http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0903/S00486.htm
Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 2:02 pm
Press Release: International Trade Union Confederation
Burma: Historic Trade Union Congress Reaffirms Campaign for Democracy and Workers’ Rights
Brussels, 24 March 2009 (ITUC OnLine): An historic three-day Congress of the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) concluded on the Thai-Burma border today, with the adoption of the organisation’s new Constitution, and the re-election of U Hla Oo as President and Maung Maung as General Secretary. The FTUB, which was founded in 1999, has been at the forefront of the struggle for democracy and human rights since its inception. The Constitution confirms the status of the FTUB as an independent, democratic trade union organization, committed to bringing about respect for labour rights, in particular the standards of the International Labour Organisation, for all Burmese workers.
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Congress delegates expressed their thanks to the international trade union movement for the strong solidarity shown by trade unions across the globe in support of their Burmese colleagues, and pledged to strengthen cooperation with trade unions around the world.
A key feature of the Congress was the re-affirmation of the FTUB’s commitment to and end to military rule and the introduction of democracy. The Congress called for a boycott of the military’s sham “elections” in 2010, which are intended to bring a measure of credibility to the regime without it having to concede the absolute power that it currently holds. The Congress also pledged to carry on the fight against the systematic use of forced labour by the military, with evidence that the regime has been using forced labour on reconstruction projects following the devastating Cyclone Nargis of May 2008.
The FTUB also maintained its call for economic sanctions against the military junta, noting that 90% of the people of Burma have to live on less than 1US$ per day, and that the only people gaining any real benefit from Burma’s trade and economic relations with other countries are the small minority of the population who run the regime and their closest supporters.
“The FTUB comes out of this Congress strong, unified and determined to work for a better future for Burmese workers and the entire population of the country. The Federation clearly has extremely strong support within the country, despite the ongoing harassment and brutality of the regime towards anyone who they suspect of supporting genuine trade unionism. The ITUC and its international partners will continue and strengthen our support to the FTUB in its struggle for democracy, justice and workers’ rights,” said ITUC Deputy General Secretary Jaap Wienen, who represented the Confederation at the Congress.
The ITUC represents 170 million workers in 312 affiliated national organisations from 157 countries. http://www.ituc-csi.org http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI
ENDS
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Campaign for Democracy and Workers’ Rights
The Scramble For A Piece of Burma
http://kaylatt.blogspot.com/2009/03/scramble-for-piece-of-burma.html
By Hannah Beech / Arakan and Kachin States Thursday, Mar. 19, 2009
Last year, the Chinese came. The villagers living in western Burma's remote Arakan state couldn't quite fathom what the Chinese told them, that below their rice fields might lie a vast reserve of oil. For three months the Chinese drilled the earth near the muddy Kaladan River in search of black gold. Then, just as suddenly, they left.
In December, the Indians arrived. Through Burmese intermediaries, they took the village's paddies as their own, depriving locals of their main source of income. Compensation was promised, villagers tell me, but none has been paid so far. So the impoverished residents of Mee Laung Yaw village, who lack electricity and eat eggplant curry as a poor substitute for meat, spend their days gazing at their expropriated fields, now fenced in and dominated by an oil-exploration tower that dwarfs their bamboo shacks. Several villagers took lowly construction jobs on the site but they were never paid so they've stopped showing up for work. "I hope they don't find any oil," says village chief Aye Thein Tun. "Because even if they do, none of it will come to us. It will just go to other countries."
The Western dialogue over what to do about Burma's repressive military regime is often framed as a single dilemma: whether or not to impose international sanctions. The debate is polarizing. The pro-sanctions crowd claims the moral high ground, deploring the enrichment of a clutch of ethnocentric Burmese generals whose impulses are most brutal against the roughly 40% of the population that, like the villages of Arakan state, is composed of ethnic minorities. The engagement side preaches practicality, arguing that some investment will trickle down to the populace and that cultural exchange is better than imposed isolationism. When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Asia on her inaugural foreign trip last month, she weighed in on the Burma question, acknowledging: "Clearly the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta ... [which is] impervious to influence from anyone." (See pictures of Burma's discontent.)
