The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Party Leaders Object to Electoral Commission Over NLD By-Election Campaign
- Irrawaddy Division Ex-Cabinet Denies Embezzlement Allegations
- Ma Ha Na Asked to Judge on Wirathu Sermons
- Fighting Escalates in Northern Shan State as Peace Conference Looms
- Student Protesters Jailed in Mandalay
- Economy to Grow by Seven Percent This Fiscal Year, Observer Group Predicts
- A Community Lives in Fear of Coal
| Party Leaders Object to Electoral Commission Over NLD By-Election Campaign Posted: 09 May 2017 07:45 AM PDT RANGOON — The leaders of 13 political parties signed a letter to the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Monday complaining that National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders violated the 2008 Constitution and UEC directives in the run-up to the April 1 by-elections. The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the National Development Party, the Democratic Party (Myanmar), and 10 other parties accused Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's speech on the first anniversary of the NLD-led government on March 30 of being a party campaign message in disguise. The letter also stated that interviews with the NLD secretary U Win Htein and patron U Tin Oo published in state media on March 31 and April 1 breached the election commission's announcement that campaigning would be banned from midnight on March 30 to April 1; this is also outlined in the election code of conduct. The parties' objected to the State Counselor's reference to the NLD slogan "Time to Change" used during the 2015 election campaign, and her announcement of the party's new slogan—"Together with the People"—during her speech, which was broadcasted and printed in state media on the eve of the by-elections. The reference, it said, violated Section 232(k) of the military-drafted Constitution, which bans Union ministers from taking part in party activities during their term in office. USDP spokesperson Dr. Nanda Hla Myint told The Irrawaddy last month that the State Counselor's speech was "like a counterstrike for other opponent parties" with the by-elections near. "We can't accept the abuse of power because the NLD is the ruling party…that's why our party and other parties signed the letter together and objected to it," he told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. There are media reports of former President Thein Sein's government and USDP Union ministers campaigning using state media and being involved in the party's campaigning in the 2010 and 2015 general elections. UEC Deputy Director General U Nay Myo said they received the objection letter. He added the commission's chairman and members would give a verdict on the complaint. The NLD won nine out of 18 contested seats in the April 1 by-elections, in which 19 seats were up for grabs, while the USDP won two seats. Additional reporting by Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint.
The post Party Leaders Object to Electoral Commission Over NLD By-Election Campaign appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Irrawaddy Division Ex-Cabinet Denies Embezzlement Allegations Posted: 09 May 2017 05:36 AM PDT PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division — Amid allegations of misappropriation of regional development funds, the former Irrawaddy Division government has said that it gave the missing money to a regional development foundation. "We ran an all-round development foundation under the former divisional government. And we donated a suitable amount of money to it when we retired," U Win Ko Ko, the ex-finance minister for the Irrawaddy Division government, told The Irrawaddy. However, the ex-minister denied the new government's allegation that the missing funds amounted to 7 billion kyats. The Ayeyarwady Multi-Developments Foundation, also known as Ayeyarwady Education and Health Multi-Developments Foundation, will also hold a press conference about the donations, he said. "It was not seven billion kyats like they [the new government] said. The amount was not that much. We have asked [the foundation] to do the accounts. Ayeyarwady Health and Education Foundation will also hold a press conference about it," he said. U Zayar Min Thein, a lawmaker from Pyapon Constituency (1) in the Irrawaddy divisional parliament, recently asked the regional legislature if the former government had handed over regional development funds to its successor. Social affairs minister Dr. Hla Myat Thway of the Irrawaddy Division government replied that the former government had not transferred the money, and that the new government would ask the division's auditor-general to investigate. "We are making an investigation into the regional development funds in response to the question [put forward] at the parliament. And we will take actions according to the investigation results. So far, we can say nothing," said Irrawaddy Division's transport and finance minister U Win Htay. The former divisional government led by chief minister U Thein Aung—who was also the chairman of Irrawaddy Division chapter of Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)—ran a foundation under the name of Ayeyarwady Multi-Developments Foundation and fundraised by holding musical concerts and soliciting contributions from local businessmen. "Under [former] chief minister U Thein Aung, businessmen had to pay a tax of 30 million kyats (US$22,000) to the government to get a riverbank gravel extraction license, and had to donate an additional 30 million kyats to their foundation. So, we had to pay 60 million kyats ($44,000) in total for a license," said a gravel producer from Myanaung Township, on the condition of anonymity. When the regional government was about to step down after the USDP's resounding defeat in 2015 general elections, U Thein Aung's administration reconstituted the foundation as Ayeyarwady Health and Education Multi-Developments Foundation. He then allegedly handed over the funds from the old foundation to the new one. The reconstituted foundation is led by former ministers of the divisional government, including U Thein Aung, who serve as patrons. U Thein Aung also attended the opening of the reconstituted foundation in June last year. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
