The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Suu Kyi: Burma’s Rebels Shouldn’t Sign Peace Deal in Haste
- 2 More Opposition Candidates Disqualified by Election Commission
- Rohingya IDPs Detained in Rangoon: Police
- Burma’s Last Man Standing
- Chief Ministers of Arakan, Karen States Resign to Join USDP
- Big Plans Brewing for Myanmar Beer
- Thailand Destroys More Than 2 Tons of Illegal Ivory
- Koh Tao Murder Suspects Denied British Police Report
- Thousands of Flood-Hit Bangladeshis Sheltering on Riverbanks
- Singapore to Hold Election Next Month in Test of Ruling Party
| Suu Kyi: Burma’s Rebels Shouldn’t Sign Peace Deal in Haste Posted: 26 Aug 2015 06:38 AM PDT  Saw Htay Maung, chairman of KNU/KNLA Peace Council, talks to reporters after meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, right, at her home in Rangoon on Feb. 10, 2012. It was the first ever meeting between Suu Kyi and a representative of ethnic armed group. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned armed ethnic minority groups not to rush into signing a nationwide ceasefire, a top party colleague said Wednesday, a position that pits her against President Thein Sein, who has made reaching a deal before November elections his top priority. Talks between more than a dozen rebel groups and the government have been held on and off again for more than 18 months. Win Htein, an executive of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), said party leader Suu Kyi expressed her opinion at a Saturday meeting with Maj. Htoo Htoo Lay of the Karen National Union (KNU), which has announced it is ready to sign. The KNU is one of the bigger ethnic minority groups that have been fighting the central government for decades to win greater autonomy. "Suu Kyi said ethnic groups will have to consider not signing the nationwide ceasefire agreement before the Nov. 8 general election," he said. "It has to be meaningful." Suu Kyi has so far stayed largely silent on the issue. But with elections around the corner and her party widely expected to win a majority of the seats, she has begun speaking out more on some issues. Ethnic unrest was long used as an excuse for the army to exercise control over the country's administration, and is a very sensitive issue because it relates to the country's unity. Some of the larger ethnic parties are loosely allied with her party, sharing the perception that the military-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is their antagonist. It is unlikely, however, that she would have much influence over their positions, unless they believe her party can take power and offer a better deal. The military, however, has veto power over any constitutional amendments, limiting any major changes her party might try to make. While the government has been saying for more than a year that a ceasefire agreement is imminent, fighting continues with several groups, and it has refused so far to accept several demands from the rebel groups. The latest stumbling block is the government's decision to exclude the Shan State's Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Kokang group and the Arakan Army from the pact because they are not among the 15 officially recognized rebel armies. Ethnic armed groups and government representatives have signed a number of ceasefire agreements since independence from colonial rule in quest of peace, but the deals have usually fallen apart. Martyred independence hero Gen. Aung San—Suu Kyi's father—in 1947 signed the Panglong Agreement, which was supposed to serve as a model for allowing autonomy for ethnic minority groups, but was ultimately neglected. The post Suu Kyi: Burma's Rebels Shouldn't Sign Peace Deal in Haste appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| 2 More Opposition Candidates Disqualified by Election Commission Posted: 26 Aug 2015 06:21 AM PDT  Supporters of the opposition National League for Democracy at a rally in Rangoon on Friday. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) RANGOON—Two candidates for the National League for Democracy (NLD) have been disqualified from contesting the Nov. 8 election, one of whom has become the third candidate barred from the poll on citizenship grounds. Yin Myo, an NLD candidate for the Upper House of the Union Parliament from Shan State, was informed by a district office of the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Monday that his candidacy would be rejectedbecause hisfather was not a Burmese citizen at the time of his birth. "His father was a foreign registration card holder," said San Aung, chair of the commission's Palaung Special Region's office. "We explained this to him when we scrutinized his application and he withdrew his candidacy of his own accord." San Aung added that Yin Myo was the only nominee rejected among 18 candidate applications submitted to the local UEC office. Earlier this week, the UEC disqualified Dr. Win Myint, a NLD candidate in Mandalay, on the grounds that his father was a Chinese national living in Burma. The independent candidacy of ShweMaung, an ethnic Rohingya Muslim lawmaker and former member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), was rejected on similar grounds, despite serving in the Union Parliament