Amid some fanfare, the generals who run Burma announced a few days ago the opening of the final session of the constitutional convention that, the junta assures the world, will provide the Southeast Asian nation with a "democratic" constitution. (Source: Vancouver Sun)
Burmese junta's democratic pledge is just a sick joke
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, July 30, 2007
Amid some fanfare, the generals who run Burma announced a few days ago the opening of the final session of the constitutional convention that, the junta assures the world, will provide the Southeast Asian nation with a "democratic" constitution.
Since it has been close to 15 years since the 1,000 government-approved delegates to the convention first sat down to deliberate the country's future political course, the casual observer can be forgiven for imagining that Burma's long agony of immeasurably brutal military regimes dating back to 1962 will soon be over.
Dream on.
It is quite clear this latest little drama is yet another piece of trickery in the interminable saga of the generals' determination to put off as long as feasible any moves that would hand over to or even share power with civilians. A glance at the timeline reveals all.
In 1988 the junta crushed a pro-democracy and reform uprising, in the process putting under house arrest National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, where she has remained for 12 of the last 18 years. Inexplicably -- these guys are not very bright, which is a major problem -- the generals believed their own sponsored political parties could win a free election.
But when that election was held in 1990, Suu Kyi's NLD won at least 85 per cent of the parliamentary seats. The horrified generals immediately annulled the election and shortly afterwards announced there would be a national convention to draw up a new constitution. The junta drew up six objectives for the constitution, which pointedly included the dominance of the military in government and parliament.
Starting in 1993, the convention has met sporadically and without the participation of clearly legitimate political leaders, Suu Kyi and the NLD, who dismiss the whole exercise as mere farce.
After 10 years, in 2003, the then prime minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, who has been disgraced since, produced a seven-step road map that would lead Burma to a "flourishing democracy."
Here we see that completion of the work by the national convention is only "step one." Since that has taken nearly 15 years, it is anyone's guess how long the next six steps will take.
Step two, "implementation of the process necessary for the emergence of a genuine and disciplined democratic system," sounds like a very lengthy process, especially as it's hard to say what that means.
Then the road map goes to step three, which is drafting the constitution which in step four will have to be adopted through a national referendum. Who gets to vote in that referendum will be interesting to see.
Step five calls for free and fair elections to legislative bodies, which will then be convened in step six. Finally, the freshly elected political leaders -- including the military, remember -- will then embark on "building a modern, developed and democratic nation."
The junta, led by the deeply sinister Gen. Than Shwe, has good reason for confidence that it can play out this fantasy for many years to come.
Burma's abundant natural resources and position at the crossroads of Asia have made it the object of determined courtship in recent years by rival regional powers China and India. Both have ignored international sanctions against the regime to win the generals' affections with generous arms deals and other commercial blandishments from which the country's 45 million people see little benefit.
The generals' brutish refusal to address any real political reform has stymied Burma's neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Ten years ago, ASEAN leaders, with Thailand at the helm, ushered Burma into their club. They assured a skeptical outside world, especially the United States and Europe, that the generals would inevitably succumb to the "constructive engagement" of their neighbours.
Well, this was dreaming in technicolour. Not only has Burma not reformed, Thailand has been taken over by a military regime; neither Vietnam, Laos, Brunei nor Cambodia have implemented full civic rights for their people; Singapore remains a "managed democracy;" Gloria Arroyo's legitimacy as president of the Philippines is questionable; and only Indonesia stands out as a beacon of adherence to universally accepted civic values.
No wonder the Burmese generals feel comfortable in their uniforms.
And if anyone retains illusions about what the generals are up to, just go through the text of the proposed constitutional principles and stop at the sentence that says no elected legislator in Burma can be married to a foreigner.
Suu Kyi was married to British academic Michael Aris, who died in 1999.
Sun International Affairs Columnist
jmanthorpe@png.canwest.com
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
http://www.ncgub.net/article.php/20070731124526725