was facilitated by a web of holding companies and fake addresses from New Zealand to Barcelona designed to disguise the movement of the weapons.
The plane's chief pilot maintains that the aircraft was headed for Kiev, Ukraine.
"I never said or confirmed the plane was routed to Iran. I only know that the plane was going to Ukraine and the cargo was to have been unloaded there. That's the information I have," the crew's Thai lawyer, Somsak Saithong, told The Associated Press on Monday.
He said the prosecutor will have to decide whether to drop the case or send the five for trial before Feb. 11, when their detention period expires. After seeing his clients,
Saithong said all continued to insist they did not know the contents of the cargo they were flying.
By JANE FUGAL, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 1, 4:54 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand said Monday that an aircraft loaded with North Korean weapons was flying to Iran when it was intercepted in December but the ultimate destination of the arms is still not known.
Thai authorities seized the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane and its five-man crew as it landed to refuel on a flight from Pyongyang Dec. 12. Found on board were 35 tons of weapons.
A Thai government report to the U.N. Security Council, leaked to reporters in New York over the weekend, said the aircraft, which had violated U.N. sanctions against North Korea, was bound for Tehran's Mahrabad Airport.
But Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayarkorn said Monday that "to say that the weapons are going to Iran, that might be inexact."
"The report only says where the plane was going to according to its flight plan, but it doesn't say where the weapons were going to," he said. "It's still under investigation, and the suspects are under our legal system."
The five-man crew — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — remain under detention. The crew has been charged with illegal arms possession, but the charges are expected to be stiffened once the investigation wraps up, police have said.
The weapons found on board the aircraft were reportedly light battlefield arms, including grenades — hardly the ones Iran's sophisticated military would need.
From the start there has been speculation that the weapons were to be shipped on to some of the radical Middle Eastern groups supported by Tehran.
The U.N. imposed sanctions in June banning North Korea from exporting any arms after the communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. Impoverished North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
Investigations by The Associated Press in several countries showed the flight was facilitated by a web of holding companies and fake addresses from New Zealand to Barcelona designed to disguise the movement of the weapons.
The plane's chief pilot maintains that the aircraft was headed for Kiev, Ukraine.
"I never said or confirmed the plane was routed to Iran. I only know that the plane was going to Ukraine and the cargo was to have been unloaded there. That's the information I have," the crew's Thai lawyer, Somsak Saithong, told The Associated Press on Monday.
He said the prosecutor will have to decide whether to drop the case or send the five for trial before Feb. 11, when their detention period expires. After seeing his clients,
Saithong said all continued to insist they did not know the contents of the cargo they were flying.
************************************************************
BBC News - Burma army frees boy after mother pleads through media
Page last updated at 13:38 GMT, Monday, 1 February 2010
The army in Burma has released a 14-year-old boy it had forcibly recruited, after his mother appealed for his return on international media.
Sandar Win, who has terminal cancer, told the BBC's Burmese Service and Radio Free Asia (RFA) her pleas for his return had previously been ignored.
But following her emotional media interviews two weeks ago, the army brought her son back to her house.
Correspondents say forced recruitment of children is common in Burma.
Ms Win told the BBC the boy had been lured away from her while she was working on her market stall by a soldier who offered him alcohol.
She found he was being held at an army base along with other child recruits but said that when she went to plead for his release, she was turned away and hit by the soldiers.
In interviews with the BBC and RFA, Ms Win said that when she was allowed to see her son, he had been in tears and asked to go home but she was not allowed to take him.
Two weeks after the interviews, the military authorities came to her house to bring the boy home.
"I asked the authorities to return my son when I spoke to RFA and BBC," said Ms Win.
"I am very happy to have my son back and I don't know how to thank RFA and BBC for your help."
Tin Htar Swe, head of the BBC's Burmese Service, says children are regularly kidnapped by the army or given alcohol to make them enlist.
She said the boy's release was probably an attempt by the army to limit the damage from the case, which had attracted a lot of public attention and threatened to damage the army's reputation.
The Coalition to Stop Child Soldiers says Burma has thousands of children in its armed forces, some as young as 11 years old.
Page last updated at 13:38 GMT, Monday, 1 February 2010
The army in Burma has released a 14-year-old boy it had forcibly recruited, after his mother appealed for his return on international media.
Sandar Win, who has terminal cancer, told the BBC's Burmese Service and Radio Free Asia (RFA) her pleas for his return had previously been ignored.
But following her emotional media interviews two weeks ago, the army brought her son back to her house.
Correspondents say forced recruitment of children is common in Burma.
Ms Win told the BBC the boy had been lured away from her while she was working on her market stall by a soldier who offered him alcohol.
She found he was being held at an army base along with other child recruits but said that when she went to plead for his release, she was turned away and hit by the soldiers.
In interviews with the BBC and RFA, Ms Win said that when she was allowed to see her son, he had been in tears and asked to go home but she was not allowed to take him.
Two weeks after the interviews, the military authorities came to her house to bring the boy home.
"I asked the authorities to return my son when I spoke to RFA and BBC," said Ms Win.
"I am very happy to have my son back and I don't know how to thank RFA and BBC for your help."
Tin Htar Swe, head of the BBC's Burmese Service, says children are regularly kidnapped by the army or given alcohol to make them enlist.
She said the boy's release was probably an attempt by the army to limit the damage from the case, which had attracted a lot of public attention and threatened to damage the army's reputation.
The Coalition to Stop Child Soldiers says Burma has thousands of children in its armed forces, some as young as 11 years old.
************************************************************
Foreign Policy Magazine - Rumble in the Junta
This year's elections in Myanmar won't be free and fair -- but they will be more significant than you think.
BY DREW THOMPSON | JANUARY 28, 2010
Walking through the streets of Yangon this January, I saw the futility of U.S. sanctions on every corner. Commerce thrives on steamy streets and markets, and billboards advertising Japanese, South Korean, and European brands are everywhere. Meanwhile, junta leaders targeted by sanctions that prevent their families' travel have contented themselves with retirement in splendid homes, while their grandchildren, denied visas to visit the United States, simply go to college in Europe and Australia. Sanctions have only served to isolate the United States. This is especially unfortunate at a time when the United States should be carefully watching, and even influencing, what might be the most important political year in Myanmar's recent history.
The date is not set, but the tiny handful of generals who have a monopoly on political power have declared elections will take place in 2010, and no one doubts they will happen before the year's end. Most Burmese citizens are nonplussed, and no one can blame them for assuming that the military junta that runs the country from the isolated capital of Naypyidaw has rigged the process.
But the truth is that the elections will bring change: perhaps not a sudden end to the military junta, but important and underappreciated change nonetheless. And the United States should be fully engaged.
This year's elections will be hotly contested by opposition politicians eager to gain a parliamentary seat. Although far from being a free and fair process, they might represent the start of a long and possibly tortuous road toward a relatively more democratic system. A new government is certain to emerge in Myanmar once the voting is over, one that is expected to include directly elected politicians representing a broader cross section of society than ever before. Rather than dismissing these elections out of hand and calling them a sham, the United States should carefully consider its options and assess this potentially historic opportunity to shape Myanmar's future.
The reason elections are expected soon is the ill health of the detested general known as "Number One," Than Shwe. A leader of the 1988 coup, Than Shwe became the chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1992 (in 1997, the SLORC changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council) and has maintained a firm grip on power to this day. He and his family have amassed a fortune, and at nearly age 77 his health is failing and he is ready to retire. Like many dictators before him, however, he realizes that retiring in safety can be more complicated than maintaining an iron grip on power. As the saying goes, "Riding a tiger is easy; getting off is more difficult."
To ensure that he and his family do not face trial or a firing squad once he relinquishes power, Than Shwe has crafted an elaborate retirement plan that replaces his junta with a new government, made up of military personnel and civilians, that will not be powerful enough to exact retribution from him, his family, or his cronies. The only outcome that preserves his wealth and freedom is a relatively weak, inclusive civil-military government that self-balances and checks the power of any one faction or branch.
Establishing a durable civil-military government requires elections that confer enough legitimacy to sustain it and bolster the authority of civilians vis-à-vis the more powerful military. Learning from the experiences of many other military dictators, Than Shwe fears an authoritarian successor might bend to populist sentiment and obliterate him.
This plan was expedited following the 1990 elections, in which Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide victory, prompting the army to ignore the elections' results and throw her in jail. Than Shwe has since then clawed his way back to the top, eliminating rivals and successors alike, all the while plotting to enact a "road map" to democracy that has been broadly dismissed by all but his closest followers.
At the center of Than Shwe's plan is the 2008 Constitution. Superficially, Myanmar's Constitution is broadly based on the U.S. Constitution, with three branches of government forming a system of checks and balances. But the Constitution is flawed, just as the parliamentary elections and selection of the next head of state will be. The military is guaranteed 25 percent of seats in the legislature, and the president will be selected from three candidates picked by the government, with the two other candidates becoming vice presidents.
Although this might sound bleak, the optimist would recognize that 75 percent of the parliamentary seats will be chosen by popular vote, and it is quite likely that many of those seats will be won by opposition candidates. The government is already working hard to recruit candidates who are well regarded in their communities and not antagonistic to the military -- such as teachers and successful farmers -- ensuring that parliament includes independent MPs who are respected by the population. With the military guaranteed 25 percent of seats and the rest shared between pro-government, independent, and opposition parliamentarians, it is unlikely that an outright majority will control the legislature, necessitating the need for compromise and coalition-forming.
However, there are two things that might stand in the way of this grand plan -- the next generation of military leaders and "the lady." There is no guarantee that the next generation of officers will be willing to share power with civilians, especially elected ones. They might not respect the limits on power as they have been set out on flimsy paper.
Aung San Suu Kyi presents the other potential problem for the generals. Should she be released from detention and allowed to campaign freely for her NLD candidates, they would easily win a majority of seats, just as they did in the 1990 elections when they won 392 of 485 seats, even with Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. An overwhelming NLD victory in 2010 will be almost certainly unacceptable to the retiring generals who do not want to find themselves at the mercy of the long-persecuted and exiled NLD. Another coup would likely result, ending any hope for representational government in Myanmar emerging for decades to come.
To prevent this, the generals will likely seek to prevent Aung San Suu Kyi from campaigning, keeping her under house arrest until the elections are concluded. Although the election law and polling dates have not been announced yet, some analysts are guessing that the election law will be issued in early spring and the elections possibly held on the numerologically auspicious October 10 (10-10-10). However, Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated that she is pragmatic, expressing to the government that she is willing to compromise and discuss anything, though up to now she has not committed the NLD to either participate or boycott the process. There is a pervasive air of uncertainty. But should an accommodation be reached between the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi and elections held, it potentially represents the first step in Myanmar's evolution from a military dictatorship to a form of representational government familiar to many of Myanmar's Asian neighbors.
Consider one historical precedent. South Korea's presidential and National Assembly elections in the 1970s and particularly in 1987 and 1988, though hardly considered free and fair, gave opposition parties and candidates, including Nobel laureate and future president Kim Dae-jung (who ran for president three times before being elected in 1997), a legitimate platform from which to develop their voices, attract supporters, learn the political process, and oppose the ruling party. Few might have predicted it at the time of South Korea's first elections, but today the country has an entrenched and mature democratic process, with conservative and liberal parties exchanging power peacefully.
Despite the stacked deck, some political candidates in Myanmar are optimistic about the prospects for this year's elections. One opposition leader who has spent years in jail said the government had encouraged him to field candidates to contest the elections. Admitting that they were a small step, he said, "One thing I like about the Constitution is that we can get elected to parliament; I can speak freely in parliament and not on the side of the road on a soapbox. Why don't we as a people take this opportunity to help [Than Shwe] make a graceful exit and gain democracy in the process?"
In addition to enthusiastic political candidates, civil society is growing and provides a tenuous base to support democracy. Grassroots organizations pepper the countryside, and Yangon-based NGOs look increasingly like their counterparts in Bangkok and Seoul implementing social and environmental programs supported by international funding, particularly in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The official media is still a ham-fisted propaganda arm of the government, but small publications are emerging and the Internet is an increasingly important source of balanced information. The Voice of America's Burmese service's three hours of daily shortwave broadcasts will be particularly important during election campaigning as one of the few nongovernment-controlled sources of information available nationwide.
Of course, the government still has many tools at its disposal to fight the opposition, such as the election law and outright intimidation. For instance, officials and their families will be told who to vote for, while watchful cadres will likely maintain a highly visible presence at polling stations. The election law will also possibly exclude particular candidates -- such as former political prisoners or members of ethnic groups that remain in armed opposition to the government -- in addition to giving very little time for opposition candidates to raise support, publish materials, and campaign. In addition to ballot box-stuffing, the government is also reportedly planning elaborate dirty tricks, such as creating new political parties that sound like the opposition parties in an effort to confuse voters.
Nonetheless, opposition leaders are optimistic that this year's elections will give them a foot in the political door, a few seats in parliament, and a platform from which to gain valuable experience and contest the next elections in 2015. That year, the president will likely start a second term, setting the stage for a really experienced cadre of politicians to campaign their hearts out in 2020.
