| Burma Parliament Committee: Keep Main Points of Constitution Posted: 31 Jan 2014 04:42 AM PST  Staff sell copies of Burma's Constitution at the Lower House of Parliament in Naypyidaw in 2012. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — The Constitutional Review Joint Committee in Burma's Parliament has put forward proposed draft amendments to the 2008 military-written charter, with no changes to articles that currently bar Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency and guarantee the military a key role in politics. However, the 109-member committee—with representatives from the opposition and ruling parties, as well as the military—has recommended changes to allow greater power sharing between the government and ethnic groups, according to a report published Friday. The committee's report recommended no change to Article 59F, which says a president may not have a spouse or children who are foreign nationals. Suu Kyi, who chairs the National League for Democracy (NLD), has two sons with British citizenship. According to the committee's proposed draft amendments, there would be no change to an article that reserves 25 percent of seats in Parliament for the military, or to an article that requires approval from more than 75 percent of lawmakers for constitutional amendments. The committee also proposed to retain a chapter of the Constitution that grants immunity for members of the former regime who committed crimes while carrying out their duties. However, it did recommend changes that would allow greater power sharing between the government and ethnic groups, as both sides negotiate ceasefires and peace agreements. Ethnic groups have been fighting for decades for the right to elect their own state governments and to have more control over natural resources. But the committee proposed no amendment to a chapter which says all armed forces in the country should fall under the command of the government's defense services. This chapter is controversial because ethnic groups have called for a "federal army," with a decentralized command structure and battalions in certain regions comprised largely of soldiers from the dominant resident ethnic group. The Constitution was written by the former military regime and passed in a referendum in 2008 that was widely seen as a sham. Since President Thein Sein's government came to power in 2011, opposition parties and ethnic groups have campaigned for sweeping changes to the document, while others have called for an opportunity to completely rewrite it. The Constitutional Review Joint Committee formed in July and was tasked with taking input from a wide range of stakeholders on whether—and in what ways—to amend the Constitution. The report Friday said over 100,000 people did not support changes to the above mentioned articles and chapters. By comparison, it said only 592 people wanted to amend the article that makes Suu Kyi ineligible for the presidency. These figures stand in contrast to results of opinion polls conducted by Suu Kyi's NLD party last year, which showed that tens of thousands of supporters supported amendments or a complete rewrite of the Constitution. "It is a little strange to see that 106,102 people did not want to change articles, including 59F," Pe Than, a lawmaker from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), told The Irrawaddy. He is not a member of the committee. "The army and the USDP did not want to hurt the Constitution," he said, referring to the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. "I believe this is why 106,102 people did not want to change the main points in the Constitution." "If it is possible, we want to change the section so Aung San Suu Kyi can be president, because it would be good to have a democratic system," he added. He said lawmakers would continue to discuss the draft amendments in Parliament. Regarding proposed changes to Chapters 1-5 that would allow greater power sharing with ethnic groups, he said he believed the government's ceasefire negotiations played a role. "It seems they made it a priority to have peace with ethnic groups by doing this," he said. Win Tin, a veteran journalist and co-founder of the NLD, said he was not caught off guard by the parliamentary committee's proposals. "I was not surprised that they did not amend any of the points we wanted to amend. I anticipated this already, and that's why I was against my party's stance to amend the Constitution," he said. He had called instead to scrap the charter and complete rewrite it. "I was the only person who was against amendments because I knew they would only amend unimportant points." Khun Okkar, joint secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a major alliance of ethnic armed groups, said he was disappointed that the committee did not recommend changes to allow for a federal army. "It is unacceptable for our ethnic armies to have to stay under their control. This is why we did not agree to the 2008 Constitution," he said. "The government is trying to get us to sign a nationwide ceasefire," he added. "If they do not change their stance, it will be hard to have peace." The post Burma Parliament Committee: Keep Main Points of Constitution appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma’s Lonely ‘Dictator Pagoda’ Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:56 AM PST  The Maha Wizaya Pagoda in Rangoon. (Photo: Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrwaddy) RANGOON — As one of about a dozen astrologers at the entrance of Maha Wizaya Pagoda, Aung Moe watches to see how many Buddhist pilgrims arrive every day. "Very few people visit," says the tarot card reader, who has worked at his booth near the pagoda for the past 15 years. "I have to admit, Maha Wizaya is a lesser visited pagoda, if you compare it with the pagoda over there," he adds, referring to Burma's landmark Shwedagon Pagoda, right across a footbridge and usually teeming with visitors, both locals and foreigners, throughout the day. In a devout Buddhist country where people are rarely reluctant to visit pagodas, the seeming aversion to Maha Wizaya is unusual. Ashin Issariya is a Buddhist monk who says he will never make a pilgrimage there. "I have never visited the Maha Wizaya Pagoda in my life," says the 53-year-old, who spent more than four years in prison for his active role in the monk-led 2007 Saffron Revolution. "It is a dictator's pagoda." Also known as Ne Win's pagoda, the gold-leafed structure was built in 1980 by Burma's former dictator Gen. Ne Win, whose 26-year leadership led the one-time prosperous country to become one of the world's 10 poorest nations by 1988. His government announced it would build the pagoda to commemorate the first successful convening of all sects of the Buddhist monastic order. However, locals in Rangoon widely believed the structure was intended to serve as a form of yadaya, or magic that could be used to ward off any bad luck that might be looming upon Ne Win. "It is built by a tyrant who used Buddhism as a stepping stone to promote his political legitimacy, as if he was supporting the sasana [religion]," the monk says. "It is his evil intention that makes the pagoda unpopular and keeps me away from it." In the 1992 book "Totalitarianism in Burma," Burmese scholar Mya Maung wrote that Ne Win's pagoda represented "the dark horror of his soul and sins," and stood "without much reverence or pilgrimage on the part of the Burmese." But Thein Myint, a trustee member of Maha Wizaya, rejects the notion