Burmese democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi is facing criticism from rights groups and student activists who say her ruling party is planning to retain restrictions on free speech once wielded against it by the nation’s former junta.
Since taking power last month, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has released scores of detainees and is making a big push to revise some of the most repressive measures from the long years of military rule.
However, its new version of the law governing public demonstrations has prompted alarm since the proposals were submitted to parliament last week.
Photo: Reuters
The draft bill would punish protesters for spreading “wrong” information and make straying away from pre-registered chants an offense. It bars non-citizens — a category that includes the largely stateless Muslim Rohingya minority — from protesting and lists criminal penalties for “disturbing” or “annoying” people.
The NLD says the new bill would introduce substantial changes to the military era legislation and was aimed at protecting peaceful protesters rather than penalizing them.
However, worries over the proposed Peaceful Assembly Law are compounded by concerns over the government’s recent request to the US ambassador to refrain from using the term “Rohingya” and Aung San Suu Kyi’s refusal to speak out in support of a community that faces continuing persecution in Myanmar.
The issue is being closely watched by Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters in the West. The NLD faces sky-high expectations at home and abroad, but the Nobel peace prize winner’s decisionmaking style makes the government’s intentions hard to read.
“We are concerned that the NLD is rushing this,” said David Mathieson, a senior researcher at the Human Rights Watch based in Yangon.
“The bill should guarantee the right to protest, and there’s no reason why it should include penalties against protesters,” Mathieson said.
He said there were other laws, like the penal code, that regulated potential violations by the protesters and that in its current form the bill gave the authorities latitude to crack down on peaceful demonstrators.
These concerns emerge just as the US prepares its annual decision on whether to extend its sanctions on Myanmar. US Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel said this week respect for human rights was an important factor.
The draft legislation does remove or water down some restrictions from existing legislation, such as the article that meant activists could be hit with multiple counts of the same charge — increasing the length of the sentences that could be meted out.
It was used last year against students taking part in an unsanctioned march on Yangon, some of whom faced more than 50 charges because offenses were counted in each township — Myanmar’s smallest administrative unit — they passed through.
The draft also cuts the notice required for a demonstration to 48 hours and removes the need to get police consent.
Still, students say the changes do not go far enough.
“I think the laws which restrict people’s right to demonstrate for what they want should not exist,” said Zayar Lwin, a leader of one of Myanmar’s largest students’ unions.
He said that as long as there were restrictions in the laws, “it would be difficult for us to accept that.”
NLD upper house bill committee member Aung Thein, formerly an activist lawyer, rejected that notion.
“In the past, they had to seek prior permission at least five days in advance. Now, they have to notify the authorities only two days ahead,” Aung Thein said.
There was also a time limit on taking action against the protesters, he said.
“Action must be taken within 15 days after the protest. No action can be taken against them after 15 days,” he said.
However, Laura Haigh, of Amnesty International, warned that, if enacted in its current form, the bill could create more prisoners of conscience.
“Swift amendment should not come at the price of ensuring full respect and protection of peaceful assembly,” Haigh said.
The bill has been tabled in the upper house and lawmakers have until Monday to submit questions. After the debate in the upper house, the bill is to be passed to the lower house. The NLD has a majority in both chambers.
The NLD has put 142 existing laws — more than a quarter of the total — under the microscope, lower house bill committee chairman Tun Tun Hein said.
This revision includes the most draconian laws of the junta era, such as the Law Protecting the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements and the Emergency Provisions Act.
The two laws were the main legal instruments to crack down on dissent and put pro-democracy activists behind bars.
“I’m sure they will be revoked completely after discussion in the parliament,” Tun Tun Hein said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not