The truth about Burma, renamed as Myanmar by its generals, is that the sanctions debate is immaterial. While American and European foreign policy thinkers ponder how to financially strangle an army government that has ruled since 1962, Burma's regional neighbors are embarking on a new Great Game, scrambling to outdo each other for access to this resource-rich land. "Sanctions don't work if most countries ignore them," says Naw La, an exiled environmentalist with the Kachin Development Networking Group in Thailand. "The military is selling our natural heritage without any concern for our people."
The Mosquito Coast
In return for oil, natural gas, timber, hydropower, gemstones, cash crops and a periodic table's worth of minerals, countries like China, India, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea are propping up — and massively enriching — Burma's top brass. In the first nine months of 2008, foreign investment in Burma almost doubled year on year to nearly $1 billion, according to government figures that don't even take into account significant underground economic activity. Burma today is estimated to produce 90% of the world's rubies by value, 80% of its teak, and is home to one of Asia's biggest oil and natural-gas reserves. The country's jade is the world's finest, and its largely untouched rivers promise plentiful hydropower for its neighbors. "Multinationals are getting rich off Burma, and so is the military regime," says Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder of EarthRights International, an NGO that sued U.S. energy giant Unocal, which eventually provided out-of-court compensation to villagers who are believed to have toiled as slave labor for the Yadana gas pipeline from southern Burma to Thailand. "It is the local people who are suffering and dying," says Ka Hsaw Wa.
But as resource-hungry countries cozy up to the junta, they are discovering that Burma's natural wealth is most bountiful in areas where ethnic minorities simmer under the rule of the ethnic Burmese generals. Officially, the Burmese junta recognizes that the country is a union of at least 135 distinct groups. Yet the top ranks of the military are practically devoid of any non-Burmese presence. Army persecution of Burma's diverse tribes has festered for decades, and the proliferation of junta-controlled mines and concessions in the minority regions only exacerbates the tensions. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic villagers have been forced to relocate or have been conscripted into chain gangs, according to human-rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Even when operations begin, paid jobs land disproportionately in the hands of ethnic Burmese migrants, not those of local minorities. A new report by the Geneva-based International Displacement Monitoring Center estimates that in eastern Burma alone nearly half a million minority people have been displaced.
The British, trying to hold together an ethnic patchwork of a colony, knew too well the perils of Burma's tribal politics. They resorted to divide-and-conquer schemes, much as the current military regime has done. Intense negotiations by the junta led to many ethnic insurgencies laying down their guns in the 1980s and '90s — and opened up a vast territory for resource exploitation. But as the inequities between the Burmese majority and the tribal groups — the Arakanese, the Shan, the Kachin, the Karen, the Mon, the Wa and the Chin, to name a few — yawns ever wider, the chance of renewed armed conflict grows stronger. "To the military, we [ethnic minorities] are like mosquitoes," says a young Arakanese Buddhist monk, who participated in the crushed antigovernment uprising of September 2007 and chafes at Burmese discrimination against his people. "We buzz in their ear, and they slap at us and don't care if they kill us." But, he adds, "there are many mosquitoes." In the end, it may be the foreign participants in this new Great Game, unschooled in how to navigate ethnic complexities, who will get bitten.
Minority Report
Arakan's capital, Sittwe, is a sleepy port near the Bay of Bengal where the pace of life inches along at the speed of a pedicab. But nearby, the rush for oil and gas is intense; last year, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese companies signed exploration deals with the junta. In late December, a consortium of four foreign companies, led by South Korea's Daewoo, inked an agreement with the junta and China National Petroleum Corp. to extract natural gas from Arakan's offshore Shwe fields and pipe it northeast through Burma to China's Yunnan province. The pipeline, along with a plan for a new deepwater port in Arakan where ships laden with Middle Eastern oil can dock and disgorge their valuable cargo, gives China an alternative to the expensive and sometimes dangerous Strait of Malacca by directly supplying energy to its landlocked west. The Shwe project is Burma's largest ever foreign-investment commitment. (The second largest is the Yadana pipeline to Thailand.) Though Arakan sits on the country's biggest oil and natural-gas fields, Sittwe only gets three hours of electricity a day. The town boasts an "e-library" located in a government building, but all the computers sit unused because there is no power during office hours.
