Civil society groups, members of parliament and even a member of the president’s inner circle claimed to have no idea who was on the selection board when contacted by The Myanmar Times last week.
By Bill O’Toole and Lun Min Maing | Friday, 03 October 2014
More than a week after a reshuffle at the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission that saw several outspoken members removed, the composition of the selection board responsible for recommending the changes remains shrouded in mystery – prompting some to question whether the board was even formed.
Civil society groups, members of parliament and even a member of the president’s inner circle claimed to have no idea who was on the selection board when contacted by The Myanmar Times last week.
State media announced on September 25 that the previous 15-member commission, set up in September 2011, had been disbanded and replaced by a new 11-member body.
The reshuffle was prompted by the enactment of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Law in March of this year, which states that commissioners must be chosen by a selection board.
This committee is required to nominate 30 potential members. The president, in coordination with the speakers of the upper and lower house, can then choose which of the nominees to appoint.
However, no public notice appears to have been issued announcing the formation of the selection board and the identity of its non-government members remains unclear.
Mahn Aung Tin Myint, chair of the Amyotha Hluttaw Committee of Fundamental Rights, Democratic Rights and Human Rights of Citizens, said the only member of the Selection Board he knew of was U Myint Kyi, a USDP representative for Thanlyin Township.
However, U Myint Kyi denied being on the board and said he had no idea which members of parliament were involved.
Even Minister for Information U Ye Htut, a spokesperson for the President’s Office, said he was unsure who was on it, but insisted the law was followed.
“The reform of the National Human Rights Commission was done according to the law. I am sure that every member selected in the new team is qualified and suitable for the commission. I do not know who [was] involved in the selection process and why [some members] were ruled out of the reform,” he said in an email.
In an earlier interview, commission chair U Win Mra said he was similarly in the dark on the identify of selection board members, saying only that the reshuffle was the decision of President U Thein Sein and his advisers.
Ma Khin Ohnmar, the director of Burma Partnership, a coalition of Myanmar-focused NGOs, said the reshuffle highlighted the lack of transparency that had plagued the commission since the start.
The identity of the selection board members is “a big question to us”, she said. “We will be inquiring about that, as well as how the selection took place.”
In a previous interview, U Hla Myint, one of the ousted commission members, said he had helped draft the Rights Commission Law, and made sure to include procedures to ensure that the selection of new members was carried out in an open, transparent manner.
“Did they do the selection by the law? I’m not so sure,” he said.