As part of its new engagement formula, the United States should consider supporting a peaceful political process in Myanmar that provides an opportunity for the opposition to participate in government. Continued support for human rights is essential, as is relentless pressure on the Burmese government to release political prisoners and reach a peaceful détente with the opposition and ethnic groups. Although it might seem like a choice of pragmatism over human rights policy, engaging in the Burmese elections is actually a decision that benefits both.
This year's elections in Myanmar won't be free and fair -- but they will be more significant than you think.
BY DREW THOMPSON | JANUARY 28, 2010
Walking through the streets of Yangon this January, I saw the futility of U.S. sanctions on every corner. Commerce thrives on steamy streets and markets, and billboards advertising Japanese, South Korean, and European brands are everywhere. Meanwhile, junta leaders targeted by sanctions that prevent their families' travel have contented themselves with retirement in splendid homes, while their grandchildren, denied visas to visit the United States, simply go to college in Europe and Australia. Sanctions have only served to isolate the United States. This is especially unfortunate at a time when the United States should be carefully watching, and even influencing, what might be the most important political year in Myanmar's recent history.
The date is not set, but the tiny handful of generals who have a monopoly on political power have declared elections will take place in 2010, and no one doubts they will happen before the year's end. Most Burmese citizens are nonplussed, and no one can blame them for assuming that the military junta that runs the country from the isolated capital of Naypyidaw has rigged the process.
But the truth is that the elections will bring change: perhaps not a sudden end to the military junta, but important and underappreciated change nonetheless. And the United States should be fully engaged.
This year's elections will be hotly contested by opposition politicians eager to gain a parliamentary seat. Although far from being a free and fair process, they might represent the start of a long and possibly tortuous road toward a relatively more democratic system. A new government is certain to emerge in Myanmar once the voting is over, one that is expected to include directly elected politicians representing a broader cross section of society than ever before. Rather than dismissing these elections out of hand and calling them a sham, the United States should carefully consider its options and assess this potentially historic opportunity to shape Myanmar's future.
The reason elections are expected soon is the ill health of the detested general known as "Number One," Than Shwe. A leader of the 1988 coup, Than Shwe became the chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1992 (in 1997, the SLORC changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council) and has maintained a firm grip on power to this day. He and his family have amassed a fortune, and at nearly age 77 his health is failing and he is ready to retire. Like many dictators before him, however, he realizes that retiring in safety can be more complicated than maintaining an iron grip on power. As the saying goes, "Riding a tiger is easy; getting off is more difficult."
To ensure that he and his family do not face trial or a firing squad once he relinquishes power, Than Shwe has crafted an elaborate retirement plan that replaces his junta with a new government, made up of military personnel and civilians, that will not be powerful enough to exact retribution from him, his family, or his cronies. The only outcome that preserves his wealth and freedom is a relatively weak, inclusive civil-military government that self-balances and checks the power of any one faction or branch.
Establishing a durable civil-military government requires elections that confer enough legitimacy to sustain it and bolster the authority of civilians vis-à-vis the more powerful military. Learning from the experiences of many other military dictators, Than Shwe fears an authoritarian successor might bend to populist sentiment and obliterate him.
This plan was expedited following the 1990 elections, in which Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide victory, prompting the army to ignore the elections' results and throw her in jail. Than Shwe has since then clawed his way back to the top, eliminating rivals and successors alike, all the while plotting to enact a "road map" to democracy that has been broadly dismissed by all but his closest followers.
At the center of Than Shwe's plan is the 2008 Constitution. Superficially, Myanmar's Constitution is broadly based on the U.S. Constitution, with three branches of government forming a system of checks and balances. But the Constitution is flawed, just as the parliamentary elections and selection of the next head of state will be. The military is guaranteed 25 percent of seats in the legislature, and the president will be selected from three candidates picked by the government, with the two other candidates becoming vice presidents.
Although this might sound bleak, the optimist would recognize that 75 percent of the parliamentary seats will be chosen by popular vote, and it is quite likely that many of those seats will be won by opposition candidates. The government is already working hard to recruit candidates who are well regarded in their communities and not antagonistic to the military -- such as teachers and successful farmers -- ensuring that parliament includes independent MPs who are respected by the population. With the military guaranteed 25 percent of seats and the rest shared between pro-government, independent, and opposition parliamentarians, it is unlikely that an outright majority will control the legislature, necessitating the need for compromise and coalition-forming.
However, there are two things that might stand in the way of this grand plan -- the next generation of military leaders and "the lady." There is no guarantee that the next generation of officers will be willing to share power with civilians, especially elected ones. They might not respect the limits on power as they have been set out on flimsy paper.
Aung San Suu Kyi presents the other potential problem for the generals. Should she be released from detention and allowed to campaign freely for her NLD candidates, they would easily win a majority of seats, just as they did in the 1990 elections when they won 392 of 485 seats, even with Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. An overwhelming NLD victory in 2010 will be almost certainly unacceptable to the retiring generals who do not want to find themselves at the mercy of the long-persecuted and exiled NLD. Another coup would likely result, ending any hope for representational government in Myanmar emerging for decades to come.
To prevent this, the generals will likely seek to prevent Aung San Suu Kyi from campaigning, keeping her under house arrest until the elections are concluded. Although the election law and polling dates have not been announced yet, some analysts are guessing that the election law will be issued in early spring and the elections possibly held on the numerologically auspicious October 10 (10-10-10). However, Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated that she is pragmatic, expressing to the government that she is willing to compromise and discuss anything, though up to now she has not committed the NLD to either participate or boycott the process. There is a pervasive air of uncertainty. But should an accommodation be reached between the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi and elections held, it potentially represents the first step in Myanmar's evolution from a military dictatorship to a form of representational government familiar to many of Myanmar's Asian neighbors.
Consider one historical precedent. South Korea's presidential and National Assembly elections in the 1970s and particularly in 1987 and 1988, though hardly considered free and fair, gave opposition parties and candidates, including Nobel laureate and future president Kim Dae-jung (who ran for president three times before being elected in 1997), a legitimate platform from which to develop their voices, attract supporters, learn the political process, and oppose the ruling party. Few might have predicted it at the time of South Korea's first elections, but today the country has an entrenched and mature democratic process, with conservative and liberal parties exchanging power peacefully.
Despite the stacked deck, some political candidates in Myanmar are optimistic about the prospects for this year's elections. One opposition leader who has spent years in jail said the government had encouraged him to field candidates to contest the elections. Admitting that they were a small step, he said, "One thing I like about the Constitution is that we can get elected to parliament; I can speak freely in parliament and not on the side of the road on a soapbox. Why don't we as a people take this opportunity to help [Than Shwe] make a graceful exit and gain democracy in the process?"
In addition to enthusiastic political candidates, civil society is growing and provides a tenuous base to support democracy. Grassroots organizations pepper the countryside, and Yangon-based NGOs look increasingly like their counterparts in Bangkok and Seoul implementing social and environmental programs supported by international funding, particularly in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The official media is still a ham-fisted propaganda arm of the government, but small publications are emerging and the Internet is an increasingly important source of balanced information. The Voice of America's Burmese service's three hours of daily shortwave broadcasts will be particularly important during election campaigning as one of the few nongovernment-controlled sources of information available nationwide.
Of course, the government still has many tools at its disposal to fight the opposition, such as the election law and outright intimidation. For instance, officials and their families will be told who to vote for, while watchful cadres will likely maintain a highly visible presence at polling stations. The election law will also possibly exclude particular candidates -- such as former political prisoners or members of ethnic groups that remain in armed opposition to the government -- in addition to giving very little time for opposition candidates to raise support, publish materials, and campaign. In addition to ballot box-stuffing, the government is also reportedly planning elaborate dirty tricks, such as creating new political parties that sound like the opposition parties in an effort to confuse voters.
Nonetheless, opposition leaders are optimistic that this year's elections will give them a foot in the political door, a few seats in parliament, and a platform from which to gain valuable experience and contest the next elections in 2015. That year, the president will likely start a second term, setting the stage for a really experienced cadre of politicians to campaign their hearts out in 2020.
As part of its new engagement formula, the United States should consider supporting a peaceful political process in Myanmar that provides an opportunity for the opposition to participate in government. Continued support for human rights is essential, as is relentless pressure on the Burmese government to release political prisoners and reach a peaceful détente with the opposition and ethnic groups. Although it might seem like a choice of pragmatism over human rights policy, engaging in the Burmese elections is actually a decision that benefits both.
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Four ULFA camps in Myanmar: surrendered militant
STAFF WRITER 20:28 HRS IST
Shillong, Feb 1 (PTI) The banned ULFA has been running four camps in Myanmar, a surrendered militant of the group having trained in the neighbouring country claimed today.
"ULFA cadres are getting arms training in the four camps in Myanmar," Ranjit, who surrendered to the BSF here, told reporters.
Wanted in several criminal cases, 'sergeant' Ranjit alias Akash Bora laid down an AK-56 rifle and its two magazines besides 140 bullets.
Ranjit said he had been "mentally suffering" in one camp and finally decided to desert it and surrender.
He, however, claimed that the recent arrest of ULFA's several senior leaders including its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa did not have much impact on the cadres camping in Myanmar.
"The main reason is the presence of the outlawed group's 'military chief' Paresh Barua," he said.
STAFF WRITER 20:28 HRS IST
Shillong, Feb 1 (PTI) The banned ULFA has been running four camps in Myanmar, a surrendered militant of the group having trained in the neighbouring country claimed today.
"ULFA cadres are getting arms training in the four camps in Myanmar," Ranjit, who surrendered to the BSF here, told reporters.
Wanted in several criminal cases, 'sergeant' Ranjit alias Akash Bora laid down an AK-56 rifle and its two magazines besides 140 bullets.
Ranjit said he had been "mentally suffering" in one camp and finally decided to desert it and surrender.
He, however, claimed that the recent arrest of ULFA's several senior leaders including its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa did not have much impact on the cadres camping in Myanmar.
"The main reason is the presence of the outlawed group's 'military chief' Paresh Barua," he said.
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The Assam Tribune - ‘Anti-India forces given shelter in Myanmar’
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Jan 30 – Stating that the ensuing 2010 elections in neighbouring Myanmar is equally important for India, particularly North East, Member of Parliament of the Exile Burmese Government Dr Tint Swe today claimed that the existing military regime in Myanmar is giving shelter to ‘anti- Indian’ armed forces. Indicating that the Military regime in Myanmar is working in tandem with anti-India forces, he appealed to the Ministry of External Affairs (Indian Government) to review its policy on Myanmar.
Dr Swe also said that it would not be right for a country like India to do business or indulge in any bilateral activity with the present regime in Myanmar.
Dr Swe was speaking during a consultation meeting on 2010 election in Myanmar and its implication in North East India held at Guwahati Press Club. The consultation meeting was organized by Burma Centre Delhi and Journalists’ Forum, Assam.
“Both India and China are very important for us and we appeal to them to help restoration of democratic rule in the country,” he said, adding, “I am still hopeful that the IndianGovernment will take a U-turn as far as its stand about Myanmar is concerned.”
He, however, took exception to a recent statement allegedly made by the Indian Government when it said India is not going to export democracy. “It’s understood that the Indian Government do not want to export democracy but at same time we do not subscribe to them exporting arms to the Military regime,” he reasoned.
Myanmar, it may be mentioned, is going to polls tentatively in October after a gap of almost two decades. The last election was held in 1998, though theregime ignored the results and refused to hand over power.
“It is unlikely that the elections would be free and fair and so we are neither opposing nor endorsing the same,” he said, adding that the amendment committee has been asked to look into the possibility of amendment in the Constitution.
The consultation meeting also aimed at creating space for activists and political actors in North East India for restoration of peace, justice and democracy in Myanmar.
BK Nath of Dainik Jugasnaka group and a host of senior journalists including Nava Thakuria were present on the occasion.
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Jan 30 – Stating that the ensuing 2010 elections in neighbouring Myanmar is equally important for India, particularly North East, Member of Parliament of the Exile Burmese Government Dr Tint Swe today claimed that the existing military regime in Myanmar is giving shelter to ‘anti- Indian’ armed forces. Indicating that the Military regime in Myanmar is working in tandem with anti-India forces, he appealed to the Ministry of External Affairs (Indian Government) to review its policy on Myanmar.
Dr Swe also said that it would not be right for a country like India to do business or indulge in any bilateral activity with the present regime in Myanmar.
Dr Swe was speaking during a consultation meeting on 2010 election in Myanmar and its implication in North East India held at Guwahati Press Club. The consultation meeting was organized by Burma Centre Delhi and Journalists’ Forum, Assam.
“Both India and China are very important for us and we appeal to them to help restoration of democratic rule in the country,” he said, adding, “I am still hopeful that the IndianGovernment will take a U-turn as far as its stand about Myanmar is concerned.”
He, however, took exception to a recent statement allegedly made by the Indian Government when it said India is not going to export democracy. “It’s understood that the Indian Government do not want to export democracy but at same time we do not subscribe to them exporting arms to the Military regime,” he reasoned.
Myanmar, it may be mentioned, is going to polls tentatively in October after a gap of almost two decades. The last election was held in 1998, though theregime ignored the results and refused to hand over power.
“It is unlikely that the elections would be free and fair and so we are neither opposing nor endorsing the same,” he said, adding that the amendment committee has been asked to look into the possibility of amendment in the Constitution.
