News & Articles on Burma -Tuesday, 30 August, 2011-UZL

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 30 August, 2011
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Prisons act reform proposal rejected by Home Minister
Burmese expanding in Kachin state
Myanmar folk wary of 'democracy' pledges
Naypyidaw to Host Political Forum
Burma at a crossroad: to ponder ethnic proposal for peace-talks
Farmers Take Land Seizure Cases to Parliament Don’t Leave Ethnics Out of 'Win-Win' Deal
Myanmar sentences ex-army captain to 10 years for sending information
Myanmar jails man for 10 years for web article
Timor-Leste Weighs Up Asean Membership
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Prisons act reform proposal rejected by Home Minister
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 30 August 2011

A proposal submitted to the People’s Parliament by Thingangyun township MP, Thein Nyunt, to reform the Prison’s act, has been rejected by the speaker of the house because the speaker said the Home Ministry was already drafting a revised Prisons Act.

While no discussion of an amnesty has taken place, despite reports to the contrary in the state mouth piece the New Light of Myanmar.

The Prisons Act proposal by Thein Nyunt intended; “to provide necessary arrangements for drafting a bill of the Prisons Act, which is agreeable to the 21st century and guarantee human dignity and to introduce the bill to the third regular session of the first Pyithu Hluttaw”.

Pe Than, People’s Parliament representative of Arakan State’s Myebon township told DVB that;

“There were six non-USDP representatives who discussed in favour of [Thein Nyunt’s proposal] and three USDP representatives argued against it. The Home Affairs minister said his ministry was already preparing to submit the bill in the parliament and the [parliament] speaker decided to only keep a record of U Thein Nyunt’s proposal without giving him a chance to argue back,” said Pe Than.

Whilst on Home Affairs Minister, Lieutenant General Ko Ko’s discussion on the bill, Pe Than added that;

“It is not yet revealed which sections [of the prisons act] will be changed – he just spoke generally and said that there have been preparations to change some, if not all, sections in the law regarding the worst situations such as issues with food, accommodation, solitary confinement, transferring of inmates to remote prisons, inmates not being allowed to get medical assistance or to read books and newspapers, non-judicial punishment by prison officials.”

There will be concern that the Prisons Act revision by the Home Ministry will therefore not carry the necessary legislation that prevents torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners as critics and former inmates allege is routine in Burma’s prison system.

Thein Nyunt said: “We have to shine a spotlight and ensure, when the parliament discusses this new prisons act, that it is in accordance with the article 44 of the constitution, that; No penalty shall be prescribed that violates human dignity and also the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, that states that; No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

A question regarding prison laws was also raised in the National Parliament yesterday where regional judges are to continue to submit prison reports to the Union Supreme Court as provided in the 1962 Prisons Act.

Upholding any law, debated in parliament or not, will continue to be problematic with the rule of law seemingly ignored as trials take place behind closed doors and with judges like the vast majority of MPs are appointees of the military, and seriously lacking in autonomy. http://www.dvb.no/news/17351/17351
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Burmese expanding in Kachin state
By NAY THWIN
Published: 30 August 2011

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have claimed that the Burmese Army are sending new units into Kachin State’s Bhamo district while small clashes continue to occur throughout the region, said the KIA’s joint-secretary La Nan.

“The Burmese Army are increasing movements in the region with more troops being shipped from the lower-Burma region. Our soldiers at the frontline couldn’t identify which army units they were from but apparently they have sunflower insignia on their badges. That insignia doesn’t belong to the [Burmese Army] Northern Regional Military Command,” said La Nan.

“They were shipped into the region through the rivers and are becoming increasingly active in Bhamo District’s Momauk township.”

The sun flower insignia is believed to belong to the Eastern Regional Command based in Southern Shan State. It reportedly contains around 42 infantry battalions. While the Bhamo District is situated in southern Kachin state and is traversed by the main Mandalay-Myitkina highway, NH 31.

La Nan added that a clash took place between the KIA’s troops and a Burmese Army column in Momauk last Sunday;

“The fight took place when a Burmese Army column ran into our troops – they were about 100-200 strong, increased from usual troop number of around 50-60 in the past.”

