Sunday, May 11, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Power-sharing: Arakanese seek equal pricing for electricity

Posted: 11 May 2014 12:38 AM PDT

The Arakan townships of Sandoway [Thandwe] and Taunggok are to receive electricity at equal rates to the rest of the country, with other Arakanese areas to be included within a matter of months or a couple of years, according to the state minister for electric power.

As the second least developed region after Chin State, Arakan lacks in infrastructure, and electricity is charged at higher rates due to the additional services employed to supply power. While Burmese in other states and divisions pay for electrical power at government-fixed rates of 35 kyat (US 4 cents) per unit, those in Arakan are charged a whopping 500 kyat per unit.

"Although the state government had planned to begin distribution of electricity at government rates starting from 10 May, the laying of electric cables has not yet completed and so the scheme has been delayed," said Arakan's State Minister of Electrical Power Aung Than Tin.

Only an estimated 30 percent of Burma's population has access to the national power grid – and less than 7 percent among those living in rural areas.

The Arakanese port city of Kyaukphyu is an exception to the rule; most of its residents enjoy a 24-hour supply of electricity due to the city's location as the gateway to the internationally-backed Shwe Gas pipeline project which transfers natural gas, and soon oil, from the Bay of Bengal to China. Plans are currently being hatched to construct a multi-billion-dollar special economic zone in Kyaukphyu.

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With a loan from India helping to finance the venture, the Arakan State government expects to be connecting several urban areas to the national grid by December 2014, including Sittwe, Ann, Mrauk-U and Ponna Kyunt, with the towns of Minbyar, Yanbye, Buthidaung and Maungdaw linked up some time in 2015-16.

Aung Tan Tin explained that difficulties remained in building infrastructure, and workers have already experienced problems erecting 230-KV transmission in mountainous areas and along tracks clogged with mud.

Without the resources to lay cables throughout Arakan and Chin states, the government previously had to enlist a private company, Phoe Thee Cho Co Ltd, to take over the project; hence the inflated electricity rates for residents of those regions.

Civil society delegates boycott ASEAN meeting

Posted: 10 May 2014 11:45 PM PDT

Civil society leaders from around the region, scheduled to meet with ASEAN heads of government in Naypyidaw, have refused to participate in the interface meeting scheduled for Sunday, citing interference from some Southeast Asian governments.

The half-hour meeting is an initiative of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People's Forum (ACSC/APF), an independent organising body for regional civil society actors, and the ASEAN summit. It is intended to give civil society actors a voice within the ASEAN process, but has been subject to political pressure from national governments in the past.

"We reluctantly withdraw from this interface [because] three ASEAN member states are poised to substitute three delegates of civil society with their own nominees," the steering committee of ACSC/APF said in a statement.

The governments of Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore rejected the delegates selected by the ACSC/APF, but did not announce their hand-picked replacements. Out of solidarity, delegates from the remaining seven ASEAN states have chosen to not participate in the meeting.

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The chosen delegate from Burma, Dr. May Shi Sho of the Karen Development Network, was accepted by the Burmese authorities, although Naypyidaw – and other governments – has attempted to name its own delegates with close ties to the state at past meetings. The ACSC/APF staged a similar walkout at the 2009 ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, where five countries rejected the ACSC/APF-appointed delegates, including Burma, officially known as Myanmar.

Cambodia has long been particularly hostile to the ACSC/APF. At the 2012 iteration of an annual "People's Forum" held before the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, the government applied pressure on the venue hosting the forum to censor panels, and organised a simultaneous alternate forum at a different location with delegates sympathetic to the government.

"For the Cambodian government to reject the nominees, we're very sorry to hear that, and very disappointed that they've disregarded the CSO [civil society organisation] process to select the delegates to work with the government," said Thida Khus, the executive director of Silaka, a Cambodian NGO, and the ACSC/APF's chosen country delegate to attend the interface meeting.

