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The head of Burma’s junta, Senior General Than Shwe, in a Jan. 4 message to mark the 62nd anniversary of the nation’s independence, urged people to make “correct choices” in the elections planned for later this year. He said the elections were part of a seven-step roadmap to change the country into a democratic one after five decades of military rule.
"Plans are under way to hold the elections in a systematic way this year and the entire people have to make correct choices," said Than Shwe in a message printed in state-run newspapers. It was not clear what he meant by "correct choices."
According to a dissident politician, the message was widely understood as urging voters to support military-backed political parties. If the people fail to follow his advice, the military may disregard the election results. If they do as he suggests, military rule will continue under a civilian appearance.
The U.S. State Department said Monday that it had not seen any move from Burma's military government to restore democracy in the country.
“So far, we have not seen any meaningful steps by the regime to indicate it is putting in place measures that would lead to credible elections,” State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said in response to a question on the statement from the Burmese leader.
"Much of the opposition's leadership remains in prison, there is no space for political dissent or debate and no freedom of press," Kelly said.
Kelly called on Burma to engage opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders "in a comprehensive dialogue on democratic reform," which he said would be a first step toward inclusive elections.
Coincidentally, a military-controlled township court in Burma has handed down a 20-year jail term to freelance reporter Hla Hla Win, a 25-year-old video journalist who worked with the Burma exile broadcaster "Democratic Voice of Burma" based in Norway, as the ruling junta continues its crackdown on dissent. She was arrested in September after taking a video interview at a Buddhist monastery in Pakokku, a town in Magwe Division, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres and the Burma Media Association said in a joint statement. For that she was given a seven-year sentence in October.
Then on Dec. 31 she was also accused of violating the Electronics Act, often used by the junta to imprison journalists and bloggers, and handed an additional 20-year jail term. A person who was accompanying her at the time of her arrest, Myint Naing, was also given a 26-year prison term. Former political prisoner and lawyer Aung Thein said local lawyers were reluctant to defend them given the political nature of their case.
As Burma is a member of the United Nations, its rulers must regard and respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If the junta is sincere about democratic reforms, the media must be free. Access to information is essential to a healthy democracy. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
According to the Burma Media Association and Reporters Sans Frontieres, at least a dozen journalists and scores of media workers including poets and writers are still in custody since the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the Constitutional referendum in May 2008.
The junta turns a deaf ear to citizens’ rights. To hold an election means to regard and respect human rights. Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Under Than Shwe’s military rule most people have not seen this declaration, and those who defend human rights face strict repression. In 2008, the Asian Human Rights Commission issued an urgent appeal in the case of U Myint Aye, chairman of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group in Burma, who was arrested without explanation.
A team of police and administrative officers came to U Myint Aye’s house on Aug. 8, 2008. They searched the house, took some documents and other items, and told Myint Aye to go with them; he never returned. Later the military junta called a press conference and accused him of masterminding a bomb plot, implicating other human rights defenders and political opponents of the regime.
The HRDP, founded in 2002, aims to raise human rights awareness among the people of Burma. Members of the network have arranged talks about human rights and distributed copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is believed that around 20 members of the group were arrested in the 2008 crackdown and are now in prison.
Proceedings against HRDP members have failed to meet international standards for fair trials. Detainees are often denied the right to have a lawyer or legal advocate of their own choice, and prosecutors are known to have relied on confessions obtained through torture.
At the same time, the junta continues to detain and imprison more than 2,100 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest on and off since 1990, leaders of the '88 Generation Students such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe, political leaders such as Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo and U Win Tin, a prominent journalist and executive member of the National League for Democracy, who at 78 has been languishing in prison since July 4, 1989.
In brief, there is no law and order at all in Burma. There is no freedom of association, no freedom of expression and no freedom of the right to life, liberty and security of person. In such an undemocratic political atmosphere, no one will believe the message of Than Shwe urging people to make “correct choices” in the planned elections.
The regime is attempting to legalize its military dictatorship with a sham Constitution and multiparty elections. Most people see the junta's Constitution and the elections as a challenge against the will of the people of Burma. The cases of HRDP members have shown that the junta’s 2010 elections will not guarantee basic human rights. The latest case of video-journalist Hla Hla Win also draws attention to the fact that there will be no free press during the elections.
People clearly know that elections without a free press will produce a society without law and order and human rights. Thus, the people of Burma are not ready to accept such undemocratic elections as a political solution.
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(Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist living in exile in Bangkok, Thailand. He works at the NCGUB East Office as an information director and is vice president of Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers. ©Copyright Zin Linn.)
