While today is naughtily marked in some countries as April Fool’s Day, it is anything but foolish in Burma (Myanmar). Today may be among the most meaningful days in Burmese history for the election that will be held, the first in more than 20 years to include Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Burma is emerging from a long totalitarian rule that started in 1962 when a military junta led by Gen. Ne Win grabbed power from the administration of U Nu. The junta installed a constitution that gave the military complete control of the country and quelled any sign of resistance from the people, often through violent means that included imprisonment and torture. For the generals’ brutally oppressive regime Burma has been slapped economic sanctions by the world powers, thus reinforcing its isolation.
Change is afoot, however, thanks largely to the relentless efforts of Burma’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is herself running in the election that is being held after a series of reforms including the release of the opposition leader and hundreds of other political prisoners, truces with insurgent groups, and easing of media censorship. The election is being closely watched by world leaders; if its conduct is deemed satisfactory, it is possible that some sanctions will be lifted.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, had spent most of her adult life leading the Burmese people’s fight for freedom, at great personal cost. Now increasingly fragile and ailing, the opposition leader, Nobel Peace laureate and daughter of Burma’s independence hero spent 15 years under house arrest in her lakeside home in Yangon, separated from her husband and sons who were abroad. Her husband, the British scholar Michael Aris, has since passed on.
The Burmese government held general elections in 1990, which the NLD won by a landslide. But the victory was short-lived because the junta simply decided not to honor the election results. In 2010 elections were again held, in which the NLD refused to participate, and which were marked by massive fraud and concluded with the military-backed party winning a vast majority of seats in the national parliament.
But things appear to be taking a turn for the better in Burma, which became part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1997. President U Thein Sein, a former general, is engaged in a democratization process that involves various reforms seen to transform the pariah image of his country, which has a population of 50 million, mostly Buddhist. (Aung San Suu Kyi has been reported as expressing confidence that Thein Sein “wishes for democratic reform.” Still, she said, “I have never been certain as to exactly how much support there has been behind him, particularly from the military.”) Only last year, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a historic official visit to Burma and met with Aung San Suu Kyi. The opposition leader described it as a “historic moment” for her country. Clinton, for her part, said: “This is a momentous day for the diverse people of Burma. And we will continue to support them and their efforts and to encourage their government to take bold steps.”
The latest bold step will be made today. The by-election to be held throughout Burma is by no means perfect: It will only fill 48 of the 664 seats in a national parliament dominated by the ruling military-backed party. Nevertheless, it is an election that fulfills the promise of participation: The NLD is fielding a complete slate for the 48 slots, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
In news reports, the opposition leader said today’s election would help lay “a foundation stone for the future of democracy” despite the “many, many cases of intimidation” and other pre-poll irregularities that, she announced in a press conference on Friday, went “beyond what is acceptable for democratic elections.” Nevertheless, she said she was hopeful that “the courage and the resolution of the people will overcome the intimidation.”
Aung San Suu Kyi conceded that one election was not going to change Burma—words of wisdom that can serve as an enduring lesson to other countries in the process of transformation. “It’s the people—the change in the spirit of the people—which will change our nation,” she said.
It’s possible for the people of Burma to dream on this day of hope. True democracy may not be theirs yet, but today is a good beginning. As Aung San Suu Kyi told Hillary Clinton, “we hope to get there as soon as possible.”