Aung San Suu Kyi


There were high hopes when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party delivered a crushing electoral blow to Myanmar’s decades-long military dictatorship. But the ensuing year and a half has provided cause for dismay as well as for hope.
The army’s brutal repression of the Muslim Rohingya minority has only intensified, with quiet acceptance from Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. Ethnic conflicts have increased in the face of her tepid attempts at conciliation.
The military’s continued dominance of the country, despite her party’s control of Parliament, restricts her ability to move the country forward. But, while Myanmar is much freer since the end of military rule, her acquiescence to repressive measures against free expression is another indication that she is part of the problem.

3 thoughts on “Aung San Suu Kyi

  1. shinichi Post author

    Myanmar’s Suu Kyi turns to state media amid fears for newly gained freedoms

    by Simon Lewis

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-suukyi-media-idUSKBN1AO0UE

    MYAETINEKAN VILLAGE, Myanmar (Reuters) – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has turned to state-run media inherited from the former junta in an overhaul of her PR approach, after warnings her agenda is being swamped by crises and amid fears among rights groups of eroding free speech.

    The Nobel laureate came to power last year amid a transition from full military rule that has propelled her from political prisoner to the elected leader.

    But where she once courted the foreign press in her campaign against the generals and their state-run mouthpieces, she now keeps independent media at arm’s length. Western diplomats and her own advisers have warned she has failed to control her administration’s narrative.

    In a talk with villagers in central Myanmar on Monday, transmitted on state broadcaster Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV), she exhorted the public to follow official statements on the government’s activities.

    “I would like to say: read the newspapers and listen to the news on MRTV released by the government,” she said, referring specifically to official reports about the government’s response to the crisis in western Rakhine state.

    Rohingya Muslim militants killed nine police in attacks there in October, sparking a brutal military response that the United Nations says may have included crimes against humanity.

    Official outlets, including a social media account run out of Suu Kyi’s office, published running denials during the conflict, quickly dismissing reports in independent media of alleged government atrocities as “fake news” and “fake rape”.

    Suu Kyi has resisted calls, including from the United States, to allow U.N. human rights investigators into the country.

    “You will always hear (on official broadcasts) what the government is doing for peace and stability in Rakhine,” she said on Monday.

    “We take a lot of care as the whole world is interested in this.”

    A so-called communications unit within Suu Kyi’s office has also since late June been putting out regular releases celebrating official acts.

    One missive said “hard work, patience and tough decisions” were going into managing the economy, and blamed a slowdown in growth and foreign investment since Suu Kyi took office on past governments.

    Government newspapers that used to denounce then opposition leader Suu Kyi now run her picture on their front pages nearly every day.

    Myint Kyaw, a member of the Myanmar Press Council, said Suu Kyi seems to favor state-run media, which he described as “still at the propaganda stage”.

    Suu Kyi has not given interviews to local media and breezes past reporters attempting to pitch questions, including on a visit to a village in central Myanmar that Reuters joined on Monday, the second recent press tour arranged by her officials.

    ‘AVOIDING THE MEDIA’

    Foreign media were invited to tour the conflict area in Rakhine last month, but were closely watched by security forces and only allocated time to visit one village where locals alleged rights abuses.

    On Monday, members of Suu Kyi’s security detail – dressed in dark suits and sunglasses – physically prevented reporters from asking questions.

    Suu Kyi did not respond when asked for comment by a Reuters reporter. Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, said in a message on Tuesday he was unavailable to comment.

    Press freedom advocates fear that gains in freedom of speech in Myanmar are being eroded, with at least five media workers detained in recent weeks.

    Bidhayak Das, an Indian journalist and academic who has trained reporters in Myanmar, said Suu Kyi was in danger of jeopardizing her support among the fast-growing independent media that has emerged since censorship was lifted in 2012.

    “Instead of building on it by having regular interface with media and clarifying doubts about her government’s position or her opinions on issues ranging from the peace process to the Rakhine communal strife to the problems of the faltering economy, she has chosen to avoid the media.”

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  2. shinichi Post author

    Hope Dims in Myanmar, With Press at Risk

    by Editorial Board, New York Times

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/opinion/hope-dims-in-myanmar-with-press-at-risk.html

    There were high hopes when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party delivered a crushing electoral blow to Myanmar’s decades-long military dictatorship. But the ensuing year and a half has provided cause for dismay as well as for hope.

