Burmese Language
NDF says election boycott ‘meaningless’
The boycott of elections by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party is meaningless and will only aid the military government, Burma’s new opposition party believes.
The National Democratic Force (NDF) has riled the old guard of Burma’s pro-democracy movement after announcing it would take part in controversial elections this year. The NDF formed as a breakaway group from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which was forced to disband following its decision not to run.
“We [believe] that boycotting the elections would be meaningless as it will only create more space for candidates of undemocratic parties and eventually lead them to seats in the parliaments,” said Khin Maung Swe, senior party member and a former spokesperson of the NLD.
The group yesterday met with Robin Lerner, counsel of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and assistant of one-time US presidential candidate, John Kerry. Lerner also met with members of the NLD and ethnic groups.
Khin Maung Swe said that the party “does not have high expectations that the elections will be fair” but was participating for “the sake of the people”.
“If one ruins the polls, there will only be a prolonging of the military ruling system. No one will be able to boycott the polls successfully,” he said.
The comments are likely to anger the NLD more; there were reported to have been fissures at the party’s senior level as it debated whether or not to participate. It eventual decision was largely down to election laws that would have forced the party to expel Suu Kyi if it wanted to run.
Another spokesperson for the NLD, Nyan Win, said that the group had told Lerner that their role in a post-election Burma was uncertain because “political changes could still occur”.
“With this current situation and the political environment, free and fair elections will not be possible. The army in the constitution has given itself the leading role in politics and we could not accept that,” he said.
“Also there was another factor for our decision [to boycott elections] – we couldn’t expel our members, including the party leader, who are being politically detained. [Lerner] said she understood our situation.”
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Khin Mg Swe and his party are basically not equipped with democratic principles and practice.
Now will they have a chance to do anything in opposition to the junta? The indications are that they will not. They are even finding it difficult to rally any support from the people, even to support itself. Fat chnce.
U Win Tin has said the whys and wherefores of the boycott. Now, it only remains to see if the whole country is behind the active, but unregistered, party. I do not represent NLD, being not even a member of that party. I have never gone anywhere near them. But I want to say that NLD is the people’s party, member or not.
Boycott is one particular way of opposition to, and rendering non-recognition of, the election even if it comes about in 2010.
Free Aung San Suu Kyi for the G20 next meeting
China North Industries Corp. show to the G20 leaders the real face of China.
A leading Chinese weapons manufacturer, China North Industries Corp., signed a cooperation pact with Aung San Suu Kyi jailor’s country to develop a copper mining project. It is a military regime since 1962 and is now one of the world’s worst human rights violators. International criticism has not succeeded to free detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
With Thailand and Singapore, China continues to seek Aung San Suu Kyi jailor’s country natural resources. Any product out of Aung San Suu Kyi jailor’s country should be identify as such by law. Any country doing business with it should feel the opinion of the world on its shoulder. The weight of one ordinary citizen promoting democracy can be as light as a feather but a ton of feathers weights as much as a ton of lead.
The NDF, as well as any other political candidates who are foolishly willing to assist the SPDC in their sham elections will at best end up as pet parakeets in gilded cages.
The comforts of office and the faux status of silent puppethood are prime motives for their betrayal of the democracy movement which they are willing to sell-out as cheaply as the regime sells Burma’s stolen natural resources.
Their misguided actions will cause millions of their countrymen to suffer economic and moral poverty, political oppression, and ethnic/class persecution for decades to come.
Everything that is bad, will grow worse.
Everyone who suffers, will suffer more.
Everyone who is poor, will have to work harder for less.
Everyone who dies under the regime yoke, will have to be replaced by someone who is still alive.
With so many of Burma’s favored ethnic people having too much time to think about how bad things have become under Burma’s “flourishing disciplined democracy” the manufacture of 50 million-plus regime yokes will become Burma’s number one growth industry.
The SPDC’s Burma Army shock-troops have spent the last twenty years developing methods of population control, minority persecution, and extortion behind the Bamboo Curtain, and we will soon find out that North Korea-style nationwide population control is the true agenda of “flourishing disciplined democracy”.
Meanwhile, the FEW, the puppets of the regime, will learn how to profit from the blood, sweat, and tears shed by the MANY whom they have betrayed.
What the NDF has been doing is Meaningless and Subservient!!!
The NLD achieved almost nothing in the past 20 years. They including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are still holding the same strategy of applying pressure to the junta through sanctions and pressure from international community, which has yielded almost no results but more poverty to the people.
I understand that the NLD members have been sacrificing and trying a lot for the sake of people and I do respect them. However, they should not blame some of their colleagues for not sticking to the old strategy and trying to take a new approach.
WE SHOULD NOT CRITIZIZE NEW POLITICAL PARTIES IN MYANMAR BECAUSE THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE A PATH DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE NLD HAS TAKEN FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS WITHOUT ANY SUCCESS!!!