Minister Ye Htut will disclose assets if forced to

 

Ye Htut was responding to an article in the Sunday edition of Daily Eleven in which he was asked by the writer to publicly disclose his assets. “According to the law, our assets can be disclosed only through legal means. For example, if you have evidence, you can file a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission. If you [Eleven Media] think I am a corrupt official, you can write about this. Then I am ready to confront this through legal channels,” he said.

He also suggested that Eleven Media Group was being propped up by silent shareholders. “It would be unfair if I wrote a news article saying who the shareholders are in Eleven Media Group and how it can survive by operating at a loss daily. This is your concern,” he said. He did not say how he had obtained information about Eleven Media’s finances, or shareholding.

Eleven should reply here

Ye Htut warned the media to exercise caution when making allegations of illegal activities, and said it should either use the courts or “the art of investigative journalism”.

“Instead of writing about me, you can file a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission if there are conditions that call for me to publicise my assets. Otherwise, you can write about me using the art of investigative journalism,” the minister said.

If investigations by reporters uncover illegal activity he will “face legal action”, but it the reporting turned out to be false he said, “I will protect myself under the umbrella of law.”

He also said he had nothing to fear and no reason to seek personal popularity with the public.  

“When I take these ministerial duties, I will seek the most appropriate way to implement the policies adopted by the state for my ministry. I will say what I think is necessary to develop the media. I will take responsibility for what I say. I am also prepared to face success or failure,” he said. 

Ye Htut also suggested the ministry might sue Eleven Media over a report in which the ministry was alleged to have committed corruption in purchasing printing presses.  WHEN was this first reported?

He said he had tried to negotiate a solution to the dispute through the interim press council twice: the first time under the previous information minister. Eleven Media had been invited to the press council for talks on the matter, he said. “But I don’t think it went there. I don’t know the details. When I became the minister, I informed [the interim press council] again that the information should be corrected because I only wanted to bring the case to court as a final solution,” he said. 

The press council informed him that Eleven Media declined to offer a correction, he said. 

“As the president wishes, everything has been done as the first step through a complaint to the press council, but we did not see any correction [published by Eleven Media]. We have decided to seek legal protection. Our decision has nothing to do with freedom of the press. I have responsibility to protect the dignity of our staff, the news and periodicals enterprise and the tender-winning companies that were all involved in purchasing of offset printers under this new government,” Ye Htut said.  

“When minister Aung Kyi retired on his own volition, the media covered it as though it was related to the matter of press purchases,” Ye Htut said. 

Aung Kyi is a kind of person who ensured anything bought for the ministry was done so transparently, his successor added. “I feel sorry for him,” Ye Htut said, adding that he would “try to solve the problem through negotiations with the press council”. 

“Particularly, I don’t want to see any cases in which I have to confront Eleven Media. After I had moved to the information ministry, I wrote articles on international affairs under the penname ‘Ye Htut’ till February 2012. At that time, I was assigned duties as spokesperson for the ministry,” he said.    

Why is his penname the same as his real name?

“As I had responsibility to talk to the media, I stopped writing articles to avoid conflict of interest. Eleven Media also helped me to get the public to know about my penname. But later, I don’t know what the stance of Eleven Media is towards me. I don’t want to see any conflict. But if the first step does not work, I will continue to act to protect our enterprise, not for me alone. I have the same opinion about the Thandawsint Journal,” he said. 

Ye Htut also responded to another question about recent differences over government budget spending between him and Upper House speaker Khin Aung Myint.

He described the speaker as a “respected mentor” from his days in the military. “It is good the speaker criticised us [the government, but it would be better if he could give correct facts. As far as I know, the health ministry asked regional governments to carry out more than 500 projects in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. It is better if we can say that how many are complete wastes or how many complaints have come. If we blame this after receiving only five or six complaints, those civil servants acting in a correct manner will feel sad. If he wanted to point to the whole government, he should have outlined specific ministries with correct data. This is why I responded to him. And this is not concerned with our personal affairs. I am talking about the stance of the administrative pillar. We are ready to take action if we get correct evidence. We have also taken action (against corruption cases).”