Fighting between the KIA and the Burmese Army began in June this year after the KIA refused to assimilate into a Border Guard Force unit under the Burmese army. Clashes have been almost daily ever since, forcing thousands to flee their homes.

A local in Myitkyina said Kachin State’s Minister Lajun Ngum Sai in an public assembly on 27 August blamed the KIA for the armed conflict with the Burmese Army in the region;

“He said the KIA burnt down houses and that it was inappropriate – he seemed to want to imply that the KIA is not willing to negotiate despite the government giving them chances and favours to do so,” said the Myitkyina resident.

La Nan said the 20 houses burnt down mentioned by the minister were actually barracks in a Burmese Army camp and that the KIA were examining the relevant details.

In a press conference in Naypyidaw on 12 August, government spokesperson Kyaw Hsan blamed the KIA for breaking ceasefire agreements.

In response to this, the KIA accused the government of not holding a wish to solve political problems via political means.

The KIA and the Burmese had a cease fire in existence since 1994, which came to an end in June. The cease fire was smoothed over by the KIO ceding control of the lucrative jade mines in towns like Hpakant; reputedly home to the finest jade on earth. http://www.dvb.no/news/burmese-expanding-in-kachin-state/17341
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Myanmar folk wary of 'democracy' pledges
2011/08/30

FIVE months after a nominally civilian government took power in Myanmar, the country is awash in uncertainty about who is really in charge.

Workers have taken down the once-ubiquitous portraits of Senior Gen Than Shwe, the dictator who ran the country for nearly two decades, from the walls of government offices. But rumours circulate in Yangon that Than Shwe, who stepped down in March, still has the final word on important decisions.

An impoverished population, downtrodden by years of military rule, is parsing a raft of initiatives by the new government and trying to understand whether the country's transition from military dictatorship to what the state news media describe as "discipline flourishing democracy" is real.

Like the biblical Thomas, they seem to want more proof.

"As far as I can see, there has been no change," said U San Shwe, a retired civil servant whose comments typify the scepticism heard frequently in Myanmar.


"The new government consists of former generals who have habits that they can't break. They are accustomed to taking bribes, mistreating people and making a lot of money from their positions. They confiscate things, and no one can complain."
Trying to guess the direction of this country has, in the past, been a fool's errand. Myanmar has zigzagged from paranoid isolation under decades of military rule to flirtations with openness. The country seems propelled by the competing impulses of conservatives and reformers within the military.

In recent weeks there have been signs that reformers, led by Thein Sein, a former general who was elected president in February, have the upper hand.

The government has proposed peace talks with armed rebel groups that are battling the military for control over resources and for more autonomy. Officials have met three times in the last month with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's leading dissident, who was released from house arrest in November.

Other changes have been more symbolic. The state-run newspapers are taking a lighter approach in their propaganda, refraining from publishing slogans like "Riots beget riots, not democracy". The government has also allowed publications that do not deal with politics or history to publish without prior censorship. (Any newspaper articles that touch on politics must still be submitted to a censorship board, which routinely slashes writing deemed negative about the government.)

The bar for freedom of expression is set so low here that journalists rejoiced when it was announced that they would be allowed into Parliament for its current session, which began on Monday.

Amid the tumult of transition, some economic changes have been very substantive. But their benefits to ordinary citizens remain unclear. A major privatisation programme initiated last year is transforming an economy that was so heavily controlled by the state that it could have been designed by Lenin himself.

Scores of state-owned factories, government buildings and companies have been sold off. The local currency, the kyat, has soared in value against the dollar -- in part, analysts believe, because money has poured into the country to pay for assets in the government's fire sale. The transactions were done without public tender, and most assets were sold to a handful of government favourites.

"There are great opportunities -- but only for the cronies. It's like Russia," said U Soe Than, the owner of a shop for cellphones and digital music players imported from China.

Whether an economy controlled by an oligopoly of cronies is better than the state-run system is a point of debate among analysts of the country. Similarly tainted privatisation campaigns in the Middle East created deep resentments that a decade or so later helped fuel revolts this year in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. Yet poor economic prospects have been as debilitating for the citizens of Myanmar as political repression -- if not more.

