The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Government Approves $2.80 Minimum Wage
- Rice Federation Forecasts Exports to Resume as Scheduled in Mid-September
- Locals Lead Response to Climate Change in Burma
- Thai Police Say Bangkok Bombing Suspect is Not Cooperating
- Defiant Malaysian PM Rejects Calls that he Step Down
- ‘The Storm Makers’ puts Cambodia’s Sex-Trafficking under Spotlight
- Antiquated Colonial ‘Loitering’ Charge Lands Hundreds in Jail
| Government Approves $2.80 Minimum Wage Posted: 31 Aug 2015 04:20 AM PDT  Workers tailor and arrange clothing at a garment factory at Hlaing Tar Yar industry zone in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Two years of negotiation culminated on Friday with the Burmese government's approval of a 3,600 kyat (US$2.80) minimum wage for all sectors, to be implemented in September. The wage, which is low for the region but marks a significant increase for many workers, was welcomed by labor unions and factory owners alike with the exception of the nation's budding garment industry. The minimum wage will be applied across industries for all but small and family-owned businesses employing less than 15 people. The final amount was established as a compromise following more than 30 sub-national meetings that pitted factory owners against labor rights advocates. Garment factory owners came out against the proposed wage in July of this year, many of them threatening to withdraw their investments if the wage were implemented. Labor unions, on the other hand, argued that 3,600 kyats was too low for the mostly female garment manufacturing workforce, which withstands long hours and often lengthy and expensive commutes. Myat Thin Aung, chairman of Rangoon's Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone, said the compromise has been accepted by most garment factory owners and he was not aware of any impending closures. Only one factory—Asia Roots—will reduce its staff as a result of the new wage, he said. Some employers do, however, intend to reduce bonuses and rewards for attendance, according to the chairman. While the wage was ultimately accepted by those on both sides of the debate, Aung Lin of the Myanmar Trade Union Federation told The Irrawaddy that it will likely need adjustment as inflation takes its toll on local consumers. "When the minimum wage was proposed, the dollar was [valued] at 1,04 kyats," Aung Lin said, "but now it's about 1,270." According to an assistant supervisor at Toyo Battery Factory, Aung Aung, rising commodity prices could soon make the new wage obsolete. "It's likely not enough," he said. "Although there's an increase in salary, it cannot cover the rising prices."
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| Rice Federation Forecasts Exports to Resume as Scheduled in Mid-September Posted: 31 Aug 2015 04:13 AM PDT  A rice farmer walks through a paddy field in a village near Patheingyi, Irrawaddy Division, last year. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Recently halted after severe flooding that inundated swathes of the country, Burma will resume rice exports as scheduled from mid-September, the country's rice federation said on Monday. Members of the Myanmar Rice Federation had agreed to a temporary pause on exports and to sell domestically at regular prices to buyers in urgent need while authorities' and aid groups struggled to respond to the country's worst flooding in recent memory. The rice federation forecasts requirements for local consumption will be met following what would be over a month-long halt in mid-September. "New rice will come onto the market as next month is harvest season, then the market price will be stable," said Soe Tun, joint secretary of the Myanmar Rice Federation. "There is enough for local consumption now, that's why we will resume exports as scheduled." Despite the federation's urgings, rice prices increased in some areas of the country and shortages were experienced in townships seriously impacted by flooding, including in Chin State, Arakan State and Magwe Division. The Myanmar Rice Federation opened some 20 rice shops in flood-affected areas, including in Rangoon and Mandalay, to sell rice at the subsidized rate of around 22,000 kyat per 50 kilogram bag. But according to reports from Sittwe, 50 kilogram bags were selling for between 60,000 to 96,000 kyat in the Arakan State capital. The federation stated in early August that it would call on supplies of around 85,000 bags in Rangoon and 15,000 in Mandalay to meet local demand. "Now the normal rice price is stable at 20,000 kyat per [50 kilogram] bag," Soe Tun said. "And I heard there are only a few people buying rice in our 20 rice shops [in flooded areas], that's why we won't delay rice exports." Rice is a key export for Burma, with the majority traded overland to China, through the Muse-Ruili checkpoint. Min Zaw, a rice trader based in Rangoon, said he expected the local price wouldn't increase when traders were able to resume rice exports to China, but consumers would have to wait and see. "There is still enough rice on the market for local consumption and the price is still stable," he said. More than 1.3 million acres of paddy fields have been flooded in Burma, mainly in Kale, Kanbalu and Monywa in Sagaing Division and the Myanmar Rice Federation predicted exports to be considerably down on last year. "Though we expected to export about 2 million tons of rice this year, we won't reach that [target]. Now we expect to export less than 1.5 million tons," Soe Tun said. Figures from the Ministry of Commerce put total