A
freshly elected parliamentarian woke up at 6:30 am
one recent morning in the remote and newly built
capital city of military-run Myanmar. He had
planned to take a shower but the water dripping
from the pipe was reddish and dirty. Instead, he
used water from a drinking bottle to wash his face
and brush his teeth. Then he prepared his
documents, put them in a suitcase and left the
Municipal Guest House where he was staying with
other members of parliament from small minority
parties.
With other MPs, he took a shuttle
bus to the parliament compound to attend a
parliamentary meeting that day. They were all
required to leave their mobile phones, digital
cameras and computers in their rooms at the
guesthouse, as these were
banned in the new
parliament's buildings.
After a 20-minute
ride, they arrived at the gates of the compound,
where they crossed on foot through two-layer,
sky-high iron gates, where security forces checked
their identification cards and searched their bags
and bodies with bomb-detection devices. Another
fleet of buses was waiting to take them to the
building where the meeting was scheduled to take
place.
At 9 am, the chairman of parliament
convened the day's session. Fifteen minutes later,
he announced that parliament would adjourn until
the next day. During the 15-minute session,
parliament confirmed the president's nominations
for union-level positions without objection, and
accepted new nominations for other positions.
The parliamentarian and his fellow MPs
were then free to return to their guesthouses. The
parliament building holds no offices and has no
staff for MPs. The parliamentarians are allowed to
enter only two parliament meeting halls, two
canteens and restrooms. If they venture to other
parts of the compound, they risk arrest. No
journalists are allowed to enter the compound, let
alone cover the parliamentary meetings.
This is a typical story of an MP attending
parliament meetings in Naypyidaw since their first
assembly on January 31. They all won seats in the
November 7 general election, the country's first
in 20 years, which was widely criticized as
neither free nor fair. The military junta's proxy
party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP), was assured a landslide victory through
voter intimidation, vote-buying and other
irregularities.
Meanwhile, election laws
blocked the participation of major opposition
groups including the National League for Democracy
(NLD) led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi.
The USDP captured 260 out of 330
seats in parliament's lower house and 129 out of
185 seats in the upper house. With the 25% of
seats reserved for military personnel, the USDP
and the military together control 84% and 83% of
the seats in the lower and upper houses
respectively. The National Unity Party (NUP), the
regime's former proxy party, secured 11 and five
seats in both chambers respectively. The rest of
the seats went to 15 small minority parties.
The election was one of the last remaining
steps in the regime's seven-step roadmap to
"democracy". In actuality, the drawn out process
has led to greater military consolidation over the
country's politics. In 2008, the regime finalized
a new constitution which effectively granted
supreme and unchecked power to the
commander-in-chief of the military and guaranteed
a permanent 25% in parliament for the armed
forces. In May 2008, despite the widespread
destruction left behind by Cyclone Nargis that
killed nearly 140,000 people and left millions
homeless, the regime forced the constitution
through in a rigged referendum.
As the
second-to-last step in its roadmap, the regime is
now convening parliamentary meetings. The last
step will be the official transfer of power to the
newly elected President Thein Sein, who is
expected to serve at the whim and pleasure of
Senior General Than Shwe, the junta's long time
leader.
New authoritarian shape
With the elections and convening of
parliament, change has come to Myanmar - just not
the sort of democratic change the still ruling
junta promised. Previously, Myanmar was under the
boots of the military alone; now it is subjected
to two pairs of boots - one from the military and
the other from its proxy USDP, where retired
generals masquerade in civilian disguise.
Together, the military's
"discipline-flourishing democracy" is taking a new
authoritarian shape. Since its opening, parliament
meetings have not been allowed to last more than
15 minutes. It started with the first few
assemblies dedicated to the pre-ordained election
of the president and two vice presidents. They
were followed by the announcement and unanimous
approval of the president's nominations for his
cabinet and other union-level positions.
During the short meetings, some minority
party MPs attempted to raise questions and
concerns regarding regional developments but were
told that they must submit their questions 15 days
in advance. The interim will give enough time for
respective ministers to respond with well-measured
explanations, likely reciting from the regime's
usual propaganda published in its mouthpiece New
Light of Myanmar newspaper. Authorities later
demanded the MPs withdraw their questions, and
they did so obediently.
Under normal
circumstances, parliament would be where laws
originate, but there is nothing to legislate in
Myanmar's "discipline-flourishing democracy".
Supreme leader Senior General Than Shwe has
already made all the laws in his role as chairman
of State Peace and Development Council, the
regime's official name, prior to the parliament's
first meeting.
Among them was the State
Budget Law for 2011-12, dated February 11, 2011,
in which he allocated nearly 25% of the state's
budget to military affairs and a petty 1.3% to
health care. The Military Draft Law, which
requires two to three years of compulsory military
service for all Myanmar citizens, was issued on
November 4, 2010 (State Peace and Development
Council Law No. 27/2010).
The Reserved
Forces Law, which instructs all retired military
personnel to serve in state auxiliary forces for
at least five years holding the last rank they
served in active duty, was also issued on November
4, 2010 (The State Peace and Development Council
Law No. 28/2010). The Special Fund Law, which
reserves an unspecified amount of funds to be used
by the commander-in-chief as he deems fit in the
name of protection of the state's peace and
security, was issued on January 27, 2011 (The
State Peace and Development Council Law No.
10/2011). All of these laws took immediate effect.
MPs from minority parties may have
expected to serve as checks and balances in
parliament. But in addition to self-censorship,
MPs have been discouraged and intimidated from
addressing urgent national matters. Instead of
calling for an immediate end to state killings of
ethnic minorities, civil war, arbitrary arrests
and the release of all political prisoners, MPs
have so far raised their voices only to call for
the US-led international community to lift
economic sanctions against the regime.
Than Shwe has also made several laws to
compensate them for their discipline. MPs at union
level will be paid 300,000 kyats each per month,
equivalent to US$345 at the unofficial exchange
rate of 870 kyats per US dollar. At the inflated
official exchange rate, which has remained
unchanged at six kyats per dollar, their salaries
will approach $50,000 per month. While the lowest
and highest earnings of civil servants are
currently between 15,000 kyats (US$17) and 200,000
kyats (US$230), MPs' salaries are high even
without adding on travel expenses and meeting days
allowances.
Than Shwe has been even more
generous to his top loyalists. The president is
scheduled to earn a monthly salary of 5 million
kyats while vice presidents will receive 4 million
kyats. Other high level officials, such as the
chairmen of the parliaments, chief justice,
cabinet ministers, and attorney-general will
receive monthly salaries between 2 million and 3.5
million kyats, along with other privileges. Using
the official exchange rate, the president of
Myanmar will receive $83,333 per month and nearly
$10 million per year - considerably more than the
richly compensated president of the United States.
The current parliament's session is
scheduled to end soon, despite its lack of
legislative initiative. The newly elected MPs will
return to their hometowns, where they will have no
office or staff to support their democratic
duties. Nonetheless, many will pay lip service to
the new era of democracy that has supposedly
arrived in Myanmar - though more for international
rather than domestic consumption.
Aung Din was a student leader
during the 1988 popular democracy uprising in
Burma, now known as Myanmar, and served over four
years as a political prisoner. He is now the
executive director of the Washington DC-based US
Campaign for Burma.
(Copyright 2011
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