As Myanmar parliament opens, junta’s shadow looms large
By Aung Hla Tun – Mon Jan 31, 8:47 am ET

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) – An elected parliament convened in Myanmar on Monday for the first time in half a century but inspired scant enthusiasm among a skeptical public convinced it is just a smokescreen for continued military rule.

More than 600 members filled two new “Hluttaws”, or legislative chambers, in the opening session. They are tasked with choosing Myanmar’s first civilian president since a 1962 coup ushered in 49 unbroken years of military dictatorship.

The ruling junta has hailed the legislature as a new dawn of democracy but critics dismiss it as a charade that leaves the same authoritarian generals in control. The new government is just as likely to clamp down on dissent as the old one.

Lawmakers elected a chairmen and vice chairmen for each of the two chambers in the opening session, with three of the four positions going to retired soldiers, according to several parliamentarians, who asked to remain anonymous because speaking to the media was punishable by two years in prison.

The big surprise was junta number three Thura Shwe Mann, a career soldier honored for bravery and tipped by many politicians and analysts as a possible presidential candidate, being made chairman, or speaker, of the lower house.

“There was speculation among us that Thura Shwe Mann will become the president, but our party instructed us to elect him as the chairman of the lower house,” said a member of the main political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is a proxy for the military government.

The army has a reserved quota of a quarter of the seats in both chambers, as well as in regional parliaments. That leaves parliament dominated by serving or retired soldiers loyal to junta supremo Than Shwe who many analysts think might take the post of president.

Police patrolled roads and legislators traveled in luxury cars to the assemblies in Naypyitaw, the sprawling capital built from scratch just four years ago, where the military rulers of the former Burma have isolated themselves some 320 km (200 miles) from the biggest city and former capital, Yangon.

But there was barely a ripple of interest among ordinary Burmese, most of whom see the changes as purely cosmetic.

“We have no idea and no time to take the trouble to think about these useless things,” said a 38-year-old worker in Naypyitaw when asked for his views on parliament.
Journalists were barred from attending the session and cellular phones were banned in the chambers.

Following a November 7 general election that was sharply criticized at home and abroad for irregularities, both the lower and upper houses will be dominated by the USDP.

“WE DON’T CARE WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT”

The National Democratic Force, the biggest pro-democracy party that took part in the November election, won just 12 of the 664 seats.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy boycotted the election after winning the previous poll in 1990 by a landslide, a result the military ignored.

Despite being freed from house arrest after the election, Suu Kyi and her party, dissolved for boycotting the poll, have no influence over parliament, though she remains immensely popular.

While Western nations have harshly criticized the parliament and shown little sign of ending sanctions imposed in response to rights abuses, the elections have been lauded by China which, along with Thailand, India and Singapore, is a big investor.

Myanmar’s neighbors are keen to tap its rich natural resources. Its proven gas reserves, for instance, doubled in the past decade to 570 billion cubic meters, equivalent to almost a fifth of Australia’s, according to the BP Statistical Review.

China’s official Xinhua news agency hailed the start of parliament as a “new era”, in which the military would still play a role “with its own special characteristics”.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it would “closely observe” the direction of the parliament and called on the new government, when it takes office, to release political prisoners and engage more with the international community.

Most people interviewed by Reuters said they remained far more concerned with the struggles of day-to-day life in a country with woeful public services, frequent power cuts and chronic economic mismanagement.

At least 32 percent of Myanmar’s estimated 50 million people live below the poverty line.

“We don’t care who becomes president as long as he can create better living conditions,” said the worker, who would only speak candidly on the condition his name was not reported.

“Things couldn’t be worse right now and prices keep rising.”

No one has publicly expressed interest in becoming head of state and analysts believe the president, two vice presidents and ministers have already been decided by the junta.

Many believe the 78-year-old Than Shwe is too wary to end his 18-year reign and will quietly retire from the military in coming days so he is eligible to take the all-powerful presidency himself.

Other analysts, however, believe the strongman may have reserved the top positions for his proteges and confidantes and plans to step aside and pull the strings from behind the scenes.

Factbox: Myanmar’s new political structure
Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:05am EST

(Reuters) – Myanmar’s new parliament convened for the first time on Monday and will begin choosing a civilian president, the country’s first non-military ruler since the army seized power in the former British colony in 1962.

Below are details about the new political system, which still leaves the military in a dominant position.

MILITARY-DOMINATED PARLIAMENT
– The junta’s political vehicle, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), won the November 7 election with a landslide. It won 76 percent of the total vote, 79 percent of lower house seats, 77 percent of senate seats and a 75 percent stake in the seven state and seven regional assemblies. The poll was marred by allegations of fraud and intimidation.
– In addition, 25 percent of the seats in all legislative chambers are reserved for serving soldiers. A total of 166 young, educated, mid-ranking officers were notified over the past three weeks they had been chosen to be parliamentarians.
– The military and the USDP, whose bloc of lawmakers is made up mostly of recently retired soldiers or junta cronies, will jointly control 83 percent of the national parliament. The biggest pro-democracy party, the National Democratic Force, has less than 2 percent, with just 12 seats.

RUBBER-STAMP SESSIONS?
– Lawmakers’ powers are limited and the passing of laws appears to be a formality. Constitutional amendments require the backing of more than 75 percent of parliament, meaning attempts to change a political system apparently devised to entrench army powers and sideline opponents will be futile.
– The constitution, which has many contradictions, requires bills to be submitted to parliament for approval, but in a number of cases it also states that the bills are to be discussed “but not refused or curtailed.”
– Parliament cannot reject national budgetary bills. And it has “no right” to block any of the president’s appointments, unless they are unconstitutional.
– Parliamentary approval is necessary, however, for signing or revoking some international treaties and a declaration of war or peace.

PRESIDENTIAL “ELECTION”
– The head of state of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, as the country will soon be called, will be a president nominated by parliamentarians, not by the public.
– Presidential candidates must be civilians at least 45 years old and Myanmar citizens who have resided in the country for a continuous period of 20 years.
– Three committees, known collectively as the Presidential Electoral College, will be formed from upper and lower house parliamentarians. One of the three groups will be made up entirely of military-appointed lawmakers.
– Each committee will nominate one candidate for the presidency. Members of the Electoral College will then vote for one of the three to become president. The candidate with the most votes takes the top job and the unsuccessful candidates will become vice-presidents. All will serve five-year terms.
– When a president takes office, the State Peace and Development Council, as the junta calls itself, will cease to exist.

EXECUTIVE POWERS
– The president will appoint government ministers, the attorney general and chief justice. Parliament can only challenge the president’s appointments if nominees are not deemed to be qualified. The criteria are broad and open to interpretation.
– The president and his office are not answerable to parliament or judicial courts, provided he acts within the constitution.
– The president will chair a new entity, the National Defence and Security Council, a powerful 11-member committee tasked with making key decisions. Analysts have drawn parallels between this and the politburos of North Korea and China.
– The president can change the number of ministers and ministries at his discretion; appoint, transfer or dismiss diplomats; and approve or call for the removal of foreign diplomats. He can also call parliamentary sessions at any time.
– The president has the power to grant pardons and amnesties, confer honorary titles, appoint and remove state officials, sign or revoke some international treaties and call a state of emergency, all without legislative approval.

MILITARY MIGHT
– Myanmar’s army rulers say the civilian system will reflect the will of the people, the “ultimate owners” of sovereign power. However, the constitution clearly states in the opening chapter that its aim is to enable the military “to participate in the national political leadership role of the state.”
– In addition to the 386 military personnel already appointed as lawmakers, the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Service will appoint three generals as ministers of defense, the interior and border affairs. The president can also select military officers to head other ministries.
– Military personnel will occupy five of the 11 places on the National Defence and Security Council.
– With presidential approval, the armed forces chief can assume sovereign power and declare a state of emergency, with full legislative, executive and judicial power.
– Armed forces members serving in government, parliamentary or civil service roles accused of a crime will be tried by a military court martial rather than a judicial court.