The consultation meeting also aimed at creating space for activists and political actors in North East India for restoration of peace, justice and democracy in Myanmar.
BK Nath of Dainik Jugasnaka group and a host of senior journalists including Nava Thakuria were present on the occasion.
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4Hoteliers - Hotel industry likely to increase investments in Myanmar
Monday, 1st February 2010
Source : HVS International
According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the number of international arrivals at Yangon International Airport recorded approximately 111,000 in the first half of fiscal year 2009/10 (April to September 2009), reflecting a significant 34% increase from the previous year.
Local hoteliers are forecasting that the current supply of hotels in the market is insufficient to cater for the increased demand expected in 2010/11.
As such, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is actively promoting its tourism market in cooperation with international and domestic airlines, tour operators and travel agencies.
Monday, 1st February 2010
Source : HVS International
According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the number of international arrivals at Yangon International Airport recorded approximately 111,000 in the first half of fiscal year 2009/10 (April to September 2009), reflecting a significant 34% increase from the previous year.
Local hoteliers are forecasting that the current supply of hotels in the market is insufficient to cater for the increased demand expected in 2010/11.
As such, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is actively promoting its tourism market in cooperation with international and domestic airlines, tour operators and travel agencies.
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Myanmar to move huge excavated jade stone to Yangon for exhibition
Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:41 AM
YANGON, Jan. 30, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Myanmar's State Gems Trading Enterprise is planning to move a huge excavated raw jade stone to Yangon for exhibition from Phakant mining area in northernmost Kachin state where it was mined, the local Myanmar Times reported Saturday.
Weighing 115 tons, the jade stone was unearthed by the private Max Myanmar company in late last year and the value of the jade stone is yet to be assessed, the report said.
The jade stone represented the second largest one mined in Myanmar in the past decade, according to record.
Prior to the 115-ton jade stone, a 3,000-ton giant jade stone was discovered at a depth of 12 meters underground in the same Phakant mining area in 2000 and the stone measuring 21 meters long, 4.8 meters wide and 10.5 meters high was said to be the largest one in the world.
Myanmar also claimed that it possesses the world's largest ruby weighing 21,450 carats, the largest star sapphire weighing 63,000 carats, the biggest peridot weighing 329 carats and the biggest pearl weighing 845 carats.
Phakant is among the six popular areas in Myanamr under gem and jade exploration. The five other areas are Mogok, Mongshu, Khamhti, Moenyin and Namyar.
Myanmar occasionally introduced gem mining blocks in these areas for engagement by domestic entrepreneurs to promote gem production in the country.
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
Meanwhile, Myanmar lifted restriction on visiting Phakant jade mining area by foreign tourists in February 2009.
Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:41 AM
YANGON, Jan. 30, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Myanmar's State Gems Trading Enterprise is planning to move a huge excavated raw jade stone to Yangon for exhibition from Phakant mining area in northernmost Kachin state where it was mined, the local Myanmar Times reported Saturday.
Weighing 115 tons, the jade stone was unearthed by the private Max Myanmar company in late last year and the value of the jade stone is yet to be assessed, the report said.
The jade stone represented the second largest one mined in Myanmar in the past decade, according to record.
Prior to the 115-ton jade stone, a 3,000-ton giant jade stone was discovered at a depth of 12 meters underground in the same Phakant mining area in 2000 and the stone measuring 21 meters long, 4.8 meters wide and 10.5 meters high was said to be the largest one in the world.
Myanmar also claimed that it possesses the world's largest ruby weighing 21,450 carats, the largest star sapphire weighing 63,000 carats, the biggest peridot weighing 329 carats and the biggest pearl weighing 845 carats.
Phakant is among the six popular areas in Myanamr under gem and jade exploration. The five other areas are Mogok, Mongshu, Khamhti, Moenyin and Namyar.
Myanmar occasionally introduced gem mining blocks in these areas for engagement by domestic entrepreneurs to promote gem production in the country.
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
Meanwhile, Myanmar lifted restriction on visiting Phakant jade mining area by foreign tourists in February 2009.
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Axis of Logic - Burma: Gold mining leads the way to Irrawaddy destruction
By Ahni
Intercontinental Cry
Monday, Feb 1, 2010
Several large companies are working “day and night” to mine for gold in areas that will soon be flooded by the infamous Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Burma’s Kachin State.
According to the Kachin News Group (KNG) there are seven companies working in the Irrawaddy “sacrifice zone”, an area the size of Singapore, including one of the hydro dam’s main contractors, Asia World Company.
KNG reports: “many new camps, tents and huts for gold miners have been constructed near the mines in the dam project site and around the Irrawaddy confluence village Tang Hpre, 27 miles north of Myitkyina. The gold mining activities are on day and night, according to Tang Hpre’s villagers.”
The villagers also say that Asia World, which was founded in 1992 by an opium drug-lord, has secretly brought in about 2000 Chinese laborers for mining, logging, and to dig tunnels.
In effect, the company is trying to get as much as they possibly can from the region before they help to bury it.
Once that happens, one more of the world’s biodiversity “hotspots” will be gone. And the resulting discharge of mercury from the mining operations will threaten even further the already-endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin. There’s a long line of other environmental impacts stemming from the project.
The immediate social and cultural impacts, are, perhaps, far more pressing. Roughly 15,000 people spanning 60 villages are facing imminent eviction from their lands; dislocation from everything they know and depend on.
Several villages have already received notices and bribes to abandon their life. For instance, in December, families from Tang Hpre were given a big bag of rice and a can of cooking oil.
Just prior to this, some of the villagers were forced to attend a gathering to celebrate the dam’s creation.
Nevertheless, public resistance to the project is growing.
Risking arrest, torture and even death: Villagers are refusing to leave, confronting military commanders, writing open letters and petitions and organizing protests.
Civil society groups like the Kachin Development Networking Group (KNDG), are also putting pressure on China Power Investment, the Myitsone project manager, “to immediately stop construction of the Myitsone Dam and other dams in Kachin State, and to avoid complicity “in multiple serious human rights abuses associated with the project.”
KNDG has also begun to call on the international community for support
Contact the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) at kdngroup@gmail.com
By Ahni
Intercontinental Cry
Monday, Feb 1, 2010
Several large companies are working “day and night” to mine for gold in areas that will soon be flooded by the infamous Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Burma’s Kachin State.
According to the Kachin News Group (KNG) there are seven companies working in the Irrawaddy “sacrifice zone”, an area the size of Singapore, including one of the hydro dam’s main contractors, Asia World Company.
KNG reports: “many new camps, tents and huts for gold miners have been constructed near the mines in the dam project site and around the Irrawaddy confluence village Tang Hpre, 27 miles north of Myitkyina. The gold mining activities are on day and night, according to Tang Hpre’s villagers.”
The villagers also say that Asia World, which was founded in 1992 by an opium drug-lord, has secretly brought in about 2000 Chinese laborers for mining, logging, and to dig tunnels.
In effect, the company is trying to get as much as they possibly can from the region before they help to bury it.
Once that happens, one more of the world’s biodiversity “hotspots” will be gone. And the resulting discharge of mercury from the mining operations will threaten even further the already-endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin. There’s a long line of other environmental impacts stemming from the project.
The immediate social and cultural impacts, are, perhaps, far more pressing. Roughly 15,000 people spanning 60 villages are facing imminent eviction from their lands; dislocation from everything they know and depend on.
Several villages have already received notices and bribes to abandon their life. For instance, in December, families from Tang Hpre were given a big bag of rice and a can of cooking oil.
Just prior to this, some of the villagers were forced to attend a gathering to celebrate the dam’s creation.
Nevertheless, public resistance to the project is growing.
Risking arrest, torture and even death: Villagers are refusing to leave, confronting military commanders, writing open letters and petitions and organizing protests.
Civil society groups like the Kachin Development Networking Group (KNDG), are also putting pressure on China Power Investment, the Myitsone project manager, “to immediately stop construction of the Myitsone Dam and other dams in Kachin State, and to avoid complicity “in multiple serious human rights abuses associated with the project.”
KNDG has also begun to call on the international community for support
Contact the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) at kdngroup@gmail.com
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TMC Net News - Myanmar to expand 350,000 CDMA lines in two major cities
YANGON, Feb 01, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Myanmar telecommunication authorities will add 350,000 lines to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 800 megahertz fixed lines service being launched in two major cities of Yangon and Mandalay to provide better telecommunication services, a senior official with the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) confirmed Monday.
The MPT, which is the state-owned telecommunications provider, previously intended to install about 100,000 lines in Yangon and about 50,000 lines in Mandalay for the CDMA-800 MHz lines, which are allowed to general public for subscription with 500,000 Kyats (about 500 U.S. dollars) each.
The MPT, a sole service provider in the country, has also allowed to the line subscribers in Mandalay for wider availability of the network instead of in assigned townships, the MPT official said, adding that it also plans to open the limitation of the phones access in Yangon within two months.
The phone lines, which have eight digit numbers and start with 73 in Yangon or 93 in Mandalay, are set to use with the prepaid top-up cards marketed by Elite Tech company, owned by Myanmar business tycoon Tayza.
Transferring ownership or hiring back of the phone lines are not legal in Myanmar according to the authorities. However, there are sales or hiring of the phone lines as the demand always much more than the supply.
In the black market, a CDMA 800 MHz line sells for about 700, 000 Kyats though the official initial set up fees is 500,000 Kyats, one of the sources in the black market told Xinhua news agency.
The launch of the CDMA 800 MHz phone lines have made the decrease of sales and hiring of the other phone lines, including Global System for Mobile (GSM) and CDMA 450 MHz phones, in the lucrative black market, said black market sources in Yangon.
Moreover, the selling price of GSM and CDMA 450 MHz phones have decreased for 200,000 Kyats as these phone lines are sold in the black market with 1.65 million Kyats per line though they were sold with about 1.85 million Kyats previously, a source said.
Fixed terminals and handsets, mainly imported from China, are available in the market.
The MPT statistics shows that Myanmar has so far installed 45, 1673 landline phones and 480,061 lines of mobile phones while 345 auto exchange offices have been established.
The statistics indicated that MPT has installed 45,620 landline phones, 91,540 lines of mobile phones, 46 exchange offices and 14 microwave links during 2009-2010 fiscal year ending March.
The MPT targeted to install during 2010-2011 fiscal year 40,000 landline phones, 130,000 mobile phone lines and 70 auto exchange offices.
YANGON, Feb 01, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Myanmar telecommunication authorities will add 350,000 lines to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 800 megahertz fixed lines service being launched in two major cities of Yangon and Mandalay to provide better telecommunication services, a senior official with the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) confirmed Monday.
The MPT, which is the state-owned telecommunications provider, previously intended to install about 100,000 lines in Yangon and about 50,000 lines in Mandalay for the CDMA-800 MHz lines, which are allowed to general public for subscription with 500,000 Kyats (about 500 U.S. dollars) each.
The MPT, a sole service provider in the country, has also allowed to the line subscribers in Mandalay for wider availability of the network instead of in assigned townships, the MPT official said, adding that it also plans to open the limitation of the phones access in Yangon within two months.
The phone lines, which have eight digit numbers and start with 73 in Yangon or 93 in Mandalay, are set to use with the prepaid top-up cards marketed by Elite Tech company, owned by Myanmar business tycoon Tayza.
Transferring ownership or hiring back of the phone lines are not legal in Myanmar according to the authorities. However, there are sales or hiring of the phone lines as the demand always much more than the supply.
In the black market, a CDMA 800 MHz line sells for about 700, 000 Kyats though the official initial set up fees is 500,000 Kyats, one of the sources in the black market told Xinhua news agency.
The launch of the CDMA 800 MHz phone lines have made the decrease of sales and hiring of the other phone lines, including Global System for Mobile (GSM) and CDMA 450 MHz phones, in the lucrative black market, said black market sources in Yangon.
Moreover, the selling price of GSM and CDMA 450 MHz phones have decreased for 200,000 Kyats as these phone lines are sold in the black market with 1.65 million Kyats per line though they were sold with about 1.85 million Kyats previously, a source said.
Fixed terminals and handsets, mainly imported from China, are available in the market.
The MPT statistics shows that Myanmar has so far installed 45, 1673 landline phones and 480,061 lines of mobile phones while 345 auto exchange offices have been established.
The statistics indicated that MPT has installed 45,620 landline phones, 91,540 lines of mobile phones, 46 exchange offices and 14 microwave links during 2009-2010 fiscal year ending March.
The MPT targeted to install during 2010-2011 fiscal year 40,000 landline phones, 130,000 mobile phone lines and 70 auto exchange offices.
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The Temasek Review (blog) - Jurong West becoming an enclave for Myanmar immigrants
February 1, 2010 by admin
Written by Our Correspondent
Jurong West is fast becoming an enclave for Myanmar PRs and citizens judging from their preference to live there due to proximity to shipyards, offices and factories in the area where they work.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday of a Myanmar new citizen by the name of Win Phyo who forked out a hefty $379,000 together with his father for a five-room resale flat in Jurong.
He told the media that he chose Jurong West as “he wanted to live in an area favored by other Myanmar immigrants too.”
Mr Win is working as engineer. He got his Singapore permanent residency in 2005 and citizenship three years later in 2008.
