Democracy in Myanmar

With all of its drawbacks, democracy is still the final resolution in a state. Asian democracy is colourful. Asia is a home of largest democracy with the oldest democracy working in Japan. The world’s largest Indian secular democracy has fast becoming a religious dictatorship under Shiv Sena.

There are many countries in Asia which have not been democratised. Somewhere there is a political dictatorship with one party rule. Somewhere there are monarchs ruling. Somewhere there is a semi-military and civilian participation. Somewhere democracy faces instability and thrown out many times but also comes back as last resort. Somewhere not democracy but military dictatorship emerges as symbol of national integration.

Myanmar is now on the road to democracy. The South East Asian country, just neighbouring South Asia, was ruled so long by military junta. General elections were not held in the last 25 years. The military junta was accused by human rights organizations for human rights violations. Aung Sun Suu Kyi, human rights activist and pro-democracy leader, was long detained.

Historic general elections were held on 8 November and 33 million of voters cast their votes. Previous elections were held in 1990, showing similar results. The main context was with the ruling military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National League for Democracy (NLD. The extremist Buddhist group, known as “Ma Ba Tha,” campaigned for the USDP Voters overwhelmingly voted for the NLD.

Polling was relatively fair and free if not absolutely. Had there been total transparency, the USDP would have wiped out. The USDP field many civilian officials and military officers. At least 170 of them contested the polls. The constitution retains quarter of seats for the military. This was perhaps the first time in democratic history that a large number of military officers stood as political candidates in elections. The minority Rohingya Muslim community was not allowed to field candidates. (Courtesy of The Nation)

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