Burma reimprisons activist, shows ‘contractual’ freedom of political prisoners | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

Burma reimprisons activist, shows ‘contractual’ freedom of political prisoners | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Francis Wade, May 09, 2013

The decision by Burma’s government to overturn an amnesty granted last year to a political prisoner is deeply troubling for a number of reasons. Nay Myo Zin was originally jailed for 10 years in March 2011 on media-related charges, making him President Thein Sein’s first political prisoner. Ironically, he now carries the equally unhealthy distinction of being the first former political prisoner to be returned to jail.

The 38-year-old charity worker, a former army captain, will have to serve out six years of his remaining sentence. The charge he is being held on, of defaming a police officer following a land rights protest in January, carries only a three-month sentence. However, all political prisoners freed in a series of amnesties last year were forced to sign an agreement, glossed over by the legion of western countries who hailed the amnesties, that stated they could return to prison at any time if they were deemed to have broken a law.

Burma’s legal system is inherently corrupt, and its laws made deliberately malleable in order that it can penalize the opposition when real justification is lacking. This is why a prominent activist like Nay Myo Zin, who tackled land confiscations ordered on behalf of a powerful business elite, can find himself back in prison for six years on spurious and minor charges.
More than anything, the conditions attached to the amnesties last year show that released political prisoners are far from free; they are shackled by statutes that ensure they cannot exercise the right to challenge authority, which should be a cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

What will grate the powers that be in Burma is that Nay Myo Zin was one of them, a former military man who turned his back on the army and took up charity work. His mother had said of his time in the military upon his first arrest in 2011 that ““he didn’t enjoy it there – he is a morally strong kid”. Last year he founded the Myanmar Social Development Network, and joined students as they marched to Kachin state earlier this year in protest at the military’s offensive against the Kachin Independence Army.

His re-arrest is one of several examples of the glaring limitations of new protest and freedom of speech laws, which it seems can only be exercised until they begin to cut into the interests of the government and elite. Other examples include the crackdown on anti-copper mine protestors last year; the hounding of a journalist who criticized parliament’s grip on the judiciary; threats by the mining ministry towards a journalist who lodged accusations of corruption, and many more.

The release of political prisoners was one of the key benchmarks set by the EU in terminating sanctions. Despite around 200 remaining in prison, and thousands more facing the daily threat of being returned to prison, the EU last month saw fit to end sanctions and begin serious moves towards investing in the country. The constant promises of vigilance and pressure from foreign powers are wearing thin. Those who have been courting the Burmese government over the past two years are guilty, through dint of their blind support for the government, of abetting the darker elements of this transition, of which Nay Myo Zin is but one casualty.

It is not in the interests of Burma’s political and business leaders, still intensely wary of opposition after half a century of dictatorial rule, to allow influential activists to do as they see fit to alter the structures of power in the country. It is similarly unclear whether it is in the interests of the EU to scratch beneath the surface and really understand what one man’s sentencing means for the wider transition and future promises of reform.