- Joined
- Aug 19, 2008
- Messages
- 38,563
- Points
- 113
https://www.ft.com/content/4df18e84...be392fc2941&segment_detail=Story28MyanmarAPAC
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/4df18e84...be392fc2941&segment_detail=Story28MyanmarAPAC
Any lingering doubts the world might have had about the direction of Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar government all but disappeared on Monday when two reporters for Reuters were bundled by police from a courthouse back to Insein prison to serve long prison terms. For Myanmar’s troubled democratic transition, it was a moment rich in irony. The grim panopticon prison on the outskirts of Yangon is where many political prisoners — including senior figures in the ruling National League for Democracy — were incarcerated for years, jailed for their opposition to a brutal military regime that they toppled in an election in late 2015. Now the formerly oppressed are presiding over the jailing of journalists for exposing the crimes of the regime. A judge handed Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo seven-year jail sentences after finding them guilty of violating Myanmar’s official secrets act. The men — who have already spent almost nine months in prison — were convicted while reporting on the killing last year of 10 Rohingya Muslim men by government soldiers and Buddhist villagers in Inn Din, northern Rakhine state. The Myanmar government has not disputed their work and has jailed several people for the crime. Yet the harsh jail term handed to the two reporters has all but ensured the Rohingya crisis — which has seen more than 700,000 members of the minority group flee to neighbouring Bangladesh — will dominate the international conversation on Myanmar for the foreseeable future. This is another irony, as Aung San Suu Kyi has often chided foreigners for dwelling on the minority group at the expense of the country’s myriad economic problems and other conflicts. Some observers said the case would be devastating to the credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has made no comment since the verdicts were announced. “This is going to be a cause célèbre and a stigma on the government,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an associate professor of political science at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Aung San Suu Kyi has lost the plot.” Myanmar finds Reuters journalists guilty of breaching state secrets law A report published last week by the International Crisis Group described her government as “isolated in its Naypyidaw bubble”, and failing to deliver on issues ranging from the economy to peace talks with Myanmar’s myriad armed ethnic groups. “Rarely has the reputation of a leader fallen so far, so fast,” it said. Monday’s verdict came a week after a damning UN report that called for the military leadership of Myanmar to be prosecuted for genocide for its role in the Rohingya crackdown. While the UN said Myanmar’s civilian government had little scope to control the military, it criticised Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to leverage her position as head of government or her “moral authority” to prevent what happened in Rakhine. The past two weeks of bad news has laid bare the flaws in Myanmar’s wobbly transition to democracy. Most notably is the civilian-military compromise that left generals from the old order in charge of key security functions, while allowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters to defend her by saying she had no control over them. That storyline is now wearing thin. During nine months of legal proceedings against the journalists, Myanmar’s de facto leader failed to speak up on their behalf or for the principle of press freedom. Bill Richardson, a former US diplomat, fell out with Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year, quitting an advisory panel for the Rohingya situation that she had asked him to sit on. After the ruling, he railed against her conduct, writing on Twitter that she had cancelled his meeting to discuss the journalists’ case and referred to them as “traitors”. As international condemnations of Monday’s verdict poured in, some doubted the wisdom of overlooking Aung San Suu Kyi’s shortcomings as a leader because of her perceived status as the country’s best democratic hope. “There are a lot of questions being asked internationally about whether this government is a viable partner,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst based in Yangon. “I don’t think the answer has yet come back ‘no’, but it’s being asked.” For close observers of Myanmar’s political transition that began in 2011, there had long been signs that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was performing poorly. The 73-year-old presides over a largely elderly cabinet that includes many former military-era figures. She centralised control in her hands, slowing or paralysing decision-making in some areas. On her watch, hate speech against Muslims has soared, prompting Facebook — a leading conduit for news in the country — to take measures to close down military-linked accounts. Criminal prosecutions of journalists have soared. Recommended The FT View Myanmar must pay for crimes it is committing However, while the jailing of the two reporters made headlines around the world, including in Myanmar, there was little sign of widespread support for the reporters in the country. Aung San Suu Kyi remains popular in Myanmar, even if criticism of her NLD government — which faces a by-election later this year — is growing. Nonetheless, the story is unlikely to die down given the scale of the international outcry, with calls continuing for Myanmar’s Win Myint, the country’s president and an Aung San Suu Kyi ally, to grant the journalists an amnesty. Reuters said it may “seek relief in an international forum” on their behalf. “It’s a travesty,” Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a Yangon think-tank, said of Monday’s court ruling. “People talk about a separation of powers, but the judiciary has always been under the thumb of the executive — and we know who the executive now is.”
