Burma resumes drafting constitution

Hundreds of delegates from across Burma gathered today to draw up a new constitution which the ruling junta says will – at some unspecified point in the far future – pave the way for the first democratically elected government in more than four decades.

But critics say the convention cannot reflect the desires of the people when the head of the main opposition party, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been barred from participating.

In a tightly choreographed event with unusually light security, the repressive government opened the convention with a veiled attack on international critics who have accused the junta of using the convention to retain their hold on power.

The national convention has been running intermittently since 1993 and the junta has yet to set a timetable for drawing up the guidelines for a new constitution.

“External and internal elements are trying to derail the national convention process at a time when it is going smoothly and successfully. Beware of the dangers of subversionists,” Lieutenant General Thein Sein, the chairman of the national convention convening committee, told the 1,074 delegates, some wearing feathered headdresses, black tunics and rainbow coloured gowns.

Thein Sein, appearing alone on a podium dressed in his military uniform, told delegates that rushing the constitution process would only lead to a flawed document.

Thein Sein did not direct his attacks at any nation or group. But the convention comes after the US – which has imposed economic sanctions on Burma and called it an “outpost of tyranny” – successfully lobbied the UN Security Council today to hold a closed-door briefing on the country.

The delegates – which included politicians, leaders of ethnic groups, workers, businesspeople and government employees – gathered at a sprawling convention centre about 25 miles north of the capital to resume work.

The session was closed to reporters after the brief opening speech and much of the work was expected begin tomorrow.

Critics have long said the convention was a sham.

“From the very beginning, we felt this would not be free,” said Burmese political analyst Win Naing, who turned down an offer to attend the convention. “I’m not interested unless the process can be changed. The delegates weren’t chosen freely. They were hand-picked.”

Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory in general elections in 1990. But the military refused to hand over power, saying the country first needed a new constitution.

Suu Kyi has been under continuous detention for more than two years. Her house arrest was extended by six months last week, and she has been barred from the convention. Her party is boycotting the event.

On the streets of the capital Rangoon, billboards featuring smiling residents encouraged the country to support the process in the name of unity and patriotism.

The government promoted the convention ahead of the nightly news with video footage featuring flourishing factories, new bridges and fertile rice fields.

But for most average Burmese citizens, life is only getting harder amid rising petrol prices, increasing joblessness and ongoing political repression.

“The extension of Suu Kyi’s detention is not a good sign for the country since it is evidence that there can be no dialogue which is necessary for national reconciliation,” said Than Tun, who works in the tourist industry.

“I think the political situation will only improve if Burma is discussed in the security council.”

Delegates, however, used words like “historic” and “auspicious” to describe the resumption on talks over the constitution, and said they were looking forward to tackling a range of issues in the coming weeks – including the sharing of administrative and judicial powers and the role of the army in future governments.

“I strongly believe a new democratic nation will emerge from this national convention,” said Aung Hkam Hti, a 70-year-old leader of the Pao tribe, which is one of 17 ethnic rebel groups that over the years forged peace agreements with the government.

“Those who think the convention will not be successful are those holding negative views.”

Along with the NLD, the meeting is being boycotted by a party representing the Shan people, Burma’s second-largest ethnic group after the Burmans, and a smaller minority organisation known as the Kokang.

Representatives of the New Mon State Party, which signed a peace deal with the junta in 1995 and represents the ethnic Mon, are only attending as observers because their earlier proposals were ignored.