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AFP-Myanmar minister warns of moves (r)



Subject: Re: AFP-Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms

Thank you Tin Kyi for the posting of this article.  Some of the statements by
David Abel of SPDCcannot be allowed to go unchallenged.

TIN KYI wrote:

> Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms
> SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (AFP) - A senior Myanmar minister said here Friday that the
> country's military junta will hold democratic elections as promised but
> warned Yangon would not tolerate a western-style political system.

David Abel must be going senile.  Has he forgotten who won the elections in 1990
and what happened aferward.

>  Brigadier General David Abel said dissidents at home considered democracy a
> "commodity" and wanted to short-circuit the reform process.

A commodity is something you buy and sell with money.  The Burmese people, at
least 75% and a lot more if it were not for the bullying by the brave uniformed
men with guns, have paid for a chance at democracy with their lives an blood.
And 32 years is not exactly a short time.

> "Political reforms will come, definitely they will come because we have
> promised the people," Abel told AFP at the sidelines of the Association of
> Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade ministers meeting

"Because we have promised".  What is their record of integrity?  A overwhelming
lack of credibility sits like a bad smell over the whole regime.  It
contaminates all those who collaborate with them in their unsavoury deeds.

> ."We have promised them a market economy, we have promised them a democratic
> system, we'll deliver but we want to deliver in good shape, good form.

And in good time - perhaps next life time?

> "If we just say this is democracy, you take it, the fellows don't know what it
> is and they'll misuse it," said Abel, a member of the Myanmar junta officially
> known as the State Peace and Development Council.

How patronising!  There is no debate  how "total" the power of the military is
and its blatant brutal use  in suppressing people's opinions and dissent.  One
great talent Abel, and a great ABELITY too, is the capacity to tell bald face
lies.

> He said that democratic elections in Myanmar would be part of reforms to be
> introduced after the fourth and final consultations with the people on drawing
> up a national constitution.

The practice of democracy begins with the inclusion of all voices and positions
in the actual drawing up of the constitution, in an atmosphere free from fear of
reprisals.  It is patently obvious that the constitution we will get from Ne Win
cum SLORC cum SPDC is one that will be stacked in favour of the military
presence in parliament - just like the one in Indonesia.  See what it did to
Timor and continues to do in Aceh, Ambon and West Irian Jaya.

> Abel said the NLD had to pay the price for walking out of the national
> convention that was aimed at devising the country's constitution.
> "When they broke away, NLD had the largest representation in the national
> convention. They walked out but the rest of the bodies in the convention
> remained. "This makes a big difference. They thought when they walked out, the
> rest
> will follow. Now they say they want a national dialogue, they can say what
> they want in the convention. It is a democracy, and everything is voted for,"
> he said.

Again a bald faced attempt to side track the issue.  If everything is voted, how
come the overwhelming vote for the NLD in 1990 was not and is still not
respected by the regime.  No excuses will suffice and there is ample evidence of
how this time (1990 - now) has been used to plunder the wealth of country,
eliminate opposition, wipe out minority groups, exploit powerless and poor
people and rape and pillage at will.

Statements made from SPDC are an insult to the paper they are written and the
ears that have to hear them.  The only way the truth can be know is to allow a
diverse group of observers into the country and give them safe and easy access
to all areas of the country and its people. No intimidation, no harrassment and
no excuses.  If they (SPDC) are capable of refusing a dying man a visa to visit
his heroic and beloved wife one last time then I leave it to your (people of the
world) imagination what they (SPDC) are capable of.

Despite all of this I still live in hope that there is a thread of humanity that
exists in the regime and that it is redeemable.  I live in hope that one day
there will be the ability for diversity to exist in the land of golden pagodas
and paddy fields.

I am concerned by the cynicism, anger and rage that I feel so personally. I have
begun to question how all these terrible things can exist out there and not in
me.  Where in my life am I a tyrant, one sided, authoritarian and
uncompassionate, refusing to hear others, seeking only to satisfy my selfish
needs?   I don't relish the thought of such discovery.  Yet if I speak for
diversity to exist in the world out there I know I must allow diversity to exist
within myself - my life.  This is a  democracy that I would like to breathe and
live.

With myitta and cetana
Trevor


TIN KYI posted this:

 Myanmar minister warns of moves to short circuit reforms
SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (AFP) - A senior Myanmar minister said here Friday that the
country's military junta will hold democratic elections as promised but
warned Yangon would not tolerate a western-style political system.
Declining to comment on Friday's storming of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok
by armed men, Brigadier General David Abel said dissidents at home
considered democracy a "commodity" and wanted to short-circuit the reform
process.

"Political reforms will come, definitely they will come because we have
promised the people," Abel told AFP at the sidelines of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade ministers meeting which he was
attending.

"We have promised them a market economy, we have promised them a democratic
system, we'll deliver but we want to deliver in good shape, good form.

"If we just say this is democracy, you take it, the fellows don't know what
it is and they'll misuse it," said Abel, a member of the Myanmar junta
officially known as the State Peace and Development Council.

He said that democratic elections in Myanmar would be part of reforms to be
introduced after the fourth and final consultations with the people on
drawing up a national constitution.

"If they (dissidents) want to short cut, if they want an engine that they
like, they say they want an American engine, we say: No, we use our own
engine to pull our (train).

"But we are going to the same destination. How can they impose such a thing
on us?."

A group of 12 armed men, believed to be exiled Myanmar activists, stormed
the Myanmar embassy in downtown Bangkok Friday, taking an estimated 20 staff
hostage.

A number of exiled Myanmar activist groups use Thailand as the base for
their efforts to topple Yangon junta, making regular calls for democracy and
the convening of a parliament elected in 1990 polls.

The polls were won in a landslide by the National League for Democracy (NLD)
led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military have refused
to hand over power.

Abel said the NLD had to pay the price for walking out of the national
convention that was aimed at devising the country's constitution.

"When they broke away, NLD had the largest representation in the national
convention. They walked out but the rest of the bodies in the convention
remained.

"This makes a big difference. They thought when they walked out, the rest
will follow. Now they say they want a national dialogue, they can say what
they want in the convention. It is a democracy, and everything is voted
for," he said.