Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One of SLORC's first major acts after crushing the 8888 Uprising was to officially change
elections in the country since 1960, designed to elect a quasi-parliamentary body which
would draft a new constitution and provide a semblance of democracy. The generals, hav-
ing indulged in widespread electoral manipulation and media control and placed all major
opposition leaders (including Aung San Suu Kyi) under arrest, were thus horribly surprised
when the
elections of May 1990
provided a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD,
winning 392 of the 492 seats available and trouncing the SLORC-sponsored National Unity
Party (the successor to the BSPP). SLORC refused to recognize the election result.
Than Shwe
In April 1992 SLORC leader General Saw Maung “resigned” on health reasons - although
rumours suggest he was effectively deposed by rival generals worried by his apparent will-
ingness to hand over power to the NLD - and was succeeded by the second of Myanmar's
twoinfamousmilitarydespots,
ThanShwe
.ThanShweprovedanaptsuccessortoNeWin-
similarlyruthlessandrepressive,andtotallylackinginpersonalcharisma.Areclusiveleader,
herarelymadepublicappearancesorspoketothepressandwasbelievedtotakemanymajor
decisions based on the advice of his
astrologers
.
He also enjoyed the trappings of wealth -
a leaked video of his daughter Thandar Shwe's wedding in 2006 caused widespread outrage
due to its ostentatious extravagance, with Thandar Shwe herself wearing diamonds worth
millions of dollars at a time when (as now) most Burmese were still living in abject poverty.
Than Shwe relaxed some state controls on the economy (although without any significant
beneficial effect), cracked down on corruption and, in 1997, led Myanmar into ASEAN (the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Ceasefires were also negotiated with Kachin and
Shan rebels (although fighting against the Kayin would continue until 2012). Despite these
modest reforms, spending on the army continued to soar even while investment in health and
education remained among the lowest in the world. The junta was also accused of increas-
ingly widespread and serious
human rights abuses
: as many as a million Burmese were
shipped off to rural labour camps and forced to work unpaid on government projects, while
there are also reports of hundreds, possibly thousands, of summary executions.
In2003,
KyinNyunt
,the(relatively)moderateprimeministeroftheregime-nowrenamed
the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
- announced a seven-step “roadmap to
democracy”. A subsequent power struggle with Than Shwe saw him arrested - possibly on
account of his apparent willingness to reach an agreement with the NLD - and stripped of
power. Most surprising was the sudden announcement, in November 2005, that the national
capital was to be moved to
Naypyitaw
- a huge new project dreamt up by Than Shwe, cost-
ing billions of dollars and confirming, in the eyes of many observers, the true scale of the
generals' out-of-control megalomania.
