Union Day of Burma in Different Perspectives

 

Khin Hnin Lwin (Yangon)

February 13, 2011

The Armed Union Day

It was on the afternoon of February 11. Being riding in a city bus, I saw a scene from its window: armed men in military uniforms were standing here and there while some uniformed police were searching for something by digging the grass using iron sticks at the both sides of Pyi road, in front of the people’s square and former parliament building. The faces of those in search of something seemed to show that they were doing this work only dutifully, and they had to carry out this task because of the order from superiors even though they did not expect to find anything.

Burmese in Singapore Celebrate Burma Union Day and Birthday of Suu’s Father

MoeMaKa Reporter (Singapore)

February 14, 2011

Yesterday, the admirers and prople of Burma in Singapore gathered and were able to successfully commemorate the Union day of Burma and the 96th birthday of Bogyoke Aung San, the founding-father of Burma’s independence and the father of present NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. It is reported that the organizers had to negotiate repeatedly and faced many obstacles to obtain the permission for the ceremony site in which, to hold the event, hence they could not make it widely known to Burmese in Singapore.

A friend of Moemaka told that this is the first ceremony ever organized in Singapore regarding Burma history. The desired banner for the event “Birthday of Bogyoke Aung San” was not allowed by Singapore authority. So, we had to use the co-banner read “The Union Day and Bogyoke’s Birthday.” The shows of national costumes and music concert of ethnic nationalities brought the celebration alive.

As far as Moemaka could inquire, Singapore government granted the permission for the celebration only at the last minute. “MoeMaKa world-wide readers did not, in advance, learn of the event as being Saturday in Singapore when the invitation was posted in Ywa-Saw-Gyi section of its blog”, said informants from Singapore. It is also seen that few people could manage to attend to the commemoration because the organizers had to urge and invite as much as they could reach in a very short time.

Burmese in NYC With 30 Food Vendors to Raise Fund to Help Burma

MoeMaKa Reporter (New York)

February 15, 2011

It is reported that over 30 food stalls will participate in the charity sale of the Burmese and Asia traditional food, planned to be held in Woodside compound of New York city coming February 23, Sunday. The residents of NYC are collectively hosting this fund-raising and members of Citizen of Burma (CoBA) New York chapter and World Arakanese Organization (WAO) formed by local well-wishers, will volunteer their services to do sundry tasks and chores.

“We will collect donations by selling foods and drinks. We are going to cook and serve favorite dishes of Burmese families such as Mohinga(rice noodles with gravy), Shan noodles, Wet-thar-dote-htoe(well-cooked, sliced meat and entrails of a pig, skewered and served with chilli or tomato sauce),Tofu salad, Phet-htout-gyaw(minced meat, wrapped in dough, fried), Samusa(fried-stuffed pastry) salad, as well as buttered rice with chicken curry, Kyet-thar-kala-thar-hin(rustled up chicken curry) and other varieties of Rakhine traditional food. We will donate what we have earned from this sale,” an organizer explained the arrangements of the fair to MoeMaKa.

Political Prisoners in Tharyawaddy Jail Receives More Sentences Over 60 Years

Moe Yan Ma Ka, February 13, 2011

At 2:00 pm on 11.2.2011, seven political prisoners from Thayawaddy prison were charged with code 4(A) and code (3) under explosives Act and sentenced to many years of imprisonment by the court of Tarmwe township in Yangon east district.

Those who received their additional sentences are Ko Htaw Lwin, Ko Kyaw Swar Lin (aka) Kusaryel, Ko Kyaw Zin Oo, Ko Htet Ko Lwin and Daw Khin Yee as well as the former central committee member of ABSDF Ko Aye Min Naing, also a member of Patriotic Democratic Party and Democratic Party for New Society (DPNS), which was aborted by the junta in the 1990 election and his wife Ma San San Maw.

On the 25th of March,2008, being accused of possessing explosives and related items in Kusaryel, all of them were originally put on trial for several acts such as code 17(1), 13(1),19(A),6(1), and were sentenced to 18 years in prison under the decision (dated 5.9.2008) by Pegu division court.

In the same month, another trial for code 4(A), they were again faced in the courts of Kyauktada and Panbadan townships of Yangon, adding 20 years imprisonment, making  a total of 38 years for each of them.

For the third time, from the same courts, they [above mentioned activists] received two further separate sentences of 10 years each for code 3(6) of assisting those who try to explode. At that time, all of them had been already sentenced to 58 years in prison.

Maung Sue San Accuses Second Pinlon of Meaningless Move by The Opposition

MoeMaka Reporter

February 5, 2011

 

 

In today’s issue of ‘Myanmar Alin’ newspaper, the translator and article writer Maung Sue San accusingly wrote, in his article, that the Second Pinlon Conference is pointless, hailing the forthcoming Union Day.

He described that the second Pinlon currently mentioned by the NLD is not a reasonable move and only reflects illogical thoughts of those proclaim it, although he “can understand the first Pinlon as a process of seeking institutions” for country’s independence struggles being the period of institutions were needed.

Junta Transferring Government’s Buildings to Private Business Secretly

MoeMaKa Reporter (Yangon)

February 3, 2011

Headquarter of Myanmar Petroleum and Natural Gas being surrounded by scaffoldings in need of repairs

After the last year election, three government buildings in Yangon downtown area are the last in the process of secretly transferring state-owned properties to private companies, by the present regime, before the new government comes into power.

Regime’s USDP Parliaments appointed USDP’s President- Thein Sein

MoeMaKa Reporter (Yangon)

February 4, 2011

This afternoon, news emerged that Burmese junta’s newly-convened parliaments elected vice-president and retired general U Thein Sein as new President of Burma with 408 votes out of 659. Holding the position of Prime minister appointed by current regime’s War Council, Thein Sein, an ex-general, ran in the last year election for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

It is a matter to keep watch how he will form a government, and who will occupy the minister posts in the Cabinet. According to the junta’s 2008 constitution, the President shall lead the Nation Defense and Security Council regarding the armed forces.

Burmese in Rakhine Still Short of Relief Aid and Program- WAO told MoeMaKa

MoeMaKa Interview

1st February, 2011

 

Cyclone Giri struck the Rakhine coast on October 22-23 in 2010, devastating many people, buildings, and businesses in the region. Moemaka was able to have a chance to interview a Rakhine social organization about its experience and activities for providing relief aids, and rehabilitation of the storm-affected areas. The organization said that Burmese residents of New York City (NYC) are planning to launch a fund raising, coming February 20. Moemaka recently spoke with Ko Kyaw Win and Ko Zaw Zaw Htun, spokespersons for the World Arakanese Organization (WAO), whichcarries out the job of rebuilding areas destroyed by Cyclone Giri. This is the interview:

Friends of MoeMaKa Media 2011 Award Goes to 600 Political Prisoners

MoeMaKa

January 30, 2011

We, the MoeMaka team, have considered announcing ‘Friends of MoeMaKha Award’ for 2011. At the beginning of 2011, what we took into consideration was to launch a suitable activity based on requests and struggles of the NLD and its leaders, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Win Tin and U Tin Oo, who all are leading the country’s pro-democracy uprising.