Effort by unelected military lawmakers likely to fail in NLD-dominated parliament
Military MPs have waded into a parliamentary battle over the future of Myanmar’s constitution by submitting a draft bill aimed at preventing people with foreign family members from becoming ministers.
More than 140 Tatmadaw-appointed lawmakers on Tuesday supported a bill that would extend controversial restrictions on who can be president to ministers and regional chief ministers.
Section 59f of the military-drafted constitution is widely believed to have been designed to prevent Aung San Suu Kyi, who has two foreign children by her late British husband, from becoming president.
But she circumvented the ban by becoming State Counsellor, a position designed to put her “above the president”. She also serves as foreign minister and minister for the office of the president.
Earlier this month the National League for Democracy-dominated parliament rejected a bid by the military’s proxy party to get around a panel of MPs charged with amending the charter by submitting their own bill.
It is likely this latest bid by military MPs, who are vastly outnumbered by NLD lawmakers, will also fail; scrapping 59f is one of the NLD’s main goals for amending the charter.
But the Tatmadaw’s lawmakers have enough seats to effectively veto any of the NLD’s proposed changes, which would require the approval of three quarters of MPs.
In a letter to speaker Ti Khun Myat, military MPs said the proposed changes are meant to “ensure high-profile members of government do not have foreign connections and influence” and to stop “foreign countries intervening in the internal affairs of the country.”
Ti Khun Myat has referred the military’s draft bill to the NLD-led charter reform panel for review ahead of parliamentary discussions.
“We will need to consider whether these proposed changes are meant to target a particular person,” Dr Myat Nyarna Soe, the committee’s secretary, told reporters as he left parliament.
Brig Gen Maung Maung, a spokesperson for military lawmakers, declined to go into detail about the draft bill and told reporters to read the MPs’ letter to the speaker.
The 42-member charter reform panel was formed by the NLD-dominated parliament earlier this year with the aim of stripping the military of some of its political power.
The military and its proxy, the USDP, have consistently objected to the committee, which they say is unconstitutional.
The panel is made up of 18 NLD MPs, eight military MPs and representatives from various smaller parties. In July it submitted a list of more than 3,700 proposed changes that will be whittled down and turned into a draft bill.
The committee originally had 45 members but three from smaller parties quit earlier this month to protest the NLD’s handling of proceedings.
MP Sein Win told Myanmar Now that the NLD was “bullying” smaller parties and disregarding their input.
Related Articles
Donate
Independent media is under attack in Myanmar... help us hold the powerful to account.
