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In-Depth
Abandoned Babies Indicate Single Mother, Sex Education Problems
YANGON — During a power blackout on a hot night in May, Thidar Han heard a baby crying at around 9 pm in a back lane of Yangon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, where she works as a ward administrator. Thidar Han ventured into the dark alley and saw no one, but the crying continued. As she moved closer she was shocked to find an abandoned newborn, lying face down and with its umbilical cord still attached, in a plastic bag. “The baby was fortunately alive and without breathing problems,” she said, adding that shocked bystanders gathered around and a lactating mother among them breast-fed the poor newborn. The baby, weighing 4 pounds and 12 ounces, was brought to Yangon Central Women’s Hospital just in time and survived after receiving intensive medical care. According to officers at the Yangon Police Headquarters, it was the second baby to be abandoned by its mother in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in May. The other sadly died while it was being treated in hospital. Records kept at the headquarters show the recorded cases of abandoned newborns nationwide. Though these are likely to be far from complete, they indicate a rise from 6 cases in…
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Myanmar
Ruling USDP commands shy support in Myanmar’s elections
Twenty-two-year-old Lu Zaw took a day’s leave from his office job this week to join a political rally of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, but found it hard to explain his instinctive loyalty to Myanmar’s ruling party. His uncle is a senior party campaigner, recruiting new members for USDP in Yangon’s Thinganggyun Township. Lu Zaw said he was taking part in the rally, not at the behest of his uncle, but by his own volition, despite the fact that political rallies were not his favourite scene. As Myanmar prepares for historic elections on Sunday, a vote that the opposition National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi is widely expected to win, there are still many loyal to the ruling party. Led by former general Thein Sein, the USDP’s semi-civilian government has steered the Southeast Asian nation through a series of economic and political reforms since it came to power in 2011, ending half a century of military rule. “Even if the whole country supports NLD, I will vote for USDP,” said Lu Zaw. USDP rallies, with supporters decked in the party’s colour green, seem to lack the zeal and spontaneity of campaign events organized by Suu Kyi’s…
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Myanmar
“Some people are surprised our party has survived”
Phyu Phyu Nyunt is a Yangon Region parliament candidate for the National Unity Party (NUP) in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township’s constituency 2. She has worked in the Ministry of Cooperatives and as a lawyer. Way back in 1977, the now 61-year-old candidate joined the Burma Socialist Programme Party of former strongman Ne Win. The BSPP was replaced by the NUP ahead of the 1990 elections, in which the NUP suffered a crushing defeat by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. The election result was ignored by the army. In the 1990s, the junta made the Union Solidarity and Development Association its main political vehicle, it became the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in 2010. Yet, the NUP is still around, it controls a total of 64 parliament seats won in the flawed 2010 polls and often supports the USDP. The party has 774 candidates contesting in this year’s elections and has hundreds of party offices across Myanmar. Phyu Phyu Nyunt spoke with Myanmar Now reporter Ei Cherry Aung about her party’s campaign and the situation in her constituency, as well as her proposal to curb online vice and increase punishments for crime. Question: Why did you…
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Myanmar
‘A new government should be able to end any riot’
Hla Toe, vice chairman of the Kaman National Progressive Party, is contesting for a Lower House seat in Yangon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, in the Nov. 8 elections. The Kaman are a recognized Muslim minority who live mostly in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Despite their legal status, they have become ensnared in the inter-communal conflict between Buddhist Rakhine and stateless Rohingya Muslims in the north of the state. In an interview with Myanmar Now reporter Ei Cherry Aung, the 56-year-old former teacher talked about the Kaman’s problems, his party’s campaign and the country’s political situation. Question: In which constituencies will your party contest? Answer: We have total of four men who are candidates – two candidates will run in Rakhine State and two in Yangon Region. Q: Why didn’t you field any women candidates? A: There are three women among our 15 central executive committee members. Although we suggested they contest in the upcoming elections they could not do so for several reasons. Q: You have most support among the Kaman in Rakhine State but you are also contesting in Yangon. Why? A: I did not win in Rakhine State during the 2010 general elections because the number of Kaman…
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Myanmar
Beyond NLD, Yangon voters stumped on smaller parties
It’s the National League for Democracy or nothing, according to a straw poll of voters in Yangon townships carried out with four weeks to go before Myanmar’s Nov. 8 election. Myanmar Now carried out dozens of interviews in three townships in the commercial capital Yangon to gauge the public’s mood and political inclinations. Among 45 people interviewed in Hlaing Tharyar, Mingalar Taung Nyunt and Thingangyun constituencies, 29 said they intend to vote for Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD, although for varying reasons. Strikingly, the remainder of those who did not have a clear preference for the NLD said they had little interest in voting or the elections in general. In comments that would worry independent candidates and those from smaller parties, almost all were unaware of other political parties beyond the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the opposition NLD. Only four interviewees said they would decide who to vote for after scrutinising the candidates. The interviews in the three constituencies – where around half a million voters have been registered so far, according to Union Election Commission officials – provide a snapshot of the public’s perceptions and aspirations ahead of what has been billed as Myanmar’s first…
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