BurmaNet News, November 4, 2008

[Editor]

November 4, 2008, Issue # 3591


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: NLD executives meet for first time since Win Tin’s release
Irrawaddy: Children not in school six months after cyclone
The National (UAE): Myanmar in misery six months on
DVB: Army officer stabs youth to death in upper Burma

ON THE BORDER
Guardian (UK): Bangladesh and Burma send warships into Bay of Bengal
AP: Burma said it will continue gas exploration in Bay of Bengal despite
maritime dispute
Indo-Asian News Service: Uranium smugglers arrested in Mizoram

BUSINESS / TRADE
DVB: Farmers detained for reporting army abuses to ILO
Mizzima News: Fund crunch halts on going projects till 2010

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burma a priority issue: UN Chief

OPINION / OTHER
Bangkok Post: Push Burma on democracy
Irrawaddy: Burma’s stolen elections – Yeni



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 4, Irrawaddy
NLD executives meet for first time since Win Tin’s release – Wai Moe

Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) on Monday held its
first executive meeting since the release of prominent leader Win Tin.

“The party executives attended a meeting of the Central Executive
Committee (CEC) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. On Monday,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win
told The Irrawaddy.

“The meeting was the first since the release of several leading members,
including U Win Tin.”

Executive member Khin Maung Swe said that CEC members didn’t discuss many
topics at Monday’s meeting, but that the NLD leaders had negotiated the
resumption of regular political party activities, such as the party’s
organization and a schedule for regular meetings.

“With the exception of secretary U Lwin, all members of the CEC attended,”
Nyan Win said.

U Lwin suffered from a stroke nearly one year ago.

Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were also unable to attend the meeting, having
been under house arrest since Suu Kyi’s convoy was ambushed by
junta-backed thugs in Depayin, Sagaing Division in northern Burma in May
2003.

The party’s last meeting was held in September when it marked the first
anniversary of the mass demonstrations led by monks.

The NLD CEC members are: Chairman Aung Shwe, 91; Deputy-Chairman Tin Oo,
81; General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, 63; secretaries U Lwin, 86, and
Win Tin, 79; executive member Khin Maung Swe, 66, and octogenarian
executive members Lun Tin, Soe Myint, Nyunt Wai and Than Tun.

Khin Maung Swe said that the party’s chairman, Aung Shwe, was not very
well and that many issues were yet to be discussed.

Commenting on the 2010 elections, he said that if the junta initiated a
meaningful dialogue with dissidents, the NLD’s calls had been answered.

____________________________________

November 4, Irrawaddy
Children not in school six months after cyclone – Saw Yan Naing

An estimated 300,000 children are still unable to attend school six months
after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, according to a leading relief agency, Save
the Children in Burma.

Andrew Kirkwood, the country director of the relief agency, said that
following the cyclone: “There’s a huge demand for this, from communities
and children. There were about 400,000 children who were not able to go to
school. Now, we’ve managed to get 100,000 of those kids back into school
through, for example, the rebuilding of temporary schools, using
relatively inexpensive materials.”

Save the Children has rebuilt more than 350 temporary schools, according
to a report it on October 31, highlighting the critical role of education
in helping children recover.

“It’s hard to overstate the importance of getting children back to
school,” said Kirkwood.

“The best way to deal with emotional distress is to normalize the lives of
children, get them back into a routine and enable them to pick up what
they were doing before the cyclone.”

The father of a student in Bogalay Township said many children are not
able to attend school because their family focuses on their daily
survival, and they believe the children can live without an education for
now.

A housewife in Bogalay said, “You can see many children along the
roadside, some begging, some stealing things, some surrounding rubbish
baskets and collecting plastic to sell it to earn money.  Some parents of
children don’t want their children to go to school, and they tell their
children to beg.”

The relief agency estimated that around 40 percent of the 140,000 people
who were killed or disappeared in the wake of the cyclone disaster were
children. Many who
survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.

According to a UNICEF report, it identified 220 orphans, 914 children
separated from their parents, 302 “unaccompanied” children and 454 judged
to be “extremely vulnerable.”

More than half of all schools in the Irrawaddy delta were destroyed,
according to Save the Children.

Recently, Kyaw Thu, Burma’s deputy foreign minister and chairman of the
Tripartite Core Group (TCG), the humanitarian assistance task force
comprising Asean, the UN and the Burmese government, said in a press
release: “Children are back in school, people are working again, the rice
crop is due for harvesting shortly and transport and health facilities are
again accessible.”

