Events of the Week

18 October 2009

This week, rather than commenting on the events of the week, it would be better to talk about the “Political parties registration law” that will come out soon.

The Political Parties Registration Law

18 0ctober 2009

The chapter 10 of the 2008 constitution clearly states the basic foundations of a political party as below:§ 404: A political party shall:(1) set the objective of non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty;(2) be loyal to the State.§ 406: A political party shall, in accord with the law, have the right in the Union to :(1)organize freely;(2)participate and compete in the elections.The prohibitions are also stated clearly in the paragraph 407 as below:§407: No right of continued existence of a political party:(1)having been declared an unlawful association under the existing law;(2) directly or indirectly contacting or abetting the insurgent group launchingarmed rebellion against the Union or the associations and personsdetermined by the Union to have committed terrorist acts or the associationdeclared to be an unlawful association;(3) directly or indirectly receiving and expending financial, material and other assistance from a foreign government, a religious association, other association or a person from a foreign country;(4) abusing religion for political purpose.In the Political Parties Registration Law of 1988 (4/88), it included the 4 prohibitionsmentioned in the Paragraph 407 above, in addition, the following items are included aswell.(1)an organisation that uses or accepts directly or indirectly money, buildings, vehiclesand other assets owned by the State(2)an organisation formed by personnel enjoying monthly salaries from the StateBudget or personnel from the defence forces such as the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar police force, public service organisations, State-owned economic boards andcorporations.In the1988 law, it did not mention about how political parties must be financed which isvery important. Myanmar is a very poor country. A political party can not survive with private funding alone. The state must help the political parties in order to avoid the illegalflow of money and other facilities into the various elements of a political system :

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Events of the Week

18 October 2009

politicians, the administration and the government sponsored political parties.Myanmar is a starter for democracy. The formation of political parties is very important for the country. Therefore, the State should help the political parties during the Electioncampaign as well as during the Non- Election period.

Funding of the Political Parties

As Myanmar are very poor, the political parties will find great difficulty in raising thesufficient income to carry out their party functions and political activities. The PoliticalParties Registration Law at least should grant “a direct public financing” to the political parties.The public subsidies can be “cash” or utilisation of state own building, media and other materials with free of charge during and outside of the election campaign period.

Public subsidies in cash:

The public subsidies in cash is to be used for the training of the party members and leadersas well as for the party activities across the country.The law should guarantee the equality, the fairness and the transparency in the decision of the amount of the allocated money between the ruling party or dominant party in power and the other opposition parties.

Subsidies in kind:

The state can grant

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a state own building or house to a political party to be used as a Party Head Quarter.

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Utilisation of public transportation such as Bus, Train, domestic flight during theElection campaign

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Utilisation of state own media during the Election Campaign

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the reimbursement partial or complete of Election campaign costIn return, the political parties should report to the Nation on regular basic about their fund-raising and spending of the money.The “direct public financing” granted by the State will certainly help the political parties torespect fully the prohibition number (3) of the paragraph 407 in the constitution.

The Private Funding:

The limitation of the private funding must be defined clearly in order to avoid the misuseof the money among the politicians, political parties and the state administration. The political parties should not be allowed to receive funds from private co-operation or privatecompanies.Furthermore, the limitation of the amount of the donation from any individual to the political parties must be clearly defined in the Law.