Calls grow for suspending election in northern Rakhine amid clashes and pandemic

Calls grow for suspending election in northern Rakhine amid clashes and pandemic

Many candidates say campaigning is impossible under current conditions, but others urge officials to go ahead with vote  

An Arakan National Party (ANP) signboard seen in Maungdaw (Thant Mrat Khaing/Myanmar Now)

Candidates running for election in northern Rakhine state are calling for a postponement of local voting amid concerns about ongoing clashes and a fresh outbreak of Covid-19. 

So far, the Union Election Commission (UEC) has not announced any plans to suspend polling, despite the deteriorating security situation in the region.

This has led some candidates to speak out in favour of waiting until conditions improve.

“In a time when people are living in fear, we can’t run campaigns. I don’t see us being able to focus on this election under the current circumstances,” said Tun Win, an Arakan National Party (ANP) candidate in Kyauktaw township. 

 

 

“If we can’t have some sort of stability, this will affect the current political situation and our representation will be lost,” said ANP candidate Tun Win

The biggest problem, he said, is that there is little interest in the election at a time when fighting between the military and the Arakan Army continues to force thousands to flee their homes. 

 

 

According to the Sittwe-based Rakhine Ethnics Congress, more than 220,000 people had been displaced by the clashes as of October 1. Hundreds more have been killed by indiscriminate attacks.

Tun Win said he hoped the conflict would be resolved soon so that local people can vote without worries about their safety.

“This is extremely important during the election period. If we can’t have some sort of stability, this will affect the current political situation and our representation will be lost,” he said.

Fellow ANP candidate Khin Saw Wai, who is running to represent the constituency of Rathedaung in the state parliament, echoed this sentiment.

“I would like to see the ongoing clashes stop so that we can have a fair election on a national level,” she said.

“If there’s no campaigning, no going around or going to homes, what is the point?” asked USDP candidate Htun Hla Sein 

Maung Thar Phyu, a candidate for the Arakan Front Party (AFP), also expressed concern that the situation on the ground would adversely impact the outcome of the election.

“When our state selects its candidates, I don’t want it to be a case of candidates getting selected because there are no other options. We want candidates that the public willingly chooses,” he said.

Htun Hla Sein, a Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate contesting in Maungdaw township, said the election should be postponed.

“Whether it’s the parliamentary candidate or someone assigned by them, if there’s no campaigning, no going around or going to homes, what is the point?” he said, referring to restrictions on campaign activities imposed by the Ministry of Health and Sports to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

Candidates in nine townships in northern Rakhine state and southern Chin state haven’t even been able to engage in online campaigning due to a year-long shutdown of internet services in these areas.

Although access to the internet has recently been restored, candidates complain that connections are still so slow that it has been impossible to engage with voters on Facebook or other social media platforms. 

“If there’s no election, the rights of the public are being violated,” said ANP chair Thar Htun Hla

All of this means that holding an election now would be meaningless, according to Aung Thaung Shwe, an independent candidate running in Buthidaung township.

“An election that didn’t include the public wouldn’t be a fair one. It wouldn’t represent the public. That’s why the government has to foster ways for the public to be more involved,” he said.

If the election goes ahead as planned, he added, it will be as bad as the notorious 2008 referendum, which was held a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Ayeyarwady delta region, killing tens of thousands of people.

But not everyone agrees that the election should be put on hold. 

Responding to comments by a UEC spokesperson who said during a press conference in September that voting might be suspended in two townships in Rakhine state, ANP chair Thar Htun Hla said that such a move would be a violation of voters’ rights.

“If there’s no election, there won’t be members of parliament to represent the public. If that happens, the well-being and the rights of the public are being violated,” he said.

Candidates for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), meanwhile, declined to comment when asked about the election situation in northern Rakhine.

Rakhine state currently has 440 candidates running for seats in the state and national legislatures in the 2020 election, including 399 candidates from 18 political parties and 41 independents.

The NLD and the USDP are contesting in 64 constituencies, the ANP in 62, the UDP in 51 and the AFP in 42.

The UEC says Rakhine state, with a population of more than 3 million, has 1,648,737 eligible voters according to the 2014 census.

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Banks remain mostly closed despite pressure from junta

A month and a half after the military seized power, most banks in Myanmar are barely operating

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Published on Mar 18, 2021
People queue in front of a KBZ Bank branch in Yangon on March 17. (Supplied) 

Banking in Myanmar has come almost to standstill in the more than six weeks since the February 1 coup, with only basic services still available at a limited number of locations.

In the commercial capital Yangon, only a handful of branches of two of the biggest domestic banks, KBZ and AYA, remain open, according to customers.

As of Wednesday afternoon, every bank in the city’s Yankin, Tamwe, Bahan, Thingangyun and South Okkalapa townships appeared to be closed, Myanmar Now found in an effort to confirm these reports.

However, a customer who had used the AYA Bank branch on Sayarsan road in Yankin said it was still open for withdrawals.

