POLITICS-BURMA: Amid Criticism, Generals Press on with Convention

By Larry Jagan Reprint | | Print |

Larry Jagan

BANGKOK, May 17 2004 (IPS) - Despite mounting international criticism, Burma’s military leaders are pressing on with the writing of a new constitution, in a process that began Monday without the participation of the pro-democracy political parties.

The Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest despite repeated assurances by government ministers that she would be freed before the National Convention reconvened on May 17.

After the convention opened on the outskirts of Rangoon amid much pomp and ceremony, more than a thousand handpicked delegates heard the head of the meeting tell them that this was a historic step on the road to democracy.

The participants were also told they were to finish drawing up the principles upon which the country’s new constitution will be based. After the formal opening, delegates were assigned to their eight sectoral groups for their actual deliberations.

But the absence of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), from the National Convention is a real blow to the credibility of the government’s national reconciliation process.

The U.S. and European embassies in Rangoon boycotted the opening ceremony because of the NLD’s decision not to participate, a move the party announced on Friday.

"The NLD does not believe that it will be able to benefit the nation by participating in the National Convention," party president Aung Shwe told journalists when he announced the NLD’s decision not to attend the National Convention.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also virtually declared the National Convention a farce in a statement issued immediately after the start of the convention proceedings, because of the absence of the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention.

"Even ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations) countries will not find the National Convention credible without the NLD’s participation," said a senior South-east Asian diplomat who deals regularly with Burma.

The fact that two of the party’s top leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, are still under house arrest made it virtually impossible for the NLD to realistically consider being part of the National Convention.

"The NLD were in an impossible position," said a Rangoon-based Asia diplomat. "If they agreed to attend the convention it would be tantamount to endorsing their continued detention.”

For weeks, there has been speculation in Rangoon that Aung San Suu Kyi and the military regime were on the brink of deal that would allow the NLD to participate in the National Convention. Over the past two months, military authorities have allowed the NLD leaders to meet regularly at Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence for extensive political discussions.

But while the NLD actively sought to resolve some of their differences with the military regime over the National Convention procedures and ensure there was freedom of discussion and association during the sessions, the country’s top military leaders remained silent.

For more than two weeks, the military failed to respond to the NLD’s formal letter raising concerns about the convention.

The key issues were the release of the NLD’s top leaders from house arrest, the reopening of NLD provisional offices, free debate and discussion within the convention’s proceedings, the right of the groups to meet each other and discuss issues outside the plenum sessions, and for the principles that have already been drawn up by the previous convention sessions – before its suspension in 1996 – to be open for reconsideration. Earlier, according to western diplomatic sources, Aung San Suu Kyi even sent a letter to Gen Than Shwe, but that was also ignored.

"The problem is that although Prime Minister Khin Nyunt understands the importance of including the pro-democracy parties in the National Convention, his superior, General Than Shwe, sees no need to involve them in drawing up the new constitution," said a senior Asian diplomat in Rangoon.

General Than Shwe’s antipathy toward Aung San Suu Kyi is well known. He has also frequently told U.N. envoy to Burma Razali Ismail that in the country’s national reconciliation process, political parties would contest fresh elections after the new constitution is ratified – and that therefore, there was no real role for these parties before that.

Tension between the country’s top generals has brought the Burmese national reconciliation process to a grinding halt. The pragmatists around Khin Nyunt have been frustrated by the slow pace of reform.

But the prime minister has been blocked recently by Than Shwe who fears that Khin Nyunt was becoming too strong and might launch a challenge to his power in the future.

For months now, the national reconciliation process has been controlled by a committee made up of the country’s six top generals. Although Khin Nyunt is part of that committee, he cannot act without their approval.

The latest inertia may mean that Khin Nyunt’s days are numbered. Unless Gen Than Shwe decides to push ahead with the dialogue process personally, the chances of political reform in the coming months are also extremely remote.

"I don’t understand why he can’t talk with us," said the NLD spokesman U Lwin. "For the moment all we can do is wait and see."