Ban Should Now Tackle Burma’s Constitution, Says Opposition

By WAI MOE Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Opposition parties in Burma say UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon didn’t go far enough in urging the military regime to ensure that the 2010 general election is “credible, inclusive and legitimate.”

The UN chief should also have addressed demands to rewrite the constitution drawn up by the regime and enacted in 2008, they say.

Nyan Win, spokesman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), said that even if the 2010 election were to be “free and fair”—as the regime had promised—“the 2008 constitution is undemocratic.”

The NLD disagreed with Ban on this point, Nyan Win said.

The regime claimed the 2008 constitution had been approved by more than 90 percent of voters in a national referendum held shortly after the Cyclone Nargis in May that year. Critics say the constitution had been drafted by handpicked official representatives and that the referendum was anything but free and fair.

The constitution reserves 25 percent of seats in both houses of a new parliament for military representatives, appointed by the commander-in- chief of the armed forces.

It also bars any person married to a foreigner from serving as president of the country. Furthermore, presidents must have military experience.

Both restrictions rule out the possibility of Aung San Suu Kyi ever taking office. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is definitely banned from becoming president under the 2008 constitution,” Nyan Win said.

Burma’s largest ceasefire groups—the Wa, Kachin, Kokang and Mon—also take issue with the constitution, which reserves 25 percent of the seats in state or regional assemblies for non-elected military representatives. The commander-in- chief of the armed forces will have power to abolish the parliaments of ethnic states and autonomous regions.

In a joint letter to the Chinese government, Wa and Kachin leaders said they wanted the 2008 constitution amended because it failed to respect the truth of political history and perpetuated the Burman centric long-term political distrust towards ethnic minorities.

“Mr Ban Ki-moon’s election proposals are totally out of touch with stakeholders in Burmese politics,” said Aye Thar Aung, an Arakan leader and secretary of the Arakan League for Democracy. “The greatest difficulty for Burma’s democracy process is now the constitutional crisis.”

Aye Thar Aung said the UN’s Burma efforts should now be directed at making sure the constitution enshrined democratic principles and ethnic minority rights.
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