***
So Chee and Thum, still in love with her?
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/4df18e84...be392fc2941&segment_detail=Story28MyanmarAPAC
Any lingering doubts the world might have had about the direction of Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar government all but disappeared on Monday when two reporters for Reuters were bundled by police from a courthouse back to Insein prison to serve long prison terms. For Myanmar’s troubled democratic transition, it was a moment rich in irony. The grim panopticon prison on the outskirts of Yangon is where many political prisoners — including senior figures in the ruling National League for Democracy — were incarcerated for years, jailed for their opposition to a brutal military regime that they toppled in an election in late 2015. Now the formerly oppressed are presiding over the jailing of journalists for exposing the crimes of the regime. A judge handed Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo seven-year jail sentences after finding them guilty of violating Myanmar’s official secrets act. The men — who have already spent almost nine months in prison — were convicted while reporting on the killing last year of 10 Rohingya Muslim men by government soldiers and Buddhist villagers in Inn Din, northern Rakhine state. The Myanmar government has not disputed their work and has jailed several people for the crime. Yet the harsh jail term handed to the two reporters has all but ensured the Rohingya crisis — which has seen more than 700,000 members of the minority group flee to neighbouring Bangladesh — will dominate the international conversation on Myanmar for the foreseeable future. This is another irony, as Aung San Suu Kyi has often chided foreigners for dwelling on the minority group at the expense of the country’s myriad economic problems and other conflicts. Some observers said the case would be devastating to the credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has made no comment since the verdicts were announced. “This is going to be a cause célèbre and a stigma on the government,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an associate professor of political science at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Aung San Suu Kyi has lost the plot.” Myanmar finds Reuters journalists guilty of breaching state secrets law A report published last week by the International Crisis Group described her government as “isolated in its Naypyidaw bubble”, and failing to deliver on issues ranging from the economy to peace talks with Myanmar’s myriad armed ethnic groups. “Rarely has the reputation of a leader fallen so far, so fast,” it said. Monday’s verdict came a week after a damning UN report that called for the military leadership of Myanmar to be prosecuted for genocide for its role in the Rohingya crackdown. While the UN said Myanmar’s civilian government had little scope to control the military, it criticised Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to leverage her position as head of government or her “moral authority” to prevent what happened in Rakhine. The past two weeks of bad news has laid bare the flaws in Myanmar’s wobbly transition to democracy. Most notably is the civilian-military compromise that left generals from the old order in charge of key security functions, while allowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters to defend her by saying she had no control over them. That storyline is now wearing thin. During nine months of legal proceedings against the journalists, Myanmar’s de facto leader failed to speak up on their behalf or for the principle of press freedom. Bill Richardson, a former US diplomat, fell out with Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year, quitting an advisory panel for the Rohingya situation that she had asked him to sit on. After the ruling, he railed against her conduct, writing on Twitter that she had cancelled his meeting to discuss the journalists’ case and referred to them as “traitors”. As international condemnations of Monday’s verdict poured in, some doubted the wisdom of overlooking Aung San Suu Kyi’s shortcomings as a leader because of her perceived status as the country’s best democratic hope. “There are a lot of questions being asked internationally about whether this government is a viable partner,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst based in Yangon. “I don’t think the answer has yet come back ‘no’, but it’s being asked.” For close observers of Myanmar’s political transition that began in 2011, there had long been signs that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was performing poorly. The 73-year-old presides over a largely elderly cabinet that includes many former military-era figures. She centralised control in her hands, slowing or paralysing decision-making in some areas. On her watch, hate speech against Muslims has soared, prompting Facebook — a leading conduit for news in the country — to take measures to close down military-linked accounts. Criminal prosecutions of journalists have soared. Recommended The FT View Myanmar must pay for crimes it is committing However, while the jailing of the two reporters made headlines around the world, including in Myanmar, there was little sign of widespread support for the reporters in the country. Aung San Suu Kyi remains popular in Myanmar, even if criticism of her NLD government — which faces a by-election later this year — is growing. Nonetheless, the story is unlikely to die down given the scale of the international outcry, with calls continuing for Myanmar’s Win Myint, the country’s president and an Aung San Suu Kyi ally, to grant the journalists an amnesty. Reuters said it may “seek relief in an international forum” on their behalf. “It’s a travesty,” Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a Yangon think-tank, said of Monday’s court ruling. “People talk about a separation of powers, but the judiciary has always been under the thumb of the executive — and we know who the executive now is.”
***
So Chee and Thum, still in love with her?