rice exports at more than 1.7 million tons in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, reaping nearly US$645 million. Exports were shipped to 64 countries including China and Japan, as well as other nations of ASEAN, Europe and Africa. The post Rice Federation Forecasts Exports to Resume as Scheduled in Mid-September appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Locals Lead Response to Climate Change in Burma Posted: 31 Aug 2015 02:38 AM PDT Click to view slideshow. RANGOON—Inle Lake, one of Burma's most well-known attractions, is framed in part by the lush-looking surrounds of the Shan mountain range.But on closer inspection, what appears to be the green of forest is mainly hardy bush and grass, dotted with a few small trees. Deforestation, particularly in the Inle Lake watershed area, as contributed to the lake's receding water levels. Kyi Kaung, who identifies as one of the Taung Yoe hill peoples, hails from the upland village of Nyaung Shwe, home to over 300 people, located close to the peak of Lat Maung Kwee mountain. He recalls a time when the mountainwascovered withthick forest. "When I was in my 20s, the [soil] fertility was high and the forest looked good. Now the soil has dried up with deforestation," said Kyi Kaung, now 49, adding that it was no longer possible to reap adequate crop yields in the area without using fertilizers. Deforestation can also leave waterways more vulnerable to runoff, Saw DohWah, an analyst with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Burma, told The Irrawaddy. "When there is a lack of vegetation cover uphill, more silt is released to dams located downstream," he said. One reason locals cite for growing rates of deforestation is the careless cutting down of trees, for firewood or for use as building materials, without replanting. "It is one of the traditions of Taung Yoe to cut down trees to build a new house for newlywed couples," explainedNyiNyi Lwin, technical field coordinator withthe Myanmar Institute for Integrated Development (MIID). Locals have also noticed that weather patterns have changed, affecting their crop yields and habitual farming practices. But they are struggling to adapt. Organizations like MIID are helping villagers to build resilience and cope with the impacts of climate change. This includes,"improving water access, helping the communities plan and manage soil and trees [and] introducing different agriculture practices and reforestation," said David Abrahamson, Program Manager of Natural Resources, Agriculture & Rural Development with MIID. "We are hoping that for the Myanmar government, this could be one example of how to help poor communities increase their wealth and adaptto climate change," Abrahamson said. As part of the reforestation plan run by MIID, villagers grow up to eight acres of bamboo, edible plants such as avocado, mango, durian, djenkol bean and about 30,000Yay Ma Nay plants. It has been two years since MIID came to the village to launch their climate change adaptation initiative financed by the European Union. Now, newly grown bamboo and trees are already evident around the top of the mountain after the replanting process. Local Knowledge According to well-known Burmese meteorologist Tun Lwin, one of the main contributing factors to the severity of recent floods was the impact of deforestation. "If you don't have trees anymore, you can't control water, you can't store water anymore," he said."You can't control the run-off like that if there are no trees." Tun Lwin said that although Burma's forest cover is said to stand at 46 percent of land area, only around 19 percent is deep forest. A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)assessment on global forest resources in 2010described Burma as having one of the largest annual net loss ratios of forest area from 1990 to 2010. Tun Lwin said the country had begun to witness first-hand the effects of climate change from the 1980s, including an increase in average temperatures and more extreme weather patterns. According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2015, produced by global risk analysis firm Maplecroft, Burma ranked 19 of 32 countries deemed at "extreme risk" of food insecurity and instability due to climate change. In order to mitigate and adapt to climate change, Tun Lwin said one of the most important factors was building "climate change knowledge," not only among the general public but also within government. "Unless you have climate-related knowledge, you can do nothing. They need a good plan and to have a good plan, they need knowledge. That's what we are missing here," he said. LatLat Aye, team leader inthe Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction program with the UNDP in Burma, said numerous examples of extreme weather in the country, including recent floods, were a warning of the impact of climate change. "From technical experts as well as community leaders and villagers, we believe that [more extreme weather patterns] are due to climate change," she said. Local Action Forty-nine year old ethnic Intha man Kyaw Sein, who lives in Taung Kyarin the Inle Lake watershed area, said local villagers had slowly begun to notice changing monsoon patterns and rates of deforestation in recent years. Farmers have difficulties planning when to plant their crops and longer periods of sweltering heat have caused underground wells—which villagers now have to dig deeper—to more frequently run dry. But villagers have already taken action to preserve their precious local surrounds. They protect the 98 acres of forest in the area