Myanmar’s parliament opens under tight security
By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press – Mon Jan 31, 8:19 am ET

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar opened its first parliament in more than two decades Monday, an event greeted with cautious optimism by opposition lawmakers despite the military’s tight management of the event.

The military and its allies hold more than 80 percent of the seats in both houses of parliament, ensuring that the army exercises control over the wheels of power, as it has since a 1962 coup deposed the last legitimately elected legislature. A single-party parliament under the late dictator Gen. Ne Win was abolished in 1988 after the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising.

The 440-seat lower house and 224-seat upper house were opened simultaneously at 8:55 a.m. (0225 GMT) in a massive new building in Naypyitaw, the remote city to which the capital was moved from Yangon in 2005. The 14 regional parliaments, whose members were also elected last November, opened at the same time.

In the afternoon, the two houses convened together, and legislative officers were elected, according to Dr. Khin Shwe, a business tycoon and upper house representative of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Thura Shwe Mann, who had been the junta’s third-ranking member and retired from the military to run for election with the USDP, was picked to be speaker of the lower house, and the junta’s Culture Minister Khin Aung Myint, named speaker of the upper house, Khin Shwe said. The election of a vice president was scheduled for Tuesday, while the timing for picking a president was not yet clear.

With its allies controlling parliament and loyalists — many recently retired senior junta members — expected to fill top government posts, the military will be keeping a tight grip on the reins of power. The 2008 constitution, drafted under the junta’s guidance and with provisions ensuring the military’s dominance, also came into effect Monday.

Roads leading to the parliament building were sealed off with roadblocks manned by armed police. Delegates wearing traditional attire and representatives of ethnic minorities in the garb of their respective groups were bused from state guest houses to the site. Each bus was checked for bombs as they entered the compound.

Reporters, diplomats and the public at large were barred from witnessing the proceedings inside. Publicity for the event has been low-key, though Myanmar state television Monday night showed footage of the opening.

Delegates are not allowed to carry cameras, mobile phones, computers, tape recorders and other electronic devices into the parliament compound. Unlike in many democracies, their speech in parliament is not fully protected, and they are liable to be proescuted if their statements are determined to endanger national security or the unity of the country. Any protest staged within parliament is punishable by up to two years in prison.

There appeared to be little popular interest in parliament’s opening. Last November’s election left a widespread perception the junta cheated to ensure a victory by its proxies.
Many of the residents of Naypyitaw are civil servants or members of the military, or work in sectors that depend on their patronage, such as a waiter at a small food shop asked about the historic event.

“We know about parliament going to be convened, but I think this is not our concern. Our concern is earning our daily bread,” said the man, in his mid-30s. Like many people fearful of drawing official attention, he asked not to be named or photographed.

Members of the small opposition bloc, however, took an upbeat approach.

“Now that parliament has convened, we have taken a step toward Myanmar’s democratic change,” said Thein Nyunt, an elected representative and former leader of the National Democratic Force, a party formed by breakaway members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party boycotted last November’s polls, claiming the process was unfair and undemocratic. The party was consequently dissolved under a new election law.

The NLD won a landslide victory in the last general election in 1990 but was not allowed to take power when the army barred parliament from convening.

Despite the heavy pro-military majority, which can push through or block any legislation and pass constitutional amendments on their own, there was muted hope that the new legislature will be a step, however small, toward a more democratic country.

“We are a minority in the parliament but we hope to make our voices heard and will ask for our rights,” said Sai Hla Kyaw, a lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities Development Party, which won a combined 21 seats in both houses.

Myanmar opposition group launches website
Sun Jan 30, 10:18 am ET

BANGKOK (AP) – The Myanmar opposition group led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has launched its first official website.

Suu Kyi says she believes the National League for Democracy’s site will help achieve the group’s goal of democracy for Myanmar at a faster pace.

The website, in English and Burmese, was launched Sunday, a day before the opening of Myanmar’s first parliament in 22 years. The NLD boycotted last year’s general elections, saying they were held under unfair conditions to perpetuate military rule.

It was not immediately clear if the government, which exercises tight control over the Internet and other media, would try to block the site, which is meant for party members at home as well as supporters abroad.

Online: http://www.nldburma.org

Suu Kyi: Myanmar ‘yearns’ to join global community
Fri Jan 28, 2:43 pm ET

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi told a gathering of the world business elite at the Swiss resort of Davos that her countrymen “yearn to be a part of the global community.”

“I would like to speak on behalf of the 55 million people of Burma who have for the most part been left behind,” she said, in an audio address to the World Economic Forum, the world’s most influential annual networking event.

“We yearn to be a part of the global community: not only to be economically and socially connected, but also to achieve the domestic political stability and national reconciliation that would enable us to fully address the needs of our people,” she added.

Suu Kyi said her isolated, junta-ruled country has already “missed so many opportunities because of political conflicts” over the last five decades.

But she acknowledged that without political stability and national reconciliation, the country could not be integrated in the global community.

She urged potential investors to respect the environment and human rights, saying: “I look forward to the day when there will be a political and social environment that is favourable to a wide range of investments in Burma.”

“We are certainly in need of innovation and diversification if our country is to fulfil the aspirations of its people and catch up with the rest of the world,” she said.

Suu Kyi had been locked up under house arrest for seven straight years with no telephone or Internet until November, when Myanmar’s military rulers relaxed the siege and allowed her supporters to protest in her support.

Myanmar refugee sets himself alight in Australia
Mon Jan 31, 12:31 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – A Myanmar refugee being held in Australian immigration detention was treated in hospital Monday after trying to set himself on fire, refugee advocates said.

The immigration department confirmed that a detainee was taken to hospital after a “small fire” at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin about 2:30 am (1700 GMT Sunday), but indicated the person was unhurt.

“We are not speculating on the cause of the fire but the detainee had no injuries,” a spokeswoman told AFP.

“(They have) since been discharged and returned to the centre,” she said, adding that federal police were investigating the incident. The asylum seeker was back at the centre about eight hours after the incident.

Advocates from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the inmate was from Myanmar and had “set himself on fire last night in desperation” after eight months of uncertainty about his application.

The ASRC said the man had been granted refugee status but his visa was being held up by security checks.

“He was desperate to get out of detention because (he was) fearing for the lives of his children back home and (was) powerless to help them in detention,” the ASRC said on its Twitter feed.

“He was so fearful for his kids he previously asked to be sent home despite his own life being in danger so as to save his kids.”

The man had “begged to be released or returned or at least told when he would come out of detention” before setting himself alight, the ASRC said.

Public broadcaster ABC, citing sources inside the centre, also reported that the man was from Myanmar and had attempted to ignite himself.

Immigration officials would not comment on the detainee’s gender, nationality or the status of their application.

Tensions are high in Australia’s immigration centres after a record 6,500 refugees arrived by leaky fishing boat from Indonesia last year, stretching facilities to capacity. Most are from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq.

Hunger strikes and protests have flared recently after a refugee boat smashed into rocks at remote Christmas Island, killing about 50 people, and Canberra announced a push to forcibly deport failed Afghan asylum claimants.

Time Magazine – Was Burma’s Opening of Parliament Significant?
By Hannah Beech Monday, Jan. 31, 2011

Deep in the heart of Burma’s remote new capital Naypyidaw, a most unusual event occurred on the morning of January 31. More then 600 legislators gathered in a lavish, palace-like hall for the country’s first parliamentary session in 22 years. Technically, nearly five decades of military rule in Burma had ended.

