BBC/Burmese: Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) on Depaeyin Massacre

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC-TV Entertainment)

Burma’s Myo Yan Naung Thein on Junta’s Parliaments

Myo Thein on BBC News Channel on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Released

Aung San Suu Kyi: I was both prisoner and maintenance woman

Burma’s pro-democracy leader talks about her life in captivity, her first days of freedom and the fight ahead
• Jack Davies in Rangoon
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 21.19 GMT
• Article history

Aung San Suu Kyi talks about her years under house arrest and Burma’s future at the offices of her National League for Democracy in Rangoon Photograph: AP
Finally free from the clutches of Burma’s ruling generals and the lonely life of house arrest they subjected her to, Aung San Suu Kyi now finds she cannot escape from herself.
At the headquarters of her currently-outlawed political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), images of her are everywhere: on posters, calendars and pamphlets, T-shirts, necklaces and earrings.
As she poses politely for photos, the Guardian asks who the golden bust behind her represents. “It’s supposed to be me,” she says. “I wish people wouldn’t make busts or posters of me, it is a very strange thing to be looking at yourself all the time. It’s not like this at my house, I promise you. I have pictures of my children.”
The building is filled to overflowing; the noise of a hundred conversations reverberate off the peeling wars and concrete floors. Today, there are more people than chairs, and those left without crouch against walls.
Across the road, perched on conspicuous orange motorbikes, the government’s spies are kept busy, watching her party headquarters through camera lenses and binoculars. But Aung San Suu Kyi is unconcerned about the attention from the military’s special branch. They will be her companion every day she is free.
“That is for them to worry about. I can only do what I feel I need to do, what I can do for the people of Burma,” she says. “They will follow me, I cannot stop that. I cannot worry.”
Aung San Suu Kyi is 65, but looks 20 years younger. A hint of grey at her temples is the only physical sign of the strains of two decades spent resisting a brutal military regime. She has a piercing gaze, which rarely moves from her interrogator, and her response is deliberate when pushed about the government’s overt, hostile attention. She is not frightened that she could be detained again – a fate that has befallen her for 15 of the last 21 years.
“It is not a fear, it’s a possibility that I live with. I understand that is the situation, and I have to accept it. They have done it before, and it is very possible they will do it again, but it is not something I fear every day. It is my situation.”
It is nearly a week since military officials came to her door at 54 University Avenue, Rangoon, and told her she was free, noting perversely, her good behaviour.
Since then, she has been almost constantly in meetings of one sort or another. Diplomats and journalists from every corner of the globe have formed a queue at the bottom of the stairs leading to her door. She has taken phone calls from presidents and prime ministers. She has met with NLD party elders to discuss strategy and legal challenges and sanctions policy.
But she has stopped too, amid the throng of admirers, to talk to people on the street, old women who claim kinship, children who have a flower for her.
She has spoken with her sons by phone every day – something she could never do before, though there is no word on when she will be allowed to see them – she has visited the high court to lodge an appeal against her party’s disbanding, and visited an HIV/AIDS shelter. Everywhere she goes, she is mobbed.
She is happy, “because now I am free”.
She talks candidly about her years under house arrest, saying it was “far, far easier” than the time currently being served by Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners. They must be freed before any real progress will be made, she insists.
Reluctantly, she concedes that there were moments of pessimism. “Despair is not the right word, but there were times that I would worry … a lot, not so much for myself, for my situation, but for the future of the country.”
But she has little time for introspection and none for self-pity. The overwhelming feeling during the last seven-and-a-half years she spent confined to her damp, two-storey home was, she says, that “there weren’t enough hours in the day”.
“As unbelievable as it may sound, it’s true. When I tell you that I had to listen to the radio for six hours every day, that is a big chunk of time, and that was solid work, just to make sure I caught all of the Burmese programs, just so I could keep up with what was going on. Because if I missed something, there was no one to come around to tell me ‘did you hear about’. I needed to keep myself informed.”
She says she read, for work and pleasure, biographies and spy novels were favourites at the end of the day, and she meditated regularly. “And then there was the house to run and to maintain, there really was a lot to do.”
She laughs at the ridiculous lengths the junta went to in its ad hoc imprisonment. “I was both prisoner and maintenance woman,” she says, mimicking a feeble effort with a hammer.
“No one was allowed to come to fix the house. I had to fix everything that went wrong around the place. The two people I was with (her live-in maids, a mother and daughter) were completely non-mechanical and non-electrical, so I had to learn with great difficulty how to do these things.”
She was not always successful. For several days following cyclone Nargis in 2008, the trio lived by candlelight.
But she is less interested in reflecting on the years of isolation than on what happens next in her country.
Internationally, Aung San Suu Kyi’s release has been described as Burma’s “Mandela moment”, comparing it to the day in 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked free from prison in South Africa. She hopes it may one day prove so, but is wary of the comparison now.
“I think that our situation is much more difficult than South Africa’s. South Africa had already made some movement towards democracy when Mandela was released. Here in Burma, we are nowhere near that. We haven’t even begun.”
“And I feel our case is a lot more difficult than South Africa.”
South Africa’s fault line was clear-cut, apartheid was based on race, she says. “Colour is something that everyone can see straight away. Here, it is less obvious who is who, because we are all Burmese. It is Burmese discriminating and oppressing Burmese.
“I have often thought everything would be much easier if all the NLD supporters were coloured purple. Then it would be obvious who is being jailed and who is being discriminated against. And the international community would be angered more easily, they could easily say ‘you cannot discriminate against the purples’.”
Where Burma goes from here is unclear, she says, “we are a country in limbo”.
She realises the power of her freedom to the people of Burma, though she is always conscious that there are many others in her movement, and thousands still in prison. “I don’t believe in one person’s influence and authority to move a country forward. I am honoured by the trust people have in me, but one person alone can not bring democracy to a country.
“Change is going to come from the people. I want to play my role … I want to work in unison with the people of Burma, but it is they who will change this country.”
Jack Davies is a Guardian reporter writing under a pseudonym
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/18/aung-san-suu-kyi-burma-interview

