New York Times: Myanmar opens Parliament for the first time since the 1980s – Thomas Fuller

Bangkok - General decision to Myanmar Monday convened the first meeting of the Parliament over more than two decades, a move they say full transition from the poor country towards multiparty democracy.
Journalists were prescribed by Parliament building when the session convened Monday morning under high security in the capital city, Naypyidaw, the Associated Press reported.

Officially the opening of Parliament two bedroom will result in the dissolution of the junta that ruled Myanmar since 1988, when the country was known as Burma.

But it does not appear to be the dawn of absolute democracy. A quarter of seats are reserved for military and party-backed military control over 80% of the rest, allowing generals keep effectively their power, albeit in a less hierarchical system.

"The army is staying in control, but some of them are taking off their uniforms," said Win Min, Professor at the University of Payap in Thailand, who is on leave in the United States.

A key question is so broad top of Myanmar, Than Shwe, will become President, work more powerful by the new Constitution, but requiring to resign from his post of Commander in Chief.

General Than Shwe, who crushed the uprisings and purged potential rivals in the army during its almost two decades in power depends on 78 Wednesday, according to a libretto by Government published three decades ago. (The military Government was so secret that even the anniversary of the leader of the high country of page is not known with certainty).

New system of Myanmar resemble a democracy more in shape than on the merits, analysts say, but with the possibility of more debate and inclusiveness as high at the bottom of the junta regime. Myanmar in exile news media reported that Parliament issues must be submitted by members of 10 days in advance and pass a verification process.

"I think it will be very open and democratic governance in these first five years," says Priscilla a. Clapp, who was the head of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar from 1999 to 2002. "But thanks to a system that is much more complex, inevitably competing centers of power will develop.

The opening of Parliament, following elections in November, is only a number of changes in Myanmar.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won the Nobel Prize for peace and the dissident leader of the country, was released from house arrest, a week after the elections and now seeks to rebuild his pro-democracy movement. The military Government, meanwhile, is aggressively selling buildings, factories and corporations, especially for allies and members of the family of military leaders of the country. Privatization rush vaguely resembles the great wind up in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Neighbouring countries responded by pushing more difficult to put an end to international isolation of Myanmar, including to lift economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other Western countries.

Both houses of Parliament and representatives of the military will appoint three Vice-Chairpersons, one will be elected President and choosing a law firm. Names of members of cabinet potential circulating in Myanmar these days included many people who served in positions of power under the military regime.

Last Parliament meets in Myanmar by the rule of unique party of General Ne Win formally withdrew from politics in 1988 during a period of turmoil, but the country did not have a genuine multiparty since 1962, system when the military took power through a coup.

Democratic voice of Burma: Parliament ridicules democracy - Larry Jagan

First Parliament Burma opened in Naypyidaw in strict secret capital. This first session of Parliament in 22 years is a watershed, with the introduction of a new form of civil government to replace the last two decades of the naked military regime. But it is nothing more than a sentence disguised military dictatorship.Disciplined democracy as the leader of the junta prefers dub its military plan to try to win international legitimacy, is just an another charade. The reality is that even if certain structural changes are introduced - a new President, Parliament, Government civil and regional assemblies - little indeed will be different from the past.

Shwe will remain in power – though perhaps not formally - and the new administration will virtually everything consisting of former military men. After months of speculation, it seems now that the current Prime Minister, Thein Sein, when Parliament means to become President and votes for the position in the coming days.

Most of the current Ministers will also renewed, with a few Deputy Ministers adopting high portfolio page, including Maung Myint, who is tipped to become the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. Former principal commanders will become Chief Ministers of the States. General Myint Swe (the former Office of operation special head of Rangoon) is not surprising to become Minister head of Division of Rangoon, and general Ye Myint (former head of Office of the special operation of Mandalay) will become the Chief of the Division of Mandalay Minister.

Despite massive propaganda in recent months, Than Shwe has finally refractory to introduce anything which may damage its authority and lead to a pluralistic system.

In fact, Than Shwe chose to maintain his lieutenants, proven and reliable power. The new civilian Government will be in name only, as it is unlikely that any what piece for civilians in cabinet because Than Shwe does does them not trust.

Of course, his greatest concern is to ensure that the new political system would never have an avenue for a successor to the army build sufficient support and power to overthrow the way in which he removed his predecessor, Saw Maung. The fate of Ne Win and Saw Maung haunts the Burmese, military leader according to sources in his family circle.

He was so amazed by trying to avoid what he eventually opted to Thein Sein - which has been a General "civil" for awhile now — Prime Minister instead of former General Thura Shwe Mann. But the former number three in the decision of the State peace and Development Council (SPDC) is to trust the critical position of the President of the lower House and will effectively control operation on the day the day of the Parliament and therefore lots of Government.