There are about 10 other Myanmar immigrants living near Mr Win.
“It’s important to stay near my friends so when I need help, I can go to them….They will cook for me too when I’m busy – traditional Myanmar food like sour soups,” he said.
The problem of ethnic enclaves emerging in the HDB heartland has been a hot topic among Singaporeans lately. HDB had earlier said it would consider introducing an ethnic quote for PRs.
Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies, foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 per cent in 1990.
As they come in large numbers, they tend to congregate within their own community instead of reaching out to other Singaporeans.
Besides Jurong West, ethnic enclaves have emerged in other parts of Singapore as well such as Geylang (PRCs), Seng Kang (Indians) and Tampines (Filipinos).
The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports unveiled a $10 million Community Integration Fund last year to make the newcomers feel “welcomed” in Singapore.
New citizens like Mr Win will encounter few problems integrating into Singapore society as there is already a substantial number of Burmese living here.
They are often seen at the Burmese Buddhist Temple on Saturday evenings for prayers and at Peninsula Plaza over the weekends.
It is understandable that they prefer to mingle around with their own compatriots from Myanmar rather than locals, few of whom know much about Myanmar culture and religion.
At the rate the ruling party is mass importing foreigners into Singapore, Singaporeans may the ones who need “help” to re-integrate into a new Singapore dominated by these immigrants.
February 1, 2010 by admin
Written by Our Correspondent
Jurong West is fast becoming an enclave for Myanmar PRs and citizens judging from their preference to live there due to proximity to shipyards, offices and factories in the area where they work.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday of a Myanmar new citizen by the name of Win Phyo who forked out a hefty $379,000 together with his father for a five-room resale flat in Jurong.
He told the media that he chose Jurong West as “he wanted to live in an area favored by other Myanmar immigrants too.”
Mr Win is working as engineer. He got his Singapore permanent residency in 2005 and citizenship three years later in 2008.
There are about 10 other Myanmar immigrants living near Mr Win.
“It’s important to stay near my friends so when I need help, I can go to them….They will cook for me too when I’m busy – traditional Myanmar food like sour soups,” he said.
The problem of ethnic enclaves emerging in the HDB heartland has been a hot topic among Singaporeans lately. HDB had earlier said it would consider introducing an ethnic quote for PRs.
Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies, foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 per cent in 1990.
As they come in large numbers, they tend to congregate within their own community instead of reaching out to other Singaporeans.
Besides Jurong West, ethnic enclaves have emerged in other parts of Singapore as well such as Geylang (PRCs), Seng Kang (Indians) and Tampines (Filipinos).
The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports unveiled a $10 million Community Integration Fund last year to make the newcomers feel “welcomed” in Singapore.
New citizens like Mr Win will encounter few problems integrating into Singapore society as there is already a substantial number of Burmese living here.
They are often seen at the Burmese Buddhist Temple on Saturday evenings for prayers and at Peninsula Plaza over the weekends.
It is understandable that they prefer to mingle around with their own compatriots from Myanmar rather than locals, few of whom know much about Myanmar culture and religion.
At the rate the ruling party is mass importing foreigners into Singapore, Singaporeans may the ones who need “help” to re-integrate into a new Singapore dominated by these immigrants.
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The Global Post - Proposed dam to flood Burma, while powering China
A large dam being planned in Kachin state will flood an area the size of New York City and displace thousands of local people.
By Ryan Libre — Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 31, 2010 09:18 ET
MYITKYINA, Burma — On the first morning of each New Year, hundreds of people come to pray on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in northern Burma.
This year, they prayed that their villages, farms and churches would not be drowned.
A large dam will flood an area the size of New York City and displace thousands of local people over the next two to three years. The Myitsone dam, constructed by the Burmese military government and the China Power Investment Co., calls for a 500-foot-wide by 500-foot-high dam face, and is projected to produce between 3,600 to 6,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017.
The dam will inundate 300 square miles in Kachin state, flooding 47 villages, including the Mother of Peace shrine where the traditional New Year's prayers are held.
But the capital of Kachin state, Myitkyina, already has affordable power 24 hours a day. So, why displace thousands of people in Burma when they already have power?
Because when the Myitsone dam is complete, the hydroelectric power will go to Yunnan, China. In addition, the water reserves will irrigate a mega-plantation inside the protected Hukawng Valley in Burma, now home to the world's largest tiger reserve, furthering the displacement of people and destruction of the environment.
The dam will generate an estimated $500 million in gross annual revenue for the Burmese government, which has long been criticized for its gross human rights abuses — including but not limited to the recent trial, conviction and sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the brutal crackdown of Buddhist monks in September 2007.
Kachin is extremely rich in natural resources. Jade, gold, teakwood and silicone are exported in large quantities, and the mountainous, fertile terrain offers many hydropower sites. But because the Burmese government tightly controls resources and politics, the Kachin people have little say in their land and little benefit from its exploitation.
Construction jobs are earmarked for Chinese migrants, not the local people of Kachin. The opening ceremony for the Myitsone dam was held with high-powered officials from both the Burmese and Chinese government. The few local villagers who were present had been
instructed to attend. Chinese work camps already have been built near the Mother of Prayer shrine, and the first truckloads of workers are gearing up for construction.
Caravans of Burmese soldiers have arrived to secure both the dam site and the Chinese labor camps. The signs pointing the way to the dam site are up, not in the local language, Jinghpaw, but in Chinese.
Burmese gold miners and loggers from the south also have come north with help from military contacts to start extraction, industrial and commercial enterprises. Like many Kachins, the local villagers facing displacement are poor and pious.
The Burmese government and China are also collaborating on a pipeline to bring oil from the Bay of Bengal through lowland Burma and the Shan state to Yunan, bypassing the long maritime route through the bottle-necked Strait of Malacca, according to the China Daily.
Bilateral investment, trade and arms deals with China bankroll the Burmese military government, despite sanctions by many of the world's largest economies, according to the BBC.
Lacking the basic rights to express their opposition, people in Burma have been unable to protest the dam and pipeline projects. The Burmese military is bankrolled by the vast
Burmese resources it extracts and sells, and it maintains power despite widespread popular opposition and international condemnation, according to the Burma River’s Network, which represents communities in Burma affected by dam projects.
Twenty-five large dams are planned or are under construction in Burma, the Burma River Network said, and Kachin locals say they worry about the dams' safety. In 2006, two dams in Kachin state broke under stress after heavy rains. One of these dams failed and destroyed hundreds of patty fields and farms. The other, the 2.5 megawatt Chying Hkrang dam, relatively small in comparison to the 3600-megawatt Myitsone dam, collapsed killing five people.
Kachin people have voiced worries about the Myitsone dam's planned location 24 miles above the state capital and 62 miles from Burma’s earthquake prone Sagaing fault line.
"If I have to move, I will not move downstream to the capital," said a local pastor. "I could never get a good night sleep because I think this dam will also break."
The Mother of Peace shrine sits on an island where the Mali and Mai rivers converge to create the great Irrawaddy River. The New Year's prayer ceremony is deeply religious and apolitical. Villagers ask for forgiveness for their sins, and they pray for health, safety and peace.
"I will pray silently and directly to God for a miracle, to stop the dam project," said one villager. "I will not voice this prayer out of concern for my safety. I have no illusions that the government cares what I think."
A large dam being planned in Kachin state will flood an area the size of New York City and displace thousands of local people.
By Ryan Libre — Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 31, 2010 09:18 ET
MYITKYINA, Burma — On the first morning of each New Year, hundreds of people come to pray on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in northern Burma.
This year, they prayed that their villages, farms and churches would not be drowned.
A large dam will flood an area the size of New York City and displace thousands of local people over the next two to three years. The Myitsone dam, constructed by the Burmese military government and the China Power Investment Co., calls for a 500-foot-wide by 500-foot-high dam face, and is projected to produce between 3,600 to 6,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017.
The dam will inundate 300 square miles in Kachin state, flooding 47 villages, including the Mother of Peace shrine where the traditional New Year's prayers are held.
But the capital of Kachin state, Myitkyina, already has affordable power 24 hours a day. So, why displace thousands of people in Burma when they already have power?
Because when the Myitsone dam is complete, the hydroelectric power will go to Yunnan, China. In addition, the water reserves will irrigate a mega-plantation inside the protected Hukawng Valley in Burma, now home to the world's largest tiger reserve, furthering the displacement of people and destruction of the environment.
The dam will generate an estimated $500 million in gross annual revenue for the Burmese government, which has long been criticized for its gross human rights abuses — including but not limited to the recent trial, conviction and sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the brutal crackdown of Buddhist monks in September 2007.
Kachin is extremely rich in natural resources. Jade, gold, teakwood and silicone are exported in large quantities, and the mountainous, fertile terrain offers many hydropower sites. But because the Burmese government tightly controls resources and politics, the Kachin people have little say in their land and little benefit from its exploitation.
Construction jobs are earmarked for Chinese migrants, not the local people of Kachin. The opening ceremony for the Myitsone dam was held with high-powered officials from both the Burmese and Chinese government. The few local villagers who were present had been
instructed to attend. Chinese work camps already have been built near the Mother of Prayer shrine, and the first truckloads of workers are gearing up for construction.
Caravans of Burmese soldiers have arrived to secure both the dam site and the Chinese labor camps. The signs pointing the way to the dam site are up, not in the local language, Jinghpaw, but in Chinese.
Burmese gold miners and loggers from the south also have come north with help from military contacts to start extraction, industrial and commercial enterprises. Like many Kachins, the local villagers facing displacement are poor and pious.
The Burmese government and China are also collaborating on a pipeline to bring oil from the Bay of Bengal through lowland Burma and the Shan state to Yunan, bypassing the long maritime route through the bottle-necked Strait of Malacca, according to the China Daily.
Bilateral investment, trade and arms deals with China bankroll the Burmese military government, despite sanctions by many of the world's largest economies, according to the BBC.
Lacking the basic rights to express their opposition, people in Burma have been unable to protest the dam and pipeline projects. The Burmese military is bankrolled by the vast
Burmese resources it extracts and sells, and it maintains power despite widespread popular opposition and international condemnation, according to the Burma River’s Network, which represents communities in Burma affected by dam projects.
Twenty-five large dams are planned or are under construction in Burma, the Burma River Network said, and Kachin locals say they worry about the dams' safety. In 2006, two dams in Kachin state broke under stress after heavy rains. One of these dams failed and destroyed hundreds of patty fields and farms. The other, the 2.5 megawatt Chying Hkrang dam, relatively small in comparison to the 3600-megawatt Myitsone dam, collapsed killing five people.
Kachin people have voiced worries about the Myitsone dam's planned location 24 miles above the state capital and 62 miles from Burma’s earthquake prone Sagaing fault line.
"If I have to move, I will not move downstream to the capital," said a local pastor. "I could never get a good night sleep because I think this dam will also break."
The Mother of Peace shrine sits on an island where the Mali and Mai rivers converge to create the great Irrawaddy River. The New Year's prayer ceremony is deeply religious and apolitical. Villagers ask for forgiveness for their sins, and they pray for health, safety and peace.
"I will pray silently and directly to God for a miracle, to stop the dam project," said one villager. "I will not voice this prayer out of concern for my safety. I have no illusions that the government cares what I think."
************************************************************
The Jakarta Post - Malaysia plans IDs for refugees to prevent arrest
The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Mon, 02/01/2010 1:14 PM | World
Malaysia plans to issue identification cards to refugees who are recognized by the United Nations, allowing them to stay in the country temporarily and avoid arrest as illegal immigrants.
Malaysia, which has declined to join the U.N. convention on refugees for fear of attracting a flood of migrants, previously has arrested refugees frequently as illegal aliens.
Mostly from Myanmar, the refugees often have spent months in overcrowded detention center and faced caning and deportation.
The plans announced Monday reflect a softening of Malaysia's position toward the refugees, although it continues to refuse them official recognition.
Home Ministry Secretary General Mahmood Adam said the government would work with the U.N. refugee agency to issue the cards so immigration enfocement personnel would recognize and spare U.N.-designated refugees.
"As long as they are recognized as refugees by the U.N., they can stay here temporarily," he told The Associate Press. "They cannot work here, but they can do odd jobs."
He could not give an exact timeline but said the initiative was in the "final stage."
According to the U.N. agency, about 75,600 refugees and asylum-seekers were in Malaysia as of November. Most fled persecution in Myanmar.
Yante Ismal, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, welcomed the development and further discussions to form a documentation system.
"Proper documentation for refugees is essential to their protection," she said.
All of the refugees in Malaysia are waiting to be resettled to a third countr that officially accepts refugees, which grants them legal status and the right to work.
The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Mon, 02/01/2010 1:14 PM | World
Malaysia plans to issue identification cards to refugees who are recognized by the United Nations, allowing them to stay in the country temporarily and avoid arrest as illegal immigrants.
Malaysia, which has declined to join the U.N. convention on refugees for fear of attracting a flood of migrants, previously has arrested refugees frequently as illegal aliens.
Mostly from Myanmar, the refugees often have spent months in overcrowded detention center and faced caning and deportation.
The plans announced Monday reflect a softening of Malaysia's position toward the refugees, although it continues to refuse them official recognition.
