Suu Kyi registers for seat in Myanmar's Parliament - The Associated Press

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Suu Kyi registers for seat in Myanmar's ParliamentBy AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press – 1 hour ago 

THANLYIN, Myanmar (AP) — Ecstatic cheers of "Long Live Aung San Suu Kyi!" echoed through the streets of this impoverished Yangon suburb Wednesday as she registered for elections, a sign of how vastly Myanmar has changed since the junta gave up power after decades of iron-fisted rule.

Throngs of flag-waving supporters crowded the local election office to shout support and glimpse the 66-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, who became Myanmar's most recognizable face during years of house arrest under authoritarian rule.

The scene would have been unthinkable while the junta still ruled. It despised Suu Kyi because of her popularity and any public support for her was swiftly and firmly halted.

The freedom allowed to Suu Kyi's supporters is another sign that the country's elected but military-backed government is keeping promises for democratic reforms — a key condition of the West before lifting sanctions.

Since taking office in March, the government has released hundreds of prominent political prisoners, signed cease-fires with ethnic rebels, increased press freedoms and opened a dialogue with Suu Kyi herself.

Even if her political party wins all 48 seats to be contested in by-elections April 1, it will have minimal power. The 440-seat lower house of Parliament is heavily weighted with military appointees and allies of the former junta.

But a victory would be historic. It would give the longtime political prisoner a voice in Parliament for the first time after decades as the country's opposition leader.

Suu Kyi registered to run for a seat representing Kawhmu, a poor district south of Yangon where villagers' livelihoods were devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Many in the crowds that greeted her at the Election Commission office in Thanlyin wore Suu Kyi T-shirts.

Suu Kyi paraphernalia has proliferated in recent months with vendors hawking photographs, key chains and calendars with her image, seen as another testament to the country's breakneck pace of change.

The Election Commission must still accept Suu Kyi's candidacy, a ruling expected to come next month. Her party has so far chosen 44 candidates to contest the 48 seats vacated by lawmakers who became Cabinet ministers.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but was denied power by the military junta. Myanmar's next elections didn't come for 20 years, but Suu Kyi was under house arrest and her party boycotted due to what they called unfair and undemocratic rules.

Reforms since that election in 2010 have drawn Suu Kyi and her party back into mainstream politics and won international praise and measured diplomatic support.

The United States is upgrading diplomatic relations and sending an ambassador to Myanmar for the first time in two decades.

The severe international sanctions that restrict Myanmar's trade and the travel and financial transactions of the former junta's inner circle mostly remain, as countries monitor how the April vote is conducted and weigh other considerations.

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi registers as candidate for parliament seat - CNN

Aung San Suu Kyi registers to run as a candidate in upcoming by-elections on the outskirts of Yangon on January 18, 2012.Suu Kyi will contest for a seat in Kawhmu Western governments have applauded the effortThe regime has pledged to pursue a peace deal

Thanlyin, Myanmar (CNN) -- Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi registered Wednesday to run for a parliamentary seat in the military-run country.

Suu Kyi will contest for a seat in Kawhmu, where supporters clapped and gave her flowers after she turned in her paperwork for the April election.

The move by the Nobel Peace Prize winner comes after the regime pledged to pursue a peace deal with an ethnic rebel group and pardoned hundreds of political prisoners as part of national reconciliation.

Western governments have applauded the effort, with the United States sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country last month -- the first top U.S. diplomat in the nation in more than five decades.

And this month, Suu Kyi met with William Hague, the first British foreign secretary to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years.

Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta since 1962, but the generals are loosening their grip on the country after coming under criticism for their human rights record.

Suu Kyi was under house arrest in 1990 when her party, the National League for Democracy, won the election by a landslide, but the military junta rejected the results.

She was released in November 2010 after spending most of the past 20 years under house arrest or in prison. Her release came days after the nation's first election in two decades.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has said it will have a roster of 23 candidates in this year's election.

Forty-eight seats are up for grabs in the April 1 election.

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Germany's Schulz Voted EU Parliament Head Over Two U.K. Rivals - Bloomberg

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The European Parliament chose Martin Schulz of Germany as its president over two U.K. candidates, highlighting Britain’s struggle for political clout on the continent.

Schulz, the Socialists’ floor leader in the European Union assembly, succeeds Polish Christian Democrat Jerzy Buzek for the second half of a five-year term. This reflects a power-sharing accord between the Christian Democrats, the 27-nation Parliament’s largest faction from which U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron removed his Conservative Party, and the Socialists, the second-biggest group.

The 56-year-old Schulz defeated Nirj Deva, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists faction that is now home to Cameron’s Tories in the Strasbourg, France-based legislature, and Diana Wallis, who belongs to the Liberals, the assembly’s third-biggest group. Schulz won 387 of the 670 valid votes cast today.

