Second call to form advisory council

Politics

Second call to form advisory council

Two weeks after the Shan State Army "North" had broached the subject, a hitherto little known group from Burma's largest state has presented a 13-page proposal to the country's military government, according to sources from the northern border:

Myohsetthit Shan Pyi (New Generation - Shan State) suggests on 10 December members of the said council should be chosen from people outside the military government, opposition parties and armed organizations. "Successive military governments .. have been unable to differentiate between (genuine) politicians and those who makes a living on politics," reads the paper. (It's time the government) join hands with politicians who have stood out for national politics up to this day with a sense of devotion to their country."

The paper blames successive governments since 1962 (the year the military took power) for steadfastly practising a divide and rule policy that in time gave rise to a lack of trust even among the ruling power and culminated in the October purge.

"In the democratic culture, there is no enemy, only opposition," it maintains, explaining at length that one does not necessarily becomes an enemy because one is not in the same party.

The authors also comment on the 1990 general elections. While conceding that it could be "classified as an utterly fair and impartial election when measured with a global ruler," it argues that for the non-Burman states, it failed to represent them. "(They) aspire to determine their own destiny." However, their aspirations were thwarted when "a big political party from Burma Proper" took advantage in the state constituencies, while the right to vote was banned in "black areas" where most armed resistance movements were still fighting against the government and had yet to conclude truce pacts with Rangoon until a year earlier.

Accordingly, parties representing the states won less than 15% of the total seats.

The paper followed a similar proposal by Shan State Army "North" on 25 November to Rangoon through Maj Gen Myint Hlaing, Commander of Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command.

The group's leader U Myint Than "Maths" of Taunggyi was later invited to Rangoon to make out his case, said a source. "Actually, it was written at the request from the authorities," the source told S.H.A.N.. "But since then we have yet to hear anything, either official or unofficial."

For further information, please read attachment in Burmese. (Download Font MATRIX-1)