Burma’s ‘Nazi Party’ plots landslide victory in Nov. 7 polls
Aug 23rd, 2010
Asia Correspondent: http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/
Election curbs guarantee a new mask for Burma’s Dictator?
Aug. 23 2010 – 10:33 pm
By – Zin Linn
Veteran politician Thu Wai, chairman of the newly formed Democratic Party (Myanmar) contesting Burma’s upcoming elections emphasized on 22 August that the ruling military-backed USDP party will easily win the most seats because challengers face financial barriers and other disadvantages.
“Creating difficulties is one of the government’s intentions, including financial difficulties,” party chairman Thu Wei told reporters at a press panel at his party office in Rangoon.
The Democratic Party has already criticized to the election authorities about intimidation of its members by special-branch police in the run up to the poll, which has been widely condemned by prodemocracy groups and the Western Democracies as a sham entrenching military rule.
Democracy leader Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the past 20 years in custody and is seen as the biggest menace to the military rule, is disqualified from the upcoming polls since she is a hostage of Senior General Than Shwe. Her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in 1990 but was never allowed to take office. It is boycotting the approaching election due to the unfair rules and regulations.
When the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was created as a reaction to the historic protests of 1988, Than Shwe was appointed as second-in-command of its 21 members. He grew to become the successor of then ruler, General Saw Maung. On 23 April, 1992, Saw Maung surprisingly resigned, referring to health grounds, and Than Shwe replaced him as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
In seeking to recreate his military autocracy as a civilian administration, the 77-year-old Senior General Than Shwe who has been the head of Burma’s 59 million people for nearly two decades, and who was named as the world’s third-worst dictator after Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe by the Foreign Affairs Journal, comes to a decision defying a major challenge – to hold sham parliamentary elections without releasing 2100 political prisoners including key opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
And while remaining in power, Than Shwe imagines surviving the rest of his days enjoying the luxurious goods he shamelessly has stolen from the state. In his thought, the well-planned polls might help him getting a new mask to avoid similar fate of his prisoner boss Ne Win, the dictator.
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Burma’s ‘Nazi Party’ plots landslide victory in Nov. 7 polls
Burma’s ‘Nazi Party’ plots landslide victory in Nov. 7 polls
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Aug. 23 2010 – 12:59 pm
By Zin Linn,
The Burmese regime has been repeatedly ignored calls for comprehensive, free and fair polls by international and regional players. The proposed 2010 elections will not lead to reconciliation among various parties in Burma or Myanmar, as the national reconciliation has been so professionally torn apart by the military junta.
The USDP – former Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) – is seen as the junta’s vehicle for parliamentary politics. The USDP appears to be copied on Indonesia’s powerful Golkar Party and claims to have 24 million members.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is planning to contest in all constituencies while other parties even cannot participate in a quarter of the seats in the upcoming November 7 election. Besides, the Burmese armed forces will take 25 percent of all seats in the upcoming parliaments so the current constitution will not grant the fundamental rights for the ethnic groups of the country.
Candidates from some registered parties have complained that special privileges are being offered to the junta-backed USDP, while other civilian parties are being hindered in their campaign processes. Politicians from some registered political parties say they know the election will be unfair, but they will participate to help expanding political space to some extent.
According to military regime’s media, the USDA was formed on 15 September 1993, and there have been 16 state and division associations, 63 district-level associations, 320 township-level associations and 14,865 village-tract associations with 24 millions members.
Senior General Than Shwe (Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces) and Vice-Senior General Maung Aye (Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces) are key Patrons of the USDA. Lt-Gen Thein Sein (Prime Minister of the State) is the chairman, Brig-Gen Htay Oo (Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation) is the Secretary-General of USDA and All Army-Commanders are the Patrons of USDA States and Divisions Level.
Hence, people see clearly that USDA or USDP is similar to Hitler’s Nazi Party. The USDA is a paramilitary terror group within the Burmese state apparatus organized by the Army generals to suppress the populace. People cannot forget the Dapeyin premeditated ambush where Aung San Suu Kyi narrowly escaped on May 30, 2003.