Ruling USDP commands shy support in Myanmar’s elections

A woman on a balcony in an apartment block in Thinganggyun Township, Yangon, with USDP campaign material bearing the president's image, on Nov. 3. (PHOTO: Phyo Thiha Cho/Myanmar Now)

Twenty-two-year-old Lu Zaw took a day’s leave from his office job this week to join a political rally of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, but found it hard to explain his instinctive loyalty to Myanmar’s ruling party.

His uncle is a senior party campaigner, recruiting new members for USDP in Yangon’s Thinganggyun Township.

Lu Zaw said he was taking part in the rally, not at the behest of his uncle, but by his own volition, despite the fact that political rallies were not his favourite scene.

As Myanmar prepares for historic elections on Sunday, a vote that the opposition National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi is widely expected to win, there are still many loyal to the ruling party.

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Led by former general Thein Sein, the USDP’s semi-civilian government has steered the Southeast Asian nation through a series of economic and political reforms since it came to power in 2011, ending half a century of military rule.

“Even if the whole country supports NLD, I will vote for USDP,” said Lu Zaw.

USDP rallies, with supporters decked in the party’s colour green, seem to lack the zeal and spontaneity of campaign events organized by Suu Kyi’s NLD, which have attracted crowds in the tens of thousands.

Tun Aung Kyi, a Lower House candidate for the USDP in Pazundaung Township in the commercial capital Yangon, said they provided those took part in his party’s rally with breakfast, coffee and transportation costs.

In many constituencies, USDP candidates have delivered on promises of renovating roads, schools and monasteries and help for impoverished citizens since their landslide win in 2010 elections that were boycotted by the NLD and widely condemned as rigged.

They have the advantage of being the incumbent, and USDP officials say the party commands quiet support, especially in the rural areas.

In an interview with Tun Aung Kyi at the USDP office, located directly across the road from the NLD’s local office in Pazundaung Township, the 70-year-old said: “Although many people are usually seen in their (NLD) campaigns, I believe we have won genuine public support of the people.”

While the NLD campaign has been strong on rhetoric, Tun Aung Kyi said the USDP had delivered on actions - implementing important welfare programmes for the people.

Soe Min Than, who will run for the USDP in No. 2 constituency of Pazundaung Township, said their party had many supporters, but often voters were reluctant to disclose their allegiance amid the frenzied excitement surrounding the NLD’s apparent journey towards government.

“People are waiting for the members of our party even though they carry stickers (of the NLD) to avoid any quarrel,” he said, as he handed out campaign pamphlets to pedestrians.

“Some people said they do not accept T-shirts from the candidates, but asked for the calendars with the photo of President Thein Sein,” he added.

POLITICAL PARTY CREATED FROM MASS MOVEMENT

The USDP was formed out of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a patriotic mass movement founded with state funds under the directive of former dictator, Senior General Than Shwe, in 1993.

Hla Tun Oo, who will contest an Upper House seat in No. 4 constituency of Pazundaung Township, has been a member of the USDP for more than 20 years. He is a son of warrant officer of the Navy.

He said he was prompted to join the USDP by a quote in a speech by Than Shwe.

“I read a quote of Senior General ThanShwe in 1993 when the Union Solidarity and Development Association was formed. It said this association was formed to nurture brilliant new generations for the development of the country,” he recalled.

In Yangon, some trishaw drivers carry the green USDP flags, while their counterparts had stuck red NLD flags to their cycle taxis.

Some USDP candidates have been accused of handing out money to constituents in return for votes of attending rallies.

But Maung Kyi, a trishaw driver near Sanpya Market in Thinganggyun Township, Yangon, said: “I used USDP flag not because I received any money, but because it is my favourite party.”

When campaign rallies of the USDP were held in their area, the locals voluntarily took part in the events, said Lu Zaw.

NyeinNyein, a voter in her mid-40s, said, “Of course you have every right not to vote for USDP if you don’t like them. But at the moment, between parties and between the public, people are behaving as if they’re enemies if you like USDP but don’t like NLD. It’s divisive.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Regime’s forces threaten to shoot into people’s homes unless residents remove roadblocks

Some have complied with the order but others say they are leaving the barricades up

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 17, 2021

Police and soldiers patrolled neighbourhoods in Yangon and Mandalay on Wednesday and threatened to shoot into people’s houses unless locals removed defensive roadblocks they had set up amid spiralling one-sided violence.

A video of the coup regime’s forces making the threats through a loudspeaker circulated on social media and residents from several different neighbourhoods later told Myanmar Now they had received similar threats.

“The next time we see barricades on roads, we will turn this entire residential quarter upside down and shoot,” a voice said in the video.

The regime’s forces came to Khaymarthi Road and Nweni Road in Yangon’s North Okkalapa township in the afternoon to demand the removal of barricades, residents there told Myanmar Now.

“We did not remove the barricades, so they are still on the roads,” one resident said. “We only set up the barricades in our quarter. If they didn’t not shoot, we wouldn’t need barricades. But now they’re shooting, so it is more appropriate for the people to block the roads.”

A woman living in Hlaing Tharyar township, which this week witnessed the biggest massacre so far by regime forces since the February 1 coup, said locals removed the barricades from major roads after soldiers threatened to shoot into people’s homes.

She then saw military trucks driving around the township, she added.

On Wednesday morning the regime’s forces detained people and forced them to clear sandbags and other barricades on major roads elsewhere in Yangon, according to social media posts by people who said they were detained.

The junta’s security forces made similar threats in South Okkalapa, Thingangyun and Tamwe townships in Yangon and Manawramman Quarter in Mandalay, residents said.

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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More than 300 students detained in Tamwe in early March hit with 505a charge

Families and lawyers are still being kept in the dark about the status of court proceedings against them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 17, 2021

University students and young people have been playing a leading role in the nationwide protests against the military coup on Februrary 1. (Myanmar Now)

The regime has charged more than 300 students who were detained at a protest in Tamwe on March 3 after keeping their families in the dark about their status for two weeks.

They were detained as police and soldiers used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to attack a march organised by the University of Yangon Students’ Union and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

At least five were injured by rubber bullets during the attack. Police initially detained 389 people but last week released 50 who are under the age of 18.

The students have been charged under section 505a of the Penal Code, which the junta recently amended to give prison sentences of up to three years for causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees.

Lawyers say they have been unable to obtain an exact list of names of those being held and that police have been evasive regarding the case.

“The person in charge of the case was not present. We were told that he went to the court,” one of the lawyers said. “We can’t reach him via phone, so we followed him to Tamwe court, but there was no one at the court except security.”

Parents have been informed about the charges but not the details of the court proceedings, the lawyer said.

Because the military junta has shut down mobile internet, court proceedings have been adjourned as video conferencing is not available. In-person hearings were stopped last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We, the Students’ Union, do not believe in their judicial process and therefore we do not recognize these court proceedings as legitimate,” a student activist said, requesting anonymity. “The Students’ Union will continue to fight to topple the military regime.”

Among those detained on March 3 was Wai Yan Phyo Moe, Vice President of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

Three members of the central executive committee of the Yangon University Students’ Union were also arrested. They are Phone Htet Naung, Aung Phone Maw, and Lay Pyay Soe Moe.

The majority of those detained are from various universities in Yangon, with 176 being students of Yangon University. A few are from universities in rural areas of Myanmar.

Hundreds of other students have also been arrested at protests in Mandalay and Magway, on February 28 and March 7. Only 19 of them have been released.