Nearly unimaginable a year ago, the recent reforms in Burma—releasing political prisoners, allowing democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to run for Parliament, loosening censorship, and holding peace talks with armed ethnic groups—have been widely lauded and even rewarded by Western governments. In the last month, the United States restored diplomatic relations with Burma (also called Myanmar), and the EU removed travel bans on top officials.
Yet the reforms are inherently fragile, supported only by good will, and not rule of law. The country’s less than democratic constitution and the lack of transparency over who is really governing the country, means that any change could be reversed at any moment.
“If we are saying we are going toward democracy, these undemocratic elements in the constitution have to change,” says Dr. Sein Win, Burma’s prime minister-in-exile, who lives in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Sein Win, a first cousin to Suu Kyi, is chairman of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the government-in-exile. The NCGUB was formed in the aftermath of the 1990 general election that Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide and the junta ignored.
