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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Suu Kyi finally gets EU Sakharov rights prize
Sultan of Brunei introduces tough Islamic punishments
Mongolia nomads turn to private land

Suu Kyi finally gets EU Sakharov rights prize

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STRASBOURG, France: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday finally received the EU's Sakharov rights prize she won in 1990 at the height of a brutal military crackdown, but said her work was not yet done.

Members of the European Parliament gave Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi a standing ovation as she accepted the award from the parliament's president Martin Schulz.

"You demonstrate that people who fight for democracy will triumph in the end," Schulz said. "I congratulate you.... You are a great symbol of freedom and democracy."

Dressed in a striking traditional costume of bright yellow and dark green, Suu Kyi gracefully downplayed the praise, saying much work was still to be done to bring full democracy to Myanmar.

Recalling how the military prevented her National League for Democracy from taking power after she won elections in 1990, Suu Kyi asked: "Where are we now? We have made progress since 1990 but we have not made sufficient progress."

She said her people were "just beginning to learn" that they can ask questions, stressing that the current military-backed constitution must be changed "so that it is a really democratic one."

Suu Kyi, 68, spent 15 years under house arrest before she was freed after elections in 2010 produced a quasi-civilian government regime.

Myanmar President Thein Sein, who took power in March 2011, has earned international recognition for reforms since then that include freeing political prisoners, with Western sanctions largely lifted.

But the military and its political allies remain in control of parliament, and religious violence and the continued arrests of activists have tempered optimism.

The current Myanmar constitution would block Suu Kyi from becoming president in elections scheduled for 2015 as it excludes anyone whose spouses or children are foreign nationals.

Her two sons are British nationals through their father, the late scholar Michael Aris.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament awarded Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai the prestigious 50,000-euro ($65,000) Sakharov prize, whose past winners include South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, with the award accepted on her behalf by her sons.-AFP

Sultan of Brunei introduces tough Islamic punishments

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: The Sultan of Brunei introduced tough Sharia-law punishments on Tuesday including death by stoning for crimes such as adultery, hailing what he called a "historic" step toward Islamic orthodoxy for his sleepy country.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah - one of the world's wealthiest men - said a new Sharia Penal Code in the works for years was officially introduced Tuesday in the tiny, oil-flush sultanate and would be phased in beginning in six months.

Based on individual cases, punishments could include stoning to death for adultery, severing of limbs for theft, and flogging for violations ranging from abortion to alcohol consumption, according to a copy of the code.

The code applies only to Muslims.

"By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled," the sultan, 67, said in a speech.

An absolute monarch whose family has tightly controlled the languid, oil-rich country of 400,000 for six centuries, the sultan first called in 1996 for the introduction of Sharia criminal punishments.

The sultan already imposes a relatively conservative brand of Islam on his subjects, compared to Brunei's Southeast Asian Muslim neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Brunei bans the sale and public consumption of alcohol and closely restricts other religions.
But Sharia has been a rare point of contention in a land where the sultan's word is unquestioned, with many Bruneians quietly grumbling that the concept is out of step with the affluent country's laid-back ethnic Malay society.

"These rights-abusing policies are a good indication of why modern democracy and the right of people to participate in their government is a much better idea than anachronistic absolute monarchy," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

The situation shows that "respect for basic civil and political rights is near zero in Brunei," he added.
The monarch himself has acknowledged concerns over Sharia in recent years as the code was being drafted.

Compatible with Malay culture?

It was not immediately clear how aggressively it would be enforced.
Two years ago, the Attorney-General's office promised Brunei would apply an extremely high burden of proof for Sharia cases and judges would have wide discretion in applying it, in comments apparently aimed at easing public fears.

"It seems almost incompatible with Malay culture, which is peace-loving," said Tuah Ibrahim, 57, driver of a boat taxi in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

He said Sharia can be acceptable if proportionate to the crime, but adds: "I can't imagine our country turning into somewhere like Saudi Arabia."

Brunei already has a dual system combining civil courts based on British law - the sultanate was a British protectorate until 1984 - and Sharia-compliant courts limited to personal and family issues such as marriage and inheritance.

