De facto leader Suu Kyi gives cause for real hope (Bangkok Post)

De facto leader Suu Kyi gives cause for real hope: About six months into power, Myanmar's de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi has proven that, with strong political will, she is able to handle daunting challenges, many inherited from the previous military regime.

Appointment of Army Officers in Union Election Commission

Myanmar’s Government Appoints Military to the Election Commission

January 28, 2014 

By Priscilla Clapp & Aung Din
http://cogitasia.com/myanmars-government-appoints-military-to-the-election-commission/

The December 27 Myanmar State Gazette announced that 58 military officers with the rank of major and 3 with the rank of captain have been appointed to the Union Election Commission (UEC). According to the announcement, these active military officials were transferred from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army) to the UEC to fill its organizational structure. The majors are to serve as assistant directors and the captains as administrative officers in the various commission offices, possibly in districts and townships. These appointments have been in effect since December 2, but the official announcement was not made until more than three weeks later.

What, if any, impact the appointment of military officers to the commission staff may have on the election process is impossible to predict at this stage, but it appears to be the first time under Myanmar’s 2008 constitution that active duty military personnel have been appointed to help conduct elections. If this trend continues unopposed, many more military officers may be transferred to the UEC before 2015. This will be unacceptable, because it will not bode well for free and fair elections.

The UEC is one of the highest level authoritative bodies in Myanmar, with vast power conferred by the 2008 constitution “to monitor and decide the fate of political parties, arrange or postpone or cancel election schedules, hold elections, judge election-related cases, and investigate members of parliament if just one percent of their constituents complain and fire them if allegations are found true.”

The president nominates the chairman and members of the UEC, but the parliament has no right to reject the nominees as long as they meet the standard qualifications. The constitution also makes the UEC more powerful by stating in Article 402 that, “The resolution and functions made by the Union Election Commission on the following matters shall be final and conclusive: (a) election functions; (b) appeals and revisions relating to the resolutions and orders of the election tribunals; (c) matters taken under the law relating to political party.”

This powerful body is being led by Tin Aye, a former lieutenant general in the previous military regime, who remains loyal to President Thein Sein. In June 2013 several members of parliament called for the UEC to hold by-elections to fill vacancies: 16 in the lower house, 4 in the upper house, and 16 in state and regional parliaments. Tin Aye simply replied that as the UEC is busy with preparations for the 2015 elections, there is no plan to conduct by-elections for the time being.

His response effectively deprived 2 million people of representation in the parliament at a time when momentous decisions will be made, and froze the elected membership in the parliament at less than the intended 75 percent. In any case, his decision as the chairman of the UEC is final.

Filling these vacant seats as soon as possible is critical, as the parliament is preparing to discuss amending the constitution in the current and coming sessions in 2014. The military, which holds 25 percent of the seats in parliament, already has veto power because amendments to the constitution can be made only with the approval of more than 75 percent of the parliament. Occupying less than their intended 75 percent of the legislature only further weakens the position of the elected representatives. Their vote count is now just 72 percent.

Tin Aye is being criticized by some in the media not just for refusing to hold the by-elections, but also for accompanying President Thein Sein on his visits to several parts of the country. He is supposed to be independent and should not associate with any political party members or office holders. Seeing him at the side of Thein Sein on presidential trips and at the conference of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in 2013 raised many politicians’ eyebrows. The recent appointment of 61 army officers to senior positions in the UEC is sure to discomfort many more.

Placing military officers in high level positions in the civil service is a decades-old practice of Myanmar’s successive military regimes, which have all aimed to award their soldiers and keep civilian staff under control. Such practices are a relic of the past and should be stopped if the country is truly on the path to democracy. The UEC is supposed to be an independent commission, free of influence by the ruling party and the military. The conduct of the elections in 2015 will be questionable if the chairman of the UEC cannot prove that he does not favor the ruling party, that he is not an ally of the current president, and that he is not associated with the military.

Meanwhile the clock is rapidly ticking down on the time left for amending the constitution before the 2015 elections.

Ms. Priscilla Clapp is the former chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar and is currently working on Myanmar with a number of institutions. Mr. Aung Din is a democracy and human rights activist and former political prisoner in Myanmar. 

Reform brings a return of the cronies | Bangkok Post: opinion

Reform brings a return of the cronies | Bangkok Post: opinion

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/334272/reform-brings-a-return-of-the-cronies

MYANMAR

Reform brings a return of the cronies

Published: 5 Feb 2013

 

Myanmar has undergone dramatic changes since the newly installed quasi-civilian government took power in 2011. President Thein Sein admitted that the country is in bad shape in every sector due to corruption, mismanagement and a decades-long civil war. He initiated limited political and economic reform by engaging with political dissidents, and opening up the economic and financial system to become realistic and competitive.

The conventional wisdom of the peoples of Myanmar is that such a reform process would create a level playing field in the economy and diminish crony capitalists, who had controlled the country's economy for more than 20 years with the help of the previous military regime, albeit gradually. Sadly, the opposite is true.

The cronies have reinvented themselves to fit in with the new playing field. Many of them are now members of parliament and leaders of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), cabinet ministers, presidential advisers and peace brokers _ some have even declared that they are now philanthropists.

