16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

BANGKOK: By deciding to boycott a constitutional convention in Myanmar, the country's main opposition party delivered an unequivocal message to the military regime - that it believes democracy cannot be trifled with.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) party made its intentions clear on Friday, when it refused to register as a participant at the constitution-drafting process due to commence on May 17.

Also on Friday, an umbrella group of ethnic-based political parties in Myanmar decided against joining the convention.

For their part, the NLD officials said the party's decision was based on the climate of oppression in the lead-up to the National Convention, and the junta's reluctance to free from house arrest the party's leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The NLD's decision was inevitable because there was no space provided for open debate and discussion during the National Convention," Teddy Buri, head of a group of Myanmar parliamentarians in exile, told IPS. "The NLD is a legitimate party with a democratic base, and it could not participate in a process hostile to democratic norms."

"The NLD is a people's party and it cannot abuse the trust the Burmese people have vested in it," said Soe Aung, external affairs director of the Network for Democracy and Development, a Bangkok-based group of Burmese political exiles.

"If they attended any kind of convention that does not bring democracy to the people, it will be seen as a betrayal," he asserted during an interview. "The ball is now in the SPDC's court and it is up to them to play soft or hard."

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is the official name of the military regime.

In staying away from the convention, the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), made up of eight ethnic-based parties that ran in the 1990 parliamentary election, said it would be pointless to participate in the process, reported the 'Irrawaddy' magazine, based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Part of the UNA is the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, which received the second largest number of votes after the NLD in the 1990 poll.

Rangoon's rulers, who renamed the country Myanmar, have refused to recognize the results of the 1990 parliamentary elections in Burma, where the NLD got more than 80 per cent of the 485 seats in the parliament.

Since then, the junta has crushed political freedoms and suppressed any person viewed as a threat to its iron grip on the country. Aung San Suu Kyi has been a regular victim, having been placed under house arrest many times.

The issue of Rangoon's lack of regard for democracy, say Myanmar watchers, was due to surface at the National Convention, which is part of a "roadmap" to pave the way for political reform.

This is because of a law - No. 5/96 - that prohibits any individual or political party from criticising the National Convention format designed by the SPDC and denies convention participants the freedom to shape a constitution that is an alternative to the one drafted by the military.

The law also places restrictions on the way speeches can be made during the convention. Those who want to do so have to write their speeches and get them approved from the military before it can be delivered.

Those who violate this law face prison terms that could range from five to 20 years.

In addition, the junta has assigned a place for the military in the planned constitution - and it will brook no compromise on its role in politics. "The SPDC has declared that the military must dominate the politics of the country, be at the centre," said Bejoy Sen of the Myanmar Lawyers' Council.

"They have been open and honest about that at least," he added during an interview. "There is no hide-and-seek."

These features, in fact, were evident the last time Rangoon invited political parties to sit with the military government to draft a new constitution. That National Convention, which began in 1993, ended abruptly after the NLD walked out in protest in 1996.-Dawn/The InterPress News Service.