There have been some signs of economic revival: the number of tourists visiting the country was up 23 per cent in the first half of this year, and hotels in Yangon brim with business travellers, many of them from China, Japan and South Korea.

Last week, The New Light of Myanmar, a state-owned newspaper, highlighted a meeting between government officials and executives from Caterpillar, the giant producer of construction and mining equipment that is based in the United States.

US and European sanctions have made it difficult for many multinational companies to operate in Myanmar, but the government appears to be working vigorously to get the measures lifted. Officials from the International Monetary Fund have been invited for meetings in October to discuss further economic liberalisation.

And the government has started a charm offensive with Suu Kyi, who has great leverage on the issue of sanctions. Recently, the government invited her for the first time to the capital, where she met with Thein Sein, the president.

As an Oxford-educated 1991 Nobel Peace laureate and the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, Aung San, she is perhaps the premier interlocutor between Myanmar and the outside world.

She has not fully enunciated her goals since her release from house arrest, but those who have watched her closely believe that she has aspirations well beyond being a mere symbol of national unity.

"I always thought that her ambitions were higher than a 'mother' figure," said Josef Silverstein, a Myanmar specialist and professor emeritus at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Whether a long-elusive reconciliation between Suu Kyi and the former generals is possible remains a question hanging over the country's future.

Yet, the political situation is only one part of the enormous challenge facing Myanmar's 55 million people.

The decades of military rule and the generals' single-minded obsession with political survival have left the country's health and education systems a shambles.

A generation of students had been forgotten, said U Thiha, who runs a computer programming school in Yangon. He has been frustrated in his search for the best young minds for courses on web programming.

"My students were not well trained at university," he said. "They don't have enough knowledge. They are not eager. And over the past 20 years, there have been no activities to test and challenge them." -- NYT

Read more: Myanmar folk wary of 'democracy' pledges http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/24democ/Article/#ixzz1WX03wDQe
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Naypyidaw to Host Political Forum
By WAI MOE Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Burmese government is to hold a political forum in Naypyidaw in the coming months following the media success of its economic development workshop in August which was attended by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nay Zin Latt, a political advisor to President Thein Sein, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the presidential office is planning a political forum, though he declined to say if a specific dated had been fixed for the event.

“Plans to organize national level fora are on our agenda,” he said. “A political forum is likely in the near future. But I don’t know when it will take place nor how it will be comprised.”

Political parties and politicians including Suu Kyi, as well as activists and scholars in exile, are expected to be invited to the forum, which political sources in Rangoon said could be in November.

“If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is invited to the political forum, I think that she should return to Naypyidaw and cooperate with the government for the sake of the people of Burma,” said Win Tin, one of Suu Kyi’s aides and a prominent member of her party, the National League for Democracy.

However, it is uncertain whether representatives of ethnic armed groups will be invited to Naypyidaw nor whether any political prisoners will be released and allowed to participate in the forum.

“There must be an environment for a meaningful political forum—2,000-plus political prisoners must be released and a ceasefire has to enacted across the country,” said Naing Aung, a political figure in exile and the general secretary of the Forum for Democracy in Burma.

“The government must avoid suppressing and arresting people under state emergency acts such as 5-J,” he added. “In addition, [88 Generation Students group leaders] Ko Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi should have the right to participate at the forum.”

On August 19-21, the regime held an economic development forum in Naypyidaw’s International Convention Center. Suu Kyi was invited as a special guest by Thein Sein, and she made her first visit to the new capital where she had talks with the president and other government ministers.

The Irrawaddy's Lin Thant contributed to this report. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21987
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Burma at a crossroad: to ponder ethnic proposal for peace-talks
By Zin Linn Aug 30, 2011 10:51PM UTC

Col Sai Htoo, Assistant Secretary General of the Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), said the government’s 18-August peace talks call did not reveal any information concerning preliminary programs at all. At least, he said, it should be focused on clearing the political atmosphere before any meaningful talks set off, according to Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.).

