BurmaNet News, July 21, 2010

[Editor]

July 21, 2010 Issue #4004


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Pro-election think tank feels the pressure
Irrawaddy: Journal closed following article on constitution
Mizzima News: USDP accused of violating electoral law in party recruitment

ON THE BORDER
Xinhua: Thai PM puts off visit to Myanmar second time
Narinjara: 18-hour protest in Teknaf for arrest of Burmese citizens

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: India blasted by rights group over Myanmar visit
DVB: Private banks banned from ‘self-loaning’

ASEAN
Kyodo News: Japan urges Myanmar to ensure Suu Kyi's participation in poll
IPS: Loophole gives junta room to go nuclear in secrecy

OPINION / OTHER
Jakarta Globe: In Burma, silent parties gather no votes – Htet Aung
Korea Times: Myanmarese mourn death of democracy – U Aye Myint
Irrawaddy: Stifling democracy in Burma, the junta way – Bidhayak Das




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 21, Irrawaddy
Pro-election think tank feels the pressure – Wai Moe

Burma's election will attract an estimated 77 percent turnout, according
to the Burmese “think tank” Myanmar Egress.

The group, which describes itself as a “third force” in Burmese politics,
announced its estimate at meetings in the Thai capital, Bangkok, with
diplomats and non-governmental organization officials from Europe.

At one meeting in Bangkok last week, participants were told that a survey
undertaken by Myanmar Egress after the 2008 constitutional referendum
found that 85 percent of respondents agreed with the constitution—very
close to the government's claim that 93.8 percent of voters had cast “yes”
ballots.

Although Myanmar Egress claims political independence, it supports the
planned election, advocating it at meetings such as those it held in
Bangkok and with donor organizations from Europe. A pro-election Thailand
partner, the Vahu Development Institute took part in the meetings.

At a meeting last week in Bangkok, said a source, “they made several
presentations to diplomats and foreign NGOs and expert groups regarding
the election.”

“Basically they asked money from European countries. Interesting is that
they claimed at the meeting that key political parties for the coming
election give them a mandate to seek funding aboard.”

The press were not invited to the meeting and Aung Naing Oo of the Vahu
Development Institute declined to describe the proceedings when contacted
by The Irrawaddy. When contacted by The Irrawaddy, Myanmar Egress denied
the meeting had even taken place.

Main speakers at the Bangkok meeting were businessman Hla Maung Shwe, vice
president of the Myanmar Egress, and its general secretary Nay Win Maung,
who is owner of Living Color magazine and The Voice Weekly journal.

Hla Maung Shwe, a key member of the Myanmar Shrimps Association, was a
member of the opposition National League for Democracy in the  1980s and
1990s. He was arrested in the early 1990s and spent three years in prison.

Hla Maung Shwe's younger brother is Brig-Gen Hla Myint Shwe, commandant of
Defense Services at the Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Science,
according to sources.

Sources said the Bangkok meeting was shown video footage of three Burmese
political parties—the National Democratic Force (NDF), the Democratic
Party (Myanmar), led by veteran politician Thu Wai, and the Union
Democratic Party (UDP).

“They came to our office and interviewed us on the difficulties we are
facing,” said Khin Maung Shwe, a NDF leader. “We sent messages to the
international community through them as they requested, as we think the
media is biased. That is all. We did not give any mandate to them for any
purpose,”

Phyo Min Thein, a leader of the UDP, also denied his party had given any
mandate to Myanmar Egress. “A few weeks ago, they came to take a video
about our perspective on the election and the difficulties,” he said.

A third denial of any mandate issued to Myanmar Egress came from Cho Cho
Kyaw Nyein of the Democratic Party (Myanmar). “We are not dependent on
others, including for funding,” she said.
The Myanmar Egress is popular with some young people who want to study
abroad as they can build capacity at the group’s training sessions in
Rangoon, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand.
According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor in June, Tin Maung
Thann of Myanmar Egress said training young people in areas such as rural
development, and securing the best and brightest to study overseas, is one
way to speed change.

Nevertheless, most young intellectuals are critical of Myanmar Egress,
accusing it of pro-government bias.