____________________________________

November 4, The National (UAE)
Myanmar in misery six months on – Larry Jagan

Six months after a devastating cyclone hit Myanmar, more than a million
people are still living in misery, wondering when things will return to
normal.

In remote areas along the coastline, villages still receive only
intermittent food assistance, according to community workers in the area.
Thousands of people are living in makeshift shelters and there are growing
concerns about fresh water throughout the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta
to the west of Myanmar’s main commercial city, Yangon.

Furthermore, international human rights groups have reported an increase
in forced labour, forced relocations and extensive land confiscation by
the country’s military authorities. Nearly 100 community workers who tried
to help with the disaster relief efforts are languishing in jail,
including Zargana, a comedian and an outspoken critic of the country’s
rulers.

Many children have returned to school, farmers are anxiously waiting to
see how their harvest fares and more houses are being built every week,
aid workers said. But it will take years before the delta returns to
anything like it was.

The UN’s World Food Programme estimates it will have to continue to
provide food aid to nearly a million people well into next year, said
Chris Kaye, the head of its operations in Myanmar. “We are very confident
that we are reaching all those presently in need of food assistance on a
regular basis.”

The situation varies from place to place throughout the devastated area,
said Ashley Clements, the head of the local branch of World Vision, an
international non-governmental organisation. “We’re at a turning point now
– and attention has to be paid to the longer term, especially providing
safe havens for children and secure livelihoods for the people who were
left with nothing.”

In the past few weeks, one in three villagers interviewed by World Vision
researchers in some of the worst affected areas, said they had been forced
to reduce the number of meals they ate per day because of a lack of food.

Up to 30 per cent of children between five and 11 years are not enrolled
in school, while more than half of children aged 12 to 17 were not
attending school, according to the World Vision report.

The most critical issue is the approaching rice harvest. While the UN’s
Forestry and Agriculture Organisation predicts a good, if not bumper,
harvest, the farmers are less sanguine. “We will have to wait for the next
planting season,” said a villager in one of the cyclone-affected areas.
“We don’t expect much from this one.”

Myanmar’s community groups working in the area believe the whole Irrawaddy
area – the rice bowl of Myanmar and once of all Asia – will produce less
than 60 per cent of its usual output, and the yield will be significantly
affected by the hastily prepared fields, many still not properly drained
of salt water.

For many villagers, shelter and clean water remain a constant worry. “An
acute shortage of drinking water is the biggest concern,” a Myanmar
activist said after a recent visit to his home in the Delta.

Fewer than 40 per cent of the ponds used by villagers to collect rain
water for drinking have been cleansed of salt water, according to a
community group working in the area. In three key areas, less than two
thirds of people interviewed by World Vision reported having access to
safe and clean drinking water.

As many as a million people are still living in makeshift or temporary
shelters, aid workers said.

“What is true is that every week, more and more people are able to leave
their temporary shelter and move into newly built accommodation,” said
Bridget Gardner, the head of the International Federation of Red Crosses
and Red Crescent Societies in Yangon.

Many of the cyclone survivors are suffering from trauma. According to the
World Vision survey, more than 70 per cent of children are afraid of wind
and rain since the disaster in May. “Farmers are reporting that their
buffaloes are traumatised and still suffering six months later,” Mr
Clements said. “So you can only imagine the impact the ordeal is having on
the children.”

As efforts turn from emergency relief to long-term reconstruction, how
much the international community has overpaid because of the government’s
insistence on maintaining its artificially fixed exchange rate is coming
to light.

“I estimate the UN lost at least $5 million due to the initial enforcement
of the Foreign Exchange Certificates – pocketed by the junta through the
government-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank,” said Sean Turnell, an expert
on Myanmar’s economy and financial system.

The UN’s decision to pay local contractors in foreign currency would lead
to more corruption through misappropriation and overcharging, Mr Turnell
said.

Analysts said the aid effort would only worsen the long-term situation for
the people of Myanmar and exacerbate the country’s debt problems.

According to UN surveys, nearly one in every two households was in debt
before the cyclone – 32 per cent in urban areas and 55 per cent in the
countryside – and this has worsened dramatically since then, as much of
the aid, especially to farmers in the form of seeds, fertilisers, ploughs
and livestock, has been channelled through government agencies in the form
of loans rather than grants.

In three of the worst-affected areas in the Irrawaddy Delta, nearly 40 per
cent of local households had sold off some of their assets, and more that
40 per cent had borrowed money for food in the past month.