But if the landmark gathering gave the illusion of a new political era in a country governed by the army since 1962, the reality was quite different. “New bottle, same wine,” joked Win Tin, a veteran opposition politician whose popular National League for Democracy (NLD) has no seats in the new parliament because it boycotted last November’s elections. “It’s the same army men in charge. Everyone knows that convening a parliament and saying there is a transition to civilian rule is nonsense. We know where the real power lies.” (See photos of Aung San Suu Kyi’s path to freedom{http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2032170,00.html})

Indeed, although the military junta has boasted about setting Burma on a path to what it calls a discipline-flourishing democracy, the regulations governing the milestone legislative session showed just how isolated and repressive Burma’s rulers still are. Foreign journalists were barred from attending the event. Parliamentary laws introduced in January restrict freedom of information. One rule, for instance, states that any non-MP who enters the parliament building without prior approval can be jailed for one year. Lawmakers themselves are not allowed to bring any electronic equipment, including cellphones, cameras or recording devices, into parliament. Nor can they even ask a question without going through an arcane process that takes more than a week. Even the oddly precise timing of the opening of parliament — 8:55 a.m. — was widely seen as a move by the astrologically obsessed junta members to secure the most auspicious time to inaugurate their rubber-stamp body.

At first glance, the past few months have brought what seem like major shifts in Burma’s political topography. On Nov. 7, the country held its first elections in two decades, allowing an entire generation of young Burmese to vote for the first time. Six days after the polls, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from more than seven years of house arrest. The NLD, which Suu Kyi founded, won a landslide in the country’s last polls back in 1990, but the junta ignored the results and locked her up for most of the intervening two decades. (See pictures of “The Two Burmas.”{http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2004257,00.html})

But three months after these watersheds events of November, Burma feels essentially unchanged. Although Suu Kyi’s NLD proudly inaugurated its website the same day that parliament held its first session, the party is no longer a legal political force. Many of the legislators now sitting in the improbably grand parliament building in Naypyidaw are hardly the people’s choice. Due to likely voter intimidation and alleged ballot-box shenanigans, the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won around 80% of the November vote. Its elected representatives in parliament include business cronies of the junta and officers who recently retired from the military in order to participate in what is officially supposed to be a civilian process.

Those opposition parties that dared to participate in the polls, including a slew of ethnically based parties and the NLD breakaway National Democratic Force (NDF), won far fewer seats than international observers believe they should have. With one-quarter of parliamentary seats designated for military appointees, the opposition’s power in parliament is paltry. Add to that the fact that top leadership positions are reserved for those with military backgrounds, and Win Tin’s new bottle, same wine formulation makes perfect sense. (See Suu Kyi in TIME’s top 10 political prisoners.{http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2024558_2024522_2024484,00.html})

One of parliament’s first tasks over the coming days will be to select the country’s new President. Speculation is rife as to whether current junta leader Than Shwe, an elderly former postal worker and Psy-Ops specialist, will want the position or whether he will prefer to keep the post of Burma’s commander-in-chief. (By law one person cannot hold both titles.) An alternative candidate for President may be Thura Shwe Mann, a battle-hardened general famous for his loyalty to Than Shwe and for his brutal campaigns against ethnic Karen rebels. Either way, the President will not face much of a check from parliament, which for the most part cannot legally challenge him. (Comment on this story.{http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045263,00.html#comments})

Just a few days before the parliament convened, Burma’s supreme court rejected an appeal by the NLD to have the political party recognized as a legal entity. Because the NLD decided to boycott the November polls, which it rightly believed would be neither free nor fair, the party was ordered dissolved by Burma’s election commission in September. NLD elders have talked about retooling the party either as a shadow political engine or as a civil-society force. But both paths are untested.

A political landscape with only a modicum of opposition presence in parliament and a totally absent NLD sounds like a bleak scenario for democratic progress in Burma. The lack of interest that many Burmese have shown in both the elections and the convening of the new parliament shows just how removed they believe their lives are from stage-managed Burmese politics. Around one-third of Burmese live under the poverty line; no parliament will change that in the near future.

Nevertheless, change, if only at a glacial pace, may still come. Although many Western nations maintain economic sanctions on the regime, an influx of investment from neighboring Asian countries has brought a flood of money into Burma’s natural-resources sector. This month, Burma unveiled a Special Economic Zone law, although what exactly this means is not yet clear. Most of that money has ended up — and no doubt will continue to end up — in the pockets of the generals or their business cronies. Still, more foreign investment could make life better for some Burmese, if only because of improved telecommunications, better roads and even menial jobs associated with foreign projects. (Of course, the Burmese army has also shown little compunction in employing forced labor and forcing farmers off their land with little compensation to make way for future projects.) (See photos of Burma’s slowly shifting landscape.{http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1902296,00.html})

“Change in Burma will come through politics and also economics,” says Kyaw Win, a Burmese political analyst in Rangoon, the country’s largest city and former capital. “But we have to be patient.” Sadly, that’s the one quality the Burmese, who have witnessed the slow devolution of their homeland for nearly five decades, possess in large supply.

Jan 29, 2011
Straits Times – Secrecy swirls as Myanmar prepares new parliament

YANGON – AT PRECISELY 8.55 on Monday morning hundreds of uniformed soldiers and over 1,000 elected lawmakers will gather in Myanmar’s capital for the grand opening of the country’s fledgling parliament.

The timing – almost certainly a product of the regime’s penchant for astrology – is just one aspect of this new assembly peculiar to a nation that has withered under the iron grip of military rule since 1962.

After a November election, marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation, the junta enjoys a crushing majority in the new parliament.

A quarter of the seats were kept aside for the military even before the vote, and the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) claimed an overwhelming victory, winning 882 out of 1,154 seats.

The formation of a national parliament in Naypyidaw and 14 regional assemblies takes the country towards the final stage of the junta’s so-called ‘roadmap’ to a ‘disciplined democracy’, conceived in 2003.

But while the regime may have been planning for years, the lawmakers themselves are in the dark about what the business of being a parliamentarian is going to be like.

GlobalPost - Myanmar to have an elected leader, junta says
Myanmar’s next president will be an elected member of parliament, state media has reported.
By News Desk — GlobalPost Editors
Published: January 31, 2011 10:54 ET in Asia

Myanmar’s next president will be an elected member of parliament, ruling out the country’s current military chief as a candidate, state media announced Monday.

Myanmar’s ruling generals on Monday convened the first meeting of Parliament in more than two decades, the Associated Press reported. The move completes the impoverished country’s transition to a multiparty democracy, according to the ruling military junta.

The opening of Parliament follows elections in November, and release from house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the country’s leading dissident. Suu Kyi is now seeking to rebuild her pro-democracy movement, according to the New York Times.

The 440-seat lower house and 224-seat upper house were opened simultaneously Monday in a new building in Naypyitaw, a remote city that replaced the capital, Yangon, in 2005. The 14 regional parliaments, whose members were also elected last November, opened at the same time.

Officially the opening of the two-chamber Parliament will mean the dissolution of the junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1988, when the country was known as Burma.

But the military and its allies hold more than 80 percent of the seats in both houses of parliament, ensuring that the army retains power, as it has since a 1962 coup deposed the last legitimately elected legislature. A single-party parliament under the late dictator Gen. Ne Win was abolished in 1988 after the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising.

Roads leading to the parliament building were sealed off with roadblocks manned by armed police.

Reporters, diplomats and the public were barred from witnessing the proceedings. Publicity for the event has been low-key, though Myanmar state television Monday night showed footage of the opening.

One key question is whether Myanmar’s top general, Than Shwe, will become president, the most powerful job under the 2008 Constitution, which came into effect Monday.

Than Shwe, who has successfully crushed uprisings and purged potential rivals inside the military during his nearly two decades as the country’s commander in chief, turns 78 on Wednesday, according to official records.

With its allies controlling parliament and loyalists — many recently retired senior junta members — expected to fill top government posts.