that the pagoda is unpopular due to its connection to the former dictator. He says it is less visited because it is overshadowed by Shwedagon. "It's nonsense to say people don't come here just because of the person who built it. It's superstition," he says. He adds that Shwedagon is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist religious site in Burma. "It is thousands of years old, while ours is just 26," he says. As a result, Maha Wizaya rarely sees foreign tourists, even though it requires no admission fee. Neighboring Shwedagon, which charges foreign visitors 10,000 kyats ($10) for entrance, received over 400,000 international visitors last year, or more than 1,000 visitors per day, according to the pagoda's website. "We never have foreign dignitaries and earn less than $10 per month in donations from occasional foreign visitors," Thein Myint says. In contrast, Shwedagon received about of $470 in donations per day last month. Maha Wizaya is not the only pagoda in Rangoon that was built by a former dictator. After Ne Win's fall from grace in 1988, the new military government also followed suit. In 1994, Snr-Gen Than Shwe of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) ordered the construction of a pagoda to house a replicated Buddha's tooth relic. The Great Tooth Relic Pagoda, or Swal Daw in Burmese, was completed in 1996. In 2000 the SPDC also decided to carve a sitting Buddha image out of a single marble stone that had been carried through the Irrawaddy River down to Rangoon. Known as Kyauktaw Gyi Pagoda, it is now the biggest statue carved from stone in Burma. Unlike Maha Wizaya, these Buddhist sites see many visitors, including foreigners. "They want to go to Kyauktaw Gyi because they know it is the biggest marble sitting Buddha in the country," says Thiha Kyaw, a Rangoon-based tour guide from Overseas Adventure Travel, who adds that Swal Daw Pagoda is also popular. In his more than 10 years as a tour guide, he has never received a request from any tourist to visit Maha Wizaya. "It's not internationally famous. When it comes to Burma, the first thing to pop up in their minds is Shwedagon," he says. Sein Han, a trustee board member of Swal Daw Pagoda, says the Burmese do not care who built the pagoda; they go to pay homage to the Buddha, not the builder. "Here people are visiting until 9 pm. We have to ask them to leave because it's time to close the pagoda." The post Burma's Lonely 'Dictator Pagoda' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burmese Migrants Advised to Return as Thai Work Visas Expire Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:49 AM PST  A migrant worker from Burma looks out from inside a building where she lives in the port town of Mahachai, near Bangkok, on Sept. 24, 2011. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun) CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Burmese migrant workers in Thailand whose four-year visas have expired should follow the rules laid out in a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in order to avoid arrest in the neighboring nation, said Burma's labor attaché Kyaw Kyaw Lwin on Friday. The MoU, signed in 2009, originally stated that Burmese nationals holding temporary passports—travel documents that allow entry to Thailand only—who have worked in Thailand for four years must return to their home country for three years before they would be allowed to return to the Kingdom. But last year, the Burma Embassy and officials from the Thai Department of Employment agreed in principle that migrants could "return" to Burma by crossing over the border for only one night and would then be allowed to apply for new visas at border processing offices. The agreement came after a series of meetings that saw the stay period in Burma reduced from the original three years down to one month and then one night. However, the new agreement has not yet been approved by the Thai cabinet, leaving the legal status of the arrangement murky. Adding to Burmese migrant workers' uncertainty, plans to open the border visa processing facilities have been delayed due to political turmoil in Thailand that began more than two months ago. As a result, more Burmese migrants' visas are expiring by the day. The Burma Embassy says it has asked Thai authorities not to arrest those migrant workers whose visas have expired due to their inability to renew the document at the nonfunctioning border offices. Despite the request, in some places workers are facing arrest and deportation. The Burmese labor attaché said there could be more than 10,000 migrants whose visas have already expired. "Those 10,000 people should go back [to Burma] and re-enter Thailand with a new MoU passport. That would be my best advice," Kyaw Kyaw Lwin told The Irrawaddy. Many of the migrant workers first entered Thailand holding temporary passports, but since December, the Burmese government has been issuing permanent passports to Burmese nationals seeking to work in Thailand. "They can contact labor agencies and apply for a visa with a new MoU passport like others who are now coming in," Kyaw Kyaw Lwin said, adding that the bulk of cases were yet to come, as "there will be more than 100,000 visa-expired migrants by the end of 2014." Asked about the two governments' efforts to ensure the safety of migrant workers, Kyaw Kyaw Lin said Burma had engaged in frequent talks with Thai labor officials, but the issues, including the border offices' closure and continued arrests of migrants, had not yet been resolved. "We asked the Thai labor officials to allow the migrants to continue staying for another 180 days after their visas have expired," he said. "It has not been settled as the cabinet has not yet approved it." Though efforts to resolve the visa dilemma are being undertaken, in practical terms many migrants whose visas have expired are being dismissed by employers in some places, such as Mahachai near Bangkok, and arrests by Thai police for illegally overstaying in the Kingdom are taking place. "The employer of a tin-fish factory in Mahachai, known as MPP, told its 28 workers to leave since their visas expired in mid-January," said Khaing Gyi, secretary of the Myanmar Association in Thailand (MAT). He said about 300 more workers' visas would expire on Feb. 5 at the same factory and "their employer told them that he will no longer employ them at the factory." Labor rights activists estimate that there could be more than 100,000 people out of the 1.7 million registered Burmese migrant workers in Thailand whose visas will expire in February. As many as one million additional migrant workers in Thailand are unregistered. "I doubt that the embassy and the Burmese government have the data on the first temporary passport holders in 2009," said Khaing Gyi, adding that in the Mahachai area alone there were currently about 10,000 people whose four-year visas were set to expire. The MAT secretary said that if both governments did not come up with an immediate solution to the problem, migrant workers' lives would be susceptible to the exploitation, human trafficking and widespread incarcerations that characterized cross-border labor relations in the 2000s. "Now many migrant workers are seeking ways to be able to continue staying in their community by paying money to some Thai authorities, local police and the township officials, like in the past," he said. "The embassy should issue a formal announcement for the migrant workers. They must announce what the migrants really should do, to avoid such difficulties." The post Burmese Migrants Advised to Return as Thai Work Visas Expire appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Kicking Off the New Year Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:21 AM PST |
