Laws, decrees and regulations relating to the parliamentary process (commentary)

expand all
collapse all

Individual Documents

Description: " Myanmar’s military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military’s claims of fraud in November’s elections — in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs — and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. The takeover came the morning the country’s new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that a coup was coming. The military maintains its actions are legally justified — citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency — though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup. It was a dramatic backslide for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It was also a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her National League for Democracy won elections in 2015..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
2021-02-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Constitutional change was a 2015 election campaign promise of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and Aung San Suu Kyi. As the 2020 elections loom large, they are now revisiting the proposal to recapture the attention and support of the people. Over the past three years, the NLD government has been busy dealing with a wide range of governance issues. The peace process has been particularly difficult and hit a number of obstacles. It is unlikely that it will be able to show progress in this area. The NLD is instead turning to amending the military-enacted constitution to stimulate electoral momentum. Reforms could potentially affect the military’s role in governance, and so the move is mired in controversy. To begin with, the NLD raised this legislative motion on the date of the commemoration of U Ko Ni — a lawyer and former advisor to the NLD — who was assassinated on 26 January 2017. Ko Ni was the country’s most vocal advocate for constitutional reform. His death has had a chilling effect on efforts to amend the Constitution. When the NLD proposed forming a committee to amend the Constitution in the national legislature, the military claimed that they had failed to follow the correct procedure. All of the military members of parliament refused to vote on the motion as a show of defiance. They have done this on a handful of other occasions, such as when the NLD proposed creating the Office of State Counsellor specifically for Aung San Suu Kyi. The military has also suggested they may not participate in the legislative committee..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
2019-03-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 43.68 KB (4 pages)
more
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi met U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell on Tuesday in Naypyidaw to discuss continued American support for the country’s democratic transition, a visit that came as supporters in Myanmar questioned her commitment to pledged reforms that helped her win power in 2015. Despite U.S. concerns and efforts, analysts in Myanmar say State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has not made significant democratic progress in her three years in office as she must run her administration within the confines set out by the powerful military that directly ran the country from 1962-201. In an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review on Oct. 23, Aung San Suu Kyi said that Myanmar’s constitution drafted by a former military junta more than a decade ago must be changed in order for the Southeast Asian nation to achieve “complete democracy,” but that this would not occur before the next general election in late 2020..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2019-10-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "It is strange that there is no serious domestic or international discussion of the democratic consequences of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) potentially being weakened after the 2020 general elections in Myanmar. Serious albeit protracted peace negotiations are taking place between the Government of Myanmar (GoM), the Tatmadaw, and various ethnic armed groups (EAGs), all supposedly towards achieving federalism. The international community has also weighed in on the plight of Rohingya refugees, concerned with human rights and citizenship. Notwithstanding the importance of federalism, human rights, and citizenship in themselves, all of these issues are all related to the most consequential political task at hand in Myanmar: democratic transition and institutionalisation. It will be difficult to achieve genuine progress on any of these fronts without first achieving an institutionalised democracy. For achieving an institutionalised democracy, the USDP may yet play an eminent role. The experiences of other countries that have attempted to transition out of the military rule, much as Myanmar is currently endeavouring, suggest that the configuration of political parties and the security environment matter for the future of democracy. In this regard, the status of the USDP as a military proxy party is pertinent to the future of democracy in Myanmar. The 2015 elections and their consequences The State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the previous military regime, intended the USDP to be a ruling party driving the transition from direct military rule. The USDP, then called the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), began as the military’s mass organisation in 1993. The regime contributed resources to develop the USDA’s organisation and presence throughout Myanmar, while repressing the activities of opposition parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD). In 2010, the USDA was renamed as the USDP and registered as a party to contest the general elections. Together with another military-proxy party, the National Unity Party (NUP), it secured 70% of the votes in the 2010 general elections, which were boycotted by the NLD and other opposition parties, and became the ruling party during the transitional period between 2011 and the election of the current NLD-led government in 2016. Although the USDP’s origins are intertwined with the military’s forays into politics, it is unclear to what extent the present-day USDP exists as an entity independent of the military’s sway. Regardless of the actual inner workings between it and the military, it is the public image of its continued association with the military that makes it salient to voters..