When I flew on a wheezing Myanma Airways plane to Sittwe, a squad of military officers with pistols on their hips boarded the flight. As the plane climbed into the air, two men in uniform stood in the aisle and unrolled a large, laminated map that showed the Shwe pipeline route in red. Yet the general public in Arakan has not been told what many suspected and what the map I saw indicated: that the pipeline, on which construction is scheduled to begin this year, will travel through populous areas and will likely result in extensive village relocations. (Both Daewoo and the Indian company exploring for oil in Arakan did not respond to Time's requests for comment.) For locals, reporting what I had seen on the plane could land them in a labor camp for compromising national security. The week before I arrived, several Arakanese with vaguely political backgrounds were rounded up by the police and haven't been seen since. "They close our ears and they close our mouths," says an Arakanese political dissident, noting the heavy Burmese security presence that can make even casual conversation at a teahouse fraught. "And now, they are taking our treasures, our oil and gas. What do we get in return? Nothing."
The inequity is straining the network of fragile cease-fires in tribal areas. "We have sent many letters registering our complaints to the government, but we haven't heard back," says Colonel Gun Maw. Not hearing back from the Burmese junta is something to which the spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is accustomed. An ethnically based movement in northern Burma's Kachin state, the KIO waged a long insurgency against the Burmese regime before signing a peace treaty in 1994. Most Kachin are Christian, and they believe their faith makes them particularly vulnerable to persecution by the exclusively Buddhist junta. In a complicated arrangement, the KIO controls some territory on Kachin's border with China. Chinese trucks that rumble through KIO turf pay taxes on the jade, gold and timber they're carrying, and KIO officials say the Chinese generally pay up, lest instability infect the area. "China wants Burma as a buffer state," says Gun Maw. "It wants Burma to be secure — so China will be secure."
Today, the KIO is waging an information campaign on a series of seven planned dams in Kachin, which will flood hundreds of villages and could threaten many others because the region's frequent seismic activity could trigger reservoir floods. (Two previously built dams in Kachin were rendered useless after breaking, and nearby villagers, who never received any electricity, were killed by the rush of water.) The dams, which are slated to generate seven times Burma's entire current electricity capacity, are being jointly developed by state-owned Chinese companies and a Burmese firm, Asia World, whose managing director was the target of U.S. sanctions last year. China will receive most — if not all — the generated power, leaving the Kachin people literally in the dark. The largest dam will be at Myitsone, where two rivers meet to become the mighty Irrawaddy. Chinese engineers and ethnic Burmese workers are already on-site. "All we can do is pray that the dam doesn't get built," says Nlam Brang Nu, the Baptist pastor of Tang Hpre village, which will be inundated when Myitsone is completed. "It is in God's hands."
Cycle of Depression
The Chinese are learning that the Kachin, like other ethnic groups in Burma, may not be willing to turn the other cheek much longer. Last year, armed KIO soldiers showed up at a pair of dam sites staffed by Chinese workers and demanded work cease until the Chinese paid them taxes. The projects are located in an area nominally under KIO control, but the former rebels were angry that the dam deal was negotiated directly between the Burmese government and Chinese hydropower firms without their input. (Eventually, the Chinese paid up.) More foreigners could get caught in the cross fire. Next year, Burma's generals will oversee nationwide elections, two decades after they ignored the results of the last polls. But for the cease-fire groups to participate in the balloting, the junta requires them to give up their guns. For many ethnic organizations, the KIO included, that's not acceptable. Between sips of whiskey chased by Red Bull, a gun runner in the Kachin capital Myitkyina tells me that he's fielding more orders for Chinese-made arms from various ethnic insurgent groups. "We have to defend ourselves," he says. "Otherwise the government will keep taking from us until we have nothing left."
