Myanmar to abolish repressive junta-era emergency act

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Myanmar’s parliament has approved a bill to revoke a much-criticized law that had long been used by former military juntas to oppress political dissidents.

The bill to abolish the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act was approved Wednesday after a vote in the lower house saw 261 votes for the new legislation, 123 against and five abstentions.

“According to the result, the Emergency Provisions Act would be revoked soon,” lower house speaker Win Myint announced after the vote in the political capital Nay Pyi Taw.

The act was enacted by the country’s first prime minister, U Nu, in response to a civil war in which ethnic armed organizations began fighting against the central government for greater autonomy and self-determination shortly after the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.

The law grants sweeping authority to the government to prosecute individuals who disseminate “false news” or are otherwise determined to have “jeopardized the state”.

Successive military governments have abused it to suppress dissidents and activists.

The act carries the death penalty and sentences of up to life in prison for treason or sabotage against the military.

It also dictates up to seven years in prison for a sweeping range of other “offenses” against the state.

The previous pro-military government led by former President Thein Sein had also used the act against political opponents, social activists and journalists during its five-year term (2010-2015).

Five journalists from Bi Mon Te Nay, a local weekly publication, were arrested and jailed in October 2014 after they were charged under the Act.

They had published a front-page story about an activist group statement, which falsely claimed that then-opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- currently State Counselor -- and ethnic group leaders had formed an interim government to replace Thein Sein's administration.

Myanmar, once ruled by a total authoritarian dictatorship following a military coup in 1962, elected its first civilian government in Nov. 8 polls won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

After the NLD-led government took office in late March, Suu Kyi stressed the need to amend the military-drafted constitution in order to “give birth to a genuine, federal democratic union”.

Although the NLD dominates the two houses of parliament, under the 2008 charter, 25 percent of its seats are held by a military-appointed bloc, giving them power to veto amendments.