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: New Mandala
2019-07-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: ''In the Lower House, military representative Major Zin Lin questioned the practicality of proposals approved by the national legislature, saying there was no way to measure their contributions to government projects because the government lacked a five-year plan for the term of the current administration...''
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''For decades, Myanmar was governed by a small military elite, accused of acting solely in their own interests. The introduction of a new constitution in 2008 was a dramatic and significant development, creating 14 new state and region governments and parliaments and the promise of democratic participation by a more diverse range of actors. At its heart, democratization in Myanmar means transforming a top-down, autocratic regime into a system that is responsive to the needs and aspirations of democratic constituencies at many levels—local, regional, and national—and establishing effective mechanisms of public administration to achieve them. The creation of the state and region governments thus marks the beginning of a process of decentralization with vast potential for greater participation by citizens and greater responsiveness to regional and local needs. On October 31, The Asia Foundation published a new edition of its flagship report, State and Region Governments in Myanmar, reflecting on five years of progress in Myanmar’s decentralization. The report finds both challenges ahead and grounds for cautious optimism, with encouraging signs of increasing accountability, responsiveness to local needs, and greater public participation in governance...''
Creator/author: Richard Batcheler
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
2018-11-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "...Notwithstanding the recent consolidation of the military bloc, a series of bold moves by the NLD under its leader, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, have highlighted a reality often overlooked. Despite their automatic seat allocation, military representatives cannot block ordinary legislation. While the military contingent holds a constitutional veto by virtue of the 75% "supermajority" required for any charter amendments, it does not hold a blanket legislative veto. All other bills only require a simple majority vote. In effect, with the majority gained from its resounding victory in the 2015 polls, the NLD can ram through legislation, as long as the new laws do not alter constitutional rule. Likewise, proposals drafted by military members of parliament can only be adopted with the NLD?s approval..."
Source/publisher: Nikkei Asian Review
2016-06-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "According to Burma's two supposedly superseded constitutions, that of 1947 and 1974, the Pyithu Hluttaw (the People's Assembly) is the body charged with exercising State power. The 1989 Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law (called the Election Law), under which the 1990 elections were conducted, also provides that the duty of representatives elected in accordance with the Election Law is to form the Pyithu Hluttaw (Section 3). The ruling military junta, the people of Burma and the international community acknowledged without qualification that the May 1990 general election was free, fair and lawful. It then follows that those representatives elected by the people in the 1990 election have the lawful right to form a Pyithu Hluttaw that exercises legislative power and appoints a government in accordance with the legal norms of Burma..."
Creator/author: Burma Lawyers' Council
Source/publisher: Legal Issues on Burma Journal No. 3 (Burma Lawyers' Council)
1999-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 7.96 KB
Local URL:
more
Description: "A country embarking on a transition to democracy has many issues to deal with. One of the most critical is the question of elections, the type of system chosen and the manner in which elections are conducted.1 Free and fair elections are necessary to establish a democratic, human rights-based society, and to ensure that the government and the state are legitimate.2 The right to vote is an instrument of power for both the voter and the state. When giving the people the right to vote, it is necessary to determine who is permitted to vote, and to regulate the exercise of the vote through a system which could include legislation and ways of verifying the identity of people. Such a system helps to prevent non-resident citizens from voting, and to exclude residents who do not qualify to vote. In some countries, for example, prisoners may not vote..."
Creator/author: Jeremy Sarkin
Source/publisher: "Legal Issues on Burma Journal" No. 8 (Burma Lawyers' Council)
2001-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm pdf
Size: 33.68 KB 594.79 KB
more