Motions — Myanmar Military Regime—General Election

I move, That this House expresses grave concern that the Myanmar military regime’s elections, as currently planned, cannot be free nor fair and will not lead to sustainable peace; regards the election arrangements as significantly flawed because there will be no genuine Opposition parties on the ballot paper and repressive laws have been passed criminalising public criticism of the elections; considers that if held under current arrangements, the elections would not be credible; calls on the Myanmar military regime to release all political prisoners, cease the air strikes and other military action, enable genuine inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders, and relieve the humanitarian suffering of the Myanmar people; calls for the urgent implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2669 and the Association of South-east Asian Nations Five-Point Consensus as a necessary step towards a sustainable solution in Myanmar; calls on the New Zealand Government and the international community to not lose sight of the grievous position and situation of the Myanmar people, which will not be ameliorated by this election as currently planned; and continues to stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their desire for inclusive and genuine representative democracy in their country.

Thank you.

The people of Myanmar are bravely resisting one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world today, and they deserve our help. The war criminals running Myanmar are planning to hold elections before the end of this year, but this is not a general election; it is a generals’ election. It is a cynical repackaging designed to make the military regime look civilian and attract the international legitimacy that the generals so desperately crave. It cannot be free and fair. It is a sham election.

The regime is only planning to hold it in some of the country’s townships because they don’t control most of the country. No genuine opposition parties will be allowed on the ballot, and it’s clear that people will be forced at gunpoint to vote. The regime has in recent weeks passed three repressive laws criminalising the criticism of the elections, and there are currently teenagers in jail because they dared to criticise the elections on Facebook.

In the lead up to the sham election, the military has intensified its air strikes, artillery shelling, and scorched earth operations against civilians. These air strikes target schools, churches, monasteries, hospitals, and camps of internally displaced persons. On our recent fact-finding mission on Myanmar, everyone that we met wanted the international community to reject the military junta’s sham election. The election has no legitimacy, it should not be recognised by the international community, and that’s why Labour supports this resolution.

The war criminal Min Aung Hlaing stole democracy in a military coup four years ago, and since then he has waged war on his own people. He tortures political prisoners, burns down villages, and drops bombs on hospitals and schools; 3.6 million people are displaced from their homes inside the country, and 16 million people are starving, according to the World Food Programme.

Through this resolution of our Parliament today, we call on the international community to stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar. The anti-junta movement has in the past few years taken back control of more than two-thirds of the country. It has built an impressive unity among the various groups opposing the regime, and it has advanced a constitutional process to establish an interim Government based on the principles of federal democracy.

Our fact-finding mission from this Parliament heard firsthand from people all over Myanmar who are building a new society and new forms of government in the liberated zones. They call it a bottomup federal democracy. The Myanmar junta is destabilising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, one of New Zealand’s most important relationships. The junta’s war is the biggest cause of forced displacement in Asia. Under the generals, Myanmar is the source of most of the methamphetamine that makes its way to New Zealand. It is a leader in human trafficking and home to the notorious scam centres that swindle money from New Zealanders.

We urge the New Zealand Government and other liberal democracies to step up and work alongside our friends in South-east Asia to reject and isolate the military regime and stay true to the cause of democracy in Myanmar. We say to China, India, and Russia: stop propping up this murderous regime that conducts air strikes on schools and hospitals on a daily basis. Stop funding them, stop doing business with them, stop training their military, and stop supplying them with the military hardware they use against their own people.

To people all over the world, we say: don’t forget Myanmar. If you believe in democracy, human rights, and international law, the people of Myanmar need you now.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Greens to support this very considered motion, and I know that it will be meaningful for the diaspora Myanmar communities here in Aotearoa, around the world, and indeed in Myanmar itself.

I was also on that fact-finding mission, and as we spent some time on the border of Myanmar, we met with many, many people from various parts of the country. They talked about how their villages had been bombed. They talked about the air strikes. They talked about the impacts on their future and the impact on democracy. Having a motion like this debated and talked about in the House is an incredibly important move.

We also spent some time feeding back to the community. Appropriate decision-making is an important thing for the Green Party. The last of those meetings was hosted by Rachel Boyack, a Labour Party MP, and it was packed. Over a hundred people were there to listen about what we had learnt. In that vein, I want to acknowledge both the cultural, social, and political support we had from Phyo Sandar Soe, Ja Seng Ing, and Mi Kun Chan Non. Being able to understand what this means and the impacts particularly for their community brought a revelation to me in terms of the impact that was happening there.

What everybody said was that this is a sham election. It is not a general election; it’s a generals’ election, and they highlighted that for a number of reasons. One of them is the fact that the military junta itself controls less than a third of the country. They also pointed to the fact that, actually, with the elections that they’ve planned, they already get 25 percent of the ballot, but also they get to declare who will be on that ballot as well. There were also concerns raised about how it will be phased out as well. There could be one phase, two phases, or three phases and an ability to move that around. That is not a fair democracy, let alone the impact on all of the communities there, with 3.6 million and more internally displaced people fleeing the conflict into the liberated areas, and also the millions more that are refugees on the border.

This also has particular significance for us in Aotearoa, because much, if not most, of the methamphetamine originates from Myanmar. It makes its way down here as well, and there are the growing concerns of scam centres—something that I had not heard of before until they talked to us about it—and the concerns there around people that have been trafficked into those scam centres.

It was a very learning experience, spending some time with the community, and I think it’s important to acknowledge as well the role of the New Zealand Myanmar Campaign Committee. This is a committee that is chaired by Stanley Saw, with his wife, Sandra Saw, supporting, as well. Their daughter is part of our Green caucus: Yadana, who is a Wellington Greens regional councillor.

These are impacts that impact not just Myanmar but right across Aotearoa New Zealand, so having our attention on this is incredibly meaningful. It means that the people can say that people in New Zealand have actually considered this motion, that they have considered the issues, that they understand the issues, that they understand the harm that the military junta is doing in Myanmar and are willing to make a stand and to call it out.

This will be an important resolution. It will be a meaningful resolution for the Myanmar communities here in New Zealand but also a meaningful resolution for the communities who, across the world, have had to escape their homes, and also for those who are struggling on the ground—the anti-junta movement. It is meaningful also, noting the comments around the emerging democracy of hope, the emerging federalism of hope, and just to note that also we met with some of the young people who are trying to build a future as a part of this new emerging federalism. Some of them had an opportunity to go to Victoria University and to learn about public policy.

Support in these areas is incredibly, incredibly important. I commend this motion to the House.

Motion agreed to.