Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Government & Human
Rights
'I would not say that it is a democracy yet,' said Tomás Ojea Quintana, the
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar in an interview in Octo-
ber 2013, 'but it is a civilian government that is progressively gaining re-
spect.' Here we look at who is part of that government; what separates it
from the military dictatorship in charge for the previous 50 years; and how,
if at all, it is tackling the country's poor record on human rights.
David Steinberg's
Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know
sheds light on many
aspects of the country's complex situation via a series of concise and understandable
Q&As on history and culture.
Political Scene
They may have been, in the UN's words, 'deeply flawed', but there's no arguing that the
2010 elections changed the political landscape in Myanmar. After decades of military dic-
tatorship, there is now a quasi-civilian reform-minded government and many new political
parties, including ones which represent ethnic minorities. By-elections in 2012 also saw
participation by the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 43 of 44 parlia-
mentary seats it contested, confirming it as the country's main opposition force.
The 2008 constitution contains provisions to stop attempts to prosecute former general
Than Shwe and other top military brass for crimes committed under their watch.
The USDP & Military
Over the last 50 years, Myanmar's rulers (aka the military) have adopted a variety of
guises. They started out as the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in 1962, which
morphed into the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) in 1988, which was
then renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in 1997. In the run-up to
the 2010 election many in the upper echelons of the military, including President Thein
Sein, resigned their posts to become candidates for the military-backed Union Solidarity
and Development Party (USDP), which, to nobody's surprise, was the victor at the polls.