____________________________________

November 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Army officer stabs youth to death in upper Burma – Nan Kham Kaew

A high school student was stabbed to death by an army officer in
Mandalay's Meikhtila township on 2 November when they got into a fight
with each other.

A local resident told DVB that 19 year old Sat Paing Htun from Aung Zayar
district died on the spot after he was stabbed on the chest by captain
Aung Tayzar from nearby air base's ground crew training school.

"Sat Paing Htun was sitting with another friend by the roadside near his
school when Capt. Aung Tayzar ordered them to come to him," said the
resident.

"When they refused, Aung Tayzar approached them and started shoving Sat
Paing Htun around by the throat."

When Sat Paing Htun fought back Aung Tayzar stabbed him with a six-inch
knife on the left side of his chest, with fatal result.

A neighbour of Sat Paing Htun's family said Aung Tayzar immediately took
the body to the mortuary at Meikhtila military hospital where his doctor
wife was on duty, and sent it to the faraway cemetery in Latphakhaung
district for burial on the following afternoon.

Sat Paing Htun's family was reportedly offered 1.5m Kyat by Aung Tayzar as
compensation but it is not clear whether he is going to be charged for the
murder or not.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 4, Guardian (UK)
Bangladesh and Burma send warships into Bay of Bengal – Randeep Ramesh

Bangladesh and Burma, two of the world's poorest nations, have sent
warships into the Bay of Bengal amid escalating tensions over a vast
disputed gas find.

Bangladesh said today it had sent a British-made frigate, the BNS
Kopothakka, to join three other warships some 30 miles south of Saint
Martin Island, a palm fringed smudge of sand. The Burmese authorities
estimate that 14 trillion cubic feet of gas lies beneath the sea floor.

The military-backed government in Dhaka, which is preparing to transfer
power through elections, has said it will take "all possible measures" to
protect its nation's assets. The country is also sending its top foreign
civil servant to meet with the military junta in Burma.

The row was sparked by the appearance of a Burmese exploration ship
escorted by a flotilla of naval boats that skirted the edge of the island
last week.

Bangladesh insists the disputed waters fall within its territory and has
demanded the Burmese ships withdraw until a maritime boundary can be
established through talks.

This is the same argument used by the junta in Rangoon to defend its
ships. The senior official from Burma's foreign ministry told Reuters: "We
have no reason to stop the exploration activities since these blocks are
located in our exclusive economic zone. We will go ahead with it."

Analysts say the two impoverished nations both want to control as much of
the energy rich Bay of Bengal as possible. However, Burma's regime has
come to view hydrocarbon wealth as essential for its survival – making a
looming clash with Bangladesh a potentially dangerous flashpoint.

In the last year, Burma earned $2.6bn from selling gas. Not only can the
military generals buy off bigger neighbours such as China and India, the
exports insulate the country from western sanctions.

A report by the Asian Development Bank earlier this year, warned sales of
natural gas were creating growing trade surpluses and a valuable buffer
for Burma's ruling generals.

____________________________________

November 4, Associated Press
Burma said it will continue gas exploration in Bay of Bengal despite
maritime dispute

Burma said it will continue exploration of gas in the Bay of Bengal
despite strong protest by Bangladesh, a Burmese foreign ministry official
was quoted as saying by Associated Press.

The official said, "We will not stop our exploration activities, which are
inside Myanmar [Burma] waters." Instead, the official said Burma has
officially lodged a complaint against Bangladesh for sending its Navy
ships into Burma waters.

The official also said that the Bangladesh Ambassador to Burma has been
summoned to the country's new jungle capital Naypyitaw to convey the
Burmese government's protest.

"We have warned Bangladesh against the intrusion of their naval vessels
into our territory," the AP quoted the official as saying.

Burma's claim that Bangladesh's navy ships are encroaching over its
territory came following Bangladesh's protest against Burma's gas
exploration in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday.

Bangladesh's Foreign Advisor on Sunday summoned the Burmese envoy to the
country to convey their protest against the gas exploration by Burmese
ships, saying the exploration areas fall under Bangladesh's maritime
territory.

"It will be our endeavor to settle the issue diplomatically," Bangladesh's
foreign advisor Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said. "But let it also be
understood that we will do all it takes to protect our sovereignty."

Chowdhury said Dhaka has also urged Burma to immediately withdraw its
ships and stop exploration until the sea boundary dispute is resolved,
adding a Bangladesh Navy patrol is watching the disputed area.

