15 Minutes of Fame for Myanmar MPs

15 minutes of fame for Myanmar MPs

By Aung Din
March 23, 2011
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MC24Ae01.html

A freshly elected parliamentarian woke up at 6:30 am one recent morning in the remote and newly built capital city of military-run Myanmar. He had planned to take a shower but the water dripping from the pipe was reddish and dirty. Instead, he used water from a drinking bottle to wash his face and brush his teeth. Then he prepared his documents, put them in a suitcase and left the Municipal Guest House where he was staying with other members of parliament from small minority parties.

With other MPs, he took a shuttle bus to the parliament compound to attend a parliamentary meeting that day. They were all required to leave their mobile phones, digital cameras and computers in their rooms at the guesthouse, as these were banned in the new parliament's buildings.

After a 20-minute ride, they arrived at the gates of the compound, where they crossed on foot through two-layer, sky-high iron gates, where security forces checked their identification cards and searched their bags and bodies with bomb-detection devices. Another fleet of buses was waiting to take them to the building where the meeting was scheduled to take place.

At 9 am, the chairman of parliament convened the day's session. Fifteen minutes later, he announced that parliament would adjourn until the next day. During the 15-minute session, parliament confirmed the president's nominations for union-level positions without objection, and accepted new nominations for other positions.

The parliamentarian and his fellow MPs were then free to return to their guesthouses. The parliament building holds no offices and has no staff for MPs. The parliamentarians are allowed to enter only two parliament meeting halls, two canteens and restrooms. If they venture to other parts of the compound, they risk arrest. No journalists are allowed to enter the compound, let alone cover the parliamentary meetings.

This is a typical story of an MP attending parliament meetings in Naypyidaw since their first assembly on January 31. They all won seats in the November 7 general election, the country's first in 20 years, which was widely criticized as neither free nor fair. The military junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), was assured a landslide victory through voter intimidation, vote-buying and other irregularities.

Meanwhile, election laws blocked the participation of major opposition groups including the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.


The USDP captured 260 out of 330 seats in parliament's lower house and 129 out of 185 seats in the upper house. With the 25% of seats reserved for military personnel, the USDP and the military together control 84% and 83% of the seats in the lower and upper houses respectively. The National Unity Party (NUP), the regime's former proxy party, secured 11 and five seats in both chambers respectively. The rest of the seats went to 15 small minority parties.

The election was one of the last remaining steps in the regime's seven-step roadmap to "democracy". In actuality, the drawn out process has led to greater military consolidation over the country's politics. In 2008, the regime finalized a new constitution which effectively granted supreme and unchecked power to the commander-in-chief of the military and guaranteed a permanent 25% in parliament for the armed forces. In May 2008, despite the widespread destruction left behind by Cyclone Nargis that killed nearly 140,000 people and left millions homeless, the regime forced the constitution through in a rigged referendum.

As the second-to-last step in its roadmap, the regime is now convening parliamentary meetings. The last step will be the official transfer of power to the newly elected President Thein Sein, who is expected to serve at the whim and pleasure of Senior General Than Shwe, the junta's long time leader.

New Authoritarian Shape
With the elections and convening of parliament, change has come to Myanmar - just not the sort of democratic change the still ruling junta promised. Previously, Myanmar was under the boots of the military alone; now it is subjected to two pairs of boots - one from the military and the other from its proxy USDP, where retired generals masquerade in civilian disguise.

Together, the military's "discipline-flourishing democracy" is taking a new authoritarian shape. Since its opening, parliament meetings have not been allowed to last more than 15 minutes. It started with the first few assemblies dedicated to the pre-ordained election of the president and two vice presidents. They were followed by the announcement and unanimous approval of the president's nominations for his cabinet and other union-level positions.

During the short meetings, some minority party MPs attempted to raise questions and concerns regarding regional developments but were told that they must submit their questions 15 days in advance. The interim will give enough time for respective ministers to respond with well-measured explanations, likely reciting from the regime's usual propaganda published in its mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Authorities later demanded the MPs withdraw their questions, and they did so obediently.

Under normal circumstances, parliament would be where laws originate, but there is nothing to legislate in Myanmar's "discipline-flourishing democracy". Supreme leader Senior General Than Shwe has already made all the laws in his role as chairman of State Peace and Development Council, the regime's official name, prior to the parliament's first meeting.

Among them was the State Budget Law for 2011-12, dated February 11, 2011, in which he allocated nearly 25% of the state's budget to military affairs and a petty 1.3% to health care. The Military Draft Law, which requires two to three years of compulsory military service for all Myanmar citizens, was issued on November 4, 2010 (State Peace and Development Council Law No. 27/2010).

The Reserved Forces Law, which instructs all retired military personnel to serve in state auxiliary forces for at least five years holding the last rank they served in active duty, was also issued on November 4, 2010 (The State Peace and Development Council Law No. 28/2010). The Special Fund Law, which reserves an unspecified amount of funds to be used by the commander-in-chief as he deems fit in the name of protection of the state's peace and security, was issued on January 27, 2011 (The State Peace and Development Council Law No. 10/2011). All of these laws took immediate effect.

MPs from minority parties may have expected to serve as checks and balances in parliament. But in addition to self-censorship, MPs have been discouraged and intimidated from addressing urgent national matters. Instead of calling for an immediate end to state killings of ethnic minorities, civil war, arbitrary arrests and the release of all political prisoners, MPs have so far raised their voices only to call for the US-led international community to lift economic sanctions against the regime.

Than Shwe has also made several laws to compensate them for their discipline. MPs at union level will be paid 300,000 kyats each per month, equivalent to US$345 at the unofficial exchange rate of 870 kyats per US dollar. At the inflated official exchange rate, which has remained unchanged at six kyats per dollar, their salaries will approach $50,000 per month. While the lowest and highest earnings of civil servants are currently between 15,000 kyats (US$17) and 200,000 kyats (US$230), MPs' salaries are high even without adding on travel expenses and meeting days allowances.

Than Shwe has been even more generous to his top loyalists. The president is scheduled to earn a monthly salary of 5 million kyats while vice presidents will receive 4 million kyats. Other high level officials, such as the chairmen of the parliaments, chief justice, cabinet ministers, and attorney-general will receive monthly salaries between 2 million and 3.5 million kyats, along with other privileges. Using the official exchange rate, the president of Myanmar will receive $83,333 per month and nearly $10 million per year - considerably more than the richly compensated president of the United States.

The current parliament's session is scheduled to end soon, despite its lack of legislative initiative. The newly elected MPs will return to their hometowns, where they will have no office or staff to support their democratic duties. Nonetheless, many will pay lip service to the new era of democracy that has supposedly arrived in Myanmar - though more for international rather than domestic consumption.

Aung Din was a student leader during the 1988 popular democracy uprising in Burma, now known as Myanmar, and served over four years as a political prisoner. He is now the executive director of the Washington DC-based US Campaign for Burma.

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