At the end of 2011, Aung San Suu Kyi dropped her boycott of Burma’s elections. She ordered the National League for Democracy to re-register as a political party, to participate in the April 2012 by-election. This reversal in turn reflected a secret agreement, and furthermore it constituted surrender. Suu Kyi, acting as if she were the sole legitimate voice for literally everyone in and from Burma (i.e., including refugees, migrant workers and exiles), sacrificed the country’s decades-old pro-democracy movement. There would be no freedom, or democracy, and certainly no human rights.
The deal
The participants in the Burma deal included Suu Kyi, the military dictatorship, the United States as well as its junior partner the E.U.,
and American and European businesses. The rewards for the dictatorship were immense. As is now clear, five years later, the generals would not have to yield any political power. They would retain control of the most important ministries and functions of the government, and their fraudulently passed 2008 Constitution which guarantees them this power would not be changed. They would not be prosecuted for any of their countless crimes. Even more, they would retain the impunity to commit additional crimes, and which their soldiers, police and other agents continue to do on a daily basis (notably against the Rohingya and other ethnic nationalities). There would be no peace. Instead, they would retain the right, which they freely exercise, to launch attacks against anyone and at any time. And, they would not have to forfeit any of the huge sums of money that they have stolen, including through cronies and business partners, both domestic and international. Moreover, not only would this wealth not be confiscated, they would be fully protected to extend their armed robbery – their entire mafia apparatus of regime and business cronies would remain intact (and is actually being expanded). In summary,= the deal was simply extraordinary for Burma’s dictators. They got
everything that they wanted.
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