Secrecy swirls as Myanmar prepares new parliament

A Myanmar man rides his motorcycle past the construction site of the countrys new parliament building in Naypyidaw. At precisely 8.55 am on January 31, 2011 hundreds of uniformed soldiers and over 1,000 elected lawmakers will gather in Myanmar's capital for the grand opening of the country's fledgling parliament. AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault

YANGON: At precisely 8.55 on Monday morning hundreds of uniformed soldiers and over 1,000 elected lawmakers will gather in Myanmars capital for the grand opening of the countrys fledgling parliament.

The timing almost certainly a product of the regimes penchant for astrology is just one aspect of this new assembly peculiar to a nation that has withered under the iron grip of military rule since 1962.

After a November election, marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation, the junta enjoys a crushing majority in the new parliament.

A quarter of the seats were kept aside for the military even before the vote, and the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) claimed an overwhelming victory, winning 882 out of 1,154 seats.

The formation of a national parliament in Naypyidaw and 14 regional assemblies takes the country towards the final stage of the juntas so-called roadmap to a disciplined democracy, conceived in 2003.

But while the regime may have been planning for years, the lawmakers themselves are in the dark about what the business of being a parliamentarian is going to be like.

No one really knows how the parliaments will be organised. We will know when we get there, said Soe Win, a National Democratic Force (NDF) legislator.

And the crucial question who will be the countrys president has yet even to be discussed openly.

A select committee will at ! some poi nt select the president and his two vice-presidents from three candidates elected by the upper house, the lower house and members of the military respectively.

At 77, Senior General Than Shwe, who has dominated the country since taking power in 1992, is at prime age for retirement.

But the strongman is reluctant to relinquish his hold completely and will seek to ensure those close to him retain their influence, said Renaud Egreteau, Myanmar expert at the University of Hong Kong.

One of Than Shwes priorities appears to be to avoid the rise of a new supreme leader that would replace him too quickly and sweep his associates from the top state positions and the economic benefits that go with them, he said.

Thura Shwe Mann, the former armys number three until his retirement in August 2010, has recently been linked with the top spot, but the juntas notorious secrecy makes the process utterly opaque.

The president will then be the one to appoint a government, and can be confident of little resistance from a parliament dominated by the military and its cronies.

Soldiers in parliament are junior officers, mostly majors, and dont have much experience they have only military training, said Win Min, an analyst and pro-democracy campaigner now living in the United States.

They will play a rubber stamp role. Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) will not have a voice after it was disbanded for opting to boycott the election. And the two main opposition parties that decided to participate and won seats will be political minnows.

The NDF, which split from the NLD in order to contest the vote, will take 16 seats in national and regional legislatures. The Democratic Party (Myanmar) has just three. But that does not prevent them from having ambitions in the new regime.

Aung Zin, of the NDF, said his party hopes to make submissions regarding press freedoms and the general release of political prisoners.

Parties from the countrys diverse ethnic minority regi! ons have a little more clout than the democracy parties and want to speak up for their areas, which many feel have long been neglected.

An ethnic leader should be elected as one of the vice-presidents to ensure ethnic solidarity, said Sai Aik Paung, chairman of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party. Its important for national reconciliation.

Security was tight around the assemblies, where proceedings may remain secret, with rules banning recording devices, computers and mobile phones.