But the Burmese envoy to Bangladesh, Phe Thann Oo, in an interview with
the Washington based radio station Voice of America Burmese Service said,
Burmese vessels have not encroach over Bangladesh's territory.

"We are not encroaching. The gas exploration is conducted well within our
economic zone," Phe Thann Oo told the VOA Burmese Service.

The Burmese envoy said though both countries do not agree to each other's
claims, "We are discussing through diplomat channel to resolve the issue."

Bangladesh on Tuesday sent a three-person delegation led by foreign
secretary Touhid Hossain to Burma to defuse the tension.

Both countries have also agreed to hold talks in Dhaka on the delimitation
of the boundaries between the two countries from December 16-17.

____________________________________

November 4, Indo-Asian News Service
Uranium smugglers arrested in Mizoram

Two uranium smugglers who were on their way to Myanmar have been arrested
from a hotel in Mizoram, security officials said here Tuesday.
Paramilitary Assam Rifles troopers along with Mizoram Police during a
joint raid Monday caught the duo at a hotel in Champai, 112 km west of
here, bordering Myanmar, an official of the Assam Rifles said.

“Tawia, 20, a resident of Manipur, and Sangkhuma, 58, a local, were nabbed
with a bottle filled with gray material,” the official said.

“During interrogation, the detainees confessed that the material was
uranium, which they procure from neighbouring Meghalaya, and display to
find prospective buyers in adjoining Myanmar,” the official added.

The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) had proposed a Rs.10.46
billion open-cast uranium mining and processing plant at Mawthabah in the
West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, the northeastern state having an
estimated 9.22 million tonnes of uranium ore deposits.

However, the UCIL had failed to make any progress to convince the state
government, political parties and anti-mining groups, who opposed the
move.

Last month Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar accompanied by
union cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar visited Meghalaya and told the
anti-mining groups that uranium mining was safe and there was no fear of
any health and environmental problems due to uranium mining.

“We have advance technologies for safety performances in all the nuclear
plants, on par with any international standard,” Kakodkar said.

The Meghalaya government last month formed an expert committee to examine
the views and apprehensions on health and environment to decide on open
cast uranium mining in the northeastern state.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Farmers detained for reporting army abuses to ILO – Khin Hnin Htet

Three farmers who reported the seizure of their farms to the International
Labour Organisation's office in Rangoon had been detained by the army,
according to a local farmer.

U Hla Soe, U Sein Steen and U Nay Lin from Natmauk township's Myetyehkan
village in Magwe Division, were arrested on the night of 20 October by a
team of police on the order of the army  along with 43-year old Ko Zaw
Htay from nearby Aunglan who helped them report their grievances to the
ILO.

They have all been detained at Natmauk police station.

Fifty farmers from Myetyehkan, Kyaungywalay, Ywathit, Nyaung Pauk villages
reported the ILO that more than five thousand acres of their farmland were
seized by the army and that the soldiers had been extorting money from
them.

"We have to pay 30,000 kyat a year for an acre of land. It is not easy to
make 30,000 kyat profit a year however fertile the land is," a farmer
said.

"We are not allowed to visit our farms to pick our maturing vegetables by
the order of the army, they say. And we are not allowed to grow our
sunflowers for this season," he added.

"We can only survive when we are allowed to work on our farms. Now we are
not even allowed to go to town and they are threatening to report us and
arrest us if we did."

Preparations are being made by the authorities to charge the farmers and
Ko Zaw Htay under Official Secret Act for leaking State secrets.

____________________________________

November 4, Mizzima News
Fund crunch halts on going projects till 2010

Financial constraints have caught up with the Burmese military junta even
as the 2010 general elections approach, forcing the regime to suspend many
ongoing irrigation projects.

All projects on the anvil relating to building of dams and sluice gates
being implemented under the Ministry of Agriculture will be suspended
until 2010.

According to the Ministry, all ongoing projects which cannot be completed
by 2010 will be suspended due to financial constraints.

"Yes, we had to stop these projects due to shortage of funds. They (junta)
stopped the funding as the current resources have been exhausted," an
official from the Irrigation Department told Mizzima.

The junta allocated funds for the dams but the money earmarked for the
current fiscal year is exhausted. So these ongoing projects will be
suspended until fresh funding is arranged.

The number of ongoing dams and sluice gate projects until 2014 is 33 and
priority is to be given to six dams, weirs and sluice gates which were
scheduled to be completed by the year 2008-09 fiscal year.