| Burmese Arrested After Dispute With Chinese Pipeline Workers Posted: 31 Jan 2014 02:51 AM PST 
RANGOON — More than 20 Burmese workers have been detained and are under investigation after a clash with Chinese men at a work site of the Burma-China oil pipeline in the country's western Arakan State, according to police.
A police officer in the costal state's Ann Township told The Irrawaddy that some buildings were destroyed and set on fire following a dispute on Jan. 26 between Burmese and Chinese employees working at a pipeline transit camp located in the township. "We are interrogating over 20 people who we have detained for a temporary period," said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous. "I still can't say anything in detail." State-owned newspapers on Wednesday reported the incident, saying that Burmese and Chinese workers living in the same house fought after Chinese workers poured water from an upstairs window and got their Burmese colleagues wet. Other reports have said the Burmese workers believed the Chinese had urinated on them. State media said the angered Burmese workers threw stones at the house and burnt down a warehouse. The government newspapers also stated that the next day, Jan. 27, Burmese employees set fire to an oil storage building and another two-story building, and that those who were involved in the arson had escaped. Thwe Thwe Soe, an Ann resident, told The Irrawaddy what she was informed that Chinese workers often pour water and thrown garbage from upstairs. "Those who live downstairs are ethnic Chin people from Magwe Division. They are very honest. I think they were just patient with what Chinese workers were doing, maybe because it was difficult for them to move to another job. But now, they could no longer tolerate it, and their feelings exploded, which led to these actions," she said. The Ann resident also expressed her opinion that it was not fair to detain Burmese alone for investigation. "It is unjust that the Chinese are the ones who started the problem but none of them got arrested," said Thwe Thwe Soe. The officer from the Ann Township Police Station said one Chinese was among detainees being interrogated for the weekend incident. Currently, about 80 Chinese and 150 Burmese are working in a camp located 22 miles [35 kilometers] away from the urban area of Ann Township. Most of the Burmese workers are ethnic Chin. The oil pipeline between Burma and China stretches between Maday Island in Arakan's Kyaukphyu Township and Yunnun Province in China. It goes through Magwe and Mandalay divisions, and Shan State. The post Burmese Arrested After Dispute With Chinese Pipeline Workers appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Chinese-Backed Nickel Mining Project Draws Concerns in Chin State Posted: 31 Jan 2014 02:44 AM PST  A local resident reads posters put up by a Chinese mining company giving information about a planned nickel-mining project in Chin State's Tedim Township. (Photo: Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group) TEDIM TOWNSHIP, Chin State — A planned nickel-mining project in the mountains of Burma's poorest state is causing concern among locals worried about its environmental impact. Activists and people living in the area in Chin State's Tedim Township say the Chinese-owned North Mining Investment Company, which began conducting surveys for the project in 2012, is not giving concrete information about the impacts mining would have. "The company just said that the mountain and the environment will not be harmed due to the mining process," Cin Tang, a local village chief, told The Irrawaddy. "On the other hand, they said they will use an open cut mining method, and will dig 45 meters deep. How can they say the environment will not be harmed in the region if they will dig and produce many tons of rocks and stones over years?" According to Burma's Ministry of Mining, a preliminary survey for the nickel mining project on an area covering Mwe Mountain and Phar Mountain was completed December 2012, and construction on two purifying factories is scheduled to start in early 2014. Representatives of North Mining Investment have reportedly visited more than 15 villages and met with the locals to explain the project. Hand-outs and posters distributed by the mining company make grand claims for the benefits of the project to the local area, and play down any potential downsides. The posters also say that the $486.7 million project will produce purified nickel and iron, and will contribute US$500,000 a year to the development of Chin State, and bring jobs to the area, once it is up and running. Electricity produced that exceeds the needs of the project will be distributed for free for a year to people living within 5 kilometers of the project. They claim the process of purifying the nickel will not use chemicals or acid. While omitting mention of any negative impacts, the materials say the company's factories will use about 530,000 tons of coal per year for heating and to produce electricity. And in order to filter sulphur dioxide, it will use about 50,000 tons of limestone, the literature says. The company also says it will build a dock at Kalaywa on the Chindwin River in Sagaing Division. The mine will produce ferronickel concentrates, which will be transported to the port, and shipped, via the Irrawaddy River, to Rangoon and then to China, the company says. Despite the public relations efforts, locals are concerned they will face the same problems as the residents affected by the controversial Chinese-backed copper mining project at Letpadaung in central Burma. That project was recently restarted, with more favorable terms for the Burmese government, after public outrage and protests led to its suspension. "They [North Mining Investment] said the first contract of project is just for seven years and six months. After that, the region will get everything that is left from the project. But who knows, maybe this Mwe Mountain will disappear, just as Sabae and Kyaesin mountains did at the Letpadaung copper mine," said Cin Tang. "I can't imagine how much the air, water and our land will be polluted. They said our villages will not be displaced, but if the forest is destroyed and if our lands are polluted, we will have to find a new place on our own. Then there is no difference between this and being forcibly displaced." No clear-cut guarantees have been made by the company or the local government about environmental conservation efforts. "The company repeatedly just says how much and what kind of help it will give to the region, and how their project will develop the region," said Har Tuang, a member of Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group. "But they have failed to give a guarantee on how they will deal with the pollution, which would affect the economic, health and social life of the region." Locals and activists filed complaints to the Chin State government in 2013, urging it not to allow mining in the area. "The state government said that they do not have the power to decide on this matter, only the Union government has," said Zam Thuam, also a member of Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group. The group has submitted a complaint to Naypyidaw after meeting with the state government in end of 2013 