FPI Bulletin: Beyond Burma's Phony "Election"

Getty Images

From Ellen Bork, FPI Director of Democracy and Human Rights

Twenty years ago, the people of Burma voted in an election that the ruling military junta hoped it could manipulate in order to rebuff international pressure for reform and consolidate its power. To the generals’ chagrin, the party of the democratic opposition, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won overwhelmingly, even though she herself was under house arrest. Undeterred, the generals ignored the election results, and over the past two decades secured Burma’s reputation as one of the most repressive governments in the world by using forced labor, rape, and imprisonment against their citizens.

Last Sunday, the regime carried out an exercise that it calls an “election.” This time, nothing was left to chance. Ms. Suu Kyi, again under house arrest, as she has been for much of the past 20 years, was barred from participating. Her party was disbanded by the regime for refusing to expel her; party leaders refused to participate in the proceedings which have been almost universally judged not free and not fair. Nevertheless, the regime claims a massive victory while reports indicate a low turnout, ballot stuffing, and other abuses.

President Obama has rightly denounced the charade in Burma. “It is unacceptable to steal elections, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see,” he said in a speech before the Indian parliament in Delhi on November 8. “Faced with such gross violations of human rights, it is the responsibility of the international community - especially leaders like the United States and India - to condemn it.”

The president, however, didn’t stop there. He went on to chastise his Indian hosts for their failure to support democracy in Burma. “If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often shied away from some of these issues.”

It is encouraging that President Obama is pushing India to increase its support for democracy in Burma. The President spent the first year of his term probing the Burmese regime for signs of a willingness to cooperate. After finding the generals as intransigent as ever, the Obama administration announced support over the summer for a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the regime’s war crimes. However, in the face of determined Chinese opposition at the UN, that effort is floundering.

President Obama’s remarks in India seem to suggest that he will enlist democratic allies in a tougher, more coordinated Burma policy. That is excellent news. Burma’s bogus election makes initiatives like the proposed UN Commission of Inquiry even more crucial. President Obama should also confront China in as public and forthright a way as he has India. He should do so when Hu Jintao, general secretary of China’s Communist Party, visits Washington in January, if not before.

- View in PDF format