The leader of Myanmar’s junta yesterday warned against any “disruption” of the new military-dominated government, urging people to protect what he called the country’s nascent “democracy system” a day after a Cabinet was approved.
Senior General Than Shwe issued the call as the regime held a lavish national celebration at the isolated capital that will serve as headquarters for the new civilian government.
Than Shwe called for people to “tackle any forms of disruptions to the new system” in a Union Day address delivered by newly appointed Myanmar Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo.
“The democracy system introduced to the Union of Myanmar is still in its infancy,” the message said.
“Therefore, it is required of the entire national people to safeguard and build together the newly introduced democracy system, which has been adopted with the combined efforts of the government, the people and the Tatmadaw [army],” it said.
After decades of repressive military rule, critics say that Myanmar’s self-described transition to democracy is a charade and that last year’s election was orchestrated to perpetuate military rule. With one-quarter of the seats in the new parliament filled by military appointees and a lion’s share of the remaining seats won by a military-backed party, the army effectively retains power.
The future role of the junta — officially known as the State Peace and Development Council — remains unclear, though it is certain that the military will continue to be the dominant force in government.
The new parliament on Friday unanimously approved all of Myanmar president-elect Thein Sein’s Cabinet nominees, although they were not told which post each would take.
Thein Sein, who was elected by parliament last week, was prime minister and a top member of the military junta that is handing over power to the new government. It is not clear when he and his Cabinet will be sworn in.
Most of the Cabinet appointees are former military officers who retired in order to run in November’s elections — the country’s first in 20 years — and about a dozen were ministers in the junta’s Cabinet. Only four of the appointees are strictly civilian.
Than Shwe’s speech was read out in an open space at the City Hall in Naypyitaw to celebrate Union Day, which marks the anniversary of a 1947 agreement among the country’s ethnic groups that paved the way to independence from Britain. The ceremony was attended by lawmakers and new and old Cabinet members.
In further celebration, the government opened a “Safari Park” in Naypyitaw yesterday morning.
The park, on nearly 120 hectares along the Yangon-Mandalay highway, holds animals from Asia, Australia and Africa, some of them brought to Myanmar on chartered flights.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of