That's the plight of most everyone in Burma, even the ethnic Burmese. Balancing on a narrow bamboo raft in the middle of the Irrawaddy River, ethnic Burmese migrant Aung Tun sifts for specks of gold. Over the past decade, Chinese demand for gold has skyrocketed, and thousands of ethnic Burmese have moved to Kachin to pan for the mineral, as well as mine jade. But for the right to float his raft on the river, Aung Tun must pay fees to the Burmese government, the Burmese police and the KIO. If the specks of gold add up, he can make the payments. Otherwise, Aung Tun goes into debt. If he survives, that is. During the five years that Aung Tun has panned the Irrawaddy, 25 people have died in his work group, which numbers no more than 40 laborers at one time. Some drowned during storms, while others succumbed to malaria or never came up after diving deep into the river. "The foreigners want gold," he says, squinting for yellow dust in the brown silt. "So we look for it." The equation in Asia's new Great Game is simple — and deadly.
Posted by Kay Latt at 11:11 AM
Coalition group will not contest 2010 election
http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/burmese-political-coalition-group-the-forum-for-democracy-in-burma-has-stated-that-it-opposes-the-planned-2010-elections-and-will-educate-burmese-people-about-the-problems-with-the-election/
Burmese political coalition group the Forum for Democracy in Burma has stated that it opposes the planned 2010 elections and will educate Burmese people about the problems with the election.
2009 March 24
tags: 2010 Election, Burma, Human Rights, Junta, world focus on Burmaby peacerunningCoalition group will not contest 2010 election
Mar 24, 2009 (DVB)–Burmese political coalition group the Forum for Democracy in Burma has stated that it opposes the planned 2010 elections and will educate Burmese people about the problems with the election.
The statement was made at the end of a five-day seminar, which took place from 18 to 22 March, held at an unspecified place along the Thai-Burma border.
The FDB is a coalition of exiled organisations and activists. The seminar was attended by 32 coalition group members and five observers.
Dr Naing Aung, leader of the FDB, said the coalition had chosen to stand strong against the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s plan to hold elections in 2010, and vowed that the group would cooperate with the public for their campaign.
“We will be educating our people more about the election,” he said.
“The aim of the election is to bring the 2008 constitution to life which would lead us to remain as slaves of the military the same as 20 years ago,” said Naing Aung.
The 1990 elections were won by the opposition National League for Democracy in a landslide victory but the military government ignored the results and has continued to rule.
“We will be looking for various methods to fight for our rights,” he added.
“It is unlikely that we would be on safe ground when calling for our rights since Burma is ruled by an oppressive government.”
Myanmar builds over 8,000 more basic education schools for past 20 years
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90781/90879/6620444.html
Myanmar built 8,748 basic education schools for the past 20 years, bringing the total to 38,162 as of 2008 since 1988, according to the latest official progress-indicating figures published in Monday's New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
These basic education schools include primary, middle and high schools, of which the primary schools stood the most with 31,329 and schools with multi-media classrooms being 1,829.
A total of 20 teacher ship education colleges were introduced over the two decades.
Relating to higher education, 17 university colleges were built over the period, bringing the total to 44 in 2008.
Other figures revealed that the number of teachers and students went to over 260,000 and 8.83 million respectively as of 2008.
With regard to science and technology education, 30 technological universities, 4 such colleges and 26 universities of computer studies were constructed with one each of Aerospace Engineering University and maritime university added over the period.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has been striving for the increase of the country's adult literacy rate annually with the figures attaining 94.83 percent in 2008, up from 83 percent in 1996.
The Ministry of Education, international agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, regional and local authorities and the communities reportedly made the efforts.
In the formal education sector, endeavors for 100 percent enrollment for all school age children and all students to complete basic education were exerted as a mass movement.
The education authorities urged more active participation in the literacy campaign to improve the education and socio-economic life of the people.
Moreover, Myanmar is also striving for the rural schools to keep pace with urban ones to reduce the development gap of education between the two areas.
Source: Xinhua
Number of Internet cafes jumps in Myanmar
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3141685
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 11:37 AM
YANGON, Mar. 24, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- Number of Internet cafes in Myanmar has jumped 11 percent in less than three months, a local weekly paper reported in its latest issue.
