Burma: The constitution scam

Subject: Burma: The constitution scam Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:58 am

The waiter thrust a copy of the Burmese regime mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, across the table, stabbed a front page report and said in a hoarse whisper: "If they think that's going to solve things they're even more stupid than they appear."

The report announced that the regime is to hold a referendum on a draft constitution for Burma, to be followed by a general election in 2010. "Who's going to vote?" asked the waiter, who identified himself as Naing Win. He swept his arm in a wide gesture to encompass the shabby little bar, a hole-in-the-wall place around the corner from Rangoon's luxurious Strand Hotel. "Where are your voters?"

Before last September's demonstrations, it was a favourite meeting place for opposition activists. Tonight it was empty - most of its regulars behind bars and awaiting trial for their part in the demonstrations. I asked after young men and women I had known from previous visits. Most were in Rangoon's Insein prison, said Naing Win, a low-paid civil servant who moonlights as a waiter. "But don't try and visit," he warned. "Even their families have difficulty contacting them."

Naing Win escaped the September crackdown and subsequent roundup after encountering a police road block on his way back from visiting his family in Pegu, north of Rangoon. He returned home and reported in sick. "We haven't seen the end of the demonstrations, I can tell you that much," he confided. "If the junta continue with their plan to hold a national referendum it will bring the people out on the streets again. They know it’s a charade. How can you ask people to approve a document drawn up behind closed doors by a regime-appointed assembly of lackeys?"

Burma's proposed constitution, the details of which are still unclear, was written by a special panel of the National Convention, a collection of regime officials and representatives of ethnic groups who have signed ceasefire agreements with the junta. The country's major opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and its charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to take part in what they called a regime scam. Suu Kyi is now under house arrest and dozens of her party are behind bars.

"There's no way a valid referendum can be held while the opposition remains silenced like that," said Naing Win. "And an election is unthinkable. Look what happened when Burma last held an election."

That election, in 1990, resulted in a runaway victory for Suu Kyi and her party, but the regime ignored the result and said the poll had never been intended to produce a parliament, let alone a government. A government was formed, however - in exile, in Washington. Today it called for a boycott of any referendum, dismissing the regime's proposals as a "cosmetic exercise."

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/burma,,the-constitution-scam,17362

Burma: The constitution scam

Burma: The constitution scam

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