“The Myanmar Egress or the “Third Force” people say they are not for  the
government or the opposition. But what they say and write are quite
biased, advocating the junta’s constitution and election,” said a young
Rangoon researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity. “However, they are
quite clever when they meet diplomats and foreigners, speaking like
pro-democracy activists.”

Myanmar Egress executives are the product of the country's elite.

Nay Win Maung is the son of a military officer and a friend of former spy
chief Gen Khin Nyunt’s son, Ye Naing Win. Helped by good connections with
the ruling generals, Nay Win Maung and Ye Naing Win established Living
Color magazine in the late 1990s.

Nay Win Maung was also an executive member of the Kanbawza Bank run by
Aung Ko Win, one of the junta’s associates.

Executive members of Myanmar Egress benefit from opportunities from the
military rulers in the export and import business, including diesel import
licenses.

It has been alleged that Nay Win Maung and his colleagues have reported to
government agencies such as the Military Affairs Security and the Special
Branch of the Burma police.
“The West knows what the 'Third Force' is really up to. But they—western
policy circles of academics, diplomats, NGOs, donor agencies, etcetera—
want to expand their 'own' space together with an organization like
Egress,” said a Burmese political analyst in Rangoon.

According to observers in Rangoon, contacted by The Irrawaddy,  Myanmar
Egress also has created opportunities for foreigners to work with the
organization and conduct research. Other groups that try to organize
similar classes or activities are immediately harassed or banned  by the
authorities.

Sources said the Myanmar Egress is now engaged in educating voters,
teaching them the SPDC constitution and encouraging participation in the
election.

Official limitations are still placed on Myanmar Egress, however. Training
sessions held outside the organization's premises have been banned in the
past by the authorities.

“The space Myanmar Egress has enjoyed is not a benchmark for our civil
liberties,” one source said. “Now, some foreigners got distracted by  this
illusion of  'space,' a pure rhetoric of the Third Force which came into
our political vocabulary only a few years back.”

An article in The Voice by Nay Win Maung in favor of the constitution and
the election was even reportedly suppressed and the magazine ordered to
close for two weeks because one minister was upset by its moral tone.

“The article was totally pro- constitution, pro-election and pro-roadmap
of the junta,” said a Rangoon editor. “But journalists here learned that
one minister read the article and got angry because the article adopted a
morally high ground tone.”

The editor, who works for a private publication, commented: “The 'third
force” people said they know how to create political space under  military
rules. But the space even for apologists of the system is limited.”

____________________________________

July 21, Irrawaddy
Journal closed following article on constitution – Ko Htwe

Burma’s notorious censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration
Division (PSRD), has closed “The Voice Weekly” in Rangoon for two weeks,
according to media sources.

The order followed the publication of an article, “Concept and Process” 
by Aung Htut, a pseudonym of Dr Nay Win Maung, the editor of The Voice
Weekly journal, according to sources close to the journal.

The article discussed the 2008 Constitution and used some language, such
as “it is hard to explain to Burmese,” which offended the censors, said
one source.

“The Voice Weekly” has otherwise supported the 2008 Constitution and the
proposed election and published pro-military articles, said observers.

Nay Win Maung also publishes Living Color magazine. Living Color began
publishing under the support of the former intelligence spy chief Gen Khin
Nyunt. Dr Ye Naing Win, the son of Gen Khin Nyunt, is a close associate of
Nay Win Maung.

The Washington Post has described Nay Win Maung as “a son of a military
officer who was brought up among Burma's military elites, giving him good
connections to military insiders.”

The Voice Weekly regularly publishes articles praising the coming
elections and the regime’s “road map” to democracy. It is not known if the
publication has been ordered to publish such articles or acts on its own
under its editorial policy.

____________________________________

July 21, Mizzima News
USDP accused of violating electoral law in party recruitment – Salai Tun

New Delhi – The Rangoon-based Union Democracy Party (UDP) alleges the
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is attempting to poach their
party members by promising road repairs in their localities in exchange
for political support.

The USDP has in recent days targeted the townships of Dagon and Hlaing
Thar Yar via making use of local Ward Peace and Development Council (PDC)
authorities.

