AP

Posted: 2008-02-10 09:44:58

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Military-ruled Myanmar’s surprise announcement that it will hold a vote on a new constitution this May and a general election in 2010 was criticized Sunday as too little, too late by the regime’s critics abroad and at home.

The official announcements late Saturday of the constitutional referendum and the election were the government’s first-ever moves to set dates for stages of its so-called road map to democracy.

But the ruling junta’s critics – who claim that the long-delayed road map is designed to perpetuate military rule, not promote democracy – pointed out that that the process has so far excluded detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other independent political voices.

“We’re frankly very skeptical. We’re not persuaded that this is anything more than a cynical sham,” said Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

“Any genuine movement towards democracy or respect for human rights can only be done in cooperation with the international community and also with the political leaders in Burma,” he said, using the former name for Myanmar.

Britain earlier voiced similar sentiments and called for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Britain and Australia, like the United States and other Western nations, impose political and economic sanctions on the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Even Japan, which leans toward engaging the military government rather than isolating it, expressed disappointment that the junta had not gone further.

“We credit that the Myanmar government showed a timeframe for the democratization process by announcing its plans to hold the constitutional referendum and the election,” said a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement.

“However, the process does not allow participation by Aung San Suu Kyi and other (opposition) parties,” the statement said. “Japan believes that a true dialogue participated in by all parties is crucial in achieving Myanmar’s national reconciliation.”

Myanmar’s last election took place in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power to the winning party – Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy or NLD. Since then the country has been in a political deadlock.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in 1988, after the army crushed earlier pro-democracy demonstrations and the current junta took power.

Guidelines for a new constitution were adopted by a military-managed national convention last year, and a government-appointed commission is now drafting the document.

Suu Kyi’s party reacted cautiously to Saturday’s announcements, noting the lack of detail on how the referendum would be carried out.

“The announcement is vague, incomplete and strange,” said NLD party spokesman Nyan Win.

Reaction was mixed in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, where there was little show of enthusiasm for the plans.

“I have no faith in the government-sponsored referendum,” said lawyer Tun Wai, 62, who charged that the junta has “never kept their promises.”

“It is not clear how the referendum will be held. If they allow us to vote freely, I will definitely say ‘no’ to the constitution, which will only further entrench the military and that guarantees very little right to the minorities,” said Tun Wai, who is also a politician from the Rakhine ethnic minority.

Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups, some of whom have been seeking greater autonomy for decades, complained that the constitution’s guidelines give the central government greater powers even as the minorities have been seeking more administrative and judicial autonomy in their home areas.

“I am not interested in their referendum because the results are known already,” said Mar Mar Aye, a 48-year-old noodle salad vendor.

Some conceded, however, that the plans had a few merits.

“I will vote for the constitution as it is better to have a constitution than not having any at all,” said 57-year-old university lecturer Tint Lwin.

A clause in the draft guidelines guarantees the military 25 percent of the seats in the country’s parliament, with the representatives nominated by the commander in chief.

The guidelines also disqualify presidential candidates who are “entitled to the rights and privileges of a … foreign country.” The clause would bar Suu Kyi because her late husband was British and she thus has some of the privileges of British nationality.

The international community increased pressure on the junta to hasten political reform after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September, killing at least 31 people according to a U.N. estimate. Thousands more were detained.

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02/10/08 09:42 EST