The projects which are scheduled to be completed by 2009 are Kataukkana
sluice gate (Kyauktan, Rangoon Division), Nagarpauk sluice gate (Waw, Pegu
Division), Kyichaung dam (Kyauktaw, Rakhine State), Linbann dam (Kantbalu,
Sagaing Division). Ye Nwe wier (Kyauktagar, Pegu Division) and Myo Gyi
wier (Ywangan, Shan State) projects will be completed during this year.

"We had advanced loans provided by the 'Public Works Department' so that
these ongoing projects will not stop completely, " an official from this
Ministry said.

However, all ongoing projects in joint ventures with China will not be
suspended, he added.

The fund for building dams is being arranged by the government, but the
building of canals are funded by OFID, while  the fund for water and
sanitation projects in developing countries, is being provided by the
'Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) oil cartel.

According to OFID statistics, the fund provided is USD 8.28 million until
8 October 2008 for the water and sanitation projects in Burma.

After 1988, the junta built dams and sluice gate projects by the hundreds.
Of which 216 projects have been completed and 33 projects are still under
construction.

Reporting by Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon, additional reporting and
writing by Zarni

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 4, Irrawaddy
Burma a priority issue: UN Chief – Lalit K Jha

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that Burma
would continue to be a priority issue for him.

“I will continue to discuss this matter [the restoration of democracy in
Burma] with the members of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General,
and this is going to be my priority issue,” Ban told reporters at the UN
headquarters in New York on his return from a four-nation tour of the
Philippines, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

During his trip to India, Ban said he discussed the issue with Indian
leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“I had an extensive discussion with Indian leaders, including Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, on how we can work together to help bring
democracy to the Myanmar [Burmese] people and government,” Ban said in
response to a question.

“This requires concerted, coordinated efforts from all the countries in
the region, particularly India and other neighboring countries, including
China,” the UN chief added.

Ban, who was earlier scheduled to visit Burma in December, is unlikely to
go there as there has been no progress towards his objective of restoring
democracy in the country.

“I am planning to go there when the political atmosphere is right,
including the accelerated democratization process in Myanmar,” he said,
adding that he hoped the   Indian government would also help in
facilitating Burma’s democratization process.

Referring to his meeting with the Indian prime minister, Ban said in New
Delhi that he was assured that India would work in close coordination with
the United Nations to help Burma to achieve democracy.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 4, Bangkok Post
Push Burma on democracy

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat began the obligatory nine-nation Asean
tour yesterday. The first country he visited was Laos, and he will be
heading shortly for Vietnam. He must travel to Cambodia - protocol alone
demands that - but he met Prime Minister Hun Sen on the sidelines of the
Asean-Europe Meeting (Asem) in Beijing late last month.

That puts the primary focus on the eastern side of Thailand, where trade
is the major topic, as well as the vital border talks with Cambodia. This
is slightly encouraging. For a few moments there in Beijing, it looked
like Mr Somchai was going to squander more goodwill on another unpopular
campaign on behalf of the odious Burmese dictatorship.

In Beijing, Mr Somchai already went far beyond any necessary fawning over
the brutal rulers of Asean's unhappiest member-state. One cannot choose
one's neighbours, but the prime minister indicated far too strongly that
the Burmese government is Thailand's friend. On the contrary, it is at
best an embarrassment and at times a downright unfriendly neighbour. For
the benefit of Asem, whose European members have applied the world's
strongest sanctions on Burma, Mr Somchai dragged out that tired old
canard: If the world pours respect, praise and aid on the dictatorship,
the generals will respond with democratic reform and freedom for the
heavily oppressed opposition.

The history of Asean, of course, proves the opposite. The regional group
finally held its nose and admitted Burma as the 10th, last member in 1997,
and appealed to the generals to cut out its worst anti-democratic excesses
and consider moving towards a free and democratic regime. Since then,
Burma has imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, kept the Nobel Peace
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and, in September 2007,
murdered monks and other demonstrators who were protesting against steep
price increases.

Mr Somchai had a point when he told the Europeans that the terrible human
and economic toll of Cyclone Nargis in May had also brought some positive
effects. The United Nations, Thai officials and international aid agencies
battered down the cruel and bureaucratic walls of the dictatorship. The
generals were shamed or forced into changing their minds, and aid was
finally allowed into the devastated delta and Rangoon regions.