Cameron’s decision to split from Europe’s Christian Democrats because he objects to their push for deeper EU political integration has left him outside an alliance that includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

In early December, euro-area leaders decided to draft a new European treaty on budget discipline without the U.K. because Cameron refused to support an EU-wide initiative in the absence of guarantees of a British veto right over future financial regulations. Merkel and Sarkozy opposed that demand.

The 754-seat Parliament decides on EU laws along with national governments and acts as a check on the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, which proposes legislation.

Among the busiest areas of new EU laws are financial services, leaving the U.K. struggling to protect the City of London from proposals ranging from curbs on short selling to a financial-transaction tax.

Schulz’s Socialists have championed more regulation of banks to prevent another financial crisis. His election as EU Parliament president moves him into a largely ceremonial role from previous positions in which he has had a reputation for being confrontational.

Schulz made headlines in 2003 as the target of a Nazi slur by Silvio Berlusconi, then Italy’s prime minister. In a Strasbourg debate on Italy’s six-month EU presidency, Schulz accused Berlusconi of undemocratic leanings and of meddling with Italy’s justice system. Berlusconi responded by mocking Schulz as possessing the attributes of a concentration camp guard, sparking an uproar in the Parliament chamber and across Europe. Berlusconi said the insult was meant as a joke and never apologized.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Strasbourg, France at jstearns2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan PM Gilani wins key backing in Parliament - Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan’s Parliament passed a key resolution Monday night calling for the country’s other state institutions – the Army and Supreme Court – to remain within their constitutional limits.

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The resolution is a welcome boost for beleaguered Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani who earlier in the day was charged by the Supreme Court with contempt for failing to reopen old corruption cases against his ally President Asif Ali Zardari. If found guilty, Mr. Gilani faces dismissal and the possibility of jail time.

Gilani described Monday’s vote as “a welcome day for democracy,” adding that it endorses Parliament’s supremacy.

Pakistan's military traditionally enjoys wide latitude in shaping the country's national security policies and has stepped in numerous times – often with the Supreme Court's blessing – to overthrow civilian governments that challenged its authority. The Gilani government has been trying to circumscribe the military's role particularly after the embarrassing discovery of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a military garrison town last year. Last week, Pakistan’s Army issued a statement criticizing the Prime Minister and promising “grievous consequences,” raising fears of another military coup.

Today's backing in Parliament suggests Pakistan's political leadership prefers Gilani and his government to stay in office until elections expected later this year. This support from Parliament, as well as recent warm statements by Gilani toward the military, have tamped down the concerns about a coup – for now.

Zaffar Abbas, editor of leading-English daily Dawn, says the resolution will strengthen Gilani's hand, despite a last-ditch walk-out by some opposition parties.

“The majority want the system to continue. If a consensus had been reached they would have liked it, but still the house has passed it,” he says.

However, the future of the government still remains uncertain as it faces down two major cases in court. 

The first concerns a political amnesty known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance which was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2009. When the Court overturned the amnesty, it expected Gilani to help reopen old corruption cases against President Zardari.

Zardari argued, however, that as head of state he enjoys immunity from prosecution, and Gilani did not pursue it. That may change as court pressure on Gilani mounts. 

According to Supreme Court advocate Feisal Naqvi, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) may end up sending a letter to Swiss authorities to help reopen the old cases against President Zardari before the next date of hearing on Thursday, in order to avoid Gilani’s dismissal. 

Mr. Abbas, on the other hand, says the judiciary is more likely to get the prime minister’s legal team to respond to the contempt charges rather than dismissing the prime minister.

The second case relates to a secret memorandum sent by unknown persons to the United States, seeking American help in curtailing Pakistan’s Army. Zardari denies any role in the scandal, which cost former Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani his job. Mansoor Ijaz, a US businessmen who says he co-authored the memo and brought it to light, is due to give evidence to the court on Jan. 25. 

A further interesting aspect to Monday’s vote was a failure by Pakistan’s main opposition party, the PML-N, to side with the government despite a recent record of standing up to the Army. The resolution still passed with a majority of parliament including some members of other opposition parties.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali, leader of the opposition in parliament, attempted to table amendments to the resolution requiring the government to endorse all orders of the Supreme Court and refrain from making hostile statements toward the Army in public. When those amendments failed, he led a walk-out, saying: “There is no threat to democracy. This incompetent government is trying to support itself through this hollow resolution.”

According to senior Pakistani journalist Amir Mateen, the statements represent a mellowing of the party’s anti-Army stance which it has held since elections in 2008 and may be the result of an attempt to make political hay in what politicians and pundits alike expect to be an election year.

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