Democratic Struggle Will Go On after Election

Vote or no Vote? That's the choice. Either way, the results of Sunday's vote will have consequences and, like it or not, they will go on for years. Good or bad consequences? The best answer is probably a little good and a lot of bad, but over time we hope that the good will prevail.

Kyaw Zwa Moe is managing editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

Everyone knows the results will be rigged and advanced voters are now being forced or persuaded to cast their ballots in advance for the regime's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Critics and leaders of contesting political parties say the USDP has already captured substantial advanced votes. Add to that abuse, the undemocratic 2008 Constitution, the repressive electoral laws and more than 2,100 political prisoners, including detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, still imprisoned.

To sum up, the election is a “sham,” and a sizable portion of the 29 million voters will choose not to vote, boycotting the election in protest. But the military regime and its party are pushing ahead, literally forcing civil servants, military personnel and their family members to re-do their votes in some cases when they learned that people have voted for a party other than the USDP.

Even though 37 political parties are contesting the election, they break down to two camps: the pro-military regime camp, or non pro-democracy parties, and the pro-democracy camp. The former mainly includes the USDP and National Unity Party (a transformed party of the former Socialist regime). The latter includes two national parties, the National Democratic Force and the Democratic Party (Myanmar), plus ethnic parties such as the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, All Mon Region Democracy Party and so on.

By voting for a pro-democracy party, people can at least have the satisfaction of expressing their anti-dictator sentiments.

My thoughts go back to that fateful day 20 years ago on the morning of May 27, 1990, when my entire family, including my grandmother, walked with our neighbors to the polling station in our township in Rangoon. Together with 15 million Burmese voters among an eligible 20 million, we cast our ballots for the first time after a nearly 30-year under a socialist regime.

I think few voters in 1990 expected that the military government would hand over power to the winners. At that time, many of the 15 million voters simply voted to show that they were against the dictatorship.

Sunday offers another chance for voters to cast their ballots, to show their anti-authoritarian sentiments. Whether or not their votes will change their homeland, which has been cursed for decades, is another matter.

Sunday is not a judgment day for Burma's pro-democracy movement. If the USDP wins by a landslide, everyone knows it's because of vote rigging. The pro-democracy movement and the Burmese people will continue to struggle for democracy, to work for the common good in spite of the authoritative rule of anti-democratic forces.