since 2010. Both men have appealedtheir rejections to the UEC head office. In Karenni State, NLD Upper House candidate PhyoWai Aung was disqualified for failing to meet a constitutional provision requiring Union Parliament lawmakers to be above the age of 30. An official from the NLD's Karenni State office, who asked not to be named, said that PhyoWai Aung had been the only party member disqualified from competing in that state. "We didn't notice when we chose the candidates, but he is still several months away from turning 30, so his application was denied," he said. The UEC is currently examining the eligibility of a total of 6,189 candidate applications submitted by 92 political parties and 323 independents, a process that is expected to conclude on Aug. 31. The NLD has submitted the highest number of applications to the commissionclosely, fielding 1,151 candidates in the country's 1,171 seats, closely followed by the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and the National Unity Party. The post 2 More Opposition Candidates Disqualified by Election Commission appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Rohingya IDPs Detained in Rangoon: Police Posted: 26 Aug 2015 05:29 AM PDT  Bangladeshi nationals found on two boats by the Burma Navy in May are repatriated on Tuesday. (Photo: IPRD) RANGOON — Police in Rangoon Division's Hmawbi Township have detained 10 Rohingya Muslims and the driver of the vehicle in which they were found riding, according to local law enforcement. A police officer in Hmawbi Township told The Irrawaddy that local authorities were holding the internal migrants, but he declined to provide specifics of the case over the phone. Citing a police source, a BBC Burmese radio report on Wednesday said each of the Rohingya paid a 1.2 million kyats (US$940) bribe to the Burma Army in order to smuggle them to Rangoon from two camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Arakan State's Sittwe Township. The 10 men and women were part of a larger group of 29 Rohingya, according to The Voice daily, with two other vehicles having thus far evaded authorities. The Rohingya minority in Arakan State are subject to severe restrictions on movement, and more than 100,000 remain in IDP camps after deadly violence in 2012 between Arakanese Buddhists and Muslims drove them from their homes. Meanwhile, 125 migrants were deported from western Burma to Bangladesh on Tuesday, as more than 100 people remain in shelters near the border, potentially awaiting the same fate, according to a local immigration official. "We deported them at 2 pm yesterday after two country officers signed an agreement. There are even more, 101 people, remaining who are awaiting deportation," Khin Soe, an immigration officer in Sittwe, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. Two separate boats packed with refugees and economic migrants were discovered by the Burma Navy in May, seeing more than 900 people brought onto Burmese soil. Burmese immigration authorities have been holding the migrants at temporary shelters in Taung Pyo Let Wai village in Arakan State's Maungdaw Township, where their nationalities are undergoing scrutiny. The governments of the two countries have been cooperating in the process, which has seen hundreds of Bangladeshi nationals repatriated in several batches since the boats carrying them were brought to shore. At least 187 of the boats' passengers were found to be from Burma. Earlier this year, thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and refugees from Arakan State began washing up on the shores of other Southeast Asian nations after human traffickers abandoned them at sea. Those from Burma were predominantly Rohingya fleeing state-sanctioned persecution and hardscrabble IDP camp existences in the country's western coastal state. The post Rohingya IDPs Detained in Rangoon: Police appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Posted: 26 Aug 2015 05:12 AM PDT  President Thein Sein waits for delegates to arrive for the 17th ASEAN-China Summit during the 25th ASEAN Summit in Naypyitaw November 13, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) Like it or not, Burma's incumbent President Thein Sein appears perfectly placed to make a run for the presidency in 2016. A key reason is that the 70-year-old former general has proven himself to be a wily political operator able to claim a central role in guiding a limited reform process that has not threatened Burma's establishment figures and institutions. Realists could argue that few leaders would be able to survive in the current political context where the old guard, including the military, cast a long shadow over the political stage. The "guided" reform process, as endorsed by ex-junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe, is supposed to run "smoothly"—in other words, while safeguarding the 2008 Constitution and protecting the military's key role in the prevailing political order. Since former junta-era prime minister Thein Sein took the presidential reigns in early 2011, he has stuck to his lines, managing a reform process while keeping the establishment onside. As president, he has opened up the country to some extent, politically and