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THE POLITICAL ENVIROMENT IN BURMA




THE POLITICAL ENVIROMENT IN BURMA
 Background
 In 1988, a pro-democracy movement broke out in Burma.  Spearheaded by
Burmese students, this movement soon mobilized many other sectors of
Burmese society, and in July 1988, General Ne Win, the military dictator
who had ruled Burma since 1962, was forced to resign and withdraw behind
the scenes. In August, as the power of the pro-democracy movement
continued to grow, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of General Aung San,
Burma's greatest independence hero, gave her first public speech. The
power of her words and the obvious nobility of her character turned her
almost overnight into the symbol and leader of the entire pro-democracy
movement.  The military however was desperate to hang on to power. On
September 18, 1988, a group of military officers, calling themselves SLORC
( State Law and Order Restoration Council), seized power. The next day
SLORC ordered its soldiers to open fire and thousands of students, monks
and other pro-democracy activists were killed throughout Burma and a
series of massacres. These violent massacres ended the immediate threat to
the power of the military dictatorship, but the military officers still
has the problems of being an illegitimate government. In order to try and
legalize itself, the SLORC military dictatorship declared it was only
taking power temporarily until national election could be held. 
Apparently, SLORC believed its control of state resources and the
fractured state of the opposition would allow it to control the result of
the election, and that it could then become a legal government by winning
the election.  What they forgot to factor into their calculation was Aung
San Suu Kyi.  She soon unified almost all of the oppositions under the
banner of her new party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and she
crisscrossed Burma delivering speeches that held Burmese audiences
enthralled for hours. Finally understanding the threat that Aung San Suu
Kyi posed to their plans of winning the election, SLORC placed her under
house arrest in July of 1989 to stop her from campaigning.  It turned out
that SLORC badly underestimated the people of Burma and their desire for
Democracy. The elections were held in May 1990, and the NLD won a stunning
82% of the seats at stake in the election. Sinc SLORC's sole purpose for
holding the election was to try and legalize itself, when the different
result occurred SLORC simply refused to turn power over the winner. Aung
San Suu Kyi remained under house arrest to this day ( in spite of
receiving the noble peace prize in 1991).  SLORC Sponsored So-called
National Convention Although the SLORC military dictatorship remained in
power by brute force, it still faced the problem that it was an illegal
government. Any legal pretense of seizing power to take care of some
temporary emergency had completely disappeared with the May 1990 election
which were acknowledged by the United Nations and international observers
as reflecting the will of the people. Anxious to try and find a way to
change its illegal status, an apparently believing that the outside world
is quite gullible, SLORC in 1992 called a fraudulent "National Convention"
to write a so-called constitution.  It has been meeting off and on ever
since. In reality it is not a National Convention; it is a Military
Convention. It was called by the military; for the delegates were all
selected by the military; its day-to-day deliberations are supervised by
the military; and the military commanded the convention, in writing , the
so-called constitution must guarantee the military the leading role in
national politic in the future. A Military Convention can never bestowed
legality on a military dictatorship. We are witnessing a desperate ruse by
a regime rightfully obsessed by its own legality.  The Economy When SLORC
seized power Burma's foreign currency reserves were so low it was
difficult for some to see how SLORC could remain in power. This critical
financial condition was the result of 25 years of financial mismanagement
by the military dictator General Ne win who had cut Burma of from the
world economy with his " Burmese Way to Socialism"- an economic policy
which impoverished a country rich in natural resources.  When SLORC took
over, it realized that if it wished to stay in power it had to rise many
and that the only way to do this was to open the economy to a degree of
foreign investment on very generous terms. So SLORC immediately began
selling off parts of Burma's national patrimony ( including its precious
forest ) to southeast Asian business men. SLORC took much of this many and
purchased 1.2 billion $ worth of arms from China in 1991- 2 and boosted
the size of its army numbering 350, 000.  This outrageous military
spending ( in a country in where the United Nations says 1/3 of the
population is under nourished) was solely for the purpose of maintaining
SLORC in power.  The type of economic growth that SLORC is promoting is
the wrong type.  First, it is designed for quick short term gain, not long
term sustainable development. Foreign investment is being primarily
directed, not towards basic infrastructure development, but rather towards
quick profit areas like selling off natural resources or opening tourist
spots.  Much of the money thus gained is invested in expending the
military ( which gobbles up a whopping 60% of the national budget). This
means that there is only a minuscule investment and improving the
education and the health of the common Burmese work force which is the
only hope for long term growth. Contrarily, for long term economic benefit
for the military elite, the SLORC invested much in its controlled
companies such as a large one called Myanmar Holding Co. Ltd .In addition,
the tremendous toll that military corruption takes on efficient economic
growth cannot be lightly discounted. Under such circumstances, the dream
of economic development has come true almost exclusively for the military
elite.  Much foreign investment that is propping up the SLORC military
dictatorship comes from the countries that belong to ASEAN. Regarding
Burma, ASEAN has adopted an official policy of " Constructive Engagement"
among whose stated purpose is to encourage the political and economic
liberalization in Burma by opening and maintaining a series of economic
ties with SLORC. The result of this policy has been zero positive movement
in the democratization or human rights area inside Burma, but impressive
profits for business men from ASEAN countries. So far constructive
engagement has brought no constructive results as a minimum, this badly
flawed policy needs to be modified to condition some economic ties on some
type of demonstrable progress in democracy or human rights in Burma. 
Ethnic and Democratic Forces Struggling against the SLORC Military
Dictatorship SLORC has been pursuing a policy of trying to force ethnic
organizations to enter into cease-fires. This policy has been vigorously
pursued with a combination of brute military force and promises of
development aid to ethnic lands. Up to 15 different ethnic organizations
have signed some type of cease-fire with SLORC at one time or another.
However, this is not leading to any type of stable solution.  Already 5
ethnic organizations that had cease-fires have formed an alliance called
Peace and Democracy Front led by the United Wa State Party in order to ask
for more ethnic rights including releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and the
political prisoners for genuine democratization process.  The Karen
National Union (KNU), one large armed ethnic group, has so far refused to
enter into a cease-fire. SLORC in June broke the cease-fire it had with
the Karenni National Progressive Party ( KNPP) and launched military
attack into the Karenni area that - attacks once again accompanied by
flagrant human right abuses such as rounding up mass numbers of civilians
at gun point and forcing them to act as unpaid human mules to carry
military supplies into the fighting zone. This SLORC policy of attempting
cease-fire with ethnic groups- without offering them democratization with
its protection for minority rights- is doomed to failure.  In order for
the democratic and ethnic resistance to act in a more unified and
coordinated manner the National Council of the Union of Burma ( NCUB) was
formed. It is composed of four groups;  - National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma: a parallel government composed of representatives
elected in the May 1990 election.  - National Democratic Front: a
coalition group composed of ethnic minority organizations.  - Democratic
Alliance of Burma: a coalition group composed of both ethnic minority
groups and multi-ethnic pro-democracy group like the All Burma Student's
Democratic Front.  - National League for Democracy (Liberated Area): Aung
San Suu Kyi's political parties.  The NCUB is the largest umbrella group
of Burmese resistance organization. 
 Presented by,

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE UNION OF BURMA
 Dated July 9, 1995.