Popular vote Vs Popularity: To those who are questioning the role of Aung San Suu Kyi

Like everywhere, in Burma, there are always pros and cons as well as positives and negatives whenever a move is done from either side. By and large the military rulers made moves first and the opposition has to react. At times the opposition started the move ahead the regime has to counter it.

When the people of Burma demonstrated in 1988, ultimately General Ne Win who has ruled for 26 years gave up. But the next two presidents tried to kill and quell the protest.

When the people voted for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990, the then junta in the name of the State Law and Order Restoration Council had to hurriedly act in response to the legitimate call for a new government and the parliament by issuing the historic announcement 1/90 on 27th July 1990 which assigned that all elected Parliamentarians were to merely draft a new constitution. However when the national convention to draw up the constitution was practically held on 9th January 1993 the elected MPs constituted only 15.24% at outset and in the later sessions it was reduced to barely 1.38%.


“A dead woman bites not.” When Aung San Suu Kyi was gathering more and more public crowds during her around-the-country tours, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) attempted to kill her on 30th May 2003. Fortunately she survived and the world outraged. The junta had to respond with announcement of the Roadmap. The upcoming election is the key of that.

A long fight against the dictatorship takes exceptionally lengthy in Burma. Meanwhile both sides lost so-called own men. From the NLD more than a hundred elected parliamentarians have died, three of them killed in the prisons and two assassinated outside the country. Meanwhile a number of intellectuals who have advocated for democracy collaborated with the regime. One of Aung San Suu Kyi’s assistants turned hostile. Before the upcoming election, a few scholars are visiting abroad to lobby for the junta’s election.

The dilemmas also caused the NLD causalities. After the unanimous decision was made on 29th March 2010 not to re-register, some leaders of the NLD left the party and formed the National Democratic Forum (NDF) to field 164 candidates in the election to be held from 7th to 11th November this year. It is more than hearsay that NDF received fund from junta’s party UNDP which will contest almost all seats.

The regime is not immune. Look at General Ne Win, General Saw Maung, and General Tin Oo who died shockingly and disgracefully. There are also living dead army officers such as Brigadier Aung Gyi and Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt.

So far, the opposition keeps the top leader alive. Although the party has been stripped off the legal attribute, all NLD members disallowed to contest and the constitution has been made as no-woman head of the state possible, Aung San Suu Kyi is still regarded as a person whose liberty might bring the regime down. The junta feared of holding the election before she was freed. Only when she said about boycott election, the election commission made a correction and informed that she had the right to vote. The message to her people is that the people have the right to vote as well as the right not to vote.

Propaganda machinery if effectively used can turn events upside down. Rumor machine also can efficiently mislead and misinform to some extent. Now and again the military intelligence has printed thousands of leaflets of Aung San Suu Kyi to defame her. There have been numerous mischievous articles about her in the state-run newspapers written by various pseudonyms. Almost all subordinates have been taught or ordered of false accounts of Aung San Suu Kyi. A deserter soldier who fled to India told that Aung San Suu Kyi was the woman who made troubles.

In Burma the grass roots opinion cannot be correctly taken by any means. Many of them are terrified, some of them are hoodwinked, a few of them have been bought and several of them do not have any comment. Looking back at the referendum practice, the grass roots people realize that whatever vote will go to military boxes and they do not see any alternatives.

For the junta it is time to augment the campaign against her as she was supposed to release. It indicates that the junta leaders are not confident of their water-tight plan of new government formation when Aung San Suu Kyi was being free. So her popularity question is rumor of the day for internal consumption because the world leaders including UN Secretary General are repetitively pronouncing concerns.

Yes, in terms of number NLD decreases membership count by now. Also yes NLD can’t contest in the election. But NLD disagrees that election is sole path to go through. NLD believes in the people who, if allowed to cast a vote or to express freely, will go all against military dictatorship. Since after the junta announced the election laws and dates, the plan to transform the ethnic armed groups into border guards failed. Then the serious ethnic groups officially declared that Aung San Suu Kyi is the national leader. That is the unity hardly ever acquired in the history of independent Burma. So qualitatively she is on the positive side.

If she is inconsequential and her call for election boycott seems nothing, the junta should allow outside election observers and assistance. But in the second week of November the world will hear, not witness, the pre-typed “winner takes all announcement”. Then Aung San Suu Kyi and the people will have to start the next phase of the struggle.

(Dr Tint Swe, a member of the NCGUB -- formed by elected representatives from Burma after the elections of 1990.)

Source:http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2776