Burma: Myo Yan Naung Thein On What Burma’s Youth Should Do

Junta’s elections on 7 November 2010 is to justify five decades of military rule

18 Oct 2010

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) calls for the international community not to recognize junta’s planned 2010 election and its results.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led National League for Democracy (NLD), victor of 1990 election, decided unanimously to boycott the junta’s planned sham 2010 election due to its unfair electoral laws. Without the participation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, without the participation of National League for Democracy (NLD), and without the participation of 1990 election winning parties, junta’s planned election in 2010 is clearly not creditable.

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) would like to raise some points considering current situation of Burma. The very military regime who is ruling Burma today held the election in 1990 pledging that they will transfer the power to the election wining party. The junta’s Law No.14/89, “Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law,” states clearly in Chapter 3 Section 3 that the “Hluttaw (Assembly) shall be formed with the Hluttaw representatives who have been elected.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi once said that: “The results of these elections will remain valid until such time as the Members of Parliament elected in 1990 by the people have had a chance to get together and decide what the next step is going to be. The world has to make certain that the outcome of these elections is honoured”.

The junta’s planned 2010 election is only a charade designed to legitimise the military dictatorship within Burma. The International Community should be aware of the hopelessly irreconcilable contents of the constitution that was adopted in 2008. The referendum was ushered into existence under questionable conditions including extortion and rigged ballots. Implementing these fundamental demands requested by legitimate leaders of Burma is a MUST before playing into the junta’s illegal 2010 election. Giving the military junta 25% of the parliamentary seats and unbridled authoritarian control are truly not the will of the Burmese people. There is no room for genuine democratic change in Burma due to junta’s planned 2010 election so that all the justice loving countries should avoid any action glorifying it.