“Now that parliament has convened, we have taken a step toward Myanmar’s democratic change,” said Thein Nyunt, an elected representative and former leader of the National Democratic Force, a party formed by breakaway members of Suu Kyi’s political party.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party boycotted last November’s polls, claiming the process was unfair and undemocratic. The party was consequently dissolved under a new election law.

Myanmar parliament elects military men as house speakers
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Mon, Jan 31 7:15 PM IST

Naypyitaw (Myanmar), Jan 31 (DPA) Myanmar’s new parliament Monday elected two military men as speakers of the upper and lower chambers in its first session since the Nov 7 general election.

Shwe Mann, the third most powerful general in the country’s junta, was voted speaker of the lower house while Khin Aung Myint, the current culture minister, was voted upper house speaker, sources said.

The two houses are dominated by the military through the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 77 percent of the contested seats, and 166 military-appointed legislators, who account for 25 percent of the votes.

Civilians were elected as vice speakers.

‘On Tuesday, we will nominate three presidential candidates,’ one legislator said. It is unclear when the parliament will vote on the president.

Journalists, except those working for state media, were barred from attending the parliamentary session.

The session was held amid tight security. Barricades were in place on roads leading to the massive 100-million-dollar parliament compound in Naypyitaw, 350 km north of Yangon.
Legislators were escorted to the site by plainclothes policemen.

Senior General Than Shwe, who has ruled Myanmar since 1992, who in past speeches vowed to steer the country towards ‘discipline-flourishing democracy’, is keeping true to his word.

The stage-managed November general elections were condemned by Western democracies for being neither free nor fair.

Military appointees make up 25 percent of lawmakers in the three chambers, giving the military bloc veto power over any future legislation.

Only the upper and lower houses meet in Naypyitaw this week. The regional and state parliaments will meet separately in their own capitals.

Than Shwe, who turns 78 Wednesday, although a possible candidate for the presidency, seems more likely to chose a protege for the powerful post and control him from ‘behind the curtain’, government sources said.

The likeliest candidate now is Thein Sein, the current prime minister, since Shwe Mann has been named lower house speaker.

‘I think Than Shwe may feel that Thein Sein is more malleable than Shwe Mann,’ said Win Min, a US-based Myanmar researcher. ‘He may also feel that Thein Sein may be more credible as president since Thein Sein’s family is much less corrupt than Shwe Mann’s family.’

The new president will select a cabinet, which is expected to be packed with USDP members and military appointees.

‘It seems that Than Shwe will try to maintain the status quo,’ Win Min said. ‘So, same wine in the old bottle, or just some name changes in the military dominated government, not a change in the government.’

01/31/2011 13:12
AsiaNews.it – MYANMAR: Naypyidaw, the first sitting of Burma’s “sham” Parliament
In the midst of junta propaganda and the indifference of the population, the two Houses begin their first working session today in the capital. First priorities, the election of new President of Myanmar. The dictatorship has imposed a strict censorship, denying access to journalists. NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi left on the sidelines.

Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The first sitting of Parliament in Naypyidaw Myanmar took place today amid tight security and the general indifference of the population. People consider the new parliament shambolic, that will not bring about any change in the country: power remains firmly in the hands of the military, who have imposed a news blackout on the start of the working sessions of the two legislative assemblies (”Hluttaws). Among the first tasks, the election of the new (and first) President.

Journalists were barred from attending the first session of Parliament, the result of November 7 “sham” elections. Since 1962 Myanmar a military dictatorship has been in power that in the last two decades has increased its hold on power. 25% of the seats are reserved for members of the army and the remaining 75% were won by representatives of the party close to them.

A dozen journalists have reached the capital Naypyidaw, but despite the announcement last week, were not given permission to film or report. Networks of barbed wire surround the Parliament buildings; deputies have also been barred from carrying mobile phones and cameras into the chambers.

The military junta is celebrating the day as “a new dawn of democracy.” Critics speak instead of a window dressing that does not change the substance: the country which remains in the hands of the military leadership, led by General Than Shwe. The population is uninterested in parliamentary affairs, because they are engaged in daily survival.

Representatives of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the leader of the democratic struggle in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, are excluded from the “Hluttaws” because they refused to run in the November 7 poll.

Asia News Network – Way forward for Asean and EU on Burma
New parliament opening today offers opportunity for re-engagement
Jonathan Eyal, The Straits Times
Publication Date : 31-01-2011

Burma’s newly elected Parliament is scheduled to meet for the first time Monday (January 31), three months after the military-ruled nation’s first elections in two decades.

This should have been a perfect opportunity for Western governments to re-engage with a country they pointedly still call ‘Burma’. That’s precisely what foreign ministers of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) suggested last week, calling on Europe and the United States to lift their economic sanctions.

But the silence from the West has been deafening, despite most governments knowing that their current approach is counter-productive.

Since the mid-1990s, the European Union (EU) and the US – as well as Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have slapped various sanctions against Burma. These include a ban on trade in weapons, timber, gems and metals, as well as visa restrictions on members of the regime and the suspension of development aid programmes.

There are several reasons why Western governments – which have no difficulties in dealing with other authoritarian regimes – continue to ostracise Burma.

One is psychological. Burma experienced a popular uprising in 1988, just when communist Eastern Europe underwent similar upheavals. This led Europeans to see Burma as, somehow, part of their march to freedom. The annulment of its free elections in 1990 shattered the myth of the much-talked-about “end of history”, the triumph of democracy.

The personality of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s chief opposition leader, also played a part. Physically frail but politically unbreakable, she became the West’s latter-day Mahatma Gandhi, a champion of freedom.

A ferocious lobbying offensive against Burma has also done its bit. The Burma Campaign is one of Britain’s most effective pressure groups.

Ultimately, however, the real reason for sanctions is that, despite Burma’s vast natural wealth, it was never a major trading partner of the West. Ostracising Burma entailed few costs.

But the outcome is a disaster. Dr Niklas Swanstrom, who heads Sweden’s Institute for Security and Development Policy, says: “What we see today in Myanmar (Burma) is not a weakened government, but stronger governmental control of resources and people.”

The only ones to suffer are the ordinary people in a country which started its independence as one of Asia’s richest states but now ranks 138th out of 182 nations on the United Nations Human Development Index.

Asean’s appeal for the end of sanctions is based on two chief arguments: that a new generation of military officers will soon come to power and should be encouraged to be more open-minded, and that a boost in trade and aid will give Burma’s rulers further incentives, as well as alleviate the population’s suffering.

But many Western politicians are not persuaded, noting the military has held power for two generations and there is no proof the next will be any different.

The claim that economic development would follow the lifting of sanctions is also doubtful. This can happen only if the economy is freed from political control and if Burmese rulers
accept the need to improve their people’s welfare.

For the moment, neither seems likely. The country’s revenue is steadily increasing, but the population gets next to nothing: Less than 2 per cent of the national budget is allocated to health and education combined.

Indeed, a good case can be made that lifting sanctions will make little difference. Burma’s raw materials are controlled by Chinese or Indian corporations. Tourism is already not restricted. Western firms determined to benefit from Burma’s opportunities are already there.

Other business may never come. Why, for instance, should Western garment companies go to Burma, when Bangladesh, Cambodia or Viet Nam already offer abundant cheap labour as well as better transport infrastructure?

“The logic of gradual change through engagement, development aid and trade has no empirical basis in the history of meaningful social change from dictatorships in either the East or the West,” says Dr Maung Zarni, a noted Burmese human rights activist, now a research fellow at the London School of Economics.

Since the political backlash from noisy non-governmental organisations is likely to be fierce and the economic benefits likely to be low, few Western governments have an incentive to abandon the sanctions. Indeed, even Ms Suu Kyi herself does not favour a lifting of sanctions, the Financial Times reported this past weekend.

Nevertheless, a way forward does exist. The Europeans have noted that Asean’s latest initiative goes beyond a call to lift sanctions, to include a pledge to help break Burma’s internal political impasse. As Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa put it last week, “lifting the ban and reconciliation should go hand in hand”.