“President Thein Sein should first create an environment conducive to friendly negotiations,” he told SHAN on Tuesday morning. According to him, it is important to release of political prisoners, to start pulling out of troops from the conflict zones and to declare a nationwide ceasefire announcement which will greatly brighten up the atmosphere.

However, at the meeting with Union Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo, Mr Quintana ( UN Human Envoy) put some questions on prisoners serving terms for their beliefs, amending existing laws to meet international norms, and formation and functions of the Constitutional Tribunal. The Union chief justice said that in Myanmar (Burma) there is no prisoner serving a term for his belief, and prisoners are all serving their terms for the crimes they have committed. He also added that courts have powers to hand down sentences in the framework of the prescribed laws, and the accused have the right to argue in line with the law under the current 2008 constitution, as said by the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

Col Sai Htoo believes the 1947 Panglong Agreement that guarantees total autonomy, democracy and human rights for the states should be common ground on which peace talks should be conducted, and not the 2008 constitution “forcibly” drafted and ratified by the previous military junta.

According to Col Sai Htoo, there are reasons with the government offering the peace talks. His rationales are as follow. (1) There is a conflict between Thein Sein government and the armed forces. (2) There is another conflict inside Thein Sein cabinet notably between President Thein Sein and his first-vice president Tin Aung Myint Oo. (3) Disciplinary problems are arising out of the Army’s inability to provide food, clothes and supplies for its troops and their families. (4) The government armed forces have suffered heavy casualties in the war in Kachin, Karen and Shan states. (5) The government hopes to break sanctions imposed by the Western bloc. (6) The government has an ambitious plan to chair the 10 member ASEAN in 2014.

Even though, the government’s “Invitation to peace talks” says that any armed group wishing to hold negotiations must contact the state government first individually in order to start preliminary discussion. After completion of which, the government will form a team for peace talks.

On the other hand, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) also dismissed the government’s 18-August peace-talk offer. It was sacked by the KIO and the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) since the government uses just two-pronged meeting which in fact is a divide-and rule policy towards ethnic groups devoid of the Panglong Agreement. Talks between the KIO and the Burmese government were also failed in 1963, 1972, and 1980 respectively; they all botched to address the political face-off between the two sides.

Currently, KIO declared that it will talk through the ethnic alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), maintaining the values of the Panglong Agreement.

The SSA has been combating against the Burma armed forces to gain self-determination for decades. Burma Army and SSA reached a ceasefire deal in 1989. However, after 22 year of armistice promise, the ceasefire broken down due to Burma Army’s offensive on 13 March this year. The Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) is a member of the newly formed United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) as well and it holds that any meaningful negotiations with Burmese government must be with the UNFC and not one by one bilateral -talk, a provision set by President Thein Sein’s government.

If the government failed honoring the political ambition of ethnic people, it will be pointless to end political and civil conflict all over ethnic states. As a result, if the Burmese authorities neglected the opinion of the ethnic rebel-alliance, the critics may say that the current government is not heading toward a democratic system; instead it is challenging to pay no attention to the ethnic people’s self-determination.

Hence, the government has to review its policy on peace-talks vis-à-vis the rebel-alliance’s proposal. http://asiancorrespondent.com/63804/burma-at-a-crossroad-to-ponder-ethnic-proposal-for-peace-talks/
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Farmers Take Land Seizure Cases to Parliament
By KO HTWE Tuesday, August 30, 2011

“I feel sad when our fields have been changed into a lake for the purpose of breeding fish. Since that happened, I became a worker in another field,” said Aye Thein. The 64-year-old was forced to abandon his eight acres of land in 1999 after it was confiscated by the Myanmar Billion Group company in Audsu village of Nyaungdon Township, Irrawaddy Division.

Aye Thein is one of many victims in Burma where land seizures take place commonly through three different ways: seizures by the military commander-in-chief of the region, by private companies or by financiers who are allegedly backed by the Burmese Army.

Aye Thein, and others in the area who lost nearly 63 acres of land between them, fruitlessly complained to the township and district authorities three times about their land confiscation.

Confiscated land taken by the Burmese authorities and distributed to private companies includes approximately 10,000 acres in Rangoon Division, nearly 5,000 acres in Irrawaddy Division, 1,338 acres in Kachin State, 600 acres in Mon State and 500 acres in Maymyo in Mandalay Division. The affected farmers have filed lawsuits but no action has been taken.

