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Today Bkk-Post (7)
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<font face="ARIAL" color="#800000"><b>BURMESE EMBASSY SIEGE<br>
</font><font size=7 color="#000000">Junta warns dissidents, don't try to
cut corners<br>
</font></b><font size=5><i>'Western' democracy will not be
tolerated<br>
</i><b>T</font></b><font size=3>he military junta will hold democratic
elections as promised, but will not tolerate a western-style political
system, a senior Burmese minister said yesterday.<br>
Declining to comment on the storming of the Burmese embassy, David Abel
said dissidents considered democracy a "commodity" and wanted
to short-circuit the reform process.<br>
"Political reforms will come, definitely they will come because we
have promised the people.<br>
"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.<br>
"If we just say this is democracy, you take it, the fellows don't
know what it is and they'll misuse it," said Brig-Gen Abel, a member
of the State Peace and Development Council, who is attending the Asean
meeting in Singapore.<br>
Democratic elections would be part of reforms to be introduced after the
fourth and final consultations with the people on drawing up a national
constitution.<br>
"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].<br>
"But we are going to the same destination. How can they impose such
a thing on us?"The opposition National League for Democracy, led by
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had to pay the price for walking
out of the national convention that was aimed at devising the country's
constitution, he said.<br>
"When they broke away, the NLD had the largest representation in the
national convention. They walked out but the rest of the bodies in the
convention remained.<br>
"This makes a big difference. They thought when they walked out, the
rest will follow. Now they say they want a national dialogue," he
said. <br>
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