The number of cybercafes increased from 409 in January to 455 in mid-March, the Weekly Eleven newspaper reported, quoting figures from state-run Myanmar Infotech, the only provider authorized to issue Internet cafe licenses in Myanmar.
Of the total, 353 are located in the country's largest city Yangon and in nearby areas, while 13 are in the country's second largest city Mandalay, the report said.
Myanmar started allowing Internet cafes, which are officially called Public Access Centers, in 2004.
The number of such centers stood at only around 20 in Yangon in 2006 but has grown significantly as Myanmar Infotech began more generously issuing licenses to promote education.
Myanmar is one of the 12 countries listed as ''Internet Enemies'' by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders in its latest annual report on Internet freedom, issued March 12.
The country not only has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world but its users are among the most threatened, the press freedom organization said.
''Going on line is itself seen as a dissident act,'' it says, adding that laws relating to electronic communications and the dissemination of news online ''are among the most dissuasive in the world, exposing Internet-users to very harsh prison sentences.''
The other countries on the list are Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
(Source: iStockAnalyst )
Five African soccer players agree with Myanmar private professional club
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/24/content_11065468.htm
www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-24 19:24:07 Print
YANGON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A local private professional soccer club, the Yadanarpon FC, which will enter the Myanmar National League Cup in May, has agreed with five African players to be included in its squad, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Yadanarpon FC has already agreed with three Cote d'Ivoire players and two Senegal players to play for the club, the First Eleven sports journal said.
The club not only has called goalkeeper Yin Min Aung from the premier club, Yangon City Development Committee, with a transfer fee of 1.5 million kyats (about 1,500 US dollars) and a salary of 500,000 kyats (about 500 dollars) but also is trying to call some local famous soccer players for the team, it added.
The Yadanarpon FC has already hired French coach Rohan and the Belgium technical director Robert for the club since early this month and the calling of all the local players essential for the club is targeted to complete in March and the camping of the players will start on April 1, the club's owner Sai Sam Tun said earlier.
He allocated a fund of 500 million kyats (about 500,000 dollars) for the expenditure of the club for one year.
The Yadanarpon FC will give a salary of 1.5 million kyats (about 1,500 dollars) for a foreign player and 500,000 kyats (about 500 dollars) for a local player, Sai Sam Tun said at a press conference on transformation of Myanmar football to professional one earlier this month.
Myanmar to hold National League Cup soccer tournament in May this year, participated by eight local professional clubs, as its first introduction of professional soccer in the country.
It will be the first tournament of transformation of Myanmar football to a professional one, in which up to five foreign professional players will be allowed for the first time to include in each squad.
The Myanmar National League Cup soccer tournament will be held in two zones, upper Myanmar and lower Myanmar, with four local professional clubs each in one zone. The matches for the upper Myanmar zone will feature in central Mandalay and those for the lower Myanmar zone in the former capital of Yangon with home and away system.
Kanbawza FC, Yadanarpon FC, Magway FC and Zeya Shwe Myay FC will be included in the upper Myanmar zone, while Yangon United FC, Southern Myanmar FC, Okkthar United FC and Delta United FC in lower Myanmar zone.
The top two teams each from the two zones will appear in the semifinals of the Myanmar National League Cup, which will have to play home and away basis in Yangon and Mandalay, while the champion of the League Cup will be decided with only one match in Yangon.
Meanwhile, the points-system Myanmar National League soccer tournament will be introduced in January 2010, participated by the eight local professional clubs.
Initially invested by local entrepreneurs, the eight professional clubs will make preparation for the next-year Myanmar National League from March to December this year and the professional clubs will be increased up to 12 in 2011.
Editor: Fang Yang
Threats in Indian Ocean
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/03/137_41852.html
By Lakhvinder Singh
Recently, many conventional and unconventional threats have begun emerging in the Indian Ocean. Recent incidents of piracy and hijacking have once again highlighted the growing dangers to the sea-lanes of communication there.
Today, piracy is the No. 1 threat to security in the region with the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea the main areas of pirate activity.
Though there could be many reasons for the growing phenomena, it's mainly attributed to regional economic conditions and the mindset of the coastal people. Piracy is invading the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, and the area seems to be more dangerous and lethal.
