=====
Zomi says:
Tricks? Deceptions? The SPDC has been known all over the world as
deceivers,
murderers, thieves, rapists, etc. How sad it is for Burma to have such an
evil government, the Devil personified.
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Typo or trick? Myanmar's missing words reveal all
Sat Apr 5, 2008 10:43pm EDT
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - In Myanmar, the devil really is in the detail.
Close scrutineers of the former Burma's new constitution, due to be put to
a
referendum next month, are wondering whether the omission of four key
words
is just a typographical error or a dastardly trick by the military junta
to
keep power forever.
In a widely published outline of the charter, Myanmar's voters were led to
believe that changing the constitution would need approval from 75 percent
of parliament and then a simple majority -- "more than half of all
eligible
voters" -- in a referendum.
However, when the full do***ent leaked out a week ago, many were surprised
to see constitutional tweaks would need approval from "all eligible
voters",
a proviso that in reality makes any amendments impossible in a country of
53
million people.
Whether the omission of "more than half of" is deliberate or accidental is
unclear, especially since Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, in a rare news
conference last month, said the constitution would be open to gradual
improvement after the May referendum.
Some junta opponents who were prepared to swallow the army-drafted
charter,
if only because it could be changed later, were alarmed by the omission
and
have decided to vote "no" in the plebiscite, whose precise date is yet to
be
announced.
"We were surprised to see the discrepancy," said one retired lawyer, who
did
not wish to be named.
"All my friends who had said having a constitution would be better than
having no constitution have changed their minds."
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is convinced the junta, the latest face of 46
years of military rule, is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the
people.
"It must have been changed purposely," party spokesman Nyan Win, a lawyer
by
training, told Reuters.
The constitution, which has not been made public officially, is a key step
in the junta's seven-point "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in
multi-party elections in 2010.
It has been widely derided by the opposition and Western governments as a
blueprint for the generals cementing their grip on the power they first
seized in a 1962 coup.
The charter grants the military an automatic 25 percent of seats in
parliament, and gives the commander-in-chief the right to suspend the
constitution at will.
The referendum discrepancy is not the only difference between the full
constitution and the "detailed basic principles" that have appeared in the
state-run media.
Another sentence that appears to have been slipped in at the last minute
is
an amnesty clause protecting any members of the State Peace and
Development
Council, as the junta calls itself, from future legal action.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Michael Battye and Jerry Norton)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSBKK15062120080406?sp=true
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