The post Irrawaddy Division Ex-Cabinet Denies Embezzlement Allegations appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Ma Ha Na Asked to Judge on Wirathu Sermons Posted: 09 May 2017 05:24 AM PDT RANGOON — Members of a committee to combat false Buddhist doctrine urged the State Buddhist authority on Tuesday to judge if the actions and speeches of firebrand nationalist monk U Wirathu are "moral" or not. "We don't want him to be jailed or ruined, we just want to show that we Buddhists and people do not accept his false doctrine, we want to mend them," Ko Myat Kyaw, the organizer of the committee, told reporters at a press conference at Tawwin Hninzi Hall in Rangoon on Tuesday. The committee was formed in March this year by 12 people who sent a petition with over 500 signatures collected in Rangoon's Dagon (South) Township to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, better known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ha Na. It urged Ma Ha Na to judge if U Wirathu's words and actions were in line with Buddhist teachings. The committee's Facebook group currently has over 1,000 members. Ko Myat Kyaw said the committee would invite new members and continue its petition campaign in Rangoon Division as Ma Ha Na had not replied. Ma Ha Na has banned U Wirathu, a prominent leader of the ultranationalist Buddhist monk association known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, from delivering sermons across the country for one year starting from March 10, due to engaging in what was deemed religious hate speech. Though Ma Ha Na said it would take legal action against the monk for any breach of the order, U Wirathu has delivered several silent sermons in different locations, and has not received any reprimand, said Ko Myat Kyaw. "Our country will become a religious extremist country very soon if we cannot not prevent and take action against those who are immoral and racist and incite hatred," he said. In the last week of March, activists launched a petition on the San Francisco-based Change.org website to take action against U Wirathu for delivering inflammatory sermons. U Swe Win, chief correspondent of Myanmar Now news agency, has also asked Ma Ha Na and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture to take action against U Wirathu for his religious hate speech. A Rangoon resident also filed a complaint with Dawbon Township Court in April against U Wirathu for saying Burmese women should marry dogs instead of Muslim men, but it was dismissed. U Wirathu and 10 other Buddhist monks were welcomed by ethnic Arakanese villagers in conflict-torn Maungdaw Township, northern Arakan State, last week. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko The post Ma Ha Na Asked to Judge on Wirathu Sermons appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Fighting Escalates in Northern Shan State as Peace Conference Looms Posted: 09 May 2017 04:32 AM PDT RANGOON — Fighting has escalated between the Burma Army and the Northern Alliance in northern Shan State just weeks before the second session of the 21st Century Panglong conference, to begin on May 24 with the aim of establishing peace with the country's ethnic armed groups. Northern Alliance member the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) stated that fighting has occurred almost daily in the Kokang region since April 27. Fellow member Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) reported 20 separate clashes with the Burma Army within the last two weeks. The TNLA stated its brigades 1 and 3 clashed four times with Burmese military troops yesterday in Mong Ton Township, where the Burma Army's Infantry Division 88 launched an offensive after the Thingyan water festival, and the fighting continued this morning. "[The Burma Army] is carrying out heavy operations against the TNLA/PSLF [Palaung State Liberation Front], and the MNDAA," Brig-Gen Tar Phone Kyaw, General Secretary of the TNLA and Northern Alliance spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy. "We will keep fighting back. We have no choice. We will just defend ourselves using guerrilla warfare. "The Burma Army plans to diminish Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's leadership of the second Panglong conference and its politics. They create war against peace to show that the power is in their hands," he added. The Northern Alliance, which also comprises the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Arakan Army (AA), stated that it had been fighting the Tatmadaw all day yesterday and today in Kokang. Burmese military troops, it added, were using artillery to shell an MNDAA base. The military-run Ministry of Defense stated on May 7 that a grenade shot by the TNLA wounded three civilians in Namkham Township. The Burma Army has refused to hold peace talks with the MNDAA, the TNLA, and the AA, stating that the three groups formed after the quasi-civilian government took office in 2011. The post Fighting Escalates in Northern Shan State as Peace Conference Looms appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Student Protesters Jailed in Mandalay Posted: 09 May 2017 04:16 AM PDT MANDALAY — Four student protesters were sentenced to four months in prison under the Peaceful Assembly Act and for disrespecting the court at Chanayethazan Township Court in Mandalay on Tuesday. Kaung Zaw Hein, Zaw Ye Htut, Hnin Aung and Ye Myo Swe, who are members of Mandalay and Sagaing student unions, were arrested protesting Sagaing Teacher Training College's draconian rules in front of the Department of Higher Education (Upper Burma) in Mandalay last month.