After the United States, European Union (EU), Canada and Australia suspended or lifted economic and trade sanctions with the support of Aung San Suu Kyi, the wealth and business empires of the crony capitalists have been expanding greatly with the return of foreign investments to Myanmar and increased export opportunities to the international community. For foreign investors, they have no choice but to work with the cronies as they own most of the country's land, buildings, banks, factories and other economic resources as well as having government connections.

The cronies are also now favourites of Mrs Suu Kyi who said on Jan 9 this year: "If those so-called cronies render assistance for social work, we agree with them and [we welcome] their sincere contribution. Instead of spending money for useless activities, the money can be put to good use; it is a good idea."

Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), held a fund-raising music festival for its education network on Dec 27 and 28, 2012. The event was sponsored by companies including Air Bagan and the Asia Green Development Bank (AGD), owned by Myanmar business tycoon Tay Za, and SkyNet, a cable company owned by Shwe Than Lwin Kyaw Win who is under EU sanctions. Those companies donated more than US$240,000 (7.2 million baht) for the education network of the NLD, in addition to providing the venue for the NLD's press conference. SkyNet is a business partner of Voice of America (VOA), a US Federal Agency, which is now broadcasting its TV programmes in Myanmar through SkyNet TV.

The Myanmar military has continued its offensives against the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the ethnic Kachin resistance group, in Kachin state. Despite the fact that this has resulted human rights abuses including sexual violence and in more than one hundred thousand refugees fleeing from and suffering great hardship in the war zone, Aung San Suu Kyi continues to profess her love for the Myanmar military.

On Jan 28, 2013, she spoke to the BBC saying that "It's genuine. I'm fond of the army. People don't like me for saying that. There are many who have criticised me for being what they call a poster girl for the army. Very flattering to be seen as a poster girl for anything at this time of life, but I think the truth is I am very fond of the army, because I always thought of it as my father's army."

She is not alone. The cronies love the army just as much. On Jan 27, 2013, AGD Bank, the same bank that sponsored the NLD's fund-raising event, proudly donated US$90,000 to soldiers from the Myanmar army under the Northern Military Command who are fighting on the front lines in Kachin state.

By taking money from the cronies, defending them from public criticism and showing love for the Myanmar military, Mrs Suu Kyi has effectively irritated ethnic populations, especially the Kachin who have suffered enormous human rights violations by the Myanmar army in their state. One of the Kachin community leaders, Khon Ja, recently said: "Her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] focus is collecting awards and becoming president, rather than the suffering of our people."

Mrs Suu Kyi's supportive view and her friendliness toward the cronies are giving them great credibility. On Jan 24 this year, the US Department of Treasury removed U Kyaw Thein, a close business associate of Tay Za, from its targeted sanctions list (Specially Designated Nationals). When the Treasury announced its sanctions on Tay Zay and his financial network back in February 2008, U Kyaw Thein, who is a permanent resident of Singapore and director of Tay Za's companies in Singapore, was said to be the key financial front man of Tay Za. While there are so many cronies out there in Myanmar exploiting the lives of ordinary citizens and monopolising the country's economy, we may see more and more cronies being freed from US sanctions. No one else should come off the sanctions list since none of the benchmarks outlined by President Obama have been met and the situation has worsened since his visit to Myanmar.

---

Aung Din is a former political prisoner in Myanmar and former executive director of the Washington DC-based US Campaign for Myanmar. He now lives in the United States.

 

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.

(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

People Power in Waiting in Burma

COMMENT
People Power in Waiting in Myanmar

By Aung Din, March 9, 2011

http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MC10Ae06.html

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has stepped down. Could Myanmar's long serving military dictator General Than Shwe be next?

The people of Egypt successfully toppled Mubarak's authoritarian regime of 30 years in a mere 18 days of peaceful demonstrations. Emboldened by the success of the popular uprising in Egypt, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, Oman and Jordan, have taken to the streets in attempts to reform their countries' political systems. The seeds of democracy are spreading across the Arab World; the fourth great wave ofdemocratization has begun in earnest.

As international attention focuses on the surprising momentum and magnitude of the peoples' power movements across the Arab World, many now wonder whether the trend will spread to Asia and in particular if people of Myanmar, also known as Burma, will once again rise up against the dictatorial military regime that under different leaders has ruled the Southeast Asian country with an iron fist since 1962.

There are several similarities between Egypt's recent and Myanmar's past uprisings. One is the democratic contagion effect. The success of Tunisia's popular uprising in January this year inspired their neighbors in Egypt to follow suit.

Similarly, in 1988, empowered by the popular uprising that overthrew then Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the people of Myanmar took to the streets in their millions to bring down their own military dictator, General Ne Win. Both revolts were sparked by state violence. In Egypt the killing of 28-year-old Khaled Said by corrupt police was a revolution ignition point; in Myanmar the brutal killing of students by the regime's riot police sparked the 1988 uprising.

At the same time, there are several stark differences. In particular, Myanmar lacks an independent media to check and balance the regime's abuse of power. Unlike in Egypt, where international media such as al-Jazeera and CNN covered the events as they unfolded, the military's brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in 1988 went largely unnoticed.

