21 November
DURING the seventh-day meet-ing of the Second Pyidaungsu Hluttaw’s 14th regular session yesterday, MPs debated a tabling from Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Brig-Gen Maung Maung and 143 Tatmadaw MPs on the Joint Constitution Scru-tinizing Committee’s report on the Second Bill Amending the Constitution.
MPs debate constitutional amendment proposals
MP U Thaung Aye of Pyaw-bwe constituency said ethnic armed organizations have staged attacks today for their rights to autonomy, equal rights, decentralization and democratic rights. As such, it would be the right thing to do for the Hluttaw to debate proposals from MPs U Thein Tun, Dr Maung Thin and Brig-Gen Maung Maung which focus on amending these facts and the remaining bills to amend the constitution.
Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Lt-Col Kyaw Zeya voiced his disapproval of the report. He said that the report includes amendments to Articles 232-a and 261-a of the 2008 Consti-tution will only be made when a final comprehensive bill to make amendments to the entirety of the Constitution has been submit-ted. He said this act goes against Chapter XII of the Constitution and any further amendment pro-posals should follow Chapter XII and related laws and bylaws of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
MP U Hla San of Magway Region constituency 1 then sug-gested a rethinking whether discussing each section of the constitution amending bill in de-tail will yield good results and reduce time, money and energy spent on it. He said he surmises that proposed amendments or additions to articles seem to be di-rected to individuals in the same manner as Article 59-f. He said he disapproves of additions to Article 234-a and e and Article 261-a and e, but approves the report of the joint review committee.
The report was further de-bated by Tatmadaw Pyithu Hlut-taw Representative Major Tin Lin, Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Lt-Col Daw Soe Soe Myint, MP U Thant Zin Tun of Dekkhinathiri constituency, Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Major Daw Aye Aye Mar, MP U Oo Hla Saw of MraukU constituency, Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Lt-Col Myo Win Hlaing, MP U Sai Than Naing of Kayin State constituency 5, Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Rep-resentative Lt-Col Zaw Myo Htet, and Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Lt-Col Daw San Thidar Khin.
Scrutinizing committee secretary offers clarification
Next, Dr Myat Nyanna Soe, Secretary of the Joint Commit-tee to Scrutinizing the Second Bill Amending the Constitution, said as he read the report of the joint Scrutinizing committee and proposals from 144 Tatmadaw Hluttaw Representatives, including Tatmadaw Amyotha Hluttaw Representative Brig-Gen Aung San Chit, to the assembly, there are currently 4 bills for making a second batch of amendments to the Constitution.
He said a close inspection of all four bills will show that they do not intend to amend the en-tire Constitution, but rather only some parts of it. He said the Joint Committee on Amending the 2008 Constitution was approved by the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and propor-tionatly comprised of MPs of the Hluttaw who are members of political parties or independents.
Dr Myat Nyana Soe said this committee will compile all the proposed amendment to the Con-stitution and compile them into a bill and when it is submitted to the Hluttaw in line with the laws and bylaws of the Hluttaw, it will submitted separately at the same time with the 4 amendment bills already submitted to the Hlut-taw. He said the joint Scrutiniz-ing committee, composed of bill committee members of the Py-ithu and Amyotha Hluttaws, will scrutinize them all consecutively.
The committee secretary said all the articles and sub-ar-ticles in the bills will be scruti-nized and none of them left out for review during this process. He said most of the joint Scrutiniz-ing committee members find that tabling them to the Hluttaw in a combined form would make the use of time and processes more efficient. He said joint committee members U Stephen, Brig-Gen Maung Maung and Brig-Gen Tint Lwin have tabled for the Hluttaw to continue discussing the bill in line with Chapter XII of the Con-stitution and the laws and bylaws of the Hluttaw.
Dr Myat Nyana Soe said the motion tabled by the 144 Tatmad-aw Hluttaw Representatives to submit the current bill and the four submitted bills on constitu-tional amendment in a combined comprehensive form to the Hlut-taw should be followed and called for MPs to debate the joint Scru-tinizing committee’s report and pass a decision afterwards.Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speak-er U T Khun Myat then called for MPs interested in discussing the report to register their names.
Kyoto Convention, Edu-cation Ministry’s budget proposal
Next, Deputy Minister for Planning and Finance U Set Aung read a message sent by the President on the possibility of Myanmar becoming a member to the WCO Revised Kyoto Con-vention and the Speaker called for MPs interested in discussing the matter to register their names.
This was followed by Union Minister for Education Dr Myo Thein Gyi responding to MPs de-bating the Report No (15/2019) by the Joint Public Accounts Com-mittee on the Ministry of Educa-tion’s Basic Education Depart-ment’s progress on construction projects included in the allotted budget for 2018-2019 fiscal year.
The Union Minister said the Basic Education Department will closely follow all the suggestions outlined in the committee’s re-port. He said of the 4,797 projects carried out by the department in 2018-2019 FY across the states and regions, 76 have been re-turned as excess funds. He said that 2,590 projects from the re-maining 4,721 projects were a hundred per cent completed as of 30 September, 2019. He added that they have returned K55.366 billion from uncompleted projects for 2018-2019 FY as excess funds. He said they will review all pro-jects whose budgets have been returned, but are completed by 20 per cent of more, for acquiring funding in the 2019-2020 FY in order to complete them.
Joint Public Accounts Com-mittee Vice Chairman U Aung Min then motioned for the assem-bly to accept Report No 15/2019. The Speaker gathered the delib-eration of the Hluttaw, received no opposition, and announced the assembly has approved the report.
Merging of MPs then debated the pro-posed merging of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Planning and Finance into the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry.
MP U Ye Htut of Sagaing Re-gion constituency 5 said he rejects the merging of the two ministries as they are different in principle. He said the Ministry of Planning and Finance has numerous de-partments all devoted to setting budget regulations and ensur-ing the budget proposals of other ministries are not wasted, while the Ministry of Industry focuses on expenditures, production, de-veloping the nation’s industrial sector and economy. As such, they cannot be amalgamated into one ministry.
MP Daw Cho Cho of Ottwin constituency voiced her approval of the two ministries merging as they have shown that doing so would greatly assist the transfor-mation of Myanmar’s industrial activities and effectively boost her proposal to supply the needed fi-nance and assistance for revising investment policies and making domestic production a part of the global supply chain.
The matter was further debated by MP U Khin Cho of Hlaingbwe constituency, MP U Aung Htoo Myint of Aunglan constituency, MP U Soe Thein of Kayah State constituency 9, MP U Bo Gyi of Chauk constituency, MP U Maung Myint of Mingin constituency, MP U Sai Than Na-ing of Kayin State constituency 5, MP U Thaung Aye of Pyawbwe constituency, MP U Kyaw Aung Lwin of Sedoktara constituency, MP U Sein Win of Maubin constit-uency, MP Daw Nan Ni Ni Aye of Kayin State constituency 6, MP U Saw Thalay Saw of Shwekyin constituency, MP U Myat Lay of Htilin constituency, Tatmadaw Pyithu Hluttaw Representative Major Zay Phyo, MP U Kan Oo of Salin constituency, Tatmadaw Amyotha Hluttaw Representative Major Kyaw Soe Oo, and MP Daw Khin San Hlaing of Pale constit-uency. The eight-day meeting of the Second Pyidaungsu Hluttaw’s 14th regular session will be held on 26 November.—Aung Ye Thwin, Aye Aye Thant (Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)