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) would like to call for the international community to take (3) practical steps in order to bring about genuine democratic change in Burma, i.e.

1. International community must declare that it won’t recognise junta’s planned 2010 election and its results.

2. International community must call for implementation of 1990 election results and actually supporting the democratic groups attempting to implement these results.

3. International community must declare that it is ready to endorse Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led people’s leaders as the legitimate government of Burma if should the one be formed.

For more information please contact

Ko Myo Thein [United Kingdom]
Phone: 00-44-78 7788 2386

U Khin Maung Win [United States]
Phone: 001-941-961-2622

Daw Khin Aye Aye Mar [United States]
Phone: 001 509 586 8309

U Tint Swe Thiha [United States]
Phone: 001-509-582-3261, 001-509-591-8459
http://www.bdcburma.org/NewsDetails.asp?id=724

Election Commission Disbands NLD

Burma’s Union Election Commission (EC) officially announced on Tuesday evening the dissolution of 10 political parties, including the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The state-run radio and television announced at about 6 p.m on Tuesday that the NLD had been dissolved as it did not register as a political party for the November general election.

The dissolved parties include five parties that were previously accepted by the EC under the party registration process. The state media said the five had been dissolved for failing to complete their candidates lists in time. There are now 37 political parties that have been granted registration.

The registered parties have been told they can campaign through state-run media such as radio and television for 15 minutes each. They, however, need to inform the EC seven days in advance before running a party campaign ad.

The five previously registered parties that were dissolved were named as: the Union Karen League, the Myanmar New Society Party, the Mro National Party, the Myanmar Democracy Congress and the Regional Development Party (Pyay).

The other five parties were dissolved because they did not re-apply for registration, the Burmese media said.

The five parties dissolved for not fulfilling this obligation were named as: the NLD, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the Union Pa-O National Organization, the Shan State Kokang Democratic Party and the Wa National Development Party.

The state media said all 10 parties in question could no longer participate in any form of political activity.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi’s NLD won the country’s last election, in 1990, by a landslide, but was never allowed to take power.

Burmese Video: “Ar-Yone-Oo-Mar SHOCK Shi-Tae” Ads (Sunrise Shock)

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is embarking on media campaign so as to encourage everyone’s participation working for democratisation of Burma. Media play important role to restore democracy in Burma so that Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is producing the video, “Ar-Yone-Oao-Mar SHOCK Shi-Tae”, to share with all the people inside Burma so that they can have the opportunity to see two different perspectives compare with junta’s propaganda video, Ar-Yone-Oo-Mar-Phu-Tae-Kyar which is full of wrong information”.
In the video, there will be the information regarding why we should boycott junta’s planned sham election which will be held on 7 November 2010. Addition, there will be more information about junta’s unilaterally adopted sham constitution and why we must collectively lobby international governments including UNSC to to declare military entrenching constitution as NULL & VOID. This is part of the answer for Burma crisis.
For more information please contact Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) http://www.bdcburma.org

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is embarking on media campaign so as to encourage everyone’s participation working for democratisation of Burma. Media play important role to restore democracy in Burma so that Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is producing the video, “Ar-Yone-Oao-Mar SHOCK Shi-Tae”, to share with all the people inside Burma so that they can have the opportunity to see two different perspectives compare with junta’s propaganda video, Ar-Yone-Oo-Mar-Phu-Tae-Kyar which is full of wrong information”.
In the video, there will be the information regarding why we should boycott junta’s planned sham election which will be held on 7 November 2010. Addition, there will be more information about junta’s unilaterally adopted sham constitution and why we must collectively lobby international governments including UNSC to to declare military entrenching constitution as NULL & VOID. This is part of the answer for Burma crisis.
For more information please contact Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) http://www.bdcburma.org

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC): Good News for Burmese Refugees in Malaysia

View this document on Scribd