Meanwhile, services in other cities were even more restricted.  In Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon state, local sources said there was only one KBZ Bank branch still in operation on Wednesday, while all banks were reportedly closed in Bago. 

While some banks continue to fill ATMs with cash, few other services are available, bank employees said. 

Unhappy customers

Large crowds have been reported at some of the few branches in Yangon that are still dispensing cash, occasionally resulting in tensions between staff and customers.

“At the KBZ Bank headquarters on Pyay road, they were writing down people’s names and phone numbers as the crowd got bigger. They said they would get back to us,” said Aye Aye Phway, a customer who was seeking to withdraw money.

KBZ Bank came under fire on Tuesday when four of its customers were arrested following a dispute with bank staff. 

On Wednesday, the bank released a statement denying that it had called the police, as alleged by some who criticized its handling of the incident. It also said that it would assist the customers who had been detained.

According to the junta-controlled broadcaster MRTV, the customers were arrested for pressuring bank staff to take part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule.   

Pressure from above

A month after many of their employees joined the CDM, privately-owned banks have come under growing pressure from the junta to reopen for business.   

Banks that haven’t reopened have been instructed to turn over all of their customers’ information to the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank or one of two military-owned banks, Innwa Bank or Myawady Bank. 

The Central Bank of Myanmar would not be responsible for the consequences if banks failed to abide by this demand, the regime warned.

The regime originally issued this order, through the Central Bank, on March 8, to no avail. Despite repeating it again on Wednesday, the situation remains unchanged.

Currently, private banks are required to allow regular customers to withdraw 500,000 kyat per day from ATMs or 2,000,000 kyat per week if they appear at the bank in person. 

Companies are permitted to withdraw 20 million kyat at a time, according to Central Bank instructions issued on March 1.

Myanmar has 27 private banks and 17 branches of foreign-owned banks.

Editor's note: This article has been edited to include KBZ Bank's statement on the arrest of four of its customers on Tuesday and the state-owned broadcaster MRTV's claims about the incident.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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Election sub-commission members released after more than one month in detention

Some of those released were made to sign a statement confirming military allegations of electoral fraud in their respective townships, an official said.

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 18, 2021
An election official shows a ballot for verification in Yangon’s Kyauktada Township on November 8 (Myanmar Now)

The military regime on Wednesday released all election sub-commission members who were detained following last month’s coup, state and township level election officials said.

The coup regime detained the state, regional and township-level sub-commission members on February 11, ten days after it seized power, and tried to justify the move with unsubstantiated claims of fraud during Myanmar’s 2020 general election. 

They members were released on Wednesday morning, confirming rumours on Tuesday that they would be freed.

State and regional commission members were detained at divisional military headquarters, while township level members were detained at guest quarters inside battalion bases.

Some members of township-level sub-commissions were made to sign a statement before their release confirming the military’s findings about voting irregularities in their areas during the November 8 poll, said a chair of a state-level sub-commission who asked not to be named.

But one member of a township sub-commission denied that they had to sign such a statement.

Kyi Myint, chair of the Yangon Region sub-commission, said that the military didn’t ask him to sign anything and there was no interrogation. 

“We were summoned and asked to take a rest,” Kyi Myint said.

He added that he didn’t know why the military had allowed them to go home. Nor did he know the situation of members of the union-level commission who were also detained.

Kin Khanh Pawng, chair of the township sub-commission in Kale, Sagaing, was detained in mid-February and was among those released on Wednesday. He said he was called in to help with data and paperwork.

“I had to help them find the data they wanted to see,” he said.

A new union election commission body was formed a day after the military seized state power and arrested civilian leaders on February 1.

The new commission met with 53 political parties on February 26 and officially annulled the results of the 2020 general election.

Another 38 registered parties did not attend that meeting. They include the Shan National League for Democracy, the Democratic Party for a New Society, and the People's Party.

 

 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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Myanmar becomes a nation without newspapers

The closure of Myanmar’s last independent newspaper marks a new milestone in the country’s political descent 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 18, 2021
Staring March 17, the country no longer has a single independent newspaper in publication.

Years from now, March 17, 2021, will be remembered as the day that Myanmar’s brief era of press freedom—however partial and imperfect it was—well and truly died.

As of this day, the country no longer has a single independent newspaper in publication. On Wednesday, The Standard Time (San Taw Chain) joined The Myanmar Times, The Voice, 7Day News and Eleven in suspending operations in the wake of last month’s military coup.

It was less than a decade ago that the quasi-civilian administration of former President Thein Sein began slowly lifting restrictions on Myanmar’s long-suppressed press.

As overt censorship became a thing of the past and new licenses were issued, the number of news outlets proliferated, in the surest sign of confidence in ongoing political and economic reforms.  

Now only online news media remain as the last lifeline for millions of citizens desperate for reliable sources of information amid the military-induced freefall.

With this in mind, the new regime is acting to sever this last connection as it moves to plunge the country into darkness.

