Laos: Unhappy year-end

Laos: Unhappy year-end

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http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/327636/laos-positive-year-ends-on-unhappy-note

• Published: 24/12/2012 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

This year was is supposed to have been a year to remember for Laos _ that was until the evening of Dec 15. ”I last saw my husband driving in his jeep behind my car on Saturday, 15 December, 2012. We were both going home to dinner,” said Ng Sui Meng.

”His jeep was still behind my car around 6pm near the police station at Thaduea Road. After that I did not see him anymore,” Mrs Ng said in an appeal to the Lao government after her husband, Sombath Somphone, went missing on that day.

This year Vientiane and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party showed the world that their country could easily handle big international events. It hosted the Asia-Europe Summit (Asem) last month, the biggest ever in their history.

Other good news came along this year when the country gained its long-sought membership of the World Trade Organisation after years of negotiations.

Everything seems to confirm the gradual opening of a country once extremely cautious about outside influence on the back of fears of endangerment to the firm grip of the ruling Communist Party.

Change is expected to come, though, with less tolerance of criticism of the government and a bigger role for non-government organisations (NGOs).

But the feel-good mood of Lao watchers turned sour when Mr Sombath disappeared on Dec 15.

The news was a shock to them and left them bewildered. The 60-year-old activist had never been regarded as an enemy of the state.

He founded the Participatory Development Training Centre in Vientiane to promote development and education and was still active even after he stepped down as director.

His work as a social developer was internationally recognised when he received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award on Community Leadership in 2005.

Mr Sombath was a key figure as a co-organiser of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum, which ran alongside the Asem.

Not surprisingly, he was called ”one of the most respected and influential voices for sustainable people-centred and just economic and social development in Laos” by the forum.

More than a week has passed now and at time of writing, his whereabouts are still unknown and the reason behind his disappearance remains a mystery.

Some people have tried to link his disappearance with his advocacy of environmental issues concerning the Xayaburi dam, but that seems too difficult to configure as he has never put himself on the opposite side of the government on this issue.

Vientiane has denied any involvement in the case. Laos’ Foreign Ministry suspects he could have been snatched by unknown people after he was stopped by police at a post on his way home.

Despite government denials, Vientiane cannot distance itself from the issue. Security camera footage supplies evidence that at the very least the police saw him before he disappeared after, according to his wife, ”a truck with flashing lights stopped at the police station and drove off with him”.

His Singaporean wife has appealed to officials at all levels, from village to national government. But Lao authorities seem slow to take action, despite calls for an urgent investigation growing louder from NGOs in Thailand to governments in Washington and Europe.

Mr Sombath’s disappearance came exactly one week after Anne-Sophie Gindroz, country director for Laos of Halvetas, a Swiss-based NGO promoting an agricultural project, left the Lao capital on Dec 8. She was given 48 hours to leave the country after criticising the government.

The two cases might not be connected, but it signals new concerns about Laos’s tolerance of critics.

It’s noted that the work of the NGOs has not changed, and that the country is more open to investment, while party youngbloods have been given a role in running the country over the conservative old guard.

Trying to link the two cases will not benefit the country at all and concern will grow as long as the authorities continue to hesitate to investigate the respected activist’s disappearance or probe the police who saw him before he went missing on that Saturday evening.

Nobody can help Laos except the government itself to prove all doubters that they are wrong.

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Saritdet Marukatat is Digital Media News Editor, Bangkok Post.

About the author

Writer: Saritdet Marukatat

Position: Opinion-Editorial Pages Editor

Historic collection of books on the history of Vietnam and Laos’ special relationship during the period 1930-2007

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http://www.pattayamail.com/news/historic-collection-of-books-unveiled-in-laos-12695

Tuesday, 15 May 2012 By  NNT

The Commission for Information and Training under the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee held a ceremony in Vientiane on May 10 to launch a collection of books on the history of Vietnam and Laos’ special relationship during the period 1930-2007.

Speaking at the event, Vice President of Laos Bunnhang Volachit said the collection provides valuable documentation on the history of the bilateral ties between Vietnam and Laos. It was first initiated by President Ho Chi Minh and President Kaysone Phomvihane and fostered by later generations of Party and State leaders and the peoples of both countries.

The relationship has become a shining example of international relations, he said, adding that both countries continue to protect and promote their special relationship and comprehensive cooperation. The collection includes various works, including the History of Vietnam-Laos and Laos-Vietnam Special Relationship (1930 to 2007); Party and State Documents; Chronicles of Events; Memoirs; a Pictorial Book and a documentary film entitled ‘The Epic of Vietnam-Laos Relationship’.

The books summarise, in an objective and vivid manner, an important period in the special relationship between the two Parties and two States. It also reflects the aspirations of officials, soldiers and the peoples of both countries. Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Ta Minh Chau said he believes that this historical collection, plus the activities to celebrate the Vietnam-Laos Year of Solidarity and Friendship 2012, will deepen bilateral ties and raise the traditional friendship and special solidarity that lies between Vietnam and Laos to a new level.

He stated that the Vietnamese Party, State and people are always grateful to Laos for its whole-hearted support and will do their utmost to foster the special friendship that lies between the two nations.

Profile: President of Laos Choummaly Sayasone

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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7411513.html

President Choummaly Sayasone

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Choummaly Sayasone was elected to retain his position as President of Laos on Wednesday, the first day of the First Session of the seventh Lao National Assembly (NA).

Choummaly was first elected as President of Laos in 2006 during the previous tenure NA, Laos’ parliamentary body.

The following are brief introductions to President of Laos Choummaly Sayasone:

Choummaly Sayasone was born on March 6, 1936, in Attapeu province in the south of the country.

