Burma's Democracy Leader Hopes Election Win Brings New Era

[rdean]

The party announced Sunday that she and her fellow NLD candidates swept Burma's by-election, winning almost all of the 45 seats up for grabs.

If confirmed, the results would be a public rebuke of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which holds an overwhelming majority of parliament seats.

The Nobel Prize winner pledges that when she and her party enter government after more than two decades in political exile, they will cooperate with all those willing to work for national reconciliation.

Aung San Suu Kyi called Sunday’s vote a hopeful sign for democracy and reconciliation in Burma.

Burma's Democracy Leader Hopes Election Win Brings New Era | Asia | English

I watched an interview with a man who farmed 6 acres growing rice and using water buffalo. He had a car battery for a single light they used at night. He made $30 a month. He and his family stopped building their new house because he thought the money was better spent keeping his two young sons in school.

Even there, someone so poor and in such bad circumstances felt "education" was the way out for his children. Want to bet he's never said "education is for snobs"?

I'm working with two new engineers from China. Both have dental problems. They said it was poor diet growing up. No milk. Education brought them here. They are already planning out the education for their children. When I showed them a presidential candidate saying "education is for snobs", they were totally shocked. One of them said that he thinks Republicans don't like science. Isn't that hilarious? He told me. Seems I'm not the only one with that perception.

 

[waltky]

Myanmar's Suu Kyi takes oath of office...

Myanmar begins new era as Suu Kyi joins parliament
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to Myanmar's military-backed parliament Wednesday, taking public office for the first time since launching her struggle against authoritarian rule nearly a quarter century ago.

The opposition leader's entry into the legislature heralds a new political era in Myanmar, cementing a risky detente between her party and the reformist government of President Thein Sein, which inherited power from the army last year. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party will occupy too few seats to have any real power in the ruling-party dominated assembly, however, and there are fears the presence of the opposition lawmakers could simply legitimize the regime without any change. But the new lawmakers are also likely to bring a level of public debate to the legislative body that has never been seen as they prepare for the next general election in 2015.

The solemn swearing-in ceremony took place in the capital, Naypyitaw, which was built by the former army junta. With white roses in her hair, Suu Kyi stood along with several dozen of her party's lawmakers as the speaker the lower house asked them to read the oath. Speaking briefly to a mob of reporters afterward, Suu Kyi said her focus will be "to carry out our duties within the parliament as we have been carrying out our duties outside the parliament for the last 20 or so years."

Suu Kyi's ascent marks an astonishing reversal of fortune for a woman who became one of the world's most prominent prisoners of conscience, held under house arrest for much of the last two decades. When the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner was finally released in late 2010, just after a vote her party boycotted that was deemed neither free nor fair, few could have imagined she would make the leap from democracy advocate to elected official in less than 18 months. But the road has not been easy. This week, Suu Kyi backed down in a dispute over the oath of office which, had it persisted, could have spiraled into another major crisis. Suu Kyi and her colleagues had refused to join parliament when the latest session began April 23 because they object to phrasing in the oath that obligates them to "safeguard the constitution." They want the word "safeguard" changed to "respect," and have vowed to work to change the constitution because it was drafted under military rule.

But on Monday, Suu Kyi abruptly changed course, saying: "Politics is an issue of give and take. We are not giving up, we are just yielding to the aspirations of the people." The party's failure to take their seats had irked some of Suu Kyi's backers, who were eager to see the woman who has stood up to Myanmar's military for 24 years finally hold office. The opposition NLD won 43 of the 44 seats it contested on April 1, and 34 of those lawmakers were also sworn in Wednesday. Several other lawmakers are out of the country, and oaths will not be taken for two other seats on regional parliaments that are not in session this week.

While the opposition's entry into the bicameral legislature is highly symbolic, the new lawmakers will have little power. A couple dozen lawmakers from smaller opposition parties also sit in the assembly, but the vast majority of seats are held by the military-backed ruling party and the army, which is allotted 25 percent of them. Changes to the constitution require a 75 percent majority, meaning that doing so is all but impossible without military approval.

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[Quantum Windbag]

The party announced Sunday that she and her fellow NLD candidates swept Burma's by-election, winning almost all of the 45 seats up for grabs.

If confirmed, the results would be a public rebuke of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which holds an overwhelming majority of parliament seats.

The Nobel Prize winner pledges that when she and her party enter government after more than two decades in political exile, they will cooperate with all those willing to work for national reconciliation.

Aung San Suu Kyi called Sunday’s vote a hopeful sign for democracy and reconciliation in Burma.

Burma's Democracy Leader Hopes Election Win Brings New Era | Asia | English

I watched an interview with a man who farmed 6 acres growing rice and using water buffalo. He had a car battery for a single light they used at night. He made $30 a month. He and his family stopped building their new house because he thought the money was better spent keeping his two young sons in school.

Even there, someone so poor and in such bad circumstances felt "education" was the way out for his children. Want to bet he's never said "education is for snobs"?

I'm working with two new engineers from China. Both have dental problems. They said it was poor diet growing up. No milk. Education brought them here. They are already planning out the education for their children. When I showed them a presidential candidate saying "education is for snobs", they were totally shocked. One of them said that he thinks Republicans don't like science. Isn't that hilarious? He told me. Seems I'm not the only one with that perception.

Damn, you are really stupid.

Tell me something, how is it that you, who supposedly has a college education and an engineering degree, routinely say things so stupid that most 3rd graders would roll their eyes, yet I, who supposedly thinks that education is only for snobs, can argue rings around you in most subjects. The one thing I took away from my high school physics teacher, who was actually an engineer, is to work smarter, not harder. You work so hard at convincing people that right wingers, like me, hate education and science, yet I keep working smarter, and keep making you look like an idiot.

Try posting smarter, not harder.

 

[waltky]

China gettin' ready to invade Burma...

China Sends Troops to Burmese Border
January 11, 2013 - China has sent soldiers to its border with Myanmar amid concern that escalating violence between the Southeast Asian country's government and ethnic separatists is spilling over, an official Chinese newspaper reported on Friday.

The Global Times said that troops were sent to the border between China's Yunnan Province and Myanmar's northern Kachin State "to understand the situation". It did not give any details on the number or type of soldiers. "On the night of the 9th, there was shelling in Kachin, and residents of the unstable area quickly ran inside the Chinese border to pass the night in peace," the report said. Yunnan is home to an ethnic Kachin population.

The Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, carried an article on its website from the Changjiang Daily newspaper describing artillery shells exploding on a mountain in Yingjiang County, which borders Myanmar. Officials in the Dehong prefecture government, in which the county is located, declined to comment on Friday.

The intensification of the conflict has cast doubt on the intentions of Myanmar's government, which is led by former generals who have been praised for reforms in other areas including elections, media and civil society. Kachin rebel sources have reported aerial bombings, shelling and even the use of chemical weapons since Dec. 28. Myanmar's government said there were no airstrikes, but that K-8 trainer jets had provided cover fire to protect ground troops from rebel attacks.

The 18-month conflict in Kachin state is one of the biggest tests for Myanmar's new civilian government's reform effort and the use of aircraft has raised doubts about whether the retired generals in the government have really changed their harsh old ways. While China has strong business and trade ties with Myanmar, it has long looked with wariness at its poor and unstable southern neighbour and has repeatedly called on the country to ensure stability along the vast and remote border. China had forcibly returned scores of ethnic Kachins who have fled Myanmar, a human rights group said last year.

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