Shwe is a very prudent at best and thinking of loosening its grip on power gave him nightmares for years, with his wife, especially asking to stay in saddle for as long as possible. But senior General promised neighbours, particularly in the ASEAN countries, China and the India, that change was in the pipeline, but that it could not completely backward. A clear sign that it is not even comfortable with his own modifications, however, is clear: the new Government of military and civilian, including President, is only provisional administration and unlikely to stay in place for more than a year ago.

That Shwe has already warned the future Government if it fails to meet its expectations, the army will entail a further coup to ensure that the country following model military development and governance.

It is still unclear the frequency with which Parliament will meet and how long a session will be, although Naypyidaw sources say that it is running at its first meeting, two weeks after she elects new President and two vice Presidents. It will then be approving Cabinet - chosen by the President - new appointees and senior Ministers by respective regional parliaments.

Plan strategic overall was exposed to remaining generals in the SPDC to its recent quarterly meeting, which is likely to be the last. And future Ministers and Chief Ministers met Than Shwe last Friday in the capital have received their final instructions. Pour la démocratie - senior executive is leaving nothing to chance.

A new political structure will be unveiled in the coming days, but it is only an adaptation of the existing structure of power, with a few checks and balances. On the one hand, Than Shwe and Maung Aye remain in current positions - efficiently in the control of the army at least a year, according to sources in Naypyidaw. They will be also on national defence and the Security Council — a new organization overseeing the army and appoint the leaders in the future.

Army remaining closely under his control, Than Shwe has designed a political system that cascade down from his position at the top of the pyramid of the policy. The party in power, the Union solidarity and development (USDP) part control a triumvirate: three clients - than Shwe, Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann - going control of the party.

The only thing that seems to emerge that power will be more diffuse than before - deliberately to minimize any challenge to its authority. While Than Shwe is still in good health, it may be able to manipulate the political process for its own purpose. But his approach to the balance of power will revive personal ambitions and resentment, as before in time of Khin Nyunt and its network of military intelligence.

Fault lines emerge again, this time among the employees of middle and junior castes who feel that they have been mistreated and had their access companies make money reduced by "new" civil administrators who can no longer feel indebted to the next generation of military leaders. They can also perform as Khin Nyunt and his coterie made earlier, that unless the Burma reaches open onto the world and enjoy a greater global trade and foreign investment - their future may well be limited.

The dangers of the same benign autocratic continues to ignore the interests of the people as a whole were ostensibly illustrated even in the last two weeks - with massive unrest scans of North Africa and Middle East regions. Than Shwe is appalled by scenes on TV of Egypt, according to sources close to the top of the page General.

Could have the final straw that higher general attention to persistent wife urging them not to abandon power - or less to retain control over safely. The irony is that tightening it maintains its grip, the most probable is a reaction. On the one hand, there are two generals, Thura Shwe Mann, who will be very unhappy to current plans of Than Shwe and Maung Aye.

Democratic voice of Burma: journalists, Parliament - prevented Aung Shwe

Journalists will be able to enter Parliament today to cover the first session over two decades, despite promises to the contrary.It is also not clear whether media can report on future sessions, the President of the Committee on professional conduct (CPC), Ko Ko, said DVB.

"CPC previously checked with the me [Ministry of Information] and said that there is no plan to invite journalists to Naypyidaw opening Parliament", he said. This comes despite the announcement by the Minister from Myanmar, Kyaw Hsan information, January 17, reporters would be allowed.

Some correspondents of foreign media 18 arrived in Naypyidaw yesterday to cover the event, but a photojournalist said today that it would be impossible to take a photo Parliament because the road to it was barricaded with barbed wire.

An elected MP said today that on condition of anonymity two journalists of newspaper national Burmese news were visited by governmental authorities in their guest house in the capital, who took their names.

Burma has some stricter media laws in the world and prohibits the filming of the so-called sensitive materials which include Hansard unless expressly authorized to do so. The Act on electronics, filming without permission of journalists face imprisonment of 10 years.

CPC, which is formally responsible for the protection of the interests of journalists and to issue guidelines for the practice of media, has been implemented recently by the censor board of the Government, which also imposes draconian Burma press laws.

Analysts have sought to hinder the expectations for the first parliamentary session since last November's election. Both houses are dominated by Solidarity Union pro-junta and Development Party (USDP), which won the 80% of the vote, while one-quarter of the seats have been reserved for officials military pre-nommé carriers effectively veto power.

