Myanmar citizens with foreign husbands barred from domestic politics

Myanmar citizens with foreign husbands barred from domestic politics

By S. Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 February 2008 0220 hrs

	Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win

SINGAPORE : Myanmar citizens who have a foreign husband and whose children are not Myanmar nationals cannot take part in domestic politics.

This is the regulation stipulated by the country's new Constitution.

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win gave this update when he briefed ASEAN foreign ministers at their retreat in Singapore on Tuesday, according to Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo who spoke to the media.

Mr Yeo was responding to a question on whether the Myanmar minister had given any indication if opposition leader Aung Syan Syu Kyi can take take part in the country's elections which is slated to be held in 2010.

According to Mr Nyan Win, this eligibility criteria has been around since 1974 and would be carried forward in the new Constitution.

Mr Yeo said "We (the ASEAN Foreign Ministers) expressed our views on this. It is not keeping with the times that certainly such a provision would be very odd in any other country in ASEAN. But this is their own country, this is their own history, what can we do about it?"

Separately, ASEAN's Foreign Ministers attending the informal retreat are due to spend the greater part of Wednesday discussing how members are implementing the ASEAN Charter.

Mr George Yeo, who is currently the ASEAN's Chair said, before getting down to discussions, Malaysia, Laos and Brunei will hand over documents to the ASEAN Secretary-General as their respective countries had completed ratifying the ASEAN Charter.

This brings the number of ASEAN member countries who have ratified the Charter to four, including Singapore.

Singapore was the first to hand over the documents to the new Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan in Jakarta.

Observers say a top priority for ASEAN now is to set up a dispute settlement mechanism, as spelt out in the Charter.

Such a mechanism already exists to deal with disputes in the economic arena.

Another aspect of the Charter that has drawn much interest is the ASEAN Human Rights Body.

The terms of reference for this body has to be worked out and there's a committee looking into this matter.

All ASEAN Foreign Ministers are attending the two-day retreat in Singapore, except Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar.

He is busy with preparations for the upcoming general elections.

Mr Syed Hamid is represented by the Secretary-General of Malaysia's Foreign Affairs Ministry. - CNA/de