Home Ministry Secretary General Mahmood Adam said the government would work with the U.N. refugee agency to issue the cards so immigration enfocement personnel would recognize and spare U.N.-designated refugees.
"As long as they are recognized as refugees by the U.N., they can stay here temporarily," he told The Associate Press. "They cannot work here, but they can do odd jobs."
He could not give an exact timeline but said the initiative was in the "final stage."
According to the U.N. agency, about 75,600 refugees and asylum-seekers were in Malaysia as of November. Most fled persecution in Myanmar.
Yante Ismal, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, welcomed the development and further discussions to form a documentation system.
"Proper documentation for refugees is essential to their protection," she said.
All of the refugees in Malaysia are waiting to be resettled to a third countr that officially accepts refugees, which grants them legal status and the right to work.
************************************************************
Bangkok Post - EDITORIAL:Junta thumbs nose at world
Published: 1/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
Burma has responded clearly to an attempt at engagement by the United States, a hopeful statement from Asean partners and a pass from any sort of criticism for a year by Europe. The response is not just a dismissal of neighbours and others, but another violent, more horrendous crackdown on its people. In recent weeks, Burmese authorities have made things worse than ever inside the country and, by extension, shrugged off world opinion with a dismissive wave of the hand. It is clear now that there is no real chance that a scheduled election this year will improve the nation or move it towards democracy.
The first sign that Burma intended to stay undemocratic came at a trial in early January. An army major and a foreign ministry official were sentenced to death for revealing so-called ''state secrets''. They had allegedly passed photos and information to Burmese in exile about relations with North Korea, including a tunnel network being constructed with the help of Pyongyang. Whether the secrets were really secrets is questionable, since photos of the tunnels were published on the internet. Clearly, the trial of Major Win Naing Kyaw and bureaucrat Thura Kyaw had two purposes. The first was to intimidate all Burmese into avoiding contact with foreigners or Burmese dissidents. The second was to make it clear the military junta will not be questioned, and will never be accountable.
The case of Kyaw Zaw Lwin was yet another sign of the regime's iron fist. He was one of the organisers of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. He was forced into exile in the US,where he became a citizen. He received a visa late last year in order to visit his ailing mother _ who is serving a prison sentence for political crimes. When he arrived at Rangoon airport, he was immediately arrested on charges of possessing a forged Burmese ID card, and for failure to declare foreign currency. He has reportedly been tortured, and confirmed to have been confined in a dog pen.
His treatment recalls the cruelty of the Burmese regime in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the last election in Burma, 20 years ago. When her husband was dying, the regime refused to allow her to visit him on his deathbed. The requests of her own children to visit her have repeatedly been turned down. She has constantly been tarred and humiliated for having a foreign husband at all.
And, of course, in its latest campaign to show its power, the regime chose to pick on Mrs Suu Kyi. Through sheer determination ''The Lady'' has become a world symbol of peaceful insistence that people must be free and governments must be accountable. To punish her for these ideals, the regime has locked her up for most of the past 20 years. Last week, the government mocked even its own thin veneer of justice.
With a Supreme Court verdict due on the legality of her house arrest, Home Minister Maj Gen Maung Oo said in effect it really didn't matter. Mrs Suu Kyi will likely be freed in November, as the ruling generals _ including Maj Gen Maung Oo _ have already decided.
Conveniently, this decision means that the country's leading proponent of democracy and its only prominent opposition leader will be confined and silenced for the new election.
The timing of that vote, by the way, is still a state secret. But whenever it is, probably late this year, Mrs Suu Kyi will be locked down throughout the campaign and the vote. With this decision, Burma has forfeited all right to claim its election is legitimate, let alone democratic.
Published: 1/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
Burma has responded clearly to an attempt at engagement by the United States, a hopeful statement from Asean partners and a pass from any sort of criticism for a year by Europe. The response is not just a dismissal of neighbours and others, but another violent, more horrendous crackdown on its people. In recent weeks, Burmese authorities have made things worse than ever inside the country and, by extension, shrugged off world opinion with a dismissive wave of the hand. It is clear now that there is no real chance that a scheduled election this year will improve the nation or move it towards democracy.
The first sign that Burma intended to stay undemocratic came at a trial in early January. An army major and a foreign ministry official were sentenced to death for revealing so-called ''state secrets''. They had allegedly passed photos and information to Burmese in exile about relations with North Korea, including a tunnel network being constructed with the help of Pyongyang. Whether the secrets were really secrets is questionable, since photos of the tunnels were published on the internet. Clearly, the trial of Major Win Naing Kyaw and bureaucrat Thura Kyaw had two purposes. The first was to intimidate all Burmese into avoiding contact with foreigners or Burmese dissidents. The second was to make it clear the military junta will not be questioned, and will never be accountable.
The case of Kyaw Zaw Lwin was yet another sign of the regime's iron fist. He was one of the organisers of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. He was forced into exile in the US,where he became a citizen. He received a visa late last year in order to visit his ailing mother _ who is serving a prison sentence for political crimes. When he arrived at Rangoon airport, he was immediately arrested on charges of possessing a forged Burmese ID card, and for failure to declare foreign currency. He has reportedly been tortured, and confirmed to have been confined in a dog pen.
His treatment recalls the cruelty of the Burmese regime in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the last election in Burma, 20 years ago. When her husband was dying, the regime refused to allow her to visit him on his deathbed. The requests of her own children to visit her have repeatedly been turned down. She has constantly been tarred and humiliated for having a foreign husband at all.
And, of course, in its latest campaign to show its power, the regime chose to pick on Mrs Suu Kyi. Through sheer determination ''The Lady'' has become a world symbol of peaceful insistence that people must be free and governments must be accountable. To punish her for these ideals, the regime has locked her up for most of the past 20 years. Last week, the government mocked even its own thin veneer of justice.
With a Supreme Court verdict due on the legality of her house arrest, Home Minister Maj Gen Maung Oo said in effect it really didn't matter. Mrs Suu Kyi will likely be freed in November, as the ruling generals _ including Maj Gen Maung Oo _ have already decided.
Conveniently, this decision means that the country's leading proponent of democracy and its only prominent opposition leader will be confined and silenced for the new election.
The timing of that vote, by the way, is still a state secret. But whenever it is, probably late this year, Mrs Suu Kyi will be locked down throughout the campaign and the vote. With this decision, Burma has forfeited all right to claim its election is legitimate, let alone democratic.
************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Jailed 88 Generation Leaders Refuse to Compromise
By BA KAUNG - Monday, February 1, 2010
Burma's military authorities have recently tried unsuccessfully to pressure jailed members of the 88 Generation Students group into accepting the government's election process in return for their release, according to one of their colleagues.
"I can confirm that an exchange took place between military authorities and 88 Generation Student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi,” said Soe Tun, a 39-year-old former political prisoner and a leading member of the 88 Generation group who is now in hiding. “However, they didn't cave in to any form of pressure.”
Last week, the 88 Generation Students group issued a statement calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners so that all stakeholders can participate in the political process. The statement also urges the regime to seek peaceful ways in resolving the conflicts with armed ethnic groups.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Soe Tun said that Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi refused the regime's offer to “sign a 401,” which would effectively suspend their sentences and allow for their release. The offer was on the condition that both leaders accept the junta's election process, which is due to be held this year.
Section 401 of the Burma's Criminal Procedure Code is a mechanism used by the Burmese regime to provide suspended sentences to jailed political activists.
“Their response, as far as I know, was that they want to see a dialogue between all the political stakeholders and the regime,” said Soe Tun, who went into hiding after the 2007 Saffron Revolution was brutally suppressed by the Burmese junta. He added that both student leaders refused to sign a 401 during their previous periods of incarceration.
Both Min Ko Naing, 47, and Ko Ko Gyi, 48, spent nearly 15 years in jail as political prisoners until they were released in the years 2004 and 2005 respectively. The two student leaders were rearrested in 2007 for taking part in demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices and are currently serving 65-year sentences in different prisons in Shan State in northern Burma.
In a letter from his prison cell late last year, another imprisoned 88 Generation Students group leader, Hla Myo Naung, called for a blanket amnesty for Burma's political prisoners before this year's election and an inclusive political process, and said these were two of the cornerstones of the group's election policy.
Asked to clarify his group's stance, Soe Tun said, “We are not rigid. We are ready to accept the best options for the sake of the country.”
Meanwhile, the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Ivan Lewis said that “as long as the elections are contested on the current Constitution, whatever the outcome they cannot be recognized by the international community."
By BA KAUNG - Monday, February 1, 2010
Burma's military authorities have recently tried unsuccessfully to pressure jailed members of the 88 Generation Students group into accepting the government's election process in return for their release, according to one of their colleagues.
"I can confirm that an exchange took place between military authorities and 88 Generation Student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi,” said Soe Tun, a 39-year-old former political prisoner and a leading member of the 88 Generation group who is now in hiding. “However, they didn't cave in to any form of pressure.”
Last week, the 88 Generation Students group issued a statement calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners so that all stakeholders can participate in the political process. The statement also urges the regime to seek peaceful ways in resolving the conflicts with armed ethnic groups.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Soe Tun said that Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi refused the regime's offer to “sign a 401,” which would effectively suspend their sentences and allow for their release. The offer was on the condition that both leaders accept the junta's election process, which is due to be held this year.
Section 401 of the Burma's Criminal Procedure Code is a mechanism used by the Burmese regime to provide suspended sentences to jailed political activists.
“Their response, as far as I know, was that they want to see a dialogue between all the political stakeholders and the regime,” said Soe Tun, who went into hiding after the 2007 Saffron Revolution was brutally suppressed by the Burmese junta. He added that both student leaders refused to sign a 401 during their previous periods of incarceration.
Both Min Ko Naing, 47, and Ko Ko Gyi, 48, spent nearly 15 years in jail as political prisoners until they were released in the years 2004 and 2005 respectively. The two student leaders were rearrested in 2007 for taking part in demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices and are currently serving 65-year sentences in different prisons in Shan State in northern Burma.
In a letter from his prison cell late last year, another imprisoned 88 Generation Students group leader, Hla Myo Naung, called for a blanket amnesty for Burma's political prisoners before this year's election and an inclusive political process, and said these were two of the cornerstones of the group's election policy.
Asked to clarify his group's stance, Soe Tun said, “We are not rigid. We are ready to accept the best options for the sake of the country.”
Meanwhile, the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Ivan Lewis said that “as long as the elections are contested on the current Constitution, whatever the outcome they cannot be recognized by the international community."
************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Why the 2008 Constitution is the Junta's Holy Grail
By AUNG NAING OO - Monday, February 1, 2010
In a vibrant region that has achieved significant economic development in recent decades, Burma could have done better—at least economically. It has not.
After several military coups since 1958 and three constitutions—the latest which is yet to be implemented, Burma remains poor and underdeveloped, despite being rich in natural resources. Peace and prosperity has eluded the country; it remains beset by internal conflicts and isolated from the mainstream of the international community.
Since 1962, successive military governments have experimented with socialism followed by a semi-market economy under pure military rule. They have yet to find a polity that will provide them with the system they seek—a semblance of civilian rule, a dose of democracy, a robust market economy and military dominance.
No matter how oxymoronic it may sound however, the 2008 Constitution is likely to prove to be the Holy Grail the military has been looking for for so long.
But let us look further. Why the 2008 Constitution?
Almost all exiled Burmese political groups oppose the way the 2008 Constitution was conceived, developed and ratified—not to mention its contents. Most of the mainstream political parties inside the country are either against the Constitution or have serious reservations about it. Within the country, common people, focused on the struggle for daily survival, have been generally apathetic to the Constitution and are sceptical the election will lead to any improvements in their lives.
Burma’s silent majority are desperate for change. They may nurture a small hope that the new Constitution and the first election in two decades will bring improvements––both in economical terms and personal freedoms. But the strident and vocal criticism from opposition groups against the Constitution and the upcoming election tend to drown out the more cautious voices from Burmese inside the country.
Given the current preparations to compete in the election by existing and new political forces within the country, it is clear that some people are going to try to take advantage of any opening the new polity may offer. But one thing is for sure: they all have reservations and are taking part only because they think it is the only game in town.
Against the backdrop of unresolved ethnic conflicts and deep-rooted geopolitical concerns, the military leadership will not let the country’s 54 million people decide the fate of the nation.
To the ruling generals' way of thinking, any political system that they create must reflect military ideology and priorities. Clearly, the 2008 Constitution and the 2010 election are the products of such thinking. Thus, they themselves have become a “Hobson’s Choice” for the Burmese people—a “take it or leave it” situation.
At the core of the 2008 Constitution is the military government’s cherished notion of “dwifungsi”—based on former Indonesian President Suharto's self-assigned double duty of managing the country’s internal governance and protecting it from security threats. Like the Indonesian army prior to democratization in Indonesia in 1997, Burma’s armed forces believe they are duty-bound to both protect and rule.
This ideology has dominated military thinking ever since 1962 when the army took power from the democratically elected government of U Nu, citing the need to counter growing ethnic unrest.
The dwifungsi ideology prevailed during Burma’s 26-year experiment with “the Burmese Way to Socialism.” It ended abruptly in1988 when students took to the streets, demanding the return of democracy; demonstrations that were brutally suppressed. The ensuing bloodbath is believed to have resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 unarmed demonstrators and the incarceration of several thousand others.
