Myanmar Now

YANGON — Across Myanmar, Htin Kyaw’s appointment as president on Tuesday was greeted with optimism as finally a civilian, and not a general, will lead the government. But the simultaneous approval of the military’s choice for vice-president, Myint Swe, shocked those who suffered under the junta-era hardliner.

Observers warn his appointment may indicate that the military has no intention of co-operating with the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which will seek sweeping reforms.

Myint Swe gained 213 votes out of 652 cast, getting votes from the Union, Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and military lawmakers occupying a quarter of parliament. He became first vice-president, a key government position that will give him a seat on the 11-member National Security and Defence Council.

Trusted Aung San Suu Kyi aide Htin Kyaw gained the majority vote and he is expected to become a 'proxy president' who defers to the NLD leader for all important government decisions.

As the first vice-president, Myint Swe would serve as Acting President, albeit temporarily, if the presidency falls vacant due to resignation, death, permanent disability or any other cause.  

“I am extremely surprised about this appointment. U Myint Swe supervised the brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution in 2007,” said Thobita, a Buddhist monk in Mandalay who participated in the monk-led democratic uprising and was subsequently imprisoned by authorities.

Myint Swe was military commander of Yangon Region and oversaw the deployment of soldiers to violently clear protesters from the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city. Before the crackdown, he had been functioning as “Than Shwe’s eyes and ears” in Yangon, a 2006 US Embassy cable released by Wikileaks said. Myint Swe was placed on a US Treasury sanctions list for Specially Designated Persons for his role in the crackdown.

At the start of Myanmar’s democratic transition in 2010, Myint Swe shed his uniform to join the USDP and become Yangon Region chief minister, a position he held until recently.

He is seen as having the trust of former strongman Than Shwe, so much so that Myint Swe was put in charge of Myanmar’s notorious spying apparatus, the Military Intelligence, after its powerful chief, Khin Nyunt, was purged in 2004.

Kyaw Win, a well-known local political analyst, said the appointment of Myint Swe as vice-president – instead of a more reform-minded ex-general – showed the enduring power of the retired Than Shwe, now 83 and living in a heavily guarded compound in the capital Naypyitaw. “He can still retain his influence on the army,” Kyaw Win said.

According to NLD MP Ba Myo Thein, who was on the parliamentary commission vetting the presidential nominees, Myint Swe was selected by the army to "protect its interests". The military elites and families control several businesses.

Asked how an US-blacklisted ex-general could pass the parliamentary vetting process, Ba Myo Thein said, “The Constitution doesn’t say anything about overseas blacklisting.”

Myint Swe was nominated for the position once before, in 2012, but it turned out his son-in-law held Australian citizenship, which banned him from the position under the Constitution’s Article 59(f), the same clause that prevents Suu Kyi from assuming the presidency as her sons are British nationals.

Taryar Myint Swe, the son-in-law, has renounced his Australian citizenship, according to Ba Myo Thein.

‘A Very Poor and Potentially Confrontational Choice’

Nyo Nyo Thin, a former MP in the Yangon Region parliament, said as chief minister Myint Swe had resisted reforms and transparency, while his role in awarding a cancelled real estate project to an unknown company raised questions.

This, she said, does not bode well for his new role in a NLD-led cabinet. “Myint Swe’s term as (chief minister) left the clear impression that he is an old-style army loyalist. That’s why he was chosen by the army for this (vice-president) position,” Nyo Nyo Thin said.

David Mathieson, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said, it was “a very poor and potentially confrontational choice by the Tatmadaw (army) to nominate Myint Swe and then vote him in.

“Unfortunately this augers badly for improved NLD-Tatmadaw cooperation, Myint Swe is a symbol of the former military regime… He represents all the forces that may limit or thwart the nascent democratic transition.”

Myint Swe could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts by Myanmar Now to contact his office.  

USDP MP Hla Htay Win defended the appointment and said Myint Swe had been selected because of “his good experience” in senior government positions.

Asked how the United States is going to deal with Vice-President Myint Swe and whether he will remain on the sanctions list, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week, “I have seen nothing that says this individual is going to be taken off that list.”

LOS ANGELES — The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has added three new governors to its 51-member board and appointed six minority members to other leadership positions. The group also apologized for a racially insensitive skit during last month's Oscar show.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the new appointees late Tuesday after a meeting of the organization's Board of Governors. The board also ratified other changes proposed in January in response to the OscarsSoWhite crisis aimed at increasing diversity, including limiting Oscar voting rights to those active in the movie business.

The academy's apology came after criticism from some Asian academy members offended by a skit during the Oscar show that introduced three Asian kids as academy accountants.

"I can understand the feelings and we are setting up a meeting to discuss, because as you well know, no one sets out to be offensive, and I'm very sorry that has happened," Boone Isaacs said in a phone interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday. "I think so much is achieved with dialogue, so much is achieved. And that is what we'll continue to do: have dialogue, listen and just keep fixing."

In the interview, Boone Isaacs also expanded on Tuesday's board meeting and the academy's diversity goals. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Talk about the new positions announced tonight (new governors include Oscar telecast producer Reginald Hudlin and "Kung-Fu Panda 3" director Jennifer Yuh Nelson; committee members include actor Gael Garcia Bernal and producer Effie Brown).

Boone Isaacs: Now the board has much more of a diversity to it… It's always good to have some new-ness, someone who comes into the conversation that has been rolling along, just a different perspective… We set out, even a few years ago, of having more inclusion and certainly have stepped it up. We just want to keep this process going, and so were really happy that were able to announce these additions.