by encouraging "villagers and strangers" not to cut down trees. They have also dug holes close to the lake to help prevent silt from running directly into the water during heavy rains. With UNDP funding, 30,000 native trees like the Cassia have been planted. Results of the community's environmental protection efforts have already been seen, Kyaw Sein said, with water runoff from their village visibly cleaner. Although Inle Lake dwellers Kyi Kaung and Kyaw Sein speak different languages, they share one voice on the need to respond proactively as communities to protect the environment and effectively adapt to changing weather. "This [MIID] project taught us about the links between deforestation and low yields, and how we could adapt to climate change using new [strategies]. With the new techniques we have been taught, the yields have increased," Kyi Kaung said. The post Locals Lead Response to Climate Change in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Thai Police Say Bangkok Bombing Suspect is Not Cooperating Posted: 30 Aug 2015 09:34 PM PDT  Thai Royal Police officials remove evidence from the site where a suspect of the recent Bangkok blast was arrested, in Bangkok August 29, 2015. (Photo: Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters) BANGKOK — Thai police said Sunday the man arrested in connection with Bangkok's deadly bombing was being uncooperative, possibly not telling the truth to interrogators and would remain in military custody for at least seven days. The unnamed foreigner was arrested Saturday at an apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok where police seized bomb-making equipment and fake passports. It was the first possible breakthrough in the investigation into the Aug. 17 blast at the Erawan Shrine, which killed 20 people, more than half of whom were foreigners, and injured more than 120 others. National police spokesman Prawuth Thavornsiri told The Associated Press that police found "more than 200 passports" in the man's apartment, including many that were empty, and police were exploring the theory that he was part of a network that provided fake passports to migrants. He said the passports were from one country, but wouldn't say which one. He did not explain why a passport gang might target a religious shrine. Much remains unknown about the suspect, including his nationality, his motive, his relationship to the alleged bombing network or if he was plotting an attack, Prawuth said, adding that another attack was "possible" because police found 10 detonators. He said police were working with "a number of embassies" and interpreters to try to establish the man's nationality, adding that he did not speak Thai but spoke some English—and the interrogation was going slowly. "He is not cooperating much. From our preliminary investigation, we think he isn't telling us the truth," Prawuth said, declining to elaborate. "He told us how he entered Thailand but we don't believe everything he says." Authorities have dodged questions about whether the suspect is believed to be Turkish, saying that he was traveling on a fake passport. Images circulated online after his arrest of a fake Turkish passport with the apparent suspect's picture. "We don't know if he is Turkish or not," Prawuth said Saturday. "The passport you have seen is fake." The Turkish Embassy in Bangkok could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday. A Turkish government spokesman contacted a day earlier in Istanbul said he had no information on the suspect or any possible Turkish link to the attack. The blast at the Erawan Shrine was unprecedented in the Thai capital, where smaller bombs have been employed in domestic political violence over the past decade, but not in an effort to cause large-scale casualties. The shrine is a popular tourist destination, particularly with Chinese visitors, who are an important segment of the lucrative tourist market. At least six of the dead were from China and Hong Kong. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, sparking several theories into who might be behind it. Possible suspects include parties seeking to avenge Thailand's forced repatriation of ethnic Uighurs to China. Uighurs are related to Turks, and Turkey is home to a large Uighur community. Other theories included Muslim separatists from southern Thailand, opponents of Thailand's military government and feuding factions within the security services. On Sunday, Prawuth put forth another theory, that the suspect belonged to a fake passport ring—"an illegal network that sends people who don't have passports to third countries"—and was angry at officials for a crackdown on fake passport operations. "The police chief thinks it's personal revenge, anger from a group that is not happy with the work of officials, that we have arrested some of his people," Prawuth said. "We have been very strict about getting rid of fake passports." Prawuth said that the suspect, who faces charges of possessing unauthorized explosives, was in military custody and could be held for renewable periods of seven days. Until Saturday's arrest, police had focused on a prime suspect who was seen in a security camera video leaving a backpack at a bench near the open-air shrine and then walking away. A separate camera showed the man, wearing a yellow T-shirt, on the back of a motorcycle taxi leaving the site. Prawuth said it was too soon to say if the suspect arrested Saturday was the man seen in the video. "We still have to work out the details," Prawuth said. "But we are very certain he's part of the network. Definitely."