The Burmese military leaders retained their grip on power, and the belief in their “double duty” persists as the dominant force of the ideology that determines their practice.
The 1988 uprising, however, made clear that military rule alone was not capable of ensuring stability and economic development, nor did it have social and political acceptability.
The military realized that it would have to allow some form of civilian participation in governance. It therefore promised elections. But when the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 1990 polls, the shocked generals repudiated the results.
Since 1990, the military has embarked on a different path. It has extended its rule on the pretext that it must first oversee the writing and ratification of the Constitution, a process that was finally concluded in 2008.
The military junta has never wavered from its deeply-held belief that it retains a “double duty” to the nation.
For the past two decades, the junta has walked a tightrope of trying to live up to what it sees as its responsibilities of dwifungsi while fulfilling the promise of a return to civilian rule.
The 2008 Constitution is the generals' cup into which the oil and water of these contradictory theories can mix.
This semi-civilian rule may be perceived at home and abroad as little more than a façade for pure military rule, but it appears to be imminent.
But will it last? How will the constitutional regime in the post-Than Shwe era—after his death—take shape?
New situations or conflicts may demand all or partial alteration of the Constitution. If it proves to be inadequate or unyielding, a revolution may take place.
Burma’s post-colonial history demonstrates that constitutional abolishment generally occurs every 12 to 14 years. The ghost of Burma’s constitutional past may haunt the current charter’s inflexible statutes.
Undeterred, all the preparations the army leadership has made since the dramatic turn of events in 1988 point to the fact that the military will lead the nation as an independent institution. It has retained a sizeable chunk of power in the 2008 Constitution.
A testament to the junta's resolve lies in a saying they have within the Burmese armed forces: “The military [officer] does not want to hear complaints about a hole in the water container; he just wants water when he needs it.”
They, the ruling generals, will be undeterred. They believe they have found the right balance in mixing formulas. They believe they can afford another experiment for the next 12 to 14 years.
Aung Naing Oo is a Burmese political analyst living in exile.
By AUNG NAING OO - Monday, February 1, 2010
In a vibrant region that has achieved significant economic development in recent decades, Burma could have done better—at least economically. It has not.
After several military coups since 1958 and three constitutions—the latest which is yet to be implemented, Burma remains poor and underdeveloped, despite being rich in natural resources. Peace and prosperity has eluded the country; it remains beset by internal conflicts and isolated from the mainstream of the international community.
Since 1962, successive military governments have experimented with socialism followed by a semi-market economy under pure military rule. They have yet to find a polity that will provide them with the system they seek—a semblance of civilian rule, a dose of democracy, a robust market economy and military dominance.
No matter how oxymoronic it may sound however, the 2008 Constitution is likely to prove to be the Holy Grail the military has been looking for for so long.
But let us look further. Why the 2008 Constitution?
Almost all exiled Burmese political groups oppose the way the 2008 Constitution was conceived, developed and ratified—not to mention its contents. Most of the mainstream political parties inside the country are either against the Constitution or have serious reservations about it. Within the country, common people, focused on the struggle for daily survival, have been generally apathetic to the Constitution and are sceptical the election will lead to any improvements in their lives.
Burma’s silent majority are desperate for change. They may nurture a small hope that the new Constitution and the first election in two decades will bring improvements––both in economical terms and personal freedoms. But the strident and vocal criticism from opposition groups against the Constitution and the upcoming election tend to drown out the more cautious voices from Burmese inside the country.
Given the current preparations to compete in the election by existing and new political forces within the country, it is clear that some people are going to try to take advantage of any opening the new polity may offer. But one thing is for sure: they all have reservations and are taking part only because they think it is the only game in town.
Against the backdrop of unresolved ethnic conflicts and deep-rooted geopolitical concerns, the military leadership will not let the country’s 54 million people decide the fate of the nation.
To the ruling generals' way of thinking, any political system that they create must reflect military ideology and priorities. Clearly, the 2008 Constitution and the 2010 election are the products of such thinking. Thus, they themselves have become a “Hobson’s Choice” for the Burmese people—a “take it or leave it” situation.
At the core of the 2008 Constitution is the military government’s cherished notion of “dwifungsi”—based on former Indonesian President Suharto's self-assigned double duty of managing the country’s internal governance and protecting it from security threats. Like the Indonesian army prior to democratization in Indonesia in 1997, Burma’s armed forces believe they are duty-bound to both protect and rule.
This ideology has dominated military thinking ever since 1962 when the army took power from the democratically elected government of U Nu, citing the need to counter growing ethnic unrest.
The dwifungsi ideology prevailed during Burma’s 26-year experiment with “the Burmese Way to Socialism.” It ended abruptly in1988 when students took to the streets, demanding the return of democracy; demonstrations that were brutally suppressed. The ensuing bloodbath is believed to have resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 unarmed demonstrators and the incarceration of several thousand others.
The Burmese military leaders retained their grip on power, and the belief in their “double duty” persists as the dominant force of the ideology that determines their practice.
The 1988 uprising, however, made clear that military rule alone was not capable of ensuring stability and economic development, nor did it have social and political acceptability.
The military realized that it would have to allow some form of civilian participation in governance. It therefore promised elections. But when the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 1990 polls, the shocked generals repudiated the results.
Since 1990, the military has embarked on a different path. It has extended its rule on the pretext that it must first oversee the writing and ratification of the Constitution, a process that was finally concluded in 2008.
The military junta has never wavered from its deeply-held belief that it retains a “double duty” to the nation.
For the past two decades, the junta has walked a tightrope of trying to live up to what it sees as its responsibilities of dwifungsi while fulfilling the promise of a return to civilian rule.
The 2008 Constitution is the generals' cup into which the oil and water of these contradictory theories can mix.
This semi-civilian rule may be perceived at home and abroad as little more than a façade for pure military rule, but it appears to be imminent.
But will it last? How will the constitutional regime in the post-Than Shwe era—after his death—take shape?
New situations or conflicts may demand all or partial alteration of the Constitution. If it proves to be inadequate or unyielding, a revolution may take place.
Burma’s post-colonial history demonstrates that constitutional abolishment generally occurs every 12 to 14 years. The ghost of Burma’s constitutional past may haunt the current charter’s inflexible statutes.
Undeterred, all the preparations the army leadership has made since the dramatic turn of events in 1988 point to the fact that the military will lead the nation as an independent institution. It has retained a sizeable chunk of power in the 2008 Constitution.
A testament to the junta's resolve lies in a saying they have within the Burmese armed forces: “The military [officer] does not want to hear complaints about a hole in the water container; he just wants water when he needs it.”
They, the ruling generals, will be undeterred. They believe they have found the right balance in mixing formulas. They believe they can afford another experiment for the next 12 to 14 years.
Aung Naing Oo is a Burmese political analyst living in exile.
************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - No Progress in KIO-Junta Border Guard Force Meeting
By SAW YAN NAING - Monday, February 1, 2010
A meeting between Burmese Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint and leaders of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Myitkyina, the Kachin capital, on Friday failed to achieve a breakthrough in border guard force negotiations, said a Kachin source on the Sino-Burmese border.
In the meeting, KIO leaders discussed the importance of the spirit of the Panlong Agreement and avoided direct negotiations involving the regime's order to form a border guard force (BGF) under the command of the government, according to sources.
In response, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, one of the regime's chief negotiators with ethnic cease-fire armies, told KIO leaders that they should transform their troops into a border guard force and that alternative proposals were not needed.
A source in Myitkyina who is close to KIO leaders told The Irrawaddy on Monday that more meetings on the issue will take place.
Maj-Gen Soe Win of the Northern Regional Command and other regime officials also participated in the negotiations, along with KIO leaders including Lanyaw Zawng Hra, the KIO chairperson; Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, KIO vice-president 1; and Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw.
Burmese authorities and KIO leaders have held 10 meetings since April 2009 to discuss the border guard force issue, according to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.
In related matters, local Burmese authorities in KIO-controlled areas have started to restrict some trade involving rice, oil and other products by KIO businessmen on the Sino-Burmese border, according to Awng Wa, a Kachin source on the border.
With a military wing of about 4,000 soldiers, the KIO is one of the strongest ethnic cease-fire groups that has resisted the regime's BGF order. The United Wa State Army with 25,000 soldiers has also rejected the order and is still in talks with the regime.
By SAW YAN NAING - Monday, February 1, 2010
A meeting between Burmese Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint and leaders of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Myitkyina, the Kachin capital, on Friday failed to achieve a breakthrough in border guard force negotiations, said a Kachin source on the Sino-Burmese border.
In the meeting, KIO leaders discussed the importance of the spirit of the Panlong Agreement and avoided direct negotiations involving the regime's order to form a border guard force (BGF) under the command of the government, according to sources.
In response, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, one of the regime's chief negotiators with ethnic cease-fire armies, told KIO leaders that they should transform their troops into a border guard force and that alternative proposals were not needed.
A source in Myitkyina who is close to KIO leaders told The Irrawaddy on Monday that more meetings on the issue will take place.
Maj-Gen Soe Win of the Northern Regional Command and other regime officials also participated in the negotiations, along with KIO leaders including Lanyaw Zawng Hra, the KIO chairperson; Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, KIO vice-president 1; and Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw.
Burmese authorities and KIO leaders have held 10 meetings since April 2009 to discuss the border guard force issue, according to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.
In related matters, local Burmese authorities in KIO-controlled areas have started to restrict some trade involving rice, oil and other products by KIO businessmen on the Sino-Burmese border, according to Awng Wa, a Kachin source on the border.
With a military wing of about 4,000 soldiers, the KIO is one of the strongest ethnic cease-fire groups that has resisted the regime's BGF order. The United Wa State Army with 25,000 soldiers has also rejected the order and is still in talks with the regime.
************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - 'We Will Fight,' Says Mon Leader
By LAWI WENG - Saturday, January 30, 2010
Addressing a crowd of about 1,000 ethnic Mon villagers at 63rd anniversary celebrations of Mon National Day in Palanjapan village near Three Pagodas Pass on Saturday, a
Mon leader asked the crowd to clap if they were in support of the Mon army returning to war with Burma's ruling military junta.
Nai Tang Rong, 82, the head of the Thai-Mon community in Bangkok, was making a speech from the stage when he announced: “If we don’t get the freedom we want from the junta, do you think we need to fight them again?
“If you think we need to fight, please clap your hands!” he called to the crowd. The festival crowd immediately broke out in loud applause.
About 100 members of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), including women, then staged a military parade and sang the Mon national song while saluting the Mon flag.
Nai Htaw Mon, the chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), said at a press conference afterward that the Burmese regime was forcing the NMSP's hand by pushing it to join a joint border guard force.
“We can’t accept only one unified military force in Mon State at this time,” he said. “Perhaps when there is a democratic government that can discuss the issue of ethnic rights then we can accept the proposal.”
The Burmese junta proposed in June that the NMSP join a border guard force under Burmese army command. There has been mounting tension between the NMSP and the Burmese military in recent months since the Mon rejected the plan.
“Our people have told us they don’t agree that our troops serve as border guard forces,” Nai Htaw Mon. “We have already told the junta what our people are saying.
He added: “If they continue to put pressure on us or use force or terrorize us, we have to fight. But, we will maintain the cease-fire agreement as long as they do not attack us first.”
He said that the election in 2010 will not be free and fair because there is no democracy under the current constitution nor are there true ethnic rights.
“They will hold this election because it will legitimize them. This election is only for the regime to consolidate its hold on political power,” he said.
Mon National Day commemorates the day when the first Mon kingdom, Hongsawadee, was established in 1116 of the Buddhist Era, or 573 CE.
By LAWI WENG - Saturday, January 30, 2010
Addressing a crowd of about 1,000 ethnic Mon villagers at 63rd anniversary celebrations of Mon National Day in Palanjapan village near Three Pagodas Pass on Saturday, a
Mon leader asked the crowd to clap if they were in support of the Mon army returning to war with Burma's ruling military junta.
Nai Tang Rong, 82, the head of the Thai-Mon community in Bangkok, was making a speech from the stage when he announced: “If we don’t get the freedom we want from the junta, do you think we need to fight them again?
“If you think we need to fight, please clap your hands!” he called to the crowd. The festival crowd immediately broke out in loud applause.
About 100 members of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), including women, then staged a military parade and sang the Mon national song while saluting the Mon flag.
Nai Htaw Mon, the chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), said at a press conference afterward that the Burmese regime was forcing the NMSP's hand by pushing it to join a joint border guard force.
“We can’t accept only one unified military force in Mon State at this time,” he said. “Perhaps when there is a democratic government that can discuss the issue of ethnic rights then we can accept the proposal.”
The Burmese junta proposed in June that the NMSP join a border guard force under Burmese army command. There has been mounting tension between the NMSP and the Burmese military in recent months since the Mon rejected the plan.
“Our people have told us they don’t agree that our troops serve as border guard forces,” Nai Htaw Mon. “We have already told the junta what our people are saying.
He added: “If they continue to put pressure on us or use force or terrorize us, we have to fight. But, we will maintain the cease-fire agreement as long as they do not attack us first.”
