=====
Zomi says:
The SLORC/SPDC openly decieved the world when they held a general election
in May 1990, and they did not hand vere power to the party that won the
election.
The SPDC openly stole the aid money and the aid material.
They openly show that their interest in clinging on to power, not in the
the
needs of the peopel.
=====
Myanmar's Generals Say Vote Must Proceed Despite Devastation
By JAMES HOOKWAY
May 9, 2008 11:10 a.m.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar's generals -- who have impeded international
efforts to aid more than a million survivors of a devastating cyclone --
are
now urging the country's citizens to be "patriotic" and vote for a new
constitution that critics say will legitimize and perpetuate the
military's
grip on power.
With millions of dollars in emergency aid for Myanmar stalled on airport
tarmacs around the world waiting for permission to enter the country and
hundreds of relief specialists waiting for visas, the reclusive ruling
junta
appears bent on enhancing its power no matter what the cost.
By the government's official count, at least 63,000 people are dead or
missing in the wake of the cyclone that tore through the country last
weekend. Up to 1.5 million are homeless and in need of food, water,
medicines and shelter, United Nations and other relief agencies estimate.
But amid the chaos, the military government is urging people to vote in a
referendum Saturday to adopt a new constitution which the regime says will
nudge Myanmar a little further along what it calls its road-map to
democracy.
Myanmar pro-democracy activists and exile groups have ridiculed the
referendum as a sham designed to further entrench the power of the armed
forces, which seized power in a coup in 1962 and has repressed criticism
and
dissent -- sometimes by force -- ever since.
Among other measures, the draft constitution says key government
ministries
overseeing defense, national security and border control will be reserved
for military officers. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the
opposition leader who has been detained under house arrest in Yangon for
12
of the past 18 years, would be effectively barred from seeking elected
office because her two sons, who once were Myanmar nationals, are now
British citizens.
Many critics contend the referendum should be postponed to enable Myanmar
to
focus on averting a greater tragedy in the flooded delta of the Irrawaddy
River, which bore the brunt of the storm. The military has postponed the
vote two weeks in the affected areas, but the devastated region is
unlikely
to recover much during that period.
"Two weeks isn't enough," says Zin Linn, a spokesman for a U.S. based
government in exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma. "Lists of eligible voters have been washed away and people are
still
trying to recover the bodies of the people who have been lost."
On Friday, state-run media in Myanmar instructed people in the rest of the
country to go out and vote, even as they struggle to come to terms with
the
scale of the tragedy. "If you are patriotic and you love your nation, you
must give an affirmative vote," state-run television said.
Academics, diplomats and other people who study Myanmar closely say junta
leader Senior General Than Shwe's insistence on holding a referendum -- as
well as his reluctance to allow foreign, and specifically American, aid
teams into the country -- reveal the deep-seated paranoia which runs
through
his government and his commitment to staying in control. In a
characteristic
move, the junta said in a statement Friday that it was grateful for the
limited aid that had been flown into the country so far, but added that
Myanmar authorities should be left to distribute it.
Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program described the
Myanmar's refusal to issue visas to aid workers as "astonishing."
Experts on the country aren't surprised. They say the decision to push
ahead
with the referendum which could enhance the military's power, while they
are
blocking foreign relief assistance, is typical of the junta's attitude to
the outside world.
Some analysts think the refusal to grant visas to foreign aid workers is
linked to the referendum. "They think that if they let all these people
into
the country, then they will never leave," says Pornpimon Trichot, a
Myanmar
specialist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "And I think they are
particularly worried about having lots of foreigners around when they are
conducting the referendum."
There is a pervading and long-standing mistrust of all things foreign
among
Myanmar's military elite.
"The Burmese military is incredibly wary of the West and America in
particular," says Monique Skidmore, a professor at the Australian National
University. "They fear Western and especially American culture will
undermine Burmese mores."
The presence of foreign workers also might curb the regime's ability to
respond if there is another series of pro-democracy demonstrations, like
those last September in which at least 31 people were killed.
Another Myanmar scholar at the Australian National University, Kevin
Wilson,
says the military are unlikely to risk anything which weakens to their
position.
Gen. Than Shwe, who is 75-years-old, and other top leaders are steeped in
a
decades-old mistrust of the outside world. When the army seized power 46
years ago, it immediately cut trade ties with other countries. Foreigners
were expelled and then-military strongman General Ne Win set about
creating
a Burmese brand of socialism, putting the army in control of the country's
largest businesses. While other Southeast Asian countries such as
Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia boomed through the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Myanmar,
once one of Asia's wealthiest countries, descended into poverty and
isolation.
Gen. Than Shwe, an expert in psychological warfare and a veteran of the
country's ethnic insurgencies, took over the ruling junta in 1992 and set
about perpetuating the idea that only the armed forces could hold together
this diverse nation of 135 different ethnic groups and several guerrilla
wars.
"This is the idea that really drives them," says David Mathieson, a
Myanmar
expert with the New York-based Human Rights Watch group. "They think they
are patriots who can somehow bind the country together and the younger
officers and soldiers are kept apart from the rest of the society and
indoctrinated with this belief."
In recent years, Gen. Than Shwe appears to have become increasingly wary
of
civilians. In 2005, the junta abruptly decided to move the country's
capital from Yangon to the remote town of Naypyitaw, more than 300
kilometers to the northeast. And the military insisted on moving its
administration immediately, even though the new site was still under
construction and lacked basic amenities.
In the mid-1990s, the government began drafting a new constitution, with a
view to holding nominally democratic elections in 2010.
Saturday's referendum on the draft constitution offers ordinary citizens
their first chance in years to have their say on political plans for the
country.
Diplomats in Yangon say they have seen a proliferation of graffiti urging
people to reject the constitution since the cyclone hit. Exiled dissidents
such as Mr. Zin Linn, information minister for the U.S.-based National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, are predicting a large 'no'
vote, driven in part by fury over the military's sluggish response to the
cyclone.
"But we worry that the government will manipulate the results," Mr. Zin
Linn
says.
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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