RANGOON — A senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said on Thursday the party planned to appoint NLD lawmakers to chief minister posts across Burma’s regional parliaments, dashing the hopes of at least one major ethnic political party that had publically coveted such a position.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, NLD central committee member Nan Khin Htwe Myint said chief ministers of Burma’s state parliaments would be ethnic NLD candidates, as selected by the country’s new president according to the 2008 Constitution.
The Arakan National Party (ANP), which won 23 of 47 Arakan State parliament seats in last month’s election and emerged as one of the country’s strongest ethnic political parties, had expressed hope the new state chief would be drawn from within its ranks.
Nan Khin Htwe Myint put paid to that prospect on Thursday.
“Maybe the ANP can obtain the regional parliament chairman post but the state chief minister will be from the NLD,” she said. “Even if we had only secured two or three [local Arakan State parliament] seats in the election, we could select an NLD ethnic candidate for the post.”
Aye Thar Aung, a spokesperson for the ANP, claimed lawmakers could object to the presidential appointee, but conceded the military-drafter charter put the matter in the hands of the president.
“We must amend the Constitution. If we don’t, this will happen again and again,” he said.
Aye Thar Aung said that an NLD candidate from Gwa Township, Nyi Pu, was being touted for the post. (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)
December 25, 2015
Activists call for witness protection as major Thai human trafficking trial begins
BANGKOK, Dec 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Thai authorities must step up witness protection for a major human trafficking trial with the accused including an army general and one investigator fleeing the country fearing for his life, activists said on Thursday as the first witnesses gave evidence.
The case includes 88 defendants allegedly involved with lucrative smuggling gangs that were trafficking Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar, holding them for ransom in jungle camps before granting onward passage to Malaysia.
The investigation and arrests followed the grisly discovery in May of 30 bodies in a mass grave near a human trafficking camp close to the Thailand-Malaysia border.
Of 500 witnesses scheduled to testify, only 12 are receiving protection, while two have gone into hiding because of threats and others may follow suit, said Fortify Rights, a non-governmental organisation advocacy group.
"Witnesses are key to ensuring justice is served in this case. Their security should be the utmost concern to the Thai authorities," Fortify Rights Executive Director Amy Smith said in a statement. (Courtesy of trust.org)
The case includes 88 defendants allegedly involved with lucrative smuggling gangs that were trafficking Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar, holding them for ransom in jungle camps before granting onward passage to Malaysia.
The investigation and arrests followed the grisly discovery in May of 30 bodies in a mass grave near a human trafficking camp close to the Thailand-Malaysia border.
Of 500 witnesses scheduled to testify, only 12 are receiving protection, while two have gone into hiding because of threats and others may follow suit, said Fortify Rights, a non-governmental organisation advocacy group.
"Witnesses are key to ensuring justice is served in this case. Their security should be the utmost concern to the Thai authorities," Fortify Rights Executive Director Amy Smith said in a statement. (Courtesy of trust.org)
Change Brings Uncertainty for State Media
The most derided newspaper in Myanmar is trying to shed its reputation as an evil regime mouthpiece, so it has hired a group of foreigners.
For the last few months three new recruits – an American and two Australians – have been quietly helping the Global New Light of Myanmar with its mission to liberalise and appeal to readers amid new competition.
Oppressively dull pieces about the movements of government officials or the minutiae of onion farming in Pyawbwe are still a mainstay, but now there are also folksy, well-penned feature stories on subjects including a dilapidated Yangon bowling alley and an entrepreneur who makes lovely rattan furniture.
And there is a social page, featuring pictures from wild expat parties and glitzy corporate ceremonies, often accompanied by sarcastic captions that are a world away from the stiff propaganda of the old days.
“The paper is changed and its works are in full swing,” declares the publication’s website. The GNLM needs to be “more attractive and people-oriented,” it adds.
“There are still a lot of things to improve,” said Jessica Mudditt, an Australian consulting editor who joined the paper after working in Myanmar as a freelance reporter, “but the desire is there to make it a better newspaper and continue to improve it.”
