Govt Single Peace Team Plan Positive: UNFC

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| April 30, 2012 | 

 

The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) says it welcomes the Burmese government’s plan to form one powerful peace negotiation team.

It emerged on Sunday that Naypyidaw would reform its peace committee, which is currently made up of two separate groups, into a single entity. The body is currently comprised of two teams led by former Industry Minister Aung Thaung and the current Railway Minister Aung Min.

The UNFC, which acts as an umbrella group representing eight separate ethnic armed groups, has repeated expressed its desire to meet representatives of the Union government for peace talks.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of UNFC, said the announcement to overhaul the two peace negotiation teams shows that the government respects his organization’s recommendations.

“We asked why there are two groups which could result in two separated outcomes, and why there cannot be a one solid group,” he added.

Aung Min told reporters in Naypyidaw on Sunday that the single Union-level peace team will be reinforced with higher ranking personnel from the administrative body.  But he did not provide any specific names of who will be joining the group.

Observers believe that there were previously two separate peace teams because the government intended to be able to build quicker ceasefires with different ethnic armed groups at the same time.

The railways minister, who has successfully forged peace agreements with many ethnic groups including Karen, Chin, Mon, Karenni and Shan rebels, said that they will keep holding peace talks with the KIA in northernmost Burma where heavy fighting continues.

La Nan, a spokesman for the KIA, said, “From the beginning of April to date, there has been 130 engagements between the KIA and Burmese army.” He added that, “Aung Min’s words are contrary to the current situation in Kachin State’s war-torn areas where the movement of the Burmese government troops have not stopped.

“The KIA has a couple of key demands which have not yet been agreed by the government’s peace representative,” he said. La Nan explained that the KIA wants the government to withdraw its troops from near Kachin-controlled areas and to have any peace agreement signed before international observers.

It has been reported that the new peace committee will be led by a vice-president, although Aung Min only stated that ethnic representatives, state and divisional MPs, as well as military officials, will be included on the new team.

“I think that the idea of forming the new team is based on Aung Thaung’s unsuccessful negotiation with the KIA,” said Nai Hang Thar. “But it is not that the entire peace process led by Aung Thaung will be ignored. It is just the reformation of one solid, powerful group from the two negotiating teams.”

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/3368 

Parliament Passes New Investment Bill

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| April 27, 2012 | 

 

Both houses of Burma’s Parliament have passed a new foreign investment bill that is expected to become law as early as next week, according to legislators.

The bill, based on investment laws introduced in 1988, aims to boost the country’s economy by offering tax breaks and guarantees to overseas investors.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Dr Aye Maung, an Upper House MP from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, said the new bill was approved by the Upper House after being reviewed and corrected by Lower House MPs.

He said the next step is for the speaker of the Upper House, Khin Aung Myint, to send the bill to President Thein Sein for approval. If the president accepts the bill in its present form within seven days of receiving it, it will become law.

Under the proposed law, investors will be granted a five-year tax exemption and land leases of up to 50 years. The 1988 investment laws offered only three-year tax holidays and 30-year leases.

Experts described the draft law as fair, said Aye Maung, adding that it would likely be seen by potential investors as very welcoming.

Although the law imposes certain restrictions, such as health and safety regulations and provisions aimed at protecting ethnic traditions, investors will be free to negotiate with the government, he added.

The law also seeks to increase employment opportunities for the local workforce by requiring foreign companies to do most of their hiring inside the country.

Although some jobs demanding special expertise may go to foreign workers, companies are expected to train Burmese workers to fill these positions within a fixed period of time.

The bill is just the latest measure by the government to overhaul the country’s economy. On April 1, it abolished an official exchange-rate regime that was seen as an impediment to international trade. Next month, it is expected to allow the private sector to set up insurance companies.

However, economic observers say that foreign companies will remain reluctant to invest heavily in Burma until there is a further easing of sanctions by Western nations.

Besides sanctions, there are also other issues that need to be addressed before Burma can expect to see a major influx of investment into the country, according to economic analyst Khin Maung Nyo.

“I don’t think that there will be a huge increase in investment in the short term because of a lack of infrastructure and the weakness of the financial system. And the new investment law won’t be enough to instill confidence in investors unless they can be sure that it’s more than just words,” he said.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/3260

Suu Kyi Hopeful Oath Issue Will Soon Be Resolved

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| April 26, 2012 | 

 

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday that she believes a dispute over the wording of a swearing-in oath that has kept her National League for Democracy (NLD) from claiming its seats in Parliament will soon be settled.

Speaking during a press conference following a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, Suu Kyi said the problem was merely a technicality, and need not result in a political standoff.

“We’d like to regard it is a technical problem rather than a political one, and we would hope that others will look upon it this way and not try to push it to the extent that it becomes a political deadlock,” she told reporters.

Suu Kyi also affirmed that the NLD was trying to work with the government and that she continued to have faith in President Thein Sein’s reform efforts.

However, other senior members of her party seemed less certain that the disagreement over the oath would be settled anytime soon.

“This problem needs to solved by the authorities,” said NLD spokesperson Nyan Win, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

“We hope to join the [current session of] Parliament before it ends, but that is just our hope,” he said, noting that the party has yet to receive a reply to a letter it sent to the president, the speakers of both houses of Parliament and the Constitutional Court requesting a change in the wording of the oath.

The oath says that new MPs must “abide by and protect” the Constitution, but the NLD wants to change this to “abide by and respect.”

Despite the dispute, Suu Kyi reiterated that it was her party’s intention to work from within the army-dominated Parliament to fulfill its campaign promises to establish rule of law, reach a peaceful settlement with ethnic armed groups and amend the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

However, other opposition MPs said that altering the oath would itself require a constitutional amendment, and that the NLD should therefore enter Parliament to propose the change.

