The Questions People Want to Know their Answers
RECENTLY, my articles ‘the undeniable facts that led to widespread election frauds’ was described in the State-run newspapers and shared and reviewed by some interesting readers on their social network of Facebook. I also like to extend my special thanks to those who discussed and commented reviews on my article. As the outcomes, it found that the article provoked curiosities, questions and emotions from the heart of people regarding the electroal frauds occurred in 2020 election. That is a good point as it provides me an opportunity to stifle the emotions of uncertainities and respond to the questions of people and thus, the article emerges.
With regard to the recent political developments in Myanmar, the question of which the people want to know its clear answer is ‘why did Tamadaw assume the State’s responsibilities?’ For the question, I will simply answer so, ‘Tatmadaw assumed the State’s responsibilities in accord with the State Constitution to avoid the political system of one-party dictatorship and not to derail the democracy system peole desire since the electrol frauds in 2020 election led to unacceptable situations’. Therefore, I also pointed out how the previous NLD-led administration, NLD party and the UEC cheated the 2020 general elections and made electoral frauds in my first article ‘the undeniable facts that led to widespread election frauds.’
Another question of which people want to know is ‘whether the declaration of state of emergency by the Acting President is in line with law’. To perceive the answer of ‘yes’, it will require to study the Constitution. In reality, since inception of NLD-led government, they commenced to cheat the provisions of Constitution by a hair’s breadth enacting the State Counsellor law to create a post for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. There were also many incidents in which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself had acted like a President going beyond the boundary of State Counsellor law. She also publicly announced that she would be “ above the president”. Hence, what she said was already violated the Section 16 of the Constitution, ‘The Head of the Union and the Head of Executive of the Union is the President.’ Moreover, inabilities of the then President to dutifully discharge his assigned duties also proved the failures to follow the provisions defined in Section 71 (a) ii/iv/v of the Constitution, being disqualified for the President and inefficient discharge of duties assigned by law.
Another point is the open interferences of the then President and Daw Aung San Su Kyi in party activities. Sections 64 and 232 (k) clearly define that the President and Union Ministers shall not take part in its party activities during the term of office. Such legislations demarcate the party politics from national politics in order to avoid the conditions of exceeding party politics and in which doing party interests using the government power. They violated the laws and conducted election campaigns despite knowing such legislations in the time of high COVID-19 infection rate leading to a certain situation where they have been charged under the Natural Disaster Management Law by Myanmar police force.
In case of such situation, Section 73 (a) of the Constitution promulgates that one of the two Vice-Presidents who has won the second highest votes in the Presidential election shall serve as Acting President if the office of the President falls vacant due to his resignation, death, permanent disability or any other cause. The term ‘any other cause’ in the above Section encompasses the matters of being disqualified for the President and inefficient discharge of duties assigned by law and violation of the Constitution as well as the cases to be taken by Police Force. Against the backdrop of the above-mentioned situation, the declaration of state of emergency by the Acting President is totally in conformity with the Constitution.
Next question is whether the Tatmadaw has the right to inspect the voter lists. The answer would be ‘yes’. Not only the Tatmadaw, but also every single citizen has the right to copy the voter rolls according to Section 15 (b)(2) of relevant Election By-Laws. Copying the voter rolls is to thoroughly inspect it with evidences. It also means they are the data commonly owned by all people. Eligible voters of all Tatmadaw personnel cast votes at respective polling booths along with people. That is the right of every individual and organization. The Tatmadaw naturally has the right to maintain the State not derail from the tract of Democracy in national politics according to the Constitution. Not only the Tatmadaw, any institution can inspect the voter rolls. Hence, everybody can find out that the Tatamdaw had declared the findings of its inspection and demanded the proper actions of responsible body of UEC. I think the former UEC would be in trouble in case it get questioned why they rejeted the inspections if they assumed the election was flawless.
Some people fire questions: why the UEC could not finish their lingering inspections, when the final declaration will be out and how the responsible ones will be taken action. I think the questions will directly concern with the current UEC. As far as I know, 309 out of the 315 townships where the elections were held completed necessary inspections. After inspections in remaining townships finish, I think the clear findings will emerge with strong evidence of how votes were stolen and electrol frauds occured. At that point, rather than showing the statistics, it is really important to reveal how they prepared to commit electoral riggings, what kinds of evidence were found, and how international organizations interfered in the elections. For instance, showing evidence like ‘here are the ballot receipts, ‘here are remaining ballot papers’, ‘here are the extra ones’ and therefore, ‘how many are missing’. I think it is also necessary to reveal the original list of election sub-commission members in handwriting of chief ministers of regions/states and the original copies of the instructions in favour of the NLD party victory in the elections. To remain as the history records and take lessons for the next elections, the findings of the inspections should be released with clear evidence and records.
There is no need to fire questions as it was undoubtedly obvious that the NLD-led administration interfered in and dominated the functions of former UEC. In some cases, it is reported that there were unscrupulous attempts of election sub-commissions and ward/village administrators appointed under the arrangements of NLD chief ministers to exclude the supporters of other political parties in the voter rolls. I expect that appropriate actions will be seen against those who committed such offences.
The next question is whether the Tatmadaw made the inspections on the voter rolls since its allied party USDP did not win the previous elections. From my personal perspective, if it was the problem triggered by Tatmadaw for not accepting the election result, the Tatmadaw would have inspected the voter rolls of the by-elections held in the time of USDP-led government and the 2015 general elections. In the said elections, NLD party had won landslide victories. However their victories were just the outcomes of clean, free and fair elections reflected by the wills of people. Since the relevant UEC had also well settled the disputes in conformity with laws, Tatmadaw could not find any matters to inspect the voter rolls, or reject or question on the election results. Only in the 2020 general election, other political parties requested the Tatmadaw to inspect the voter rolls since there appeared obvious bloated voter lists, unjust and irregular activities, and voting riggings. It was triggered by the disputes of party politics. Therefore, it is found out that Tatmadaw had to inspect the voter rolls. If the former UEC led by U Hla Thein had addressed the disputable voter lists in the just and fair manner, there would be no such situation that led to the declaration of state of emergency. To draw a conclusion, even if the NLD-led government settled the voter issue by combined bodies, the electoral frauds would also be revealed. They are not the matters which could not be concealed just by burning them down. If the NLD administration, former UEC did not actually commit such offences of electoral frauds, they could have approved they were right and even politically fought back the accusers. Nevertheless, they did not do so as the electoral frauds were unquestionably obvious then. It is observed that they simply rejected the accusations of electoral riggings not to inflect damages to the images of their leader and the party. However, their attempts to retrieve the State power with bypass means by lying people to take the streets and concealing their electoral frauds are totally unacceptable. Hence, it is better to remark that they prioritized the advantages of the party and interests of their party leader rather than the interests of the Nation and the people. I hope the readers get the thoughts for considerations. May all rejoice and be glad.