Myanmar repeals emergency law

Yangon - MYANMAR has abolished one of the most authoritarian laws used by previous military regimes to silence political opponents, a lawmaker said.
The Emergency Provisions Act gave authorities broad powers to hold people without charge and allowed courts to convict on scanty evidence. It also threatened jail for anyone who endangered public morality or execution for damaging telephone lines.

Under the repressive act, anyone committing treason – which spanned sabotage of railways or damaging telegraph poles – could face life behind bars or even death. 

Hefty terms were also meted out for other crimes, such as spreading false news or disrupting public morality.

Military members of parliament, who fill 25 per cent of seats under Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, had opposed repealing it on the grounds it was vital to national security.

The law was introduced in 1950 as newly independent Myanmar struggled with nascent ethnic insurgencies but was then frequently used against activists after the military seized power in a 1962 coup.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which assumed power this year after a landslide election, has released political prisoners and prioritised doing away with oppressive legislation left over from decades of authoritarian rule.

The majority party’s lawmakers, among them many veteran activists who served time in prison, have already pushed through the repeal of a 1975 law on “subversive elements”.

Tun Tun Hein, chairman of the parliament’s bill committee, said the approval of the union parliament meant the repeal will become law within two weeks. “This law was used by the socialist dictatorship to arrest anyone who went against them,” he said. “Now we have abolished it because we have a people’s government.” 

One of the more notorious parts of the law set out sentences of up to seven years jail for “disrupt[ing] the morality or the behaviour of a group of people or the general public”.

Thein Than Oo, a lawyer and former political prisoner, said he had been imprisoned twice under the “harsh and unjust” law. “In fact, this kind of law shouldn’t exist in a civilised society anywhere,” he said. 

Freedom has flourished in Myanmar since elections that swept the NLD to power, with several oppressive laws revoked.

Last month parliament also scrapped part of a law used by authorities to barge into people’s houses late at night, often targeting the opposition.

But activists say authoritarian legislation is still being used to silence criticism of the government.

Despite sky-high hopes Suu Kyi’s government will usher in a new era of free expression, several people have been prosecuted for defamation since her party took power.

In September a man was jailed for nine months for calling President Htin Kyaw an “idiot” and “crazy” in online posts because of a complaint by a local NLD party member.

And, in August, a Myanmar actor was sentenced to nearly three years for scribbling curse-laden insults about the army across his car.

- Agenceis