to review the project. Meanwhile, the illegal trading of stone from Mwe Mountain and Phar Mountain has fueled a popular market in Kalay Myo, upper Sagaing Division, since mid-2013 as some Chinese traders have already begun moving into the area. "Actually, the state government must handle such illegal trade. We can only educate the locals but we also do not want them to be arrested for unlawful acts. But this is just for their living, so we have nothing to say about this. It is like the state government is creating misunderstanding between the locals and the activists," said Liantuang, another member of Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group. About 1.5kg of stone is priced from 2,000 Kyats to 4,000 kyats ($2-$4) and is reportedly traded through Shan State and across the Sino-Burmese border. "If the project is for the development of the country, we have no reason to oppose. But we see nothing concerning the development of our country or the region in this project," Liantuang said. "That's why we don't want this mining project. We don't want the nature to be spoiled. We don't want our people to suffer. We don't want our region to be harmed. We want the responsible authorities to review this project." Apart from the environmental matters, locals, who are ethnic Chin, also worry about people of different cultures flooding into the region. "There's no one here who will be qualified to do the proposed work on the project. So, they will hire foreign laborers and many other people from outside," said a chief of Zonumzam village. "We are just afraid that our unspoiled culture will be affected and ruined by strangers who do not value it." The post Chinese-Backed Nickel Mining Project Draws Concerns in Chin State appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Thailand’s New Fault Line: The Right to Vote Posted: 31 Jan 2014 12:56 AM PST  Anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban waves to supporters in Bangkok on Jan. 13, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) BANGKOK — After scooping a handful of campaign flyers from a desk in her cluttered office, Leelavadee Vajropala, a first-time parliamentarian for the governing party, heads out on a recent weekday evening to meet voters. The former film star slips rolled flyers into the mailboxes of some homes and stops at small shops to chat to people who belong to her constituency, Dusit, a tree-lined part of old Bangkok that is home to the royal palace, the Parliament, sprawling military camps, and an array of shop-houses. But the message she spreads in seeking re-election at the Feb. 2 mid-term polls is more fundamental than when she walked the same streets before the last elections, in July 2011, to make her entry into Parliament. The talk of polices that another Pheu Thai ("For Thais") Party plans to implement if re-elected has given way to a simpler appeal—please go out and vote. "Now the campaign is to get people to vote," remarks Leelavadee, after speaking to a female resident and posing for a photograph with another, who remembers the still vivacious 47-year-old's past roles in the country's celluloid world. "They don't have to vote for me. This is about their rights and to use the electoral system." Prapsiri Sinnraksaa, a food-shop owner, supports that view. "I want to use my right to vote," the shy 41-year-old remarked following a brief exchange with the candidate. "I think many people in our area want to go and vote." That Thai politics has come to this exposes a new fault line in an already polarized country. It adds to the ultra-nationalists-progressives divide, the upper class-working class divide, the old capitalists-new capitalists divide and a geographic divide. The latter has been stark following five consecutive elections since 2001, where support for political parties formed by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former, twice-elected prime minister who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup, runs deep in the rice bowls of the north and northeast. Pheu Thai, the most recent incarnation of a pro-Thaksin party, tasted victory in 2011 as a result, defeating the opposition Democrat Party, the country's oldest party, yet perennial electoral losers for the past 20 years. The Democrats draw their support from voters in Bangkok and the rubber-growing belts in the country's south. Analysts say it is this string of successive defeats by the Democrats that has shaped the latest outpouring of rage on Bangkok's streets since late October. Led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a firebrand political veteran of the Democrats, anger was first directed at the Pheu Thai government's arrogance at ramming through a controversial amnesty bill in Parliament. As emotive for the opposition base was the alleged trail of corruption tainting the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's youngest sister. But it then took on insurrectionary tones. "The People's Committee for Absolute Democracy with the King as Head of State," as the Suthep-led movement named itself in Thai, declared its intention to "overthrow" the Yingluck administration and Thailand's most popular political clan, the Shinawatras, headed by Thaksin, who is now living in self-imposed exiled to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption. By mid-January, Suthep drew on his network as a political godfather from the south to attract thousands of party supporters to drive up to the capital to strengthen his push to cripple the government via a "Bangkok Shutdown." Instead of immediate elections—which Yingluck offered by dissolving Parliament and calling for the Feb. 2 poll—to break the deadlock, Suthep fancies elitist solutions. The 64-year-old wants an unelected "People's Council" of "good people" to run the country for at least a year to draft reforms before a poll. "There is a problem of elections in Thailand—vote-buying and electoral fraud," he said during an interview. "Even if there is another election, the Thaksin regime will win. What we want is to uproot the Thaksin regime." Such rhetoric ignores the balance sheets of the two main parties at the 2011 poll. The Democrats, who were the unelected incumbents backed by the powerful military, outspent the then opposition Pheu Thai to secure a popular mandate. It forked out over US$5 million to pay for its campaign. Pheu Thai's campaign expenses were an estimated $2.9 million. Even respected scholars have been drawn into the fray to question the anti-elections message of the would-be revolutionaries. "Vote-buying has not disappeared. At election time, some candidates still hand out money for fear of being judged 'small-hearted' or 'ungenerous' if they don't," wrote Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, who have co-authored many books on Thai politics, in a December op-ed published in The Bangkok Post. "But the point is that this money is no longer determining the election result." That, however, has done little to dent the nightly anti-democratic speeches that are delivered from the many stages now occupying once traffic-clogged intersections in the glitzy commercial heartland of the city. Sabotaging the elections is their new line of attack. And the militant wing of this opposition-led agitation is in no mood for compromise. That was evident last Sunday, when the 2.4 million citizens who had registered to vote in advance were to exercise their rights. Roving gangs of would-be revolutionaries, some armed with wooden clubs, laid siege on many polling