‘Military Rule with a Civilian Face’: Burmese Election Holds Little Hope for Democracy
ASIA--PACIFIC, 8 Nov 2010
The Burmese junta is holding elections on Sunday, but nothing will change. The once strong opposition is divided and the influence of its icon — Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest — has been diminished.
The young man in blue overalls has been sweeping together the leaves in front of the window of a downtown sidewalk café for a while now. Suddenly he pulls a digital camera out of his pocket and, through the glass window, snaps a picture of the small group gathered inside around Burmese opposition politician Khin Maung Swe, 68. Three other informers are sitting at the next table, recording every word.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” says Khin Maung Swe, “being under surveillance at every turn.” A man on a motorcycle waits in front of his house in Rangoon every morning and then follows him wherever he goes. His shadow stops working at 5 p.m., and then the next shift takes over.
“The junta is trying to scare us,” he says. “It wants to show us that it knows everything that’s going on, but we don’t let ourselves get worked up that easily.”
A few days before the parliamentary election on Nov. 7, Burma’s opposition is in disarray. Its once-shining icon, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, known as “the Lady” by her followers, remains under house arrest at her lakeside villa, will not be allowed to participate in the election and will not be released until at least a week afterwards.
Her supporters are at loggerheads, making things easier for the junta’s generals. Since the 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks, the streets of Rangoon have been deathly quiet.
Of course, the upcoming elections will not stand up to any democratic standards. They are designed to “perpetuate military rule with a civilian face,” writes the human rights organization Human Rights Watch. Twenty-five percent of seats in the parliament will be reserved for the military, and a security council appointed by the junta can strip the future government of its power almost at will.
Nevertheless, this election might have provided the opposition with an opportunity, because the military rulers, despised throughout the country, will first have to win it. But because Suu Kyi, the winner of the last elections in 1990, is not being allowed to participate, for spurious reasons, her National League for Democracy (NLD) is boycotting the vote.
Khin Maung Swe, unwilling to accept this decision, has left the NLD and formed his own party. His former fellow NLD members promptly called him a “traitor.”
The NLD, which Khin Maung Swe joined more than 20 years ago, captured 80 percent of seats in the last parliamentary election. The hope that democracy was finally coming to Burma, however, was quickly extinguished when the junta ignored the election result and began hunting down its adversaries.
‘I Sacrificed My Life’
Those who could get out in time left the country, with many opposition politicians going into exile in neighboring Thailand. But Khin Maung Swe stayed and was eventually taken away by military intelligence. He spent the next 16 years in four different prisons and has only been free since September 2008. “I sacrificed my life,” he says.
Of course, it is clear to the junta opponent that his party is entering the race under all but hopeless conditions. Hardly any businessmen dare to lend their financial support to the opposition. Some candidates are unable to come up with the required fee of about $500 (€352). Khin Maung Swe’s campaign workers are not permitted to give any speeches, and any criticism of the military is banned.
“Nevertheless, the elections are our only chance to achieve anything,” says Khin Maung Swe, “even if they are unfair.” In a dictatorship like Burma, he explains, civilian politicians can only move forward one step at a time. “We have to embark on a long march.”
Many Burmese feel dispirited under these circumstances, and yet they are pinning their hopes on Suu Kyi, a popular hero and the daughter of independence leader Aung San. Many hope that Suu Kyi, once she is released, will have enough authority to reunite the opposition.
‘The Lady Isn’t Calling for an Election Boycott’
But her confidant, attorney Nyan Win, 68, questions whether the military leaders will in fact release her on Nov. 13. He fears that the junta will use the election boycott to fabricate new charges against her.
Nyan Win is permitted to visit his client twice a month. She lives in isolation with a female assistant. “She isn’t doing very well,” says the attorney. “She has high blood pressure.” He did, however, manage to bring her some medication and four volumes from the Harry Potter series.
“The Lady isn’t calling for an election boycott,” says Nyan Win. “She is just saying that the NLD supports the boycott, and that anyone who intends to vote exclusively for the NLD should stay at home.” Otherwise, says Nyan Win, Suu Kyi is calling upon her supporters to carefully monitor the course of the elections. But even Nyan Win knows that this is no recipe for a strong opposition.
The superstitious generals are not as afraid of their political rivals as they are of something else: The moon passed near Venus on May 16, an extremely worrisome sign in Burma. To ward off the evil omen, they have captured a rare white elephant, considered a lucky charm. The animal is now being kept in an air-conditioned space in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, where the regime hopes it will provide it with a guaranteed election victory.
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