Critics see the changes as superficial. “In reality, it’s still propaganda for the current government,” said Ko Han Thar, a co-founder of Kamaryut Media, a popular independent Myanmar-language news service. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
For the last few months three new recruits – an American and two Australians – have been quietly helping the Global New Light of Myanmar with its mission to liberalise and appeal to readers amid new competition.
Oppressively dull pieces about the movements of government officials or the minutiae of onion farming in Pyawbwe are still a mainstay, but now there are also folksy, well-penned feature stories on subjects including a dilapidated Yangon bowling alley and an entrepreneur who makes lovely rattan furniture.
And there is a social page, featuring pictures from wild expat parties and glitzy corporate ceremonies, often accompanied by sarcastic captions that are a world away from the stiff propaganda of the old days.
“The paper is changed and its works are in full swing,” declares the publication’s website. The GNLM needs to be “more attractive and people-oriented,” it adds.
“There are still a lot of things to improve,” said Jessica Mudditt, an Australian consulting editor who joined the paper after working in Myanmar as a freelance reporter, “but the desire is there to make it a better newspaper and continue to improve it.”
Critics see the changes as superficial. “In reality, it’s still propaganda for the current government,” said Ko Han Thar, a co-founder of Kamaryut Media, a popular independent Myanmar-language news service. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
Muse and the Chinese ‘Invasion’
“In my opinion Muse is the safest place in all of Myanmar to do business,” said Chinese businessman Zheng Mu Gang, 31. Mr Zheng owns four cellphone shops in Muse, a border town in northern Shan State on the main trade route with China.
“Muse is one of Myanmar’s main economic hot spots,” said Mr Zheng, who has been living in the bustling border trade town for four years. “If there was conflict here, the whole Myanmar economy would be ruined. That’s why I think Muse is the safest location in Myanmar and is part of the reason why I chose Muse to start my business.”
The Nikkei Asian Review has reported that Myanmar’s official trade through Muse reached US$3.8 billion in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, just over half the value of Myanmar’s total trade with China. Seven years ago, the combined value of imports and exports passing through Muse was less than US$1 billion.
Mr Zheng became aware of the market potential in Myanmar while he was running a wholesale cellphone business at Jiegao, the first big Chinese town across the border from Muse.
“The amount of cellphones my Myanmar customers were buying to sell when they returned to Myanmar started to grow tremendously,” he said.
But Mr Zheng also learned a lesson selling wholesale to Myanmar businesses.
“I would provide loans that they could repay after selling their product. But often I didn’t get my money back. So I thought: why not open my own shop in Myanmar?” (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
“Muse is one of Myanmar’s main economic hot spots,” said Mr Zheng, who has been living in the bustling border trade town for four years. “If there was conflict here, the whole Myanmar economy would be ruined. That’s why I think Muse is the safest location in Myanmar and is part of the reason why I chose Muse to start my business.”
The Nikkei Asian Review has reported that Myanmar’s official trade through Muse reached US$3.8 billion in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, just over half the value of Myanmar’s total trade with China. Seven years ago, the combined value of imports and exports passing through Muse was less than US$1 billion.
Mr Zheng became aware of the market potential in Myanmar while he was running a wholesale cellphone business at Jiegao, the first big Chinese town across the border from Muse.
“The amount of cellphones my Myanmar customers were buying to sell when they returned to Myanmar started to grow tremendously,” he said.
But Mr Zheng also learned a lesson selling wholesale to Myanmar businesses.
“I would provide loans that they could repay after selling their product. But often I didn’t get my money back. So I thought: why not open my own shop in Myanmar?” (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
Diverse Countries and The Identity Thing
When a country is at its core diverse, patriotism is the best means of holding the strings together to create a notion of ‘one people and one nation.’ The United States is a point in case. The USA is a country with a relatively short history and a shallow culture that is a mixture of diverse immigrant influences. As a result Americans frantically cherish their stars and stripes and feel it is their patriotic duty to foster American ideals in far flung countries, some of which might already have a deeper sense of national identity.
Myanmar is a country of great diversity as well. The country has always been a hodge podge of peoples and cultures. The area that is now called Myanmar was fiercely contested by kingdoms in what are now Thailand and China. Mon and Rakhine rulers wreaked havoc in Bamar dominated areas, during historic wars that are still remembered by school children and grand fathers alike.