stations in Bangkok. They threatened and intimidated voters from stepping into the high schools and government buildings chosen as polling venues. They were also strategic, padlocking the district offices in some areas, preventing even the ballot papers from being distributed. Deprived of their civic rights, consequently, were over 440,000 people after the opposition-backed thugs shut down 45 of Bangkok's 50 polling districts. The same suppression unfolded in 12 southern provinces, where 42 polling districts were unable to receive advance voters. Last Sunday's fiasco affirms a view Thonchai Winichakul, one of Thailand's most internationally celebrated scholars, has advanced in the wake of the opposition-led efforts to cripple an elected government. "The fault line is 'electoral democracy or else,'" the professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States, explained in an interview. "'Electoral democracy or else' has become a representation of deeper structural tension and political ideology and values in a hierarchical society like Thailand." It is this division that will be tested when the country's 48 million eligible voters go to the polls on Sunday, which the Democrats are, for the second time in eight years, boycotting. That the country will be on a knife-edge, certainly Bangkok, appears likely as Suthep has called on his army of anti-democrats to shut down the over 6,000 polling stations in the city. A six-point notice now making the rounds in the capital illustrates what is at stake on Feb. 2. Voters are being advised to prepare for intimidation, including news updates about "what time the mob will mobilize." Unprecedented tips are offered about how to dress for polling day: "Wear clothes that make you ready to move and ready to go through all situations." For voter solidarity, the fourth point suggests: "Go together with others as a team—it will be safer than to go alone. Go with your relatives for a democratic atmosphere, helping each other if there are obstacles." Such a tense atmosphere about the right to vote has prompted legal experts to sound a warning about Thailand's notorious, coup-prone history, which has had 18 putsches since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. Besides the powerful military, the politicized judiciary has also left its mark, bringing down a pro-Thaksin government in December 2008 following a controversial court case. "Any acts that deprives people [of their right] to choose their government—voters' power—through military or judicial or any other intervention will, in my opinion, be seen as a coup," Ekachai Chainuvat, vice dean of the law faculty at Bangkok-based Siam University, noted in an interview. "People now are not stupid. You cannot keep them down all the time. They will rise up and that will change the face of the country." The post Thailand's New Fault Line: The Right to Vote appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Thai Govt Officials Forced to Beg Access to Offices Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:23 PM PST  Anti-government protesters chain the gate of an office for the Land Transportation Department in Nonthaburi province on the outskirts of Bangkok on Jan. 29. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — The protest leader, a monk in flowing orange robes, sat sternly at the head of a long hardwood table, his newfound authority in this patch of Bangkok plain for all to see. Before him, three high-level Thai officials were begging permission to get back to work — in offices across the street his anti-government demonstrators had shut them out of two weeks earlier. Tens of thousands of passport applications were piling up, they said. Bankruptcy declarations needed tending to. One official was desperate to access environmental databases. Speaking on behalf of the group, Bangkok’s deputy police chief, Maj. Gen. Adul Narongsak, pressed his palms together in a traditional sign of respect, and smiled meekly. "We are begging for your mercy," he said. The monk, Luang Pu Buddha Issara, pursed his lips and gave a blunt reply: "Lord Buddha once taught that effects only come from causes. And right now, the cause (of the problem) is this government." It was an extraordinarily humbling moment for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s embattled administration, which took power following a landslide election two and a half years ago. That vote was seen as a major rebuke to the elite establishment that applauded the overthrow of her brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 army coup. But the popular mandate she enjoys today stands in stark contrast to scenes like these, which underscore just how weak Yingluck’s government has become in the wake of Thailand’s biggest anti-government protests in years. The conflict pits the Bangkok-based middle- and upper-class and southerners who disdain Yingluck against the poor, rural majority who support her and have benefited from populist policies including virtually free health care. The protesters are a minority that cannot win power through elections, but they comprise a formidable alliance of opposition leaders, royalists, and powerful businessmen who have set their sights on ousting Yingluck’s government, which they accuse of corruption and misrule. Desperate to defuse the crisis, Yingluck dissolved Parliament in December and called new elections, set for Sunday. But protests only intensified, and Yingluck — now a caretaker prime minister with limited powers — has found herself increasingly cornered since. Thai courts have begun fast-tracking cases that could see Yingluck or her party banished from power, and the army has pointedly left open the possibility of intervening again if the crisis is not resolved peacefully. In the meantime, demonstrators have taken over half a dozen major intersections in the capital, turning them into sometimes lively street markets complete with masseuses and food stalls. They have also surrounded government ministries, leaving Yingluck’s government hobbled and in disarray. With just about every one of country’s ministries forced to work from back-up offices elsewhere, citizens in need of government services have sometimes struggled even to find where they are located. The immigration bureau is now housed temporarily at a cineplex called Major Hollywood in neighboring Samut Prakarn province. Some Social Development and Human Security Ministry officials have had to work at a state orphanage in Nonthaburi, just north of the city. Executives from the Commerce Ministry have relocated to a government arts and crafts center in Ayutthaya province, about 55 kilometers (35 miles) to the north. And Yingluck herself has been forced to use a back-up office inside a Defense Ministry building. As the protests drag on, some government officials have quietly been trying to restart some government services — so far, with little success. The immensity of the challenge was evident earlier this week when several Thai officials met at a police station in the northern Bangkok district of Chaengwattana ahead of negotiations with protesters. "We need to explain clearly that this isn’t about politics, it’s about the impact protests are having on the people," said Adul, the police boss. "We need to make clear we’re not trying to take anything back over. We’re just asking for space for you to work." Half an hour later, the delegation drove into a zone controlled by protesters where government authority had effectively ceased. The line was a wall of white