economically, leading to international praise and the lifting of most Western sanctions. He also managed to convince the leader of Burma's main opposition party, Aung San Suu Kyi, to contest the 2012 by-election, contributing to the legitimacy of a Parliament stacked with unelected military MPs and ruling party representatives installed after a 2010 poll widely seen as plagued by electoral fraud. But Thein Sein's appeal to conservative factions' hinges in part on his role in shepherding the country's controversial, military-drafted Constitution, through a time of political change. In some quarters, this is chalked up as a "success" for Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government. Presidential Power Plays  Kyaw Zwa Moe is editor (English Edition) of Two major political reshuffles have marked Thein Sein's time in office, underlining his political endurance and his willingness to reel in rivals before seeing his place in the pecking order undermined. In July 2012, just over a year since the cabinet was formed, Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo who, like Thein Sein, was a former general, was permitted to stand down for "health reasons." At the time, sources described his ailment as throat cancer. Today, the former vice prime minister is reportedly fit and healthy. In reality, Tin Aung Myint Oo was said to have opposed several of the 'reformist' initiatives proposed by Thein Sein, which ultimately led to his dismissal. Despite both men's closeness to their former boss Than Shwe, ultimately Tin Aung Myint Oo was seen as too conservative for the foreign-friendly veneer that the president and his allies were seeking to project. Fast-forward to August 2015, and another political confrontation involving the president took place, this time within the halls of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. In a dramatic late-night reshuffle involving security forces deployed to the party's headquarters in Naypyidaw, the powerful Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann was purged from his post as party chairman, along with several allies. Observers characterized the move as the final act in a political feud between the president and the speaker in which the former, crucially, had the military on his side. Why was Shwe Mann removed? At least on the surface—and possibly for his own self-advancement—it seemed Shwe Mann was walking to a different tune. It was well-publicized that the former chairman was cultivating a cozy relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi—the most public face of opposition to successive ruling regimes since 1988. Shwe Mann, the third most powerful figure in the previous military junta, also allowed a vote in the Parliament on constitutional change, including on a proposed amendment which would have scrapped the military's effective veto on future revisions. His relationship with Suu Kyi had become a thorn in the side of Thein Sein's military-backed government, with some viewing him as a traitor. But the government had been keeping an eye on him. Regarding the speaker's ties with the Suu Kyi, one senior government minister told the author in Naypyidaw earlier this year: "We tried to tally how many times they met but lost count. They held countless 'four eyes' meetings." While not all observers were so easily swayed, some internal party factions evidently saw Shwe Mann as a reformist and a threat to the established order. The house speaker made no secret of his ambition to become president. But even this appeared somewhat palatable for ruling party powerbrokers, in contrast to his courting of Burma's opposition leader. Shwe Mann also appeared to have crossed the line in stating that Thein Sein would not contest the presidency in 2016. Last Man Standing From these two major purges, Thein Sein emerged stronger, with more control over a process in which he plays a chameleon-type role—not too "liberal" for the conservatives but able to claim legitimacy as the face of a top-down reform process began under his presidency. With Shwe Mann gone, apparent rivals for the top job—providing the establishment forces have a major say post-November—are few. Thein Sein will not run for a seat in Parliament, but this has no bearing on his eligibility to run for president as under the constitution, nominees do not need to be sitting lawmakers. Speculation has surrounded the intentions of Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who has not ruled out a tilt at the country's highest office. But after the intraparty purge on August 12, it appears the military and the executive are on the same page, decreasing the likelihood of direct competition between the two top leaders. Another theory posits that the current commander-in-chief could assume the top mantle if Thein Sein chooses not to see out the full five-year term. Either way, the likelihood of Burma seeing a truly civilian president following elections, now less than three months away, seems improbable. As long as the president's pacemaker continues to function, Thein Sein and Min Aung Hlaing are likely to work together, safeguarding the Constitution, "guiding" the reform process and fulfilling the previous junta's mantra of "discipline-flourishing democracy."