“We heard this news when we visited these places for our party
organizational works. The USDP ordered Ward PDC members to recruit new
party members for them, 20 to 30 from each street. And then they promised
they would repair the roads in the locality if the local people join their
party. After getting some party members they repaired some roads there. In
this way, local authorities of the Ward PDC had to fulfill their quota in
recruiting new party members for the USDP,” UDP Chairman Phyo Min Thein
told Mizzima.

“No party can act like this. The USDP uses municipal committee funds in
road repairs. This fund is taxpayer money and state funds. It is no
party’s fund. They should not do like that. The electoral law also
prohibits any political party from using public servants,” he added.

Similarly, in Chin State too the USDP is organizing people in the capital
of Hakha and town of Falam by promising they will build a reservoir,
provide adequate electrical power and medicine if people join their party,
related a leader from an ethnic Chin political party.

Phyo Min Thein said that utilizing local public servants in party
organizational work is a violation of the Union Election Commission Law.

“The law stipulates that public servants must stay away from party
politics and prohibits the use of public servants. But in reality, they
are violating this law. The USPD acts as if they are the winning party in
forcing the locality to enact their party activities,” he said.

A leader from another ethnic Chin party said, “All political parties
recognized by the Election Commission have equal rights and no one has
privileged rights. But the USDP is using local authorities in their party
organizational works. The municipal committee has to repair roads for
them. This is a violation of the Election Commission Law.”

The USDP is further active in recruitment through the promise of public
works in Mon, Kachin and Shan States.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 21, Xinhua
Thai PM puts off visit to Myanmar second time

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva postponed his trip to Myanmar for the
second time due to time conflict between leaders of the two countries,
local media said Wednesday.

The postponement has nothing to do with the continued closure of the
Thai-Myanmar border in the north province of Tak, the National News Bureau
of Thailand quoted Panitan Wattanayagorn, acting government spokesman sas
saying.

The border trade and transport at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border was
suspended after Myanmar officials shut the border at the Thai- Myanmar
Friendship Bridge crossing the Moei River and at over 20 cross-border
trading ports along the river since July 12.

It is believed that the Myanmar authorities were unhappy with the building
river bank protection on the Thai side because the construction caused
soil and rocks to fall into the river, the Thai News Agency said.

Panitan brushed aside the issue, saying that the postponement of the Thai
leader's visit was not about the dissatisfaction of Myanmar leader over
current border closure as both leaders have met several times at
international forums.

The spokesman said the visit is untimely as both leaders are not available
during that time.

Last month, Abhisit said he would visit Myanmar in early August as part of
his overseas missions to create better understanding on Thailand's recent
political crisis and violent street protests..

The Thai premier's trip to Myanmar was first scheduled last July but then
was postponed as it coincided with the incident in which an American man
swam across the lake into the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house
arrest.

____________________________________

July 21, Narinjara
18-hour protest in Teknaf for arrest of Burmese citizens

Teknaf: An 18-hour protest was staged at Teknaf Port in Bangladesh on
Monday after Bangladesh authorities arrested nine Burmese citizens in a
seizure of a trawler laden with smuggled timber.

A Bangladesh trader on the border said, "We staged an 18-hour protest
against the arrest of nine Burmese citizens and the seizure of a trawler
laden with wood, but at 4 pm we stopped our protest after the authority
agreed to release the Burmese citizens and the seized boat."

On Sunday, the Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested the nine Burmese citizens
and seized their wood-laden trawler at St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh,
along with some Burmese-made alcohol and beer. After the arrest the coast
guard handed them over to police in Teknaf.

On Monday, a day after the incident, businessmen in Teknaf staged a
protest against the arrest and seizure, and all trading in the port was
stopped until the protest ended at 4 pm.

"Today the trading is normal and we resume our trading at the Teknaf Port.
As a result we have withdrawn our strike after the coast guard withdrew
the case filed with the police," the trader added.

According to Burmese trader sources, the timber trawler carried 70 tons of
hardwood from Burma to sell in Bangladesh markets after passing through
Teknaf.