More importantly, the US is already pledged to a new “pragmatic engagement” with Burma. Little has emerged from Washington since this policy shift announced in September 2009 but the US is clearly searching for alternatives.

The real challenge, therefore, is one of timing. Asean is unlikely to get a formal, public promise from either the EU or the US to lift sanctions at this early stage.

But it is entitled to demand – in private – a pledge from Western governments to respond quickly and positively to any future political concessions which Asean may extract from Burma. The sanctions could be lifted in stages, with the most symbolic ones remaining for a longer period.

Europe will probably not take the first step. Still, if the US can be persuaded to move together with Asean, the EU can be cornered into changing its stance.

The Asean appeal has succeeded in one respect: in reminding Western governments that their failed policies on Burma are overdue for review. But the hard work of delivering on engagement with Burma still lies ahead. Either way, nothing further can now be gained by continuing with the megaphone diplomacy and public finger-pointing between Asean and the West.

Aliran Online – Burmese migrant workers: caught between a tyrant and a tiger
By admin, on 31 January 2011
[Translate]

Malaysia’s economic boom has been driven by the exploitation of cheap migrant labour, from Burma and Thailand. Underpaid and with no rights, this is their story. Joseph Allchin reports for the Guardian.

They were not illegal, nor criminals, not protesting nor agitating. For 900 Malaysian ringgits (around $290) a month they had travelled, through a broker, to the southern Malaysian town of Johor. There to bend the metal, mould the bars and solder the nuts that will bolt together the terrific rise in Asia’s economies.

However the 35 Burmese workers found that, after two months, instead of the promised amount, they were to receive 640 a month, with no overtime pay, as promised.

So the workers organised, led by five individuals. They initially complained to their employers.

The employers immediately called the police, all 35 were detained on 12 January. No charges were brought, and 30 were released that day.

“Whenever workers do actually complain to their employers or against [them], employers tend to discriminate against them or even terminate [their contracts],” says pioneering Malaysian human rights lawyer, Charles Hector.

Before any legal rationale could be brought, or advocates or government bodies mobilised, the five leaders were whisked away to the airport for deportation, because, as Hector notes, “the employer wins by default if they are deported”, they cannot compete in a labour dispute, and migrant workers are not allowed to be members of a union or stay in Malaysia without employment.

Out of the five leaders who complained, three have been forced back to Burma despite signing a three-year contract, two, however are missing.

Malaysia’s growing “tiger economy”, is driven by a workforce of around 20% migrant labour, with an estimated 500,000 from Burma, many of them illegal, taking their place at the bottom of Malaysia’s semi-apartheid ethnic mix.

With GDP per capita hard to record in Burma, the IMF estimated in January 2009 that it was around $250. This compares with the IMF’s 2010 estimate for Malaysia of $7,775.

Despite a constitution and laws pertaining to universal rights in Malaysia, law enforcement and other political precedence places migrant workers at immediate disadvantage. All companies in Malaysia that hire foreign labour are required to pay a levy. This is very often deducted from workers’ pay, even though the practice was made illegal in April 2009.

Tun Tun, head of Burma Campaign Malaysia, notes that the overwhelming ethos is for employers to take responsibility for their workers as opposed to the workers having rights as individuals. He points out that when you arrive in Malaysia as a tourist, you need no visa and can rapidly leave the airport. However, migrant workers have to wait for their employer to pick them up and take them, in custodial fashion, to wherever they please.

Not all Burmese are just economic migrants. Many of those who eke out a living between the concrete apartment buildings and highways of Kuala Lumpur have fled political oppression in their homeland.

Kyaw Hsan was jailed in Burma at the age of 15. His “crime” was distributing pamphlets about democracy, with news and information that circumvented Burma’s draconian military censors. He would leave pamphlets on the roof of a bus, so as it drove through the streets of Rangoon they would flutter down, as innocently as freshly falling rain. He was picked up outside a meeting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy on 16 September 2000.

His confinement was marked with weeks of torture, including night-long beatings by teams of guards. This was followed, in 2003, by periods of up to 32 days chained to a wet floor with dozens of other prisoners for protesting the rearrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

He contracted tuberculosis, which quarantined him for a further year after his release from Rangoon’s colonial-era Insein jail.

Beyond the scars marking his body, and despite his affable nature, the psychological toll is unmistakable. At the time of writing, a combination of dislocation, alcohol and the breakdown of a relationship had led to angry outbursts, which saw him lose his job as a waiter.

In exile

The isolation is palpable in divided Kuala Lumpur. On a busy rush hour Kyaw Hsan intervenes to protect a young Burmese who has been set upon by up to a dozen Malays. They beat him and take his phone, but he mistrusts the police so much that a foreign escort to the station to report it is deemed necessary.

Ko Harun, meanwhile, has weathered exile for longer. He fled his native Burma because of thediscrimination faced by the Rohingya minority. The Rohingya, he estimates along with many observers, are the most oppressed minority in Burma; despite having been in the country for about 1,000 years, they are denied citizenship rights.

Since he left Burma he has been arrested four times in Thailand and five times in Malaysia. In Thailand he says he was caged up with gang members who would violently steal his rations.

He has been “sold” to traffickers by Thai officials, after being handed over by Malaysian authorities. He was lucky enough to be able to borrow the fee to remove himself from bondage.

Conditions in Malaysian jails are horrendous, causing what the Malaysian press call riots but are actually hunger strikes or peaceful protests, complaining about the overcrowding, the constant outbreaks of leptospirosis, a disease caused spread through urine-contaminated water, or simply the length of detention.

The two missing worker leaders have not been heard from. Like an estimated 190,000 other Burmese in Malaysia, they are at the mercy of a divided, hungry nation.

Joseph Allchin is a journalist with the exiled Burmese news network the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Daily Mirror – Meeting focuses on Lanka Myanmar air services
Monday, 31 January 2011 00:00

The importance of having direct air services between Sri Lanka and Myanmar was focused during a meeting between visiting Deputy Minister of External Affairs Neomal Perera and his Myanmar counterpart U. Nyan Win in Nay Pyi Taw recently.

The external affairs ministry said the meeting was held on the sidelines of the 13th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting which was held in Nay Pyi Taw the Administrative Capital of the Union of Myanmar from January 20 –22,  2011.

Minister Perera further emphasized that tourism between the two countries was one of the key areas that needed to be further expanded as travelling between Sri Lanka and Myanmar was mainly confined to Buddhism related activities.

The Minister underscored the importance of enhancing greater understanding between the two countries and cultural heritage with this year being declared as “Visit Sri Lanka” year.

“Direct air services between Sri Lanka and Myanmar is essential to succeed in this endeavour”, he further said. The importance of establishment a Sri Lanka Temple in Myanmar was also highlighted by the Deputy Minister at the meeting.

The Deputy Minister congratulated Myanmar for the excellent arrangements that had been made for the BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting and expressed his fullest cooperation for the success of the Summit. He further stressed that our bilateral relations that were raised in the historical relations and cultural ties that existed from the 3rd century, linked the two countries through Theravada Buddhism.

Posted on Fri, Jan. 28, 2011 11:19 PM

Paw Wah Tamla bounces between getting her people to remember and forget.

Her people are the Karen who fled oppression to come here from a land they still call Burma.

As a community leader, she wants them to remember their proud history and customs. For several weeks, she’s helped plan today’s celebration of the Karen New Year, a pageant complete with traditional costumes, food and dance.

But as a parent liaison for the North Kansas City School District, she works to get them to forget the crude ways of the refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border where they all lived before coming to Kansas City.

She tells them they can’t let toddlers go outside to play unattended in a big city. When children have to go to the bathroom at school, they can’t just run somewhere and drop their pants.

