VOICE OF BURMA

Burma’s cry for democracy has largely gone unheeded in the world’s largest democracy, report OSAMA MANZAR and SHAIFALI CHIKERMANE
This executive, legislative, judicial and overseeing functions o the state have their origins in the ‘Pyithu Hluttaw’ (People’s Assembly) which in turn is controlled by the BSPP (Burmese socialist Program Party), for it is the party that selects the candidates for office, and they run unopposed. The result is a monolithic political structure without checks or balances”. 
That is what the Burma scholar David Steinberg wrote on the happening that took place approximately two decades ago, when, in January 1974, the military government promulgated a new constitution that ostensibly turned power over to a unicameral national assembly, the ‘Pyithu Hluttaw’. This assembly elected a President and a Council of State, along with other ruling bodies.
Because the military continued its centralized control its over all aspects of government, the changes under the 1974 Constitution were thus more of form than of substance.
Again, this January on 9th the Junta held a convention on whether the Constitution has to change. Needless to say that the military junta will emerge triumphant because all the democrats are either in exile or under detention or too afraid to speak out.
As a matter of fact, ever since the massive victory of the Aung Sen Suu Kyi’s National League for democracy (NLD) that took up the cause of democracy, the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) established in the late 1988 to suppress the struggle for democracy has adopted a two pronged strategy to deny he transfer of power. ON the one hand, it has tried to divide the NLD through coercion and co-option. While all the top leaders including Aung Sen Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma’s national hero Gen. Aung Sen and winner of 1991Novel Peace Prize, have been kept under detention, other less important members of the NLD’s Central Executive have been allowed to operate freely so as to diffuse the democratic challenge.
In addition, since the NLD is a coalition of diverse political groups and not a cohesive organization, it leaves ample scope for the SLORC to exploit NLD’s intra group indeologies, personality clashes and social cleavages to retain power.
Another major, important and relevant issue to day, being exploited by the SLORC to distort and defeat the democratic struggle relates to the constitution. An important component of NLD, Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB), is dominated by the ethnic minorities, whereas, the rest of the NLD is dominated by the majority of the Burmese population The question is of federalism versus the transfer of power. Moreover, to ensure greater autonomy for the various ethnic regions, the DAB wants the constitutional question settled first.
In any case, this question of federalism and use of regional autonomy has dominated the politics of Burma ever since it became independent. And so far, the experience of the ethnic minority vis-à-vis the Burmese majority ahs always been quite harsh and unpleasant, in this respect. This question and the mutual suspicion between the majority on the one hand and the ethnic minorities on the other has been at the root of Burma’s more than 40-year old civil war.
Now, the DAB wants this question to be resolved to their satisfaction before actual transfer of power takes place from the Junta to the elected representative. 
On the other side the NLD is committed to the principle of federalism and regional autonomy and they have made their position quite clear. Going back to 1947, Gen. Aung Sen, father of Suu Kyi, had worked out the first amicable agreement on this issue with the leaders of the ethnic minorities, but the same could not be implemented as he was assassinated. The next person also failed, though he tried his best to resolve the problem.
Now, the NLD’s stand on he federal question is quite clear, and it does not want the issue to come in the way of transfer of power which must take place immediately. NLD very much know and understand that framing a constitution is a long drawn and complex process, and if it allows its differences with DAB on the federal issue to precede the latter, then the SLORC will exploit the complexities involved to frustrate the establishment of democracy.
Precisely, this is the unique argument, that the SLORC has come up with, to perpetuate itself in power. SLORC says: the May 1990 elections witnessed only a 40 per cent voter turn out. Hence NLD’s victory is really based on a minority verdict. Therefore, first a federal constitution should be framed, which must then be put for approval by people through a national referendum. The constitution thus approved should be the basis of fresh elections after which only power should be transferred to the elected representatives.
Other reasons of raising the flag of federalism is to erode the political base of DAB, because the DAB has many wide platforms of various ethnic armies, against which the Junta is fighting a relentess war. Various other SLORC’s campaign to secure political legitimacy and divide the ranks of its democratic opposition, is being ld by the dreaded Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence, headed by Ne Win’s son-in-law Gen. Khin Nyunt. An additional strategy that SLORC has been adopting, to wean away the social discontent which provided mass support to the democracy movement, is to improve economic conditions in Burma. Already, the Junta’s policy of economic liberalization is giving open and free contract to foreign firms.
Thailand was the first to reap the benefit of this policy by exploiting the timber resources of eastern Burma. Potentially tempting petroleum reserves have already been offered to Japan and China for exploitation. All in all, the Western countries like Germany, US and Sweden, that had withdrawn economically from Burma, are coming in again.
Eventually, the internal economic situation has improved and the lost moral and political support has been regained. And the fact, the sympathy and support that NLD and alliances had gathered in 1990, when Gen. Ne Win refuse to transfer the power, is slowly vanishing or steadily losing interest in the fate of democracy and the people in Burma.
However, the ‘Tatmadaw’s’ (the armed forces) bloody suppression and ‘Lon Htein’s’ (riot police) firing on demonstration, cannot and must not b forgotten easily by the victims of coup d’etat. In 1962 – when the BSPP (Burmese Socialist Program Party, SLORC’s previous nomenclature) killed hundreds of student protesters and shut the independent press; the mid seventies, when the ‘Tatmadaw’ broke up demonstration by workers and students protesting the deteriorating economy and the lack of basic civil rights; and the last one in September 1988, are a kind of perpetual suppression, the democrats in Burma and the refugees around, cannot afford to take lightly.
The military power in Burma has always kept itself aloof from external interferences, and newer gave a damn. But how far it is fair and ethical for a neighbour of 4000 km common border to consider whether the principle of non-interference should be stretched so far as to sanitise AIR Broadcasts in Burmese. Recently, India has debarred Than Than Nu, the daughter of former Burmese President U Nu, from broadcasting her political commentaries in the daily 90-minute Burmese language programme on All India Radio. These commentaries reflecting of pro-democracy views, had become increasingly popular with the audience across the border. The SLORC had even threatened to close down the Indian embassy in Rangoon if the broadcasts were not stopped. The Indian authorities, at last, compiled. Also while the Indian government had been stressing that it stood by the democratic opposition in the neighbouring country, it had of late been rubbing shoulders with the military Junta. Furthermore, there has not been any opposition from India to the readmission of the SLORC to the Non-alignment Movement at its recent summit in Djakarta. Burma is only a new addition to a long list of bungling of Indian merry muddle diplomacy.
Here, in India, General Anug Sen had won Gandhi’s and Nehru’s admiration. Unu, the former Prime Minister, was a respected friend of Nehru. When General Ne Win insisted on exiling U Nu, he came to India and lived for years in Madhya Pradesh. Aun Sen Suu Kyi came to India at the age of 15 and spent several years in Delhi with her mother who was the Burmese ambassador. She did her