Is Burma’s new government in military’s sheepskin?

Burma’s Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) announced on Wednesday morning that former retired general and Prime Minister Thein Sein, the head of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, has been publicly sworn in as the country’s new president.

State broadcasting stations aired just yesterday saying that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has ruled Burma in various disguises since 1988, has been dissolved at state and regional levels to pave way for new election winning party, the USDP, as the full transformation has been prearranged.

Quoting the television news of the state media, an order signed by Than Shwe has been come out and said “since the next cabinet was sworn in, the SPDC has been officially dissolved”.

The declaration came after an official said a new commander-in-chief of Burma army attended the inauguration of Thein Sein as president; it seems that the junta top job had been substituted.

General Min Aung Hlaing was present at the swearing-in as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, the post seized by Than Shwe for more than two decades, according to an official. General Min Aung Hlaing, 54, is an army cadet of the 19th Intake of Defense Services Academy and a senior strategic trainee of the 4th Intake of the National Defense College.

President U Thein Sein released the cabinet listings comprising 30 ministers, including defense minister Major-General Hla Min, home minister Lieutenant-General Ko Ko, border affairs minister and industrial development minister Major-General Thein Htay, and foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin who was former Burma or Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, according to the official MRTV.

Myanmar (Burma) has been under the military rule since 1962 and again in 1988 when the army crushed a pro-democracy movement, killing over 3,000 citizens.

According to most political analysts, whoever turn out to be President, the fate of the people and the country may be maintained the status quo because military elite have seized all the business-opportunities and economic privileges prior to the legislative assemblies.

Moreover, sporadic armed clashes has been going on in recent months between the junta’s troops and armed ethnic groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU), the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Brigade 5, the Shan State Army–North (SSA-North) and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South).

In the state-run media, the junta also condemned the Second Panglong Initiative or National Reconciliation forum raised by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and some prominent ethnic leaders as an unnecessary approach.

The nation risks a return of armed conflict due to non-cooperation of a true federal system in the 2008 Constitution drawn by the Than Shwe’s military regime.

Prime Minister Thein Sein, who dropped his army uniform to contest controversial elections, last year, was in February named for the top job in the new parliament, which critics fear is carrying on military rule in another guise.

The perspective is clearly apparent that the departing junta’s power system is still energetic to keep on running the country for not less than next 5 to 10 years. The military will be at the helm as usual. Even though the governmental composition has to change, the military-first policies will be the same as always. And civil war with the ethnic armed groups will not be stopped beyond a doubt.

Therefore, the greater part of Burmese citizens does not observe anything good in these results although General Thein Sein changed himself into a civilian President U Thein Sein.

To the majority of people, the current parliamentary sessions will make no change to the living standard of the country. So, people will unavoidably have to hunt for valid political reform.

- Asian Tribune -