The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) recently released a report that claimed around 20,000 acres have been seized over the past 10 years by the Burmese military in Mon and Karen states as well as Tenasserim Division.

The Yuzana Company was granted 200,000 acres in the Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve in 2006 to establish tapioca and sugarcane plantations, and some 600 farmers were evicted from their lands without full compensation. They were eventually displaced to areas far from their original homes.

After cultivating the area for nearly two years, the company left the land and had it transferred back to a financier backed by the Burmese authorities. The area is now being changed into a lake for producing fish.

According to the local-based Activity for Free Developing Society Community organization, the rightful owners of 63 out of a total of 200 acres in Nyaungdon Township sent letters on Thursday to the chief minister of Irrawaddy Division and President Thein Sein demanding the end of land confiscation.

“Tax receipts and sending [rice crops] to the government are our evidence that proves that we are the rightful owners of the land. Now the government has announced that we can complain about unfair cases so I brought up our land seizure case with the help of the group,” said Aye Thein.

In his inaugural address to the Union Parliament, President Thein Sein said they are determined to improve the living conditions of farmers and workers and would update laws to safeguard the rights of peasants.

“By changing the law, the lives of farmers will be secure and they will have the chance to cultivate their own land. Farmers are not currently covered by peasant law. The 1963 Safeguarding Peasants' Rights Law is not up-to-date with the current time,” said Pho Phyu, a lawyer who has previously represented Rangoon and Irrawaddy farmers in land seizure cases.

On Monday, accompanied with 22 farmers from Rangoon, Pho Phyu went to the Naypidaw offices of Burma's president and Parliament with letters that drew attention to land confiscation cases, fishermen affairs and social issues. They urged the government to amend laws that can secure the livelihoods of farmers and workers.

“The [president and Parliament office] accepted out letters and will send our proposals to the respective officials,” said Phyo Phyu. He added that they were representing farmers from seven villages who have been lost 10,000 acres around Rangoon.

Due to corruption of the judiciary and slow management practices, much farmland has fallen into the hands of financiers, and village authorities have forced farmers to change their names which were written on proposals, added Phyo Phyu.

“I can't stand these confiscation cases and we are hoping that the government will reply. President Thein Sein once instructed a company to cooperate with farmers, but on the ground these companies give very little compensation and just 'shoo' the farmer away,” said Myint Aung from Naypyidaw, whose land has been confiscated in Dagon Seikkan Township of Rangoon.

Even today, farmers in Burma have no right to form a peasants' union to protect against government land confiscation and other intrusions on their rights.

“Our lives depend on the field so I became a porter after my land was seized. When I saw our paddy fields being happily worked by others it made me feel sad because we have no place to earn,” said San Win, who lost eight acres in Nyaungdon Township. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21984
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Don’t Leave Ethnics Out of 'Win-Win' Deal
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Change is said to be underway in Burma, as the country's rulers appear to be relaxing their grip on the democratic opposition and taking a more conciliatory approach to their international critics. President Thein Sein has met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw, and the UN human rights envoy to Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, recently concluded a rare visit to the country. Thein Sein has also reached out to exiles, urging them to return home, and Burma's state-run media has stopped its ritual denunciation of the BBC, VOA and RFA.

So far, much of the discussion about these developments has focused on whether they really amount to anything. Clearly, in themselves, they are a far cry from the breakthrough that the people of Burma, and the world, have been waiting decades to witness. But already, there are some in the country who worry that they are in danger of being written out of this “history in the making”—if that's what it is.

For Burma's ethnic peoples, recent hints of a possible detente between the Naypyidaw-centered, military-backed government and the Rangoon-centered democratic opposition are cause for concern. Historically, ethnic minorities, who make up about a third of the population, have been marginalized by Burmese politics. Still struggling for their survival and their right to self-determination, they now worry that any “peace” achieved in the Burmese heartland may never extend as far as their own homelands.

