No one expects anything other than a big election win for Burma’s ruling junta. A dejected population is giving up on hoping for better.
‘This election is nothing special,’ says Daw Sanda as she reclines in her home after voting in Burma’s first election in 20 years. ‘I really love Aung San Suu Kyi, but we don’t have that choice. Our situation is hopeless but I wanted to vote today for the kamauk (or hat—the symbol for the National Democratic Force) as a protest against our leaders. It’s the only thing I can do.’
For a nation supposedly embarking on a democratic path, there was little fanfare in the run-up to Sunday’s election. Few posters adorn Yangon’s crumbling Victorian buildings except billboards depicting the ubiquitous white lion of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). There have been no TV ads or debates in the tightly-controlled state media, and barely any campaigning in the streets.
In most countries, election campaigns are typically a noisy affair, but not in Burma’s military dictatorship. After decades of repression, the subject of the election was broached in quiet whispers in teashops and through resigned jokes in the privacy of people’s homes.
Sanda’s sister, Daw Thida, voted nearly a week before Sunday’s ballot—as a civil servant there was pressure on her and her colleagues to ‘pre-vote.’ But they only had one choice—the USDP.
‘It was the same in 2008, when the minister told our boss that we all had to vote “yes” to the referendum for a new constitution,’ she says. ‘So we had to do it in the office in front of everyone.’
Both women say there was a big difference between the atmosphere of this vote and the last election in 1990, won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
‘Last time, there was a festival atmosphere and people were so happy. We were excited then. But they didn’t hand over power, so we have no expectations now. This time I have no feeling.’
Sitting on a low stool at a teashop near the Sule Pagoda, another man paints a similar picture as he speaks softly from behind the Myanmar Times newspaper.
‘This time is different from 1990,’ he says. ‘Today I watched people in a queue vote like robots.’
Photo Credit: Flickr / Rafael
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Huang
Elections,Democratic processes,or any other methods of selecting a government in all countries(including the U.S)are ranging from theatrical shows(in most Western democracies)to out-right rigged(many non-Western Democracies). The International community(mainly Western nations)want to see a show and the Myanmar government put up a show to damper and dillute their relentless criticisms(Human-rights,Democracy,freedom). The common people of Myanmar only hear and embrace(with no clue of what it is all about)the Western style as something new,and many activists too,are blinded by their enthuasisms that they fail to look a little bit farther then what is in front of them. Democracy or not hinged greatly on an environment in which natural-forces(normal economic activities)are working to better the lives of the people. Idealogies are just names,there are nations in the World intentionally use idealogy as a popular mean to undermine the political,and economic stability of the country or countries they targeted.
Tired
Huang, while I agree mostly with what you said, I don’t think it is necessarily true that their (Western nations’) eagerness to impose democracy is motivated by a conspiracy to undermine other countries.
This gusto to make other nations more “like them” is sometimes due to a sense of innocent vanity. Many people in the West do think that the democratic system as a Western invention is a perfect and complete political system that all humanity should embrace.