Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that he hopes the election of retired General Thein Sein to the office of president of Burma and the selection of two vice presidents ‘represents an important opportunity’ for change.
In a statement released from his office, he said the new government could ‘mark the beginning of a change in the status quo’ and lead to the formation of a more inclusive civilian government that is broadly representative of all parties relevant to national reconciliation.’Ban’s statement is in line with comments prior to the national election, and before, expressing a hope for change in the military-ruled country.
However, his take on Thein Sein’s change of office from the military government-appointed prime minister to the national president is in sharp contrast to many of the regime’s critics, who point out that the parliament is overwhelmingly dominated by members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won nearly 80 percent of the contested seats.
In addition, direct military appointments to Parliament account for 25 percent of the total number of seats.
While the small group of opposition MPs elected from ethnic parties and the National Democratic Front, a breakaway faction that split from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, have said that they will do their best to hold the ruling USDP party to account, observers say that will be a hard task, particularly in light of some of the laws and rules governing legislative procedures.
For instance, all questions to be presented in official Parliament sessions must be submitted 10 days in advance and vetted by a USDP-appointee, who is charged with preventing questions that could damage national “interests” or disclose state secrets.
Even if a question passes his test, the speaker has the prerogative to block a question. There is no appeal.
This and other troubling rules led the influential Economist magazine to conclude that Burma’s Parliament is a ‘sham legislature’.
Over the last year, Ban’s handing of the ongoing crisis in Burma has received criticism from various Burma activists and human rights groups.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch annual report, issued last month, titled ‘A Facade of Action: The Misuse of Dialogue and Cooperation with Rights Abusers’, closely parsed Ban’s dealings with the governments of Burma, Sudan and Sri Lanka.
In an introduction, Executive Director Kenneth Roth claimed that Ban ‘has placed undue faith in his professed ability to convince by private persuasion the likes of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, Burmese military leader Than Shwe and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.’ Roth went on to claim ‘Worse, far from condemning repression, Ban sometimes went out of his way to portray oppressive governments in a positive light.’
He said, ‘In the days before Burma's sham elections in November, Ban contended that it was “not too late” to “make this election more inclusive and participatory” by releasing political detainees––an unlikely eventuality that, even if realized, would not have leveled the severely uneven electoral playing field’.
When asked about Roth’s criticism of the secretary-general’s repeated statements of optimism about the election, Ban’s spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters at a UN Press conference in late January, ‘I wouldn't characterize his view about the elections as they approached as optimism.’
This despite the fact less than 10 days before the November 7 election, the secretary-general’s office issued a fairly upbeat press release detailing Ban’s meeting with Thein Sein on the sidelines of an Asean summit in Hanoi, in which Ban yet again asked that the election be ‘inclusive and participatory’.
Ban has yet to appoint permanent Burma envoy
Missing from Friday’s press release, which was Ban’s first on Burma this year, was any mention of when he will appoint a full-time special envoy to Burma to replace Vijay Nambiar, his chief of staff who has now served in the role on a temporary basis for more than a year.
Following a meeting of the UN Security Council in December, both the Mexican and British ambassadors to the UN told reporters they wanted Ban to choose a full-time Burma special envoy as soon as possible.
They expressed a desire for a full-time envoy following a widely circulated news article by Inner City Press that said sources in the UN had said that after returning from Burma ‘Nambiar’s internal reporting to UN officials was critical of Aung San Suu Kyi, characterising her as out of touch and somehow too hard line’.
Last December in a response to a question from Mizzima, deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said that Ban is ‘considering the idea’ of making a full-time envoy appointment. Haq said that Ban’s office would make an announcement if there was any change of personnel.