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| Chief Ministers of Arakan, Karen States Resign to Join USDP Posted: 26 Aug 2015 04:45 AM PDT  Maung Maung Ohn participating in a DVB Debate program in Rangoon, May 2015. (Photo: Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The chief ministers of two states have resigned to contest Burma's upcoming general election, set for Nov. 8, representing the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Maung Maung Ohn, the chief executive for Arakan State, and Karen State's Zaw Min have been "granted retirement" by President Thein Sein, according to an announcement published in state media on Wednesday. The retirement order is effective immediately. Both were former military strongmen who rose to political prominence in recent years. Maung Maung Ohn was appointed as chief minister of Arakan State in 2014 amid criticism of the government's handling of a rash of deadly inter-communal riots. Ex-Brig-Gen Zaw Min has served as head of southeastern Burma's Karen State since March 2011, when Thein Sein first took office. Both men will compete for the USDP, the military-backed ruling party. According to an election sub-commission official in Pegu Division, Tun Myint, Zaw Min will contest a seat in the Lower House representing Kawa Township. The Union Election Commission confirmed that Maung Maung Ohn will run for the state legislature Arakan State's Ann Township. The last month has seen dozens of senior military officers resign from active duty to join the USDP before the November vote. Candidacy applications are still being scrutinized by the election board, but the party has submitted a list of 1,134 aspirants including military retirees, current cabinet members, leading businesspeople and sitting lawmakers. The USDP has nominated 59 freshly retired military personnel and 46 members of the current administration, the party told reporters last month upon disclosure of preliminary candidate lists.
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| Big Plans Brewing for Myanmar Beer Posted: 26 Aug 2015 03:47 AM PDT  Burma's largest beer maker, military-owned Myanmar Brewery Ltd., recently partnered with Japanese Kirin Holdings. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma's largest beer maker, military-owned Myanmar Brewery Ltd., aims to increase its annual production by 50 percent in the years ahead, the company announced on Wednesday. Following a recent partnership with Japan's Kirin Holdings, the company's chairman Nay Win said the new joint venture will try to raise its output from 2 to 3 million hectoliters annually to accommodate growing demand in Burma's emerging beverage market. "Demand and supply are out of balance in the local market, the demand is always higher, so we plan to brew more beer from now on," Nay Win said at a press conference in Rangoon on Wednesday. Fear not, the chairman said: While the new partnership will help to increase production and improve marketing, the quality of Burma's signature brew will not be affected. Kirin Holdings announced last week that it had acquired a 55 percent stake in the company from Singaporean Fraser & Neave after a longstanding dispute between the firm and the brewery's parent enterprise, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEHL). A Singaporean arbitration court ordered earlier this month that UMEHL pay US$560 million for the shares, after a buyout was authorized on the grounds that a new shareholder structure violated their initial 1995 agreement. A controlling stake of Fraser & Neave had recently been purchased by Thai business mogul Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, the founding chairman of Chang producer Thai Beverage. Myanmar Brewery is the maker of Myanmar Beer, Andaman Gold and Myanmar Double Strong, and currently has a strong lead in the domestic beer game. While newcomers to Burma's beverage market could impact consumer choices, chairman Nay Win said he was confident the company would maintain its stride at 80 percent of all sales nationwide. Kirin's Hiroshi Fujikawa said at Wednesday's conference that the new joint venture also intends to develop its international reach by increasing exports, which are relatively low at present. Myanmar Brewery's total revenue totaled 300 billion kyats (US$233 million) for the 2014-14 fiscal year, according to company figures. The brewery manufactures in Rangoon's Mingaladon Township.
