Elections

Since the elections in Burma should be happening within the next month or two, I feel it is an intersting topic to look at, as it should be a much-publicized event. After gaining independance from the the UK in 1948, Burma enjoyed relative peace and stability. In 1962, there was a military takeover, and Burma changed drastically. The government shifted from a civilian led goverment to a military dictatorship whose ultimate goal was to achieve the "Burmese Way of Socialism." During this time, Burma's economy and standard of living dropped immensely. For example, in 1960, Burma averaged to export about 1.8 million tons of rice per year, as opposed to 1995, where they only exported 400,000 tons. Additionally, in 1996, only 38% of Burma had access to safe water, as opposed to neighbouring Thailand, where 86% of people had access to safe water (Kyi, Findlay, Maung, Oo, 2000). On August 8, 1988 there was an uprising and thousands of civilians were killed, and General Than Shwe and Saw Maung took over the government, istituting the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the new ruling political power. Since this time, the SPDC has been responsible for an infinite number of human rights abuses, as well as strict control of the media and communications in Burma.

The current regime has proposed a "7 step path to democracy" and added this to a reformed constitution that was revised in 2008. The sixth step of the path to democracy is to elect leaders, and after that, the seventh is to build a democracy with these leaders. Many believe that this election coming up, the first in 20 years, (scheduled for November 7), is just for show to gain the support of the international community. The two main issues that are of concern are 1) pressure being put on citizens to make the "right choice" and 2) allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in the election. The issue of Aung San Suu Kyi is a complicated one, but you can read more about it here(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100813/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_election). More or less, in 1990 in the last election, her party won by a landslide, but the results were not recognized by the SPDC, and she has been placed on house arrest since (Haacke, J, 2010). Her party has decided to boycott the election this year as a result of their not being allowed to participate.

I will be posting more news related to the elections as they approach.