Myanmar: NLD on the verge of dissolution

07 May, 2010

The military junta is to de-register Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led party, NLD, any time as the deadline for registration with the first week of May ended.

MYANMAR'S MAIN opposition party, National League for Democracy is heading for its dissolution as it did not comply with the electoral laws of the military regime. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led party had decided not to register with the election commission protesting the flawed laws by the State Peace and Development Council. The military junta is to de-register NLD any time as the deadline for registration with the first week of May ended.

Even then, an exile pressure group Burma Liberation Front, has raised voice in favour of allowing NLD to remain as a political party now. In a recent letter to Senior General Than Shwe, the present head of Burmese regime, the group demands that the government should allow the NLD to function as a legal political party even though they have decided to boycott the proposed general election to be held some time later this year.

Terming the chairman of State Peace and Development Council, as a military dictator, the group said, “You and your military regime in Myanmar have been trying your hardest to press ahead with your sham roadmap for a fake election in Myanmar. You said there would be an election in Myanmar, but a date has not been fixed yet. However your regime has already unlawfully passed unfair election laws to make sure real pro-democracy political parties and their leaders could not take part in the elections.”

Alleging that the Burmese regime have ‘put all pro-democracy politicians and activists in jail, because of the blatant lack of fairness and transparency in the electoral process’, it added, ‘all mainstream pro-democracy parties have declared to boycott your fake election 2010’.

The letter also claimed that Than Shwe has planned to ‘form a puppet civilian government under the military's control’ in Myanmar after the polls. Mentioning about some senior military officers and ministers’ recent decision to shed uniforms and launch political parties with an aim to contest, ‘rig the votes and declare themselves as election winners’, the latter asserted, “The whole world understands that your election laws are unfair, your election is a fake and your post-election puppet government is illegitimate.”

“In addition to your oppression on pro-democracy political parties ahead of the elections, your regime is also intimidating on ethnic national groups to turn their self-defence forces into Border-guard forces under the control of your army. Almost all ethnic groups have refused to accept your demands, and now you have deployed troops in ethnic nationality areas in preparation for an ethnic cleansing in those areas immediately after your fake elections,” the letter pointed out.

It concluded with the demand for release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, immediately so that they could take part in the election and also change electoral laws to ensure the process to be transparent, free and inclusive. The group also asked the junta ‘to stop your ethnic cleansing plans and to let ethnic national forces to exist peacefully’ in Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Burma Liberation Front had organized a series of demonstrations in London opposing the junta’s flawed electoral laws. It also appealed to the United Nations and the global community to ‘help liberate Myanmar’ by denouncing 2008 sham constitution (of Myanmar) which was unlawfully passed by force by the military regime. It also urged to denounce the unfair electoral laws which were unlawfully made by the junta and also the forthcoming fake election of 2010.

Meanwhile in a press statement on May 6, Myanmar Campaign UK has expressed its anger against the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he has failed to act as NLD was shown as a banned organisation.

“Under new election laws introduced by Myanmar’s dictatorship the NLD will officially cease to exist from midnight tonight,” the statement issued from London said.

Mark Farmaner, Director of Myanmar Campaign UK alleged, “UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is supposed to be trying to persuade Myanmar’s dictatorship to enter into dialogue with the NLD. Instead he stood by and did nothing while the NLD were banned. Why wasn’t his Myanmar envoy dispatched on a crisis mission? Why hasn’t he robustly condemned the banning of the NLD?”

The organization also pointed out that ‘banning of Myanmar’s largest and most widely supported political party is yet more evidence that the elections due later this year are a total sham, and will not bring genuine democratic changes to Myanmar’.