AP: How did the voting discussion go? When you first announced planned voting changes in January, some older members worried about losing their privileges.

Boone Isaacs: Overall it was positive. What we have added to this discussion is — our branches are diverse within themselves… in terms of perspective, and we respect this tremendously. We have just clarified a bit more that because the branch qualifications are so varied that the best way to determine specific criteria is within the branches. It's not such a one-size fits all.

AP: So voters concerned about their voting status can appeal to their branch?

Boone Isaacs: Each branch will review with regard to their qualifications.

AP: A past academy president said the goals you announced in January to double the academy's female and minority members are impossible to achieve without relaxing standards. Are they?

Boone Isaacs: The thing is we want to set goals and we're going to work our damndest to meet them all. That's our goal. The goal is to have one, and then do everything you can to meet it… Everything about us is setting our standards high, and we're going to continue that.

I think that this conversation really has picked up around the industry as a whole. You see different companies — whether its Bad Robot or Ryan Murphy or Plan B or the program that Warner Bros. just set up — this conversation is really, really rolling. So absolutely: Let's set it, let's work for it and do everything we can. That is the goal.

Story:  Sandy Cohen /  Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenging Republicans to drop their adamant refusal to even consider his choice in an election year.

Obama called Garland, a long-time jurist and former prosecutor, "one of America's sharpest legal minds" and deserving of a full hearing and Senate confirmation vote. Republican leaders, however, have said the vacant high court seat should not be filled until a new president is elected, a stance Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emphasized immediately after the White House announcement.

Garland, 63, is the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a court whose influence over federal policy and national security matters has made it a proving ground for potential Supreme Court justices.

He would replace conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.

Obama announced his choice at a ceremony in the Rose Garden, with Democratic Senate leaders and allies looking on.

Garland, who had been passed over before, choked back tears, calling the nomination "the greatest honor of my life." He described his grandparents' flight from anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and his modest upbringing.

He said he viewed a judge's job as a mandate to set aside personal preferences to "follow the law, not make it."

Obama held up Garland as diligent public servant, highlighting his work leading the investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing and prosecutions. He quoted past praise for Garland from Chief Justice John Roberts and Sen. Orrin Hatch. And he said Garland's talent for bringing together "odd couples" made him a consensus candidate best poised to become an immediate force on the nation's highest court.

The president urged the Republican-led Senate not to let the particularly fierce and partisan political climate quash the nomination of a "serious man."

"This is precisely the time when we should play it straight," Obama said.

Garland was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in 1997 with backing from a majority in both parties, including seven current Republicans senators.

If confirmed, Garland would be expected to align with the more liberal members, but he is not viewed as down-the-line liberal. Particularly on criminal defense and national security cases, he's earned a reputation as centrist, and one of the few Democratic-appointed judges Republicans might have a fast-tracked to confirmation – under other circumstances.

In the current climate, Garland remains a tough sell. Republicans control the Senate, which must confirm any nominee, and GOP leaders want to leave the choice to the next president, denying Obama a chance to alter the ideological balance of thecourt before he leaves office next January. Republicans contend that a confirmation fight in an election year would be too politicized.

Republicans have set up a task force that will orchestrate attack ads, petitions and media outreach. On the other side, Obama allies are to run a Democratic effort targeting states where Republicans might feel political heat for opposing hearings.

Obama's choice risks deflating some of the energy among the Democratic base. Progressives and civil rights activists had pushed the president to name an African-American woman or to otherwise continue his efforts to expand the court'sdiversity.

Garland — a white, male jurist with an Ivy League pedigree and career spent largely in the upper echelon of Washington's legal elite — breaks no barriers. At 63 years old, he would be the oldest Supreme Court nominee since Lewis Powell, who was 64 when he was confirmed in 1971.

Presidents tend to appoint young judges with the hope they will shape the court's direction for as long as possible.

Those factors had, until now, made Garland something of a perpetual bridesmaid, repeatedly on Obama's Supreme Courtlists but never chosen.

But he is finding his moment at a time when Democrats are seeking to apply maximum pressure on Republicans. A key part of their strategy is casting Republicans as obstructionists ready to shoot down a nominee that many in their own ranks once considered a consensus candidate. In 2010, Hatch called Garland "terrific" and said he could be confirmed "virtually unanimously."

A native of Chicago and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Garland clerked for two appointees of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower — the liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. and Judge Henry J. Friendly, for whom Roberts also clerked.

In 1988, he gave up a partner's office in a powerhouse law firms to cut his teeth in criminal cases. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he joined the team prosecuting a Reagan White House aide charged with illegal lobbying and did early work on the drug case against then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. He held a top-ranking post in the Justice Department when he was dispatched to Oklahoma City the day after the bombing at the federal courthouse to supervise the investigation. The case made his reputation. He oversaw the convictions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and later supervised the investigation into Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

President Bill Clinton first nominated him to the D.C. Circuit in 1995.

His prolonged confirmation process then may have prepared him for the one ahead. Garland waited 2½ years to win confirmation to the appeals court. Then, as now, one of the men blocking his path was Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, who argued he had no quarrel with Garland's credentials but a beef with the notion of a Democratic president trying to fill acourt Grassley felt had too many seats.

Grassley ultimately relented, although he was not one of the 32 Republicans who voted in favor of Garland's confirmation. Nor was Sen. Mitch McConnell, the other major hurdle for Garland now. The Republicans who voted in favor of confirmation are Hatch, Sen. Dan Coats, Sen. Thad Cochran, Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Pat Roberts.

Story: Kathleen Hennessey, Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press