Shock tactics in Burma

http://www.bangkokpost.com/151108_News/15Nov2008_news07.php

What started as an outcry against sudden, ill-thought-out fuel price increases by the Burmese junta in August last year, culminated in thousands of people massing in central Rangoon a month later chanting "Democracy, democracy!" and demanding an end to 45 years of military rule and economic decline.


Their chants were answered by weapons fire and a brutal crackdown which left more than 30 people dead, at least a hundred missing and thousands in prison. This week the dissidents, some already detained for more than a year, learned the price they must pay for that protest.


Fourteen leading Burmese activists from the 88 Generation Students group, including five women, were each sentenced to a mind-numbing 65 years in jail. Nine others received the same severe sentence and five monks were given more than six years each for "disturbing public tranquillity".



Such harsh prison terms were the latest in a series of lengthy sentences the Burmese authorities have imposed in recent weeks as they slammed cell doors shut on artists, journalists and lawyers. Well-known labour activist Su Su Nway received 12-and-a-half years in prison for putting up anti-government posters while her colleague was given eight. Blogger Nay Phone Latt, 28, who posted a cartoon of military leader Than Shwe and possessed a banned video, was jailed for 20 years. Three defence lawyers were imprisoned for between four and six months for contempt of court after complaining of unfair treatment, and four other defence lawyers were barred from representing their clients.


The list is as depressing as it is long.


These are brutal shock tactics. Clearly the junta is determined to ensure that the elections it plans for 2010 as part of its "roadmap to democracy" suffer no disruption and that the population will be sufficiently cowed not to repeat what happened in 1990. That was when it organised multi-party elections but refused to honour the results after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won an overwhelming victory. It also shows there is little likelihood of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate being released anytime soon from the house arrest she has endured for more than 13 out of the past 19 years.


Now that the junta has disqualified Daw Suu Kyi from participating in elections because her late husband was a foreigner, prolonging her detention still further seems illogical and cruel. Surely the authorities must realise that by continually courting international condemnation and inflaming public opinion, they are taking a greater risk than that entailed in granting this courageous lady the freedom which is her right. Such behaviour has already led to the country being ostracised by much of the world, condemned to economic sanctions and regarded as Asean's greatest embarrassment.


The onus is on the junta to refute the widely-held belief that the 2010 elections merely raise false hopes and are a sham designed to further entrench the military in power. If the generals would truly have us believe that they intend to switch the country to a democratic system, then packing the prisons with a new generation of political prisoners is hardly the best way to start.


How refreshing it would be if Asean would look beyond smokescreens about roadmaps and constructive engagement, and do some serious table-thumping.


There could be no better place for a statesman-like discussion of the benefits Burma would gain by instituting genuinely positive reforms than at the Asean summit in Chiang Mai next month. It would be worth the effort.