World Reacts to Burma election laws

Friday, 12 March 2010 19:45 Thomas Maung Shwe (Commentary)

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burma's new elections laws which will force the country's biggest opposition party the National League for Democracy to expel its own leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were swiftly condemned by many across the world.

At a briefing Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson Philip J. Crowley told reporters ''given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible". Crowley also added that the law ''makes a mockery of the democratic process" in Burma.

Alberto Romulo Foreign Secretary of the Philippines told the Associated Press "unless they release Aung San Suu Kyi and allow her and her party to participate in elections, it's a complete farce and therefore contrary to their roadmap to democracy".

Network Myanmar's Tonkin faults NLD lawyers

Derek Tonkin, a former British diplomat, co-founder of the lobby group Network Myanmar and an advocate for economic engagement with Burma told Mizzima in an email that it "seems to me the NLD need better political and legal advisers." Tonkin took issue with NLD lawyer Aung Thein's assertion in an earlier interview with Mizzima, that even if Aung San Suu Kyi won her appeal she would still be barred from running for office because she would be a former prisoner and thus ineligible under the new election laws.

Tonkin's optimistic reading of Burma's election law is that the ban on running for office only covers those serving jail terms, he informed Mizzima "Suu Kyi could in any case perhaps be a Patron of, or Senior Adviser to the NLD until she is released in maybe November, then resumes her duties as Secretary-General and takes her seat in Parliament at the first by-election."

Tonkin may have forgotten that Burma's 2008 constitution contains the so-called Michael Aris clause, named after the NLD leader's late British husband. Under this clause all those who are entitled to the benefits of foreign citizenship by marriage are ineligible for running President office regardless of if they ever actually obtained foreign citizenship. Furthermore Aung San Suu Kyi could not be a patron of the NLD were it to run in the elections while she is under house arrest, because the new Party Registration Law clearly states that a party can't associate itself with someone who is in jail.

Exiled NLD MP responds to Tonkin

Former Political Prisoner, NLD MP and labor minister in Burma's exiled government Khun Myint Tun when informed of Tonkin's comments sharply disagreed, telling Mizzima "the NLD's advisers are the people of Burma who tell us to continue to fight the junta. Than Shwe's goal is to remove Aung San Suu Kyi from the NLD and that's what these laws try to do. Before sending me to jail for seven years, military intelligence tried to force me to declare that I disagreed with Aung San Suu Kyi being NLD party leader. I refused so they sent me to jail. There is no real law in Burma because the junta is above the law."

Sean Turnell: It’s like using a machinegun to kill a mosquito

The reaction of Sean Turnell, a Burma specialist at Australia’s Macquarie University differed significantly with Tonkin's. Referring to how many ways the regime has tried to prevent Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in Burma's political process Turnell told the Associated Press “they’ve used so many devices. It’s like using a machinegun to kill a mosquito." The respected professor behind Burma Economic Watch added “many of us suspected this wasn’t about bringing any real change to Burma, but it is surprising how nakedly they’re going about it.”

Burma Lawyers Council responds

Thein Oo, Chairman of the Burma Lawyers Council (BLC) and an elected MP from the 1990 election told Mizzima “If this law continues, not only Aung San Suu Kyi but also many pro-democracy activists and ethnic nationalities can not contest”. Last year the BLC was declared an unlawful organization by the junta and under the new electoral laws anyone accused of being affiliated with an outlawed organization like the BLC is ineligible from running for office.

Singapore's national newspaper decries election law

Singapore's Straight Times newspaper rhetorically declared in an editorial published Thursday, "Is the military government setting the stage for, in United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's exhortative words, the 'most credible, inclusive and transparent' polls? Not by a long shot."

Laws don't meet Ban Ki Moon's expectation

Ban Ki Moon's own comments on the new laws were far more cautious, he stated in a UN Press release that "indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process."

Aung San Suu Kyi's US Lawyer: unsurprised by regime's tactics

Jared Gesner, a Washington DC based lawyer representing the Nobel Peace Prize Winner told Mizzima "I am deeply disappointed though entirely unsurprised that the military junta has now formally confirmed that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be unable to participate in the forthcoming elections. That the junta intended to proceed down the path of holding flagrantly unfair and unfree elections has been clear for years. Not only was the substance of the new constitution deeply flawed, but the referendum where it was 'adopted' was also fixed. The only question remaining now is how the international community will respond to its will being flouted yet again by the Burmese junta."

British government's reaction

Britain's Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis said Wednesday that his government is "concerned at the implications of the laws we've seen so far, and regret that they are not based on genuine and inclusive dialogue between the regime, opposition and ethnic groups." He added "our position remains that elections in Burma will not be credible unless such dialogue takes place."

Canadian government's reaction

Canada's Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said in a statement issued Thursday that "elements of the laws point to a deliberate effort by Burmese military leaders to prevent legitimate democratic actors from participating in the promised elections."