While some prominent exiles consider returning to test the waters and people speak hopefully of a new era of cooperation between the government and opposition groups in the fields of social and economic development, the outlook for Burma's ethnic minorities remains utterly devoid of optimism.

Since Thein Sein assumed power earlier this year, tensions that have been mounting since last year over the refusal of armed ceasefire groups to form “border guard forces” under Burmese military command have come to a head in Shan and Kachin states. Burmese offensives in areas under the control of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army (SSA) have forced thousands of civilians to flee.

This depressingly familiar situation—for the past two decades, more than 140,000 war refugees have huddled in crowded camps on the Thai-Burmese border, and tens of thousands more have been forced to hide in the jungles inside Burma—has attracted remarkably little international attention, as all eyes now focus on events in the country's centers of power.

Over the years, ethnic civilians have suffered countless atrocities at the hands of Burmese troops, including forced labor, rape, torture and murder. To some extent, this situation was mitigated by the ceasefire agreements that were reached in the 1990s between the Burmese army and an array of armed groups—the KIA, the SSA-North, the United Wa State Army, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the New Mon State Party, and others—but at no point have Burma's ethnic peoples enjoyed real peace and security.

Now that most of these ceasefire agreements have collapsed, the ethnic armies have demanded a withdrawal of government troops from their areas and new talks, this time involving an alliance of ethnic forces and leading to a nationwide ceasefire. Preferring to stick to the “divide and rule” tactics of the past, however, the government continues to push for one-on-one negotiations with individual groups.

It is deeply distressing for Burma's ethnic peoples to think that their future may look very much like their past, no matter what happens as the country's rulers move to co-opt the opposition.

As Moo Kay Paw, a Karen girl living in hiding in the jungle, put it with tears in her eyes: “I don’t understand my life sometimes. I ask myself why I was born to live in fear like this. We can be killed at any time, like animals. Why can’t we live with dignity, like human beings?” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21988
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The Straits Times
Myanmar jails man for 10 years for web article
Published on Aug 30, 2011

YANGON (AFP) - A court in military-dominated Myanmar has sentenced a retired major to a decade in prison for writing an article deemed subversive and distributing it to overseas media, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Nay Myo Zin, 36, was arrested in April, accused of harming national security, the rule of law, peace and stability and national unity with his article on reforming Myanmar's military and dictatorship.

He was accused of sending the article by email to pro-democracy activists and media-in-exile, such as the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).

The article is believed to have been published on the Internet. http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_707553.html
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The Washington Post
Myanmar sentences ex-army captain to 10 years for sending information to dissident groups
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, August 30, 1:13 PM

YANGON, Myanmar — A special court inside Myanmar’s Insein prison has sentenced an ex-army captain to 10 years imprisonment for writing and sending critical articles to the Democratic Voice of Burma and other dissident groups.

Lawyer Hla Myo Myint says 35-year-old Nay Myo Zin was sentenced last Friday in a closed-door trial. He was found guilty of violating the Electronics Act and tarnishing the army’s image.

Zin was arrested last April at his Yangon internet cafe.

Hla Myo Myint said Monday the arrest without a warrant and mental torture of his client were violations of his human rights.

He says Myanmar’s judiciary is still not independent and there is no rule of law although the nominally civilian government that took office in March claims to be reforming the system.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-sentences-ex-army-captain-to-10-years-for-sending-information-to-dissident-groups/2011/08/30/gIQAhwPuoJ_story.html
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Timor-Leste Weighs Up Asean Membership
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, August 30, 2011

DILI —Across the city, banners and posters signal the new country's increasing integration with the world outside, heralding events such as Timor-Leste's hosting of the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) regional conference on Aug. 25-27.

Timor-Leste was designated the first Asian country to match up to EITI standards on accountability in and management of its energy resources. According to World Bank Managing Director and former Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, speaking at the EITI event, “Timor-Leste, as a nation, is building strength and economic resilience and has demonstrated how much can be won in a short space of time.”

The EITI is a voluntary mechanism, usually backed by member countries passing relevant laws. It claims it “supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.”

