Security tight as Burma opens new parliament

Published on Monday 31 January 2011 15:09

BURMA opened its first parliament in more than two decades yesterday, an event greeted with cautious optimism by opposition MPs despite the military's tight management of the event.

The military and its allies hold more than 80 per cent of the seats in both houses of parliament, ensuring the army exercises control over the levers of power, as it has since a 1962 coup deposed the last legitimately elected legislature. A single-party parliament under late dictator General Ne Win was abolished in 1988 after the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising.

The 440-seat lower house and 224-seat upper house were opened simultaneously at 8:55am local time in a massive new building in Naypyitaw, the remote city to which the capital was moved from Rangoon in 2005. The 14 regional parliaments, whose members were also elected last November, opened at the same time.

In the afternoon, the two houses convened together, and legislative officers were elected. Thura Shwe Mann, the junta's third-ranking member before retiring from the military to run for election with the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, was named speaker of the lower house, and culture minister Khin Aung Myint was named speaker of the upper house. The timing for picking a president is not clear.

With its allies controlling parliament and loyalists expected to fill top government posts, the military will be keeping a tight grip on power. The 2008 constitution, with provisions ensuring the military's dominance, also came into effect yesterday.

Roads leading to the parliament building were sealed off and manned by armed police. Delegates were bussed from state guest houses to the site. Each bus was checked for bombs. They are not allowed to carry cameras, mobile phones and other electronic devices into the compound. Their speech in parliament is not fully protected, and they are liable to be prosecuted if their statements are determined to endanger national security or the unity of the country.

There appeared to be little popular interest in parliament's opening. Last November's election left a widespread perception that the junta cheated to ensure a victory by its proxies.

Many of the residents of Naypyitaw are civil servants or members of the military, or work in sectors that depend on their patronage, such as a waiter at a small food shop asked about the historic event. "I think this is not our concern. Our concern is earning our daily bread," said the man, in his mid-30s.

Members of the small opposition bloc, however, took an upbeat approach. "We have taken a step toward Burma's democratic change," said Thein Nyunt, an elected representative and former leader of the National Democratic Force, a party formed by breakaway members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party.