(Compilation of
translated-posts from various Burmese blogs this week.)
Australian Labor MP Janelle Saffin, the
Chairman of Australia-Myanmar Parliamentary Committee, told the Voice Journal
in her interview that the Australian Government will withdraw all Australian
aids to Burma if Burma does not amend the Section-59(F) of Burma’s 2008
Constitution well before the coming 2015 General Elections in Burma.
Apparently that Constitutional Act’s
Section-59(F) is basically blocking Aung San Suu Kyi from ever becoming the
president of Myanmar, and thus the chief-meddler-in-Burmese-politics and
Australian Socialist politician Janelle Saffin is issuing her ultimatum to
Burma. Let ASSK be the Socialist president of Burma or we’ll stop giving Burma
money, period.
59. Qualifications of the President and Vice-Presidents are as follows:
(f) shall he himself, one of the parents, the spouse, one of the
legitimate children or their spouse
not owe allegiance to a foreign power, not be subject of a foreign power or
citizen of a foreign country. They shall not be persons entitled to enjoy the
rights and privileges of a subject of a foreign government or citizen of a
foreign country.
Clearly Daw Aung San Suu Kyi the present
Chairman of NLD (National League for Democracy) is not qualified to be a
presidential candidate according to the 2008 Constitution’s Section-59(F) as
she has two British-born and British-citizen sons. She doesn’t need to worry
about the foreign spouse clause as her British husband passed away many years
ago.
According to Janelle Saffin she didn’t
really expect the 2015 General Elections in Burma to be totally free and fair
like the Australian General Elections, BUT at least the Section 59(F) or the so-called Lady-Prohibition-Section must be
removed as a positive step towards free and fair elections in Burma.
Ms. Janelle Saffin, the self-appointed
expert on Burma’s Constitutions, even added that President U Thein Sein could
use his constitutional power and submit a constitutional amendment to Burma’s
Union Parliament to pass.
But our president U Thein Sein has been
repeatedly saying that ASSK could become president had people of Burma wanted
her as their president, after referring the Section-436(a) of the 2008
Constitution.
So what exactly is Section 436(a) of
Burma’s 2008 Constitution?
436. (a) If it is necessary to amend the provisions of -----------,
Sections 59 and 60 in Chapter III, --------------, it shall be amended with the
prior approval of more than seventy-five percent of all the representatives of
the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament), after which in a nation-wide
referendum only with the votes of more than half of those who are eligible to
vote.
As our 2008 Constitution clearly stated
– thanks God for former Senior-General Than Shwe’s visions and great wisdom –
there are two obvious hurdles on the way for ASSK to become the president of
Burma.
She first needs at least seventy-five percent of all Union MPs on her side, and
then more than fifty percent of the people of Burma to support her in the
referendum. She definitely cannot count on the twenty-five percent block of serving-officer MPs from the military.
ASSK's dream of becoming the president in 2015 is totally impossible in current racially-heated and religiously-supercharged political environment in Burma. Previously overwhelming support for her NLD nationwide is now being rapidly eroded by the popular 969 Buddhist-nationalist mass movement tacitly supported by Thein Sein's Government and the Army mainly for that purpose.
ASSK's dream of becoming the president in 2015 is totally impossible in current racially-heated and religiously-supercharged political environment in Burma. Previously overwhelming support for her NLD nationwide is now being rapidly eroded by the popular 969 Buddhist-nationalist mass movement tacitly supported by Thein Sein's Government and the Army mainly for that purpose.
Making the matter worse for our ASSK U Thein Sein the popular-incumbent President of Burma and U Shwe Mann the popular-incumbent
Speaker of Union Parliament have both declared to contest for the 2015 presidency.
Thus the ASSK’s chance of becoming the president in 2015 is getting smaller and
smaller towards almost impossible.
Thus the ultimatum from Janelle Saffin
to Burma “Let ASSK be the president in
2015 or we will withdraw the Australian aid” even though she doesn’t even
have that authority and political power to decide which country gets how much
of Australian aid money.
Related posts at following links:
