NLD MP urges all Myanmar nationals to have military training, national service

05 March 2019
NLD MP urges all Myanmar nationals to have military training, national service
MP Tin Htwe from Waw constituency. Photo: Min Min/Mizzima

An MP from the ruling NLD party has urged the government to consider military training by all citizens and to serve in the national service for the sake of public security.

MP Tin Htwe from Waw constituency called for the consideration of a provision in the constitution, article 386, which stipulates “Every citizen has the duty to undergo military training in accordance with the provisions of the law and to serve in the Armed Forces to defend the Union”, since the police were weak in containing crimes and the crime rate was rising.

“This is a point to consider for the national defence and providing security for the people and their livelihood,” MP Tin Htwe said in a parliament session convened on March 4.

MP Tin Htwe said these words in moving his motion in parliament, ‘urging the government to do crime prevention and crime detterance as a priority for the maintenance of law and order and public security.’

After parliament session, MP Tin Htwe told media, “In accordance with the Chapter 8 of the 2008 Constitution, article 386, every citizen has the right to serve in the national defence and national service. So shall we form (the armed forces) in this way? Only in this way, can we control and contain the crimes. Unless we can control the crimes the path to democratic reform will not be fulfilled.”

He added that the police strength in towns and villages were much less than the sanctioned strength so that the police force could not do even the crime prevention work properly, which caused much affecting the public safety and security. 

“Because of the inability to do crime prevention work, crime rates have been rising since our government assumed office,” MP Tin Htwe told media after the parliament session.

“We found our police force could do only collecting the dead body in a murder case, making list of lost property in a burglary case, tracing and arresting accused only after the crime has been committed,” MP Tin Htwe said in moving his motion in parliament.

The MP suggested in moving his motion that the police force which was providing security of towns and villages could expand their strength by recruiting more and also the police battalions should share their personnel to these understrength police stations.

MP Sein Han from Kamma constituency who seconded this motion said that maintaining the rule of law could be achieved and successful only if the entire people got involved in this work with a duty conscious mind in cooperation with the public administration. This work could not be performed only by the administration, he said.

Since there was no objection in parliament for deliberations on this motion, lower house speaker T Khun Myat made an announcement in parliament that this motion would be deliberated in parliament and MPs who wished to deliberate on this motion could give their names to parliament.