The Constitution Times

Union of Myanmar, which before 1974 called themselves the “Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma” and which still under almost the same kind of government — Degenerated Socialism — is now in trouble of losing its political stability maintained by it’s military government.

According to Wikipedia, Myanmar has one of the worse economy in Southeast Asia; in direct opposite to it’s colonial times under the Empire of Britain, at which it was one of the riches for being one of the world’s largest rice exporter. This became a history in 1962 when a military coup d’état, ill-led by a general named Ne Win, took over its parliamentary government in the name of Socialism — Worker’s Oriented State (which in this case the military become the largest ‘trade’ constituting ‘workers’). From then on, economic mismanagement of the military government cause the economy continues to decline till the state today.

Singapore is one of the primary foreign investor in Myanmar, and also maintains a good relationship with it’s government. After the People’s Republic of China, Singapore has been one of the closest friend of Myanmar, both economically and politically — and perhaps military. This is despite criticism from many other ASEAN nations on Myanmar military government’s violent suppression of politicians. The European Union and the United States has placed sanction on Myanmar due to the military government’s refusal to restore democracy and failure to uphold human rights.

In 1988, severe political oppression by the military government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country, known as the 8888 Uprising. Ne Win’s government was toppled after a coup de’tat by General Saw Maung’s government, yet another dictator. His government imposed martial law in 1989 and violently quashed the democratic demonstrations. In 1990, the government decided to hold a democratic election after 30 years of military rule. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, emerged as the winner by securing 392 out of 489 seats in the People’s Assembly. The military government refused to acknowledge the election result and to hand over power. Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest since then and her party repressed.

Today, another round of demonstration throughout the nation have emerged. Monks, Students and democrat activist march the street in protest. Will this be the hope for Myanmar’s democracy to return or will history repeats itself?

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LAM YONGXIAN
Adolf Constitution Times Journalist