The borderlands in Shan, Chin and Kachin - ‘frontier areas’, as the British colonialists called these separately administered areas - only really became part of mainland Myanmar after the country regained its independence in 1948.
Then again, it took until 1962 for the largely autonomous Shan saophas to be dethroned, when General Ne Win took over power under the guise that an ethnic conference on federalism might lead to the disintegration of the country. His subsequent agenda of Burmanisation only served to fuel the civil wars and pushed back peace for several decades. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
Myanmar is a country of great diversity as well. The country has always been a hodge podge of peoples and cultures. The area that is now called Myanmar was fiercely contested by kingdoms in what are now Thailand and China. Mon and Rakhine rulers wreaked havoc in Bamar dominated areas, during historic wars that are still remembered by school children and grand fathers alike.
The borderlands in Shan, Chin and Kachin - ‘frontier areas’, as the British colonialists called these separately administered areas - only really became part of mainland Myanmar after the country regained its independence in 1948.
Then again, it took until 1962 for the largely autonomous Shan saophas to be dethroned, when General Ne Win took over power under the guise that an ethnic conference on federalism might lead to the disintegration of the country. His subsequent agenda of Burmanisation only served to fuel the civil wars and pushed back peace for several decades. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
Election, peace negotiation dominate Myanmar's domestic affairs in 2015
YANGON, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's historical general election and peace negotiation process have significantly dominated the country' domestic affairs in the year of 2015.
Myanmar held a general election to elect parliamentary representatives of the next five-year term on Nov. 8.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the absolute majority of the parliamentary seats, which is strong enough for it to form a new government independently under the constitution and has right to nominate the president and two vice presidents.
Suu Kyi herself also won as a representative re-elected to the Lower House of the next parliament.
In the general election, the NLD won 880 parliamentary seats or 77.3 percent out of a total of 1,139 at three levels of parliament, shared by 254 or 79 percent are in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 135 or 80 percent in the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and 474 or 75.7 percent in the Region or State Parliament as well as 17 ethnic representatives to the Region or State Parliament. (Courtesy of news.xinhuanet.com)
Myanmar held a general election to elect parliamentary representatives of the next five-year term on Nov. 8.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the absolute majority of the parliamentary seats, which is strong enough for it to form a new government independently under the constitution and has right to nominate the president and two vice presidents.
Suu Kyi herself also won as a representative re-elected to the Lower House of the next parliament.
In the general election, the NLD won 880 parliamentary seats or 77.3 percent out of a total of 1,139 at three levels of parliament, shared by 254 or 79 percent are in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 135 or 80 percent in the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and 474 or 75.7 percent in the Region or State Parliament as well as 17 ethnic representatives to the Region or State Parliament. (Courtesy of news.xinhuanet.com)
Myanmar people protest against Koh Tao ruling at Thai embassy
Thursday's ruling caused outrage in Myanmar and dozens of police were deployed to guard the Thai embassy in Yangon amid calls on social media for a protest.
About 10 people stood outside the building holding placards demanding the release of the two convicts.
Myanmar Facebook user Myo Phont described the outcome as"entirely predictable".
"Poor boys - wrong time, wrong place ...the Burmese are thescapegoats as usual." (Courtesy of The Nation)
About 10 people stood outside the building holding placards demanding the release of the two convicts.
Myanmar Facebook user Myo Phont described the outcome as"entirely predictable".
"Poor boys - wrong time, wrong place ...the Burmese are thescapegoats as usual." (Courtesy of The Nation)
Myanmar penalizes over 20 overseas employment agencies
Myanmar has penalized more than 20 overseas employment agencies which place the country's migrant workers in positions abroad by violating labour rules, officials said on Thursday.
According to labour, employment and social security ministry, the penalization included revoking the licenses of eight overseas agencies, suspending six agencies on suspicion of marketing fraud smart cards and visas, and suspending another eight for violating the rules of their employment contracts, Xinhua news agency reported. (Courtesy of Business Standard News)
According to labour, employment and social security ministry, the penalization included revoking the licenses of eight overseas agencies, suspending six agencies on suspicion of marketing fraud smart cards and visas, and suspending another eight for violating the rules of their employment contracts, Xinhua news agency reported. (Courtesy of Business Standard News)
Could climate change deal undermine Myanmar’s gas wealth?