The four were found guilty of disrespecting the court for shouting and tussling with police after their guards refused to remove their handcuffs for their final court appearance on Tuesday. The students were given the option of a one-month prison sentence or a 2,000 kyats fine and chose the prison sentence, in addition to a three-month sentence handed down under the Peaceful Assembly Act. During the protest, the students held placards urging the college to respect students' freedom and human rights, to practice democracy, and to stop oppressing students. "Rules like not allowing mobile phones on the campus and strict timetables are like the rules in the army, not the rules of a college," said Zaw Ye Htut during the protest. On Tuesday, the students vocally denounced the judge's sentence after it was read out and condemned Burma's unjust laws and mistreatment by police. Police forcibly removed the young men from the courtroom and bundled them into a waiting car to whisk them off to Obo prison. "The police's actions were very ugly," said Ko Aung Hmaing San, a former political prisoner and student supporter. "Today proved that we still have no freedom of speech and cannot freely express what we dislike or disagree with." The students' families said they would not appeal the court's decision in protest of the unjust law and to highlight the lack of freedom of expression. The post Student Protesters Jailed in Mandalay appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Economy to Grow by Seven Percent This Fiscal Year, Observer Group Predicts Posted: 09 May 2017 02:00 AM PDT RANGOON — Burma's economy is predicted to grow by at least seven percent in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscal years after growth of six percent last fiscal year, predicted regional observer group ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). Moderate growth in Burma last fiscal year (6.3 percent) compared to 7.3 percent the year before was accounted to slowing agriculture and construction and declining gas prices, said AMRO's report titled ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook (AREO) 2017. The annual regional surveillance publication predicted an uptick in GDP growth this fiscal year due to greater manufacturing and a recovery in agriculture after 2015's severe floods. Increased investment is also likely to fuel GDP growth following the implication of Burma's new Investment Law, although a lack of detailed regulations continues to deter investors. The opening of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), including Thilawa to the southeast of Rangoon, is also predicted to spur growth. Government efforts to enhance monetary policy through deposit auctions, a new reserve requirement regime, and improved forecasting allowed the Central Bank to manage inflation with more success in the 2016-17 fiscal year; inflation averaged 6.8 percent in 2016-17 compared to 10 percent the year before. Burma's financial and economic stability remain at risk from high credit growth and low central bank foreign reserves, AMRO warns. Burma's 2016 Financial Institutions Law is an important step in mitigating financial risk, but the government should introduce closer inspections of commercial banks and publish reports on their financial soundness, the report recommends. AMRO predicts Southeast Asian economies will collectively grow by around 5 percent this fiscal year and next. The World Bank predicted that GDP would grow by 7.1 percent a year on average over the next three years, while the Asia Development Bank predicted Burma's GDP growth as 7.7 percent in 2017 and 8 percent in 2018. The post Economy to Grow by Seven Percent This Fiscal Year, Observer Group Predicts appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| A Community Lives in Fear of Coal Posted: 08 May 2017 07:04 PM PDT MOULMEIN, Mon State — The village of Inn Din is green and lush with rubber, durian and betel plantations, as well as an opening to the Andaman Sea and its fishery resources to the west. However, the village has been haunted by a proposed coal-fired power plant, often described locally as a "silent killer." "We have been living on this land for generations and we want to pass it on to our descendants. I do not want this project built on our land," said local villager U Aung, whose farmland is located within the project area.  Local villagers have dreaded the health risks of the coal-fired plant since April 2014 when the Toyo-Thai Public Co Ltd (TTPCL), a Thai-Japan consortium, chose a site for the 1,280-megawatt power plant near the village. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with former Burmese President U Thein Sein's government on April 9, 2015 to build the power plant at a cost of US$2.8 billion. The project site is just two kilometers from Mon State's Inn Din Village. Toyo-Thai Co has earmarked 500 acres of lands for the power plant, and has also proposed building a pontoon bridge, which would be three to five kilometers long and stretch into the Andaman Sea. Local villagers do not know the extent of possible environmental impacts but fear that the plant will adversely impact their livelihoods by affecting fishing and farming. Villagers from several nearby villages share the same concerns. On May 5, 2015, over 5,000 locals from seven villages staged a protest against the project. Montree Chantawong, an ecologist at the Toward Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), a Thai-based environmental organization that has been providing technical assistance to Inn Din villagers, told The Irrawaddy that the organization found a rare crab species.  "We documented plants, aquatic animals and birds in the region, and also held talks with the marine biology department of Moulmein University on the aquatic animals we discovered and documented," he said. According to the organization's survey in seven villages including Inn Din over the past three years, it found 26 plant species, 71 bird species, 138 fish species, 15 prawn species, and seven crab species. Amid the mounting opposition, U Kyaw San Win, director of a civil society organization known as the National Enlightenment Institute (NEI), visited the village along with a foreign expert to conduct an independent survey on the geology and ecosystem of the project area in July 2015. "During our visit with the local abbot prior to visiting the project site, villagers gathered, banged pots and pans, and shouted for us to leave. I think the whole village came out," he said. While most villagers object to the project, some silently expect to sell their land for high profits but dare not be vocal about their support. "We don't want this project. We earn enough money from farming to feed our families and send our children to university," villager U Lay Lin told The Irrawaddy. Most of the villagers share his view. They do not want to risk their livelihoods for a power plant when they have lived off of the electricity grid to this point. Currently, the village only has electricity for a few hours at night from a diesel generator arranged by the village monastery abbot.  Locals went to the Japanese Embassy in Rangoon to file a petition against the project. They also filed a petition to Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which are providing loans to Toyo-Thai Co. They also turned down regional development incentives offered by the company in connection with the project. Instead, they concreted the main village road with their own money. As the project is mainly intended to provide electricity for the Thilawa SEZ, the villagers may get some of the electricity, but it is not fair when compared with the burden of negative impacts it will bring them, said Montree Chantawong. The company has said it would bring in thousands of foreign technicians when it started construction. Villagers are also concerned about possible social and cultural impacts on their village which currently only has a population of some 2,800 people. In 2015, the company employed Vietnamese technicians to conduct a feasibility survey for the pontoon bridge. The technicians lived in floating houses but minor tensions between the two sides still arose. From 2013 to 2015, there were several confrontations between the company and the villagers, and in June 2015, the company filed complaints with the Ye Township police station against 20 villagers. But, 300 villagers went to the police station and defended them and the case was later settled. The company highlights the low production cost of electricity in its calculations, but does not mention the damages to be caused by the project, said Areeya Tivasuradej, an ecologist at TERRA. "Now, we can eat prawns from the sea, trade them and hand down to the next generation. In calculating its investment, the company did not include the loss to be caused by a decline in production [of fishery products as a result of the power plant]," she said. On June 8, 2014, Dr. Aung Naing Oo, a Mon State lawmaker representing Chaungzon Township and chairman of the Mon State parliamentary committee that reviews laws, proposals, questions, and regional plans, visited Inn Din Village to hear from the villagers. Locals cast a secret vote during his visit, resulting in 206 against, four in favor, and six abstentions. On Sept. 5, 2014, the Mon State government instructed the Toyo-Thai Co not to continue the project's feasibility study.  On Dec. 30, 2015, in response to a question in the Lower House from lawmaker Mi Myint Than about the project, deputy minister for electricity U Aung Than Oo said the feasibility study had been suspended. The Toyo-Thai Public Co holds shareholder meetings every April and later submits its annual report to shareholders, said Montree Chantawong. According to this year's report, the company told shareholders that the project was shelved, Montree Chantawong told The Irrawaddy. This is the first time the company has announced its suspension of the project to shareholders, he added. However, it is a suspension and not a termination, villagers said, adding that they fear a resumption of the project and look at outsiders with suspicion. If you go to the village for the first time with a foreigner, locals say you had better go straight to the village monastery and explain why you have come. They claim that the nightmare of the coal plant has stripped them of their hospitality. The post A Community Lives in Fear of Coal appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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