But in just hours of flight time, the Karen families went from jungle camps to American suburbia. From open sewers and no electricity to subdivisions, Starbucks and schools with media labs.

Tamla, 31, who lived half her life in one of those refugee camps, tells of a little girl who got hot in her North Kansas City district classroom.

“She took off her shirt and used it to fan herself,” she said. “Her parents didn’t understand why she can’t do that.”

•••

“Security” seemingly is one of the first English words learned by the Karen.

Men who struggle to say where they work or what they do or even how old they are will quickly cite “security” as the best thing about coming to America.

“Security is good here,” Eh Tee Ta said haltingly one morning this week. He was waiting in the snow outside a North Kansas City apartment complex waiting for seven other Karen to crowd into his white Dodge Caravan for the ride to a meat processing plant in St. Joseph.

History explains his mindset.

The Karen, one of several ethnic groups in Myanmar (formerly Burma), suffered years of oppression by Burmese kings. Things improved under the years of British colonial rule, but after World War II the Karen again found themselves at odds with the country’s leaders.

Burmese nationalists, who would run the country, had sided with the Japanese invaders during the early part of the war while the Karen fought with the British and Americans.

After the war, in 1948, Burma became an independent state, free of British influence. In 1988, a group of generals seized power and established a repressive military junta to rule the country, which they renamed Myanmar (the U.S. government, in support of opposition forces, still uses “Burma”).

The junta unleashed a reign of terror against the Karen and other ethnic groups. Persecution, forced labor, imprisonment, relocation and torture. Thousands fled across the border to refugee camps in Thailand. With nowhere to go after that, they stayed for years.

During Tamla’s 17 years in a camp, one of her brothers died; another disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. Her father also perished.

“He wasn’t that sick, but there was no modern equipment to help treat him,” she said.

A few years ago, with the help of agencies such as Jewish Vocational Services, the Karen finally were allowed to migrate as part of a resettlement program.

Nearly a thousand made their way to this area, settling mostly in Kansas City, Kan., and the Northland.

“I knew immediately we would need help — someone to communicate with these people,” said Laura Lukens, ELL (English language learners) program coordinator for the North Kansas City School District.

“They had lived in horrible conditions for years. Warehoused. Little better than animals. Some of the kids had never been to school. They didn’t speak English. I knew the learning curve would be very steep.”

As part of a child nutrition program, on Fridays the district sent snacks home for students. The Karen children’s snacks came back Monday unopened. They didn’t know what the Vienna sausages were.

In August 2008, the district hired Tamla as a link to the families. Rice is now the weekend snack.

Tamla had worked with the Karen Women Organization, a relief agency in the camps, and through that work later studied in South Africa and the Philippines.
So she spoke English and knew ways of the modern world.

And how much did her new clients know when they arrived?

She smiled. “Nothing.”

•••

On a recent cold Saturday afternoon inside a church in Kansas City, Kan., teenage girls in pink and lavender dresses and white scarves on their heads walk across a stage.

This is rehearsal for today’s New Year and Revolutionary Day celebration that will take place at J.C. Harmon High School, 2400 Steele Road. The event that runs from noon to 10 p.m. is sponsored by the Karen Community of Kansas City. The public is invited.

Tamla directs the teens, most of whom, despite being here for only a short time, are dressed like typical American youth. Sweatshirts, backward caps, baggy pants. One girl wears a purple T-shirt that says. “Only vampires will love you forever.”

Like other immigrant groups, the teens’ English is better than their parents because of school.

The skits, music and dance are important, Tamla says. The young must remember the good parts of their homeland.

But some of the skits depict the Burmese brutality against the Karen.

The boys in the group know that well. Some want to join the U.S. Army after graduation and learn to fight so they can someday return to their homeland and kill those who terrorized their people.

Eh Hitkaw, 17, a junior at North Kansas City High School, spent 10 years in a camp.

“What they did to me and my family wasn’t right,” he said this week.

•••

Tamla crawls on the floor from mother to mother.

Each of the Karen women has a stack of mail and no idea what the words mean.

Doctor bills, insurance explanations of benefits, notices from schools about shots, bus routes and parent-teacher conferences.

Tamla speaks Karen to a mother, who nods when she understands.

Tamla says she will make telephone calls for her, then moves on to the next mother. Despite the seven or eight barefoot children, the apartment is roomy because it has hardly any furniture. The Karen families work hard and live in the midst of American plenty, but they have little.

Several bulk-sized bags of rice take up a kitchen shelf. The TV is a 12-inch. About the only wall decor is a U.S. map.

Tamla, who smiles easily, has arrived early to go over the mail and also because she’s brought donated toys for the children. But her main purpose is to translate for the district’s parent educator who soon arrives to check on the progress of the children.

“This little girl should be in a booster seat,” Amy Hines tells a mother.

She then turns to Tamla. “This little girl should be in a booster seat.”

Tamla repeats the message in Karen. The mother nods.

Hines has brought the seat and shows the mothers how it is used.

One then puts a child in the seat. Backward.

“Car seats, immunizations, even birthdays — they don’t know,” Hines said later. “They don’t know you can’t let a 2-year-old out by themselves.”

Some of them also don’t know they can’t send out a young child to walk to a school that might be miles away. It’s happened. That’s how children got to school in the camps. But on dirt paths, not busy suburban streets.

Those are the things Tamla hopes to change. She lives in one of the same apartment buildings as several other Karen. Her mother and fiance live there, too. Like many Karen men, he works at the meatpacking plant in St. Joseph.

The living room wall of the apartment is covered with Karen flags, photos and other reminders of Burma.

She wants her people to remember.

Except for the parts she needs them to forget.

PR Newswire – ‘How Free is Burma’s Suu Kyi?’
Ask Former White House Drug Spokesman Robert Weiner and James Lewis
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2011.
Burma’s Elected Leader Can’t Run for or Win Office or Speak Freely

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Former White House National Drug Policy Spokesman, Robert Weiner, and National Security Analyst, James Lewis, in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, assert that the media in the U.S. and around the world have misinterpreted the “release” of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi.  Weiner and Lewis contend that she is not “free” because she cannot run for or win office despite her earlier election (which the junta blocked) as the country’s national leader — and that real change in Burma is only possible if the drug-funded junta is ousted and drug transportation, with Hawaii as a main port, is eliminated.

Weiner and Lewis ask, “How free is Suu Kyi? Is she free to run for office in non-rigged elections and assume the prime minister role she was denied? Free to call for a civilian government, a legal product-based economy, and a halt to the drug trade funding the junta and killing thousands in Burma and around the globe?”

Weiner and Lewis point out, “She still can’t run for office or speak freely. Arresting and releasing her is a drama the regime continues to play time and again. Â She has been under detention in recurring waves for over 15 years.”

“Suu Kyi has been careful not to verbally challenge the military leadership of Burma. Yet she has said, ‘Real freedom is freedom from fear.’ Is she really free if she is living in fear?”
Weiner and Lewis encourage Suu Kyi to “take a page from other historic leaders and enter exile – maybe as Burma’s Political Dalai Lama.”

“Laundered money – paid with drugs that go through Hawaii – cements the junta’s power.  With worldwide drug money filling the sanctions gap, the junta leaders live quite a luxurious lifestyle.” Citing government reports, the authors explain that, “Hawaii is a major transshipment port for ice methamphetamine.”

“Burma is a tale of drugs, ransom, and sanctions — and Hawaii is at the center of it.”

“To achieve real change in Burma, Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders must be allowed to campaign and run for office, and the drugs funding the junta and transiting through Hawaii must be eliminated.”

Looking for solutions, and as a gesture for the junta’s providing Suu Kyi some freedom, Weiner and Lewis assert that, “The U.S. should respond by filling the empty special envoy post in Burma and providing anti-narcotics targeted and monitored aid, but not providing other assistance. The former U.S. Political and Economic Chief in Rangoon, Leslie Hayden, reported that providing anti-narcotics aid to Burma would pressure the regime into ‘concrete results’ and would slow the flow of drugs. Full commercial sanctions lifting, however, would be an undeserved boon to the junta.”