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| Defiant Malaysian PM Rejects Calls that he Step Down Posted: 30 Aug 2015 09:26 PM PDT  A view of the crowd of supporters of pro-democracy group "Bersih" (Clean) gathering outside the Dataran Merdeka just before midnight in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur August 30, 2015. (Photo: Edgar Su / Reuters) KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak poured scorn on a huge two-day rally that brought together tens of thousands of yellow-shirted protesters demanding his resignation over a financial scandal. Large crowds of protesters camped overnight on the streets of Kuala Lumpur wearing yellow shirts of the Bersih movement—a coalition for clean and fair elections—even after authorities blocked the organizer's website and banned yellow attire and the group's logo. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been spearheading calls for Najib's resignation, appeared at the rally with his wife for a second day, telling protesters that people power was needed to remove Najib and return the rule of law. Najib has been fighting for political survival after leaked documents in July showed he received some $700 million in his private accounts from entities linked to indebted state fund 1MDB. He later said the money was a donation from the Middle East and fired his critical deputy, four other Cabinet members and the attorney general investigating him. Police estimated the crowd size at 35,000, but Bersih says it swelled to 300,000 on Sunday from 200,000 on Saturday. Najib has slammed the protests for tarnishing Malaysia's image and dismissed their size. "What is 20,000? We can gather hundreds of thousands," he was quoted as saying by local media at a rural event in a northern state. "The rest of the Malaysian population is with the government." In his National Day message late Sunday, Najib said the government rejected street protests, saying they could disrupt public order and were not the right way to show unhappiness in a democratic country. They "reflected a shallow mind and poor national spirit," he said. Najib vowed not to bow to pressure. "Once the sails have been set, once the anchor has been raised, the captain and his crew would never change course," he said. The rally was peaceful Saturday and lasted until midnight Sunday to usher in Malaysia's 58th National Day. "This is a watershed moment. Malaysians are united in their anger at the mismanagement of this country. We are saying loudly that there should be a change in the leadership," said protester Azrul Khalib, who slept on the street with his friends. He said he was aware that the rally will not bring change overnight, but he wants to be "part of efforts to build a new Malaysia." Some used colored chalk to scrawl their demands on the street, writing slogans such as, "We want change," and "We want clean and fair (elections)." Scores of police barricaded roads leading to the Independence Square, a national landmark that authorities declared off-limits to protesters. Two previous Bersih rallies, in 2011 and 2012, were dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons. Analysts said the rally attracted a largely urban crowd with a smaller participation of ethnic Malays, which could be the reason why the Najib government allowed it to go on. "They feel safe because it has not really affected the rural Malay segment, their bedrock support," said political analyst Ibrahim Suffian. However, he said this doesn't mean that rural Malays are happy with the government, as many are upset with the plunging currency and economic slowdown. A nation of 30 million, Malaysia is predominantly Malay Muslim with significant Chinese and Indian minorities. Its ambitions to rise from a middle income to a developed nation this decade have been stymied by slow-paced reforms and Najib's increasing authoritarianism. Support for Najib's National Front has eroded in the last two general elections. It won in 2013, but lost the popular vote for the first time to an opposition alliance. Concerns over the political scandal partly contributed to the Malaysian currency plunging to a 17-year low earlier this month. In his speech, Najib rejected fears that the economy is crumbling. "It is clearly proven that Malaysia is not a failed state, as alleged, nor is it about to become bankrupt," he said. "On the contrary, the fact is we are stable, with strong fundamentals and will continue to survive and remain competitive." Apart from Najib's resignation, the demands being sought are institutional reforms that will make the government more transparent and accountable.