“The situation for press freedom is only going to get worse as they cut off the internet,” says political analyst Sithu Aung Myint, before adding: “The country no longer has democracy or an ounce of freedom.”

Piling pressure on news media

It took 10 days for the regime’s Ministry of Information to start making Orwellian demands. On February 11, it issued new instructions to the Myanmar Press Council, “urging” news media to “practice ethics” and stop referring to the “State Administration Council” as a junta.   

Citing provisions in Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, the junta’s arbiters of truth claimed that the regime came to power by legitimate means because a state of emergency had been duly declared.

Newspapers, journals, and websites that persisted in using language that suggested otherwise were not merely wrong, but were also violating media ethics and inciting unrest, the ministry insisted.

Eleven days later, on February22, the coup maker himself, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned the media that their publishing licenses would be revoked if they continued to use words that didn’t meet with his approval.

But on February 25, in a show of defiance, some 50 news outlets declared their intention to keep reporting on the situation as it unfolded, and to describe the regime and its actions as they saw fit.

The arrests begin

Two days later, the junta began targeting the most vulnerable and essential participants in the whole news-making process: reporters.

On February 27, five journalists covering the junta’s crackdowns on anti-dictatorship activities were arrested and later charged with incitement under section 505a of the Penal Code.

Myanmar Now’s multimedia reporter Kay Zon Nway was one of those arrested that day. She was doing her job of documenting the brutal assault on protesters in Yangon’s Sanchaung township when she was apprehended while fleeing the regime’s forces as they lashed out at everyone in sight. 

210302_myanmar_kay_zon_new_journalist_myanmar_now_arrested_yangon_on_27_feb_21_000_93w2j2.jpg

Police arrest Myanmar Now journalist Kay Zon Nwe covering protests in Yangon on February 27, 2021. Credit: YE AUNG THU / AFP

The four others—Aung Ye Ko from 7Days News, Ye Myo Khant from Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, Thein Zaw from AP, and Hein Pyae Zaw from ZeeKwat Media—were reporting near Hledan when they were taken into custody. 

All five are now in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison awaiting trial on charges based on the ludicrous notion that they were somehow responsible for the mayhem that they were merely there to witness, at great risk to their own lives.

Under recent amendments to section 505a, they now face up to three years in prison for the crime of sharing what they saw with their fellow citizens.

According to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and last updated on March 8, as many as 33 journalists have been arrested or targeted for arrest since the February 1 coup.

155930399_2092664367568616_7441378699305917845_n.jpeg

A policeman chasing a journalist holding a camera in Yangon on February 26, 2021. 

Taking action against news organizations

The regime hasn’t just put individual journalists in its sights; as its efforts to end resistance to its rule continue to escalate, it has also moved to neutralize entire new organizations.  

On March 8, the Ministry of Information announced that it had revoked the publishing licenses of Myanmar Now and four other outlets—7Day News, Mizzima, DVB and Khit Thit media.

7Days News stopped printing the following day, and a day later, Eleven announced that it would also be suspending its operations, at least until April 18.

By that time, two other well-known local publications, The Myanmar Times and The Voice, had already shut down shop for various reasons.

That left only The Standard Time, which for the past week has been the only print newspaper in the country not controlled by the regime. And now it, too, is gone.

All of this is just another chapter in Myanmar’s long and often troubled news media history.

After Myanmar gained independence in 1948, private daily newspapers flourished in the country. Published in Myanmar, English, Chinese and Hindi, these publications were part of a vibrant culture that cherished the free exchange of ideas and information.

But that came to an abrupt end in 1962, when the former dictator General Ne Win seized power and put most daily newspapers under government control. After his 1973 constitution was ratified, privately owned dailies were effectively banned.

It wasn’t until nearly 40 years later, in late 2012, that the state-owned media’s monopoly on daily news ended under the Thein Sein government.

Now this fleeting moment of relative freedom is past, and Myanmar has returned to the dark days of an uprising that was brutally crushed, ushering in an even darker era of absolute military rule.   

“I wasn’t a journalist in ‘88, but in my 12 years in this profession, this current situation is the worst. It’s not just a matter of being afraid to go out to report; now you can be arrested just for being a person in media,” one female reporter who asked to remain anonymous remarked.

As trying as these times are, however, they have more than proven the true value of press freedom as a weapon in the fight against oppression.

“Help the news media so that the local and international community know the people’s bravery, sacrifices, and the atrocities that the dictators have committed,” Sithu Aung Myint, the political analyst, wrote on social media recently. 

“Take record of incidents yourself,” he added, reminding his readers that in this age of citizen journalists, we all have a responsibility to act as witnesses.

But even with so much courage and commitment on full display, it’s difficult not to see this day as a chilling sign of things to come.

Reflecting on what the loss of Myanmar’s last news publication means for the country, Sithu Aung Myint concluded: “As a nation without newspapers, we are now in the dark ages.”

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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