“Burmese generals throw in the towel”
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That's the headline of an article in today Times:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article4611511.ece
Faced with an overwhelming vote against them and for a change of government, rather than rejecting the result and deciding to rule by force against the democratically-expressed will of the majority (as some of the critics of our position say is inevitable in such circumstances) the ruling clique in Burma has decided to accept the result and hand over political control to the party that won the election.
There's another a big difference with what happened in Chile. The opposition there, despite winning the election, did not have majority support (only between 30 and 40 percent). In Burma the level of support was more than two times that. Only a ruling minority bent on committing suicide would try to risk defying a hostile majority of that size. Ceausescu tried that in Rumania. Within a week he was hanging from a lamppost (or was it facing a firing squad?)
They say Chile, We say Burma … and East Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc, etc
ALB wrote:Ceausescu tried that in Rumania. Within a week he was hanging from a lamppost (or was it facing a firing squad?)Facing a firing squad. It was another fascist, Mussolini, and his lover Claretta Petacci, who were hung upside down from a steel girder in a Milan square after also being shot.
I believe, though, the constitution will give the Generals control of defence and police ministeries, so they haven't fled the field, just seized a redoubt; however, as Erdogan has shown in Turkey (a former bastion of Military power) the attritional edge is with the politicians…
Our blog has already commented upon the Myanmar elections….no change. The Generals are still in charge.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/11/myanmar-elections-no-change.htmlWhat the blog omitted was the extent that the military elite are fully involved and integrated with the the commercial part of civilian life. They are the capitalist class in Myanmar and have ensured that the crucial elements of the State remain completely under their power as the blog and YMS point out.
An article that i think reflects much more the more optimistic thinking of ALB and YMS (apologies in advance if i am misrepresenting what i judge to be your overview) that the election was indeed a step forward on the road to democracy. http://fpif.org/burma-democracy-with-an-asterisk/But my own opinion is that the new NLD government will come to a fairly amicable and pragmatic understanding with the military as already indicated in the above article. While the NLD are on a leash held by the army, i doubt very much the NLD can put to a muzzle on the military. But who knows…events may change my opinion…but heeding the example of Myanmar's neighbour, Thailand… the military will always be pulling the puppets strings from the shadows and steps in via a coup whenever they think it necessary…Why should we think it will be any different in Myanmar?
The ruling-class don't have to win an election to appear popular as long as there is a complicit pliant media.I think what is so compelling about the downfall of Ceaușescu is the rude awakening he and his deeply unpopular fraudulent and arrogant wife got. He pathetically tried to escape to save his own skin and ended up with a taste of his own medicine that he must have meted out to many political critics during his rule.If any readers are unfamiliar this is compelling viewinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLfZWGOZ03Q&t=20m43s
A new parliament but the Rohingya are still outsidershttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/uncertainty-looms-myanmar-muslims-151115101345438.htmlHow long before the first acts of resistance by the Rohingya take place and then it will be once more the headlines of …muslim terrorism…
Quote:A Myanmar military offensive against ethnic rebels in the country's east has uprooted more than 10,000 people, a rights group says.The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has accused the army of bombing schools and Buddhist temples, firing on civilians, and raping women in Shan state…"We are very concerned that there has been no public condemnation by the international community about these war crimes and these attacks on civilians," rights activist Charm Tong told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.To be clear, those atrocities were committed before the latest election but will there be any justice delivered by the new government?
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