Developing countries such as Myanmar will face increasing difficulty expanding their electricity supply using conventional fossil fuels oil, gas and coal, it emerged last week during the global climate change conference in France.
An agreement on curbing global warming could undermine the potential national wealth from hoped for natural gas beneath Myanmar’s territorial waters of the Bay of Bengal, where 20 blocks have been leased to international oil companies for exploration.
If the UN-led conference agrees on tough measures to hold global warming below a 2C increase the commercial viability of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of planned investments in fossil fuels in Asia would be undermined, some experts asserted.
It would also undermine bank and institutional investor support for coal-fuelled power plants – the favoured quick fix being sought by countries from the Philippines to India to overcome acute electricity shortages, a special report in the Asia Power Monitor said.
A study by the London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) warned that more than US$300 billion worth of fossil fuel investments in Asia is at risk of being wasted if the UN conference agrees on global CO2 limits.
The independent research think tank suggests that plans by numerous companies and countries for oil, gas and coal developments would be rendered obsolete. (Courtesy of Mizzima)
An agreement on curbing global warming could undermine the potential national wealth from hoped for natural gas beneath Myanmar’s territorial waters of the Bay of Bengal, where 20 blocks have been leased to international oil companies for exploration.
If the UN-led conference agrees on tough measures to hold global warming below a 2C increase the commercial viability of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of planned investments in fossil fuels in Asia would be undermined, some experts asserted.
It would also undermine bank and institutional investor support for coal-fuelled power plants – the favoured quick fix being sought by countries from the Philippines to India to overcome acute electricity shortages, a special report in the Asia Power Monitor said.
A study by the London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) warned that more than US$300 billion worth of fossil fuel investments in Asia is at risk of being wasted if the UN conference agrees on global CO2 limits.
The independent research think tank suggests that plans by numerous companies and countries for oil, gas and coal developments would be rendered obsolete. (Courtesy of Mizzima)
Myanmar Migrants Found Guilty of Killing British Backpackers
A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two Myanmar migrants to death for the murder of two British backpackers on a resort island last year, in a case that raised questions about police competence and the judicial system in Thailand.
Human Rights Watch called the verdict "profoundly disturbing," citing the defendants' accusations of police torture that were never investigated and questionable DNA evidence linking them to the crime. But the family of one of the victims said they believed justice had been done.
Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, have denied killing David Miller, 24, and raping and then murdering Hannah Witheridge, 23. Their defense attorney said they planned to appeal.
Miller's and Witheridge's battered bodies were found Sept. 15, 2014, on the rocky shores of Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand known for its white sand beaches and scuba diving. Autopsies showed that the two, who met on the island while staying at the same hotel, suffered severe head wounds and that Witheridge had been raped.
In its ruling, the court on nearby Samui island said prosecutors had presented evidence from the crime scene and provided witness testimony that proved "without any doubt to the court" that the two men had killed Miller and raped Witheridge before murdering her "to cover up their wrongdoings." DNA evidence showed that the semen of both men was found inside Witheridge, the court said. (Courtesy of ABC News)
Human Rights Watch called the verdict "profoundly disturbing," citing the defendants' accusations of police torture that were never investigated and questionable DNA evidence linking them to the crime. But the family of one of the victims said they believed justice had been done.
Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, have denied killing David Miller, 24, and raping and then murdering Hannah Witheridge, 23. Their defense attorney said they planned to appeal.
Miller's and Witheridge's battered bodies were found Sept. 15, 2014, on the rocky shores of Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand known for its white sand beaches and scuba diving. Autopsies showed that the two, who met on the island while staying at the same hotel, suffered severe head wounds and that Witheridge had been raped.
In its ruling, the court on nearby Samui island said prosecutors had presented evidence from the crime scene and provided witness testimony that proved "without any doubt to the court" that the two men had killed Miller and raped Witheridge before murdering her "to cover up their wrongdoings." DNA evidence showed that the semen of both men was found inside Witheridge, the court said. (Courtesy of ABC News)
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