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| Thailand Destroys More Than 2 Tons of Illegal Ivory Posted: 26 Aug 2015 02:30 AM PDT  Officials hold confiscated elephant tusks before destroying the ivory at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, in Bangkok, Thailand, August 26, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — Thai authorities destroyed more than 2 tons of seized and smuggled ivory on Wednesday, in the latest move by the government to avoid possible economic sanctions over a perceived failure to tackle the illicit trade. Tusks from more than 200 dead African elephants and other items made from ivory, such as jewelry and statues, were spread across viewing tables before being crushed by a machine into small pieces that were to be incinerated later in the day. "This event shows the international community that Thailand intends to tackle the illegal ivory trade," said Nipol Chotiban, head of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. To emphasize the point, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha presided over the event, loading the first tusk into the crushing machine. Thailand's record on ivory is poor. The United Nations body that tries to tackle the illegal ivory trade, known as CITES, lists Thailand as the world's second-biggest end-user market behind China. The Southeast Asian country is a major transit hub and destination for smuggled tusks, which are often carved into tourist trinkets and ornaments. Part of the problem has been a Thai law that allows ivory from its own domesticated elephants to be worked into ornaments and sold. The law has created a loophole through which ivory from African animals can be laundered. In 2013 CITES put Thailand on notice to sort out the situation or face economic sanctions. Since then Thailand has passed new laws and made major seizures at ports and airports. But the pressure remains. In less than a week, Thailand must submit an update of its progress to CITES. Several wildlife and conservation groups audited the stockpile before it was destroyed and welcomed the event while noting that there is still much to do, including continuous law enforcement and the tackling of the gangs behind the trade. "This is not over yet," said Tom Milliken, one of the world experts on the illicit trade in ivory. "This is just one event that will definitely signal to the world that the Thai government is committed but the impact on the market is really the critical element." More than 14 tons of ivory remain in Thai stockpiles, kept as part of court cases against smugglers.
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| Koh Tao Murder Suspects Denied British Police Report Posted: 25 Aug 2015 09:09 PM PDT  Burmese migrant workers Zaw Lin, right, and Win Zaw Htun arrive at the Koh Samui Provincial Court on July 22. (Photo: Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters) LONDON — Two Burmese workers on trial in Thailand for the murder of two British tourists should not be given access to a confidential British police report about the case, a British judge ruled on Tuesday. Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, risk the death penalty if found guilty of murdering Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, in September last year on a beach on Koh Tao, an island popular with backpackers and divers. Post-mortem examinations showed both suffered severe head wounds and Witheridge was raped. The case is sensitive because of Thailand’s reliance on tourism, which makes up nearly 10 percent of the economy, and because of questions that have emerged over police tactics. The two suspects initially confessed in police interviews and were taken to the crime scene where they re-enacted the murders in front of the world’s media. They later retracted the confessions, alleging they had been tortured by Thai police. The allegations caused disquiet in Britain. In a ruling handed down in London on Tuesday, High Court Judge Nicholas Green said the misgivings were such that Prime Minister David Cameron had discussed the case with his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan-ocha. The two leaders agreed that Britain’s Metropolitan Police would send a team to Thailand to conduct an independent inquiry. However, as it is British policy not to assist foreign police forces in death penalty cases, the scope of the mission was to observe and record the Thai police investigation. Thai police cooperated fully under the pre-agreed condition that the British team’s final report would be shared only with the Witheridge and Miller families. But the two murder suspects, who have been on trial since early July, applied to the court to hand over the report, arguing that it might be of use to their defense case. The Metropolitan Police opposed their application, arguing that disclosure would impede the force’s ability to enter into cooperation agreements with foreign authorities in future. Having seen the full report, the judge ruled that the interests of the police outweighed those of the suspects. “In short I have concluded that there is nothing in the police report which is exculpatory, i.e. would be of material assistance to the claimants in the trial,” he said in a summary of his ruling. The post Koh Tao Murder Suspects Denied British Police Report appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Thousands of Flood-Hit Bangladeshis Sheltering on Riverbanks Posted: 25 Aug 2015 09:02 PM PDT  A woman carries her child as she wades through floodwaters at a flooded village in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, in 