It is this Sunday that pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention is due to be reviewed by the Myanmar’s military junta. However, the junta on Friday extended another year of Suu Kyi’s house arrest. And whether the United Nations or the world leaders from the United States and European countries will resound their voice for Suu Kyi’s release, many analysts believe that the condition will be at standstill.
“The military regime considers her dangerous and a key rival for power, so unless someone takes that idea of Aung San Suu Kyi as the enemy away, I don’t think she will be released,” Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo was quoted by the Agence France-Presse as saying.
The military junta extending another one year house arrest of Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader, has shown the unwillingness of Myanmar’s military ruling to resolve the country’s political deadlock. With Myanmar’s Prime Minister Soe Win having the health problem as he is now in Singapore for his ill treatment, Suu Kyi’s house arrest extension perhaps is a preventive means of holding up the power. Not to mention last few weeks arrest of 60 activists who wish to see their leader freed. Is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is really a threat to the Win’s government?
Nang Charm Tong, a Burmese activist who insists to call her country Burma (the military junta changed the name Burma to Myanmar in the early 1990s), says that the military regime indeed consider Suu Kyi as a threat.
Despite the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize recipient triumphed the majority vote in Burma’s last election in 1990 and her party won the majority of the seats in Parliament, the military regime was accused her of causing chaos and put her under house arrest. Undoubtedly, Suu Kyi’s detention is the military junta’s political strategy, but her democracy agenda is what the military junta actually fears of, that the pro-democracy leader will hinder their plan of making a new constitution…and corruption of course.
Due to the government’s corruption, the military regime has allowed different groups to get involved with the large drugs production and trafficking. The government also makes alliances with such drugs producers and traffickers.
By looking at the former Indonesian President Soeharto dictatorship as the ruling model, the military regime has been trying for the past 14 years to make a new constitution. It is a sad fact, though, that there are people who are known to be the international drugs traffickers have involved in drafting the constitution.
Since 1962 that military junta has ruled the nation without democratic destination. And despite high pressure from the West and more sanction imposed by both the United States and European Union countries, the military ruling does not seem to react with the international demand to have Myanmar change toward being better democracy nation.
Nevertheless, the country’s military regime has made some changes. It was Burma where Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was resoundingly victorious in the 1990 general elections. However, the country’s military junta nullified the results and refused to hand over power. A year earlier, the junta had changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar.
The junta can change any name it likes, including that of the capital from Rangoon to Yangon, but it is ironic that the regime cannot change the human rights condition there. And whether it is Burma or Myanmar, the land undoubtedly needs international help and attention. In order to maintain its hold on power, the regime has placed Suu Kyi under house arrest and confined many of her followers. The international community has generally condemned these moves, but little has been done to restore democracy to the country.
Political detentions may be part of the political game, but human rights, socio-cultural issues and the economy are the most important domestic matters requiring attention. So what has the military regime been doing?
Let’s take a look at the following grim facts about Myanmar over the last 14 years of military ruling: increasing numbers of refugees, rising transnational crime, as well as the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Not to mention that Myanmar has the world’s highest number of child soldiers and is the biggest producer of synthetic amphetamine drugs. And with prolonged conflict involving the minority ethnics like Karen and Shan, it is definitely a failure of a regime.
This Sunday, May 27th, also marks the 17th anniversary of the victory of the NLD, the party that was supposed to be the stairs to take Suu Kyi to lead Burma. And if freeing Suu Kyi is impossible, freeing Burmese from being the victims of human rights abuse should at least alert the military regime.