The timber trawler is owned by a business from Sittwe, but the timber had
been taken from Bomi Chaung in the Irrawaddy Delta. The timber was also
owned by a businessman from Pathein, the capital of Irrawaddy Division.

Exporting timber from Burma to Bangladesh is illegal in Burma, but imports
are not banned in Bangladesh.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 21, Agence France Presse
India blasted by rights group over Myanmar visit

New Delhi — A top rights group criticised India Wednesday for rolling out
the red carpet for Myanmar's military leader General Than Shwe who will
begin a state visit to the country next week.

Than Shwe is set to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
President Pratibha Patil during his five-day trip to the South Asian giant
that begins on Sunday, an Indian foreign ministry source told AFP on
condition of anonymity.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which represents 164
organisations across the world, said in a letter to Singh that it was
"deeply troubled" by the visit.

"The long list of the junta?s well-documented human rights abuses includes
acts that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under
international law," the group said in the letter, which was also sent to
AFP.

The group added that maintaining relations with the Myanmar military
leaders "without due regard to universal human rights is unbecoming of the
world?s largest democracy and a responsible world power."

The European Union, United States and other countries have targeted
Myanmar with economic sanctions and travel bans, but the military regime
has resisted the moves largely due to support from China, India and
neighbouring Thailand.

India was once a staunch supporter of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi, who is under house arrest, but shifted its strategy in the mid-1990s
as security, energy and strategic priorities emerged.

It is eyeing oil and gas imports from Myanmar, needs help in countering
separatists operating along the countries' common border, and is
particularly concerned about not losing strategic ground to China in the
military state.

____________________________________

July 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Private banks banned from ‘self-loaning’ – Jospek Allchin

Among a raft of directives issued to newly-privatised banks in Burma is a
rule that central bank financiers do not loan money to their own business
concerns.

It comes as the Burmese government continues a sell-off of state-owned
businesses; analysts have warned that those most likely to benefit from
the large-scale privatisation are wealthy cronies of the ruling junta. The
four new banks are Asia Green Bank, owned by junta crony Tayza, Ayerwaddy
Bank, Amara Bank and Shay Saung Bank.

There has also been a revision of the amount that the private banks are
allowed to invest, from 15 million kyat (US$15,000) up to 10 billion kyat
(US$10 million), the Weekly Eleven Journal said.

The initial figure was implemented when the Burmese banking sector was
first privatised in 1992, and was not altered with the huge changes in
currency value since. This could amount to a credit bonanza, but economic
analyst Aung Thu Nyein has expressed concern over inflation; the UN in
2008 said the inflation rate was at 53 percent, while Burmese government
figures place it at around 10 percent.

Credit is a particularly problematic area for Burmese business, Aung Thu
Nyein claims. “There are a lot of contradicting facts in banking laws and
regulations. In the agricultural sector, no private banks are allowed to
lend money to agriculturalists, except for the Myanmar Agricultural and
Rural Development Bank, the Myanmar Fisheries and Livestock Bank and the
Cooperative Bank.

“However, now micro-credit schemes operated by INGOs are working in grey
zones and many so-called rice-based private companies are lending to
farmers,” he said.

The farming sector receives a miniscule 0.4 percent of credit created,
despite accounting for over 50 percent of the nation’s GDP and providing
employment for 70 percent of the population. The lack of credit means many
farmers do without essential productivity-increasing expenditures, such as
purchased fertiliser or weed killer.

Moreover, as is standard in Burma, credit is likely unattainable without
the receiver of a loan being able to prove they possess collateral worth
as much as the loan is worth.

Even if credit to agriculture remains limited, the recent move to raise
the bar on banks’ investments will look to stem a “trend of continual
decline – with the private sector’s relative share of credit falling by
nearly 25 percent in the last five years,” a recent report by Burma
economics expert, Sean Turnell, said.

Questions will however remain over the impartial nature of Burma’s banks.
The power within the private sector of junta cronies such as Tay Za, who
owns the Htoo Group, and Zaw Zaw, who owns the Max Myanmar, will make
enforcement of the self-loaning rule difficult. Tay Za is thought to be
close to senior general Than Shwe whilst Zaw Zaw is believed to be a close
associate of junta number two Maung Aye. As a result both men took over
many government assets in recent privatisation drive.