    The army’s brutal repression of the Muslim Rohingya minority has only intensified, with quiet acceptance from Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. Ethnic conflicts have increased in the face of her tepid attempts at conciliation.

    The military’s continued dominance of the country, despite her party’s control of Parliament, restricts her ability to move the country forward. But, while Myanmar is much freer since the end of military rule, her acquiescence to repressive measures against free expression is another indication that she is part of the problem.

    The government has brought 65 cases against people who posted on social media under a military-era law that criminalizes defamation. Swe Win, the award-winning editor of the news site Myanmar Now, is facing trial under the law for comments he posted on Facebook critical of the firebrand Buddhist priest, U Wirathu. Myanmar’s military is using the law to prosecute U Kyaw Min Swe, editor of the newspaper The Voice, for a satirical article mocking a military propaganda film.

    The government is also silencing by criminalizing journalism. Three journalists on a reporting mission to the conflict-ridden Shan State, were arrested in June under a colonial-era law for “unlawful association” with Shan rebels. The three have been denied confidential access to lawyers, and are being tried under a media blackout.

    Myanmar’s Parliament reformed the country’s draconian online defamation law last week, allowing people facing charges to be released on bail and barring third parties from bringing defamation charges that do not directly concern them. But this is tinkering around the edges of a law that should simply be scrapped.

    Despite the considerable power of the military, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi needs to do and say more to support a truly free Myanmar. Protecting journalists and their work is a fundamental part of her job as Myanmar’s first democratic leader in decades.

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  3. shinichi Post author

    スー・チー政権下で報道の自由抑圧 ネットで権力批判、逮捕者相次ぐ

    東京新聞

    http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/world/list/201708/CK2017081302000120.html

     ミャンマーのアウン・サン・スー・チー国家顧問が率いる国民民主連盟の政権下で、インターネット上で政府や国軍を批判した報道関係者らの逮捕が相次いでいる。電気通信法の罰則が使われ、人権団体は「表現の自由の抑圧だ」と反発。国内外で高まる反対に押される形で、政府は罰則の改正案を国会に提出した。しかし、地元メディアによると、スー・チー氏は十一日の首都ネピドーでの民主化を巡る会合で「民主的権利を乱用する人」の存在に言及。規制と「表現の自由」の微妙なせめぎ合いが続きそうだ。 (ヤンゴンで、大橋洋一郎)

     「権力批判が名誉毀損(きそん)として罰せられ、ソーシャルメディアを使う人を萎縮させている」と人権活動家の詩人、サウン・カ氏(24)。フェイスブックで国軍総司令官の辞任を求めた男性が懲役六月の実刑判決を受けるなど、投稿だけで犯罪と認定される事例が多い。

     電気通信法は軍政の流れをくむ前政権時代の二〇一三年に施行。ネットで他人を中傷、脅迫した場合などに三年以下の懲役を科す規定がある。だが、規定があいまいで第三者が容易に告発できるとして、サウン・カ氏は「政府や国軍に対する批判を抑え込む道具となっている」と指摘する。

     訴追件数は前政権下で七件だったが、現政権になって先月末までの一年余に七十三件と急増。ネット利用者が増えたことに加え、自分の敵対者を告発して訴追に追い込もうとする動きが背景にあるとみられる。

     特に、今年六月以降、国軍を風刺の題材にしたコラムニスト、過激主義の仏教団体指導者を批判した通信社の編集長ら、報道関係者の逮捕が続く。放送局「民主ビルマの声」のタルン・ザウン・テット記者(33)は「国民民主連盟の政権になって表現の自由に関する環境は悪化した」と語る。

     民主化を掲げた現政権での人権抑圧に対し、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウオッチなど六十一の人権団体が六月に、共同声明で改善を強く要求。政府は七月中旬、第三者による告発を制限するなどの改正法案を国会へ提出した。

     しかし、サウン・カ氏は改正では不十分だとして、罰則の廃止を求めるキャンペーンに着手。人権問題に詳しいロバート・サン・アウン弁護士(64)も「名誉毀損を罰する規定は既に刑法にあり、電気通信法の罰則は不要。表現の自由に対する脅威を取り除くべきだ」と訴える。

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