Choummaly was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) at its third National Congress in 1982, and became an alternate member of the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee in 1986.

He was re-elected as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee at the fifth, sixth and seventh Party Congress of the LPRP in 1991, 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Choummaly served for a time as Minister of Defense from August 1991 to March 1993. From Feb. 24, 1998 to March 2001, Choummaly held dual positions as Vice Prime Minister of Laos and Minister of Defense.

Choummaly became the Vice President of Laos from March 2001 to 2006.

He was elected as General Secretary of the LPRP on March 21 of 2006 by the Party’s eighth Congress, succeeding Khamtai Siphandon, and subsequently succeeded Siphandon as President of Laos on June 8, 2006.

On March 21, 2011, he was re-elected as Secretary General of the Central Committee of the LPRP at the ninth Congress of the LPRP, followed by his re-election as Lao President on June 15, 2011.

Source: Xinhua

Communist Laos elects one-party parliament, so hopes for change slim

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http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E7G421D20110510?sp=true

Tue May 10, 2011 9:12am GMT

* Parliament seen as rubber-stamp for politburo

* Scope for freer debate but authoritarian status quo remains

* 99.6 percent turnout; “independents” win 4 seats

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK, May 10 (Reuters) – Communist Laos has announced results of its parliamentary election, with a younger, “highly educated” generation of lawmakers set to continue the authoritarian status quo in one of Asia’s most tightly controlled countries.

More than 3.2 million people, roughly half the population, cast votes in the five-yearly poll to elect 132 lawmakers, all but four of whom were representatives of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the only legal party in the mountainous, landlocked country. [ID:nL3E7FS4YH]

The first task for the new assembly when it convenes in June will be to approve a new president, vice-president, prime minister and cabinet selected by the 11-member politburo of the party’s Central Committee, the country’s real policy makers.

The voter turnout was 99.6 percent and a “joyful atmosphere” prevailed during the April 30 ballot, election authorities said on Tuesday. The results were delayed by heavy rain.

“The newly elected National Assembly members are highly educated,” Election Secretariat Committee member Taworn Vanwijit was quoted as saying by Lao National Radio.

“I believe the National Assembly’s role will be enhanced during the coming five-year term.”

But that role is likely to be limited, presenting only a thin veneer of democracy in a country that has tolerated almost no opposition since its “national liberation” in 1975, when communist revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy.

Almost 32 percent of the new assembly members are central government officials and 25 percent were women.

Analysts and local observers, who declined to be named, said four seats were won by non-party candidates, all of them representatives of private companies. State media have not referred to any of the candidates as independents, or as members of the ruling party.

SCRIPTED DEBATE

“The National Assembly is just a rubber stamp and will continue to be one for as long as Laos is a single-party authoritarian state,” said Martin Stuart-Fox, a Laos expert at the University of Queensland.

“Everything it decides on has already been determined by the party hierarchy … What is debated is again determined by the party.”

President Choummaly Sayasone, 75, a retired three-star army general, is almost certain to remain in office, having been re-elected secretary-general of the ruling party at its congress in March. He was unanimously elected president by the assembly in 2006.

Choummaly has outlined a vision to haul Laos out of poverty by 2020 with robust economic growth of 8 percent a year, fuelled by foreign investment. Laos’s $6 billion economy has expanded an average 7.9 percent annually over the past five years and emerged unscathed from the global economic crisis.

Laos wants to become the “battery of Southeast Asia”, selling hydropower to its energy-hungry neighbours. The country is also rich in minerals, attracting mining companies, while the launch in January this year of a stock market may eventually help to attract more foreign capital.

The target markets are mainly neighbours China and Thailand as well as Vietnam, which has long exerted political, economic and social influence over the country.

Simon Creak, a Laos specialist at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan’s Kyoto University, said discussions in the assembly had been more robust in recent years and the government seemed keen to learn how its policies affected the public.

“The big question is what difference this will make to government policies,” Creak said.

“Will concerns expressed in the assembly feed back into policy-making processes in the party politburo and Central Committee? It’s hard to say. But even if they do, these will have to compete with a range of other priorities and interests.” (Editing by Alan Raybould)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

Laos’ one-party election to include five independent candidates

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http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1635945.php/Laos-one-party-election-to-include-five-independent-candidates

Apr 29, 2011, 9:48 GMT

Vientiane – Laos’ general election to be held this weekend will be a one-party affair, although five independent candidates have been permitted to run, officials said Friday.

The election, set for Saturday, is to be the country’s seventh since opting for a communist system in 1975.

Altogether 190 candidates are contesting 132 seats in the National Assembly, the country’s legislative body.

Among the candidates are 46 women, and five representatives of the private sector who are not members of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the communist party which is the only political party in Laos.

‘It is up to independents if they want to contest,’ the Information Ministry’s Mounkeo Oraboun said. ‘It’s not up to us to ask independents to join the election,’ he told a press conference.

In the most recent elections in 2006, two independents won assembly seats but both ended up joining the communist party.

‘Laos is still a one-party state,’ said one western diplomat. ‘If you want to change things it’s easier to do so within the system.’

Observers say the National Assembly, which previously did little more than rubber-stamp the party’s decisions, has gained clout over the past five years, during which time it has passed 50 laws and strengthened its role as a supervisory body.

It played a role, for instance, in the forced resignation of former prime minister Bouasone Bouphavanh in December for ‘family problems.’

Bouasone reportedly had a mia noi, or formal mistress, a common enough practice in Laos but a no-no for politburo members and cabinet ministers.

‘The general election is important because the National Assembly has become more important,’ said a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.

Some 3.3 million Lao are eligible to vote on Saturday, nearly half the population of 6 million.

The results should be published within a week.