The new banks meanwhile have been told not to possess capital of more than
ten times their loans. Interest rates meanwhile will be more flexible for
the private banks with a window of 6 percent allowed on the Central Bank’s
17 percent loan interest rate and, 12 percent on deposits. These rates are
well below the rate of inflation, making investment in Burmese banks
economically nonsensical.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 21, Kyodo News
Japan urges Myanmar to ensure Suu Kyi's participation in poll

Hanoi – Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met Wednesday with his
Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win to ask the ruling junta to ensure the
participation of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a general
election slated for later this year.

Speaking to reporters in Kabul on Tuesday before coming to Hanoi, Okada
said if Myanmar bars the detained leader from the election it will not be
able to gain the support of the international community.

Okada said the election will be "a major turning point" for Myanmar, and
if it is conducted in a fair manner will open up new opportunities for the
country.

He also said Tokyo cannot provide Myanmar with full economic assistance
unless the junta changes its policy concerning the election.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, the country's largest de facto
opposition party, decided in March to boycott the election on the grounds
that it would be unfair. The party disbanded in May.

____________________________________

July 21, Inter Press Service
Loophole gives junta room to go nuclear in secrecy – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok – Thanks to a loophole in the international regime to control the
proliferation of nuclear weapons, military-ruled Burma could very well
carry out its reported intent to go nuclear behind a veil of secrecy, free
of scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

That is the privilege the South-east Asian nation enjoys under the Small
Quantities Protocol it signed with the Vienna-based IAEA in April 1995,
three years after Burma, also known as Myanmar, became party to the
Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This protocol allows parties to the treaty, which seeks to build a global
nuclear non-proliferation regime, to have up to 10 tonnes of natural
uranium and 2.2 pounds of plutonium without having to report such
possessions to the IAEA.

This means also that countries like Burma do not have to open their doors
to IAEA inspection teams and can avoid disclosing details about new
nuclear facilities until six months before these start operations.

It is of little wonder, then, why a former IAEA director is urging Burma
to clear the air about its reported nuclear plans by becoming a party to
the Additional Protocol of the NPT, which gives the IAEA more powers to
inspect nuclear activity in a country.

"They have nothing to lose if they have nothing to hide," Robert Kelly, a
recently retired director of the IAEA, told IPS in an exclusive interview.
"It is a protocol that countries have volunteered to be a party to. Chad
just became the 100th member of the Additional Protocol."

Burma’s silence on this front, along with its denials of violating its
commitment to the NPT, "is very strange; it is very suspicious," added
Kelly, a nuclear engineer, during the telephone interview from Vienna.
"They are exploiting a loophole in the Small Quantities Protocol and
getting away (with it)."

Kelly, a U.S. national who has participated in IAEA nuclear weapons
inspections in Iraq, Libya and South Africa, has been drawn into
controversy in the wake of reports that Burma intends to become the first
nuclear power in South-east Asia. In June, Kelly gave an independent
assessment of the findings made by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an
Oslo-based station run by Burmese journalists in exile, which exposed
Burma’s nuclear ambitions.

"There is clear evidence that there is a place where steps are being taken
towards building a nuclear programme," Kelly said of the evidence he had
reviewed from the DVB report, including that pertaining chemical
processing equipment to convert uranium compounds into forms for
enrichment. "But there is no sign of a weapons programme yet."

The DVB’s revelations of Burma’s nuclear dream have been confirmed within
U.S. intelligence circles, Kelly revealed. "It was not something new for
them. They had known such facilities existed for at least five years."

The DVB report also confirmed what many Burma watchers had suspected for
nearly a decade -- that the junta, which rules the country with an iron
grip through the use of its 450,000-strong military, had bigger ambitions.
Its suspected nuclear trail, in fact, cut across many countries.

In early 2002, for instance, media reports emerged about Suleiman Asad and
Muhammed Ali Mukhtar, two Pakistani nuclear scientists who had worked in
two of that Burma’s secret nuclear installations.