“The U.S. can exert pressure to keep Suu Kyi unincarcerated and help keep Burmese methamphetamine and heroin off America’s and Europe’s streets. The U.S. can support training, crop substitution, and intelligence sharing, including an opium crop survey disbanded since 2005. Knowledge is power,” the authors state.

Staradvertiser – Laundered money from drugs that go through Hawaii helps keep Burma’s junta in power
By Robert Weiner and James Lewis
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 31, 2011

The world has rejoiced in the Burmese junta’s release from incarceration of 1990 national election winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. Last week, the junta allowed Suu Kyi to use the Internet.

How free is Suu Kyi? Is she free to run for office in non-rigged elections and assume the prime minister role she was denied? Free to call for a civilian government, a legal product-based economy, and a halt to the drug trade funding the junta and killing thousands in Burma and around the globe?

Arresting and releasing her is a drama the regime continues to play time and again. She has been under detention in recurring waves for more than 15 years, from July 1989 to July 1995, September 2000 to May 2002, and May 2003 to November 2010, with a combination of house arrest and jail time. She’s been played as a puppet on the junta’s string. The latest “release” of Suu Kyi occurred days after the junta won an “election” while she was in jail and rules made it impossible for her party to win.

Burma is a tale of drugs, ransom and sanctions, and Hawaii is at the center of it.

Laundered money — paid with drugs that go through Hawaii — cements the junta’s power. The Congressional Research Service estimates that Burma exports $1-2 billion in illegal drugs annually. The Pacific Rim countries, which Burma uses to transport its exports, send crystal methamphetamine (”ice”) to Hawaii on transpacific cargo containers using Hawaii’s 10 harbors on six islands, according to the U.S. Justice Department’s 2010 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Market Analysis. It’s “extremely challenging for U.S.

Homeland Security and other law enforcement,” says the report. “Hawaii is a transshipment port for ice metham- phetamine.”

The report goes on to say that 99 percent of Hawaii’s imported goods arrive in cargo containers with limited, if any, inspection. Direct flights to and from Asia from six of Hawaii’s eight airports are primary drug sources. Hawaii is a market for Burmese drugs where they can earn twice their mainland street value.

If we want to stop the drug flow to Hawaii and the U.S., we must end the drug-funded junta’s control — and that’s not easy. The world has been using a series of clearly ineffective sanctions with a pie-in-the-sky hope that internal rebellious forces will somehow prevail. Suu Kyi has been careful not to verbally challenge the military leadership of Burma. Yet she has said, “Real freedom is freedom from fear.”

Suu Kyi could take a page from other historic leaders and go into exile, maybe as Burma’s political Dalai Lama. As an exile, her voice would be unrestricted to speak on the plight of the Burmese people. We can see her hosted as a newsmaker at the National Press Club.

In July, the State Department asserted that Burma could see “a lot of opportunities” if Suu Kyi was released. Certainly they did not mean for Suu Kyi simply to become an unwitting pawn to encourage foreign investment and aid while the regime remains repressive and blocks its elected democracy.

With worldwide drug money filling the sanctions gap, the junta leaders live in luxury while the people are impoverished. Drug baron Lo Hsing Han funded the opulent 2006 wedding of dictator Than Shwe’s daughter. According to BBC the lucky couple received $50 million in gifts. Yet during Cyclone Nargis in 2008, they refused any outside assistance for weeks and then did little development with the money — just keeping it. Cutting the narco lines will dent the regime’s checkbook more than sanctions.

As a gesture for the junta’s providing Suu Kyi some freedom, the U.S. should respond by filling the empty special envoy post in Burma and providing anti-narcotics targeted and monitored aid, but not providing other assistance. The former U.S. political and economic chief in Rangoon, Leslie Hayden, reported that providing anti-narcotics aid to Burma would pressure the regime into “concrete results” and would slow the flow of drugs. Full commercial sanctions lifting, however, would be an undeserved boon to the junta.

The U.S. can exert pressure to keep Suu Kyi unincarcerated and help keep Burmese methamphetamine and heroin off America’s and Europe’s streets. The U.S. can support training, crop substitution, and intelligence sharing, including an opium crop survey disbanded since 2005. Knowledge is power.

To achieve real change in Burma, Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders must be allowed to campaign and run for office, and the drugs funding the junta and transiting through Hawaii must be eliminated.

Asian Tribune – The election report documents widespread political repression and human rights abuses – Burma Fund UN Office
Mon, 2011-01-31 11:54 — editor
By Zin Lin

A report released by the Burma Fund UN Office for the opening of Burma’s first Parliament, documents the widespread political repression and human rights abuses marring the electoral process in the country’s first elections in more than 20 years.

It shows that none of the fundamental requirements for free and fair elections exist in Burma, and instead of heralding in positive change, the elections brought about a deepening of Burma’s human rights crisis.

Through media reports, interviews and documentation from networks operating clandestinely inside the country, a comprehensive analysis of the entire election period is provided.

The 46page report details the human rights abuses occurring in the lead up to the elections, on the election day itself, and in the postelection period. At every step of the way,
standards for free, fair and credible elections were not met and the predictable result of an overwhelming majority by the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party was a foregone conclusion.

“The 2010 election was a national deception and must be recorded as a dark chapter in Burma’s modern history. The entire electoral process was controlled and manipulated by the military from the very beginning. Evidence in this report proves, without doubt, that this election was neither free nor fair and failed to reflect the will of the people”, says the Burma Fund UN Office Director, Dr Thaung Htun.

The report documents widespread electoral fraud; interference from the ruling military regime in the campaign and conduct of the elections; vote buying; forced advanced voting; violence, intimidation and arrests; and the disenfranchisement of significant ethnic constituencies.

For most people in Burma, the election period was characterized by fear, resignation and apathy, rendering the elections meaningless and little more than a veneer of democratic pretension hiding a repressive and abusive state. The Election Commission, responsible for the administration of the elections and the resolution of election related disputes, lacked independence and transparency and was appointed by the military.

The report explores the devastating consequences of the elections on Burma’s future political landscape. “The research shows the elections are a serious setback for the urgently needed national reconciliation, rather than moving towards democracy, the elections tightened the military’s repressive grip, exacerbated ethnic tensions and instability, pushing the people of Burma further away from the realization of their basic human rights”, says Dr Thaung Htun.

“The parliament sitting today, is little more than a calculated ruse. The actors are the same; it is only the stage that has been newly decorated. However, we must not lose hope; the election is far from an end in itself and cannot divert the aspirations of the people for a genuine democratic transition. The agents of change in Burma are the people and their true representatives, who were cruelly excluded from the election process.”

“Even though a lot of challenges lie ahead on the path to freedom, the genuine prodemocracy and ethnic leaders and activists will continue to stand with the people, fearlessly facing down the military regime, and eventually, the will of the people will prevail in shaping the future of Burma”, says Dr Thaung Htun.

The violations committed in the pre-election period took place within a culture of impunity. Evidence suggests military and SPDC officials, as well as members of the Union State Development Party, operated above the law. Without the rule of law, reform of the judiciary, a review of the Constitution and the country’s draconian laws, human rights violations will continue unabated.

The Burma Fund UN Office urges the international community to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry to expose the truth, end the culture of impunity and deter further violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The report can be downloaded at www.burmatoday.net, www.burmalibrary.org, www.ncgub.net

The Irrawaddy – Rangoon Residents Made Homeless
By KO HTWE Monday, January 31, 2011

Dozens of residents on 33rd Street in Kyauktada Township are being forced to move from their homes because the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) has ordered their apartments demolished as it paves the way for new condominiums in downtown Rangoon, according to local sources.

