Indonesia criticises junta decision to bar journalists

Tuesday, 19 October 2010 20:22 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Indonesian government has criticised the Burmese regime’s announcement on Monday that foreign reporters and monitors would be barred from covering the first national election in 20 years, according to The Jakarta Post.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told the English-language daily yesterday: “The planned election, long-awaited both by the Myanmarese [Burmese] and the international community, would serve its purpose best with thorough media coverage”.

In Naypyidaw on Monday, Thein Soe, the chairman of the junta’s electoral watchdog, the Union Election Commission was quoted by the BBC as telling a crowd of assembled diplomats and approved reporters at an official “voting ceremony” that because several foreign press agencies already had local representatives in Burma it was not necessary for foreign reporters to be allowed in to cover the election.

Reuters quoted Thein Soe claiming in his speech “We don’t need foreign observers. We have abundant experience in holding elections … We don’t need to clarify the credibility of these elections to other people.”

Thein Soe, a former Supreme Court deputy chief justice, once near the top of Burma’s derided justice system also claimed: “We are holding the election for this country.” The judge and former Burmese Army major general who is on an EU travel blacklist of senior junta members added: “It’s not for other countries … We will have credibility after holding the election in front of all the people.”

The fact that Indonesia – a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), an organisation whose fellow members usually adhere to a stance of “non-interference” in each other’s affairs – has publicly criticised the regime’s methods before the election was an indication that contrary to Thein Soe’s claims, the electoral results would have little international credibility.

US not surprised by barring of journalists and monitors

Speaking at a daily press briefing in Washington on Monday, US assistant secretary of state Philip Crowley said that the ban on foreign reporters and international monitors was “not surprising, given Burma’s track record in leading up to these elections. Obviously, we’ve already said that we don’t think that these will be credible elections, and the fact that they’re not going to open it up for outsider observers is par for the course”.