In 2007, Russia and Burma signed an agreement to build a nuclear research
centre, including facilities for radioisotope production, a silicon doping
system and a nuclear-waste treatment and burial facility. This deal with
Rosatom, Russia’s atomic energy agency, came on the heels of the nuclear
training that close to 1,000 Burmese scientists and technicians have
received in Russia since 2001.

Signs of closer cooperation between Burma and North Korea also emerged
over the past decade, with the countries re-establishing diplomatic ties
in 2007. Such ties -- and reports by the exiled Burmese media that a
senior Burmese general was taken on a weapons inspection tour to North
Korea in late 2008 -- come even as Pyongyang faces international pressure
and U.N.- backed sanctions for its own nuclear weapons programme.

Even Germany and Singapore find themselves named in the Burmese nuclear
trail. "A German company sold equipment through its Singapore subsidiary
for Burma’s current nuclear programme," said Kelly. "They were good
machine tools to make chemical compounds."
Yet such details hardly surface when Burma attends the annual sessions of
the IAEA’s general conference. Tin Win, the head of Burma’s delegation at
last September’s sessions, painted a picture of a country supporting the
NPT’s aims for a "nuclear weapon-free world."

"Myanmar currently has no major nuclear facility," Tin Win told the 53rd
annual meeting of the IAEA. "For the world to be peaceful and secure, it
is important that states do not misuse their peaceful nuclear programmes
for nuclear weapons purpose."

Apart from living up to those words at the next IAEA sessions, Burma’s
junta will also have to meet its obligations as a member of the
Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has its own nuclear
non- proliferation regime.

Foreign ministers of the 10-nation ASEAN, which also includes Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam, underscored the importance of the South-east Asian Nuclear-
Weapon Free Zone at their annual meeting in Hanoi this week.

The agreement on the zone came into force in 1997, and Burma is a party to
it. At a regional nuclear weapons monitoring commission this week, ASEAN
ministers made a case for strengthening its role toward complete nuclear
disarmament, stated the Vietnamese foreign ministry.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 21, Jakarta Globe
In Burma, silent parties gather no votes – Htet Aung

Burma’s 2010 election, like it or not, will end military rule and result
in the emergence of a new form of military-controlled civilian government.
The junta has done everything to ensure election success—a constitution in
favor of military supremacy, a set of restrictive election laws and the
assumption of the role of a referee in the election.

If history is repeated, Burma will probably witness a political scenario
similar to the one in 1974, when “Gen” Ne Win, as chairman of the
Revolution Council, handed power over to “U” Ne Win as chairman of the
Burmese Socialist Program Party.

However, unlike the country’s socialist era, there will be opposition
parties alongside the ruling party in post-election Burma.

The country’s multi-party democracy is likely to be a one-party dominated
political system controlled by a strong military institution in the center
of state power.

Seeing the political antagonism between the junta and the now disbanded
National League for Democracy in the past two decades, the new parties
have become cautious in dealing with the media and avoid including the
country’s major political issues in their policies.

The National Democratic Force was established by some former leaders of
the disbanded NLD who see the election as the only way to break the
current political stalemate and regard the new parliamentary framework as
the viable mechanism to change the country.

Many of the NDF leaders are also former political prisoners, who spent
many years behind bars.

The political prisoner issue and other issues at the center of the
democratic struggle over the past two decades may lack importance in the
upcoming election campaigns.

Instead, the new parties are advancing some arguments on why they are
contesting an undemocratic election.

Some of the arguments are:

“The election is an inevitable process towards democracy even if it is
undemocratic”; “Confrontation with the military has produced no result in
the past 20 years”; “Change can be achieved only within the parliamentary
framework.”

However, the election is a power game in which parties necessarily
confront each other with their policies in order to win the support of the
people.

If policy confrontation is avoided, how can the parties make a difference
in gathering votes without competition? Will the parties remain silent to
injustice in the society in order to avoid tensions with the junta?

“We know the formation of the USDP is breaking the election laws, but we
didn’t officially submit a complaint to the Election Commission,” said Thu
Wai, speaking of the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

“Our strategy is that we talk about the issue whenever we meet with the
voters during our organizational trips.”

In any election, political parties must display in public the policies
they plan to follow in tackling the country’s political, economic, social,
environmental, health and educational issues if they win.

