After this week's ASEAN summit in Brunei, Myanmar has for the first time been given the leadership of the 10-member grouping, confirming its emergence as a fully-accepted part of the region.
This is despite lingering concern over a range of issues, including the government's failure to control sectarian violence and questions over its adherence to the rule of law.
Reporter: Shivali NayakSpeaker: Dr Melissa Crouch, Research Fellow, Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the National University of Singapore
NAYAK: After decades of isolation and military rule, Myanmar is opening up to the world.
Elections have been held, and it's been praised internationally for embarking along the road to democratic reform.
But the country still has a long way to go in developing its infrastructure, ensuring social stability and engendering respect for the rule of law.
To improve understanding of the rapidly changing situation, two Australian scholars are putting together a legal handbook on Myanmar, drawing on expertise from around the region.
One of the co-editors of the work is Dr Melissa Crouch, from the National University of Singapore.
CROUCH: The handbook on the burma legal system came about in 2011 when we organised a burma studies conference at the University of Melbourne law faculty. And since then a number of presenters and authors from a wide range of institutions around the world have worked together to bring together their expertise on one volume in order to present a compilation of leading research on the legal system of Myanmar which is rapidly changing given the current context. So basically what this volume will be is essentially the first edited volume on the legal system of Myanmar and in particular trying to capture some of the dynamics and changes, legislative reforms, that are currently taking place as well as putting those in their historical and social context.
NAYAK: What do you think is the best way to build a rule of law in Myanmar?
CROUCH: The rule of law is certainly the word on everyone's lips in Myanmar at the moment both in terms of those who are currently in government as well as those who for very long time have essentially been the opposition, including the National League for Democracy. The rule of law I guess one fundamental aspect which many people are talking about at the moment is the constitution itself. And the current constitution that exists in Myanmar was one that was essentially drafted under the control of the military. So it was not one that the people had the opportunity to participate in or to contribute to in any way. And so there's a lot of discussion and debate in the media at the moment about revising the constitution before the 2015 elections.
NAYAK: What does Myanmar need to do in order to reach international standards in terms of a legal framework?
CROUCH: There was a report released last year by the International Bar Association that essentially gives a preliminary assessment of the legal system of Myanmar and it did certainly identify many areas in which there would be a long way to go if Myanmar was to aim towards many internationally recognised standards such as a independent Bar Council and so forth. What I think is really important is that the people of Myanmar themselves are able to have frank and open discussions about what the rule of law will look like and how it can be strengthened in their particular context. Of course one important thing at the moment is that the constitution still provides for the military to have seats in parliament. So of course one, essentially if the country is to make a full transition towards democracy is that the military should no longer be in the parliament. And the military should not have the power to elect ministers which it currently does have the power to do.
NAYAK: There are many businesses interested to do business in Myanmar. How much caution should they be exercising?
CROUCH: . There are many challenges that businesses would face in setting up and establishing themselves in Myanmar. I should say that there have been some significant reforms already so for example, there has been a new law and regulation passed on foreign investment as well as on special economic zones. Many of these are still in their very early stages of implementation though so it will take some time to see how they will actually going to be interpreted and how they operate in practice.
NAYAK: In terms of forms of law, which do you think are the most pressing at the moment that Myanmar should act on?
CROUCH: Aside from the constitution, of course there are national laws and the parliament has been quite robust in its discussion and debate of those laws but perhaps a lot of legal practice at the moment may operate on government policies and regulations that are often more difficult to find. So one simple issue at the moment is the access to the laws that do exist and a clear sense of which laws are the relevant ones that apply in a particular context. There have been some institutions for example the supreme court and also the union parliament that have established you know websites and online databases more recently that do enable legal information to be accessed but there is still a long way to go in that regard.
NAYAK: Myanmar has often looked to Indonesia as an example of how the democratic process works. Will the country continue to draw parallels with Indonesia?
CROUCH: There's certainly a big awareness and understanding of Indonesia's democratic reform process in Myanmar by a wide range of actors. They are very aware and conscious of the way in which the military in Indonesia has transitioned out of parliament and in to a role that is exclusively foreign defence essentially and is very separate from the role of the police. And so there is certainly an eagerness to learn from the Indonesian experience and to understand that the Indonesia experience does provide one model of the way in which the country can go about making such a transition, from essentially a military government to a civilian government.
NAYAK: When you were doing your fieldwork in Myanmar, tell us about the challenges that you faced.
CROUCH: Since conducting field research in Myanmar, I've certainly noticed that things have changed there rapidly and the situation is becoming more open than it was. So for example, the universities even over the last few months have become a lot more open to foreigners visiting their law department for example. Whereas in the past, it was much more difficult to obtain access, even simply to get permission to walk onto campus to visit the faculty and so forth. So there's definitely increasing openness across a wide range of institutions to foreign assistance and to foreigners coming in and doing research as well.
source: Radio Australia
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/myanmars-democratic-future-linked-to-the-rule-of-law/1203498
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