The consensus-based principles on which ASEAN operates come into conflict with the varying degrees of openness to civil society engagement that member states are willing to accept, she argued, making bloc-wide standards difficult to enforce and reducing engagement with civil society to the lowest common denominator. "We have trust in the ASEAN process, and we understand the difficulties among ASEAN governments to come up with consensus [based] principles," she said. "But we also have a belief that, because of [these] principles, they have not been able to prop all the member states up to the same level."

To ensure that independent civil society voices are represented in the meeting, the ACSC announced four stipulations that the ASEAN summit would have to follow if the meeting were to proceed, including a provision ensuring the ACSC/APF's right to "self-select" delegates, which Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia did not follow.

"The reason we commit to these principles is that we believe that the ACSC/APF process is a civil society process, not to be intervened upon by member governments of ASEAN," said Corinna Lopa, a member of the ACSC/APF's steering committee. "We need to be able to [discuss] the issues and the aspirations of the peoples of Southeast Asia, without the intervention of their governments."
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The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Suu Kyi’s Calls for Constitutional Reform Welcomed in Irrawaddy Delta

Posted: 11 May 2014 12:59 AM PDT

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar, NLD, Myanmar military, Tatmadaw, democracy, reforms

Aung San Suu Kyi is led through a crowd of thousands of excited supporters in Maupin Township on Saturday morning. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

MAUPIN TOWNSHIP — Thousands of residents of the Irrawaddy Delta gave opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi a warm welcome on Saturday as she ramps up a nationwide campaign to garner public support for reforming Burma's undemocratic Constitution, a message that was well-received by the excited crowd in Maupin Township.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) chairperson told a rally that the Burma Army, also known as the Tatmadaw, should allow for amendments to the charter and obey the will of the people.

"The Tatmadaw should only work for the people… My father did not form the Tatmadaw to work for the interests of one group," Suu Kyi, said referring to her father Gen. Aung San, Burma's most important independence leader and a founder of the military shortly after World War II.

"The first [priority] for the Tatmadaw is to respect the wishes of the people," she said. "There is no need [for the army] to fear having different ideas. We need to negotiate all together. Negotiating to find a solution is how a democratic system works."

In Maupin, a township located in the Irrawaddy Delta about 3 hours' drive from Rangoon, several thousand people, most of them farmers, had gathered in Saturday morning for the 2-hour event, which was held in a dry paddy field that offered little protection from the relentless hot season sun.

A festive mood prevailed and many in the crowd wore red- and white-colored clothes—the colors of the NLD—and waved flags with the party's symbol, the fighting peacock. A young girl took to the stage to sing a song about how Suu Kyi would be the winner of the 2015 elections and Burma's next president.

Suu Kyi did not speak about the presidency but attacked the Constitution, describing it as undemocratic constraint on the Burmese people. "Having to stay under this Constitution, it is hotter than being in this weather. Therefore, to be able to stay in better shape, our people need to become involved in a movement for amending the Constitution," she said. "Power should be in the hands of our people and not with a small group."

The message drew a raucous reaction from the crowd and when asked by Suu Kyi if they would support constitutional reform, nearly all raised their hands in their air.

One woman in the crowd clapped her hands and shouted, "This [speech] means so much to us!

"Oh, she looks so young and pretty still!" she said about Suu Kyi.

Since early 2013 Suu Kyi has been publicly pushing for amending the charter, but the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party has been reluctant to cooperate, while the military has indicated it wants the charter to remain in place. In February, the hugely popular NLD leader announced she was teaming with the respected 88 Generation activists in order to launch a people's power movement to force constitutional reforms ahead of the 2015 elections.

In recent months she has been addressing rallies urging the Burmese public to support her and together with the 88 Generation leader she plans to hold large rallies in Rangoon and Mandalay next week.

The Constitution was drafted by the military in 2008 and ratified in a flawed referendum held only days after Cyclone Nargis struck. The charter gives the army control over a quarter of Parliament, immunity from crimes committed under the junta regime and blocks Suu Kyi from becoming president because her sons are British nationals.

The charter also stipulates that key amendment can only occur when 75 percent of Parliament supports the changes—a situation that gives the military a de facto veto over the reforms.

The post Suu Kyi's Calls for Constitutional Reform Welcomed in Irrawaddy Delta appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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