UnTRUSTWORTHY

…

_ by Min Khin Kyaw

I don’t believe Burmese people will be able to reject either the coming constitutional referendum or its result. And they won’t be able to defeat the junta in the same way as the Venezuelans defeated their president. There is no way to defeat the junta as the voting system will be controlled for the advantage of the junta.

The National Convention of the junta should be an example - nobody, especially the NLD, could say anything despite knowing it was a sham. Likewise, the referendum will be done in similar conditions - the truth is people do not accept junta’s constitution but they will have to accept the result imposed upon them.

In 1990 election, the people could surprise the military because at that time junta hadn’t learnt the mind of the people. Now everything is quite different. We won’t get a fair referendum. Or people won’t even be able to have a good look of what they’re going to vote for.

Also the National League for Democracy NLD probably won’t get a chance to contest in 2010 election. Two years can be enough to destry NLD so that it won’t be ready for next election. Even if the junta allow it to participate, the police and the thugs can clip its wings. We can imagine this. Many of the NLD candidates could be arrested for various reasons right before the election as the NLD’s MPs elected in the 1990s were arrested. Even now, the junta has been ignoring the United Nation’s call - to release all political prisoners.

We all expected that we’d be able to argue against the constitution once National Convention was finished. But nothing happened and the majority of activists have been silent. The problem is we don’t have anything ready, such as a draft parallel constitution that is recognised by the UN and international leaders, to rival against the constitution made by National Convention. We were also unprepared when the saffron revolution occurred last year in Burma. I don’t believe our political leaders will be ready for anything by 2010 when junta is going to hold fresh new elections.

We need clear vision, decisiveness and strong trustworthy leadership among the top leaders of our democracy movement.