Parliament met in 1988 before the eviction of the first dictator of Burma, Ne Win, but he must return to March 1962 for the last time that he met under civilian rule.

TIME: Was significant Parliament opening Burma? -Hannah Beech

Deep in the heart of remote new capital Naypyidaw Burma, a most unusual event took place on the morning of January 31. Most legislators then 600 gathered in a room of sumptuous, Palace as well as for the first parliamentary session of the country in 22 years. Technically, almost five decades of military regime in Burma had been completed.
But if historic rally gives the illusion of a new political era in a country governed by army since 1962, the reality is quite different. "New bottle, same wine," joked Win Tin, an opposition politician veteran whose popular National League for democracy (NLD) has no seats in the new Parliament because it has boycotted elections last November. "It's the same men armed support." Everyone knows that convene a Parliament and say there is a transition to civilian rule is absurd. We know where the real power lies. »

Indeed, although the military junta has boasted about configuring Burma on a path to what he called a thriving democracy discipline, regulations governing the session legislative milestone showed how isolated and repressive Burmese are still. Foreign journalists were prevented from attending the event. Introduced in January parliamentary legislation restricting freedom of information. One rule, for example, says that any m.p. non - who undertakes in the building without prior approval of the Parliament can be imprisoned for a year. Legislators themselves are not allowed to bring electronic equipment including mobile phones, cameras or recording devices in Parliament. Neither can they ask a question without going through a dark process that takes more than a week. The oddly specific time of the opening of Parliament — 8: 00 pm - was widely regarded as a gesture by the members of the junta astrologiquement obsessed to secure the most suitable time to inaugurate their self-portraits body.

At first glance, recent months have brought this that resemble changes in topography politics of Burma. November 7, the country held its first election in two decades, allowing an entire generation of young Burmese people vote for the first time. Six days after polls, Nobel Prize for peace in chemistry and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released over seven years of residency. The NLD, Suu Kyi founded, won a landslide in polls of the country in 1990, but the junta results, ignored and locked place for most of the intermediaries of the last two decades.

But three months after the events of watersheds in November, Burma feel essentially unchanged. Although Suu Kyi NLD proudly opened its Web site the same day that the Parliament held its first session, the party is no longer a legal political force. Many legislators now sitting in Parliament incredibly large building Naypyidaw are hardly the public's choice. Because of likely voter of intimidation and shenanigans urn assumed the back-to-back on the junta Union solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won about 80% of the November vote. Its elected representatives in Parliament include buddies of business of the junta and the agents who recently retired from the army participate in what is officially supposed to be a civil process.

Opposition parties who has dared to participate in surveys, including a series of ethnically based parties and breakaway NLD National Democratic Force (NDF), won fewer seats that international observers believe that they should be. With a quarter of parliamentary seats designated for appointees by the military power of the opposition in Parliament is derisory. Add to that the fact that top management positions are reserved for people with military backgrounds, and Win Tin new bottle same formulation wine makes perfect sense. (See Suu Kyi in the top 10 political prisoners of time).

One of the first tasks of the Parliament in the coming days will be to select the new President. It is rampant speculation about whether if current leader of the junta Than Shwe, an elderly former employee of mail and specialist Psy - Ops want to position or whether if it will prefer to keep the position of Commander in Chief of Burma. (By law a person cannot hold both titles.) Another candidate for the Presidency can be Thura Shwe Mann, a seasoned executive is famous for his loyalty to Than Shwe and his brutal campaign against ethnic Karen rebel. In both cases, the President will become a large part of the control of Parliament, most of the time cannot legally challenge.

A few days before Parliament meets, Burma's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the NLD have political party recognized as a legal entity. Because the NLD decided to boycott polls in November, he rightly believed would be neither free nor fair, the party was ordered disbanded by the electoral commission in Burma in September. NLD elder spoke of reengineering of the party as an engine political shade or as a force of civil society. But two paths are untested.

Landscape policy with only minimal presence of the opposition in Parliament and a totally absent NLD sounds like a scenario dark for democratic progress in Burma. Lack of interest that many Burmese have shown in the elections and the convening of the new Parliament shows removed how they feel that their lives are Burmese political Parliament. Approximately one third of the Burmese living below the poverty line. no Parliament that will change in the near future.

Nevertheless, change, if only at a glacial pace, may still be. While many Western countries maintain on economic sanctions regime, an influx of investment from neighbouring Asian countries brought a flood of money in Burma's natural resources sector. This month, Burma has unveiled a special economic Zone law although what exactly this means is not yet clear. Most of this money has finished- and will probably continue to finish - General or their cronies company pockets. Still, more foreign investment could make life better for some Burmese, if only because of better telecommunications, improving roads and subordinate jobs even associated foreign projects. (Course, the Burmese army also showed little qualms using forced labour and farmers forcings off the coast of their lands, with little compensation for room for future projects).