The plaudits from EITI and the World Bank are a notable achievement for East Timor, which as recently as 2006 teetered on the brink of civil war. However, concerns remain about corruption among the country's politicians and officials, with public displays of ostentation such as newly acquired expensive cars and big houses seemingly stoking resentment among ordinary Timorese, for whom the country's energy-based economy is almost an abstraction.

“People ask, how can a civil servant who earns US $500 a month afford to buy his son or daughter a brand new SUV?” said Rogerio Lobato, a former Interior Minister convicted of gun-running during Timor-Leste's 2006 crisis, when 10 percent of the population was driven from their homes as security force factions fought on the streets. Lobato says he intends to run for president in the 2012 elections in Timor-Leste.

For the country's political leaders membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is a key foreign policy goal, superseding membership of or achievements within other international or regional organisations such as EITI.

President Jose Ramos-Horta banged the drum for his country's accession in an article published in May as the the most recent Asean summit in Jakarta, the capital of Timor-Leste's former occupier Indonesia, weighed-up Dili's request to join the bloc.

Ramos-Horta pointed out that his country outranks Asean members Burma, Cambodia and Laos in the latest United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI), a league table that lists countries by what the UNDP deems as “a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes.”

The president said that Timor-Leste's GNP per capita “increased 228 per cent” over 2005-10 “to more than $5,000.” The country's economy is growing rapidly, as recent 10 percent per annum expansion figures show, but this is down to energy revenues coming online and government spending on the back of the largesse.

However, non-oil/gas income per head is thought to be less than $400 per person, and is a much more accurate reflection of poverty levels in Timor-Leste, where unemployment is high—reaching 40 percent among among urban youth. Migration to Dili threatens to see Port Moresby-type slums emerge on the city's edges, where a deeply rooted gang culture lives on, and a controversial and tricky land law could see many of Dili's residents be deemed squatters—and therefore vulnerable to eviction at any time—by the government.

However, similar challenges are present—to greater or lesser degrees—in some Asean member states, and to Timor-Leste's allies inside the bloc, this should not automatically disqualify the aspiring new member. In May, current Asean chair Indonesia recommended that Dili's accession request be given “urgent attention” by the nine other Asean members. Singapore has been the sole Asean member to publicly question Timor-Leste's accession, saying that the former Portuguese colony, host to a long-standing UN mission and international peacekeeping force, is not yet ready to take on the bureaucratic workload that Asean membership requires.

There is broad agreement between the current Government in Dili—a multi-party coalition led by former anti-Indonesian resistance leader Xanana Gusmao—and the main opposition party Fretilin. Party spokesman and Fretilin MP Jose Teixeira told The Irrawaddy his party sought membership of Asean as far back as 1974, when Portugal ended its colonial rule.“We want everyone to know it is a bipartisan policy,” he said.

However, some in Timor-Leste agree with the Singapore line that it is too soon for Timor-Leste to join the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc, which aims to establish an 'Asean Economic Community' by 2015.

Lao Hamutuk, a Dili-based NGO that monitors political and economic developments in Timor-Leste, said it believes that Asean membership would swamp the import-dependent Timorese economy and hinder the development of the non-oil/gas economy. The sector employs only a handful of Timorese but accounts for over 90 percent of the state budget, amid ongoing mass joblessness and what LH researcher Juvinal Dias describes as “almost no local production.”

He adds: “We cannot yet compete with other countries in economy or agriculture.”

Part of Singapore's argument against Timor-Leste joining Asean sooner rather than later is historical—with some misgivings lingering over the accession of Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in 1997. Timor-Leste argues that it is in better shape to join than any of this four were at that time, pointing not only to the UNDP data, but to its far better democratic credentials.

However, Timor-Leste's eventual accession to Asean may not be as productive as supporters of the move hope, or as damaging as opponents fear, if precedent elsewhere is anything to go by.

Sean Turnell, an academic at Macquarie University in Australia, and founder of Burma Economic Watch, said, “Asean has had very little effect, I would say, on Burma's economy—i.e., in the sense of changing any patterns in investment, trade, etc. These are all driven by much more fundamental forces than bureaucratic structures, but instead on the availability of resources, at the right price, and so on. In other words, Thailand does not buy Burma's gas just because they are both members of Asean.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21983
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