Myanmar still in SLORC grip

Eight years have elapsed since the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took power in Myanmar after a violent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement on Sept. 18, 1988. But nothing has changed so far in terms of Myanmar striding towards the promised 'multi-party democracy.'

Instead, the powers-that-be in Yangon look set to stay in power for a long time, devising every possible excuse and measure to allow the military to continue its illegitimate three-decade- old rule, which began with a coup in 1962.

The SLORC generals have the delusions that they are the ones who have saved the country from anarchy and that it is the opposition led by pro-democracy leader and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that poses a threat to Myanmar's peace and stability.

Worse still is SLORC's deception of 45 million Myanmarese as well as members of the international community, whom they believe buy all their claims. From the very beginning, SLORC claimed the need to intervene, by the use of force, to prevent what they perceived to be the communist-instigated political turmoil and disorder.

They made a pledge to transfer power to a civilian government that would have taken power after a general election. When the poll tally appeared to favor Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) instead of a military-sanctioned political party, SLORC quickly disowed the electoral process and declared the May 1990 election a mere forum where people were to be selected for the drafting of a new constitution.

So far, SLORC has continued to ignore and defy constant international outcry and condemnation against its heavy-handed rule and policies. The Myanmarese generals have, instead, proclaimed their right and the necessity to continue staying in power by trying to justify the need for economic prosperity at the expense of political freedom.

In fact, foreign investment that continues to pour into Myanmar, despite Suu Kyi's calls for its suspension, only helps sustain the regime and harden its intransigence to compromise. Like dictators anywhere, who are aware of their trump cards, SLORC has smartly exploited Myanmar's abundant natural resources to draw international recognition and legitimacy to its existence.

It's sad that instead of restraints, economic powers -- Western and Asian alike -- deliberately buy SLORC's claims to suit their own economic interests and benefits, thereby indirectly condoning the illegitimate mandate denied SLORC as expressed in the May 1990 national suffrage.

It's equally sorrowful that SLORC has by far been accorded an undeserved reward instead of punishment for all its crimes against the Myanmarese people these past eight years.

-- The Nation, Bangkok