Myanmar democracy fight polls apart
By Clifford McCoy
SINGAPORE - Myanmar's first elections in 20 years are less than a month away,
and the country's main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), will not participate despite winning a landslide at the annulled 1990
polls.
The party, led by the detained former Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, was officially banned this year after it declined to register for the
polls. Instead of challenging the ruling military junta on what it perceives an
unequal electoral playing field, the NLD will immerse itself in
"people-politics" to maintain a voice in the transition from military to
civilian rule.
NLD vice chairman U Tin Oo recently spoke to Asia Times Online in Singapore
about the NLD's future. "Everything is purposely
[done] to marginalize the NLD," said the 83-year-old, a former military general
and defense minister.
"The military junta wishes to marginalize Aung San Suu Kyi from the election."
Even before the NLD refused to participate, Suu Kyi was legally banned from
contesting the polls because she was married to a foreign national. (Her
husband, Oxford University academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.)
The NLD was the runaway winner of the 1990 elections, receiving nearly 59% of
the vote. The junta's National Union Party (NUP) garnered a mere 21%. The polls
were judged by international observers as free and fair, but facing defeat, the
military declared the elections were not for seats in parliament but rather a
national convention to design a new constitution.
Soon thereafter, the military launched a campaign of harassment against the
NLD, including jailing its members and shuttering its headquarters. The
harassment took a violent turn in 2003 when Tin Oo and Suu Kyi, freshly
released from a period of house arrest, traveled the country to regalvanize the
party's base.
Their caravan was attacked by pro-government thugs who killed an estimated 100
NLD supporters in an orgy of violence. Both Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were arrested in
the assault's aftermath. Tin Oo was released from detention in February this
year and resumed immediately his role as the NLD's vice chairman.
Meanwhile, the junta's long-awaited new charter was finally passed in a May
2008 national referendum - many believe in a pre-ordained result.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has since moved to the
next step in its so-called "roadmap to democracy" by calling for parliamentary
elections on November 7. Many believe the polls will be similarly skewed in
favor of junta-linked parties and candidates. The new parliament by law
reserves 25% of its seats for military members.
The run-up to the polls has already been criticized by several foreign
governments and organizations, including the United States and even United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Parties connected to the regime,
especially the Union Solidarity and Development Party, an offshoot of the
junta's mass organization the Union Solidarity and Development Association, and
the NUP, have received advantages through support from the government and state
agencies.
Widespread criticism has also focused on the regime-appointed Election
Commission, which has barred several parties, especially those deriving support
from ethnic ceasefire organizations, from participating in the polls. Election
rules have also made it almost impossible for parties to contest the elections
at all levels nationwide.
The NLD voted in March against registering for the elections, a move that
resulted in its official disbandment in September. According to Tin Oo, the
party's decision to boycott was taken after two proposals put forward to the
military regime were rejected.
The first proposal demanded that the junta free all political prisoners ahead
of the polls and for the regime to honor the 1990 election results. The second
called for a tripartite dialogue between the junta, the democratic opposition
and ethnic groups as part of the transition towards democracy.
"If the State Peace and Development Council agreed, the NLD would endorse the
process and carry on with the elections," said Tin Oo.
Instead, the regime said that for the NLD to join the election process, it must
endorse the 2008 constitution, reject the 1990 election result and dismiss Aung
San Suu Kyi from the party. The junta also refused to release nearly 2,200
political prisoners. "How can we agree?" asked Tin Oo.
People-power politics
Most NLD members voted not to participate in the elections during a meeting of
100 central committee and other key members. Several members, however, broke
off to form the National Democratic Force led by former NLD member and veteran
politician Khin Maung Swe; it will contest the polls.
For Tin Oo and other NLD stalwarts, the party will continue its activities
despite its official disbandment. "We will carry on like the NLD is still in
existence," said Tin Oo. "The NLD will continue to do politics." Rather than
function as a political party with elected members in parliament, the NLD will
take its actions directly to the people, he said.
"The members will move into the masses, stay with them. They will carry out
acts under the existence of law. Even if there is no flag, no sign, no office,
it doesn't matter. We will do people-politics, not party politics. We will
survive in the people."
The NLD's grassroots campaign is already up and running. One of its programs
looks after the families of political prisoners. Another tends to HIV/AIDS
sufferers, whose numbers have recently swelled in an absence of adequate
public-health facilities. A third tends to the welfare of workers and farmers,
including reporting on government use of forced labor, recruitment of children
into the armed forces and official land-grabbing.
"These are the things we can carry on," said Tin Oo, who was first jailed in
1977 by then-dictator Ne Win on suspicions he withheld information of a plot to
assassinate the leader and stage a coup. "They seem like social matters, but
they are our politics. They are the ideas and the thoughts for the time after
Aung San Suu Kyi's release."
Suu Kyi is scheduled for release from house arrest, where she had been held 14
of the past 20 years, in November after the polls have been held. The NLD
clearly hopes to maintain a high profile through its social outreach programs,
despite its lack of political status or representation in the new parliament.
Tin Oo also hints at post-election accommodation.
"We want political stability, that is the main thing. The junta maintains
stability with armed repression. We believe in creating trust. We want to trust
the army and the army to trust us," said Tin Oo. "After the elections, there is
still a need for talks. Talks between the government and the military need to
be inclusive, all parties including the ethnic groups. Aung San Suu Kyi has
expressed her openness to help the regime."
At the same time, the NLD has endorsed a United Nations Commission of Inquiry
to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity by the military regime,
as recommended by UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana.
"I signed for the commission," Tin Oo said. "The report [from Quintana] was
strong enough. The junta has never complied with previous advice [from UN
rapporteurs]. It is the kind of language the junta will understand."
Tin Oo also makes a point of placing Myanmar's future politics within a
geostrategic context, with the NLD favoring ties with democratic over
authoritarian nations. "For [Myanmar], China is a big tiger, India is a big
tiger. India and China compete and this will affect us. This is why we must
make friends with democratic countries," he said.
"We realize the danger ahead. The government gives concessions to India and
China, but they don't take into account the long-term danger. We need peaceful
coexistence. We need a friend. We don't know the future [in regards to what
competition between India and China might bring]. We see the US as a democratic
country."
"I am very sorry about China. I met Mao Zedong two or three times when I headed
the [Myanmar government] party to China. We were received well, with a red
carpet. Mao said, 'The oppressed people of China have stood up. The oppressed
people of Burma [Myanmar] will stand up.' It was very nice to hear that. [Now]
China must see what is true and right, who is the oppressed and the oppressor."
Clifford McCoy is a freelance journalist.
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