AsiaCalling

Download Burma’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been officially barred from voting in the forthcoming general election.

The Nobel Peace Laureate’s name is missing from the electoral rolls posted in the district of the commercial capital, Rangoon, where she has been detained in a lakeside villa for 14 of the past 20 years.

Laws passed governing the election set for November 7 had already effectively barred her from taking part and her party, the National League for Democracy, decided not to contest the election.

Democracy activist Khin Ohmar believes it was the right and only decision to make.

She is the coordinator of Burma Partnership - a Burma-led regional civil society network for democracy, peace and justice in Burma and was our second guest at the 2010 Asia Calling forum.

“This so-called election is not an election. The three basic freedoms - freedom of expression and association and freedom of assembly are not being given to the people. Also the right to stand in the election is also not being given freely to the people. Yes, political parties are allowed to be formed but there are such unreasonable restrictions being placed on them that the intention of the military is that there will be no real opposition that emerges from these elections.”

Q. But by having this election is it not the Burmese military admitting they need legitimacy from the people. Is that not a crack in their hold on power?

“We want elections but what we want is real elections that are at least somewhat free and fair to start the process. But if you look at what is happening now they are nowhere near free and fair or credible. It’s actually the constitution that we cannot accept because the constitution will not only further entrench the military rule but it will not allow any political space post-election for us to move into the next step so it’s like another coup in the civilian phase.”

Q. And you don’t think there is any way opposition voices or ethnic voices can move within this election game for their benefit and get inside the system to create more freedom in the future?

“I am quite sceptical about that because if you look right now how many candidates the military has compared to the candidates from the independent parties - it’s like 10 times different. Yes you will see some of the independent parties win some seats - like the national democratic front or the ethnic party - but they will be a tiny minority in the parliament.  The vast majority will be 25 percent that goes automatically to the military and the rest will go to the military backed civilian uniform party - but when I say the military backed party they really are the military, it’s the same thing in a different bottle.”

Q. And you don’t think it’s a good idea for countries like Indonesia or Thailand to send election monitors into the country?

“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea knowing how the military government always manipulates the international and domestic audience and the process. What I can foresee is that on November 7th they will not need to do any election fraud because everything has been fraud through out the process. There will be nothing to monitor. The monitoring team will be sent to see some polling stations where people are lining up and voting and everything will be peaceful - they will have to say something and they will have to say that they have seen no violence and no fraud. That’s just what the military wants but that’s really bad not just for the movement but for Indonesia and the other countries because they already know that this is a flawed process no where near free or fair and knowingly you are legitimatizing their election by saying something about it.”