The prime minister saw this as a progressive step. Unfortunately, it is
not. Cyclone relief is not political progress. The Burmese authorities
have allowed aid, but no political advance. The Tripartite Core Group of
Burma, the UN and Asean have been able to deliver help to some of the
storm victims. On the other hand, the Burmese government last week
arrested another group of members of Mrs Suu Kyi's political party for no
reason other than peaceful political protest of the sort that goes
unremarked even in undemocratic countries such as Vietnam or Asem host
China.

It is difficult to know why Thai foreign policy is so supportive of the
Burmese dictatorship. Mr Somchai's predecessor Samak Sundaravej was full
of praise for the "good Buddhists" who rule Burma. The prosecutor has
charged Mr Somchai's brother-in-law Thaksin Shinawatra with helping Burma
too much, in the form of hugely generous, possibly illegal loans.

Just in recent times, Burma has flooded Thailand with drugs, refused to
cooperate in discussions about its estimated one million illegal
immigrants, and used Thai territory to attack its separatist groups. For
the sake of peace, Thailand needs correct relations with Burma. But it
shouldn't pander to the junta.

____________________________________

November 4, Irrawaddy
Burma’s stolen elections – Yeni

As the US election race enters the home stretch, voters across the country
are braving long lines and bracing for malfunctioning machines and other
unforeseen problems to exercise their right to choose their leaders and
lawmakers.

This year’s election is expected to see a record turnout, as Americans
decide if their next president will be the first non-white leader in their
country’s history. And, at a time when economic insecurity has reached
levels not seen in generations, many know that their choice will have
important consequences for years to come.

Many people around the world have taken a strong interest in the outcome
of this election, and Burmese are no exception. Although it is not clear
which candidate is more likely to help Burma achieve its dream of
democracy, the election itself stands as a powerful affirmation of the
importance of allowing people to choose their political destiny.

In democratic societies, elections serve as the essential groundwork for
the participation of citizens in their country’s affairs. Elections give
voters a chance to choose their representatives, who, at the very least,
can make their supporters’ voices heard in parliament, or, if they belong
to the party in the majority, form the government.

In Burma, however, the people have rarely ever been given an opportunity
to decide who their leaders will be.

One important exception: In April 1947, on the eve of achieving their
independence from British colonial control, they elected the Anti-Fascist
People’s Freedom League (AFPFL), led by national hero Aung San, by a
landslide.

Even after Aung San was assassinated by a political rival, and despite
dealing with armed rebellion from various ethnic groups and communist
factions, Burma continued to follow a democratic system. Elections were
beset by poll fraud and political assassinations by some members of the
ruling AFPFL, but governments continued to be formed by representatives of
the people, chosen through parliamentary elections.

This all changed in 1962, when Gen Ne Win seized state power from the
elected government of Prime Minister U Nu. The voting system suddenly came
under the total control of the ruling regime, and election results were
widely dismissed by the public as mere fabrications.

After a nationwide uprising in 1988, Burma finally held a free and fair
election in 1990. The National League for Democracy, led by detained Aung
San Suu Kyi, Aung San’s daughter, won 392 of the 485 seats in parliament.
But the ruling regime never recognized the result of that election, and
has continued to hold power ever since.

In May of this year, the regime decided to hold another vote—a referendum
on a constitution that will cement its hold on power. Using intimidation,
threats and fraud, the country’s military leaders strong-armed voters into
approving the profoundly undemocratic constitution, which guarantees 25
percent of parliamentary seats to the military and instructs that no
amendments can be made to it without the consent of more than 75 percent
of lawmakers, making any proposed changes unlikely unless supported by the
military.

Now the junta is promising to hold elections in 2010. Meanwhile, most
opposition members are behind bars, where many of them have been since
winning the election in 1990.

Should we welcome the military rulers’ promise of elections? We would, if
they demonstrated any commitment to creating a pluralistic environment,
which is essential for achieving and sustaining democracy.

“Democratic elections are not merely symbolic,” said Jeane Kirkpatrick,
the late US scholar and former ambassador to the United Nations. “They are
competitive, periodic, inclusive, definitive elections in which the chief
decision-makers in a government are selected by citizens who enjoy broad
freedom to criticize government, to publish their criticism and to present
alternatives.”

Sadly, there is no sign that Burma’s military rulers are willing to
countenance any alternatives to their vision of the country’s future.
Around 2,000 political prisoners—imprisoned for expressing
themselves—remain in prison.

Whatever the outcome of the election in the US, at least Americans know
that result has not been a foregone conclusion. For Burmese, however,
elections are no more than a parody of their most profound aspirations.