Burmese state media contrasted the country’s reforms with the Arab Spring on Thursday, saying the nominally civilian government would avoid bloodshed in its transition to democracy.

The comment piece in the New Light of Myanmar also said the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan showed how “errors of strategy” condemn people to a “cycle of tears”.

“Despite the poetic title, [the] Arab Spring is the spring painted in blood and is supposed to end with troubles and poverty. What resulted from it are only splits between ethnic groups,” the English-language official paper said.

Burma will avoid this thanks to its “harmonious” changes and the “genuine goodwill” of the former and current governments that “helped the country walk on the road to democracy in [a] stable and peaceful manner”.

The country has become a democracy “without suffering grief as in the above-mentioned countries thanks to this generosity,” the paper said, highlighting recent talks and ceasefire deals with ethnic rebel groups.

After half a century of military rule, Burma’s junta dissolved itself in March last year and transferred its powers to a supposedly civilian government that is dominated by ex-army generals.

The move was part of a seven-step “roadmap” to bring about “disciplined democracy” that was first presented by the junta in 2003.

To the surprise of the international community, the new regime has undertaken a series of sweeping reforms, most notably allowing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to re-enter politics and participate in by-elections set for April.

Popular protests and uprisings are rare in the authoritarian country formerly known as Burma, where pro-democracy rallies in 1988 and 2007 were brutally crushed by the junta.