Semi Democracy Burmese Style (2)

(This episode details the truly unique 15 minutes a day Union Parliament.) 

The recently elected Union Parliament (Pyidaungzu Hluttaw) convened on Jan 31, 2011.

But it appears the Union Parliament of Burma did not or would not sit every weekday as a normal parliament from any civilized nation would be expected to do. Even if the Parliament sits in a particular day it would not sit for more than 20 minutes that day. On average the Union Parliament sits for only 15 minutes a day.

Apparently Than Shwe has learnt his lesson from Myint Aung’s refusal to serve as the Defense Minister and thus he re-programmed the Parliament schedule to go slow as to suit his tight but tricky selection of key persons from among the senior army officers.

On February 8 the second day of the Union Parliament, President-elect Thein Sein submitted the list of 34 proposed ministries and also the second list of 30 hand-picked ministers to the Union Parliament. Obviously both lists were handed to him by his real boss Than Shwe.

My First Post

Hello and good day to all my readers!

I have been writing about my birth country Burma for the New Mandala blog hosted by ANU in Australia for almost 3 years and many people often asked me to start my own blog. I believe one reason was some of my writings are too personal and thus not really appropriate for a serious academic blog like New Mandala. And also my writings have become controversial because of the political contents.

For example my current ongoing series - Burma in Limbo - attracts so many adverse critics because of my attempt to correct the widely but wrongly accepted history of modern Burma. So I've created my own blog and I think I should re-post all my writings from New Mandala first and then the continuation of current Burma in Limbo series.

I don't really know how long  that series will go as I am also learning and evolving while working on the series. Thanks for reading my work and please accept my apology for not allowing the comments as my writings are too controversial and also I hate to see negative and hateful comments. Also because of the time constraint as I'm still working to earn my living. My email is hlaoo1956@gmail.com if you want to contact me, seriously.

Thanks and you all are welcome! Here are the links to some of my posts on the New Mandala.

Irrawaddy Water and Ne Win's Gold Trees
1974 U Thant Uprising
The Scourge of Burma - Part 1
Burma in Limbo - Part 1