Bid to curb army power blocked
MYANMAR’S parliament blocked a bid by the party of leader Aung San Suu Kyi to reduce the role of the military in politics yesterday, almost a decade into a troubled democratic transition.
In the first day of voting on a series of proposed constitutional amendments, lawmakers vetoed changes backed by the ruling party that would have altered the 2008 charter drafted by the former ruling military junta.
The rejected amendments would have gradually reduced the number of military MPs over a period of 15 years, and abolished a section that names the commander-in-chief of the defence services as the “supreme commander of all armed forces”.
The constitution guarantees military members of parliament a quarter of the seats in the legislature. Any changes to the charter require the approval of more than two thirds of lawmakers, giving the army an effective veto.
A spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) did not answer phone calls seeking comment. A government spokesperson declined to answer questions.
Lawmakers also rejected removing the word “disciplined” from the definition of the country’s political system as a “genuine, disciplined multiparty democratic system”.
But they approved an amendment that would allow public servants to belong to political parties.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has been under pressure to show progress on constitutional reform – seen as a major stumbling block to democratic hopes – ahead of a general election expected later this year. She took power in 2016 after a landslide election win, vowing to continue democratic reforms that began in 2011 and end the country’s long-running civil wars.
Since then, the administration has come under foreign pressure over a 2017 military crackdown against the Rohingya minority, as well as escalating ethnic conflict.
Myanmar has been accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague but denies the charges, saying it was carrying out a legitimate campaign against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts.
Last week, the City of London Corporation revoked an honour granted to Suu Kyi, over the treatment of minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
She has also been stripped of a series of other international honours.
Voting on other proposed amendments will continue until March 20, although analysts say the military veto means they are unlikely to pass.
Key sections the NLD aim to reform include one that blocks Suu Kyi from the presidency on account of her foreign-born children, who are British citizens.
PRIME Minister Boris Johnson yesterday defeated his first party rebellion over a government decision to allow China’s Huawei to have a role in building Britain’s 5G mobile phone network.
Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, has been caught in a stand-off between Washington and Beijing, after the US accused it of spying on Western secrets, allegations the company denied.
Britain decided in January to allow Huawei into what the government said were non-sensitive parts of the country’s 5G network, capping its involvement at 35%.
This angered the US, which wants to exclude Huawei from the West’s next-generation communications systems, and has urged Britain to rethink.
Some senior Conservatives shared the US unhappiness. They wanted Huawei eliminated entirely from Britain’s 5G networks by the end of December 2022.
The government tried to placate the rebels by saying it would work towards increasing the supply of 5G telecoms gear so operators would not need to use Huawei, but it refused to commit to any timetable to ban the Chinese company. However, the rebels pushed their plan to a vote.
The government, which has an 80 seat majority, won by 24.
Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said the government had “heard loud and clear the points made on all sides of the house”.
Bob Seely, one of the rebels, signalled that the group would continue to pursue their cause, describing the vote as “a strong first showing”.
The rebels wanted to amend the Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill to ensure that companies termed by British security experts as “high-risk vendors” – such as Huawei – were stripped out of networks by the end of 2022. The government said it did not want high-risk vendors, but in a market dominated by three players – Huawei, Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia – some network operators were relying on Huawei.
“We would like to get to the point where we won’t need to have any high-risk vendors at all,” Digital Minister Oliver Dowden told parliament.
Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang said the company had been “reassured” by the government’s decision, which would “result in a more advanced, more secure and more cost-effective telecoms infrastructure”.