Activists are staging a “Vote for a Free Burma” concert — as part of a global day of action — to celebrate Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday and to voice their support for the Myanmar opposition democracy movement in Kaohsiung tomorrow.
“The Myanmar military junta revised the election law in March to ban ‘people who have been convicted’ from taking part in October’s election. The revision was followed by yet another revision of the law on political parties having to re-register,” Taiwan Free Burma Network (TFBN) spokesman Yang Tsung-li (楊宗澧) said. “The moves were meant to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi from the election and to force her National League for Democracy [NLD] to disband.”
Seeing the difficulties that Taiwan’s Southeast Asian neighbor is facing in its struggle for democracy, TFBN, as well as the Taiwan Labour Front and the Color Pages Women’s Vision Organization decided to join the global day of action and stage a concert in Kaohsiung on Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday to voice their support for the democracy movement in Myanmar.
Besides performances by award-winning Amis Aboriginal singer Panai and band The Tonic, a postcard campaign will urge Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, Yang said.
Supporters of the Myanmar democracy movement previously succeeded in pressuring the military junta to release a dissident by sending postcards and letters, he said.
In a press statement, TFBN said that the government and business leaders were talking about signing a free-trade agreement with ASEAN — of which Myanmar is a member — “because they’re eyeing cheap labor they can exploit, but for us, we care more about human rights and democracy.”
Myanmar has been haunted by poverty — with a per capita GDP of just US$180 — and authoritarian rule since a military coup in 1962.
There are as many as 70,000 child soldiers, 3.5 million displaced people and more than 2,000 dissidents in prison, TFBN said.
The military junta has brutally cracked down on peaceful demonstrations for democracy and refused to recognize the results of a parliamentary election in 1990 in which the NLD won most of the seats.
The concert and related activities will take place from 4pm to 6pm at the Kaohsiung City Central Park tomorrow.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
RSS