The first meetings of the permanent committees formed by Burma’s new Parliament will be held in Naypyidaw in May, according to a member of a parliamentary committee.
“I was invited to attend the preparatory meeting of the Amyotha Hluttaw Bill Committee on May 2,” said Dr Myat Nyana Soe, who is a member of the committee. “But the committee’s first actual meeting will be on May 23.”
Myat Nyana Soe is a member of the National Democratic Force (NDF), which was formed by a group that broke away from the National League for Democracy (NLD). He was elected to the Amyotha Hluttaw, or Upper House of Parliament.
Both the Amyotha Hluttaw and the Pyithu Hluttaw [Lower House] formed four permanent committees with the fifteen members on each committee. The committees are the Bill Committee, Public Accounts Committee, Hluttaw [Parliament] Rights Committee and Government’s Guarantees, Pledges and Undertakings Vetting Committee.
Asked about the role of the parliamentary committees, Myat Nyana Soe said that these committees are permanent and will be continuously active, even when Parliament is not in session. He said that the next parliamentary sessions could be held in or around September.
“I guess the parliamentary sessions will resume in September after a six-month break, rather than a year,” said Mya Nyana Soe. “We already have some draft bills—for example, a cyber law.”
Although he hasn’t been informed about the detailed plans of the Bill Committee, Mya Nyana Soe sees it as an opportunity to review and recommend bills for the benefit of the people. He compared the new system with lawmaking under the military junta.
“In the past, it was easy to pass a law because the Attorney General’s Office drafted the law and sent it to the [military] government for approval,” said Mya Nyana Soe. “Now, the Bill Committee has to first review the draft laws, and then submit them to the speakers of the respective parliaments with a set of the recommendations to get the approval of both houses of parliament.”
However, according to the duties, responsibilities and rights of these committees, as explained in detail by the speakers of the Upper and Lower Houses during the parliamentary sessions and approved by the Parliament in early March, members of the committees have been strictly prohibited from leaking any information regarding the committee meetings.
Article 5 of the regulations for all eight committees reads: “What a committee member says or does and discussions at a committee meeting shall not be leaked out. All the discussions held at committee meetings shall be recorded and approved by the committee. Meeting minutes shall not be handed out.”
Some observers said that these committees are the working groups of the Parliament and will play an important role in the legislature as a check and balance on the government.
However, due to Article 5 of the committee regulations, they also said that the committees will have no direct transparency to the people who elected them because nobody will be allowed to hear what is discussed in the meetings.
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