“The issue is being negotiated among the lawmakers, but it needs to be done by following the procedure,” said Upper House MP Dr Aye Maung of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

Under the Constitution, proposed amendments must have the backing of at least 20 percent of Parliament before they can be considered, and need 75 percent support to be passed into law.

Meanwhile, the Italian foreign minister said during his press conference with Suu Kyi that despite the EU’s suspension of sanctions on Burma earlier this week, the country needed to make further progress on a number of issues for the punitive measures to be permanently lifted.

He said he reminded Thein Sein and Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann during his talks with them in Naypyidaw that the sanctions could be put back in place if there is any backsliding on reforms.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/3150 

Judicial Corruption Inquiry Approved by Parliament

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| April 25, 2012 | 

 

Lawmakers in Burma’s Lower House of Parliament have approved bestowing a committee with the power to investigate and expose bribery and corruption in the judicial arm of government.

The move aims to ensure the Burmese court system remains impartial and honest by allowing the Judicial Committee to investigate allegations of impropriety, and was passed by a vote of the People’s Parliament during a meeting on Tuesday.

Thura Aung Ko, the MP for Kanpetlet constituency in Mindat, Chin State, and chairman of the Judicial Committee, made the proposal. He was previously deputy minister of the Religious Ministry under the former military government.

More than five hundreds letters of complaint have been received from members of the public since the Judicial Committee was formed in September 2011, and the new powers will allow the body to investigate these allegations.

Kyi Myint, the MP for Rangoon’s Latha constituency, told The Irrawaddy that the Lower House’s approval is a “landmark decision” which can help to clean up the judicial system for the first time in modern Burma.

The proposal was fully supported by MPs “even though Soe Nyunt, the Union Supreme Court Judge, denied there was any problem with judges and their proceedings,” he said.

Thein Nyunt, a respected MP and lawyer, said, “I rejected the presentation of the Union Supreme Court Judge which could undermine the core meaning of the [investigation powers] proposal, and all the MPs supported my views.”

The MPs agreed that it is crucial to have a transparent judicial system, saying that otherwise society would be “providing license for judges to deliver whatever verdict they wanted,” he said.

Kyi Myint said that Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann also echoed the views of MPs who want to develop a fair judicial system.

But the exact timeframe of when the decision will be enacted is not yet known, said Thein Nyunt, adding that MPs should think of developing their own bill if they are keen to raise a proposal.

“MPs can also prepare bills that would be quicker and so become more effective,” he added. “According to our experience, it takes a long time to pass bills after they are sent to the Attorney General’s office.”
 

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/3068 

Oath Rewording to be Raised in Parliament

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| April 23, 2012 | 

 

A proposal for the rewording of the admission oath is likely to be discussed by a meeting of the Union Parliament this week, according to prominent MPs from both houses.

Phone Myint Aung, an independent MP of the Upper House, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that, “I’ve heard that the oath rewording will be proposed by MPs in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw [Union Parliament] tomorrow morning.”

Burma’s main opposition NLD party wants the oath which all new parliamentarians must swear to reworded from “abide by and protect” to “abide by and respect” the Constitution.

Dr. Aye Maung, a respected Upper House MP from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, said that “the Union Solidarity and Development Party [USDP] has more responsibility to change the platform for the NLD [National League for Democracy] to be able take their seats in the Parliament.”

If the political situation turns back to the past, the ruling USDP is the one to take all the blame, he added.

Htay Oo, the general secretary of the military-backed USDP, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he does not think it is necessary to change the oath. “Even though the word [protect] is there,” he explained, “there are no restrictions on the freedom to speak in Parliament.”

There are also criticisms that those MPs who seek to raise the oath-rewording proposal do not have enough influence in the legislature for such a move.

Thein Nyunt, a lawyer and independent MP in the Lower House, said the MP-elects should come and try to tackle the issue inside Parliament as “MPs need 20 percent of support to propose the change.”

Phone Myint Aung explained that according to the Constitution, “there must be 20 percent support from the MPs to propose the issue to the Parliament and then it needs the approval of 75 percent to be able to change session 125, which is linked to appendix four in the Constitution for swearing-in oath words.”

The wording in appendix four currently states the MPs must swear to “abide by and protect” the Constitution before taking their seats.

“We are trying to get the oath reworded to be able to take our seats in Parliament,” said Ohn Kyaing, an NLD MP-elect from Maha Aung Myae Constituency in Mandalay.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD’s chairperson, told reporters on Sunday that “we are not boycotting” but just “waiting for the right time to go” to Parliament.

However, President Thein Sein told reporters in Japan on Monday that he would welcome Aung San Suu Kyi to Parliament, but that it is the Nobel Laureate’s decision whether or not to take her seat.

Sai Saung Si, an Upper House MP from the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, echoes the views of Thein Nyunt. He says that it is important for the MP-elects to become full members of Parliament, and that only after they swear-in will they have power to amend the Constitution.

But he said that he “would not comment on the word choice as it is [the NLD's] right to decide.”

On the first day of Parliament since the April 1 by-elections, the two other MP-elects—from the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and USDP—were sworn in, but the 43 NLD members abstained.

Meanwhile, the state-run media reported on Monday that 59 army representatives between the Upper and Lower Houses are to be replaced with higher ranking officers—colonels and brigadier-generals instead of majors—for the new session.

New parliamentary meetings will discuss the investment bill, import and export bill and social welfare bill which were all approved in the Lower House during the previous session.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/2946