Earlier piracy often involved the mere stealing of valuables from ships with very few cases of associated violence. However, lately, it has evolved into a deadly and destructive force, as many crewmembers have lost their lives and ships have been destroyed in recent incidents.
Piracy, though important, is not the only serious threat to the safety of the sea-lanes of communication in the region. Many other factors of transnational nature have also begun to pose serious threats to peace and security.
Foremost is the growing threat of maritime terrorism in the Indian Ocean. As trade by sea has increased substantially, so has the threat of maritime terrorism.
The sealed containers used to transit goods from one port to another often pass through ports without undergoing thorough inspections and may hide anything from a small nuclear devise to dirty radiological bombs to human suicide bombers.
The growing use of sea routes by drug traffickers is also a serious threat to the safety and security of the sea-lanes in the region. Illegal drug trade and maritime terrorism are often intertwined. Funds and profits made from drugs often fuel terrorist activities and insurgencies.
Terrorist groups have been sighted working in tandem with drug cartels active in this region.
The emerging centers of the drug trade, namely the Golden Crescent (Iran and Pakistan) and the Golden Triangle (Myanmar and Thailand), are heavily dependent upon the sea routes to supply their products to drug cartels around the word.
This nexus between drug traffickers and maritime terrorist organizations poses one of the greatest threats to prosperity, peace and stability to counties in the Indian Ocean region.
The growing menace of gunrunning is another major problem. It, too, is deeply intermingled with drug trafficking and maritime terrorism in the region.
The link between the three is so deeply rooted and widespread that one cannot be eliminated without affecting the other two.
The sea is the least risky and fastest means for gunrunning and the most lucrative for gunrunning. Nearly every insurgent group in the region relies extensively on drug profits to continue their movement and equip their cadres with the latest weapons.
The Taliban movement in Afghanistan, which heavily depends on drug money, is a case in point. Until and unless this drug money is halted, the hope of wining the war against the Taliban might remain a mere dream for American and European forces.
Apart from these major transnational threats, other looming causes of serious security threats include oil-related disasters at sea, sea pollution and sea mining.
In addition to creating ecological havoc and affecting maritime security, oil related disasters seriously hinder economic activity in the region.
The extensive use of sea mining by many regional countries to deter illegal ships from docking on their shores threatens to disrupt sea traffic.
In some recent cases, even a mere threat or a well-calculated disinformation campaign about the laying of a minefield has deterred many merchant ships from entering certain areas.
The increasing threat to the safety of the sea-lanes of communications, mitigated by the economic and political interdependence of regional countries, has forced many to work together in the management and protection of sea-lanes.
These emerging transnational threats are making the nations think with inter-regional perspectives to tackle this growing menace. Many now feel the urgency for a concrete security regime that can establish security arrangements and prevent future problems and tensions in the region.
India and Korea have great potential for cooperation in this regard. Already two of the largest economies in Asia, they are poised to play important and leading roles in the economic growth of the region.
While most trade and other economic activities are done through the troubled sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean, it is the smooth flow of ship movement that creates economic and industrial stability for both countries.
India-Korean cooperation in the Indian Ocean can go a long way in securing the sea-lanes.
India, trying to control growing terrorism, must act together with other regional countries to deny free access of the Indian Ocean to rogue elements. Korea, with its own high stakes in the security of sea-lanes, can help.
Lakhvinder Singh, senior research fellow at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, is president of the Indo-Korean Business and Policy Forum. He can be reached at www.ikbforum.com.
Singapore to launch tougher public order law
http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINTRE52N25920090324
Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:03pm IST
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore, which already has tough restrictions on freedom of assembly, plans to tighten them further ahead of a major Asia-Pacific summit in the city-state.
The Public Order Bill, introduced in parliament on Monday before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, was needed to "squarely address gaps in the current framework to enhance the ability of the police to ensure security during major events," the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
Under the proposed law, police could prevent activists from leaving home if they knew they were going to a political rally. It would also allow police to order a person to leave an area if they determine he is about to break the law.
