Burma: Hopes High After ASEAN Chair Award

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People in Myanmar – or Burma – hope for improvements in economic and religious freedoms and human rights as a result of the country being aarded chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014, according to leading church commetators and political analysts.

Bishop John Hsane Hgyi, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), said today: “ASEAN members have pushed our country to walk on the road to democracy by electing it to the chairman’s role. We cannot go backwards and must walk the road of democracy.”

He said the country needs to make major improvements to show it truly deserves the ASEAN chairmanship.

Democratic reform would reduce the fear and anxiety of the people of Myanmar, who would be able to show their true capabilities and attitudes to work for the development of the country.

In Yangon, U Kyaw Khin, a former uiversity professor in Thailand, said it is a sign of progress of the country which at the same time will also have to adopt the commitments for the future of the country and will have to work for the benefits of its citizens.

He said: “As it has this commitment, the country cannot do as it likes and will have to abide by the law of the international community. It must communicate and create good relationships with foreign countries.”

Father Leo, director of the Episcopal Commission for Social Communication, said he hopes media freedom and transparency will come about in the future as Myanmar moves towards the democratic way.

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

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