However, it is obvious from policy positions put forward in the local and
exile media that the parties lack a sound policy foundation, but also fail
to articulately touch upon the real social issues at the grassroots level.

If they single out the specific issues of the country, they can’t avoid
issues such as national reconciliation, the release of more than 2,000
political prisoners, the end of the chronic ethnic armed conflicts,
poverty reduction, economic reforms and the need to repair and reform the
long-term deteriorating health and education infrastructure.

The problem is that if they address the root causes of these issues, they
can’t avoid pointing the finger at the junta, which could lead to
confrontation with the generals.

On the other hand, if they avoid raising these issues, they ignore the
hardship of the people, resulting in a loss of public support.

When the time remaining for pre-election campaigning becomes scarce, the
parties will have to choose where they stand between the rulers and the
ruled.

There is a saying: “Who dares, wins.” Any party that hopes to win Burma’s
upcoming election must show its courage, stand before the people and
convince them that it would form a government that will definitely bring
them peace, freedom and democracy.


Htet Aung is chief reporter of the Election Desk at The Irrawaddy.

____________________________________

July 20, Korea Times
Myanmarese mourn death of democracy – U Aye Myint

On July 19, few in Myanmar (Burma) were allowed to commemorate Martyr's
Day. On this day people usually remember the brutal assassination of
Myanmar's father of independence, Bogyoke Aung San ― also the father
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ― in 1947.

Amid the bloodied bodies of Aung San and his Executive Council, something
else also started to die on that day: Aung San's vision of the army to be
the servant of the people and for civilian supremacy over the military.
Sometime this year, Myanmarese (Burmese) will be forced to elect a
military government in a national vote as a means of completing this
tragic circle.

After World War II, Aung San was offered the post of deputy inspector
general in the reconstituted Myanmarese Army, as part of the transition to
full independence from Britain. He turned it down, opting instead to run a
civilian administration preparing for full independence within the next
year.

This act conveyed the commitment of Aung San, the co-founder of the modern
Myanmarese army, and of those in Myanmar's independence movement, to a
separation of civilian and military institutions in a democratically
governed state. It is this central component of a free and democratic
Myanmar that was severely undermined along with the effective transitional
Myanmarese prime minister, Aung San, and six Myanmarese councilors in the
venerable Secretariat Building in Yangon (Rangoon) 63 years ago this week.

Against the backdrop of the civil war that erupted a few years after
independence in 1948, Myanmar witnessed the increasing domination of the
military over civil society, a process which culminated in a coup de' etat
by General Ne Win in 1962.

The people of Myanmar have been clamoring for the return of civilian rule
ever since. The Tatmadaw (Myanmarese military), conducting war by various
means upon its own people, remains omnipotent.

As early as the 1950s, Myanmar's military relentlessly encroached into the
civilian life of Myanmar. Then, during a dramatic re-organization of the
institution's structure, the priority of protecting the country from
external enemies became superseded by a rooting of its own power base and
an iron grip on the perks of position.

As part of this, the Defense Services Institute, established in the
mid-1950s, took control of trading major goods such as milk, sugar and
beer and by 1960, it had expanded to monopolize banking, shipping and
import/export operations. Today, all foreign investors in Myanmar are
forced to enter into joint venture arrangements with one of the military's
massive commercial enterprises. Thus maintained, as arguably Myanmar's
largest economic force, the military extended its reach into politics.

By the mid-1960s, the military had shifted its focus to ``insurgencies”
and devised anti-guerilla strategies, which became known as the People's
War Doctrine. This included psychological warfare techniques, the
extension of populist political platforms and the infamous ``Four Cuts”
strategy (isolating those communities not toeing the military line by
cutting off outside communication, food, funds and recruits to their
cause), which is still in use today.

Today, Myanmar's army is the second biggest in Southeast Asia, numbering
some 400,000 troops and is widely reported to have nuclear aspirations.
For the region's poorest country and one without known external enemies,
this seems to suggest that Myanmar's military regime plans to continue its
campaign to engage in an internal contest for the heart and soul of
Myanmar.