All outdoor activities that are cause-related will need a police permit, no matter how many people are involved. That is a change from the current law requiring a permit for gatherings of five or more people.
Opposition politicians and activists were quick to criticize the proposed law. "Even in communist China, peaceful protests are tolerated," said Chee Siok Chin of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party.
The bill allows police to stop people from filming law enforcement if it could put officers in danger. The bill cited live media coverage of Indian police trying to rescue hostages in the Mumbai attacks last November as posing risks to the officers.
Police could stop small peaceful protests against unpopular visiting government leaders, such as from Myanmar, if the law was introduced, activists said.
Last week, three Singaporeans tried to present a bouquet of orchids to visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein for him to give to detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung Sann Suu Kyi.
Thein Sein was having an orchid named after him at the Botanical Gardens, a Singapore tradition for visiting heads of government.
The law is certain to pass, since the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has an overwhelming majority in parliament.
It also passed an amended law on Monday to ease a decade-long ban on political party documentary-like films, but introduced restrictions on dramatized political videos.
"These two sets of amendments should be viewed as part of the longstanding periodic adjustments the PAP has made to limit politics to tightly controlled electoral contests conducted in the absence of a meaningful civil society," said Garry Rodan of Murdoch University in Western Australia.
Others said the two laws were pre-emptive measures for the government to prevent a repeat at the APEC meeting of confrontation between police and protesters that took place during the World Bank/IMF meeting in 2006, and also to deal with potential social unrest during Singapore's worst-ever recession.
"As long as the government feels a threat, it needs greater measures to deal with greater problems," said Terence Chong at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
(Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Bill Tarrant)
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From Stalin to Burma, a history lesson
http://www.mizzima.com/edop/commentary/1880-from-stalin-to-burma-a-history-lesson.html
by Harry Poppkick
Monday, 23 March 2009 19:28
They may wear different cloaks, but under the surface all dictators are similar. As the memory of dictators like Joseph Stalin fades, mistakes of the past repeat themselves with a vengeance in forgotten places like Burma.
One writer said of Stalin: “He had found Russia working with wooden ploughs and left it equipped with atomic [stock]piles.” But perhaps the true question doesn’t regard Stalin’s undisputable impact on humanity, but whether the legacy justified all the human sacrifice. To Stalin, the millions killed as a consequence of his ambitious drive were simply stepping stones along the road to national prosperity. However, such a Machiavellian frame of mind can neither be justifiable nor ethical.
Stalin utilized numerous harsh methods in attempting to meet his ‘utopian’ goals. Collective farms were prevalent, while each Five Year Plan sought to leapfrog Russia ahead of competing nations and systems. Toward this end, virtually every industry fell under the direct control of the government and its de facto and shackled workforce. And the sad truth, more often than not, was results never met by an increasingly impoverished population.
Stalin’s principle instrument for maintaining control over his country was his secret police. Through this institution, fear was instilled in the hearts of the people. The final death toll from Stalin’s regime is indeed staggering, with estimates ranging from 10 to 20 million people having perished.
Stalin was under the belief that all his actions, extreme or otherwise, were necessary in order to pull Russia into the industrial age. Yet, ultimately, the major flaw in Stalin’s reasoning was that he claimed all sacrifices were necessary and for the future of Russia. “Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous,” he once remarked. And while he was thinking about the future of the country and the generations to come, the standard of living within Russia had plummeted.
Today, forgetting that dictatorship is a self inflicted wound, some intellectuals and humanitarians reason that simply sending more aid and increasing engagement are starting points to improving the political situation in Burma. But when they begin to regard the active opposition, as symbolized by Aung San Suu Kyi, as increasingly irrelevant, the time has come to refresh their memory about Joseph Stalin and the enormous price of dictatorship. It is one thing to want to bring Burma into the international community, but it is another to coddle and nurture tyrants without speaking out against their inhumane acts.
So far, newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama and Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton have taken a cautious and slow approach toward Burma. But in a world of competing interests and ideology, it will be a great tragedy if they fail to take a firm stand against the dictators in Burma.
