Yangon - Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe said
the military's political 'road map' to democracy was leading towards
a 'new nation,' amid reports that two pro-military parties were being
set up to contest the 2010 polls, officials said Saturday.
'A new nation is now very close despite some countries putting
pressure on us,' Than Shwe said Friday in a speech to the annual mass
meeting of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA),
held in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital situated about 350
kilometres north of Yangon.
The USDA was formed on September 15, 1993, as a popular support
base for the military.
The association now claims to have 24 million members out of
Myanmar's 56 million population, and has been cultivated to become
the military's political arm for contesting elections.
'We will form two political parties for the 2010 elections,'
said a USDA member, who asked to remain anonymous.
The movement is an essential competent in the military's plans to
introduce 'democracy' to Myanmar.
Initial steps included drafting a new constitution having it
approved by a national referendum in May.
Both processes were dubbed shams by many international observers
because the charter-drafting process was controlled by the military,
and the referendum supervised by the army resulted in an absurdly
high approval rate exceeding 90 per cent.
The referendum drew intense criticism from Western democracies as
it was pushed through in mid-May in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis
that devastated the Irrawaddy delta region, leaving almost 140,000
people dead or missing.
The constitution has cemented the military's dominant role in
future governments by guaranteeing it a high percentage of appointed
senators who can block all controversial legislation.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when army
strongman General Ne Win overthrew the country's first
post-independence prime minister U Nu with a coup.
Although the military bowed to international pressure to hold an
election in 1990, it refused to acknowledge the outcome.
The National League for Democracy, the party of Aung San Suu Kyi,
won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the military junta blocked it
from taking office by claiming that a new constitution would be
needed before civilian rule could work.
The junta took 18 years to come up with a new charter, and Suu Kyi
- a Nobel peace laureate - has spent 13 of those years under house
arrest.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story