Burma itself has endured a kind of exile for more than 28 years. Gen. Ne Win, who took power in 1962, sealed the country from the outside world and set off on “the Burmese Road to Socialism.” For everyone except N e Win and his cronies, it was a road to ruin. Today Burma is one of Asia’s poorest nations, a backwater that seems to have changed little since the 1950s. When a flourishing pro-democracy movement swept the country in 1988, Army troops responded by gunning down 3,000 civilians in the streets. Ne Win formally resigned from political life two years ago but runs the regime behind the scenes.
Recently Burma’s rulers eased their policy of isolation, seeking foreign investors to shore up their bankrupt economy. The Army staged last week’s election in part to appease foreign nations angered by the 1988 massacre. But the regime also did everything short of actual vote fraud to guarantee the opposition would have no chance. The Army kept Suu Kyi and fellow opposition politician U Tin Oo under wraps and arrested 400 NLD activists. State-run media bombarded the public with anti-opposition propaganda; opposition campaigning was tightly restricted. But the Burmese people refused to be cowed, handing two thirds of the seats in Parliament to Suu Kyi’s party. At NLD campaign headquarters in Rangoon, Buddhist monks, students and workers–many of them veterans of the 1988 uprising–cheered the triumph of People Power. “This vote clearly shows that the people are fed up with the sort of government we have been used to,” i said retired Col. Kyi Maung, 72, NLD spokesman.
Stunned, the Army is wavering between realism and repression. Defying the vote would ignite protests even more explosive than those of 1988. And this time troops might not obey orders to shoot; most of them apparently voted for the opposition. Still, entrenched officers won’t surrender power without a struggle. The regime’s nominal leader, Gen. Saw Maung, tempered his promises to respect the election results with a sharp reminder that the Army was still in charge. Even after an eventual transfer of power, he warned, the military will “crush any organization or group which attempts to endanger the nation. " For now, the generals are stalling hoping the NLD will split between liberal civilians led by Suu Kyi, and a conservative faction headed by retired military men. Ne Win’s men say they won’t let civilians take over until the new Parliament completes a new constitution. That could take months, even years.
Still, opposition leaders believe the Army can’t put off serious talks forever. “[The junta’s] perception of us today might be quite different from what it was yesterday,” says NLD official Kyi Muang. “Yesterday we were simply people on the street, now we are representatives of the people.” The opposition is also demanding Suu Kyi’s release. The Army seems intent on keeping her hostage. But Burma’s rulers may face a choice: deal with her, or deal with the wrath of their own people.
PHOTO (COLOR): A heroine re-emerges: Voter with portrait of Suu Kyi
