May 31, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18,1423

BANGKOK: It takes two to tango. The problem is, Myanmar’s ruling generals and Aung San Suu Kyi can’t even make it to the dance floor.

If and when the military junta and Suu Kyi sit down to talks on the country’s future they will start with positions that are fundamentally different — so different they may be irreconcilable.

Unless these positions are modified — and there are no signs yet of compromise on either side — analysts and diplomats say trust between the two sides will break down and Myanmar will soon be back to the stalemate that has gripped it for a decade.

The military, which has run Myanmar for 40 years, and the opposition leader both say they want to move towards “democracy” and both agree the way to attain that goal is through “dialogue”.

That’s where the agreement ends.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) want full, one-person-one-vote pluralism, while the government aims to retain real power through a limited form of democracy which entrenches the military as the permanent guardians of the state.

Hopes for change in the former British colony rose this month after Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was released from 19 months of house arrest and the government issued a conciliatory statement saying it wanted all its citizens “to participate freely in the life of our political process”.

WELL-WORN POSITIONS: But the momentum generated by her release appears to be ebbing away and both sides are now restating well-worn positions.

The military government is also sticking to a formula for political reform that it adopted more than 10 years ago.

It wants 25 per cent of any lower house of parliament to be given to the military and expects other groups to gain automatic representation, probably also through its own nominees.

Even if that doesn’t guarantee a majority in parliament, the military is insisting on a bicameral system with an upper house that it would control with a veto over policy.

Movement towards this form of democracy is to be steered by a National Convention set up by the government after the 1990 polls to draw up a special constitution.

After initial participation, the NLD walked out of the National Convention in 1995, saying it was merely an attempt to stall moves towards democracy.—Reuters