To maintain this massive armed force, the military government resorts to
the most heinous acts to recruit its servicemen and women. Thousands of
children are pressganged into armed service, particularly in the campaign
against ethnic groups, and unwitting civilians, both women and men, are
forced to provide the military various goods and services ― some
less savory than others.

This decade’s long political crusade has now culminated in the creation of
a deeply flawed constitution and an electoral process that will entrench
the military even further into the social, political and economic
infrastructure of Myanmar. It is a complete rejection of the founding
principles of an independent Myanmar ― to maintain the separation of
the military and the civilian sectors ― and a sour insult to Bogyoke
Aung San and to democrats everywhere.

As Martyr's Day was observed, largely in silence, in Myanmar, all those
who support the freedom of people everywhere also mourned the fact that
since that fateful day in 1947, all Myanmarese have been unwitting martyrs
to the military's march across our country.

Lt.Col. U Aye Myint (retired) is a senior member of the Patriotic Old
Comrades League which joined with other democrats in founding of the
National League for Democracy (NLD) after the 1988 democratic uprising in
Myanmar.

____________________________________

July 21, Irrawaddy
Stifling democracy in Burma, the junta way – Bidhayak Das

The Burmese government's desperate attempt to stifle the emergence of a
potential ethnic political force—the Kachin State Progressive Party
(KSPP)—will go down in history as another example of brutal suppression of
the basic tenets of democracy in Burma.

If the KSPP, which is unquestionably the “people's party” in Kachin, is
not registered as a political party, the election commission will only add
to the farce surrounding the proposed election.

A number of things have happened recently—the registration of the Kachin
State United Democratic Party (KSUDP), which is backed by the government's
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the attempt to spark ethnic
clashes in Kachin, the alleged move to transport more than 100,000 “Burman
voters’ to the Hukawng valley. All clearly spell out the game plan of the
junta to take over the control of the administration of Kachin State.

But of all the possible impediments put up to block the party from
emerging as a political force for the Kachins, the delay in registering
the party is highly deplorable and flabbergasting.

If the KSUDP, which was cobbled up with loose factions and individuals who
are aligned with the military government, can be registered in just 16
days after filing its application, then what is wrong with the KSPP, which
has complied all the legal formalities according to the law?

As things stand today, the fate of the KSPP hangs in the balance, at the
mercy of the junta. Legal experts say the junta could twist the law to
declare the KSPP an “illegal entity.” Given recent developments, there is
every possibility that Section 4 (f) or Section 7 could be used by the
junta.

These two sections specify that political parties can face
disqualification if they fail to prove that they are not a member of an
insurgent organization in revolt against the State, or not a part of an
organization designated by the State as committing terrorist acts, or not
a member of an organization declared as an unlawful association under any
existing law.

One legal expert noted that the election laws have been made by the
military, and it would not be difficult to frame false charges against any
party that the military does not want, and the KSPP is no exception.

The reason that has been given by the Election Commission for the delay is
that the KSPP has links with the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO).
That could mean plans are afoot to declare the KIO an “unlawful
organization” if it fails to toe the line of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) to convert the Kachin Independent Association
(KIA) into a border guard force (BGF).

It is well-known that the Burmese regime is going hammer and tongs to see
that the push for the BGF succeeds.

For Kachin observers, the regime's tactics are transparent. “Its clear and
simple that if the KIO does not respond to the SDPC’s demands, then the
KSPP will be victimized,” said Aung Wa, a political activist in Kachin.

La Rip, young activist, says the political situation needs more domestic
and international understanding and support.

“We don’t know how long will we have to wait for the KSPP to be recognized
as a legitimate political party. Its leaders have sent appeal letters
three times already to the Union Election Commission (UEC) in Naypyidaw,
and the UEC’s response has been 'wait.'”

The junta’s agents are reaching out to Kachin-based organizations offering
“huge benefits” for supporting the USDP in the next election. In some
places, allies of the USDA [Union Solidarity and Development Association]
and the USDP are going around promising support to other ethnic groups
from the region.

“The government agents are telling some groups that if they form a party
which supports the USDP, then they will get monetary and other back-ups,”
said an observer in Myitkyina.

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher on peace and conflict
studies.