The pagoda’s repudiation
Democracy in Burma today is at a fledgling stage, and still requires patient care and attention," General Than Shwe told Burma in late March, during his annual speech to mark Armed Forces Day. He also warned, "Some parties look to foreign countries for guidance and inspiration; they follow imported ideologies and directives irrationally." But the general's carefully laid plans for next year's elections – including ensuring that the country's iconic pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention – may have been derailed by his own arrogance and disregard for the people.
Since Gen Than Shwe's confident pronouncement in March, almost everything has gone wrong for him. First, the long-restive ethnic groups that have signed ceasefire agreements with the junta have defied instructions to hand in their weapons and join a border police force instead. More recently, the general has been taken aback by the overwhelming international reaction to his plans to put Suu Kyi on trial (on trumped-up charges) and lock her up in jail until after the elections. As a result of these hitches, the expected electoral law, which will spell out the procedures for the elections slated for March 2010, has yet to be announced.