With just six months before the year’s end, people in Burma are none the wiser about when the military regime will hold its planned elections - the final step in its self-acclaimed democracy ‘road map’.
Those planned elections have attracted criticisms from many international governments and human rights groups.
Kurt Campbell, an US envoy in the Barack Obama administration, admitted at a news conference in Bangkok recently that his government is troubled about Burma’s planned elections. Mr. Campbell flew to Burma and held talks with leading opposition politicians, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Opposition groups say the regimes election strategy is designed to derail its rivals. Electoral laws so far have sidelined opposition politicians such as Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League of Democracy.
At a local community level in Karenni State, villagers from Shardaw Town say they are confused and are beginning to lose interest.
Htet Rah Du, a local farmer said the election is off no benefit to villagers.
“The election is only for the military regime and not for us. We don’t want to support it, but when the time comes they will force us to vote. During the referendum vote I was forced to vote ‘yes’ even though I wanted to vote ‘no’.”
Research by Amnesty International reflects what Htet Rah Du says - that ethnic villagers and political activists have been “…systematically repressed by the Myanmar authorities. Among the human rights violations perpetrated against these individuals and groups as means of repressing political activity have been arbitrary arrests, unfair trials resulting in imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial executions.”
Amnesty International says, “…as elections approach, this reality is not only of concern to Amnesty, but must be both understood and taken into account by the international community.”
Baw Reh, a transport worker, driving people between Karenni State and Rangoon says during the referendum vote villagers said ‘no’; but it was ignored by the authorities.
“They burnt our ‘no’ votes and ordered the village head to vote ‘yes’ on behalf of everyone. It will be the same again.”
Baw Reh says people are cynical about any elections planned by the regime.
“The government will win, they have planned for it.”
Htet Rah Du says people should have the right to vote freely.
“The government asks us to vote for them. We have no information about the elections or other parties. But we do want to be able to vote freely.
This point was echoed on Tuesday, this week, by Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
Mr. Zawacki said a major concern for Amnesty International, “…was the government’s promulgation two months ago of five Electoral Laws and four Bylaws. Provisions of these laws are in clear violation of human rights principles and standards, and when viewed as a group, clearly attack the three freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.”
Mr. Zawacki said, “…these rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and are indispensible to elections.”
Htet Rah Du says villagers do not know when, where or how to vote.
“All we know is there will be an election, but they have told us nothing else. We’d like a real election to give us democracy, but the regime’s [election] won’t give us that.”