2012. (Photo: Andrew Biraj / Reuters) LONDON — Floods, landslides and a cyclone have made at least 180,000 people in Bangladesh homeless, with thousands living in makeshift shelters on riverbanks, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Tuesday. More than 1.5 million people have been hit by disasters which destroyed around 30,000 homes, the IFRC said as it launched an appeal for US$909,000. “Many families with young children and the elderly have been left homeless. They are living in makeshift shelters on embankments and river banks,” Simon Missiri, head of the IFRC’s South Asia regional delegation, said in a statement. “For well over a month people’s coping mechanisms have been worn down by successive waves of flooding. Cyclone Komen made a bad situation even worse. There are high levels of vulnerability in these communities which must not be neglected,” he added. The floods, which began at the end of June, inundated hundreds of villages in disaster-prone Bangladesh and left more than 200,000 people stranded in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong and Bandarban—three districts in the southeast. A month later Cyclone Komen made landfall, causing further damage. Rosemarie North, IFRC’s New Delhi-based communications and advocacy manager, said the immediate priorities were making sure people had food, shelter, clean water and sanitation. “The floods, landslides and tropical Cyclone Komen did a lot of damage to agricultural land, salt production, shrimp farming and fishing,” North told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone. As a result many people, working as day labourers in those sectors, had lost their income. An added problem was food not getting through to markets as normal because of the damage done to roads, she said. The IFRC said a portion of its emergency appeal to help 32,500 people in coastal districts would be spent on providing cash grants for people to buy food and basic items.
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| Singapore to Hold Election Next Month in Test of Ruling Party Posted: 25 Aug 2015 08:45 PM PDT  Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong bows his head in front of a picture of his father and Singapore’s former leader Lee Kuan Yew during the latter’s funeral on Mar. 29 (Photo: Edgar Su / Reuters) SINGAPORE — Singapore will hold a general election on Sept. 11, the government announced Tuesday, in what is expected to be a tight contest for the ruling party that has dominated politics in the city-state for 50 years but is now facing growing disaffection among citizens. The People’s Action Party, whose founder and Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, died in March at age 91, currently holds 80 out of 87 seats in Parliament. Although that number implies massive popularity for the PAP, the party has been aided by an electoral system in which some constituencies are represented by a group of four to six lawmakers, boosting the winning party’s numbers. The party usually fields groups led by senior, popular members of Parliament. The system has helped the PAP maintain a commanding majority, even though it received just 60 percent of all votes in the 2011 general election, in its worst electoral performance. It has lost two by-elections since then. The decline in popularity results from growing resentment over political restrictions, an influx of foreigners and a high cost of living. For the younger generation, Singapore’s economic success “does not have that much resonance compared with their parents or grandparents,” said Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University. “They are less enamored of a one-party dominant system and are inclined to more political diversity and contestation. The results will signal whether we are incrementally moving away from a one-party dominant system,” he said. The virtual one-party dominance was led by Lee, who is widely credited with setting the country on the path of economic success and was lauded at the nation’s 50th birthday celebrations on Aug. 9 for his achievements. Lee’s son, current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, recounted at the rally the country’s progress in the last 50 years and urged Singaporeans to think about the next 50. “If you are proud of what we have achieved together, if you support what we want to do ahead, the future that we are building, then please support me, please support my team,” he said. “We have to do it together, so that we can keep Singapore special for many years to come. Another 50 years. And Singapore has to stay special because if we are just a dull little spot on the map, a smudge, we are going to count for nothing. We have to be a shining red dot,” he added. On election day, 16 areas in Singapore will be contested in groups, while 13 others will be contested individually, amounting to a total of 89 seats. There are around 2.46 million eligible voters, up from 2.35 million in 2011, with an increased number of voters born post-independence. The opposition Workers’ Party currently holds the other seven seats. It rose in popularity, particularly among the younger generation, after campaigning on the back of providing credible voices to keep the PAP in check. In the 2011 election, the party snatched the five-member ward of Aljunied in Eastern Singapore, ousting a PAP team led by a former foreign minister. The post Singapore to Hold Election Next Month in Test of Ruling Party appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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