After all, the United States and its allies helped reform the militaries in Indonesia and Turkey within democratic transitions and transformations. Now, the U.S., United Nations, ASEAN and the European Union need decisive and effective leadership to help Burma. Obama and Clinton have a great chance to seize this mantle…if they are willing to seriously take on the leadership role.
Today, even as Burma’s generals tragically act more and more like Stalin, could it not be that the army as an institution in Burma was originally inspired by similar beliefs to those of countries such as Indonesia and Turkey? This should offer an important clue as to where to begin with Burma.
(Harry Poppick is a student in the United States and his mother is from Burma. This paper was written for a history class project.)
KNU Willing to Talk, but not on Burmese Territory
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=15358
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By LAWI WENG Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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The Karen National Union’s deputy chairman, David Takapaw, has welcomed Thailand’s offer to mediate talks between the KNU and the Burmese regime, but said they would have to be held outside Burma.
“We are always ready for peace talks,” he told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “But we will not attend any talks in Burma at this time. Talks must be held in another country.”
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who met Burmese government leaders in Naypyidaw at the weekend, said he would approach the KNU in the hope of getting talks started. It was in Thailand’s interest for peace to reign in Burma, he said.
Thai army officials recently asked Karen rebel leaders living in the Thai border town of Mae Sot to return to KNU-controlled areas of Karen State. The rebels belong to the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
Burmese researcher Aung Thu Nyein said the Thai government’s efforts to help bring about peace talks between the Burmese regime and the KNU would increase pressure on KNU leaders who live in Thailand.
“Thailand needs border stability for trade with the Burmese regime,” he said. “From an economic point of view, this might put more pressure on the KNU leaders to talk to the regime.”
The KNU has engaged in peace talks with the Burmese regime four times since the present regime took power in 1988.
The late chairman of the KNU, Gen Saw Bo Mya, held peace talks with regime leaders in Rangoon in 2005, two years before his death. Contacts have been at a standstill since then.
Takapaw said whenever the KNU talked to the regime “they always insist that we give up our arms and return to the ‘legal fold.’ But how we can agree to live under a regime that isn’t the official government?”
Takapaw said that if the KNU agreed to talks on Burmese territory the Burmese negotiators would have the upper hand. “Such a meeting wouldn’t be on equal terms,” he said.
The KNU has been in conflict with the Burmese army for more than 50 years. It turned to guerrilla tactics after regime forces overran its headquarters in 1995.
Burmese army offensives have been accompanied by the destruction of Karen villages, displacement of local populations, the killing of civilians and other serious human rights abuses. More than 100,000 Karen villagers have sought refuge in camps along the Thai-Burmese border.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Myanmar opposition asks for Suu Kyi meeting
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5427452/myanmar-opposition-asks-for-suu-kyi-meeting/
March 24, 2009, 8:42 pm
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's opposition Tuesday issued a fresh appeal for permission to see Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained leaders, after a UN panel said the ruling junta broke the country's own law by holding her.
The Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a statement asserting its right to meet with all its central executive committee members, including those in detention, to discuss the party's future plans.
The party had sent a request to the leader of the military regime, Senior General Than Shwe, last Thursday but had not yet received a reply, it said.
"As the NLD is a legally operating political party according to political party registration law, it is essential that we draw up party policies, regulations, aims and future plans," the statement said.
"The time has come to make decisions by holding discussions with all central executive commmittee members... including vice-chairman U Tin Oo and general secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ," it said, using honorific forms of their names.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been detained at their homes since being arrested together in May 2003, after a pro-government mob attacked their convoy during a political visit to central Myanmar .
The 62-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 19 years under house arrest because of her political activities, while Tin Oo has undergone several periods of incarceration since the 1970s.
A United Nations rights panel on Monday released documents saying that the junta's continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi violated Myanmar's own law, in addition to international law.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Myanmar was breaking its own 1975 State Protection Law, which only allows detention without charge for those who pose a risk to state security or public peace.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the junta never allowed it to take office.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Authorities plan to hold elections in 2010 but the NLD has refused to take part as Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.
Rights groups have accused the junta of trying to suppress dissenting voices ahead of the elections, which have been derided as a sham by activists.
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