In December, YCDC officials issued notice to the owners or residents of 27 apartments in the Rangoon area, including apartment blocks on 33rd Street, telling them that as the blocks of apartments were hazardous and dangerous, the residents must move within the coming weeks.

Some construction companies, most notably the Naing Group, have negotiated with YCDC to take over projects to build new condominiums in their place across the city.

Family members of a small neighborhood enterprise, Shwe Glass Shop, on 33rd Street, said they have not received any compensation from the Naing Group and the YCDC.

“Although we have not settled on an agreement with the company and YCDC, they have already begun demolishing the building,” said Kyaw Soe, a neighbor of the Shwe Glass Shop.

Residents said that before demolition began, the construction company agreed to pay compensation to all those affected by the rebuilding.

“Some of the residents have already accepted compensation and have moved to another place, but company didn’t agree to pay for Shwe Glass’s first-floor apartment so they didn’t move,” said Kyaw Soe.

YCDC should ensure that there are no people living in the buildings before they destroy them, he added.

In August, YCDC listed as dangerous 15 other buildings in downtown Rangoon, according to Eleven media group.

On Jan. 18, 11 households at No. 184/ 185 33rd Street, an apartment block named “Umbrella House,” were removed from their apartments under the orders of No. 1 Industry Ministry officials, local residents said.

YCDC sent a letter on Jan. 13 warning Umbrella House residents to move out by Jan.18, but most were unable to make plans given the time limit.

“On that day, the police came and tried to break down the doors of some second-floor residents who refused to leave,” said one of the residents.

Umbrella House is a government-funded project. However, many of the residents have lived in the apartment block for 30 years and are reportedly unable to afford another apartment.

NLD website created by anonymous source
Monday, 31 January 2011 20:10 Myint Maung

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was reportedly pleased with the creation of a National League for Democracy (NLD) party website by an unidentified third party outside of Burma.

A greeting message sent by Aung San Suu Kyi was posted on the Internet website which was inaugurated on Sunday evening.

‘I am very pleased indeed that there is now a web page that will make the policies and activities of the National League for Democracy known around the globe’, she wrote. ‘A good communication system is essential in our endeavour to set up a people’s network for democracy that will span the whole world.’

‘By communicating through the web page, with strong supporters of our cause, as well as with those who want to know more about our movement for democracy and about the NLD, I believe we will be able to achieve our goal of a democratic union at a faster pace’, she said.

NLD officials noted that the NLD itself had no role in backing or creating the website. The identity of the developer of the website is not known.

Party Information Department In-charge Ohn Kyaing told Mizzima that the NLD had no contact with the webmaster of the website and the party could not have such a website itself in light of many laws and restrictions in Burma.

‘There are many general limitations inside Burma’, he said, ‘both technical, financial and legal constraints’.

The website address is www.nldburma.org. It posts information in both English and Burmese. There are website sections devoted to organisation, media and press releases, social welfare, education, health, international affairs, law and ethnic affairs.

NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo also welcomed the creation of the website.

“We welcome the opening of a web page dedicated to promoting the interest of the NLD”, said a message signed by Tin Oo.

The organisation section lists state and division party branches, youth and women and the Committee Representing People’s Parliament. The media and press release section contains past press releases, interviews, articles and media related information.

In the social welfare section are listings for emergency help, political prisoners and other information. Under health is information about HIV/AIDs programs. Under international affairs information about the United Nations, Asean, India/China, North America and Europe is provided. The webiste also includes video clips and a photo gallery of NLD activities.

Ohn Kyaing said, ‘All of the press releases are those that have already been released. If we did this website from Burma, all of us would be arrested. We cannot release even a newsletter from our office’.

USDP members new chief, chairman of Rangoon Assembly
Monday, 31 January 2011 19:56 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Two members of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) were elected as the chief of the assembly and the chairman of the assembly of the Rangoon Regional Assembly, according to a source close to the assembly.

Sein Tin Win of Kunchankone Township was elected chief of the assembly and Maung Maung Win of Shwepyithar Township was elected chairman of the assembly, the source said.

‘So far, we only have information from the Rangoon Division Assembly’, he told Mizzima.

There are a total of 123 lawmakers in the Rangoon Division Assembly; 31 of them are from the military; two are ethnic parliamentary representatives; 73 are from the USDP; and 17 are from other political parties.

Local residents said the Rangoon Division Assembly was held in the old parliament building on Pyi Road in Rangoon that was built during the socialist era.

Authorities strengthened security around the area.

‘Many security forces and police cars have been stationed outside the parliamentary building. I think there were more than 20 cars’, said one source. He said groups of about five armed guards were posted at every major intersection.

‘I think a police car contained about four or five security personnel. Cars were checked by security personnel at night. Both the drivers and the passengers were examined’, he said.

The future of the exiled media
Monday, 31 January 2011 13:39 Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese exiled media is undergoing some funding cuts by international donors and governments, both in response to the worldwide financial crisis and policy changes among donor groups and governments. Mizzima reporter Tun Tun talks with Burma Media Association (BMA) chairman Maung Maung Myint on the implications, the change in policies and the affect on Burmese exiled media.

Q:  How does BMA view the current cuts in funding and the policy changes that are underway?

A: The financial and funding cuts will affect most of our Burmese exiled media. In fact, it is only the free, exiled-based media that can disseminate impartial news to people both inside and outside Burma.

Now the junta is convening its Parliament shortly. Some of the donors believe these cosmetic changes offer opportunities and are ready to go inside Burma and give funding to organisations inside and to try to co-operate with the new government. There are many such donor governments and organisations. I must say they are wrong if they believe they can work with the new government and give funding to the organizations inside instead.

No matter what government appears in Burma, it will be controlled by the military under the current circumstances. And the military tightly controls the media. The governments, NGOs and INGOs that work in Burma can not know what the government is doing and how it governs without the free exiled media. The organisations that currently face financial difficulties are not only the small organizations but also the big media organisations such as the BBC and DVB. These financial difficulties affect them too. Its impact affects almost the entire media world that the Burmese people rely on for real news and information.

Q: If this trend continues, what will be the long term effects?

A: At the least, the exiled media will let some of their staff go and reduce their output of news and other information. Some of them will stop the publication of their print media and or reduce their publication of other printed matter.

But the Burmese exiled media has struggled for a long time. It has grown from nothing to what it is today. The people who work on these publications will not give up even through the donors stop or shift their funds. All will keep working, keep the movement going. This is how I see them.

Q: Is the current funding cut largely a change in policies among donors? What is the change?

A: It’s a variety of views and factors. Some believe that the atmosphere inside Burma is changing and that there are new opportunities inside the country and more work should be done there.

We shouldn’t be too upset and disappointed because many foreign governments such as the US administration still believe there is no genuine progress yet in Burma, and they must continue to provide financial assistance, while some other countries, including some Asean countries, are currently advocating a reverse in their policy towards the Burmese government and offer financial assistance to them in various ways.

Generally speaking in my overall view, the international governments and other organizations have not had yet made drastic policy changes towards Burma. But the current economic crisis in the US and in Europe adversely affects their people and that affects their overseas financial assistance. This is the main reason, I think.

Q: Do you think there will be more such cuts in the future? How do you see this problem?

A: We cannot say exactly what will be the next step after the current round of cuts. If it becomes clear that the cuts have adversely set back conditions in Burma, we may regain our previous funding levels. The other factor is the global economic crisis especially in Western countries. If the economy of these countries picks up again from the recession we are likely to get our funding back.

The next factor is the domestic political situation. If the military regime engages in dialogue and negotiations for national reconciliation with the NLD and ethnic parties as Western countries are demanding, the domestic Burmese media might be the priority for their funding. The exiled media could suffer in that situation.

So generally speaking, it depends on how the situation inside Burma plays out. That is probably what will effect the exiled media the most.