He said that the election in 2010 will not be free and fair because there is no democracy under the current constitution nor are there true ethnic rights.
“They will hold this election because it will legitimize them. This election is only for the regime to consolidate its hold on political power,” he said.
Mon National Day commemorates the day when the first Mon kingdom, Hongsawadee, was established in 1116 of the Buddhist Era, or 573 CE.
************************************************************
France condemns Burma for incarcerating journalists
Monday, 01 February 2010 21:48 Mungpi
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Burma’s military rulers for the harsh sentencing of a journalist to 13 years in prison and urged the regime to respect freedom and fundamental rights of the people.
“France condemns the sentencing of a Burmese journalist Ngwe Soe Lin to 13 years in prison after being charged with working illegally for a media in exile,” the ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
On January 27 Rangoon’s western district court, sentenced Ngwe Soe Lin (28) reporter of the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), to 10 years under the Electronic and Immigration Acts and three years under Emergency Acts.
The journalist was arrested on June 26, 2009 from an internet café in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township.
Ngwe Soe Lin was working as a correspondent of the DVB, and received the Rory Peck Award for his work in documenting orphan victims of Cyclone Nargis, which lashed Burma in early May 2008.
He was arrested on June 26 last year when he was leaving an internet cafe in Kyaukmyaung, Tamwe Township.
Similarly, a woman journalist, Hla Hla Win, and her friend Myint Naing, who were sentenced to seven years each were given additional prison terms of 20 and 25 years respectively, by the Pakokku District court in upper Burma on December 31.
Hla Hla Win and her host in Pakokku Town Myint Naing were arrested on September 2009, while returning after interviews with monks in the Buddhist Monastery in Pakokku town.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is concerned about the multiple violations of freedom of expression, which the Burmese authorities are engaging in, as well as the lack of media freedom.
“France calls on the Burmese authorities to respect freedom and fundamental rights, including that of the press,” the release said.
Monday, 01 February 2010 21:48 Mungpi
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Burma’s military rulers for the harsh sentencing of a journalist to 13 years in prison and urged the regime to respect freedom and fundamental rights of the people.
“France condemns the sentencing of a Burmese journalist Ngwe Soe Lin to 13 years in prison after being charged with working illegally for a media in exile,” the ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
On January 27 Rangoon’s western district court, sentenced Ngwe Soe Lin (28) reporter of the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), to 10 years under the Electronic and Immigration Acts and three years under Emergency Acts.
The journalist was arrested on June 26, 2009 from an internet café in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township.
Ngwe Soe Lin was working as a correspondent of the DVB, and received the Rory Peck Award for his work in documenting orphan victims of Cyclone Nargis, which lashed Burma in early May 2008.
He was arrested on June 26 last year when he was leaving an internet cafe in Kyaukmyaung, Tamwe Township.
Similarly, a woman journalist, Hla Hla Win, and her friend Myint Naing, who were sentenced to seven years each were given additional prison terms of 20 and 25 years respectively, by the Pakokku District court in upper Burma on December 31.
Hla Hla Win and her host in Pakokku Town Myint Naing were arrested on September 2009, while returning after interviews with monks in the Buddhist Monastery in Pakokku town.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is concerned about the multiple violations of freedom of expression, which the Burmese authorities are engaging in, as well as the lack of media freedom.
“France calls on the Burmese authorities to respect freedom and fundamental rights, including that of the press,” the release said.
************************************************************
Electoral preparations dominating junta actions
Monday, 01 February 2010 16:28 Larry Jagan
Bangkok (Mizzima) - Although there is as yet no election date set, campaigning by supporters of the junta is in full swing. “The New Light of Myanmar is full of reports and photographs of government ministers inaugurating community and development projects, shaking hands with local leaders and handing out financial assistance,” a western diplomat just back from Burma told Mizzima. “Its electioneering by any other name, clearly the military is now trying to win the hearts and minds of the people.”
“Democracy in Burma today is at a fledgling stage and still requires patient care and attention,” Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe told the country last year in his annual speech to mark Armed Forces Day. Since then he has said little on the subject, though in January he warned potential political parties and politicians not to be foolish and to follow the rules.
“Plans are under way to hold elections in a systematic way this year. In that regard, the entire people have to make correct choices,” he cautioned.
But the elections are already dominating everything in Burma, even without the unveiling of the election or political parties laws. All over Burma preparations are quietly being made for the nation’s first elections in twenty years, government administration has been put into suspended animation while government ministers and civil servants have in effect started political campaigning.
“No decision is being taken that does not relate to the election preparation,” a senior UN official in Rangoon told Mizzima on condition of anonymity. Some crucial new projects can only start after the election, government ministers also told another UN aid official.
Meanwhile, weekly cabinet meetings in the capital Naypyitaw have been brought back to Wednesday, to allow ministers to use the four days between Thursday and Sunday to do politics in the areas that they are responsible for in the forthcoming elections, according to senior military sources. This not only involves handing out largesse to targeted communities, he said, but also collecting finances for the actual election campaign when it is finally announced.
General Than Shwe has put the powerful minister Aung Thaung in charge of the election campaign and providing funds for pro-junta candidates, according to sources close to the senior general. “He’s become the old man’s bag man,” a senior manager in one of the company’s of the businessman Tayza told Mizzima. His secret mission is to get the support of the Rohingyas for pro-junta candidates, and make sure the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) party and the National Unity Party (NUP) secure the popular vote, said a government official.
In the last elections, held 27 May 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won convincingly, but Burma’s military rulers never allowed them to form a civilian government. This time the generals are not planning to make the same mistake, and are tightly controlling everything to ensure they do not lose. In the meantime, they are deliberately keeping everyone in the dark.
“The electoral and political parties laws are now 97 percent complete,” Burma’s foreign minister Nyan Win recently told his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, at a meeting of the regional bloc, ASEAN, in Hanoi. “It will take another two or three months to make it 100 percent. So, I think the elections will most probably be in the second half of the year,” he reportedly said.
Beijing, Burma’s closest ally, also believes it will be sometime in the last three months of this year, according to Chinese diplomats.
It will be on the 10th of the 10th month 2010, senior military sources in the new Burmese capital told Mizzima late last year. And only 10 political parties will be allowed to run, the prime minister, Thein Sein, told his Asian counterparts at the ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin last October, according to an Indonesian diplomat at the briefing. But there was no mention of Aung San Suu Kyi or the National League for Democracy, he added.
People are increasingly tipping the 10/10/2010 as the date because of the junta’s fixation on numerology. In the past, the country’s military made many key decisions on the basis of what astrologers had decreed as auspicious dates, including the 1990 election date and the mass move to the new capital. Nonetheless, while the election is certain now to be held in October or November – after this year’s rainy season – the current favorite date may just be a hoax. What is true is that the elections will be held on a Sunday, the peoples’ normal rest-day.
Until the election laws are made public there is little potential political players can do but bide their time. Until then nobody knows how the election will be conducted, and more importantly who will be competing. Officially there are no political parties registered to stand candidates in the election – this can only happen after the political parties law is passed and an electoral commission established to oversee the campaign and the polls.
“The political parties and election laws will be unveiled at the last minute,” Win Min, a Burmese academic based at Chiang Mai University in Thailand told Mizzima. “They want to keep any potential opposition wrong-footed and not allow them time to organize.”
The last time elections were held the electoral law was made public 20 months before the elections and junta leaders are anxious to avoid making that mistake again. But 20 years on Burma is a very different country than it was then. Repression, harassment and economic decay have left many Burmese bewildered and angrier than every at the military, though whether this will be translated into a strong anti-government vote at the polls remains an open question.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists are split on whether or not to run in the elections.
“Why should we contest these elections – the military will tightly control everything,” a spokesman for the exiled Burmese Zin Linn told Miizzima. “How can there be free and fair elections when many of our leaders are in prison for their political activities. The constitution was forced on us, written by them, and then everyone was coerced to vote for it in a sham referendum [in May 2008].”
Many believe that the elections are in fact only a means for the military to pretend that they have moved to democratic civilian rule. Under the constitution, a quarter of the seats are reserved for army officers. Over the past year or so junior officers have been given intensive instruction in political and economic matters as part of their senior officer training courses to prepare them for possible service as military MPs, according to Burmese military sources. Many who attended the prestigious officers school, the National Defense College, are now earmarked to take up positions in a new parliament.
“In 2010, it will only be an election of the dictators – as they take off their uniforms and pretend to be civilians,” said Soe Aung, a leading Burmese pro-democracy activist based in Thailand. Many government officials in Burma have confided privately that the process will certainly be a selection, not an election.
While there may be elections this year, there will be no transfer of power, whether Aung San Suu Kyi or her party runs, according to Chinese diplomats who follow Burma closely. “Things will remain the same, there will be no change in political power,” a senior Chinese government official told Mizzima.
Even though the parties have not yet been formed, nor officially have candidates been chosen to run for office in 2010, the military government is preparing the ground for the campaign and the election. Businessmen with close connections to the regime have already been told they must support the pro-government candidates and provide funds for their campaign. So detailed are the initial plans that the junta has allocated specific electorates to certain businessmen and demanded their financial backing.
“We cannot afford to lose this election,” Burma’s prime minister, General Thein Sein, told some of the leading businessmen last year. “Otherwise we have wasted the last twenty years for nothing,” he concluded, according to western diplomats with close connections to the Burmese business community.
But fixing the elections to get the desired result still poses major problems for the military leaders. Those who stand will have to attract the popular vote – which in Burma now will be no mean feat if the election is at all free and fair. At least a dozen of the current ministers have been selected by the Senior General to run for office. These people will have to resign from the present government to contest the elections.
The ministers have until April, the end of the current financial year, to put their ministries in order. They have been instructed to make sure their books are balanced, creating a race to privatize much of the government’s existing assets. More than 11,000 blocks of land and buildings, owned by various government ministries, are up for sale in Rangoon, according to a western businessman with strong links to many of the top Burmese leaders.
At that point an interim government, with only executive not legislative powers, will be formed to run the country for the six months up until the elections and then for around another six months afterwards before the newly elected parliament meets. “It will take the regime several weeks or months to tally the votes across the nation and finalize the results,” said a Burmese academic based inside the country. And if that is not enough, the new parliament building will not be finished for at least another year, a Burmese construction manager working on the project, Pe Tun, told Mizzima.
In the next few months there will be a major shake-up in the military and the government. The government administration is to be streamlined and many civil servants will also be retired. The number of ministries will be halved, with only 17 ministers left in charge. Already two ministers who are destined to become politicians have resigned and their portfolios merged with other ministries. The rest will resign and become politicians after Buddhist New Year celebrations [Thingyan] in mid-April. All of them will also have to declare their assets before registering as candidates, according to government sources in Burma.
In the next few months, after the political parties law is revealed, the mass community organization USDA – set up by Than Shwe more than fifteen years ago to support the military government at the grassroots – is expected to announce the formation of a political party that will contest this year’s elections.
While some time ago the plan may have been to field three political parties, it now seems that only one party under the control of the USDA will be created, state reliable Burmese sources. Current ministers who have been forced into the political arena will join the party, according to military sources. The NUP though is seen as part of the new era. The top general has instructed soldiers and government officials to see the NUP as “a sister to the army”, said a close confidant of the top generals.
In the coming months there will be massive changes in the army as well as government. A major overhaul of the military is expected with hundreds, if not thousands, of senior officers retiring to make way for the new generation of younger officers, as Than Shwe intends to rigidly enforce the retirement rule of 60 years of age. This is largely in preparation for new relationships that will emerge after the elections.
Regional commanders will in theory will to answer to local civilian authorities, something that runs counter to the military practice of the last 20 years. Already there are tensions in some areas between local authorities and the central government, especially related to forced-labor issues and the mandate of the International Labor Organization.
Local courts have overruled executive orders to return confiscated land, and farmers who have returned are being prosecuted for trespassing – as many as 60 in one area are facing stiff prison sentences for attempting to reclaim land unlawfully seized in the first place. This may just be a forerunner of things to come.
This year’s election process is likely to be fraught and tensions will rise. “Already people are suffering from increased nervousness and anxiety, especially in Rangoon, because of the uncertainty surrounding the coming elections, according to Burmese doctors.
The outcome of the elections is far from certain, according to some Asian diplomats. “The race is certainly on but as the weeks roll by, the regime is increasingly worried that they may not be able to control the results,” said an Asian diplomat based in Rangoon.
Restrictions and controls are also likely to increase as the election draws nearer. Already UN representatives and international aid workers are finding it increasing difficult to get visas to the country and permission to travel outside Rangoon. Multi-entry visas seem to be a thing of the past, said one NGO staff-member.
Censorship and control of the media is also tightening. While the election itself can be mentioned in the country’s publications, anything about the formation of parties is spiked, according to several editors of independent publications.
The election is going to be a real test for the regime. But the key will be how the Burmese population regards the election process. “While this regime has ruled largely through fear, don’t discount an Iran-style reaction if the result appears to have been overly-manipulated by the military,” a young budding Burmese politician who intends to stand in the elections told Mizzima, but declined to be identified for fear of being detained.