"Change in Burma will come through the politics and economics, also" said Kyaw Win, Burmese political analyst in Rangoon, ancient capital and major city in the country. "But you have to be patient." Unfortunately, it is a quality Burmese, who witnessed the slow devolution of their homeland for nearly five decades, possess in large quantities.

Reuters: As Myanmar opens Parliament, shadow of looms the junta on great - Aung Hla Tun

Naypyitaw - an elected Parliament convened to Myanmar Monday for the first time in half a century but inspired lean enthusiasm convinced skeptical audiences as it is just a smokescreen for the continued military rule.
More than 600 members completed two new "Hluttaws", or legislative chambers, the opening session. They are responsible for choosing first civilian President Myanmar 49 uninterrupted years of military dictatorship has ushered in a coup in 1962.

The junta praised Parliament as a new dawn of democracy but critics reject it as a joke that leaves the authoritarian generals same in control. The new Government is equally capable of suppressing dissent as the former.

Lawmakers elected Presidents and vice Presidents for each of the two rooms in the opening session, with three of four positions for military retirement, according to several parliamentarians, who asked to remain anonymous because with media was liable to two years in prison.

The big surprise was junta number three Thura Shwe Mann, a career soldier honoured for bravery and tipped by many politicians and analysts as a presidential candidate made possible the President or the Chairman of the lower House.

"There is speculation among us Thura Shwe Mann will become President, that our party has loaded we elect the President of the Chamber, low", said the Member of the main political party, trade union solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is a proxy for the military Government.

The army has a reserved quota of one quarter of the seats in both houses, as well as in regional parliaments. Leaving Parliament dominated by serving or loyal to the junta supremo Than Shwe who think of many retired military analysts could take the position of President.

Police patrol roads and legislators visited assemblies Naypyitaw, sprawling capital, luxury cars built from scratch, there are only four years, where the former Burmese military leaders have isolated themselves about 320 km (200 miles)-the largest city and former capital Yangon.

But there is barely a ripple of interest among the ordinary Burmese, most of which see change as purely cosmetic.

"We have no idea and no time for taking the trouble to think about these stuff", said worker 38 year-old in Naypyitaw when asked for his views on the Parliament.

Journalists were prevented from attending the session and cell phones have been banned in the rooms.

After a general election on November 7 that has been strongly criticized and abroad for irregularities, the lower and upper houses will be dominated by the USDP.

WE DON 'T CARE WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT. "

The National Democratic Force, the greatest feast of democracy promotion that participated in the election of November, won 12 664 seats just.

League promotion of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi national pour la démocratie boycotted the election after having won the previous survey in 1990 by a landslide, a result the soldiers ignored.

Despite his release from house arrest after the election, Suu Kyi and his party dissolved for the boycott of the election, have no influence on the Parliament, although it remains very popular.

While Western countries have severely criticized the Parliament and showed little sign of lift the sanctions imposed in response to violations of rights, elections have been acclaimed by China Thailand, India and Singapore, is a big investor.

Myanmar neighbors have wanted to take advantage of its rich natural resources. Reserves proved, for example, doubled in the last decade of 570 billion cubic meters, equivalent to close to one-fifth of the Australia, according to the BP Statistical Review.

China's official Xinhua News Agency has welcomed the start of Parliament as a "new era", in which soldiers still play a role "with its own special characteristics.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Japan said it would be "closely observe" the direction of the Parliament and called new Government when he took office, to release political prisoners and to become more involved with the international community.

Most of the people interviewed by Reuters said that they remain much more concerned about the struggles of everyday life with deplorable country utilities, frequent power cuts and the Chronicle of economic mismanagement.

At least 32% of the approximately 50 million people in Myanmar lived below the poverty line.

We Don "t care who becomes President until he can create better conditions of life", said the worker, who only speak frankly to the condition that his name did not report.

"Things couldn't be worse now and continue to raise prices."

Nobody has publicly expressed interest in becoming the head of State and analysts believe that the President, two vice presidents and Ministers have already been decided by the junta.

Many believe that the 78-year-old Than Shwe is too fearful to end his reign of 18 years and will be quietly retired Army over the next few days he is eligible to take the omnipotent Presidency itself.

Other analysts, however, believe that the strong man may have reserved the first positions for its protected and the confidants and intend to resign and pull the strings behind the scenes.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing;) Written by Martin Petty; (Editing by Robert Birsel)