Student actions in 2015
Websites/Multiple Documents
Description:
"The Myanmar government agreed in principle on Wednesday in Yangon to all student demands concerning national education reform in the four-way talks with students, lawmakers and education advocates, according to an outspoken education reformer who is participating in the talks.
During the resumption of the four-party talks, government representatives and lawmakers agreed to include students and other education professionals in referendums and education law drafts, said Thein Lwin, a member of the Network for National Education Reform (NNER), an organization consisting of educational, political and religious groups, which is involved in the talks..."
Source/publisher:
Radio Free Asia
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-04
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Student actions/movements, Student actions in 2015
Language:
English
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Individual Documents
Description:
"...It?s highly unlikely that the victims of this week?s violence will ever see the perpetrators — above all the minister of internal affairs — brought to account. As usual, the government will set up investigative commissions run by its own officials, but there will be little in the way of substantive follow-up. Senior spokesmen have repeatedly asserted that what happened in Rangoon and in Letpadan was in accordance with the law. Though the government has now released 17 of the detained students, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that any unlawful activity or ?attempts to destabilize the country” will be charged and punished. Failing effective disciplinary action by the executive branch of government, it will be left up to parliament, which was quick to unanimously condemn the United States for sanctioning a notorious regime figure, to demand an accounting. Will its members live up to their responsibilities? Will the country?s unreformed judiciary allow attempts by victims to sue their abusers? The answers to these questions will show whether Burma?s embattled political transition has any life left in it at all."
Min Zin
Source/publisher:
"Foreign Policy"
Date of publication:
2015-03-12
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Student actions in 2015, Dialogue/reform/transition in Burma/Myanmar - analyses and statements
Language:
English
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Description:
"The fighting peacock rides again. That long-standing symbol of the Burmese student movement, an emblem of resistance to authoritarian rule, once again adorns countless bright red flags held aloft by student activists. Thousands of the students, including high schoolers, are now marching — in some cases for hundreds of miles — from several major provincial cities to Rangoon. They?re protesting against the country?s National Education Law, which was approved by parliament in September 2014 despite objections from student unions and expert networks. The students and their allies view the law as explicitly designed to curb academic freedom..."
Min Zin
Source/publisher:
"Foreign Policy"
Date of publication:
2015-03-09
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Student actions in 2015
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Myanmar?s Aung San Suu Kyi urged student protesters on Tuesday to hold talks with the government about their opposition to the country?s controversial education bill, while stressing the need for the legislation to be passed as soon as possible.
The chairperson of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party urged the students, who are marching 638 kilometers (400 miles) from central Myanmar?s Mandalay city to the commercial capital Yangon in protest against the National Education Bill, to hold discussions and negotiate with the government.
?Whether it is in this country or in any country, the best method to resolve problems is to discuss and negotiate,” she said in response to a question from the media about the student protest, as she was arriving at parliament for a meeting..."
Source/publisher:
Radio Free Asia (RFA)
Date of publication:
2015-01-27
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Student actions/movements, Student actions in 2015
Language:
English
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Description:
"This was partly due to their timing; the four days of demonstrations at Yangon University, City Hall and Shwedagon Pagoda kicked off on November 14, when United States President Barack Obama was visiting Yangon.
Nevertheless, the hundreds of students who took to streets ? mostly members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions ? have prompted an unprecedented response: Instead of being expelled from their courses, arrested or even shot at, the Ministry of Education has offered an olive branch, in the form of meetings to discuss their concerns. Minister for Education Daw Khin San Yi has said that their views could then be considered when finalising by-laws for the National Education Law, which are likely to be enacted next month..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (English)
Date of publication:
2014-11-24
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Student actions/movements, Student actions in 2015
Language:
English
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Description:
"Students and their supporters in Myanmar have staged a sit-in and threatened to go on a hunger strike as police block them from continuing a march to the commercial capital Yangon, protesting the country?s controversial education law, the leader of a student federation said.
The students undertook the action on Tuesday, after riot police outside a monastery in the town of Letpadan, about 140 kilometers (86 miles) north of Yangon, formed a human chain around 150 protestors, while their supporters and parents in major cities urged authorities to avoid a violent crackdown on the students.
Police had given the students a 4 p.m. deadline to disperse before they took action against them, but it passed without incident.
?We have asked the authorities to let us march to Tharawaddy,” Kyaw Ko Ko, president of the All Burma Federation of Students Union, said, referring to the district of the Bago Division in lower Myanmar.
?We will [then] go to Yangon by cars and will go home from Yangon. If they don?t let us do it, we will sit here and go on a hunger strike. If they attack or crack down us, we won?t respond.”..."
Source/publisher:
Radio Free Asia (RFA)
Date of publication:
2015-03-03
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Student actions/movements, Student actions in 2015
Language:
English
more