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| ‘The Storm Makers’ puts Cambodia’s Sex-Trafficking under Spotlight Posted: 30 Aug 2015 09:19 PM PDT  Fishermen rescued from Thai fishing boats have breakfast at a building in the Chroy Changva district of Phnom Penh June 18, 2015. (Photo: Samrang Pring / Reuters) Cambodians say that when human traffickers arrive in a village, they bring a storm and tears with them, an experience that Aya, sold into slavery when she was 16, will never forget. Her story is at the centre of the "The Storm Makers," a documentary by French-Cambodian filmmaker Guillaume Suon, who spent three years filming human trafficking victims and traffickers in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. A chilling expose of Cambodia's human trafficking underworld, the film depicts the lives of women like Aya who have returned from a life of slavery abroad, and those preparing to leave the country in the hope of earning enough money to support their families at home. It also portrays a trafficker who claims he has sold more than 500 Cambodian girls, some as young as 14, without ever being arrested by police. "Aya's story is a strong example that shows all the reasons why Cambodians become victims of human trafficking," Suon, 32, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Almost 20 percent of Cambodians live below the poverty line and the country lacks a social welfare network to support poor families, its institutions still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by dictator Pol Pot's genocidal regime in the late 1970s. Aya, now in her early 20s, recently came back to Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia after she was trafficked to Malaysia to work as a maid. Disabled and unable to support their family, Aya's parents had been approached by a recruiter promising Aya would be able to work in Malaysia in a secure job and send home money. Her boss was abusive, so she escaped, only to be raped the night she ran away. She became pregnant as a result of the rape. "Sometimes, I'd like her to sell him," her mother says in the film about the baby, a tiny boy seen rocking in a hammock, whom she resents as just another mouth to feed. "I should have died over there," Aya says. Her own relationship with her son is also fraught as a result of the violence she experienced. She says she hits the baby when she thinks of his father and what he did to her. Trapped in Poverty Cambodia is a "source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking," the US State Department's 2015 "Trafficking in Persons Report" noted. Entrenched poverty, especially in rural areas, forces tens of thousands each year to work in Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and increasingly the Middle East, lured by the promise of lucrative jobs. "I target the poorest ones," trafficker Pou Houy says in the film. "These people are easy to lure and to recruit. Most can't read, they have nothing to lose. Even the factories don't want them, nobody wants them but me." He has never been arrested by the police and enjoys a life of luxury due to his trafficking activities, an industry estimated to be worth $150 billion globally. Aya, meanwhile, now earns a meager living by washing dishes, cooking for her neighbors and hauling bricks for $1 a day on a construction site in the capital Phnom Penh. Suon spent much of his time in Cambodia in the countryside, where most of the trafficking victims come from, to gain the trust of locals. "Nearly everyone knows someone who has gone to work abroad," said Suon. "It was easy to find the trafficking victims and the traffickers, who operate freely and with impunity." "The Storm Makers" will have its television premiere on Monday on the PBS channel in the United States and will be screened online throughout September.
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| Antiquated Colonial ‘Loitering’ Charge Lands Hundreds in Jail Posted: 30 Aug 2015 06:39 PM PDT  A woman walks past the towering British colonial-era High Court located in downtown Rangoon. (Credit: Hkun Lat / Myanmar Now) RANGOON — In the middle of a hot April night, Arkar and two friends were sleeping in their trishaws on central Rangoon's Hledan Road when they were suddenly woken up and arrested by police. The trishaw drivers and two other young men who happened to be on the street were also rounded up and taken to Kamayut Township police station to be questioned in relation to burglaries of two nearby mobile phone shops a week earlier. Arkar said he and his friends had done nothing wrong and simply slept on Hledan Road to wait for customers. "Local police know that we are tricycle drivers. None of us have the tools to carry out a burglary," said the wiry 25-year-old, whose worn out shirt and faded longyi indicated a life of hardship on Rangoon's streets. Arkar and another 17-year-old man were let go the next day. Neither he, nor the three others, including his friend Mya Oo, were charged for the burglary, but instead accused of "loitering at night," a century-old criminal charge, and held for 15 days in the notorious Insein Prison. "Mya Oo's wife gave birth to a baby just two or three months before. He was jailed for 15 days for no reason, meanwhile his wife went hungry," Arkar said. Mya Oo is not alone in having been nabbed off the street and held for a vaguely defined petty crime charge from the British colonial era: Rangoon Police headquarters records seen by Myanmar Now indicate that more than 1,300 people in RangoonDivision were arrested and sentenced last year under the 1899 Rangoon Police Act's Article 30. Some 400 people were held under the charge during the first five months of 2015. Police Lt. Thi Thi Myint said, "All of them were sentenced to prison terms." The charge sets a maximum three-month prison term for "any person found between sunset and sunrise having his face covered" or "any reputed thief found between sunset and sunrise remaining or loitering in any bazaar, street, road, yard, thoroughfare or other place, who is unable to give a satisfactory account of himself." Nationwide, the 1945 Police Act's Article 35(b) metes out similar punishment for the same antiquated offence. Another officer at the station, who spoke