Myanmar’s junta has not yet fixed the dates for elections next year, but the opposition is already debating whether to boycott them and lose all influence or take part in what critics say is a sham.
The military regime forced through a new Constitution last year — just days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country leaving 138,000 people dead — under which the first national polls for 20 years will be held.
But so far the conditions are acceptable only to the junta. Critics say the sole aim of the elections is to legitimize the generals’ grip on power and entrench their proxies in parliament.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party, has just had her house arrest extended past the end of next year, keeping her out of the picture for the polls.
The NLD, which celebrated its 21st anniversary yesterday, won the country’s last elections in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the results.
More than 2,200 other political prisoners are languishing in jail.
Rights groups meanwhile say the new Constitution discriminates against ethnic minorities, many of which have faced renewed offensives by the military in recent months in an apparent attempt to crush them ahead of the polls.
But despite this context, the respected International Crisis Group (ICG) said last month that the elections could still help open up the political situation in Myanmar.
“The Constitution may inadvertently provide the tools to open up a little space as the post-Than Shwe era grows closer,” the Brussels-based group said in a report, referring to the 76-year-old head of the regime.
“A boycott could play into the hands of the military government, since it would not prevent the election from going ahead and would mainly deprive non-government candidates of votes, potentially narrowing the range of voices in future legislatures,” the ICG report said.
Win Min, an activist and academic in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, said he too believed the military may have to give some ground.
“They are trying to control as much as they can but there is a little chance that they might not control 100 percent,” Win Min said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS