Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The 2010 election resulted in over 80% of MPs coming from the military or pro-milit-
ary parties; out of 440 seats in the lower house of parliament the USDP hold 213 and the
military have a block of 110. No wonder there was much skepticism about whether the
new government would be anything different from the old. However, as events have
partly demonstrated, it has been surprisingly far from business as usual in Myanmar in
recent years. Perhaps the most unexpected evolution has been that of Thein Sein, de-
scribed by
Time
as 'Burma's own Gorbachev', for spearheading a path of economic and
political reform that has included reconciliation with the NLD.
Not everyone has been convinced. 'If international law was applied to Burma, then
Thein Sein could be standing trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague,' said
Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK, following the president's visit to the
UK in July 2013. The campaigning group has produced a report detailing the president's
past involvement in human rights abuses in Myanmar.
Thein Sein, who suffers from poor health, has ruled out standing for president again in
2015. His USDP colleague Shwe Mann, speaker of the lower house of parliament and
previously number three in the military junta hierarchy, has declared his intentions to run
for the post. It was also Shwe Mann who revealed at a press conference in October 2013
that former military chief Than Shwe was 'worried about things that shouldn't happen in
today's Burmese politics.'
Conventional wisdom in Myanmar still has it that military hardliners such as Than Sh-
we continue to influence government from behind the scenes; regardless of whether this
is true or not, there is a very open alliance of USDP, serving military and former govern-
ment cronies, who have little to no interest in seeing reform go any further in Myanmar.
Guy Delisle's
Burma Chronicles
is a graphic account of the year that the Canadian car-
toonist spent in Myanmar with his wife, an administrator for Medecins Sans Frontières
(MSF). It's both amusing and horrifying, covering topics ranging from electricity outages
to the heroin shooting galleries in Chinese-owned jade-mining towns.
National League for Democracy
Founded on 27 September 1988, the National League for Democracy
(
www.nldburma.org
) is the best known of Myanmar's pro-democracy organisations,
thanks to its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It won the 1990 election in a landslide victory
that the ruling junta ignored; many of its members were subsequently thrown into prison;
others went into self-imposed exile.