Monday, 01 February 2010 16:28 Larry Jagan
Bangkok (Mizzima) - Although there is as yet no election date set, campaigning by supporters of the junta is in full swing. “The New Light of Myanmar is full of reports and photographs of government ministers inaugurating community and development projects, shaking hands with local leaders and handing out financial assistance,” a western diplomat just back from Burma told Mizzima. “Its electioneering by any other name, clearly the military is now trying to win the hearts and minds of the people.”
“Democracy in Burma today is at a fledgling stage and still requires patient care and attention,” Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe told the country last year in his annual speech to mark Armed Forces Day. Since then he has said little on the subject, though in January he warned potential political parties and politicians not to be foolish and to follow the rules.
“Plans are under way to hold elections in a systematic way this year. In that regard, the entire people have to make correct choices,” he cautioned.
But the elections are already dominating everything in Burma, even without the unveiling of the election or political parties laws. All over Burma preparations are quietly being made for the nation’s first elections in twenty years, government administration has been put into suspended animation while government ministers and civil servants have in effect started political campaigning.
“No decision is being taken that does not relate to the election preparation,” a senior UN official in Rangoon told Mizzima on condition of anonymity. Some crucial new projects can only start after the election, government ministers also told another UN aid official.
Meanwhile, weekly cabinet meetings in the capital Naypyitaw have been brought back to Wednesday, to allow ministers to use the four days between Thursday and Sunday to do politics in the areas that they are responsible for in the forthcoming elections, according to senior military sources. This not only involves handing out largesse to targeted communities, he said, but also collecting finances for the actual election campaign when it is finally announced.
General Than Shwe has put the powerful minister Aung Thaung in charge of the election campaign and providing funds for pro-junta candidates, according to sources close to the senior general. “He’s become the old man’s bag man,” a senior manager in one of the company’s of the businessman Tayza told Mizzima. His secret mission is to get the support of the Rohingyas for pro-junta candidates, and make sure the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) party and the National Unity Party (NUP) secure the popular vote, said a government official.
In the last elections, held 27 May 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won convincingly, but Burma’s military rulers never allowed them to form a civilian government. This time the generals are not planning to make the same mistake, and are tightly controlling everything to ensure they do not lose. In the meantime, they are deliberately keeping everyone in the dark.
“The electoral and political parties laws are now 97 percent complete,” Burma’s foreign minister Nyan Win recently told his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, at a meeting of the regional bloc, ASEAN, in Hanoi. “It will take another two or three months to make it 100 percent. So, I think the elections will most probably be in the second half of the year,” he reportedly said.
Beijing, Burma’s closest ally, also believes it will be sometime in the last three months of this year, according to Chinese diplomats.
It will be on the 10th of the 10th month 2010, senior military sources in the new Burmese capital told Mizzima late last year. And only 10 political parties will be allowed to run, the prime minister, Thein Sein, told his Asian counterparts at the ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin last October, according to an Indonesian diplomat at the briefing. But there was no mention of Aung San Suu Kyi or the National League for Democracy, he added.
People are increasingly tipping the 10/10/2010 as the date because of the junta’s fixation on numerology. In the past, the country’s military made many key decisions on the basis of what astrologers had decreed as auspicious dates, including the 1990 election date and the mass move to the new capital. Nonetheless, while the election is certain now to be held in October or November – after this year’s rainy season – the current favorite date may just be a hoax. What is true is that the elections will be held on a Sunday, the peoples’ normal rest-day.
Until the election laws are made public there is little potential political players can do but bide their time. Until then nobody knows how the election will be conducted, and more importantly who will be competing. Officially there are no political parties registered to stand candidates in the election – this can only happen after the political parties law is passed and an electoral commission established to oversee the campaign and the polls.
“The political parties and election laws will be unveiled at the last minute,” Win Min, a Burmese academic based at Chiang Mai University in Thailand told Mizzima. “They want to keep any potential opposition wrong-footed and not allow them time to organize.”
The last time elections were held the electoral law was made public 20 months before the elections and junta leaders are anxious to avoid making that mistake again. But 20 years on Burma is a very different country than it was then. Repression, harassment and economic decay have left many Burmese bewildered and angrier than every at the military, though whether this will be translated into a strong anti-government vote at the polls remains an open question.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists are split on whether or not to run in the elections.
“Why should we contest these elections – the military will tightly control everything,” a spokesman for the exiled Burmese Zin Linn told Miizzima. “How can there be free and fair elections when many of our leaders are in prison for their political activities. The constitution was forced on us, written by them, and then everyone was coerced to vote for it in a sham referendum [in May 2008].”
Many believe that the elections are in fact only a means for the military to pretend that they have moved to democratic civilian rule. Under the constitution, a quarter of the seats are reserved for army officers. Over the past year or so junior officers have been given intensive instruction in political and economic matters as part of their senior officer training courses to prepare them for possible service as military MPs, according to Burmese military sources. Many who attended the prestigious officers school, the National Defense College, are now earmarked to take up positions in a new parliament.
“In 2010, it will only be an election of the dictators – as they take off their uniforms and pretend to be civilians,” said Soe Aung, a leading Burmese pro-democracy activist based in Thailand. Many government officials in Burma have confided privately that the process will certainly be a selection, not an election.
While there may be elections this year, there will be no transfer of power, whether Aung San Suu Kyi or her party runs, according to Chinese diplomats who follow Burma closely. “Things will remain the same, there will be no change in political power,” a senior Chinese government official told Mizzima.
Even though the parties have not yet been formed, nor officially have candidates been chosen to run for office in 2010, the military government is preparing the ground for the campaign and the election. Businessmen with close connections to the regime have already been told they must support the pro-government candidates and provide funds for their campaign. So detailed are the initial plans that the junta has allocated specific electorates to certain businessmen and demanded their financial backing.
“We cannot afford to lose this election,” Burma’s prime minister, General Thein Sein, told some of the leading businessmen last year. “Otherwise we have wasted the last twenty years for nothing,” he concluded, according to western diplomats with close connections to the Burmese business community.
But fixing the elections to get the desired result still poses major problems for the military leaders. Those who stand will have to attract the popular vote – which in Burma now will be no mean feat if the election is at all free and fair. At least a dozen of the current ministers have been selected by the Senior General to run for office. These people will have to resign from the present government to contest the elections.
The ministers have until April, the end of the current financial year, to put their ministries in order. They have been instructed to make sure their books are balanced, creating a race to privatize much of the government’s existing assets. More than 11,000 blocks of land and buildings, owned by various government ministries, are up for sale in Rangoon, according to a western businessman with strong links to many of the top Burmese leaders.
At that point an interim government, with only executive not legislative powers, will be formed to run the country for the six months up until the elections and then for around another six months afterwards before the newly elected parliament meets. “It will take the regime several weeks or months to tally the votes across the nation and finalize the results,” said a Burmese academic based inside the country. And if that is not enough, the new parliament building will not be finished for at least another year, a Burmese construction manager working on the project, Pe Tun, told Mizzima.
In the next few months there will be a major shake-up in the military and the government. The government administration is to be streamlined and many civil servants will also be retired. The number of ministries will be halved, with only 17 ministers left in charge. Already two ministers who are destined to become politicians have resigned and their portfolios merged with other ministries. The rest will resign and become politicians after Buddhist New Year celebrations [Thingyan] in mid-April. All of them will also have to declare their assets before registering as candidates, according to government sources in Burma.
In the next few months, after the political parties law is revealed, the mass community organization USDA – set up by Than Shwe more than fifteen years ago to support the military government at the grassroots – is expected to announce the formation of a political party that will contest this year’s elections.
While some time ago the plan may have been to field three political parties, it now seems that only one party under the control of the USDA will be created, state reliable Burmese sources. Current ministers who have been forced into the political arena will join the party, according to military sources. The NUP though is seen as part of the new era. The top general has instructed soldiers and government officials to see the NUP as “a sister to the army”, said a close confidant of the top generals.
In the coming months there will be massive changes in the army as well as government. A major overhaul of the military is expected with hundreds, if not thousands, of senior officers retiring to make way for the new generation of younger officers, as Than Shwe intends to rigidly enforce the retirement rule of 60 years of age. This is largely in preparation for new relationships that will emerge after the elections.
Regional commanders will in theory will to answer to local civilian authorities, something that runs counter to the military practice of the last 20 years. Already there are tensions in some areas between local authorities and the central government, especially related to forced-labor issues and the mandate of the International Labor Organization.
Local courts have overruled executive orders to return confiscated land, and farmers who have returned are being prosecuted for trespassing – as many as 60 in one area are facing stiff prison sentences for attempting to reclaim land unlawfully seized in the first place. This may just be a forerunner of things to come.
This year’s election process is likely to be fraught and tensions will rise. “Already people are suffering from increased nervousness and anxiety, especially in Rangoon, because of the uncertainty surrounding the coming elections, according to Burmese doctors.
The outcome of the elections is far from certain, according to some Asian diplomats. “The race is certainly on but as the weeks roll by, the regime is increasingly worried that they may not be able to control the results,” said an Asian diplomat based in Rangoon.
Restrictions and controls are also likely to increase as the election draws nearer. Already UN representatives and international aid workers are finding it increasing difficult to get visas to the country and permission to travel outside Rangoon. Multi-entry visas seem to be a thing of the past, said one NGO staff-member.
Censorship and control of the media is also tightening. While the election itself can be mentioned in the country’s publications, anything about the formation of parties is spiked, according to several editors of independent publications.
The election is going to be a real test for the regime. But the key will be how the Burmese population regards the election process. “While this regime has ruled largely through fear, don’t discount an Iran-style reaction if the result appears to have been overly-manipulated by the military,” a young budding Burmese politician who intends to stand in the elections told Mizzima, but declined to be identified for fear of being detained.
************************************************************
‘I quit the army because I’m not proud’
Feb 1, 2010 (DVB)–A Burmese junior officer has blamed government policy after deserting the army and fleeing to a location on the Thai-Burmese border.
"When it comes to the conflict between the soldiers and the public resulting from the implementation of the government's policies, the public sees it as the action of our army, not as of the government," said Lieutenant Yeh Htet.
"I quit the army mainly because I am unable to be proud of being a soldier anymore."
The 23-year-old from Burma’s eastern Karen state added that families of soldiers are also finding it hard to survive due to a lack proper support from top generals. Moreover, the majority of soldiers want to retire from the army but are not allowed to, except on medical grounds.
His defection coincided with the emergence of reports of reshuffles of commanders, mainly at strategic departments and 'troublesome' areas of Burma.
Colonel Aung Linn Dway of Burmese Army headquarters Registry Office in Naypyidaw is appointed Sittwe Regional Operations Command and deputy chair for Arakan State’s Peace and Development Council.
Northwestern Command's chief Colonel San Aung is appointed director of the Transport Projects Administration while Colonel San Myint Oo of Armoured Operations Command 74 is transferred to the post of director for the Inland Transportations Department.
Tenessarim Division’s Naval Base in-charge Brigadier General Thura Thet Swe is now commander-in-chief of Naval Headquarters in Naypyidaw.
Deputy chief of Northeastern Command Brigadier General Hla Myint is appointed chief of recently troubled Laogai [Kokang] Military Administrative Command. His old position is taken up by chief-of-staff of Infantry, Colonel Win Thein.
Moe Meik Tactical Operations Command’s chief Colonel Khin Maung Maw, under the control of Northern Regional Military Command, is appointed Eastern Command’s chief.
His position is taken up by Lieutenant Colonel Win Min Htun of the Army Administration Grade One [Management Department].
Reporting by Min Lwin and AKT
Feb 1, 2010 (DVB)–A Burmese junior officer has blamed government policy after deserting the army and fleeing to a location on the Thai-Burmese border.
"When it comes to the conflict between the soldiers and the public resulting from the implementation of the government's policies, the public sees it as the action of our army, not as of the government," said Lieutenant Yeh Htet.
"I quit the army mainly because I am unable to be proud of being a soldier anymore."
The 23-year-old from Burma’s eastern Karen state added that families of soldiers are also finding it hard to survive due to a lack proper support from top generals. Moreover, the majority of soldiers want to retire from the army but are not allowed to, except on medical grounds.
His defection coincided with the emergence of reports of reshuffles of commanders, mainly at strategic departments and 'troublesome' areas of Burma.
Colonel Aung Linn Dway of Burmese Army headquarters Registry Office in Naypyidaw is appointed Sittwe Regional Operations Command and deputy chair for Arakan State’s Peace and Development Council.
Northwestern Command's chief Colonel San Aung is appointed director of the Transport Projects Administration while Colonel San Myint Oo of Armoured Operations Command 74 is transferred to the post of director for the Inland Transportations Department.
Tenessarim Division’s Naval Base in-charge Brigadier General Thura Thet Swe is now commander-in-chief of Naval Headquarters in Naypyidaw.
Deputy chief of Northeastern Command Brigadier General Hla Myint is appointed chief of recently troubled Laogai [Kokang] Military Administrative Command. His old position is taken up by chief-of-staff of Infantry, Colonel Win Thein.
Moe Meik Tactical Operations Command’s chief Colonel Khin Maung Maw, under the control of Northern Regional Military Command, is appointed Eastern Command’s chief.
His position is taken up by Lieutenant Colonel Win Min Htun of the Army Administration Grade One [Management Department].
Reporting by Min Lwin and AKT
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