By Zin Linn
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
September 3 , 2003

Believe it or not, the Burmese military junta also has a ready-made seven-point political '' Road Map '' as they are calling it a roadmap towards democracy. The junta's newly-appointed Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt, said on 30 August, the military regime would restart a national convention to draw up a new constitution which would lead to a free and fair election. It's a wonder that without knowing the background context of the national convention manipulated by the military junta, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expressed confidence in the SPDC's ``road map'' for national reconciliation, on 31 August. He said Rangoon's roadmap was similar to what Thailand had presented to Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung in Bangkok last month, but did not elaborate on whether the Thai version was now shelved.

Although it was General Khin Nyunt's first major policy speech as a new premier, he gave no timetable for releasing the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, nor any guarantee that the military was ready to give up power and go back to barrack.
Let's keep thinking back to the day or May 15 in 1992, Major General Khin Nyunt, the then First Secretary of SLORC and head of military intelligence, publicly explained the nature of martial law, '' I would like to explain about martial law according to the records that I have studied . . . martial law is neither more or less than the will of the general who commands the army; in fact martial law means no law at all.'' Later Senior General Saw Maung, the then SLORC Chairman, reaffirmed and repeated this view of what the law means in Burma, asserting that '' martial law means the will of the general. He can do anything he wishes to do.''

That's the ways of practising and interpretation of the law by the military dictators. That means the junta was ruling Burma by military decree, issuing repressive new orders aimed particularly at restricting all democratic rights especially freedom of _expression and freedom of assembly throughout the country that challenged the "will of the general." For instance, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was detained repeatedly under the "will of the general" or the 1975 Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts. The regime amended the 1975 law in August 1991 to allow administrative detention without trial for up to five years for persons considered to endanger "the peace of most citizens or the security of the state and the sovereignty of the state." This repressive law empowered the military regime to hold Aung San Suu Kyi and a lot of political dissidents without charge or trial again and again.

Let's keep thinking back to the day or November 27 in 1995, NLD Chairman U Aung Shwe sent a letter addressed to U Aung Toe, Chairman of National Convention Convening Committee, asking to discuss with the NLD their views on the National Convention and again on 28 November another letter was sent asking for a response to their request. On the same day the NLD sent its third letter saying that the NLD would not attend a National Convention that is not based on democratic principles. In this letter, the NLD proposed that the National Convention Convening Committee should abolish all Convention rules and regulations that are not democratic, to allow NLD to elect its new representatives to the National Convention and to work for the holding of dialogue in order to work on these issues.

According to the state-owned Burmese Broadcasting Service (BBS) news, the NLD is trying to destroy the benefits of the on-going National Convention with destructive means. It is also trying to convene a different national convention in which they can direct the representatives to work only for their party's benefit.

After the NLD did not get a response from the authorities, they stepped up their campaign in order to destroy the National Convention. Their actions and intentions are not to work for the national interest of Burma. The National Convention Convening Committee will never give up its noble duties to the nation. The National Convention will be going on as scheduled, based on the success that the National Convention has achieved, with the participation of other groups even without the participation of NLD representatives, the BBS news said.

But due to the NLD General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi's announcement, her party declared a boycott on Nov 29 1995, criticising the convention, which is under the junta's guidelines for a pro-military constitution, is completely against democratic practice. Political analysts in Burma and abroad have branded the convention as a sham and it's also designed to ensure military position at the top of the power institutions.

The regime is using its fake national convention as a tool of drafting a new constitution ensuring military quotas in the parliament. Avoiding the result of the 1990 elections, the junta issued the No. 1/90 Declaration. The Article 20 of which confined the rights of elected members of parliament solely to draft a new constitution for the nation. But the junta found that it was insufficient to curb the oppositions and it refused to follow its own 1/90 rule and then allowing only 99 out of the 485 elected representatives or MPs to participate in the so-called national convention process. Out of those 99 MPs, only eighty-six were NLD MPs. The rest of 702 delegates were hand-picked by the junta. Upon her release from house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi denounced the convention as a sham and farce.

She went on to enumerate its shortcomings on November 22, 1995, pointing out that the elected representatives of the people constitute only 15.24 percent of the whole delegates and thus are permanently in the minority. Neither the objective of the convention nor its working procedures were drawn up in consultation with delegates. Papers to be represented at the convention are censored and have to be corrected in accordance with the wishes of the authorities. Decisions are laid down before an issue has been fully discussed.

For that reasons, the pro-military constitutional convention is actually a latest and crooked method used by the generals to ensure the military domination upon the future political arena in Burma. That's why in late 1995, after the Nobel peace laureate's first period under house arrest, the NLD refused to join a new session of the national convention to draft the constitution. The junta shortly afterwards suspended the convention, which the NLD had rejected as an undemocratic forum.

So, it is obvious, the junta's newly-appointed Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt's ready-made seven-point political '' Road Map '' is old wine with the same old bottle. According to an important statement issued by the NLD Central Executive Committee on 04 January, on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day, prior to the holding of substantial political talks with exchange of ideas on equal terms between the NLD and the SPDC the National League for Democracy will not accept the holding of another election without the authorities first honoring the results of the 1990 free and fair elections and abiding by the annual and continuous resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly calling on the SPDC to honor the will of the people.

On the subject of a National Convention, we recall that on 18/10/1990 Secretary 1 of the then State Law and Order Restoration Council, now State Peace and Development Council, made the following statement at the Magwe Division, Kyunchaung Fertilizer Plant opening ceremony.

“It is the responsibility of political parties and the successful candidates of the elections to convene a National Convention. SLORC will play an assisting role only”

Since nothing has changed about the National Convention through democratic means the NLD will not be participating in the process, the statement says.

In her 'LETTERS TO A DICTATOR' (published: July, 1997) Aung San Suu Kyi says,'' The important point is that the NLD has repeatedly written to the SLORC asking for a dialogue. The party has done this because it believes that the only way to solve the current problems, including those of the National Convention is through a substantial dialogue. We strongly believe that there is no other way.''

In conclusion, the road map to nowhere announced recently by General Khin Nyunt to re-convene the national convention, draft a constitution, and hold elections following a national referendum is nothing more than a political trickery to ease mounting international pressure and prolong military rule. Recently, Prime Minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma Dr Sein Win also said, " We cannot accept any political process which excludes the role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD. A common course of action has to be sought through a tripartite dialogue. SPDC has neither the legitimacy nor the support of the people to dictate or impose a political process, particularly on a political party like the NLD which has the mandate of the people through the 1990 elections.''

In Rangoon, Burmese journalists are predicting that the new SPDC Prime Minister's Road Map may be the last attempt throwing the nation into an abysmal gorge of crisis.