Nearly 70 percent of Brunei's people are Muslim ethnic Malays. About 15 percent are non-Muslim ethnic Chinese, followed by indigenous tribes and other groups.

Bankrolled by South China Sea oil and gas fields, Brunei has one of Asia's highest standards of living, including free medical care and education through the university level.

The monarch's wealth - estimated at $20 billion by Forbes magazine two years ago - and luxurious lifestyle have become legendary, with reports emerging of his vast collection of luxury vehicles and gold-bedecked palaces.

The monarchy was deeply embarassed by a sensational family feud between Hassanal and his younger brother Jefri Bolkiah over the latter's alleged embezzlement of 15 billion dollars during his tenure as finance minister in the 1990s.

Subsequent court battles and exposes revealed salacious details of Jefri's un-Islamic jet-set lifestyle, including allegations of a high-priced harem of Western paramours and a luxury yacht he owned called "Tits."

Despite a suave image overseas, the sultan repeatedly warns at home of the potential impact that increasing integration with the world could have on Brunei's moral values and has leaned towards Islamic orthodoxy of late.

In the past year, the government introduced mandatory religious education for all Muslim children and ordered all businesses closed during Friday prayers.

In his speech, the sultan appeared to try to assuage any international concerns that may arise, saying the Sharia change "does not in any way change our policies ... as a member of the family of nations." - AFP

Mongolia nomads turn to private land

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ALTANBULAG: Mongolia's nomads have roamed its sprawling grasslands for centuries, pitching their yurts wherever they find pasture for their animals, but now Tsogtsaikhan Orgodol is staying put as part of a scheme to tackle chronic overgrazing.

The tanned 53-year-old still wears his nomad's riding boots, but he and his community have been given exclusive rights to 1,000ha of steppe in exchange for reducing their herds and remaining in the same place all year round, giving the land a chance to regenerate.

"I have agreed to cut the number of our goats in half," said Orgodol, looking out from horseback over their 200 animals, mostly sheep and some cows, who despite the project principles are not fenced in.

"The only problem is when other animals come," he added. "They sense where the good grass is. We have to chase them away."

According to MCC's website, the project will cover about 300 tracts of land near Ulan Bator and Mongolia's next two largest towns, Erdenet and Darkhan, involving around 1,000 households in total.

Orgodol's 22-strong group shares two yurts, known as gers in Mongolia, and a permanent house next to a barn about 45km outside the capital Ulan Bator.

The national tradition is for land to be accessible to all, with pastoralist families moving several times a year in search of fodder and water.

But Nyamsuren Lkhagvasuren, who runs the land programme for the US-funded aid agency Millennium Challenge Corporation, said: "The number of livestock has exploded to more than 40 million.

"This goes beyond the limits of what is reasonable, even for Mongolia, which is a vast country."

In a study published last month in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers from the University of Oregon using satellite images from NASA found that 70% of Mongolia's grassland – which makes up almost four-fifths of the country – is now "degraded".

Twelve percent of the country's biomass has disappeared in recent years, they said, calling overgrazing a "primary contributor" to the alarming decline of the steppe.

Livestock was collectivised under the socialist planned economy imposed under decades of Communist dictatorship when Mongolia was a satellite of the Soviet Union.

But since the advent of democracy and a market economy in 1990, many Mongolians have returned to their sheep and cattle – partly because unemployment shot up – so that 40% of the working population are now herders. — AFP

Agriculture Minister Battulga Khaltmaa – a former judo champion – acknowledged concerns about desertification but downplayed the University of Oregon findings, attributing the problem to climate change rather than overgrazing.

"The number of animals is not that high compared to the size of the land," he said.

In the Soviet era even greater numbers of cattle roamed the country of 1.6 million sq km, he pointed out.

"Under socialism, we had 26 million livestock and under Stalin the target was set at 250 million in order to meet the demand for meat in Siberia."

But herders who cannot command high prices resort to selling large quantities instead, said Thomas Pavie, an agriculture expert who advises French government projects in Mongolia.

"There is indeed overgrazing, especially in the production of cashmere. The problem is that Mongolia exports wool in the form of raw material, particularly to China, so the value-added happens somewhere else," he said.

"That requires them to produce a lot. If wool were sold more expensively, they would need fewer animals." — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 22 Oktober 2013