sandbags that had been erected across a multilane road, where a handful of protesters acting as guards — one whom wore a Che Guevara pin on his hat — stood beside a row of steel barriers and a tent with a sign that warned "no photographs." The police, despised by protesters and considered pro-government, have avoided dispersing demonstrators for fear of unleashing greater violence that could give the army a reason to intervene. Underscoring the police’s delicate predicament, Adul said fellow officers should not speak to anyone who had been charged with insurrection because they would be obliged to arrest them. The meeting with the demonstrators took place at a wooden table under a model Thai house on stilts that was being displayed for sale. The monk — who was asked to lead the area’s protesters by the movement’s main chief and has been heavily criticized by other Buddhists for becoming involved in politics — was waiting. Thongchai Chasawath, director of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s consular department, explained there was now a backlog of more than 40,000 passport applications. Desperate people, he said, were lining up in vast queues starting at midnight outside two back-up offices where staff could only process 2,500 of the 6,500 passports they normally handle daily. "That’s not enough for people’s needs," he said. The Justice Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary spoke next, explaining that bankruptcy declarations, bail bonds and auctions were also being affected. An official with the Ministry of Natural Resources then asked for access to environmental databases. Maj. Gen. Surachat Jitjaeng, a soldier serving in the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense, which supports Yingluck, told the monk that "all these ministries and departments are like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. If you can help us put the pieces fit back together, this could be a good start." The monk nodded and said he would meet with the consular and justice officials later to consider their requests. But the closure of the natural resources office was not hurting anybody, he argued. "If you are going to ask for help, why don’t you ask those corrupt politicians who are destroying our forests?" On the way out, a few dozen protesters crowded around the government delegation, screaming, "Crony! Crony!" By Thursday, the negotiations had produced mixed results. The consular affairs official has so far been unable to negotiate his way back in, but Tawatchai Thaikyo, of the Justice Ministry, said he is hoping he can get 100 staff back to work Monday. Tawatchai said the monk had been "understanding" and had asked him to provide photo identification for civil servants who could be allowed to return. But there was a condition. Tawatchai had to sleep in the street alongside the protesters, which he did, in a pink tent, on Wednesday night. "My family doesn’t approve … they are concerned about my safety," he said, referring to several grenade attacks on protest sites this month. "But I told them I’m a civil servant and I have to serve the people … if I have to quit my job to let us go back to work, I’d do it." The post Thai Govt Officials Forced to Beg Access to Offices appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Thai Government ‘Lacks Interest’ in Solving Burma Migrant Labor Abuse Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:14 PM PST  Burmese migrant workers stand in line on the Mae Sot-Myawaddy Friendship Bridge on the Burmese-Thai border. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) Allegations of serious violations of labor and human rights have been made against four factories in Thailand that employ many thousands of Burmese. One of the firms is involved in the manufacture of famous international fruit juice brands. The allegations, made by the Helsinki-based corporate responsibility advocacy group Finnwatch, involve factories that process and export tinned fish, fruit and juices across the globe from Japan to Europe. Another international NGO concerned about human rights, Burma Campaign UK, has accused the Thai government of indifference to the problem. One of the firms, Vita Food Factory Limited, engages so-called labor brokers who intimidate workers, according to Finnwatch. "All interviewed workers, mostly from [Burma], reported that labor brokers used by Vita Food Factory unlawfully confiscated work permits documents," said a statement from the NGO this week. "Passports were also confiscated and many workers paid significant amounts of money to factory brokers who unlawfully deducted debts from their salaries. According to workers, factory brokers threaten and beat workers," Finnwatch said. In the just four factories investigated by Finnwatch for its report there are about 10,000 Burmese workers, the NGO's executive director Sonja Vartiala told The Irrawaddy. The factories have a worldwide market, exporting in particular to Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan. Finnwatch said its primary objective was to persuade Finnish retail supermarket companies not to do business with the Thai firms, or else to bring pressure on them to treat their migrant workers properly. Despite the scale of the rights problem and the broad international trade implications, Vartiala said there had been no response from the Thai government. Vita Food claims to be one of the biggest fruit processing businesses in Thailand. It says it contributes to famous international brands including Libby’s, Liberty Gold, Sunkist and Kimono.
Finnwatch said it also investigated Natural Fruit, another major fruit processor, and two tuna fish processors, Thai Union Manufacturing and Unicord 2. "Natural Fruit factory still confiscates work permits, prevents workers from changing employer and makes unlawful deductions from their unlawfully low salaries," Finnwatch said. Natural Fruit has been the subject of earlier inquiries by rights campaigners and is attempting to bring criminal prosecutions against migrant rights investigator Andy Hall, a Briton, who carried out a work for Finnwatch. The action against Hall follows his allegations, made in a film documentary, that Natural Fruit employed illegal immigrants including Burmese children, paid wages below the Thai national minimum, and confiscated workers' passports in a kind of debt bondage system. The new report by Finnwatch comes as Thailand's promised settlement of work visa issues for hundreds of thousands of Burmese workers in the country remains in chaos months after a plan was drawn up with the Burma government to resolve the problem. Migrant workers are supposed to leave Thailand when their work visa expires in order to apply for a renewal. Plans were drawn up between the two governments to ease this clumsy logistical arrangement by allowing expiring visas to be renewed within Thailand. However, nothing has been done. The Thai Ministry of Labor claimed this week that the Bangkok anti-government street protests had disrupted administrative activities. There are far more illegal Burmese workers in Thailand than those with official work permits. International NGO assessments pu the number of illicit migrant laborers as high as 2 million. "There is clearly lack of interest from Thailand's political leaders in addressing labor rights abuses, and combined with administrative incompetence and corruption, this means there is very little progress in addressing this issue," the director of human rights NGO Burma Campaign UK, Mark Farmaner, told The Irrawaddy. "The impression given is that as this is happening to foreign workers, they think it doesn't really matter," Farmaner said. Finnwatch's Vartiala told The Irrawaddy that the Thai authorities had not responded to its new allegations, uncovered after the Bangkok government was supposedly taking action to stamp out unlawful labor practices. Thailand's Ministry of Labor told The Irrawaddy on Jan. 20 it was unable to comment on the Finnwatch report.