Social media tools and comprehensive coverage by international media collectively applied sustained pressure on the Mubarak regime until cracked. Citizen journalist coverage disseminated over the Internet of the military's crackdown on the 2007 Buddhist monk-led uprising, known around the world as the "Saffron" revolution, failed to yield the same result.

Time and time again, the people of Myanmar have expressed their desire to live free from oppression and fear. And time and time again, the United Nations has failed to intervene to put an end to the Myanmar regime's reign of terror. But concerned people now wonder with the international support, including in the United States, given to many of the Arab nation revolts in the name of democracy whether the time is right for another popular uprising in Myanmar.

New democratic tools
There are many reasons to believe the next time could be different in Myanmar. As in many other countries, social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and SMS text messaging could play an important role in coordinating among organizers, bloggers, activists and artists to recruit people to the streets in a relatively short time.

Widely available cell phones and digital cameras would help citizen journalists to record unfolding events in the country and report to the outside world via the Internet, as they did in covering the 2007 "Saffron" revolution. That coverage would keep the international community informed and mount pressure on the regime when it inevitably struck back through use of lethal force.

Not a day goes by in Myanmar where the people do not defy the regime. Tens of thousands of fallen heroes, thousands of political prisoners, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and millions of broken families have already proved the people of Myanmar's commitment towards and yearning for democracy. They are up to date and inspired by the developments in Egypt and the Arab World through international radio broadcasts from the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Democratic Voice of Burma.

Some are already bidding to launch a parallel peoples' power movement, as seen over the recently created Facebook page entitled "Just Do It against Military Dictatorship". The page now has more than one thousand members inside Myanmar who share information about revolutions in the Arab World and encourage each other through messages like "No dictator can resist a popular movement, we know". There are an estimated 300,000 people who have regular access to the Internet in Myanmar, which is tightly censored by the regime.

Myanmar's generals are experienced in manipulating the international community.

In recent years, they have succeeded in circumventing international denunciation by hiding behind the protective powers of China, Russia, and India - all of which aim to extract and exploit energy and natural resources in Myanmar. They are also able to utilize their membership in some international organizations, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement, to render United Nations' resolutions toothless and ineffective. Any attempt by the United States to gain influence over Myanmar's generals will only aid them in hedging their bets between international powers. A direct US intervention would likely undermine the democracy movement, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United Nations Human Rights Council recently decided to form and dispatch a Commission of Inquiry to Libya to investigate human rights violations. This move is long overdue and came too late. Like General Than Shwe of Myanmar, Muammar Gaddafi has brutalized the Libyan people for decades. If the UN had established such an investigative mechanism earlier, it might have been able to stop the killing of innocent civilians by the Libyan military and its mercenaries.

Activists have long advocated for the UN to set up a commission of Inquiry into Myanmar's rights abuses as a way to protect democracy activists and ethnic minorities and prevent further killing. Such an international effort would have warned Myanmar's generals that, although they are fully protected by their domestic legal system, they could be held accountable in international courts for crimes they have committed.

Record of abuse
The regime's abuses, meanwhile, continue unabated. On February 28, 2011, nearly 84,000 ethnic people from Karen State in eastern Myanmar sent an appeal letter to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon urging him to help stop human rights violations in their areas.

These civilians, aged 16 to 103, have been subjected to abuses including forced labor, looting, extortion, destruction of homes, villages, crops and fields, forced relocation, extrajudicial killing, beating, torture and the systematic rape of women and children by the Myanmar army for decades. More than 3,600 villages have been destroyed in eastern Myanmar in the past 15 years, an average of four every week.

Physicians for Human Rights, an international non-governmental organization, released a research paper on human-rights violations in Myanmar's Chin State entitled "Life Under the Junta". The report found 2,951 cases of abuse by the military regime over a one year period. Of the 621 household interviewed, 91.9% reported cases of forced labor. Many were forced to carry military supplies and ammunition, sweep for landmines, and build roads and buildings. Religious or ethnic persecution was reported by 14.1% of respondents, 5.9% reported arbitrary arrest and detention, 4.8% reported cases of disappearance, 3.8% reported instances of torture, 2.8% reported cases of rape, and 1% reported outright murder.

These abuses - similar to the ones cited by protesters now on the streets across the Arab world - are well-known among the Myanmar population. At the same time, the regime continues to issue threats to pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, who was released from her last seven and a half year detention three months ago, and her recently banned party the National League for Democracy (NLD).

An article published on February 14 in the regime's mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar stated that Suu Kyi and her party could meet "tragic ends" for their support for economic sanctions from abroad. Many speculate that a major crackdown on pro-democracy activists and NLD supporters will begin soon.

While voices raised against Myanmar's military regime have been quickly and brutally repressed in the past, with the democratic momentum gathering across the Arab world, things could turn out very differently the next time the country's oppressed people rise up and cry out for democracy.

Aung Din served over four years in prison in Myanmar as a political prisoner. He is now the executive director of the Washington DC-based US Campaign for Burma.

(Cartoon Maung Yit, New Road Map of Burma, Moemaka)