Is Myanmar heading towards democracy? On last Saturday, the country’s military regime has announced that it would ask voters to approve a new constitution in May that will allow the country to go for democratic elections in 2010. Last October the junta had appointed a 54-member drafting commission headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the attorney general to frame the constitution of the country.
Can the citizens of Myanmar expect to see their country return to the arms of democracy after nearly 46 years of military rule since 1962 or will the country see a replay of the 1990 electoral farce when the generals annulled the election results and detained pro democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi? A spokesperson of the National League for Democracy has dismissed the announcement as ‘vague, incomplete and strange’. Strange indeed is the announcement. The military generals, steeped in corruption are unlikely to let the reigns of the country slip away from their hands.
In such a situation what will be the countenance of election in Myanmar? It at the most will see some sort of a local body that would require the military to approve its policies to make them workable. With the junta coming down heavily on all forms of media including monitoring of blogsites, it is unlikely that it will easily allow any form of freedom of expression that would go against their interest. The new constitution is being drafted by stooges of the junta who will allow that much of democratic rights may be attaching with them more restrictions as the junta might find it fit.