on condition of anonymity, defended the widespread use of the charge, saying, "These laws are useful to prevent the occurrence of major crimes." As Burma emerges from decades of military rule, it has been left with many old laws that grant authorities extensive powers to not only target political activists and suspected ethnic insurgents, as is well known, but also to harass ordinary citizens and enter their homes in order to establish social control and keep tabs on the general population, say rights campaigners. Despite the country's much-lauded democratic reforms of recent years, human rights advocates and opposition lawmakers say parliament and President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government have done little to reform criminal laws that affect the average citizen. In addition, Burma's court system lacks independence after decades under direct army control and there has been little judicial reform since. With a general election scheduled for Nov. 8, opposition parties hope to gain more power and influence and begin dismantling the stifling judicial legacy of junta rule. Pe Than, a Lower House lawmaker with the Arakan National Party, said parliament would face a massive task in amending and repealing the outdated laws. "The legislature's work is never done. We need to update these laws at the right moment and more legal experts should be elected to parliament [to expedite the process]," he told Myanmar Now. Colonial Legacy Kyi Myint of the Myanmar Lawyers Network said most Burmese laws that remain on the books were drawn up by colonial authorities—a massive 13 volumes in total, many of which have not even been translated into the Burmese language—and had been intended to support British rule in the country. The 1950s democratically elected government, which was trying to suppress insurgencies across the country, and the post-1962 military regime kept many authoritarian colonial laws, while both also introduced numerous other restrictive laws that remain in effect, he added. Ko Ni, a constitutional lawyer advising Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said Thein Sein's transitional term had seen little in the way of broad legal reform due to a lack of cooperation from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and military MPs. "We need to wait for an opportune time to revoke all these undemocratic laws," he said. Elections may be only 10 weeks away but few political parties have pushed for a debate on the question of law reform. "The absence of debate is not only unfortunate but also dangerous, because without public involvement, international organizations pushing various, competing law reform projects will persuade government executives on the need for this change or that," said Nick Cheesman, Research Fellow at the Australian National University. Cheesman, who has written extensively on Burma's laws and legal systems, said the discussion of colonial-era laws in Burma should include their impact on ordinary citizens accused of criminal behavior, in addition to their use in repressing political dissent. "How are provisions like the 'hiding in the dark' sections used to target particular vulnerable communities, like sexual and religious minorities? How do the penal codes and procedures undermine the basic rights of people accused of crimes like theft or loitering or damage to public property? "These questions and others like them need to be made much more prominent in political debate," he told Myanmar Now in an email interview. Affecting the Poor and Activists Another law that affects the rights of the wider Burmese public and leaves it vulnerable to the whims of authorities is the 2012 Ward or Village Tract Administration Law. The Thein Sein government created it by amalgamating two 1907 laws that required households to register guests staying overnight and seek prior permission from local authorities. Fortify Rights, a Thailand-based human rights organization, highlighted in a report in March how Burmese officials use the law to carry out nighttime inspections of communities and sometimes to demand bribes from citizens running afoul of the law. "The guest registration requirement represents a systematic and nationwide breach of privacy, giving the government access to troves of personal data from communities," the group said. Research by Fortify Rights found that "the law is particularly enforced against low-income communities, individuals working with civil societies and political activists." Like the guest registration requirement, the antiquated "loitering" charge has also been used by authorities to target political activists. "Unfortunately, it is too late to repeal or reform these laws before the November elections," said Matthew Bugher, a lawyer and researcher for Fortify Rights. "Nevertheless, the government can bolster the legitimacy of the polls by halting the use of these laws to target activists and political opponents in the coming months." Land rights lawyer PhoePhyu recalled how in 2009, after a long day of visiting local farmers in central Burma's Magwe Division, he sought a place to stay but was turned away by local guesthouses and had to resort to sleeping rough along the banks of the Irrawaddy River. As darkness fell, police officers—who had instructed guesthouses not to accept him—suddenly appeared and arrested him for loitering after sunset. Phoe Phyu was later sentenced to five years in prison on different charges by the then-military regime, but he said the 1945 Police Act had been used to arbitrarily detain him. "As authorities wanted to prohibit me from advocating for farmers who were losing their land they just arrested me without proper grounds," he told Myanmar Now during an interview at his Rangoon office. Looking over at his book shelf with a broad selection of Burma's laws, Phoe Phyu said he had little hope that outdated, restrictive legislation would improve as long as an army-linked elite remained in power. "Newly amended laws are again favoring government management and administrative sectors, they are tantamount to obstructing and oppressing the civil rights of the people," he said. This article was originally published by Myanmar Now. 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