Some progress in ending abuse of Burmese workers was reported last week, however. Independently of the Thai authorities, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) said it had helped one group of workers at another major fish processing factory to successfully negotiate pay and employment rights which could become a model across the country. The Thai shrimp canning industry based around Samut Sakhorn, south of Bangkok, employs large numbers of Burmese, but many are facing wage cuts or losing their jobs because of a disease which is damaging shrimp farms. The ILRF and the Migrant Workers Rights Network helped to liaise between employees and employers in the first cooperation of its kind in the tough industry, said ILRF representative Abby Mills. "This is an outstanding model for the industry, and one that should be followed by others," said Mills who did not name the shrimp factory involved. The post Thai Government 'Lacks Interest' in Solving Burma Migrant Labor Abuse appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| After Stunning Debut, India’s Anti-Graft Party Scrambles to Dispel Doubts Posted: 30 Jan 2014 09:49 PM PST  Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, head of the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party (AAP), at his residence on the outskirts of New Delhi on Jan. 27, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Adnan Abidi) GHAZIABAD, India — Anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal has shaken up India's political landscape with promises to change a rotten system: Now he is scrambling to dispel fears that his populism and rabble rousing could be a liability for Asia's third-largest economy. Barely a year after founding the Aam Aadmi, or Common Man – Party (AAP), the former tax collector made a stunning debut in Delhi legislative elections last month, crushing the ruling Congress party and preventing the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from taking control of the city. As India heads to a general election due by May, Kejriwal—now chief minister of the country's capital—is preparing to wrong-foot the mainstream parties on a much larger scale. If he succeeds, the implications could be profound. He could derail the ambition of BJP figurehead Narendra Modi to become prime minister, and possibly even hold the key to power in post-election maneuvering to form a coalition government. The trouble for Kejriwal is that many doubt he can make the leap from populism and street politics to policies that would lift India's economic growth from its slowest clip in a decade. In his first weeks in office, he slashed power and water prices, banned foreign supermarkets from setting up in the capital and led an unruly protest against the police. "We will need time to see what policies they establish in a national manifesto," said Natasha Ebtehadj, a fund manager at Threadneedle Investments in London. "However, initial moves do seem to suggest that they will not be prioritizing economic reform nor reducing the reliance on unproductive subsidies." In an interview, Kejriwal spelled out his economic priorities for the first time and said AAP would spur competition, simplify tax, reduce the role of government and make space for entrepreneurship to flourish. "We have somehow put shackles on private enterprise, this needs to be removed. People need to be allowed to do business," he said at his cluttered apartment in Ghaziabad, a shabby satellite town of New Delhi far from the elegant streets preferred by most politicians in the heart of the capital. Corporate Leaders and Noted Economists The AAP's appeal is broad. Leaders from Apple Inc, Barclay's Capital and software services giant Infosys Ltd have all joined what they see as a revolution against the bribes and graft that are holding India back. To convince investors it is a serious player, the AAP has set up a seven-member committee to forge a policy manifesto, including former RBS India CEO Meera Sanyal, former Idea Cellular Managing Director Sanjeev Aga and noted economists. That platform is likely to seek foreign direct investment (FDI) in infrastructure and financial services, favor a nationwide goods and services tax to cut business costs and bring in a uniform taxation regime, two sources with direct knowledge of the policy discussions said. "We are not against FDI per se, we are not saying that FDI should not be in any sector, this is a decision that has to be taken on a sector by sector basis," Kejriwal said. The party would not oppose partial privatizations, and it may suggest a roadmap to plug leakages in the delivery of subsidized grain, fuel and fertilizer, the sources said. Kejriwal is opposed, however, to the entrance of foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart into India, arguing it would be damaging for local jobs and farmers. The Indian government has allowed entry of foreign retailers into the country but has left it to state governments to implement the policy. Kejriwal returned time and again in the interview to his mantra, fighting the rampant graft that sparked unprecedented protests and hunger strikes in 2011 and led to the creation of his party. "Good economics is the outcome of honest politics," he said. India was ranked 94th in a list of 177 countries on Transparency International's 2013 global corruption index, lower than China, South Africa and Brazil. The Congress party-led government has been rocked by spectacular corruption scandals, and foreign investors regularly complain about the need for "speed money" to get business done in the country. One of Kejriwal's first actions in government was to encourage citizens to use cellphones to record government workers who demand bribes, then call a hotline to report them. Businesses in Delhi say the effect has been dramatic, with far fewer demands for gifts and money. Bedding Down by the Barricades Kejriwal's AAP clearly has strong support in Delhi, but it is unclear how far its popularity extends. Some supporters may have had second thoughts in recent days after the spectacle of Kejriwal leading a street protest against the city police, who are controlled by the federal government, and bedding down for the night beside the barricades. In the national election, AAP would field candidates against 73 members of parliament facing serious criminal charges and also stand against several cabinet ministers who had "engaged in corruption," Kejriwal said. Some leaders have said the party is preparing to contest up to 400 of the 543 parliamentary seats at stake, though opinion polls conducted since the Delhi election suggest that—despite such ambitions—it is unlikely to win more than a dozen. Nevertheless, support for the AAP across the country could yet grow, putting the party in a key and influential position if, as polls predict, there is a hung parliament and a coalition government has to be formed. Kejriwal said he is opposed to both the Congress and the BJP, but has accepted support from Congress in forming the government in Delhi. The AAP's meteoric rise has already forced the main parties to adopt some of its anti-elite, anti-corruption language. Its crowd-pleasing Delhi policies have had a knock-on effect, with two states following Kejriwal's cut in electricity prices. On Thursday, the Indian government increased subsidies for domestic cooking gas, a move apparently aimed at AAP's core support base of urban voters. G.R. Gopinath, an entrepreneur who founded India's first low-cost airline and recently joined the AAP, wrote in a blog that the party's rowdy edge could, however, erode support among the educated middle class, whose funds and motivation helped it win in Delhi. "AAP is in danger of being branded like other political parties of resorting to cheap and populist measures and opposing for the sake of opposing," he said. The post After Stunning Debut, India's Anti-Graft Party Scrambles to Dispel Doubts appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Faces Obstacles on Road to Consumer Society Posted: 30 Jan 2014 09:44 PM PST  A man walks past an advertisement board of Starbucks in Wuhan, Hubei province. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING — Business should be picking up for Zhao Guoping, a Beijing shopkeeper, as Chinese leaders try to build a consumer society to replace a worn-out economic model based on trade and investment. But his financial struggle highlights the hurdles that ambitious effort faces. Squeezed by higher costs and weak sales to budget-minded shoppers, Zhao said the income from his neighborhood shop has fallen by half to 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) a year. "Prices are rocketing up. People's incomes can hardly catch up," said Zhao, 38. "Daily necessities, yes, I still have to buy them. But anything I don't necessarily need, then no." The reluctance of Zhao and his customers to open their wallets wider is one of a thicket of obstacles facing communist leaders as they try to rebalance China's economy away from reliance on investment, a big share of which comes from the government and is losing its ability to boost growth. The government is walking a fine line, however, as an abrupt shift in the economy could hurt growth, with consequences not just for the country but the global economy. China's economic importance was laid bare last week, when a report showing a drop in manufacturing activity caused turmoil on world markets. Combined with an export boom, a flood of spending on new factories, highways and other assets powered the past decade of explosive growth. That helped China rebound quickly from the 2008 global crisis. But it was paid for with a surge in borrowing that economists warn looks like debt booms in other developing countries that spiraled into financial crises. As urgency for change mounts, so do potential hurdles. Consumer spending accounts for only about 35 percent of gross domestic product, well below neighboring India's 60 percent, and that percentage declined last year. Curbs on investment will mean less money flows to wages in construction and building materials industries such as steel and cement. "It is a pretty narrow path that policymakers have to push the economy along," said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for Capital Economics. "The risk is that if investment spending slows too much, then that starts to undermine consumer spending and you get a downward spiral." Forecasts of this year's growth range from 7 to 8 percent, far ahead of the United States and Europe but down from China's double-digit rates of the past decade. Last year's 7.7 percent growth tied with 2012 for the weakest performance in two decades. And it hit that only after the government launched a mini-stimulus in mid-2013 with more spending on building new railways and other public works. The impact of a government clampdown on lending and construction is showing in slower economic activity, raising the risk of politically difficult job losses. A survey by HSBC Corp. found manufacturers cut jobs in January at their fastest rate in five years. Profits at China's biggest companies grew in December at their slowest rate in nine months. Growth in factory output and retail sales weakened, suggesting the quarter's headline growth of 7.7 percent might mask a deepening downturn. Moves to encourage consumer spending are part of a marathon effort by the Communist Party to transform China from a low-wage factory into a high-income creator of technology with self-sustaining economic growth. A broad-strokes plan issued by the party leadership in November promises to give entrepreneurs who generate most of China's new jobs and wealth more access to state-dominated industries. Regulators announced this month they will allow the creation of five privately financed banks this year. The government has announced plans for a dozen new free-trade zones in Shanghai and other cities with promises of easier restrictions on business. But such changes will take time to show results. "Our expectation is that there isn't going to be any national-level substantive reform within 2014," said economist Brian Jackson of IHS Global Insight. "They're going to launch small experiments." The biggest potential growth risk cited by many analysts: A rapid buildup of debt in China's government-owned banking system. China's banks avoided mortgage-related turmoil that battered Western lenders but ramped up lending under orders from the government to help fend off the effects of the 2008 global slowdown. The IMF and industry analysts warn they might be hit by a rise in defaults if toll roads and other projects approved in haste fail to earn enough. The central bank says debt levels are manageable but economists say the speed of the increase is a warning sign. Outstanding bank loans have swelled by the equivalent of 70 percent of China's gross domestic product over the past five years. Analysts point to countries such as Thailand that have plunged into financial crises after seeing smaller debt increases of as little as 30 percent. China "needs to contain the building of risks in the financial sector without excessively slowing growth," said the IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, at a news conference this month. "This is always a very a delicate balancing act." At the same time, the government's effort to clamp down on credit and tighten control over informal lending that support entrepreneurs has sent shock waves through financial markets. Markets in which banks lend to each other ran short of cash twice last year, causing interest rates to spike and fueling unease about the availability of credit. "The uncertainty related to rate spikes and liquidity squeezes may affect business spending more broadly," said UBS economist Tao Wang in a report. Wages in some areas such as the manufacturing-intensive southeast are forecast to rise this year by as much as 10 percent. But workers complain gains are eaten up by rising living costs—a bad sign for government hopes for higher consumer spending. Lei Qiang, a logistics manager in Shanghai, said he and his wife have little left every month after paying for basics and save whatever they can. They plan to return to their hometown of Xi'an in western China with their 2-year-old daughter to escape Shanghai's high cost of living. "Living in Shanghai for three years, my rent went up every year by 20 to 30 percent," said Lei, 38. "That was far more than my pay rose." The post China Faces Obstacles on Road to Consumer Society appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
