AFP-Myanmar minister warns of moves (r)

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: AFP-Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms

Short-circuited, or gassed, by all the TOTAL/Unocal produced
gas-generated electricity?


Trevor Edmond wrote:
> 
> Thank you Tin Kyi for the posting of this article.  Some of the statements by
> David Abel of SPDCcannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
> 
> TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> > Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms
> > SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (AFP) - A senior Myanmar minister said here Friday that the
> > country's military junta will hold democratic elections as promised but
> > warned Yangon would not tolerate a western-style political system.
> 
> David Abel must be going senile.  Has he forgotten who won the elections in 1990
> and what happened aferward.
> 
> >  Brigadier General David Abel said dissidents at home considered democracy a
> > "commodity" and wanted to short-circuit the reform process.
> 
> A commodity is something you buy and sell with money.  The Burmese people, at
> least 75% and a lot more if it were not for the bullying by the brave uniformed
> men with guns, have paid for a chance at democracy with their lives an blood.
> And 32 years is not exactly a short time.
> 
> > "Political reforms will come, definitely they will come because we have
> > promised the people," Abel told AFP at the sidelines of the Association of
> > Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade ministers meeting
> 
> "Because we have promised".  What is their record of integrity?  A overwhelming
> lack of credibility sits like a bad smell over the whole regime.  It
> contaminates all those who collaborate with them in their unsavoury deeds.
> 
> > ."We have promised them a market economy, we have promised them a democratic
> > system, we'll deliver but we want to deliver in good shape, good form.
> 
> And in good time - perhaps next life time?
> 
> > "If we just say this is democracy, you take it, the fellows don't know what it
> > is and they'll misuse it," said Abel, a member of the Myanmar junta officially
> > known as the State Peace and Development Council.
> 
> How patronising!  There is no debate  how "total" the power of the military is
> and its blatant brutal use  in suppressing people's opinions and dissent.  One
> great talent Abel, and a great ABELITY too, is the capacity to tell bald face
> lies.
> 
> > He said that democratic elections in Myanmar would be part of reforms to be
> > introduced after the fourth and final consultations with the people on drawing
> > up a national constitution.
> 
> The practice of democracy begins with the inclusion of all voices and positions
> in the actual drawing up of the constitution, in an atmosphere free from fear of
> reprisals.  It is patently obvious that the constitution we will get from Ne Win
> cum SLORC cum SPDC is one that will be stacked in favour of the military
> presence in parliament - just like the one in Indonesia.  See what it did to
> Timor and continues to do in Aceh, Ambon and West Irian Jaya.
> 
> > Abel said the NLD had to pay the price for walking out of the national
> > convention that was aimed at devising the country's constitution.
> > "When they broke away, NLD had the largest representation in the national
> > convention. They walked out but the rest of the bodies in the convention
> > remained. "This makes a big difference. They thought when they walked out, the
> > rest
> > will follow. Now they say they want a national dialogue, they can say what
> > they want in the convention. It is a democracy, and everything is voted for,"
> > he said.
> 
> Again a bald faced attempt to side track the issue.  If everything is voted, how
> come the overwhelming vote for the NLD in 1990 was not and is still not
> respected by the regime.  No excuses will suffice and there is ample evidence of
> how this time (1990 - now) has been used to plunder the wealth of country,
> eliminate opposition, wipe out minority groups, exploit powerless and poor
> people and rape and pillage at will.
> 
> Statements made from SPDC are an insult to the paper they are written and the
> ears that have to hear them.  The only way the truth can be know is to allow a
> diverse group of observers into the country and give them safe and easy access
> to all areas of the country and its people. No intimidation, no harrassment and
> no excuses.  If they (SPDC) are capable of refusing a dying man a visa to visit
> his heroic and beloved wife one last time then I leave it to your (people of the
> world) imagination what they (SPDC) are capable of.
> 
> Despite all of this I still live in hope that there is a thread of humanity that
> exists in the regime and that it is redeemable.  I live in hope that one day
> there will be the ability for diversity to exist in the land of golden pagodas
> and paddy fields.
> 
> I am concerned by the cynicism, anger and rage that I feel so personally. I have
> begun to question how all these terrible things can exist out there and not in
> me.  Where in my life am I a tyrant, one sided, authoritarian and
> uncompassionate, refusing to hear others, seeking only to satisfy my selfish
> needs?   I don't relish the thought of such discovery.  Yet if I speak for
> diversity to exist in the world out there I know I must allow diversity to exist
> within myself - my life.  This is a  democracy that I would like to breathe and
> live.
> 
> With myitta and cetana
> Trevor
> 
> TIN KYI posted this:
> 
>  Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms
> SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (AFP) - A senior Myanmar minister said here Friday that the
> country's military junta will hold democratic elections as promised but
> warned Yangon would not tolerate a western-style political system.
> Declining to comment on Friday's storming of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok
> by armed men, Brigadier General David Abel said dissidents at home
> considered democracy a "commodity" and wanted to short-circuit the reform
> process.
> 
> "Political reforms will come, definitely they will come because we have
> promised the people," Abel told AFP at the sidelines of the Association of
> Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade ministers meeting which he was
> attending.
> 
> "We have promised them a market economy, we have promised them a democratic
> system, we'll deliver but we want to deliver in good shape, good form.
> 
> "If we just say this is democracy, you take it, the fellows don't know what
> it is and they'll misuse it," said Abel, a member of the Myanmar junta
> officially known as the State Peace and Development Council.
> 
> He said that democratic elections in Myanmar would be part of reforms to be
> introduced after the fourth and final consultations with the people on
> drawing up a national constitution.
> 
> "If they (dissidents) want to short cut, if they want an engine that they
> like, they say they want an American engine, we say: No, we use our own
> engine to pull our (train).
> 
> "But we are going to the same destination. How can they impose such a thing
> on us?."
> 
> A group of 12 armed men, believed to be exiled Myanmar activists, stormed
> the Myanmar embassy in downtown Bangkok Friday, taking an estimated 20 staff
> hostage.
> 
> A number of exiled Myanmar activist groups use Thailand as the base for
> their efforts to topple Yangon junta, making regular calls for democracy and
> the convening of a parliament elected in 1990 polls.
> 
> The polls were won in a landslide by the National League for Democracy (NLD)
> led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military have refused
> to hand over power.
> 
> Abel said the NLD had to pay the price for walking out of the national
> convention that was aimed at devising the country's constitution.
> 
> "When they broke away, NLD had the largest representation in the national
> convention. They walked out but the rest of the bodies in the convention
> remained.
> 
> "This makes a big difference. They thought when they walked out, the rest
> will follow. Now they say they want a national dialogue, they can say what
> they want in the convention. It is a democracy, and everything is voted
> for," he said.